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C_69758fcdfc1f46baba0e92c0f3b0919c_1 | Malayali | The Malayali people or Keralite people (also spelt Malayalee, Malayalam script: mlyaalli and keerlliiy[?]) are an Indian ethnic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala, located in South India. They are identified as native speakers of the Malayalam language, which is classified as part of the Dravidian family of languages. As they primarily live in Kerala, the word Keralite is used as an alternative to Malayali. According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 96.7% of the total population of the state. | Geographic distribution and population | According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.7% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Karnataka, 557,705 (1.7%) in Tamil Nadu and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra. The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2001. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan. As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in Bangalore, Mangalore, Delhi, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai (Bombay), Ahmedabad, Pune, and Chennai (Madras). A large number of Malayalis have also emigrated to the Middle East, the United States, and Europe. Accessed November 22, 2014.</ref> including a large number of professionals. There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006. The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. In 2010, the Census of Population of Singapore reported that there were 26,348 Malayalees in Singapore. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in Fiji. There is also a considerable Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Bahrain, Muscat, Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and European region mainly in London. World Malayalee Council, the organisation working with the Malayali diaspora across the Globe has embarked upon a project for making a data bank of the diaspora. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predominantly native speakers of the Malayalam language, one of the six Classical languages in India. The state of Kerala was created in 1956 through the States Reorganisation Act. Prior to that, since the 1800s existed the Kingdom of Cochin, the Kingdom of Travancore, Malabar District, and South Canara of the British India. The Malabar District was annexed by the British through the Third Mysore War (1790–92) from Tipu Sultan. Before that, the Malabar District was under various kingdoms including the Zamorins of Calicut, Kingdom of Tanur, Arakkal kingdom, Kolathunadu, Valluvanad, and Palakkad Rajas.
According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 97% of the total population of the state. Malayali minorities are also found in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, mainly in Kanyakumari district and Nilgiri district and Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka and also in other metropolitan areas of India. Over the course of the later half of the 20th century, significant Malayali communities have emerged in Persian Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and to a lesser extent, other developed nations with a primarily immigrant background such as Malaysia, Singapore, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As of 2013, there were an estimated 1.6 million ethnic Malayali expatriates worldwide. The estimated population of Malayalees in Malaysia in year 2020 is approximately 348,000, which makes up 12.5% of the total number of Indian population in Malaysia that makes them the second biggest Indian ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Tamils. Most of the Malayalee population in Malaysia aged 18 to 30 are known to be either the third, fourth, or fifth generation living as a Malaysian citizen. According to A. R. Raja Raja Varma, Malayalam was the name of the place, before it became the name of the language spoken by the people.
Etymology
Malayalam, the native language of Malayalis, has its origin from the words mala meaning "mountain" and alam meaning "land" or "locality". Kerala was usually known as Malabar in the foreign trade circles in the medieval era. Earlier, the term Malabar had also been used to denote Tulu Nadu and Kanyakumari which lie contiguous to Kerala in the southwestern coast of India, in addition to the modern state of Kerala. The people of Malabar were known as Malabars. Until the arrival of the East India Company, the term Malabar was used as a general name for Kerala, along with the term Kerala. From the time of Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE) itself, the Arab sailors used to call Kerala as Male. The first element of the name, however, is attested already in the Topography written by Cosmas Indicopleustes. This mentions a pepper emporium called Male, which clearly gave its name to Malabar ('the country of Male'). The name Male is thought to come from the Malayalam word Mala ('hill'). Al-Biruni () is the first known writer to call this country Malabar. Authors such as Ibn Khordadbeh and Al-Baladhuri mention Malabar ports in their works. The Arab writers had called this place Malibar, Manibar, Mulibar, and Munibar. Malabar is reminiscent of the word Malanad which means the land of hills. According to William Logan, the word Malabar comes from a combination of the Malayalam word Mala (hill) and the Persian/Arabic word Barr (country/continent). Hence the natives of Malabar Coast were known as Malabarese or Malabari in the foreign trade circles. The words Malayali and Malabari are synonymous to each other.
The Skanda Purana mentions the ecclesiastical office of the Thachudaya Kaimal who is referred to as Manikkam Keralar (The Ruby King of Kerala), synonymous with the deity of the Koodalmanikyam temple. Hence the term Keralar seem to precede the usage of the word Malayala/Malayalam.
Geographic distribution and population
Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India (from Mangalore to Kanyakumari) and the islands of Lakshadweep in Arabian Sea. According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.7% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Tamil Nadu, 557,705 (1.7%) in Karnataka and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra. The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2001. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan. As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages. Malayalam was the most spoken language in erstwhile Gudalur taluk (now Gudalur and Panthalur taluks) of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 48.8% population and it was the second most spoken language in Mangalore and Puttur taluks of South Canara accounting for 21.2% and 15.4% respectively according to 1951 census report. 25.57% of the total population in the Kodagu district of Karnataka are Malayalis, in which Malayalis form the largest linguistic group in Virajpet Taluk. Around one-third of the Malayalis in Kodagu district speak the Yerava dialect according to the 2011 census, which is native to Kodagu and Wayanad. Around one-third of population in Kanyakumari district are also Malayalis. As of 2011 India census, Mahé district of Union Territory of Puducherry had a population of 41,816, predominantly Malayalis.
Just before independence, Malaya attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in Chennai (Madras), Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai (Bombay), Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. Many Malayalis have also emigrated to the Middle East, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. As of 2009-2013, there were approximately 146,000 people with Malayali heritage in the United States, with an estimated 40,000 living in the New York tri-state area. There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006. The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. In 2010, the Census of Population of Singapore reported that there were 26,348 Malayalees in Singapore. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in Fiji. There is also a considerable Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and European region mainly in London. The city of Chennai has the highest population of Malayalis in a metropolitan area outside Kerala, followed by Bangalore.
Besides, the Malayalee citizens in Malaysia are estimated to be 229,800 in the year 2020 whereas the population of the Malayalee expatriates is approximately 2,000. They make up around 10 percent of the total number of Indians in Malaysia.
History and culture
During the ancient period, the people of present-day Kerala were ruled by the Chera dynasty of Tamilakam, with their capital at Vanchi. The dynasty lent the region its name, uniting the entire coast under their suzerainty. The fall of the Cheras in the 15th century CE at the hands of the Cholas proved to be the catalyst of a distinct Malayali identity, wading away from the Tamil cultural sphere of influence over several millennia.
The Malayalis live in a historic area known as the Malabar coast, which for thousands of years has been a major center of the international spice trade, operating at least from the Roman era with Ptolemy documenting it on his map of the world in 150 AD. For that reason, a highly distinct culture was created among the Malayali due to centuries of contact with foreign cultures through the spice trade. The arrival of the Cochin Jews, the rise of Saint Thomas Christians, and the growth of Mappila Muslim community, in particular, were very significant in shaping modern-day Malayali culture. Later, Portuguese Latin Christians, Dutch Malabar, French Mahe, and British English, which arrived after 1498 left their mark through colonialism and pillaging their resources.
In 2017, a detailed study of the evolution of the Singapore Malayalee community over a period of more than 100 years was published as a book: From Kerala to Singapore: Voices of the Singapore Malayalee Community. It is believed to be the first in-depth study of the presence of a NRI Malayalee community outside of Kerala.
Language and literature
According to scholars, the Malayalam language is descended from a dialect of the Tamil Language spoken on the Malabar coast, and largely arose because of its geographical isolation from the rest of the Tamil speaking areas. The Sangam literature can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam. Malayalam literature is ancient in origin, and includes such figures as the 14th century Niranam poets (Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar), whose works mark the dawn of both modern Malayalam language and indigenous Keralite poetry. Some linguists claim that an inscription found from Edakkal Caves, Wayanad, which belongs to 3rd century CE (approximately 1,800 years old), is the oldest available inscription in Malayalam, as they contain two modern Malayalam words, Ee (This) and Pazhama (Old), those are not found even in the Oldest form of Tamil. The origin of Malayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE. It is generally agreed that the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE is the available oldest inscription written in Old Malayalam. For the first 600 years of Malayalam calendar, the literature mainly consisted of the oral Ballads such as Vadakkan Pattukal (Northern Songs) in North Malabar and Thekkan Pattukal (Southern songs) in Southern Travancore. The earliest known literary works in Malayalam are Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala, two epic poems written in Old Malayalam. Malayalam literature has been presented with 6 Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.
Designated a "Classical Language in India" in 2013, it developed into the current form mainly by the influence of the poets Cherusseri Namboothiri (Born near Kannur), Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan (Born near Tirur), and Poonthanam Nambudiri (Born near Perinthalmanna), in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era. Kunchan Nambiar, a Palakkad-based poet also influnced a lot in the growth of modern Malayalam literature in its pre-mature form, through a new literary branch called Thullal. The prose literature, criticism, and Malayalam journalism, began following the latter half of 18th century CE. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.
The Triumvirate of poets (Kavithrayam: Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer) are recognized for moving Keralite poetry away from archaic sophistry and metaphysics and towards a more lyrical mode. In 19th century Chavara Kuriakose Elias, the founder of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and Congregation of Mother of Carmel congregations, contribute different streams in the Malayalam Literature. All his works are written between 1829 and 1870. Chavara's contribution to Malayalam literature includes, Chronicles, Poems – athmanuthapam (compunction of the soul), Maranaveettil Paduvanulla Pana (Poem to sing in the bereaved house) and Anasthasiayude Rakthasakshyam – and other Literary works . Contemporary Malayalam literature deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards political radicalism. The writers like Kavalam Narayana Panicker have contributred much to Malayalam drama. In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith winning poets and writers like G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. N. V. Kurup, and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature. Later, writers like O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, Arundhati Roy, and Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition.
Arabi Malayalam (also called Mappila Malayalam and Moplah Malayalam) was the traditional Dravidian language of the Mappila Muslim community in Malabar Coast. The poets like Moyinkutty Vaidyar and Pulikkottil Hyder have made notable contributions to the Mappila songs, which is a genre of the Arabi Malayalam literature. The Arabi Malayalam script, otherwise known as the Ponnani script, is a writing system - a variant form of the Arabic script with special orthographic features - which was developed during the early medieval period and used to write Arabi Malayalam until the early 20th century CE. Though the script originated and developed in Kerala, today it is predominantly used in Malaysia and Singapore by the migrant Muslim community.
The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE. World Malayali Council with its sister organisation, International Institute for Scientific and Academic Collaboration (IISAC) has come out with a comprehensive book on Kerala titled 'Introduction to Kerala Studies,’ specially intended for the Malayali diaspora across the globe. J.V. Vilanilam, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala; Sunny Luke, medical scientist and former professor of Medical Biotechnology at Adelphi University, New York; and Antony Palackal, professor of Sociology at the Loyola College of Social Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram, have edited the book, besides making other contributions to it.
Tharavadu
Tharavadu is a system of joint family practiced by Malayalis, especially castes that belong to Namboothiris, Nairs, Thiyyar, Ambalavasis and Christians other prominent ethnoreligious groups. Each Tharavadu has a unique name. The Tharavadu was administered by the Karanavar, the oldest male member of the family. He would be the eldest maternal uncle of the family as well. The members of the Tharavadu consisted of mother, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers. The fathers and husbands had a very minimal role to play in the affairs of the Tharavadu. It was a true matrilineal affair. The Karanavar took all major decisions. He was usually autocratic. However, the consent of the eldest female member of the family was taken before implementing the decisions. This eldest female member would be his maternal grandmother, own mother, mother's sister, his own sister or a sister through his maternal lineage. Since the lineage was through the female members, the birth of a daughter was always welcomed. Each Tharavadu also has a Para Devatha (clan deity) revered by those in the particular Tharavadu. Temples were built to honour these deities.
Kerala's society is less patriarchal than the rest of India. Certain Hindu communities such as the Nairs, and Muslims around Kannur, and Ponnani in Malappuram, and Varkala and Edava in Thiruvananthapuram used to follow a traditional matrilineal system known as marumakkathayam which has in the recent years (post-Indian independence) ceased to exist. Christians, majority of the Muslims, and some Hindu castes such as the Namboothiris and some Ezhavas follow makkathayam, a patrilineal system. Kerala's gender relations are among the most equitable in India and the Majority World.
Architecture
Kerala, the ancestral land of the Malayali people, has a tropical climate with excessive rains and intensive solar radiation. The architecture of this region has evolved to meet these climatic conditions by having the form of buildings with low walls, sloping roof and projecting caves. The setting of the building in the open garden plot was again necessitated by the requirement of wind for giving comfort in the humid climate.
Timber is the prime structural material abundantly available in many varieties in Kerala. Perhaps the skillful choice of timber, accurate joinery, artful assembly, and delicate carving of the woodwork for columns, walls and roofs frames are the unique characteristics of Malayali architecture. From the limitations of the materials, a mixed-mode of construction was evolved in Malayali architecture. The stonework was restricted to the plinth even in important buildings such as temples. Laterite was used for walls. The roof structure in timber was covered with palm leaf thatching for most buildings and rarely with tiles for palaces or temples. The Kerala murals are paintings with vegetable dyes on wet walls in subdued shades of brown. The indigenous adoption of the available raw materials and their transformation as enduring media for architectural expression thus became the dominant feature of the Malayali style of architecture.
Nalukettu
Nalukettu was a housing style in Kerala. Nalukettu is a quadrangular building constructed after following the Tachu Sastra (Science of Carpentry). It was a typical house that was flanked by out-houses and utility structures. The large house-Nalukettu is constructed within a large compound. It was called Nalukettu because it consisted of four wings around a central courtyard called Nadumuttom. The house has a quadrangle in the center. The quadrangle is in every way the center of life in the house and very useful for the performance of rituals. The layout of these homes was simple, and catered to the dwelling of numerous people, usually part of a tharavadu. Ettukettu (eight halls with two central courtyards) or Pathinarukettu (sixteen halls with four central courtyards) are the more elaborate forms of the same architecture.
An example of a Nalukettu structure is Mattancherry Palace.
Performing arts and music
Malayalis use two words to denote dance, which is attom and thullal. The art forms of Malayalis are classified into three types: religious, such as Theyyam and Bhagavatipattu; semi religious, like Sanghakali and Krishnanattom; and secular, such as Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, and Thullal. Kathakali and Mohiniyattam are the two classical dance forms from Kerala. Kathakali is actually a dance-drama. Mohiniyattam is a very sensual and graceful dance form that is performed both solo and in a group by women. Kutiyattam is a traditional performing art form from Kerala, which is recognised by UNESCO and given the status Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Ottamthullal is another performing art, which is also known as the poor man's Kathakali, which was created by the poet Kunchan Nambiar as an alternative to Chakiarkooth (another performing art), which was open only for higher castes to see. Theyyam is a ritualistic art form of Malayalis, which is thought to predate hinduism and to have developed from folk dances performed in conjunction with harvest celebrations. Theyyam is performed as an offering to gods so as to get rid of poverty and illness. Velakali is another ritualistic art form, mainly performed at temples in the festival time. Kolkali is a folk art in which dance performers move in a circle, striking small sticks and keeping rhythm with special steps.
Many ancient Malayali family houses in Kerala have special snake shrines called Kavu. Sarpam Thullal is usually performed in the courtyard of houses having snake shrines. This is a votive offering for family wealth and happiness. Kerala Natanam (കേരള നടനം) (Kerala Dance) is a new style of dance that is now recognized as a distinct classical art form evolved from Kathakali. The Indian dancer Guru Gopinath (ഗുരു ഗോപിനാഥ്) a well-trained Kathakali artist and his wife Thankamani Gopinath developed this unique form of dance.
Performing arts in Kerala is not limited to a single religion of the Malayali society. Muslim Mappilas, Nasranis and Latin Christians have their own unique performing art forms. Duff Muttu, also known as Dubh Muttu/Aravanamuttu is a performing art form prevalent among the Muslim community. It is a group performance, staged as a social event during festivals and nuptial ceremonies.
Oppana is a popular form of social entertainment among the Muslim community. It is a form accompanied by clapping of hands, in which both men and women participate.
Margamkali is a performing art which is popular among the Saint Thomas Christians. It combines both devotion and entertainment, and was performed by men in groups. Since 1980's women also have found groups. The dancers themselves sing the margamkali songs in unison call and response form. Parichamuttukali is another performing art which is popular among Saint Thomas Christians. This is an artistic adaptation of the martial art of Kerala, Kalaripayattu. Chavittu nadakom is a theatrical art form observed mainly by Kerala Latin Christians, dating back to the second half of the 16th century.
However, many of these native art forms largely play to tourists or at youth festivals, and are not as popular among ordinary Keralites. Thus, more contemporary forms – including those heavily based on the use of often risqué and politically incorrect mimicry and parody – have gained considerable mass appeal in recent years. Indeed, contemporary artists often use such modes to mock socioeconomic elites. Since 1930 when the first Malayalam film Vigathakumaran was released and over the following decade or two, Malayalam Cinema had grown to become one of the popular means of expression for both works of fiction and social issues, and it remains so.
Music formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which is believed to have started developing by 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. Kerala is musically known for Sopanam. Sopanam is religious in nature, and developed through singing invocatory songs at the Kalam of Kali, and later inside temples. Sopanam came to prominence in the wake of the increasing popularity of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda or Ashtapadis. Sopana sangeetham (music), as the very name suggests, is sung by the side of the holy steps (sopanam) leading to the sanctum sanctorum of a shrine. It is sung, typically employing plain notes, to the accompaniment of the small, hourglass-shaped ethnic drum called idakka, besides the chengila or the handy metallic gong to sound the beats.
Sopanam is traditionally sung by men of the Maarar and Pothuval community, who are Ambalavasi (semi-Brahmin) castes engaged to do it as their hereditary profession. Kerala is also home of Carnatic music. Legends like Swati Tirunal, Shadkala Govinda Maarar, Sangitha Vidwan Gopala Pillai Bhagavathar, Chertala Gopalan Nair, M. D. Ramanathan, T.V.Gopalakrishnan, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, L. Subramaniam T.N. Krishnan & K. J. Yesudas are Malayali musicians. Also among the younger generations with wide acclaim and promise is Child Prodigy Violinist L. Athira Krishna etc., who are looked upon as maestros of tomorrow.
Kerala also has a significant presence of Hindustani music as well. The king of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal patronaged and contributed much to the Hindustani Music. The pulluvar of Kerala are closely connected to the serpent worship. One group among these people consider the snake gods as their presiding deity and performs certain sacrifices and sing songs. This is called Pulluvan Pattu. The song conducted by the pulluvar in serpent temples and snake groves is called Sarppapaattu, Naagam Paattu, Sarpam Thullal, Sarppolsavam, Paambum Thullal or Paambum Kalam. Mappila Paattukal or Mappila Songs are folklore Muslim devotional songs in the Malayalam language. Mappila songs are composed in colloquial Malayalam and are sung in a distinctive tune. They are composed in a mixture of Malayalam and Arabic.
Film music, which refers to playback singing in the context of Indian music, forms the most important canon of popular music in India. Film music of Kerala in particular is the most popular form of music in the state.
Vallam Kali
Vallam Kali, is the race of country-made boats. It is mainly conducted during the season of the harvest festival Onam in Autumn. Vallam Kali include races of many kinds of traditional boats of Kerala. The race of Chundan Vallam (snake boat) is the major item. Hence Vallam Kali is also known in English as Snake Boat Race and a major tourist attraction. Other types of boats which do participate in various events in the race are Churulan Vallam, Iruttukuthy Vallam, Odi Vallam, Veppu Vallam (Vaipu Vallam), Vadakkanody Vallam, and Kochu Vallam. Nehru Trophy Boat Race is one of the famous Vallam Kali held in Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha district of Kerala. Champakulam Moolam Boat Race is the oldest and most popular Vallam Kali in Kerala. The race is held on river Pamba on the moolam day (according to the Malayalam Era) of the Malayalam month Midhunam, the day of the installation of the deity at the Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Temple. The Aranmula Boat Race takes place at Aranmula, near a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna and Arjuna. The President's Trophy Boat Race is a popular event conducted in Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam.
Thousands of people gather on the banks of the river Pamba to watch the snake boat races. Nearly 50 snake boats or chundan vallams participate in the festival. Payippad Jalotsavam is a three-day water festival. It is conducted in Payippad Lake which is 35 km from Alappuzha district of Kerala state. There is a close relation between this Payippad boat race and Subramanya Swamy Temple in Haripad. Indira Gandhi Boat Race is a boat race festival celebrated in the last week of December in the backwaters of Kochi, a city in Kerala. This boat race is one of the most popular Vallam Kali in Kerala. This festival is conducted to promote Kerala tourism.
Festivals
Malayalis celebrate a variety of festivals, namely Onam, Vishu, Deepavali, and Christmas.
Cuisine
Malayali cuisine is not homogeneous and regional variations are visible throughout. Spices form an important ingredient in almost all curries. Kerala is known for its traditional , a vegetarian meal served with boiled rice and a host of side-dishes. The is complemented by , a sweet milk dessert native to Kerala. The is, as per custom, served on a banana leaf. Traditional dishes include , , , , , , , , (tapioca), (steamed rice powder), and . Coconut is an essential ingredient in most of the food items and is liberally used.
is a culinary specialty in Kerala. It is a steamed rice cake which is a favorite breakfast of most Malayalis. It is served with either brown chickpeas cooked in a spicy gravy, and boiled small green lentils, or tiny ripe yellow Kerala plantains. In the highlands there is also a variety of served with (the boiled-down syrup from sweet palm toddy) and sweet boiled bananas. to steam the , there is a special utensil called a . It consists of two sections. The lower bulkier portion is where the water for steaming is stored. The upper detachable leaner portion is separated from the lower portion by perforated lids so as to allow the steam to pass through and bake the rice powder.
is a pancake made of fermented batter. The batter is made of rice flour and fermented using either yeast or toddy, the local spirit. It is fried using a special frying pan called and is served with egg curry, chicken curry, mutton stew, vegetable curry and chickpea curry.
Muslim cuisine or Mappila cuisine is a blend of traditional Kerala, Persian, Yemenese and Arab food culture. This confluence of culinary cultures is best seen in the preparation of most dishes. Kallummakkaya (mussels) curry, Irachi Puttu (Irachi means meat), parottas (soft flatbread), Pathiri (a type of rice pancake) and ghee rice are some of the other specialties. The characteristic use of spices is the hallmark of Mappila cuisine. spices like black pepper, cardamom and clove are used profusely. The Kerala Biryani, is also prepared by the community.
The snacks include Unnakkaya (deep-fried, boiled ripe banana paste covering a mixture of cashew, raisins and sugar), pazham nirachathu (ripe banana filled with coconut grating, molasses or sugar), Muttamala made of eggs, Chattipathiri, a dessert made of flour, like baked, layered Chapatis with rich filling, Arikkadukka and so on.
Martial arts
Malayalis have their own form of martial arts called Kalaripayattu. This type of martial arts was used as a defensive mechanism against intruders. In ancient times, disputes between nobles (naaduvazhis or Vazhunors) were also settled by the outcome of a Kalaripayattu tournament. This ancient martial art is claimed as the mother of all martial arts. The word "kalari" can be traced to ancient Sangam literature.
Anthropologists estimate that Kalarippayattu dates back to at least the 12th century CE. The historian Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai attributes the birth of Kalaripayattu to an extended period of warfare between the Cheras and the Cholas in the 11th century CE. What eventually crystallized into this style is thought to have been a product of existing South Indian styles of combat, combined with techniques brought by other cultures. Kalaripayattu may be one of the oldest martial arts in existence. The oldest western reference to Kalaripayattu is a 16th-century travelogue of Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese explorer. The southern style, which stresses the importance of hand-to-hand combat, is slightly different than Kalari in the north.
See also
Malabars
Non Resident Keralites Affairs
World Malayalee Council
Kerala Gulf diaspora
Ethnic groups in Kerala
Malaysian Malayali
Migrant labourers in Kerala
Malayali Australian
Garshom International Awards
References
Further reading
External links
Official site of Kerala Government
Malayalam Resource Centre
Category:Kerala society
*
Category:Malayali diaspora
Category:Malayali organizations
Category:Dravidian peoples
Category:Ethnic groups in India
Category:Linguistic groups of the constitutionally recognised official languages of India | [] | [
"Malayali is not a location, it refers to people who speak Malayalam and are from the Indian state of Kerala. Malayalis can also be found in significant numbers in other Indian states like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra, and in foreign countries like the Middle East, the United States, Europe, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.",
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C_69758fcdfc1f46baba0e92c0f3b0919c_0 | Malayali | The Malayali people or Keralite people (also spelt Malayalee, Malayalam script: mlyaalli and keerlliiy[?]) are an Indian ethnic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala, located in South India. They are identified as native speakers of the Malayalam language, which is classified as part of the Dravidian family of languages. As they primarily live in Kerala, the word Keralite is used as an alternative to Malayali. According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 96.7% of the total population of the state. | Language and literature | Malayalam is the language spoken by the Malayalis. Malayalam is derived from old Tamil and Sanskrit in the 6th century. For cultural purposes Malayalam and Sanskrit formed a language known as Manipravalam, where both languages were used in an alternating style. Malayalam is the only among the major Dravidian languages without diglossia. This means, that the Malayalam which is spoken does not differ from the written variant. Malayalam is written using the Malayalam script. Malayalam literature is ancient in origin. The oldest literature works in Malayalam, distinct from the Tamil tradition, is dated between the 9th century and 11th century. Malayalam literature includes the 14th century Niranam poets (Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar), whose works mark the dawn of both modern Malayalam language and indigenous Keralite poetry. The Triumvirate of poets (Kavithrayam: Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer) are recognized for moving Keralite poetry away from archaic sophistry and metaphysics and towards a more lyrical mode. In 19th century Chavara Kuriakose Elias, the founder of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and Congregation of Mother of Carmel congregations, contribute different streams in the Malayalam Literature. All his works are written between 1829 and 1870. Chavara's contribution to Malayalam literature includes, Chronicles, Poems - athmanuthapam (compunction of the soul), Maranaveettil Paduvanulla Pana (Poem to sing in the bereaved house) and Anasthasiayude Rakthasakshyam - and other Literary works . In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith awardees like G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and M. T. Vasudevan Nair and non Jnanpith awardees like Vaikom Muhammad Basheer have made valuable contributions to the Malayalam literature. Later, such Keralite writers as O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, whose 1996 semi-autobiographical bestseller The God of Small Things is set in the Kottayam town of Ayemenem, have gained international recognition. Kerala remains a fascinating riddle for the Indian diaspora, especially the younger generations - World Malayali Council with its sister organisation, International Institute for Scientific and Academic Collaboration (IISAC) has come out with a comprehensive book on Kerala titled 'Introduction to Kerala Studies,' specially intended for the Malayali diaspora across the globe. J.V. Vilanilam, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala; Sunny Luke, medical scientist and former professor of Medical Biotechnology at Adelphi University, New York; and Antony Palackal, professor of Sociology at the Loyola College of Social Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram, have edited the book, besides making other contributions to it. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Malayali people (; also spelt Malayalee and sometimes known by the demonym Keralite) are a Dravidian ethnolinguistic group originating from the present-day state of Kerala in India, occupying its southwestern Malabar coast. They are predominantly native speakers of the Malayalam language, one of the six Classical languages in India. The state of Kerala was created in 1956 through the States Reorganisation Act. Prior to that, since the 1800s existed the Kingdom of Cochin, the Kingdom of Travancore, Malabar District, and South Canara of the British India. The Malabar District was annexed by the British through the Third Mysore War (1790–92) from Tipu Sultan. Before that, the Malabar District was under various kingdoms including the Zamorins of Calicut, Kingdom of Tanur, Arakkal kingdom, Kolathunadu, Valluvanad, and Palakkad Rajas.
According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala, making up 97% of the total population of the state. Malayali minorities are also found in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, mainly in Kanyakumari district and Nilgiri district and Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka and also in other metropolitan areas of India. Over the course of the later half of the 20th century, significant Malayali communities have emerged in Persian Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and to a lesser extent, other developed nations with a primarily immigrant background such as Malaysia, Singapore, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As of 2013, there were an estimated 1.6 million ethnic Malayali expatriates worldwide. The estimated population of Malayalees in Malaysia in year 2020 is approximately 348,000, which makes up 12.5% of the total number of Indian population in Malaysia that makes them the second biggest Indian ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Tamils. Most of the Malayalee population in Malaysia aged 18 to 30 are known to be either the third, fourth, or fifth generation living as a Malaysian citizen. According to A. R. Raja Raja Varma, Malayalam was the name of the place, before it became the name of the language spoken by the people.
Etymology
Malayalam, the native language of Malayalis, has its origin from the words mala meaning "mountain" and alam meaning "land" or "locality". Kerala was usually known as Malabar in the foreign trade circles in the medieval era. Earlier, the term Malabar had also been used to denote Tulu Nadu and Kanyakumari which lie contiguous to Kerala in the southwestern coast of India, in addition to the modern state of Kerala. The people of Malabar were known as Malabars. Until the arrival of the East India Company, the term Malabar was used as a general name for Kerala, along with the term Kerala. From the time of Cosmas Indicopleustes (6th century CE) itself, the Arab sailors used to call Kerala as Male. The first element of the name, however, is attested already in the Topography written by Cosmas Indicopleustes. This mentions a pepper emporium called Male, which clearly gave its name to Malabar ('the country of Male'). The name Male is thought to come from the Malayalam word Mala ('hill'). Al-Biruni () is the first known writer to call this country Malabar. Authors such as Ibn Khordadbeh and Al-Baladhuri mention Malabar ports in their works. The Arab writers had called this place Malibar, Manibar, Mulibar, and Munibar. Malabar is reminiscent of the word Malanad which means the land of hills. According to William Logan, the word Malabar comes from a combination of the Malayalam word Mala (hill) and the Persian/Arabic word Barr (country/continent). Hence the natives of Malabar Coast were known as Malabarese or Malabari in the foreign trade circles. The words Malayali and Malabari are synonymous to each other.
The Skanda Purana mentions the ecclesiastical office of the Thachudaya Kaimal who is referred to as Manikkam Keralar (The Ruby King of Kerala), synonymous with the deity of the Koodalmanikyam temple. Hence the term Keralar seem to precede the usage of the word Malayala/Malayalam.
Geographic distribution and population
Malayalam is a language spoken by the native people of southwestern India (from Mangalore to Kanyakumari) and the islands of Lakshadweep in Arabian Sea. According to the Indian census of 2001, there were 30,803,747 speakers of Malayalam in Kerala, making up 93.2% of the total number of Malayalam speakers in India, and 96.7% of the total population of the state. There were a further 701,673 (2.1% of the total number) in Tamil Nadu, 557,705 (1.7%) in Karnataka and 406,358 (1.2%) in Maharashtra. The number of Malayalam speakers in Lakshadweep is 51,100, which is only 0.15% of the total number, but is as much as about 84% of the population of Lakshadweep. In all, Malayalis made up 3.22% of the total Indian population in 2001. Of the total 33,066,392 Malayalam speakers in India in 2001, 33,015,420 spoke the standard dialects, 19,643 spoke the Yerava dialect and 31,329 spoke non-standard regional variations like Eranadan. As per the 1991 census data, 28.85% of all Malayalam speakers in India spoke a second language and 19.64% of the total knew three or more languages. Malayalam was the most spoken language in erstwhile Gudalur taluk (now Gudalur and Panthalur taluks) of Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu which accounts for 48.8% population and it was the second most spoken language in Mangalore and Puttur taluks of South Canara accounting for 21.2% and 15.4% respectively according to 1951 census report. 25.57% of the total population in the Kodagu district of Karnataka are Malayalis, in which Malayalis form the largest linguistic group in Virajpet Taluk. Around one-third of the Malayalis in Kodagu district speak the Yerava dialect according to the 2011 census, which is native to Kodagu and Wayanad. Around one-third of population in Kanyakumari district are also Malayalis. As of 2011 India census, Mahé district of Union Territory of Puducherry had a population of 41,816, predominantly Malayalis.
Just before independence, Malaya attracted many Malayalis. Large numbers of Malayalis have settled in Chennai (Madras), Delhi, Bangalore, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai (Bombay), Ahmedabad and Chandigarh. Many Malayalis have also emigrated to the Middle East, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. As of 2009-2013, there were approximately 146,000 people with Malayali heritage in the United States, with an estimated 40,000 living in the New York tri-state area. There were 7,093 Malayalam speakers in Australia in 2006. The 2001 Canadian census reported 7,070 people who listed Malayalam as their mother tongue, mostly in the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. In 2010, the Census of Population of Singapore reported that there were 26,348 Malayalees in Singapore. The 2006 New Zealand census reported 2,139 speakers. 134 Malayalam speaking households were reported in 1956 in Fiji. There is also a considerable Malayali population in the Persian Gulf regions, especially in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait and European region mainly in London. The city of Chennai has the highest population of Malayalis in a metropolitan area outside Kerala, followed by Bangalore.
Besides, the Malayalee citizens in Malaysia are estimated to be 229,800 in the year 2020 whereas the population of the Malayalee expatriates is approximately 2,000. They make up around 10 percent of the total number of Indians in Malaysia.
History and culture
During the ancient period, the people of present-day Kerala were ruled by the Chera dynasty of Tamilakam, with their capital at Vanchi. The dynasty lent the region its name, uniting the entire coast under their suzerainty. The fall of the Cheras in the 15th century CE at the hands of the Cholas proved to be the catalyst of a distinct Malayali identity, wading away from the Tamil cultural sphere of influence over several millennia.
The Malayalis live in a historic area known as the Malabar coast, which for thousands of years has been a major center of the international spice trade, operating at least from the Roman era with Ptolemy documenting it on his map of the world in 150 AD. For that reason, a highly distinct culture was created among the Malayali due to centuries of contact with foreign cultures through the spice trade. The arrival of the Cochin Jews, the rise of Saint Thomas Christians, and the growth of Mappila Muslim community, in particular, were very significant in shaping modern-day Malayali culture. Later, Portuguese Latin Christians, Dutch Malabar, French Mahe, and British English, which arrived after 1498 left their mark through colonialism and pillaging their resources.
In 2017, a detailed study of the evolution of the Singapore Malayalee community over a period of more than 100 years was published as a book: From Kerala to Singapore: Voices of the Singapore Malayalee Community. It is believed to be the first in-depth study of the presence of a NRI Malayalee community outside of Kerala.
Language and literature
According to scholars, the Malayalam language is descended from a dialect of the Tamil Language spoken on the Malabar coast, and largely arose because of its geographical isolation from the rest of the Tamil speaking areas. The Sangam literature can be considered as the ancient predecessor of Malayalam. Malayalam literature is ancient in origin, and includes such figures as the 14th century Niranam poets (Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar), whose works mark the dawn of both modern Malayalam language and indigenous Keralite poetry. Some linguists claim that an inscription found from Edakkal Caves, Wayanad, which belongs to 3rd century CE (approximately 1,800 years old), is the oldest available inscription in Malayalam, as they contain two modern Malayalam words, Ee (This) and Pazhama (Old), those are not found even in the Oldest form of Tamil. The origin of Malayalam calendar dates back to year 825 CE. It is generally agreed that the Quilon Syrian copper plates of 849/850 CE is the available oldest inscription written in Old Malayalam. For the first 600 years of Malayalam calendar, the literature mainly consisted of the oral Ballads such as Vadakkan Pattukal (Northern Songs) in North Malabar and Thekkan Pattukal (Southern songs) in Southern Travancore. The earliest known literary works in Malayalam are Ramacharitam and Thirunizhalmala, two epic poems written in Old Malayalam. Malayalam literature has been presented with 6 Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.
Designated a "Classical Language in India" in 2013, it developed into the current form mainly by the influence of the poets Cherusseri Namboothiri (Born near Kannur), Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan (Born near Tirur), and Poonthanam Nambudiri (Born near Perinthalmanna), in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era. Kunchan Nambiar, a Palakkad-based poet also influnced a lot in the growth of modern Malayalam literature in its pre-mature form, through a new literary branch called Thullal. The prose literature, criticism, and Malayalam journalism, began following the latter half of 18th century CE. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785.
The Triumvirate of poets (Kavithrayam: Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer) are recognized for moving Keralite poetry away from archaic sophistry and metaphysics and towards a more lyrical mode. In 19th century Chavara Kuriakose Elias, the founder of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate and Congregation of Mother of Carmel congregations, contribute different streams in the Malayalam Literature. All his works are written between 1829 and 1870. Chavara's contribution to Malayalam literature includes, Chronicles, Poems – athmanuthapam (compunction of the soul), Maranaveettil Paduvanulla Pana (Poem to sing in the bereaved house) and Anasthasiayude Rakthasakshyam – and other Literary works . Contemporary Malayalam literature deals with social, political, and economic life context. The tendency of the modern poetry is often towards political radicalism. The writers like Kavalam Narayana Panicker have contributred much to Malayalam drama. In the second half of the 20th century, Jnanpith winning poets and writers like G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, O. N. V. Kurup, and Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, had made valuable contributions to the modern Malayalam literature. Later, writers like O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, Arundhati Roy, and Vaikom Muhammed Basheer, have gained international recognition.
Arabi Malayalam (also called Mappila Malayalam and Moplah Malayalam) was the traditional Dravidian language of the Mappila Muslim community in Malabar Coast. The poets like Moyinkutty Vaidyar and Pulikkottil Hyder have made notable contributions to the Mappila songs, which is a genre of the Arabi Malayalam literature. The Arabi Malayalam script, otherwise known as the Ponnani script, is a writing system - a variant form of the Arabic script with special orthographic features - which was developed during the early medieval period and used to write Arabi Malayalam until the early 20th century CE. Though the script originated and developed in Kerala, today it is predominantly used in Malaysia and Singapore by the migrant Muslim community.
The modern Malayalam grammar is based on the book Kerala Panineeyam written by A. R. Raja Raja Varma in late 19th century CE. World Malayali Council with its sister organisation, International Institute for Scientific and Academic Collaboration (IISAC) has come out with a comprehensive book on Kerala titled 'Introduction to Kerala Studies,’ specially intended for the Malayali diaspora across the globe. J.V. Vilanilam, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Kerala; Sunny Luke, medical scientist and former professor of Medical Biotechnology at Adelphi University, New York; and Antony Palackal, professor of Sociology at the Loyola College of Social Sciences in Thiruvananthapuram, have edited the book, besides making other contributions to it.
Tharavadu
Tharavadu is a system of joint family practiced by Malayalis, especially castes that belong to Namboothiris, Nairs, Thiyyar, Ambalavasis and Christians other prominent ethnoreligious groups. Each Tharavadu has a unique name. The Tharavadu was administered by the Karanavar, the oldest male member of the family. He would be the eldest maternal uncle of the family as well. The members of the Tharavadu consisted of mother, daughters, sons, sisters and brothers. The fathers and husbands had a very minimal role to play in the affairs of the Tharavadu. It was a true matrilineal affair. The Karanavar took all major decisions. He was usually autocratic. However, the consent of the eldest female member of the family was taken before implementing the decisions. This eldest female member would be his maternal grandmother, own mother, mother's sister, his own sister or a sister through his maternal lineage. Since the lineage was through the female members, the birth of a daughter was always welcomed. Each Tharavadu also has a Para Devatha (clan deity) revered by those in the particular Tharavadu. Temples were built to honour these deities.
Kerala's society is less patriarchal than the rest of India. Certain Hindu communities such as the Nairs, and Muslims around Kannur, and Ponnani in Malappuram, and Varkala and Edava in Thiruvananthapuram used to follow a traditional matrilineal system known as marumakkathayam which has in the recent years (post-Indian independence) ceased to exist. Christians, majority of the Muslims, and some Hindu castes such as the Namboothiris and some Ezhavas follow makkathayam, a patrilineal system. Kerala's gender relations are among the most equitable in India and the Majority World.
Architecture
Kerala, the ancestral land of the Malayali people, has a tropical climate with excessive rains and intensive solar radiation. The architecture of this region has evolved to meet these climatic conditions by having the form of buildings with low walls, sloping roof and projecting caves. The setting of the building in the open garden plot was again necessitated by the requirement of wind for giving comfort in the humid climate.
Timber is the prime structural material abundantly available in many varieties in Kerala. Perhaps the skillful choice of timber, accurate joinery, artful assembly, and delicate carving of the woodwork for columns, walls and roofs frames are the unique characteristics of Malayali architecture. From the limitations of the materials, a mixed-mode of construction was evolved in Malayali architecture. The stonework was restricted to the plinth even in important buildings such as temples. Laterite was used for walls. The roof structure in timber was covered with palm leaf thatching for most buildings and rarely with tiles for palaces or temples. The Kerala murals are paintings with vegetable dyes on wet walls in subdued shades of brown. The indigenous adoption of the available raw materials and their transformation as enduring media for architectural expression thus became the dominant feature of the Malayali style of architecture.
Nalukettu
Nalukettu was a housing style in Kerala. Nalukettu is a quadrangular building constructed after following the Tachu Sastra (Science of Carpentry). It was a typical house that was flanked by out-houses and utility structures. The large house-Nalukettu is constructed within a large compound. It was called Nalukettu because it consisted of four wings around a central courtyard called Nadumuttom. The house has a quadrangle in the center. The quadrangle is in every way the center of life in the house and very useful for the performance of rituals. The layout of these homes was simple, and catered to the dwelling of numerous people, usually part of a tharavadu. Ettukettu (eight halls with two central courtyards) or Pathinarukettu (sixteen halls with four central courtyards) are the more elaborate forms of the same architecture.
An example of a Nalukettu structure is Mattancherry Palace.
Performing arts and music
Malayalis use two words to denote dance, which is attom and thullal. The art forms of Malayalis are classified into three types: religious, such as Theyyam and Bhagavatipattu; semi religious, like Sanghakali and Krishnanattom; and secular, such as Kathakali, Mohiniyattam, and Thullal. Kathakali and Mohiniyattam are the two classical dance forms from Kerala. Kathakali is actually a dance-drama. Mohiniyattam is a very sensual and graceful dance form that is performed both solo and in a group by women. Kutiyattam is a traditional performing art form from Kerala, which is recognised by UNESCO and given the status Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Ottamthullal is another performing art, which is also known as the poor man's Kathakali, which was created by the poet Kunchan Nambiar as an alternative to Chakiarkooth (another performing art), which was open only for higher castes to see. Theyyam is a ritualistic art form of Malayalis, which is thought to predate hinduism and to have developed from folk dances performed in conjunction with harvest celebrations. Theyyam is performed as an offering to gods so as to get rid of poverty and illness. Velakali is another ritualistic art form, mainly performed at temples in the festival time. Kolkali is a folk art in which dance performers move in a circle, striking small sticks and keeping rhythm with special steps.
Many ancient Malayali family houses in Kerala have special snake shrines called Kavu. Sarpam Thullal is usually performed in the courtyard of houses having snake shrines. This is a votive offering for family wealth and happiness. Kerala Natanam (കേരള നടനം) (Kerala Dance) is a new style of dance that is now recognized as a distinct classical art form evolved from Kathakali. The Indian dancer Guru Gopinath (ഗുരു ഗോപിനാഥ്) a well-trained Kathakali artist and his wife Thankamani Gopinath developed this unique form of dance.
Performing arts in Kerala is not limited to a single religion of the Malayali society. Muslim Mappilas, Nasranis and Latin Christians have their own unique performing art forms. Duff Muttu, also known as Dubh Muttu/Aravanamuttu is a performing art form prevalent among the Muslim community. It is a group performance, staged as a social event during festivals and nuptial ceremonies.
Oppana is a popular form of social entertainment among the Muslim community. It is a form accompanied by clapping of hands, in which both men and women participate.
Margamkali is a performing art which is popular among the Saint Thomas Christians. It combines both devotion and entertainment, and was performed by men in groups. Since 1980's women also have found groups. The dancers themselves sing the margamkali songs in unison call and response form. Parichamuttukali is another performing art which is popular among Saint Thomas Christians. This is an artistic adaptation of the martial art of Kerala, Kalaripayattu. Chavittu nadakom is a theatrical art form observed mainly by Kerala Latin Christians, dating back to the second half of the 16th century.
However, many of these native art forms largely play to tourists or at youth festivals, and are not as popular among ordinary Keralites. Thus, more contemporary forms – including those heavily based on the use of often risqué and politically incorrect mimicry and parody – have gained considerable mass appeal in recent years. Indeed, contemporary artists often use such modes to mock socioeconomic elites. Since 1930 when the first Malayalam film Vigathakumaran was released and over the following decade or two, Malayalam Cinema had grown to become one of the popular means of expression for both works of fiction and social issues, and it remains so.
Music formed a major part of early Malayalam literature, which is believed to have started developing by 9th century CE. The significance of music in the culture of Kerala can be established just by the fact that in Malayalam language, musical poetry was developed long before prose. Kerala is musically known for Sopanam. Sopanam is religious in nature, and developed through singing invocatory songs at the Kalam of Kali, and later inside temples. Sopanam came to prominence in the wake of the increasing popularity of Jayadeva's Gita Govinda or Ashtapadis. Sopana sangeetham (music), as the very name suggests, is sung by the side of the holy steps (sopanam) leading to the sanctum sanctorum of a shrine. It is sung, typically employing plain notes, to the accompaniment of the small, hourglass-shaped ethnic drum called idakka, besides the chengila or the handy metallic gong to sound the beats.
Sopanam is traditionally sung by men of the Maarar and Pothuval community, who are Ambalavasi (semi-Brahmin) castes engaged to do it as their hereditary profession. Kerala is also home of Carnatic music. Legends like Swati Tirunal, Shadkala Govinda Maarar, Sangitha Vidwan Gopala Pillai Bhagavathar, Chertala Gopalan Nair, M. D. Ramanathan, T.V.Gopalakrishnan, M.S. Gopalakrishnan, L. Subramaniam T.N. Krishnan & K. J. Yesudas are Malayali musicians. Also among the younger generations with wide acclaim and promise is Child Prodigy Violinist L. Athira Krishna etc., who are looked upon as maestros of tomorrow.
Kerala also has a significant presence of Hindustani music as well. The king of Travancore, Swathi Thirunal patronaged and contributed much to the Hindustani Music. The pulluvar of Kerala are closely connected to the serpent worship. One group among these people consider the snake gods as their presiding deity and performs certain sacrifices and sing songs. This is called Pulluvan Pattu. The song conducted by the pulluvar in serpent temples and snake groves is called Sarppapaattu, Naagam Paattu, Sarpam Thullal, Sarppolsavam, Paambum Thullal or Paambum Kalam. Mappila Paattukal or Mappila Songs are folklore Muslim devotional songs in the Malayalam language. Mappila songs are composed in colloquial Malayalam and are sung in a distinctive tune. They are composed in a mixture of Malayalam and Arabic.
Film music, which refers to playback singing in the context of Indian music, forms the most important canon of popular music in India. Film music of Kerala in particular is the most popular form of music in the state.
Vallam Kali
Vallam Kali, is the race of country-made boats. It is mainly conducted during the season of the harvest festival Onam in Autumn. Vallam Kali include races of many kinds of traditional boats of Kerala. The race of Chundan Vallam (snake boat) is the major item. Hence Vallam Kali is also known in English as Snake Boat Race and a major tourist attraction. Other types of boats which do participate in various events in the race are Churulan Vallam, Iruttukuthy Vallam, Odi Vallam, Veppu Vallam (Vaipu Vallam), Vadakkanody Vallam, and Kochu Vallam. Nehru Trophy Boat Race is one of the famous Vallam Kali held in Punnamada Lake in Alappuzha district of Kerala. Champakulam Moolam Boat Race is the oldest and most popular Vallam Kali in Kerala. The race is held on river Pamba on the moolam day (according to the Malayalam Era) of the Malayalam month Midhunam, the day of the installation of the deity at the Ambalappuzha Sree Krishna Temple. The Aranmula Boat Race takes place at Aranmula, near a temple dedicated to Lord Krishna and Arjuna. The President's Trophy Boat Race is a popular event conducted in Ashtamudi Lake in Kollam.
Thousands of people gather on the banks of the river Pamba to watch the snake boat races. Nearly 50 snake boats or chundan vallams participate in the festival. Payippad Jalotsavam is a three-day water festival. It is conducted in Payippad Lake which is 35 km from Alappuzha district of Kerala state. There is a close relation between this Payippad boat race and Subramanya Swamy Temple in Haripad. Indira Gandhi Boat Race is a boat race festival celebrated in the last week of December in the backwaters of Kochi, a city in Kerala. This boat race is one of the most popular Vallam Kali in Kerala. This festival is conducted to promote Kerala tourism.
Festivals
Malayalis celebrate a variety of festivals, namely Onam, Vishu, Deepavali, and Christmas.
Cuisine
Malayali cuisine is not homogeneous and regional variations are visible throughout. Spices form an important ingredient in almost all curries. Kerala is known for its traditional , a vegetarian meal served with boiled rice and a host of side-dishes. The is complemented by , a sweet milk dessert native to Kerala. The is, as per custom, served on a banana leaf. Traditional dishes include , , , , , , , , (tapioca), (steamed rice powder), and . Coconut is an essential ingredient in most of the food items and is liberally used.
is a culinary specialty in Kerala. It is a steamed rice cake which is a favorite breakfast of most Malayalis. It is served with either brown chickpeas cooked in a spicy gravy, and boiled small green lentils, or tiny ripe yellow Kerala plantains. In the highlands there is also a variety of served with (the boiled-down syrup from sweet palm toddy) and sweet boiled bananas. to steam the , there is a special utensil called a . It consists of two sections. The lower bulkier portion is where the water for steaming is stored. The upper detachable leaner portion is separated from the lower portion by perforated lids so as to allow the steam to pass through and bake the rice powder.
is a pancake made of fermented batter. The batter is made of rice flour and fermented using either yeast or toddy, the local spirit. It is fried using a special frying pan called and is served with egg curry, chicken curry, mutton stew, vegetable curry and chickpea curry.
Muslim cuisine or Mappila cuisine is a blend of traditional Kerala, Persian, Yemenese and Arab food culture. This confluence of culinary cultures is best seen in the preparation of most dishes. Kallummakkaya (mussels) curry, Irachi Puttu (Irachi means meat), parottas (soft flatbread), Pathiri (a type of rice pancake) and ghee rice are some of the other specialties. The characteristic use of spices is the hallmark of Mappila cuisine. spices like black pepper, cardamom and clove are used profusely. The Kerala Biryani, is also prepared by the community.
The snacks include Unnakkaya (deep-fried, boiled ripe banana paste covering a mixture of cashew, raisins and sugar), pazham nirachathu (ripe banana filled with coconut grating, molasses or sugar), Muttamala made of eggs, Chattipathiri, a dessert made of flour, like baked, layered Chapatis with rich filling, Arikkadukka and so on.
Martial arts
Malayalis have their own form of martial arts called Kalaripayattu. This type of martial arts was used as a defensive mechanism against intruders. In ancient times, disputes between nobles (naaduvazhis or Vazhunors) were also settled by the outcome of a Kalaripayattu tournament. This ancient martial art is claimed as the mother of all martial arts. The word "kalari" can be traced to ancient Sangam literature.
Anthropologists estimate that Kalarippayattu dates back to at least the 12th century CE. The historian Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai attributes the birth of Kalaripayattu to an extended period of warfare between the Cheras and the Cholas in the 11th century CE. What eventually crystallized into this style is thought to have been a product of existing South Indian styles of combat, combined with techniques brought by other cultures. Kalaripayattu may be one of the oldest martial arts in existence. The oldest western reference to Kalaripayattu is a 16th-century travelogue of Duarte Barbosa, a Portuguese explorer. The southern style, which stresses the importance of hand-to-hand combat, is slightly different than Kalari in the north.
See also
Malabars
Non Resident Keralites Affairs
World Malayalee Council
Kerala Gulf diaspora
Ethnic groups in Kerala
Malaysian Malayali
Migrant labourers in Kerala
Malayali Australian
Garshom International Awards
References
Further reading
External links
Official site of Kerala Government
Malayalam Resource Centre
Category:Kerala society
*
Category:Malayali diaspora
Category:Malayali organizations
Category:Dravidian peoples
Category:Ethnic groups in India
Category:Linguistic groups of the constitutionally recognised official languages of India | [] | [
"They speak Malayalam.",
"The context does not provide information on any other languages they speak.",
"Yes, Malayalam literature is ancient and includes the works of several poets and writers. Some of them include the 14th century Niranam poets (Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar) and the Kavithrayam: Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer. Other notable contributors include Chavara Kuriakose Elias, G. Sankara Kurup, S. K. Pottekkatt, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, O. V. Vijayan, Kamaladas, M. Mukundan, and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. Roy's 1996 semi-autobiographical bestseller The God of Small Things is set in the Kottayam town of Ayemenem.",
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C_de8ea5cde2934ac2899df443ca40d105_0 | Saosin | Saosin is an American post-hardcore band from Orange County, California, United States. The band was formed in 2003 and recorded its first EP, Translating the Name, that same year original vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin due to personal reasons. In 2004, Cove Reber replaced Green as vocalist after auditioning for the role. The group recorded its self titled debut album which was released on Capitol Records on September 26, 2006. | Arrival of Cove Reber and Saosin EP (2004-2006) | After the audition process and several guest vocalists on demos, the then 19-year-old Cove Reber was announced as their new permanent lead singer. Reber had sent in his demo tape, which was an acoustic demo with "Mookie's Last Christmas". The demo has since leaked onto the internet. It is widely speculated to have included a few songs from Translating the Name. When Beau Burchell first heard the demo, he thought it was Anthony playing a trick on them, as Reber's vocal stylings were very similar to those of Green's when the demo was originally recorded. In an interview with PlayPro.com, Reber commented that "everyone I've played with wants to make music their lives...Saosin is a band on a completely different level. All these dudes are freaks about music." Reber's addition to the band was difficult, for the more experienced Green was the center piece of the band in the eyes of Saosin's fans. Many fans consider the time with Green to be something entirely different from the time with Reber. There are still distinct fans of both eras (Green Era/Reber Era) debating on which is a better fit for the band as a whole. Saosin played the Taste of Chaos tour the following winter. Saosin was signed to Capitol Records in March and toured the United States with the Warped Tour for the second time. That summer, they released the Saosin EP. At first it was intended to be a free sampler, but Capitol Records would not allow this and released it as an EP. It contained demo versions of songs later recorded on their first full-length album. A video to their new single "Bury Your Head" was filmed during the tour. The band continued touring for the rest of 2005, opening for Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Saosin is an American rock band formed in Orange County, California in 2003 by Beau Burchell, Justin Shekoski, Zach Kennedy, and Anthony Green. The band released their first EP, Translating the Name, in 2003. That year, vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin due to personal reasons, and was replaced by Cove Reber in 2004. With Reber, the group recorded their self titled debut album, released on Capitol Records in 2006.
Their second studio album, In Search of Solid Ground, was released in 2009 on Virgin Records and contains three re-recorded tracks from The Grey EP. In 2010, Reber was dismissed from the band. The band reformed in 2013 with all original members except Kennedy, and began touring. They released Along the Shadow, their third studio album and first studio album with Green, in 2016 through Epitaph Records.
Saosin emerged from the emo and post-hardcore scenes during the early 2000s, and has been regarded for their harmonizing vocals, lead guitar riffs with delays and natural harmonics as a form of creating melodies.
Origin of name
Anthony Green had initially suggested the name "Saosin" for the band. Saosin means "careful" in Chinese (小心 xiǎo xīn). The word comes from a 15th-century proverb about fathers admonishing their sons who are being married off for money to not get emotionally involved with their wives, as they could die at any time. Green explained the meaning behind this as being a reference to the fact that nothing is eternal, and that it is a mistake to become overly attached to anyone or anything, because that thing will eventually be lost. While Green's personal interpretation of the word 小心 is obscure, 小心 is generally used in Chinese as a means to express caution. Green had previously used "Saosin" as a track name in his high school band, Audience of One, I Remember When This All Meant Something.
History
Formation and Translating the Name (2003–2004)
The original lineup for Saosin, consisting of Burchell, Shekoski, Kennedy and Green, was formed in the summer of 2003. On June 17, the band released their first commercial production, the EP Translating the Name. It was an immediate success and was immensely popular on online forums and music sites.
Saosin first became popular through promotion and exposure through the Internet. They became known for their distinct musical styles long before their first studio-length album was released, and were popularized on social networking and music sites such as MySpace. The EP has sold an estimated 62,000 copies.
Bassist Zach Kennedy left the band early on, as he wanted to pursue a career in art. He was later replaced by Chris Sorenson.
A local Southern Californian drummer by the name of Pat Magrath was hired only for the recording for the EP, according to Burchell. The band was impressed with his drumming skills, however, and he later appeared as a guest performing Lost Symphonies live with the band. Alex Rodriguez was unable to record Translating the Name as he had promised his band at the time Open Hand he would finish recording with them. Danny King filled in for live drums with the band before Rodriguez completed his responsibilities with Open Hand and joined Saosin full-time after the EP release. Saosin went on a U.S. tour with bands Boys Night Out and Anatomy of a Ghost shortly after the release of Translating the Name.
In February 2004, the band's vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin and later formed the band Circa Survive. Green was homesick, depressed and said he was missing his family. Green was also disenchanted with the direction of Saosin and disliked that the band excluded him from the writing process. The band finished their Warped Tour obligations with Story of the Year's Philip Sneed taking the mic. A public, nationwide audition then took place.
Translating the Name was viewed as "expanding the limits" of the post-hardcore genre and rewriting the music scene. Alternative Press noted that with the release of the EP, Saosin stirred the underground and had many labels scurrying to sign them.
Arrival of Cove Reber and Saosin EP (2004–2006)
After the audition process and several guest vocalists on demos, the then 19-year-old Cove Reber was announced as their new permanent lead singer. Reber had sent in his demo tape, which was an acoustic demo with "Mookie's Last Christmas". The demo has since leaked onto the internet. It is widely speculated to have included a few songs from Translating the Name. When Beau Burchell first heard the demo, he thought it was Anthony playing a trick on them, as Reber's vocal stylings were very similar to those of Green's when the demo was originally recorded.
In an interview with Euphonia Online, Reber commented that "everyone I've played with wants to make music their lives...Saosin is a band on a completely different level. All these dudes are freaks about music."
Reber's addition to the band was difficult, for the more experienced Green was the center piece of the band in the eyes of Saosin's fans. Many fans consider the time with Green to be something entirely different from the time with Reber. There are still distinct fans of both eras (Green Era/Reber Era) debating on which is a better fit for the band as a whole.
Saosin played the first Taste of Chaos tour the following winter with The Used, My Chemical Romance, Killswitch Engage, Senses Fail and Static Lullaby. Saosin was signed to Capitol Records in March and toured the United States with the Warped Tour for the second time. That summer, they released the Saosin EP. At first it was intended to be a free sampler, but Capitol Records would not allow this and released it as an EP. It contained demo versions of songs later recorded on their first full-length album. A video to their new single "Bury Your Head" was filmed during the tour. The band continued touring for the rest of 2005, opening for Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria.
Saosin LP and Come Close (2006–2008)
After a respite from touring between February and June, the Warped Tour 2006 and numerous demos and compilation appearances, Saosin released their first full-length album Saosin on September 26, 2006. The well-known music producer Howard Benson was hired for the production of the album. Benson had worked with several major rock bands such as My Chemical Romance and Blindside. The guitar riffs on the album were listed on Alternative Press's "Best Guitar Riffs of 2000s Rock." The first single, "Voices" was listed on the Top 46 post-hardcore songs of the 2000s, and the second single "You're Not Alone" was listed on the Top 10 Essential Emo Power Ballads by the Alternative Press.
During the rest of 2006, Saosin toured on the International Taste of Chaos Tour, playing their first shows outside of America. They also toured the United States with Bleeding Through and Senses Fail. They kept on touring for the whole year of 2007, beginning with a tour with Senses Fail, Alexisonfire, The Sleeping and Drop Dead, Gorgeous. Saosin also invited the non-profit organization Invisible Children for a portion of the tour. In February they joined the Taste of Chaos 2007 tour. Between April and June they toured in Europe, Australia, Japan and Indonesia.When Saosin returned home they continued their headlining tour with Poison the Well, The Receiving End of Sirens, Fiore and Flight 409. In the later summer of 2007, they were part of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour.
After this they headlined yet another tour in USA and Canada with Alexisonfire, Envy on the Coast, Norma Jean and The Dear and Departed. Concert footage was recorded during the tour stop on November 3, 2007 at The Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The concert footage was compiled for a live album and concert movie entitled Come Close.
Saosin toured from January 26 to February 8, 2008 with Armor for Sleep, Meriwether, and The Bled; from February 9 to 16 Fear Before joined the tour. They went to Australia between February and March, after which they performed in Singapore on March 7 as the opening performance for Incubus on their Light Grenades Tour. On their way home they also visited Bali, Hawaii and Mexico. After two final shows at home in California in April, they took a nine-month break from touring.
The Grey EP and In Search of Solid Ground (2008–2010)
Saosin returned to touring in October 2008 alongside Underoath and The Devil Wears Prada.
In early 2009, they started recording a new album with producer Butch Walker. They partnered with Hurley to broadcast the recording process live on Hurley's website.
Saosin released a new EP titled The Grey EP on October 14, 2008. The EP was sold on tour and on iTunes and featured three new demos, as well as an acoustic version of "Come Close". The purpose of The Grey EP was to show demos they had been recording; a similar manner in which the Saosin EP contained demos for their debut LP.
Saosin released In Search of Solid Ground on September 8, 2009. Two songs were released as a download to anyone who bought a shirt, and a digital pre-order. The songs were "On My Own" and "Is This Real". These two songs were released as singles on iTunes August 4, 2009. On August 5 a new song titled "Changing" was made available for streaming on the internet. The single was then put up for download on iTunes August 11. Another track titled "The Worst of Me" was also released as part of a free Warped Tour song package on hurley.com/warpedtour. The song "Why Can't You See?" was made available on Last.fm.
"Move Slow" was released on the TV show, NCISs original soundtrack. "Deep Down" was released in May 2010.
Saosin toured Australia nationally during June 2010 in support of Story Of The Year's Australian tour. Blessthefall also joined Story Of The Year and Saosin.
Three unreleased Saosin songs have leaked onto the internet through the Hurley Live Recording Stream they broadcast while recording In Search of Solid Ground. Fans have titled them "The Norma Jean Song," "Back to Greatness" and the third is still known as "Untitled".
The band stated on Twitter that they have parted ways with Virgin Records and are going back into a "DIY" direction.
The departure of Cove Reber and inactivity (2010–2014)
On July 21, 2010, guitarist Beau Burchell made the following announcement: "Well, a few days ago, Alex, Justin, Chris and I got back into the studio for our first group writing/jam session. We have all been writing things on our own, but it was cool to get into a room and play with loud amps all together again. I am very excited about this record, for a few different reasons. After 5 years with Cove, we have decided to part ways. So it will be a new experience for us, not knowing what to expect in the vocal dept, who will replace him, or if we will even find a replacement this century." Reber was asked to leave due to his diminishing stage performance and vocal abilities. According to Justin Shekoski, "We didn't feel he could represent the music that we have recorded well on stage."
Cove Reber is now lead vocalist for the band Dead American. "finished Two NEW Songs, Instrumentals, ones called JUD JUD JUD. Lots of Riffs, Rolls and ROFLCOPTERS. Might put one up in a few days. STOKED! - Beau"
On November 25, it was reported that Charles Furney, lead singer of Secret and Whisper, had been recruited to fill Reber's abandoned vocalist spot. One day later, on November 26, Saosin themselves denied these claims on their Facebook page:
<blockquote>Thanks for the update from strike gently But, unfortunately, we DO NOT have a new singer yet, and its not Chris from Secret & Whisper. INFORMATION POLLUTION!- SAOSIN</blockquote>
There has been speculation that Tides of Man vocalist, Tilian Pearson, will audition for Saosin's vacant position. Pearson confirmed rumors that he was kicked out of Tides of Man due to him expressing an interest in pursuing the vacant lead vocalist role in Saosin. Justin Shekoski has also confirmed the speculation and clarified by saying: "Here's the truth, since I can't stand rumors. Tilian has been hitting us up. A lot. It looks like he wants the job pretty badly if he would quit his band. BUT....the REALITY is we haven't even met the guy in person. Everybody is talking about step No. 54 (joining the band).
A new demo was leaked on the internet, fuelling speculation that Pearson had joined the band and begun recording. In an interview with Mind Equals Blown, Pearson revealed that the leaked demo is a track Saosin bassist Chris Sorenson had been working on, and that he was asked to provide vocals for it.
In an interview with Alternative Press, Pearson gave an update on his status with Saosin, and cleared up the rumor of him being an official Saosin member. There were no further announcements of Pearson doing a record with Saosin, nor was there any announcement of him being added as an official member.
On February 23, 2012, the band's Twitter account confirmed that they were no longer in search of a new vocalist.
On November 18, 2012, Saosin tweeted a picture with the caption "Studio stuff #hewfring", dispelling rumours of the band's break-up which had begun to circulate due to their inactivity.
On December 16, 2012 Anthony Green was joined on stage by Beau and Justin for an encore where they played 'Seven Years'. Green stated it was the first time in nearly ten years that they had played together.
On February 21, 2013, Saosin updated their Facebook status "To satisfy those who wish to hear more about Saosin, We have written 14 songs. When they are ready, you will be the first to know."
A second Tilian Pearson-fronted demo, recorded over the instrumental originally released as a bonus track on the iTunes version of ISOSG entitled "Exfoliator," was posted to YouTube on May 7, 2013.
Anthony Green was interviewed by AltPress regarding his former group, Saosin, celebrating their ten-year anniversary of Translating The Name EP. In this particular segment, Green was asked if he would ever rejoin Saosin, he said "I love those songs and I love singing “Seven Years” when I play solo. I'm not opposed to talking about doing anything in the future. If the timing was right and it was for the right reasons, then I think it could be something really special".
On January 25, 2014, Beau Burchell tweeted a photo from Hurley Studios indicating that he was tracking drums with Alex Rodriguez.
Anthony Green return, Along the Shadow, line-up changes (2014–present)
It has been announced that Saosin is performing the Skate and Surf festival on May 17, 2014 and West Coast tour on early June 2014 with original vocalist Anthony Green.
The band hinted in an interview with Alternative Press that there may be a possible future together with Anthony.
The band toured again from January 19, 2015 to January 25, 2015 with Anthony Green on vocals, and played two new songs, as well as stating they are in the process of completing a new full-length album.
After 13 years together Justin Shekoski and Saosin parted ways. Phil Sgrosso of then-Wovenwar (now As I Lay Dying) will handle lead guitar parts during the upcoming east coast tour for the band.
During their 2016 spring tour, Saosin announced that their new album would be released on May 20.
On March 16, 2016, they released their music video "The Silver String", which additionally confirmed that their album Along The Shadow would be available May 20.
On April 6, 2016, they released their second music video called "Racing Toward A Red Light, which is another track from the upcoming album Along The Shadow.
On April 27, 2016, they released their third music video "Control and the Urge to Pray", which is the third track released from the upcoming album Along The Shadow.
On May 20, 2016, Saosin released "Along the Shadow" on Epitaph Records.
On December 16 and 17, 2018, Saosin played at Glass House, Pomona, where the band reunited with their ex-frontman Cove Reber for two shows. They performed "Voices", "You're Not Alone" and a "Seven Years" duo with Reber and Green. It was the first time in eight years the band had performed on stage with Reber since his departure in 2010.
In 2020, Saosin released four singles with Anthony Green's vocals: a revamped version of their early demo "I Can Tell There Was an Accident Here Earlier" and three versions of "Mookie's Last Christmas" - remixes by Monogram Sound and Jeremy Sh Griffith, and an acoustic version.
On November 10, 2022, it was announced that Saosin would embark on their first Australian headlining tour in March 2023. The tour came under public scrutiny, however, due to being advertised with the title "All The Hits, All The Albums" and the band exclusively playing songs that Green sang on.
On May 3, 2023, Saosin's 2006 single "You're Not Alone" was certified Gold by RIAA.
Musical style
Saosin has been described as post-hardcore, emo, indie rock, and alternative rock.
Band members
Current members
Beau Burchell – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2003–present), piano, keyboards (2003–2008), lead guitar (2015–present)
Chris Sorenson – bass, backing vocals (2003–present), piano, keyboards (2003–2008, 2014–present)
Alex Rodriguez – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Anthony Green – lead vocals, additional guitars (2003–2004, 2014–present)
Current touring musicians
Phil Sgrosso – lead guitar (2016–present)
Former members
Zach Kennedy – bass (2003)
Cove Reber – lead vocals, piano, keyboards, additional guitar and live percussion (2004–2010)
Justin Shekoski – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–2015)
Former touring musicians
Danny King – drums, percussion (2003)
Philip Sneed – lead vocals (2004)
Ken Floyd – guitar (2010)
Session musicians
Pat Magrath – drums, percussion (2003, on Translating the Name)
Tilian Pearson – vocals (2011, on demos)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Saosin (2006)
In Search of Solid Ground (2009)
Along the Shadow '' (2016)
References
External links
Interview of Saosin by Euphonia Online
Category:Capitol Records artists
Category:Epitaph Records artists
Category:Virgin Records artists
Category:Musical groups from Orange County, California
Category:American post-hardcore musical groups
Category:Emo musical groups from California
Category:Musical groups established in 2003
Category:American screamo musical groups | [] | [
"Cove Reber was 19 years old when he became the permanent lead singer of Saosin. He sent in a demo tape with an acoustic demo of \"Mookie's Last Christmas,\" which was initially thought to be a joke by another band member due to the similarity of Reber's vocals to those of former lead singer Anthony Green. Reber's transition into the band was difficult as Green had been the centerpiece of the band in the eyes of the fans.",
"Cove Reber became the lead singer of Saosin after sending in his demo tape, which included an acoustic demo of \"Mookie's Last Christmas\". His vocal stylings were so similar to those of the previous lead singer that initially another band member thought it was a joke. After consideration, Reber was announced as the new permanent lead singer.",
"The first thing Saosin did together with Cove Reber as their new lead singer was to play the Taste of Chaos tour the following winter.",
"After playing the Taste of Chaos tour with their new lead singer, Cove Reber, Saosin was signed to Capitol Records in March. They then toured the United States with the Warped Tour for the second time. In the summer, they released the Saosin EP and filmed a video for their new single \"Bury Your Head\" during the tour. They continued touring for the rest of 2005, opening for Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria.",
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C_de8ea5cde2934ac2899df443ca40d105_1 | Saosin | Saosin is an American post-hardcore band from Orange County, California, United States. The band was formed in 2003 and recorded its first EP, Translating the Name, that same year original vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin due to personal reasons. In 2004, Cove Reber replaced Green as vocalist after auditioning for the role. The group recorded its self titled debut album which was released on Capitol Records on September 26, 2006. | Formation and Translating the Name (2003-2004) | The original lineup for Saosin, consisting of Burchell, Shekoski, Kennedy and Green, was formed in the summer of 2003. On June 17, the band released their first commercial production, the EP Translating the Name. It was an immediate success and was immensely popular on online forums and music sites. Saosin first became popular through promotion and exposure through the Internet. They became known for their distinct musical styles long before their first studio-length album was released, and were popularized on social networking and music sites such as MySpace. The E.P. has sold an estimated 62,000 copies. Bassist Zach Kennedy left the band early on, as he wanted to pursue a career in art. He was later replaced by Chris Sorenson. A local Southern Califonian drummer by the name of Pat Magrath, was hired only for the recording for the EP, according to Burchell. The band was impressed with his drumming skills however, and he later appeared as a guest performing Lost Symphonies live with the band. Alex Rodriguez was unable to record Translating the Name as he had promised his band at the time Open Hand he would finish recording with them. Danny King filled in for live drums with the band before Rodriguez completed his responsibilities with Open Hand and joined Saosin full-time after the EP release. Saosin went on a U.S. tour with bands Boys Night Out and Anatomy of a Ghost shortly after the release of Translating the Name. In February 2004, the band's vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin and later formed the band Circa Survive. Green was homesick, depressed and said he was missing his family. Green was also disenchanted with the direction of Saosin and disliked that the band excluded him from the writing process. The band finished their Warped Tour obligations with Story of the Year's Philip Sneed taking the mic. A public, nationwide audition then took place. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Saosin is an American rock band formed in Orange County, California in 2003 by Beau Burchell, Justin Shekoski, Zach Kennedy, and Anthony Green. The band released their first EP, Translating the Name, in 2003. That year, vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin due to personal reasons, and was replaced by Cove Reber in 2004. With Reber, the group recorded their self titled debut album, released on Capitol Records in 2006.
Their second studio album, In Search of Solid Ground, was released in 2009 on Virgin Records and contains three re-recorded tracks from The Grey EP. In 2010, Reber was dismissed from the band. The band reformed in 2013 with all original members except Kennedy, and began touring. They released Along the Shadow, their third studio album and first studio album with Green, in 2016 through Epitaph Records.
Saosin emerged from the emo and post-hardcore scenes during the early 2000s, and has been regarded for their harmonizing vocals, lead guitar riffs with delays and natural harmonics as a form of creating melodies.
Origin of name
Anthony Green had initially suggested the name "Saosin" for the band. Saosin means "careful" in Chinese (小心 xiǎo xīn). The word comes from a 15th-century proverb about fathers admonishing their sons who are being married off for money to not get emotionally involved with their wives, as they could die at any time. Green explained the meaning behind this as being a reference to the fact that nothing is eternal, and that it is a mistake to become overly attached to anyone or anything, because that thing will eventually be lost. While Green's personal interpretation of the word 小心 is obscure, 小心 is generally used in Chinese as a means to express caution. Green had previously used "Saosin" as a track name in his high school band, Audience of One, I Remember When This All Meant Something.
History
Formation and Translating the Name (2003–2004)
The original lineup for Saosin, consisting of Burchell, Shekoski, Kennedy and Green, was formed in the summer of 2003. On June 17, the band released their first commercial production, the EP Translating the Name. It was an immediate success and was immensely popular on online forums and music sites.
Saosin first became popular through promotion and exposure through the Internet. They became known for their distinct musical styles long before their first studio-length album was released, and were popularized on social networking and music sites such as MySpace. The EP has sold an estimated 62,000 copies.
Bassist Zach Kennedy left the band early on, as he wanted to pursue a career in art. He was later replaced by Chris Sorenson.
A local Southern Californian drummer by the name of Pat Magrath was hired only for the recording for the EP, according to Burchell. The band was impressed with his drumming skills, however, and he later appeared as a guest performing Lost Symphonies live with the band. Alex Rodriguez was unable to record Translating the Name as he had promised his band at the time Open Hand he would finish recording with them. Danny King filled in for live drums with the band before Rodriguez completed his responsibilities with Open Hand and joined Saosin full-time after the EP release. Saosin went on a U.S. tour with bands Boys Night Out and Anatomy of a Ghost shortly after the release of Translating the Name.
In February 2004, the band's vocalist Anthony Green left Saosin and later formed the band Circa Survive. Green was homesick, depressed and said he was missing his family. Green was also disenchanted with the direction of Saosin and disliked that the band excluded him from the writing process. The band finished their Warped Tour obligations with Story of the Year's Philip Sneed taking the mic. A public, nationwide audition then took place.
Translating the Name was viewed as "expanding the limits" of the post-hardcore genre and rewriting the music scene. Alternative Press noted that with the release of the EP, Saosin stirred the underground and had many labels scurrying to sign them.
Arrival of Cove Reber and Saosin EP (2004–2006)
After the audition process and several guest vocalists on demos, the then 19-year-old Cove Reber was announced as their new permanent lead singer. Reber had sent in his demo tape, which was an acoustic demo with "Mookie's Last Christmas". The demo has since leaked onto the internet. It is widely speculated to have included a few songs from Translating the Name. When Beau Burchell first heard the demo, he thought it was Anthony playing a trick on them, as Reber's vocal stylings were very similar to those of Green's when the demo was originally recorded.
In an interview with Euphonia Online, Reber commented that "everyone I've played with wants to make music their lives...Saosin is a band on a completely different level. All these dudes are freaks about music."
Reber's addition to the band was difficult, for the more experienced Green was the center piece of the band in the eyes of Saosin's fans. Many fans consider the time with Green to be something entirely different from the time with Reber. There are still distinct fans of both eras (Green Era/Reber Era) debating on which is a better fit for the band as a whole.
Saosin played the first Taste of Chaos tour the following winter with The Used, My Chemical Romance, Killswitch Engage, Senses Fail and Static Lullaby. Saosin was signed to Capitol Records in March and toured the United States with the Warped Tour for the second time. That summer, they released the Saosin EP. At first it was intended to be a free sampler, but Capitol Records would not allow this and released it as an EP. It contained demo versions of songs later recorded on their first full-length album. A video to their new single "Bury Your Head" was filmed during the tour. The band continued touring for the rest of 2005, opening for Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed and Cambria.
Saosin LP and Come Close (2006–2008)
After a respite from touring between February and June, the Warped Tour 2006 and numerous demos and compilation appearances, Saosin released their first full-length album Saosin on September 26, 2006. The well-known music producer Howard Benson was hired for the production of the album. Benson had worked with several major rock bands such as My Chemical Romance and Blindside. The guitar riffs on the album were listed on Alternative Press's "Best Guitar Riffs of 2000s Rock." The first single, "Voices" was listed on the Top 46 post-hardcore songs of the 2000s, and the second single "You're Not Alone" was listed on the Top 10 Essential Emo Power Ballads by the Alternative Press.
During the rest of 2006, Saosin toured on the International Taste of Chaos Tour, playing their first shows outside of America. They also toured the United States with Bleeding Through and Senses Fail. They kept on touring for the whole year of 2007, beginning with a tour with Senses Fail, Alexisonfire, The Sleeping and Drop Dead, Gorgeous. Saosin also invited the non-profit organization Invisible Children for a portion of the tour. In February they joined the Taste of Chaos 2007 tour. Between April and June they toured in Europe, Australia, Japan and Indonesia.When Saosin returned home they continued their headlining tour with Poison the Well, The Receiving End of Sirens, Fiore and Flight 409. In the later summer of 2007, they were part of Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution tour.
After this they headlined yet another tour in USA and Canada with Alexisonfire, Envy on the Coast, Norma Jean and The Dear and Departed. Concert footage was recorded during the tour stop on November 3, 2007 at The Theater of Living Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The concert footage was compiled for a live album and concert movie entitled Come Close.
Saosin toured from January 26 to February 8, 2008 with Armor for Sleep, Meriwether, and The Bled; from February 9 to 16 Fear Before joined the tour. They went to Australia between February and March, after which they performed in Singapore on March 7 as the opening performance for Incubus on their Light Grenades Tour. On their way home they also visited Bali, Hawaii and Mexico. After two final shows at home in California in April, they took a nine-month break from touring.
The Grey EP and In Search of Solid Ground (2008–2010)
Saosin returned to touring in October 2008 alongside Underoath and The Devil Wears Prada.
In early 2009, they started recording a new album with producer Butch Walker. They partnered with Hurley to broadcast the recording process live on Hurley's website.
Saosin released a new EP titled The Grey EP on October 14, 2008. The EP was sold on tour and on iTunes and featured three new demos, as well as an acoustic version of "Come Close". The purpose of The Grey EP was to show demos they had been recording; a similar manner in which the Saosin EP contained demos for their debut LP.
Saosin released In Search of Solid Ground on September 8, 2009. Two songs were released as a download to anyone who bought a shirt, and a digital pre-order. The songs were "On My Own" and "Is This Real". These two songs were released as singles on iTunes August 4, 2009. On August 5 a new song titled "Changing" was made available for streaming on the internet. The single was then put up for download on iTunes August 11. Another track titled "The Worst of Me" was also released as part of a free Warped Tour song package on hurley.com/warpedtour. The song "Why Can't You See?" was made available on Last.fm.
"Move Slow" was released on the TV show, NCISs original soundtrack. "Deep Down" was released in May 2010.
Saosin toured Australia nationally during June 2010 in support of Story Of The Year's Australian tour. Blessthefall also joined Story Of The Year and Saosin.
Three unreleased Saosin songs have leaked onto the internet through the Hurley Live Recording Stream they broadcast while recording In Search of Solid Ground. Fans have titled them "The Norma Jean Song," "Back to Greatness" and the third is still known as "Untitled".
The band stated on Twitter that they have parted ways with Virgin Records and are going back into a "DIY" direction.
The departure of Cove Reber and inactivity (2010–2014)
On July 21, 2010, guitarist Beau Burchell made the following announcement: "Well, a few days ago, Alex, Justin, Chris and I got back into the studio for our first group writing/jam session. We have all been writing things on our own, but it was cool to get into a room and play with loud amps all together again. I am very excited about this record, for a few different reasons. After 5 years with Cove, we have decided to part ways. So it will be a new experience for us, not knowing what to expect in the vocal dept, who will replace him, or if we will even find a replacement this century." Reber was asked to leave due to his diminishing stage performance and vocal abilities. According to Justin Shekoski, "We didn't feel he could represent the music that we have recorded well on stage."
Cove Reber is now lead vocalist for the band Dead American. "finished Two NEW Songs, Instrumentals, ones called JUD JUD JUD. Lots of Riffs, Rolls and ROFLCOPTERS. Might put one up in a few days. STOKED! - Beau"
On November 25, it was reported that Charles Furney, lead singer of Secret and Whisper, had been recruited to fill Reber's abandoned vocalist spot. One day later, on November 26, Saosin themselves denied these claims on their Facebook page:
<blockquote>Thanks for the update from strike gently But, unfortunately, we DO NOT have a new singer yet, and its not Chris from Secret & Whisper. INFORMATION POLLUTION!- SAOSIN</blockquote>
There has been speculation that Tides of Man vocalist, Tilian Pearson, will audition for Saosin's vacant position. Pearson confirmed rumors that he was kicked out of Tides of Man due to him expressing an interest in pursuing the vacant lead vocalist role in Saosin. Justin Shekoski has also confirmed the speculation and clarified by saying: "Here's the truth, since I can't stand rumors. Tilian has been hitting us up. A lot. It looks like he wants the job pretty badly if he would quit his band. BUT....the REALITY is we haven't even met the guy in person. Everybody is talking about step No. 54 (joining the band).
A new demo was leaked on the internet, fuelling speculation that Pearson had joined the band and begun recording. In an interview with Mind Equals Blown, Pearson revealed that the leaked demo is a track Saosin bassist Chris Sorenson had been working on, and that he was asked to provide vocals for it.
In an interview with Alternative Press, Pearson gave an update on his status with Saosin, and cleared up the rumor of him being an official Saosin member. There were no further announcements of Pearson doing a record with Saosin, nor was there any announcement of him being added as an official member.
On February 23, 2012, the band's Twitter account confirmed that they were no longer in search of a new vocalist.
On November 18, 2012, Saosin tweeted a picture with the caption "Studio stuff #hewfring", dispelling rumours of the band's break-up which had begun to circulate due to their inactivity.
On December 16, 2012 Anthony Green was joined on stage by Beau and Justin for an encore where they played 'Seven Years'. Green stated it was the first time in nearly ten years that they had played together.
On February 21, 2013, Saosin updated their Facebook status "To satisfy those who wish to hear more about Saosin, We have written 14 songs. When they are ready, you will be the first to know."
A second Tilian Pearson-fronted demo, recorded over the instrumental originally released as a bonus track on the iTunes version of ISOSG entitled "Exfoliator," was posted to YouTube on May 7, 2013.
Anthony Green was interviewed by AltPress regarding his former group, Saosin, celebrating their ten-year anniversary of Translating The Name EP. In this particular segment, Green was asked if he would ever rejoin Saosin, he said "I love those songs and I love singing “Seven Years” when I play solo. I'm not opposed to talking about doing anything in the future. If the timing was right and it was for the right reasons, then I think it could be something really special".
On January 25, 2014, Beau Burchell tweeted a photo from Hurley Studios indicating that he was tracking drums with Alex Rodriguez.
Anthony Green return, Along the Shadow, line-up changes (2014–present)
It has been announced that Saosin is performing the Skate and Surf festival on May 17, 2014 and West Coast tour on early June 2014 with original vocalist Anthony Green.
The band hinted in an interview with Alternative Press that there may be a possible future together with Anthony.
The band toured again from January 19, 2015 to January 25, 2015 with Anthony Green on vocals, and played two new songs, as well as stating they are in the process of completing a new full-length album.
After 13 years together Justin Shekoski and Saosin parted ways. Phil Sgrosso of then-Wovenwar (now As I Lay Dying) will handle lead guitar parts during the upcoming east coast tour for the band.
During their 2016 spring tour, Saosin announced that their new album would be released on May 20.
On March 16, 2016, they released their music video "The Silver String", which additionally confirmed that their album Along The Shadow would be available May 20.
On April 6, 2016, they released their second music video called "Racing Toward A Red Light, which is another track from the upcoming album Along The Shadow.
On April 27, 2016, they released their third music video "Control and the Urge to Pray", which is the third track released from the upcoming album Along The Shadow.
On May 20, 2016, Saosin released "Along the Shadow" on Epitaph Records.
On December 16 and 17, 2018, Saosin played at Glass House, Pomona, where the band reunited with their ex-frontman Cove Reber for two shows. They performed "Voices", "You're Not Alone" and a "Seven Years" duo with Reber and Green. It was the first time in eight years the band had performed on stage with Reber since his departure in 2010.
In 2020, Saosin released four singles with Anthony Green's vocals: a revamped version of their early demo "I Can Tell There Was an Accident Here Earlier" and three versions of "Mookie's Last Christmas" - remixes by Monogram Sound and Jeremy Sh Griffith, and an acoustic version.
On November 10, 2022, it was announced that Saosin would embark on their first Australian headlining tour in March 2023. The tour came under public scrutiny, however, due to being advertised with the title "All The Hits, All The Albums" and the band exclusively playing songs that Green sang on.
On May 3, 2023, Saosin's 2006 single "You're Not Alone" was certified Gold by RIAA.
Musical style
Saosin has been described as post-hardcore, emo, indie rock, and alternative rock.
Band members
Current members
Beau Burchell – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2003–present), piano, keyboards (2003–2008), lead guitar (2015–present)
Chris Sorenson – bass, backing vocals (2003–present), piano, keyboards (2003–2008, 2014–present)
Alex Rodriguez – drums, percussion (2004–present)
Anthony Green – lead vocals, additional guitars (2003–2004, 2014–present)
Current touring musicians
Phil Sgrosso – lead guitar (2016–present)
Former members
Zach Kennedy – bass (2003)
Cove Reber – lead vocals, piano, keyboards, additional guitar and live percussion (2004–2010)
Justin Shekoski – lead guitar, backing vocals (2003–2015)
Former touring musicians
Danny King – drums, percussion (2003)
Philip Sneed – lead vocals (2004)
Ken Floyd – guitar (2010)
Session musicians
Pat Magrath – drums, percussion (2003, on Translating the Name)
Tilian Pearson – vocals (2011, on demos)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Saosin (2006)
In Search of Solid Ground (2009)
Along the Shadow '' (2016)
References
External links
Interview of Saosin by Euphonia Online
Category:Capitol Records artists
Category:Epitaph Records artists
Category:Virgin Records artists
Category:Musical groups from Orange County, California
Category:American post-hardcore musical groups
Category:Emo musical groups from California
Category:Musical groups established in 2003
Category:American screamo musical groups | [] | null | null |
C_801cea2613fb426c9e166d86426e2ac8_0 | Coolio | Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (born August 1, 1963), known professionally as Coolio, is an American rapper, actor, chef, and record producer. Coolio achieved mainstream success in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta's Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997). He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award-winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996) and "C U | Red Hot Organization and Tommy Boy Records dismissal | In 1996, Coolio appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD America is Dying Slowly, alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip-hop artists. The CD, meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men, was heralded as "a masterpiece" by The Source magazine. That same year, he recorded the theme song and appeared in the opening sequence of the Nickelodeon TV series Kenan & Kel which ran for four seasons. After the success of Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio's next album was expected to be another hit. His third solo album titled My Soul, came out in 1997. Although it contained the major hit "C U When U Get There" and the album went platinum, it failed to reach the success of his previous two albums. Coolio was dropped from Tommy Boy Records and his albums since then, 2001's Coolio.com, 2003's El Cool Magnifico, 2006's The Return of the Gangsta, and 2008's Steal Hear, have not charted on any Billboard chart. He did have a minor hit in the UK in 2006 with "Gangsta Walk" (featuring Snoop Dogg), which peaked at #67 on the UK pop chart. While touring with hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse, Coolio received a tattoo as a homage to the group's fanbase, reading "Jugalo Cool" [sic]. He stated that the misspelling was intentional. Coolio has performed at the Gathering of the Juggalos. Coolio was featured on an international collaboration track called 'Fuck the DJ' by UK rapper Blacklisted MC also featuring Bizarre of D12, Adil Omar (from Pakistan) and Uzimon (from Bermuda) the song was premiered on music website Noisey from Vice in October 2014. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta's Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997).
He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and "C U When U Get There" (1997).
From 1996 on, Coolio released albums independently, and provided the opening track "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel. He created the web series Cookin' with Coolio and released a cookbook.
Early life
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. was born on August 1, 1963, in Monessen, Pennsylvania and was raised mostly in Compton. His mother was a factory worker who divorced his carpenter father and moved to Compton when Ivey was eight years old. Severely asthmatic, Ivey was a regular visitor to his local library as a boy. He started rapping as a teenager, earning the nickname Coolio Iglesias, after Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, which was later shortened to Coolio. He was arrested for taking a weapon to school and served prison time for larceny. As Compton declined in the 1980s, he became addicted to crack cocaine, but quit drugs after spending time living with his father in San Jose. After attending Compton Community College, he worked in jobs such as volunteer firefighting and security at Los Angeles International Airport, before becoming a rapper.
Music career
Coolio recorded his first single in 1987, titled "Whatcha Gonna Do?". He also recorded "What Makes You Dance (Force Groove)" with Nu-Skool in 1988. Coolio made connections in the L.A. rap scene, and in 1991, ended up joining the group WC and the Maad Circle, led by rapper WC. He is a credited co-contributor on the group's debut album Ain't a Damn Thang Changed, including on the single "Dress Code".
Tommy Boy Records and It Takes a Thief
In 1994, Coolio signed to Tommy Boy Records and released his debut solo album It Takes a Thief. The lead single "Fantastic Voyage" received heavy rotation on MTV and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Fantastic Voyage" would become one of the biggest rap singles of the year. Other minor hits from the album include "County Line" and "I Remember". It Takes a Thief peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, becoming certified Platinum. The album received praise for bringing a humorous and lighthearted perspective to the often violent and profane themes of typical gangsta rap.
Gangsta's Paradise
In 1995, Coolio released "Gangsta's Paradise", featuring R&B singer L.V., for the film Dangerous Minds. It became one of the most successful rap songs of all time, topping on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. It was the No. 1 single of 1995 in the United States for all genres and was a global hit topping the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand charts. "Gangsta's Paradise" was the second-best-selling single of 1995 in the U.K. The song also created a controversy when Coolio claimed that comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic had not asked for permission to make his parody of "Gangsta's Paradise", titled "Amish Paradise". At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won Coolio a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Originally "Gangsta's Paradise" was not meant to be included in one of Coolio's studio albums, but its success led to Coolio not only putting it on his next album but also making it the title track. The title track interpolates the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder, which was recorded nearly 20 years earlier on Wonder's album Songs in the Key of Life. The album Gangsta's Paradise was released in 1995 and was certified two-times Platinum by the RIAA, selling more than two million copies in the US alone.
The album contains two other major hits in "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "Too Hot" with J. T. Taylor of Kool & the Gang doing the chorus. Despite no longer being an official member of the group, Coolio appears on the second WC and the Maad Circle album Curb Servin' on the song "In a Twist". In 1996, Coolio had another top 40 hit with the song "It's All the Way Live (Now)" from the soundtrack to the movie Eddie. He is also featured on the song "Hit 'em High" from the soundtrack to the 1996 film Space Jam with B-Real, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes.
In 2014, the band Falling in Reverse did a cover of "Gangsta's Paradise" for Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2, with Coolio making a cameo in the music video.
Red Hot Organization and Tommy Boy Records dismissal
In 1996, Coolio appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD America Is Dying Slowly, alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip-hop artists. The CD meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African-American men. That same year, he recorded the music video "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the opening sequence of the Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel, which ran for four seasons.
Coolio's third solo album, My Soul, came out in 1997. Although it contains the major hit "C U When U Get There" and the album went platinum, it failed to reach the success of his previous two albums. Coolio was subsequently dropped from the Tommy Boy Records label. Since then, 2001's Coolio.com, 2003's El Cool Magnifico, 2006's The Return of the Gangsta, and 2008's Steal Hear, 2009's From the Bottom 2 the Top, and 2017's Long Live the Thief have not charted on any Billboard chart. He did have a minor hit in the UK in 2006 with "Gangsta Walk" (featuring Snoop Dogg).
While touring with hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse, Coolio received a tattoo as a homage to the group's fanbase, reading "Jugalo Cool" . He stated that the misspelling was intentional. Coolio performed at the Gathering of the Juggalos.
Coolio is featured on an international collaboration track called "Fuck the DJ" by UK rapper Blacklisted MC, also featuring Bizarre of D12, Adil Omar (from Pakistan), and Uzimon (from Bermuda). The song premiered on music website Noisey from Vice in October 2014.
Television appearances
Coolio appeared as a contestant on Comeback – Die große Chance in 2004 (translated in English as Comeback: The Big Chance), a German talent show featuring artists looking for a comeback.
In the television series Futurama, Coolio made two appearances on the TV series and one appearance in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, a straight-to-video movie for the show. He played Kwanzaa-bot, a rapping robot who spreads awareness about Kwanzaa.
In 2009, Coolio appeared as a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 6, which he placed 3rd. He later went to appear on the UK's Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, where he decided it was best to leave the house after numerous confrontations with Nadia Almada and others there. In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality television series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, where he represented the Music Saves Lives Organization. He also guest-starred as himself on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Coolio is featured on the March 5, 2013, episode of the ABC reality program Wife Swap, but his then-girlfriend left him after the program was taped. On June 30, 2013, he appeared alongside comedian Jenny Eclair and Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden on the UK game show Tipping Point: Lucky Stars, where he came in second. On June 30, 2012, Coolio voiced a wax figure of himself on Gravity Falls. He also appears on "Homie-Work", a 1998 episode of The Nanny, in which he portrays a nerdy man, a "gift wrapper", transformed by the Jewish nanny into a "Rapper" for Maxwell Sheffield's new rap musical.
Coolio guest starred on a 2014 episode of the Adult Swim show Black Jesus titled "Gangsta's Paradise". In July 2016, Coolio performed on ABC's Greatest Hits.
Other appearances
In 2019, Coolio appeared on the Irish rap group Versatile's track "Escape Wagon". He later featured on their 2021 album, Fuck Versatile, on the track "Coolio Interlude".
Philanthropy
Coolio and jazz saxophonist Jarez were enlisted in July 2008 as spokespersons by the group Environmental Justice and Climate Change to educate students at historically black colleges and universities about global warming. Coolio was a spokesperson for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. He said that he and his children are asthma sufferers. As a child, he was taken to the hospital several times due to asthma complications.
Legal issues
In 1998, a court in Böblingen near Stuttgart sentenced Coolio to six months probation and fined him $17,000 after convicting him of being an accessory to robbery and causing bodily injury.
In 2016, Coolio and members of his crew were arrested for having a loaded firearm inside of a bookbag at Los Angeles International Airport. The bag was flagged by the Transportation Security Administration as the group attempted to pass through a security checkpoint. One of his bodyguards claimed ownership of the bag, but witnesses stated that it belonged to Coolio himself. Coolio was sentenced to three years of probation and 45 days of community service.
In 2017, Coolio was denied entry into Singapore upon landing at Changi International Airport. Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority declined to comment on the reason for the denial, citing reasons of confidentiality. Coolio had been traveling from Beijing to Singapore to perform at a Formula One concert event.
Personal life
Coolio had ten children, one of whom was born to his wife, Josefa Salinas, whom he married in 1996 and divorced in 2000. In March 2022, he told Australia's Today Extra that he had five grandchildren.
Coolio was the running mate for pornographic actress Cherie DeVille's Democratic presidential run in 2020.
Death
On September 28, 2022, while at a friend's house in Los Angeles, Coolio was discovered unresponsive on a bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead by first responders. He was 59 years old. Police opened an investigation into his death, though foul play was not suspected, and Coolio's manager stated he appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.
Coolio was cremated in a private ceremony with no funeral service. Some of his ashes were then encased in jewelry for his family, with the rest of his ashes going into an urn. On April 5, 2023, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office announced that Coolio died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.
Discography
Studio albums
It Takes a Thief (1994)
Gangsta's Paradise (1995)
My Soul (1997)
Coolio.com (2001)
El Cool Magnifico (2002)
The Return of the Gangsta (2006)
Steal Hear (2008)
From the Bottom 2 the Top (2009)
Long Live Coolio (2023)
Collaboration albums
Ain't a Damn Thang Changed with WC and the Maad Circle (1991)
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
Coolio's 1995 song "Gangsta's Paradise", a remake of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" received several awards, including Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards and Best Rap Video and Best Video from a Film at the MTV Video Music Awards. Coolio himself received several awards, including Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist at the American Music Awards in 1996. At the Grammy Awards in 1997, Coolio received three nominations: Best Rap Album for Gangsta's Paradise, Best Rap Solo Performance for "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)", and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Stomp". Overall, Coolio received five awards from fourteen nominations.
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Coolio received one award from two nominations.
|-
| || Coolio || Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist ||
|-
| || Coolio || Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist ||
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Coolio received one award from six nominations.
|-
| || "Fantastic Voyage" || Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| ||rowspan="2"| "Gangsta's Paradise" || Record of the Year ||
|-
| Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
|rowspan="3"| || Gangsta's Paradise || Best Rap Album ||
|-
| "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" || Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
| "Stomp" || Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ||
"Stomp" with Luke Cresswell, Fiona Wilkes, Carl Smith, Fraser Morrison, Everett Bradley, Mr. X, Melle Mel, Coolio, Yo-Yo, Chaka Khan, Charlie Wilson, Shaquille O'Neal, Luniz
MTV Video Music Awards
The MTV Video Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1984 by MTV. Coolio received three awards from six nominations.
|-
| || "Fantastic Voyage" || Best Rap Video ||
|-
|rowspan="5"| ||rowspan="3"| "Gangsta's Paradise" || Best Rap Video ||
|-
| Best Video from a Film ||
|-
| Viewer's Choice ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" || Best Dance Video ||
|-
| Best Male Video ||
References
External links
Category:1963 births
Category:2022 deaths
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:20th-century American rappers
Category:21st-century African-American politicians
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:21st-century American politicians
Category:21st-century American rappers
Category:Accidental deaths in California
Category:African-American male actors
Category:African-American male rappers
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:Big Brother (British TV series) contestants
Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California
Category:Drug-related deaths in California
Category:G-funk artists
Category:Gangsta rappers
Category:Grammy Award winners for rap music
Category:Musicians from Compton, California
Category:Politicians from Los Angeles
Category:Pop rappers
Category:Rappers from Los Angeles
Category:Tommy Boy Records artists
Category:WC and the Maad Circle members
Category:West Coast hip hop musicians | [] | [
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C_801cea2613fb426c9e166d86426e2ac8_1 | Coolio | Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (born August 1, 1963), known professionally as Coolio, is an American rapper, actor, chef, and record producer. Coolio achieved mainstream success in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta's Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997). He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award-winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996) and "C U | Gangsta's Paradise | In 1995, Coolio made a song featuring R&B singer LV for the movie Dangerous Minds, titled "Gangsta's Paradise". It would become one of the most successful rap songs of all time, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 3 weeks. It was the #1 single of 1995 for all genres, and was a global hit, as it reached #1 in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand. The song also created a controversy when Coolio claimed that parody artist "Weird Al" Yankovic had not asked for permission to make his parody of "Gangsta's Paradise", titled "Amish Paradise". At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won Coolio a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance. Originally "Gangsta's Paradise" was not meant to be included on one of Coolio's studio albums, but its success led to Coolio not only putting it on his next album but also making it the title track. The title track sampled the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder, which was recorded nearly 20 years earlier on Stevie Wonder's album Songs in the Key of Life. The album Gangsta's Paradise was released in 1995 and was certified 2X Platinum by the RIAA. The album contained two other major hits in "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "Too Hot" with J.T. Taylor of Kool & the Gang doing the chorus. Despite no longer being an official member of the group, Coolio made an appearance on the second WC and the Maad Circle album Curb Servin', on the song "In a Twist". In 1996, Coolio had another top 40 hit with the song "It's All the Way Live (Now)" from the soundtrack to the movie Eddie. He was also featured on the song "Hit 'em High" from the soundtrack to the movie Space Jam with B-Real, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes. In 2014, the band Falling in Reverse did a cover of "Gangster's Paradise" for "Punk Goes 90's", with Coolio making a cameo in the music video. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known professionally as Coolio, was an American rapper. First rising to fame as a member of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle, Coolio achieved mainstream success as a solo artist in the mid-to-late 1990s with his albums It Takes a Thief (1994), Gangsta's Paradise (1995), and My Soul (1997).
He is best known for his 1995 Grammy Award–winning hit single "Gangsta's Paradise", as well as other singles "Fantastic Voyage" (1994), "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" (1996), and "C U When U Get There" (1997).
From 1996 on, Coolio released albums independently, and provided the opening track "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the 1996 Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel. He created the web series Cookin' with Coolio and released a cookbook.
Early life
Artis Leon Ivey Jr. was born on August 1, 1963, in Monessen, Pennsylvania and was raised mostly in Compton. His mother was a factory worker who divorced his carpenter father and moved to Compton when Ivey was eight years old. Severely asthmatic, Ivey was a regular visitor to his local library as a boy. He started rapping as a teenager, earning the nickname Coolio Iglesias, after Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, which was later shortened to Coolio. He was arrested for taking a weapon to school and served prison time for larceny. As Compton declined in the 1980s, he became addicted to crack cocaine, but quit drugs after spending time living with his father in San Jose. After attending Compton Community College, he worked in jobs such as volunteer firefighting and security at Los Angeles International Airport, before becoming a rapper.
Music career
Coolio recorded his first single in 1987, titled "Whatcha Gonna Do?". He also recorded "What Makes You Dance (Force Groove)" with Nu-Skool in 1988. Coolio made connections in the L.A. rap scene, and in 1991, ended up joining the group WC and the Maad Circle, led by rapper WC. He is a credited co-contributor on the group's debut album Ain't a Damn Thang Changed, including on the single "Dress Code".
Tommy Boy Records and It Takes a Thief
In 1994, Coolio signed to Tommy Boy Records and released his debut solo album It Takes a Thief. The lead single "Fantastic Voyage" received heavy rotation on MTV and peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Fantastic Voyage" would become one of the biggest rap singles of the year. Other minor hits from the album include "County Line" and "I Remember". It Takes a Thief peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, becoming certified Platinum. The album received praise for bringing a humorous and lighthearted perspective to the often violent and profane themes of typical gangsta rap.
Gangsta's Paradise
In 1995, Coolio released "Gangsta's Paradise", featuring R&B singer L.V., for the film Dangerous Minds. It became one of the most successful rap songs of all time, topping on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. It was the No. 1 single of 1995 in the United States for all genres and was a global hit topping the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Australia, and New Zealand charts. "Gangsta's Paradise" was the second-best-selling single of 1995 in the U.K. The song also created a controversy when Coolio claimed that comedy musician "Weird Al" Yankovic had not asked for permission to make his parody of "Gangsta's Paradise", titled "Amish Paradise". At the 1996 Grammy Awards, the song won Coolio a Grammy Award for Best Rap Solo Performance.
Originally "Gangsta's Paradise" was not meant to be included in one of Coolio's studio albums, but its success led to Coolio not only putting it on his next album but also making it the title track. The title track interpolates the chorus and music of the song "Pastime Paradise" by Stevie Wonder, which was recorded nearly 20 years earlier on Wonder's album Songs in the Key of Life. The album Gangsta's Paradise was released in 1995 and was certified two-times Platinum by the RIAA, selling more than two million copies in the US alone.
The album contains two other major hits in "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "Too Hot" with J. T. Taylor of Kool & the Gang doing the chorus. Despite no longer being an official member of the group, Coolio appears on the second WC and the Maad Circle album Curb Servin' on the song "In a Twist". In 1996, Coolio had another top 40 hit with the song "It's All the Way Live (Now)" from the soundtrack to the movie Eddie. He is also featured on the song "Hit 'em High" from the soundtrack to the 1996 film Space Jam with B-Real, Method Man, LL Cool J, and Busta Rhymes.
In 2014, the band Falling in Reverse did a cover of "Gangsta's Paradise" for Punk Goes 90s Vol. 2, with Coolio making a cameo in the music video.
Red Hot Organization and Tommy Boy Records dismissal
In 1996, Coolio appeared on the Red Hot Organization's compilation CD America Is Dying Slowly, alongside Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan, and Fat Joe, among many other prominent hip-hop artists. The CD meant to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African-American men. That same year, he recorded the music video "Aw, Here It Goes!" for the opening sequence of the Nickelodeon television series Kenan & Kel, which ran for four seasons.
Coolio's third solo album, My Soul, came out in 1997. Although it contains the major hit "C U When U Get There" and the album went platinum, it failed to reach the success of his previous two albums. Coolio was subsequently dropped from the Tommy Boy Records label. Since then, 2001's Coolio.com, 2003's El Cool Magnifico, 2006's The Return of the Gangsta, and 2008's Steal Hear, 2009's From the Bottom 2 the Top, and 2017's Long Live the Thief have not charted on any Billboard chart. He did have a minor hit in the UK in 2006 with "Gangsta Walk" (featuring Snoop Dogg).
While touring with hip-hop duo Insane Clown Posse, Coolio received a tattoo as a homage to the group's fanbase, reading "Jugalo Cool" . He stated that the misspelling was intentional. Coolio performed at the Gathering of the Juggalos.
Coolio is featured on an international collaboration track called "Fuck the DJ" by UK rapper Blacklisted MC, also featuring Bizarre of D12, Adil Omar (from Pakistan), and Uzimon (from Bermuda). The song premiered on music website Noisey from Vice in October 2014.
Television appearances
Coolio appeared as a contestant on Comeback – Die große Chance in 2004 (translated in English as Comeback: The Big Chance), a German talent show featuring artists looking for a comeback.
In the television series Futurama, Coolio made two appearances on the TV series and one appearance in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, a straight-to-video movie for the show. He played Kwanzaa-bot, a rapping robot who spreads awareness about Kwanzaa.
In 2009, Coolio appeared as a housemate on Celebrity Big Brother 6, which he placed 3rd. He later went to appear on the UK's Ultimate Big Brother in 2010, where he decided it was best to leave the house after numerous confrontations with Nadia Almada and others there. In January 2012, he was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality television series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off, where he represented the Music Saves Lives Organization. He also guest-starred as himself on Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Coolio is featured on the March 5, 2013, episode of the ABC reality program Wife Swap, but his then-girlfriend left him after the program was taped. On June 30, 2013, he appeared alongside comedian Jenny Eclair and Emmerdale actor Matthew Wolfenden on the UK game show Tipping Point: Lucky Stars, where he came in second. On June 30, 2012, Coolio voiced a wax figure of himself on Gravity Falls. He also appears on "Homie-Work", a 1998 episode of The Nanny, in which he portrays a nerdy man, a "gift wrapper", transformed by the Jewish nanny into a "Rapper" for Maxwell Sheffield's new rap musical.
Coolio guest starred on a 2014 episode of the Adult Swim show Black Jesus titled "Gangsta's Paradise". In July 2016, Coolio performed on ABC's Greatest Hits.
Other appearances
In 2019, Coolio appeared on the Irish rap group Versatile's track "Escape Wagon". He later featured on their 2021 album, Fuck Versatile, on the track "Coolio Interlude".
Philanthropy
Coolio and jazz saxophonist Jarez were enlisted in July 2008 as spokespersons by the group Environmental Justice and Climate Change to educate students at historically black colleges and universities about global warming. Coolio was a spokesperson for the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. He said that he and his children are asthma sufferers. As a child, he was taken to the hospital several times due to asthma complications.
Legal issues
In 1998, a court in Böblingen near Stuttgart sentenced Coolio to six months probation and fined him $17,000 after convicting him of being an accessory to robbery and causing bodily injury.
In 2016, Coolio and members of his crew were arrested for having a loaded firearm inside of a bookbag at Los Angeles International Airport. The bag was flagged by the Transportation Security Administration as the group attempted to pass through a security checkpoint. One of his bodyguards claimed ownership of the bag, but witnesses stated that it belonged to Coolio himself. Coolio was sentenced to three years of probation and 45 days of community service.
In 2017, Coolio was denied entry into Singapore upon landing at Changi International Airport. Singapore's Immigration and Checkpoints Authority declined to comment on the reason for the denial, citing reasons of confidentiality. Coolio had been traveling from Beijing to Singapore to perform at a Formula One concert event.
Personal life
Coolio had ten children, one of whom was born to his wife, Josefa Salinas, whom he married in 1996 and divorced in 2000. In March 2022, he told Australia's Today Extra that he had five grandchildren.
Coolio was the running mate for pornographic actress Cherie DeVille's Democratic presidential run in 2020.
Death
On September 28, 2022, while at a friend's house in Los Angeles, Coolio was discovered unresponsive on a bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead by first responders. He was 59 years old. Police opened an investigation into his death, though foul play was not suspected, and Coolio's manager stated he appeared to have suffered cardiac arrest.
Coolio was cremated in a private ceremony with no funeral service. Some of his ashes were then encased in jewelry for his family, with the rest of his ashes going into an urn. On April 5, 2023, the Los Angeles County Coroner's office announced that Coolio died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.
Discography
Studio albums
It Takes a Thief (1994)
Gangsta's Paradise (1995)
My Soul (1997)
Coolio.com (2001)
El Cool Magnifico (2002)
The Return of the Gangsta (2006)
Steal Hear (2008)
From the Bottom 2 the Top (2009)
Long Live Coolio (2023)
Collaboration albums
Ain't a Damn Thang Changed with WC and the Maad Circle (1991)
Filmography
Film
Television
Awards and nominations
Coolio's 1995 song "Gangsta's Paradise", a remake of Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise" received several awards, including Best Rap Solo Performance at the Grammy Awards and Best Rap Video and Best Video from a Film at the MTV Video Music Awards. Coolio himself received several awards, including Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist at the American Music Awards in 1996. At the Grammy Awards in 1997, Coolio received three nominations: Best Rap Album for Gangsta's Paradise, Best Rap Solo Performance for "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)", and Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group for "Stomp". Overall, Coolio received five awards from fourteen nominations.
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony created by Dick Clark in 1973. Coolio received one award from two nominations.
|-
| || Coolio || Favorite Rap/Hip Hop Artist ||
|-
| || Coolio || Favorite Rap/Hip-Hop Artist ||
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States. Coolio received one award from six nominations.
|-
| || "Fantastic Voyage" || Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| ||rowspan="2"| "Gangsta's Paradise" || Record of the Year ||
|-
| Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
|rowspan="3"| || Gangsta's Paradise || Best Rap Album ||
|-
| "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" || Best Rap Solo Performance ||
|-
| "Stomp" || Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ||
"Stomp" with Luke Cresswell, Fiona Wilkes, Carl Smith, Fraser Morrison, Everett Bradley, Mr. X, Melle Mel, Coolio, Yo-Yo, Chaka Khan, Charlie Wilson, Shaquille O'Neal, Luniz
MTV Video Music Awards
The MTV Video Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony established in 1984 by MTV. Coolio received three awards from six nominations.
|-
| || "Fantastic Voyage" || Best Rap Video ||
|-
|rowspan="5"| ||rowspan="3"| "Gangsta's Paradise" || Best Rap Video ||
|-
| Best Video from a Film ||
|-
| Viewer's Choice ||
|-
|rowspan="2"| "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" || Best Dance Video ||
|-
| Best Male Video ||
References
External links
Category:1963 births
Category:2022 deaths
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:20th-century American rappers
Category:21st-century African-American politicians
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:21st-century American politicians
Category:21st-century American rappers
Category:Accidental deaths in California
Category:African-American male actors
Category:African-American male rappers
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:Big Brother (British TV series) contestants
Category:Deaths by heroin overdose in California
Category:Drug-related deaths in California
Category:G-funk artists
Category:Gangsta rappers
Category:Grammy Award winners for rap music
Category:Musicians from Compton, California
Category:Politicians from Los Angeles
Category:Pop rappers
Category:Rappers from Los Angeles
Category:Tommy Boy Records artists
Category:WC and the Maad Circle members
Category:West Coast hip hop musicians | [] | null | null |
C_1ab5437118a94feb9ab9fd75efc112f6_0 | Dick Grayson | Richard John Grayson is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940 as the original incarnation of Robin. In Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984) the character retires his role as Robin and assumes the superhero persona of Nightwing, created by Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez. The youngest in a family of Gotham City acrobats known as the "Flying Graysons", Dick watches a mafia boss kill his parents in order to extort money from the circus that employed them. | Teen Titans | 1964's The Brave and the Bold #54 introduces a junior version of the Justice League of America; an all-star superhero team of which Batman was a part. This team is led by the modern-day Robin, residing on Earth-One, and was joined by two other teenage sidekicks, Aqualad (sidekick of Aquaman) and Kid Flash (sidekick of the Flash), to stop the menace of Mr. Twister. Later, the three sidekicks join forces with Speedy and Wonder Girl in order to free their mentors in the JLA from mind-controlled thrall. They decide to become a real team: the Teen Titans. By virtue of the tactical skills gleaned from Batman, Robin is swiftly recognized as leader before the Titans disband some years later. In 1969, still in the Pre-Crisis continuity, writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams return Batman to his darker roots. One part of this effort is writing Robin out of the series by sending Dick Grayson to Hudson University and into a separate strip in the back of Detective Comics. The by-now Teen Wonder appears only sporadically in Batman stories of the 1970s as well as a short lived revival of The Teen Titans. In 1980, Grayson once again takes up the role of leader of the Teen Titans, now featured in the monthly series The New Teen Titans, which became one of DC Comics's most beloved series of the era. During his leadership of the Titans, however, he had a falling out with Batman, leading to an estrangement that would last for many years. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Richard John "Dick" Grayson is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with Batman and Teen Titans. Created by writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane, he first appeared in Detective Comics #38 in April 1940 as the original and most popular incarnation of Robin, Batman's crime-fighting partner. In Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (July 1984), the character, after becoming a young adult, retires his role as Robin and assumes the superhero persona of Nightwing (created by Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez).
The youngest in a family of acrobats known as the "Flying Graysons", Grayson witnesses a mafia boss named Tony Zucco kill his parents to extort money from the circus that employed them. After the tragic murder, Batman (Bruce Wayne) takes Grayson in as his legal ward and trains him to become his crime-fighting partner Robin. He is written by many authors as the first son of Batman. As well as being Batman's crime-fighting partner, Grayson establishes himself as the leader of the Teen Titans, DC's first team of teenage superheroes. As a young man, he retires as Robin and takes on his own superhero identity, becoming Nightwing. As Nightwing, he continues to lead the Teen Titans, the Titans, and later, the Outsiders. In the first volume of his eponymous series (1996–2009), he becomes the protector of Blüdhaven, Gotham's economically troubled neighboring city, the locale the character is most closely associated with. He has also been depicted as protecting the streets of New York, Chicago, and Gotham City over the years.
Grayson has also taken on the identity of Batman on a few occasions. In the aftermath of Batman: Knightfall, he was not offered the role of Batman while Wayne was recovering from a broken back because he felt that Nightwing was a hero in his own right and not Batman's understudy, but after the events of the Zero Hour miniseries later that year, Grayson temporarily fills in as Batman, beginning in Robin (Vol. 2) #0 (1994) and extending throughout the Batman: Prodigal storyline in 1995. Grayson again assumes the mantle following the events of "Batman R.I.P." (2008) and Final Crisis (2008–2009). As Batman, he moves to Gotham City following his mentor's apparent death and partners with the fifth Robin, Damian Wayne. Following Wayne's return, both men maintained the Batman identity until 2011, when Grayson returned to the Nightwing identity with DC's New 52 continuity reboot. In a 2014 comic story, he is forced to abandon the Nightwing identity after being unmasked on TV, and faking his death, setting up Tim Seeley's Grayson comic book, Dick becomes Agent 37, Batman's mole in the nefarious spy organization Spyral. Following the conclusion of the Grayson series, and the restoration of his secret identity in the series' final issue, he returns to being Nightwing as part of the DC Rebirth relaunch in 2016. During the Tom King's Batman run and after the frustrating marriage between Wayne and Selina Kyle, Grayson is also seen taking the mantle during the first part of the "Cold Days" arc, as Wayne is confined in a jury while Mr. Freeze is on trial.
Dick Grayson has appeared as Robin in several other media adaptations: the 1943 serial played by Douglas Croft, the 1949 serial played by Johnny Duncan, the 1966–1968 live action Batman television series and its motion picture portrayed by Burt Ward, and played by Chris O'Donnell in the 1995 film Batman Forever and its 1997 sequel, Batman & Robin. Dick Grayson appears in the Titans television series for the DC Universe streaming service and HBO Max played by Brenton Thwaites. Loren Lester voiced the character Robin in Batman: The Animated Series and later as Nightwing's first screen adaptation in The New Batman Adventures, Jesse McCartney voices Grayson as both Robin and Nightwing in Young Justice: The Animated Series, Sean Maher voices Nightwing in the DC Animated Movie Universe, and Michael Cera voices an overly cheerful Grayson as Robin in The Lego Batman Movie. In May 2011, IGN ranked Dick Grayson No. 11 on their list of the "Top 100 Super Heroes of All Time". In 2013, ComicsAlliance ranked Grayson as Nightwing as No. 1 on its list of the "50 Sexiest Male Characters in Comics".
Publication history
Robin the Boy Wonder
The character was first introduced in Detective Comics #38 (1940) by Batman creators Bill Finger and Bob Kane. Robin's debut was an effort to get younger readers to enjoy Batman. The name "Robin, The Boy Wonder" and the medieval look of the original costume are inspired by the legendary hero Robin Hood. Finger had named Dick Grayson after both the half-brother of pulp fiction character Frank Merriwell, also named Dick, and book editor Charles Grayson, Jr. The costume was designed by Jerry Robinson who drew it from memory based on Robin Hood illustrations by N. C. Wyeth.
In his first appearance, Dick Grayson is a circus acrobat, and, with his parents, one of the "Flying Graysons". Robin was born on the first day of spring, the son of John Grayson and Mary Grayson, a young aerialist couple. While preparing for a performance, Dick overhears two gangsters attempting to extort protection money from the circus owner. The owner refuses, so the gangsters sabotage the trapeze wires with acid. During the next performance, the trapeze from which Dick's parents are swinging snaps, sending them to their deaths. Before he can go to the police, Batman appears to him and warns him that the two gangsters work for Tony Zucco, a very powerful crime boss and that revealing his knowledge could lead to his death. When Batman recounts the murder of his own parents, Dick asks to become his aide. After extensive training, Dick becomes Robin. They start by disrupting Zucco's gambling and extortion rackets. They then successfully bait the riled Zucco into visiting a construction site, where they capture him.
Robin's origin has a thematic connection to Batman's in that both see their parents killed by criminals, creating an urge to battle the criminal element. Bruce sees a chance to direct the anger and rage that Dick feels in a way that he cannot, thus creating a father/son bond and understanding between the two. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, DC Comics portrayed Batman and Robin as a team, deeming them the "Dynamic Duo", rarely publishing a Batman story without his sidekick; stories entirely devoted to Robin appeared in Star-Spangled Comics from 1947 through 1952.
The character history of the Earth-Two Robin accordingly adopts all of the earliest stories featuring the character from the 1940s and 1950s, while the adventures of the mainstream Robin (who lived on "Earth-One") begin later and with certain elements of his origin retold. Both were depicted as separate, though parallel, individuals living in their respective universes, with the "older" Earth-Two character eventually reaching death in Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Teen Titans
1964's The Brave and the Bold #54 introduces a junior version of the Justice League of America. This team is led by the modern-day Robin, residing on Earth-One, and was joined by two other teenage sidekicks, Aqualad (sidekick of Aquaman) and Kid Flash (sidekick of the Flash), to stop the menace of Mr. Twister. Later, the three sidekicks join forces with Speedy (sidekick of Green Arrow) and Wonder Girl to free their mentors in the JLA from mind-controlled thrall. They decide to become a real team: the Teen Titans. By the tactical skills gleaned from Batman, Robin is swiftly recognized as a leader before the Titans disband some years later.
In 1969, still in the Pre-Crisis continuity, writer Dennis O'Neil and artist Neal Adams return Batman to his darker roots. One part of this effort is writing Robin out of the series by sending Dick Grayson to Hudson University and into a separate strip in the back of Detective Comics. The by-now Teen Wonder appears only sporadically in Batman stories of the 1970s as well as in a short-lived revival of The Teen Titans.
New Teen Titans, New Titans, Tales of Teen Titans (1980-1996)
In October 1980, a new roster of the Teen Titans was featured in DC Comics Presents #26 featuring Robin, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash. Given a series of their starring writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Pérez, later additions to the team would include Changeling (Beast Boy), Raven, Cyborg, and Starfire. The New Teen Titans are run by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, and editor Len Wein. With Marvel outperforming DC Comics in sales, the then-new President of DC Comics Jenette Khan brought in the aforementioned team who would choose to use the Teen Titans characters in a bid to revitalize sales. During the comic's run, the series was among DC's most popular selling books. outperforming much of the other titles featuring more popular characters. During his leadership of the Titans, however, he had a falling out with Batman, leading to an estrangement that would last for years.
Nightwing
In the pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity, the maturing Dick Grayson grows weary of his role as Batman's young sidekick. He renames himself Nightwing, recalling his adventure in the Kryptonian city of Kandor, where he and Batman meet the local hero of the same name. In post-Crisis continuity, he is fired by Batman after being shot by the Joker and becomes Nightwing. He maintains this identity during his role in the Teen Titans and occasionally returns to assist Batman and his successors as Robin in the form of Jason Todd and Tim Drake, Tim, in particular, becoming a younger brother figure to him.
When Bruce's back is broken by Bane during the Knightfall story arc, Bruce selects Jean-Paul Valley (or Azrael) as his replacement as Batman as he does not want to burden Dick with the role and fears that Dick may go after Bane in revenge. However, when Valley proves to be too unstable to be Batman, Bruce undergoes a rigorous recovery and training program with the aid of Doctor Shondra Kinsolving and Lady Shiva to restore him to full health, defeating Valley with Dick and Tim's aid. However, feeling that he needs to re-evaluate Batman and his mission after Valley's defeat, Bruce leaves Gotham once again, after appointing Dick as his successor during the "Prodigal" story arc. While acting as Batman, Dick is left with a clearer idea of the psychological stresses Bruce must endure in the role, as well as facing some of Bruce's newer enemies—such as Killer Croc, the Ventriloquist, and the Ratcatcher—while settling his long-standing issues with Two-Face.
Miniseries and afterward
In Nightwing: Alfred's Return #1 (1995), Dick Grayson travels to England to find Alfred Pennyworth who had resigned from Bruce Wayne's service following the events of the KnightSaga. Before returning to Gotham City together, they prevent an attempted coup d'état against the British government that involves destroying the Channel Tunnel under the English Channel.
Later on, with the Nightwing miniseries (September to December 1995, written by Dennis O'Neil with Greg Land as an artist), Dick briefly considers retiring from being Nightwing forever before family papers uncovered by Alfred reveals a possible link between the murder of the Flying Graysons and the Crown Prince of Kravis. Journeying to Kravis, Nightwing helps to topple the murderous Kravian leader and prevent ethnic cleansing, while learning his parents' true connection to the Prince; they witnessed the original Prince being killed and replaced with an impostor who became as bad as his predecessor (although Zucco killed the Graysons before the conspirators could do anything about it). In the aftermath, Dick returns to his role as Nightwing, recognizing that, for all his problems with Bruce, Bruce never made him become Robin or join his crusade, accepting that he imitated Bruce's example because Bruce was worthy of imitation.
In 1996, following the success of the miniseries, DC Comics launched a monthly solo series featuring Nightwing (written by Chuck Dixon, with art by Scott McDaniel), in which he patrols Gotham City's neighboring municipality of Blüdhaven, relocating there to investigate a series of murders and remaining as he recognized that the city needed protection. He remains the city's guardian for some time, facing foes such as Blockbuster and new villains such as Torque, and even becomes a police officer so that he can make an impact on the city's criminal activity in both parts of his life. Later, Grayson divides his duties between Bludhaven and Gotham after a devastating earthquake and the subsequent decision to declare Gotham a No Man's Land, Grayson occasionally assisting his mentor and other members of Bat-Family in maintaining and restoring order in Gotham until it is fully rebuilt. When the Justice League vanished into the past fighting an ancient sorceress Gamemnae, Nightwing was selected as the leader of the reserve League created by an emergency program Batman had established in the event of his League being defeated, Batman described Nightwing as the only person he could have picked to lead the new team.
Eventually, the original League is restored, and Nightwing departs along with some of his League-although others remain as some of the original team take a leave of absence-although Batman notes that his leadership of the League proves that he is ready for more responsibilities. However, the death of Blockbuster prompts Nightwing to leave Bludhaven due to his crisis of conscience; Blockbuster was killed by a vigilante Tarantula and Nightwing did not stop it even when he had the chance to do so. While Nightwing returns to Gotham to heal after assisting Batman in dealing with a series of gang wars, Blüdhaven is destroyed by the Secret Society of Super-Villains when they drop Chemo on it.
During the battle of Metropolis, Grayson suffers a near-fatal injury from Alexander Luthor, Jr. when he shields Wayne from Luthor's attack. Originally, the editors at DC intended to have Grayson killed in Infinite Crisis as Newsarama revealed from the DC Panel at WizardWorld Philadelphia:
After spending some time away with Bruce and Tim to heal and rebuild after their harsh times before the Crisis, Dick relocates to New York but has trouble finding work as both Dick Grayson and Nightwing. During the Batman R.I.P. storyline, Nightwing is ambushed by the International Club of Villains. He is later seen being held in Arkham Asylum, where one of the surgeons, in reality also the civilian identity of ICoV member Le Bossu, arranged for Nightwing to be admitted under the name of Pierrot Lunaire (another ICoV member) and be kept both heavily drugged and regularly beaten by staff to subdue him. Scheduled for an experimental lobotomy by Le Bossu himself, he manages to free himself and come to Batman's aid for the finale of the story arc.
Batman: Reborn
Following the events of Batman's apparent death during the Final Crisis, Nightwing has closed down shop in New York to return to Gotham, where after the events of "Battle for the Cowl", he assumes the identity of Batman, with Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne's biological son, as the new Robin.
The new team of Batman and Robin is the focus of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's Batman and Robin series. Their dynamic reverses the classic dynamic of Bruce and Dick, by having a lighter and friendlier Batman paired with a more intense and dark Robin. Over time, Dick's experience as the Dark Knight would harden his personality as his mentor.
During this period, Dick Grayson as Batman also features as a member of the Justice League in a short-lived run by the writer James Robinson. After an intense confrontation with the Club of Villains and the mysterious Doctor Simon Hurt (who has established fake evidence that he is Bruce's father Thomas Wayne), Hurt is defeated when Bruce returns to the present. However, Bruce leaves Dick to continue to act as Batman in Gotham with Damian as his partner while he sets up the new 'Batman Incorporated' program, Bruce publicly identifying himself as Batman's financial backer to justify a global Batman-themed operation where he funds multiple other vigilantes.
The New 52 (2011–2016)
Dick Grayson is re-established as Nightwing following DC's Flashpoint crossover event, after which the publisher relaunched all of its titles and made alterations to its continuity as part of an initiative called The New 52. In the new status quo, Bruce Wayne is once again the only Batman, and Dick, like the other members of the adoptive family, is a few years younger. Dick, despite being 19 is drawn a bit shorter than in his pre-relaunch frame. This is likely due to adding believability to his acrobat past. His origin story remains the same (Bruce Wayne takes him in upon his parents' murder by Zucco) except that Dick prodigiously talented at reading body language, allowing him to deduce Batman's secret identity upon their first meeting.
According to various interviews it is stated that Dick was adopted at 16 as opposed to as an adult due to the DCNU's timeline existing for only five years. Dick Grayson is shown in flashbacks as Robin with a revamped version of the Robin costume in Nightwing (vol. 3) #0 (November 2012) and Batman and Robin (vol. 2) Annual #2 (March 2014).
In his civilian identity, he is attacked by an assassin named Saiko who insists that he is the fiercest killer in Gotham. The series Batman Incorporated relaunches with a second volume, continuing its story while taking into account the New 52's continuity changes; Dick is now depicted as Nightwing, and not as Batman, but the change is not addressed in the comic itself. In Nightwing, Dick inherits the deed to the circus from a dying C. C. Haly and begins a relationship with his childhood friend acrobat Raya Vestri. Saiko tortures Haly for information on Nightwing's secret identity, and the old man dies in Dick's arms after telling him the circus holds a terrible secret. Investigating leads, he tracks down a supervillain named Feedback, who used to be a childhood friend but does not learn anything. Following Haly's clues, he finds a mysterious Book of Names in the circus that has his name on the last page. Later the circus announces they will be doing a memorial show on the anniversary of the night Dick's parents were murdered, and Saiko attacks by detonating a massive explosion.
It is then revealed that the circus has been training assassins for years, and Saiko was a childhood friend using Raya as an accomplice. Grayson had been selected to become a new Talon for the Court of Owls, but when Batman adopted him, Saiko took his place. The killer plummets to his death and Raya turns herself in. Returning to the Batcave, Bruce reveals to Dick that the current Talon is his great-grandfather William Cobb. During the Night of the Owls event Dick faces Cobb, who was revived while protecting Mayor Hady. Following the event, Dick decided to keep Haly's Circus in Gotham and plans to invest in turning an abandoned amusement park into their new location without Bruce's money. He works with Sonia Branch, the daughter of Tony Zucco, the crime boss who murdered Dick's parents, into getting a loan for this plan by investing his entire trust fund despite being a high-risk due to Saiko's recent attack. The problems arise because of the guilt Sonia feels towards her father's actions and many members of the circus are afraid for their lives because of the previous disasters and accuse Dick Grayson of being a flake, making it hard for those who choose to stay.
The "Death of the Family" crossover event across the Batman-related comic books led to a major shift in Nightwing's status quo. During the storyline, one of Dick's friends Jimmy Clark, who worked as a circus clown, was murdered by the Joker because Joker felt like Jimmy was a knockoff of him. Nightwing later discovers Joker broke Raya out of prison, infected her with his Joker venom, and forced her to fight him while wearing a makeshift Nightwing costume. The toxin eventually killed Raya, though Nightwing tried in vain with an anti-toxin to save her. Nightwing then discovered that Joker left a message on Raya's abdomen that he was targeting Haly's Circus next. However upon arriving there, Joker unveils his plan to burn the circus to the ground and then infects Nightwing with his gas which not only causes him to experience hallucinations of Jimmy and Raya but he is soon attacked by the other members of Haly's Circus that were also affected by the toxin allowing Joker to capture him.
In the aftermath, Haly's Circus is gone, with Dick breaking as a result of having lost his investment. While the other circus members survived since Joker used a different Joker venom on them, they blame Dick and decide to leave after Raya and Jimmy's funeral, though deep down they know it is not his fault. Dick becomes bitter about his loss. After he used excessive force to bring down some criminals that tried to plunder valuables from the remains of the circus, Damian, who has been monitoring him, can talk some sense into Nightwing, which helps him recover.
Nightwing is later deeply affected by the death of Damian following his murder at the hands of Damian's clone, the Heretic, in Batman Incorporated. With Damian's death and potential resurrection becoming an obsession of Batman's, Dick is shunned by Bruce when he tries to tell him to move on, in Batman and Nightwing (a retitled Batman & Robin #23).
Later, the Nightwing series changes its setting to Chicago, Illinois. Sonia Branch reveals to Dick an e-mail that indicates that her father Zucco is still alive. After giving the address to Red Robin to try and track down who sent it, Robin uncovers that Zucco is residing in Chicago. Nightwing moves to Chicago to find and arrest Zucco, who is now living under the assumed identity of Billy Lester, an assistant to the mayor. Soon after arriving in Chicago, Dick meets his new roommates, a photojournalist named Michael and a computer specialist named Joey. After leaving the apartment to meet with Johnny Spade, a borderline criminal who steals and sells information, their meeting is interrupted by the police. A short chase results in the accidental destruction of a newly rebuilt subway. Meanwhile, a criminal hacker called the Prankster tortures, maims, and kills criminals con men who are untouchable by the police.
The Chicago story is later abruptly ended by Nightwing's role in a larger company-wide crossover event. After the Crime Syndicate invades Earth-Prime after the "Trinity War" Justice League storyline and defeats the Justice League, the DC crossover story Forever Evil depicts Nightwing's capture by the Crime Syndicate, who exposes his secret identity to the world. Following their escape from the Syndicate, Batman and Catwoman decide to rescue him. He then is invited by Owlman to help defeat the Crime Syndicate, which he accepts. Nightwing is severely beaten by Ultraman and is attached to a device from a parallel world known as the Murder Machine, which is controlled by his heart rate and is reportedly impossible to escape from alive. When Batman and Lex Luthor arrive to free him, Lex stops his heart to fool the system so he can disarm it. However, Batman, enraged over what Lex has done, attacks him. Luthor explains it is not too late to save Grayson. In an uncharacteristically heroic moment, Luthor injects Grayson's heart with adrenaline, which successfully revives Grayson. Cyborg enters, having defeated Grid, and Grayson joins Batman, Cyborg, and Catwoman in freeing the Justice League from the Firestorm Matrix.
After the defeat of the Syndicate, Grayson is seen with Batman in the Batcave. Batman tells him that he has to send him on the most dangerous mission he could undertake, requiring that Grayson fakes his death. Upon the latter's refusal (saying he can't do that to his family), the two have an all-out brawl during which Batman tells him Spyral is in possession of multiple secret identities and could kill his friends and family. As Bruce monologues about knowing the magnitude of what he's asking, Dick reiterates his refusal to keep his survival from his family. He finally gains the upper hand, winning the fight. However, Dick's phyrric victory brings him no satisfaction as he feels compelled to take on the mission, even as he tells Bruce, "if you make me do this, things can never be the same with us again."
Grayson
The Nightwing title concluded in April 2014 at issue #30, and was replaced with a new title, Grayson, which depicts Dick having given up his life as Nightwing at age 22 and going undercover as an agent of the Spyral organization where the former Batwoman Kathy Kane works. Written by Tim Seeley and former CIA counter-terrorism officer Tom King, the career change for Dick Grayson comes from the urging of Batman himself, who convinces him to remain dead to the world. Seeley stated that the series will be "leaning into" Grayson's sex symbol status. The character's look also is redesigned with no mask, but a blue-and-black outfit calling back to his pre-New 52 Nightwing counterpart with an addition of a "G" on his chest, said to be reminiscent of the Robin "R".
In the "Agent of Spyral" storyline, Dick (known as Agent 37) is enlisted by Mister Minos, the director of Spyral, after having been chosen by Helena Bertinelli to serve as a new candidate. However, Dick serves as a mole under Batman due to their agenda of unmasking heroes by collecting the Paragon organs, organs which contain the DNA of the Justice League and bestows meta-bioweapons the ability to use their powers. He assists Spyral's agenda to know more about Minos and his endgame, resulting in Spyral attaining most of the scattered organs. In a later story arc, Minos betrays Spyral and attempts to leak its secrets. To his surprise, he finds the new Agent Zero, who reveals that she, along with the upper echelon of Spyral, had used Minos to attract Dick into Spyral and kills Minos as he has outlived his life full of humor.
During Batman and Robin Eternal, Grayson finds himself working with various other members of the Bat-Family when Bruce Wayne is amnesiac after his resurrection against the ruthless villain known only as "Mother", who, it is revealed, briefly met with Batman early in Grayson's career as Robin, believing that he shared her views on using trauma to make people stronger. Mother intends to trigger a global collapse with the reasoning that the survivors will rebuild a stronger world after being broken by tragedy and without the hindrance of parents to force their ideals on them, but Grayson and the rest of the Family can defeat her, Dick affirming that Batman helps the Robins become their people who can avoid the mistakes he made in dealing with his trauma rather than Mother's belief that she and Batman each teach people to use their trauma to define themselves. After the storyline, Dick meets with the restored Batman, assuring Bruce that, unlike Mother, he never forced his ideas on them, but simply gave them all an example that they chose to emulate while avoiding following it so exactly that they became like him.
When the Court of Owls plant a bomb inside Damian Wayne, they can blackmail Dick into officially joining their organization, although all sides are aware that Grayson intends to try and use his new position against them. The Grayson series ended in issue #20, wherein the final issue, it was revealed that all knowledge of Dick's identity was erased from most of the world with one of Spyral's satellites, allowing Dick to resume his superhero activities as Nightwing once again.
DC Rebirth
Starting with the DC Rebirth relaunch in 2016, Dick returned to being Nightwing with his black and blue costume, his Spyral contacts having wiped all global evidence of his dual identity and the bomb removed from Damian. He uses his new skills and expertise in espionage moving forward. Nightwing is prominently featured in two Rebirth books: the fourth volume of Nightwing, his solo book, and Titans, where Dick teams up with the other original Teen Titans after Wally West returns to the universe; through Wally, Dick remembers events of his life before Flashpoint and The New 52. After the Titans are forcibly disbanded by the Justice League, Dick creates a new Titans team after the rupture of the Source Wall consisting of Donna Troy, Raven, Steel (Natasha Irons), Beast Boy, and Miss Martian.
In his solo book, Dick is paired with a vigilante named Raptor and the two plan to bring down the Court of Owls from the inside. Barbara criticizes Dick's willingness to trust him and does not agree with his methods. Though Raptor seemed willing to play by Dick's rules of not killing, he tricks Dick into agreeing to a plan that results in the deaths of all of the Parliament of Owls in Sydney. After knocking Dick out, Raptor goes to Gotham and kidnaps Bruce during a conference. Nightwing confronts him alone in the ruins of a circus in Paris. Raptor reveals that he grew up in the circus as a child and fell in love with Dick's mother, Mary, as they stole from the rich and powerful in Paris. Raptor watched over Dick in the shadows as he grew up, and developed a hatred for Bruce Wayne as he represented everything he and Mary were against and felt it was dishonoring her memory to have Dick raised by him. Dick defeats Raptor and rescues Bruce in time.
After joining forces with the pre-Flashpoint Superman to defeat the latest attack of Doctor Destiny, Dick contemplates checking out Bludhaven, based on Superman's reference to how the pre-Flashpoint Grayson acted as the city's guardian for a time, and ultimately decides to go there. While there he meets a supervillain rehabilitation group called the Run-Offs, all of which were villains he and Batman defeated in the past. He finds that most of them are being framed for crimes around the area and works with them to find the true culprits. After solving the case and clearing their names, Dick begins dating their leader Shawn Tsang, known as the former criminal the Defacer. Shawn is kidnapped by Professor Pyg after Dick discovers she might be pregnant with his child, and he teams up with Damian to track Pyg down and rescue her. After Shawn is revealed not to be pregnant, she ultimately breaks up with Dick, who focuses his efforts on taking down criminals such as Blockbuster, the returning Raptor, the Judge, and Wyrm.
During one of his nightly patrols with Batman, Nightwing is shot by KGBeast and nearly killed. As a result, he suffered from severe memory loss and attempted to build a new life in Bludhaven. He changed his name to Ric, gave up being Nightwing, and became a taxi driver that frequently went to bars. With Bludhaven suffering from an increase in crime from the vigilante's absence, a detective named Sapienza comes across Dick's abandoned hideout in the subway and decides to become the new Nightwing. Sapienza recruits a team of his friends in law enforcement to help him, and together they make a team of Nightwings using Dick Grayson's old uniforms. In addition to Sapienza, the team consists of Malcolm Hutch, the deputy chief in the Bludhaven fire department, Zak Edwards, the vice of the 10th precinct, and Colleen Edwards, detective of the 14th precinct.
During Year of the Villain, Ric is captured by William Cobb, his grandfather who is a Talon. A brain surgeon that Bruce hired to take care of Dick after he was shot named Dr. Haas was secretly a member of the Court, who was using a mystical memory crystal to alter Dick's memories and eventually shape him into becoming a Talon himself. William Cobb forces Ric to wear goggles and puts Dick under his spell. As a Talon, Grayson fights off other Nightwing heroes. A Nightwing hero name Connor Red shoots at Grayson's mask, making his eye visible. Connor Red pleads for mercy saying he has a family, and as the sun comes up Dick Grayson suddenly breaks out of his grandfather's control. Dick Grayson starts to remember his adventures as Nightwing. Ric defeats Talon, and saves his girlfriend Bea. Afterwards, he journeys to Switzerland to learn more answers about his past from Dr. Haas, who attempts to use the crystal to alter his memories once more. However, an explosion seemingly sends her down a river to her death while Ric can retrieve the memory crystal she used on him. During the "Joker War" storyline, the Joker steals the memory crystal and uses it to brainwash Grayson into believing he is the Joker's adopted son, "Dicky Boy" and turns him against the Bat Family in his latest war against Batman. After Barbara gets the crystal back, Bea uses it to allow him to fully regain his memories as Dick Grayson.
Returning to his role as Bludhaven's protector, Grayson is informed by Barbara Gordon that he has been bequeathed a fortune by Alfred Pennyworth, accumulated during his years of service to the Wayne family. He decides to use this newfound wealth to establish a philanthropic foundation to revitalize Bludhaven, while continuing to fight corruption and crime as Nightwing. In both efforts, he is opposed by Blockbuster as well as a new villain, Heartless, who steals peoples' hearts to sustain his own life. He is supported by Barbara, who reclaims her mantle as Batgirl; Tim Drake, once again operating as Robin; the Titans; Jon Kent, who is publicly operating as Superman in his father's absence; and two unexpected new allies: the new mayor of Bludhaven, who is his previously unknown half-sister,<ref>Nightwing (vol.4) #81-82</ref> and a three-legged pit bull puppy whom Grayson adopts, naming her "Haley" (although Drake immediately dubs her "Bitewing").
Supporting characters
Enemies
Like Batman, Nightwing has faced various villains ranging from common criminals to outlandish supervillains. While the character has primarily fought other Batman villains, he also has established villains that primarily oppose him. In addition, certain Batman villains have specific enmity with Dick Grayson.
Dixon rogues
Higgins rogues
Seeley/King Grayson rogues
Other rogues
Abilities
Skills and training
Similarly to Batman, Dick Grayson possess no inherent super-powers and instead relies on his natural skills, abilities, and advanced technology. These combination of skills make Dick Grayson one of the most brilliant crime fighters on Earth in the DC Universe; A natural prodigious athlete, Dick Grayson is considered both an expert aerialist and the greatest acrobat in the DC Universe from his training at a young age as an aerialist and later from Batman's rigorous training as sidekick and protégé as Robin. While Batman was his primary trainer, he also received some combat training from Wildcat, Richard Dragon, and espionage training from Matron.
Overtime, Dick Grayson became a master of at least a half dozen martial arts styles with an emphasis on Savate while also favoring Arnis (Escrima) and is considered second to Batman in terms of fighting abilities. While his mastery of specific martial arts has not been specified (sans Savate & Arnis), stories over the character's history has expressed specific martial art disciplines he has exhibited including: Judo, Aikido, Capoeira, Kung Fu, Jeet Kune Do, Boxing, Hapkido, Jujutsu, Ninjutsu, Sambo, Taekwondo, and Karate. While fighting, comments from Black Mask and the first Shrike reveals that Dick Grayson combines each of his fighting styles during fights to get the better of opponents. His fighting ability and potential is enough to have garnered praise from other fellow martial artist and fighters such as Lady Shiva, Deathstroke and Ra's al Ghul, the latter whom bestowed the "Detective" title to in response to his defeat in a sword duel by Grayson. As a martial artist teacher, Dick Grayson proved capable enough to teach Tim Drake, Rose Wilson/Ravager, Thunder, and Nightrunner.
As a former apprentice to Batman, Dick Grayson is highly intelligent and is considered a world-class detective, possessing knowledge on forensic science and criminology while holding an advanced degree for the former. His detective abilities makes him among the best detectives in the DC Universe, considered among the few people (alongside Red Robin, The Question, and Elongated Man) to be second to Batman in deductive skills. Chief among his skills includes being able to analyze and read people, utilizing this skill in tandem to his leadership abilities and in combat by analyzing body language to anticipate a person's next move similarly to Cassandra Cain (mentally noting discrepancies such as blink rates, underdeveloped skills, and signs of nervousness). Dick Grayson is also considered superlative leader, tactician, and strategist, having served as a leader within Gotham, the Teen Titans, Titans, the Outsiders, and the Justice League; his leadership abilities surpasses his mentor and is described as "the most trusted hero after Superman".
One storyline suggested that if he were killed at an earlier point in time, the Justice League would fail to stop Trigon due to losing a suitable replacement for Bruce Wayne when he was inevitably killed by Darkseid in the Final Crisis event, deprived of their best tacticians. Among Grayson's other reptoire of skills includes disguise, advanced training in espionage, computer hacking, and escape artistry.
Equipment
Dick's parents left him a trust fund which Lucius Fox turned into a small fortune. Although it is not comparable to Bruce Wayne's wealth, it has been enough to maintain his Nightwing equipment, purchase the rights to Haly's Circus (saving Dick's former home from financial troubles), and secretly buy his former Blüdhaven apartment building at 1013 Parkthorne Avenue. As Nightwing, Grayson is typically is armed with twin Eskrima sticks made from an unbreakable polymer. He also carries several dozen modified batarangs (called wing-dings) along with de-cel jump lines and gas capsules.
Costumes
Dick Grayson's Robin costume alluded to the American robin and Robin Hood. The cape was alternately depicted as yellow or green. The costume also featured crakow-style shoes, which some artists would discard from the portrayal.
Dick Grayson's Nightwing costume was made of a version of the Nomex fire-resistant, triple-weave Kevlar-lined material. It was excellent protection against damage and was also insulated against electricity. Specifically tailored to his style of fighting, Nightwing's costume had fewer body-armor inlays than Batman's, anticipating a decreased need for shock absorption and an increased capacity for motion. Against opponents, both fast and strong, Nightwing had supplemental body-armor overlays that he could attach to his gauntlets, boots, shoulders, and mask. Instead of a black cape to keep him hidden, which Grayson dislikes wearing,Batman and Robin #2 the suit was light-sensitive, darkening when there was more light in the area. The mask, in the form of his symbol, was fixed in place with spirit gum, and included a built-in radio transmitter/receiver and Starlite night vision lenses. The third costume, with its stylized blue "wing" across his shoulders and extending to his hands, coloring his two middle fingers over a black bodysuit, made its first appearance in Nightwing: Ties That Bind #2 (October 1995), and was designed by the cover artist Brian Stelfreeze. His suit was also equipped with wings that allow him to glide.
As Batman, his Batsuit featured a lighter cape to accommodate his more acrobatic fighting style and a utility belt with a bat-shaped buckle. He also developed "para-capes" for his and Damian's costumes which gave them the ability to glide. Grayson is noticeably shorter than Bruce Wayne.
Post-Flashpoint with his return to Nightwing, Dick wore a similar suit, albeit with the blue "wing" being red throughout the New 52. Previously in the New 52's continuity as Nightwing, he formerly owned an armored suit which was blue and yellow, resembling a modern take on his previous first costume in the previous continuity, and another that was an armored suit that sported a red bat symbol, which is currently being used by Jason Todd though slightly modified for Jason's taste. Formerly before having to leave the Nightwing mantle post Forever Evil, his suit was made up of sturdy but flexible material that not only suited his strength in speed and acrobatics but also was durable enough to take bullets from machine guns. His former costume was a stylized red "wing" across his shoulders and extending to his hands, coloring his two middle fingers over a black torso and legs. He also has gauntlets much like Batman's own suit. Nightwing's costume is tailored specifically to his unique style of crime-fighting. He also has variants of his costume in which one of his stylized red "wings" reach only to his shoulders, another to his wrists, and one which has hip and finger stripes.
Some versions of Dick's story as Nightwing do not make clear whether the public at large knows that the first Robin is now Nightwing, or whether he is simply an entirely new hero. A metafictional foreword (said to have been made by a future historian) to a trade paperback for "A Death In The Family" claimed that the public at large always thought there was just one Robin. Inversions that do address it, Dick and Bruce seem to want to spread the belief that Nightwing started his career as an adult, the better to hide their true identities. The series Grayson seems to indicate that the public does not know, as Midnighter did not think to study Robin's techniques in preparation for his fight with Grayson, an advantage the latter exploited.
During his time as Agent 37 for Spyral, Dick uses identity-protection implants that ensure that neither cameras nor the memory of e.g. target persons can capture his face. He also was incorporated with a pair of hypnotic contact lenses which Dick used to mind control someone if they looked directly into his eye. Additionally, he still carries a pair of Escrima Sticks. He was required to carry a gun as part of Spyral protocol.
Starting with Rebirth, Dick returns to being Nightwing, once again in black and blue. The "wing" is replaced by a thinner, V-shaped bird that starts at the chest and goes up to the shoulders and around to the back. His domino mask is now blue instead of black. The shins and calves of his legs feature a big "swish" of blue. He wears a black leather strap and buckles on each of his forearms. This redesign intends to harken back to the iconic black-and-blue look of the third Nightwing costume introduced in 1995, maintain the simplicity of the aforementioned iconic look, creating a more visible-bird symbol, while also highlighting Dick's face with a lighter-colored mask and legs which can allow for more dynamic art when he is in motion.
Other versions
Amalgam Comics
In the Amalgam Universe, Dick was combined with the Marvel character Moon Knight and became Moonwing. He was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who selected Jason Todd as his successor when he temporarily left S.H.I.E.L.D. to attend college. As Moonwing, Jason made a careless mistake, which resulted in a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's death, causing him to be dismissed from S.H.I.E.L.D. Jason became furious and blamed his mentors. He was then caught in an explosion when the villain Hyena detonated a bomb intended to kill Director Bruce Wayne and the Dark Claw. Despite his body never being recovered, S.H.I.E.L.D. presumed he was dead, but he survived and his body was recovered by HYDRA, who replaced his damaged body parts with robotic parts, transforming him into Deathlok. He then participated in a coup to help Madame Cat overthrow the Supreme Leader of Hydra, Lex Luthor a.k.a. the Green Skull. Afterward, he swore allegiance to her. Later, when S.H.I.E.L.D. agents launched an attack on HYDRA's base, Deathlok was sent to confront them, where he spotted his former mentor, Moonwing, and attacked him from behind. He then revealed that he has been waiting a long time to kill both Dick and Bruce. He then unmasked Moonwing and accused him and Bruce of abandoning him. He then began strangling Dick, but before he could kill him Colonel Nick Fury and Sergeant Joe Rock commandeered an aircraft and shot Deathlok several times in the back. Despite feeling sorry for Jason, Dick left Jason to die again so he could continue the attack on the HYDRA base.
Kingdom Come (Post-Infinite Crisis Earth 22)
In the Elseworlds mini-series Kingdom Come, a middle-aged Dick Grayson reclaims the Robin mantle as Red Robin and takes over his mentor's position on the Justice League. He also has a daughter, Nightstar (Mari Grayson), whom he fathered with Starfire. Nightstar aligns herself with Batman's Outsiders and is romantically involved with his and Talia al Ghul's son, Ibn al Xu'ffasch. After Ibn and Mari marry, they have a daughter and son, and thus Dick and Bruce Wayne become in-laws and grandfathers of their respective progenies' children. Dick and Bruce reconcile at the end of the story.
JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail
In the Elseworlds mini-series JLA: The Nail, Dick Grayson (as Robin), along with Barbara Gordon (as Batgirl), is tortured to death by the Joker with his Kryptonian gauntlets, driving Batman temporarily insane after he witnesses their ordeals and demise. The grief-stricken hero then kills the Joker for revenge. Later, in the sequel JLA: Another Nail, Dick returns as a spirit after the Joker escapes from Hell. He helps Batman defeat the villain once and for all, and seeing Dick is at peace after his death gives Batman the strength to move on.
Batman Beyond
The 2010 comic book limited series Batman Beyond features Terry McGinnis facing a new incarnation of Hush. After ruling out Tim Drake as a suspect, Terry questions Dick Grayson who now runs an athletics training course after retiring as Nightwing due to sustaining severe gunshot wounds (including the loss of an eye) in a battle between the Joker and Batman. Though Dick gives an alibi, Hush later incapacitates Terry and removes his bandages to reveal the face of a youthful version of Dick with both eyes intact. It is later revealed that Hush is a clone of Grayson, created by Project Cadmus under the guidance of Amanda Waller to ensure that the world will always have a Batman. Hush later dies during a final confrontation with Terry, the real Dick Grayson, and a new Catwoman after they thwart the villain's plan to destroy Gotham. He is told over the comlink with Bruce that he is still his heir but Dick rips off the connection still too hurt to talk to Bruce.
Dick later serves as a supporting character for the ongoing series. When a GCPD detective discovers Dick's past as Nightwing due to Hush's recent actions, Terry and Maxine "Max" Gibson attempt to convince the public otherwise by having Terry masquerade as his former identity while Max plants numerous false alibis for Dick throughout the internet. In the end, Dick partially admits the truth to Gotham without jeopardizing his allies' secrets, claiming he was a paid agent of Batman Inc., as the new Batman. The detective who threatened to expose Dick still plans to sue Dick but is "persuaded" not to by Terry.
It is revealed that, after the events in the Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker flashbacks and after what happened to Tim, Barbara gave up her Batgirl identity and broke off her relationship with Bruce, which Dick never knew about. Barbara resumed her relationship with Dick but was hesitant to confess to him that she had dated Bruce. Dick planned to propose to Barbara. Bruce himself ultimately confessed to their relationship after finding out that he had gotten Barbara pregnant; furthermore, he wanted to be involved in the life of their child. Barbara, however, unable to leave behind her vigilante life, fought a mugger and ultimately miscarried her child. These events, as well as her sense that she destroyed the bond between Dick and Bruce, caused Barbara's relationship with Dick to disintegrate and eventually led her to marry Sam Young. Losing Barbara caused Dick to become estranged from Bruce for his role. Later on, when Terry learns about Bruce's impact on the former couple, he then sides with Grayson. In the parallel universe where the Justice Lords resides, Dick's counterpart is happily married to Barbara and they had a son named after his father, John Grayson, together. Bruce's Justice Lord counterpart was happily married to Wonder Woman as well until her Justice Lord counterpart killed him. The events in the Justice Lords' world cause Dick envying of the life his counterpart leads with his wife. Terry also becomes friends with Dick's counterpart, helping him train his own into the new Batman in Justice Lords' world.
In the 2013 Digital Comic Batman Beyond 2.0, it is revealed that Terry has now left Bruce's employment since leaving high school and is now working for Grayson as Batman with Dick taking on the role of support for Terry. While Terry finds working with Dick easier than Bruce, Dick reminds Terry of his commitment to his family and his education. During the "Mark of the Phantasm" storyline, it is revealed that Terry left Bruce after finding out he hid the truth about Jake Chill a.k.a. Vigilante's role in his father's death, which led to Terry working with Dick.
In the rebooted Batman Beyond timeline that takes place after The New 52: Futures End, Dick is now the mayor of Blüdhaven and has both eyes intact. He also has a daughter named Elaina, who became the new Batwoman in the "First Flight" storyline.
Flashpoint
In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Dick Grayson and his parents are part of the Haley Circus acrobats, featured in a show alongside Boston Brand. In a vision that Doctor Fate gives Boston Brand, Boston is standing over Dick's body. Before the next show, Boston tries to convince Dick to perform solo. However, Dick tells him that family means too much to him. Dick poses the question that Boston's seeming fearlessness could stem from his insecurity of being alone. During the attack on Haley Circus by the Amazons, Dick's mother falls to the ground in the ensuing madness. When Dick, along with the circus, is running away from the Amazons, they are rescued by the Resistance member Vertigo. While they are hiding, Dick's father is fatally wounded by the Amazons. Boston tells him to leave his father but Dick refuses. Later, Dick's dying father makes Boston promise to protect his son. Afterwards, Dick and Boston run in the countryside looking for reinforcements, when they are soon caught in an explosion. Dick survived, but his friend Boston is killed. When he walks toward his friend's body, he is unaware of the fact that he walks through the ghost of Boston. Dick manages to kill the Amazons (including Starfire, who had joined with them) in a gasoline explosion. Meeting up with the Resistance, Dick becomes the new Doctor Fate. He is aided by the ghostly Boston, who lets him know that he is not alone.
Earth 2 (New 52)
On Earth 2, Dick Grayson is a journalist who is forced to live in a survival camp with his son John and his wife Barbara Gordon due to an invasion of Parademons. After the fatal shooting of his wife, the disappearance of his son, and the death of the second Batman, Dick becomes the third Batman of Earth 2 where he attempts to diminish crime following the end of Convergence. He is later reunited with John, who in turn becomes the new Robin of Earth 2. Later, Dick becomes a wheelchair user and adopts a new alias as Oracle while Helena Wayne becomes the fourth Batman with John fighting by her side as her Robin.
Injustice: Gods Among Us
In the alternate world of Injustice: Gods Among Us, Dick remains firmly aligned with Batman's views of law and order even as Superman begins a more forceful approach to ending crime. When he announces his plan to take away the inhabitants of Arkham Asylum, Dick joins Batman in going to stop him. Batman's biological son Damian, however, believes in Superman's cause and sides with him. During a skirmish at the asylum Damian inadvertently kills Dick by throwing his kali stick at him, causing Dick to fall over and break his neck when he lands on a rock positioned in just the wrong location. After this action, Batman and Damian's relationship as father and son ends, Bruce later proclaims that Dick was his son and Damian lost the right to that title after Dick's death.
In the Year Two annual, Clayface takes the form of Dick to infiltrate Barbara Gordon's base for Superman but is eventually discovered and stopped by Jim Gordon, Barbara, and the Birds of Prey.
In the Year Three series, Dick's spirit is called upon by the dying Deadman to replace him, allowing Dick to return to action as he investigates who the Spectre is after finding Jim Corrigan, under the influence of Joker Venom, in Arkham Asylum. Near the end of the series, he has a talk with Bruce about how he has no regrets about his life despite the way it ended, declaring love for his adopted father. It is revealed in the annual that before his death he left the Titans to join the Justice League. After the explosion kills Beast Boy and Kid Flash he warns the Titans to stay out of anything to do with Superman. He also had romantic feelings for Starfire at one point, as she urges him to rejoin the Titans, but Dick insists that Batman needs him by his side.
In chapter 14 of Year Five, he returns to watch over Damian, who has been going through an identity crisis. As the youth goes on to fight several criminals at once Dick notes that while Damian has great skills he is reckless and arrogant and is forced to intervene when Damian is overwhelmed. He leaves his old outfit with Damian and bemoans that Damian chose to leave Batman, as it has allowed him to fall for the dark influence Superman has.
Superman/Batman: Generations
Dick Grayson is first seen going off to college in a scene set in 1949, after working with Batman for almost ten years, going on to become a lawyer in New York. At some point between 1959 and 1969, Dick takes on the mantle of Batman with Bruce Wayne Jr. as Robin after Bruce is forced to retire due to old age. Dick is killed by the Joker's latest scheme in 1969, with Bruce Jr. taking Dick's costume so the legacy of Batman can live on, claiming that the Joker 'merely' killed Robin. In Superman/Batman: Generations 2, Dick's ghost begins haunting the Joker in 1975. With the help of Deadman, Doctor Occult, and the ghost of Alfred Pennyworth, Dick and Alfred go into the light, Alfred convincing Dick that tormenting the Joker can serve no purpose but to risk Dick's soul, now that the Joker is so close to dying of natural causes.
Smallville: Season 11
In the comic book continuation of the television series Smallville, Dick is Barbara Gordon's boyfriend, who becomes her successor as Nightwing and Batman's replacement partner after she becomes a Blue Lantern. Unlike previous depictions, Dick was never Bruce Wayne's ward and protégé as Robin and has referred that he was a former circus acrobat-turned-police officer before becoming Batman's new partner, in the ranks of detectives within the Gotham City Police Department.
Nightwing: The New Order
In this alternate reality, Nightwing ends an ongoing feud between superpowered beings by activating a device that depowers ninety percent of the super-powered population. This builds to a future where superpowers are outlawed and any super-powered being must take inhibitor medications or be contained and studied should the medications not work on them. Grayson's identity is exposed but is honored as a hero by the public for eliminating superpowers to ensure the safety of the planet. He becomes the leader of a government task force known as The Crusaders and hunts down super-powered individuals. In his off time, he raises his and Starfire's son, Jake, who soon develops his mother's powers and puts Dick at odds with the system he helped create. After allying with the Titans to help Jake escape, Dick tries to leave with his son, but Jake convinces him to aid the Titans and Superman in restoring the world's superpowers. Dick spent his remaining days watching his son grow into a responsible adult and teaching super-powered children how to control their abilities. As an adult, Jake eventually has a son of his own named Richard in honor of his father.
The Gift
In an alternate timeline where Booster Gold prevents the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Gotham has become a war zone of criminals and the Joker has become a sort of terrorist with no one to stop him. Dick Grayson is the one and only Batman who uses lethal force.
The Dark Knight Strikes Again
In the timeline Dick Grayson was fired by Batman for "Cowardice and Incompetence", years of physical and emotional abuse by Batman drove him mad, teaming up with Lex Luthor and Brainiac he undergoes radical gene therapy, he develops shape-shifting and rapid healing powers, he takes the form of Joker to mock the other superheroes, in the showdown he tries to rape and murder Carrie Kelley when Batman activates the self destruct for the Batcave, Grayson tries to use the cancel password, Batman tells him he changed the password the night he fired him, Batman tells Grayson the Batcave is above a lava pit, and Grayson falls to his death.
DC vs Vampires
An elseworld in which multiple prominent heroes including Wonder Woman and Superman are turned into vampires. The secret vampire king is finally revealed to be Dick Grayson in issue #6 where he reveals his identity and kills Batman, Red Robin, and Red Hood.
Harley Quinn: The Animated Series
Although he did not appear in the main show until Season 3, Dick Grayson appears as Nightwing in The Eat Bang Kill Tour, which is set after the events of Season 2. He is shown to still be based in Bludhaven, where he runs into Harley and Ivy, who are on the run from Commissioner Gordon during their cross-country road trip.
Dick later appears in Legion of Bats!'', taking place after Season 3, where he works with the Bat Family (sans Batman) alongside a morally-confused Harley to fight against the rise of Black Mask.
In other media
Dick Grayson appears in multiple television (live-action and animated) series, films, video games, and radio-related to DC superheroes.
Collected editions
See also
List of Batman supporting characters
List of DC Comics characters
Robin (character)
Nightwing
Red X
References
External links
Titans Tower: Nightwing
Nightwing at DC Comics' official website
Nightwing at BatmanYTB
Index of Dick Grayson (Earth-1) appearances at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
Index of Dick Grayson (Earth-2) appearances at Mike's Amazing World of Comics
Dick Grayson on IMDb
Category:Alternative versions of Batman
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Category:Vigilante characters in comics | [] | [
"He played the role of the leader in Teen Titans.",
"The context does not provide information on whether he has super powers or not.",
"The context does not provide information on how many years the show lasted.",
"The context does not provide information on who the creator of Teen Titans was."
] | [
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes"
] |
C_999f9d9ff37c4fa4a5d16a2a9777cd01_1 | Bernie Leadon | Bernard Mathew Leadon III (pronounced led-un; born July 19, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of three pioneering and highly influential country rock bands: Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, dobro) coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles. | Early life and musical beginnings | Leadon was born in Minneapolis, one of ten siblings, to Dr. Bernard Leadon Jr. and Ann Teresa (nee Sweetser) Leadon, devout Roman Catholics. His father was an aerospace engineer and nuclear physicist whose career moved the family around the U.S. The family enjoyed music and, at an early age, Bernie developed an interest in folk and bluegrass music. He eventually mastered the 5-string banjo, mandolin and acoustic guitar. As a young teen he moved with his family to San Diego, where he met fellow musicians Ed Douglas and Larry Murray of the local bluegrass outfit, the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. The Barkers proved a breeding ground for future California country rock talent, including shy, 18-year-old mandolin player Chris Hillman, with whom Leadon maintained a lifelong friendship. Augmented by banjo player (and future Flying Burrito Brother) Kenny Wertz, the Squirrel Barkers eventually asked Leadon to join the group, upon Wertz's joining the Air Force in 1963. His stint in the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers did not last long. In late 1963, his family once again relocated to Gainesville, Florida, when his father accepted a position as Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Florida. Leadon attended Gainesville High School, where he met classmate and future Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder, whose band, the Continentals, had just lost guitarist Stephen Stills. Upon Leadon's joining the group, rechristened Maundy Quintet, they gigged locally, even sharing the bill with future Gainesville legend Tom Petty and his early band the Epics (a band that also included Bernie's brother, musician Tom Leadon). A call from ex-Squirrel Barker Larry Murray in 1967, to join his fledgling psychedelic country-folk group, Hearts & Flowers, was enticing enough for Leadon to return to California, where he soon became involved with the burgeoning L.A. folk/country rock scene. Leadon recorded one album with the band, their second release Of Horses, Kids, and Forgotten Women for Capitol Records. The record was a local hit but failed to make much of a dent on the national album charts. Discouraged, the group disbanded the following year. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Bernard Matthew Leadon III (pronounced led-un; born July 19, 1947) is an American singer, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of three country rock bands: Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, dobro) coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles.
Leadon's music career since leaving the Eagles has been low-key, resulting in two solo albums (the first actually being a collaborative project with Michael Georgiades) with a gap of 27 years in between. Leadon has also appeared on many other artists' records as a session musician.
Early life and musical beginnings
In San Diego, California, Leadon met fellow musicians Ed Douglas and Larry Murray of the local bluegrass outfit the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. The Barkers proved a breeding ground for future California country rock talent, including shy, 18-year-old mandolin player Chris Hillman, with whom Leadon maintained a lifelong friendship. Augmented by banjo player (and future Flying Burrito Brother) Kenny Wertz, the Squirrel Barkers eventually asked Leadon to join the group, upon Wertz's joining the Air Force in 1963.
He later met future Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder, whose band, the Continentals, had just lost guitarist Stephen Stills.
A call from ex-Squirrel Barker Larry Murray in 1967 to join his fledgling psychedelic country-folk group Hearts & Flowers brought Leadon to California, where he became involved with the burgeoning L.A. folk/country rock scene. Leadon recorded one album with the band, its second release, Of Horses, Kids, and Forgotten Women, for Capitol Records. The record was a local hit but failed to make much of a dent on the national album charts. Discouraged, the group disbanded the following year.
Dillard & Clark
By late 1968, Leadon had befriended bluegrass/banjo legend Doug Dillard, late of the Dillards. While staying with Dillard, informal jam sessions with songwriter and ex-Byrds member Gene Clark began to take shape, and morphed into what eventually became the country-rock band Dillard & Clark. In 1968, the group recorded The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark, featuring Leadon's backing vocals and multi-instrumental work. The album included several compositions co-written with Clark, most notably the future Eagles staple (and somewhat of a signature song for Leadon) from their debut album, "Train Leaves Here This Morning".
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Leadon left Dillard & Clark in 1969, eventually reconnecting with ex-Squirrel Barker (and ex-Byrd) Chris Hillman, who asked him to join the Flying Burrito Brothers, a fledgling country-rock band that Hillman had formed a year earlier with fellow ex-Byrd Gram Parsons. Leadon recorded two albums with the group: Burrito Deluxe and the post-Parsons LP The Flying Burrito Bros. After the latter album's release in 1971, Leadon had tired of the band's lack of commercial success and decided to leave the band to pursue an opportunity to play with three musicians he had worked with while moonlighting in Linda Ronstadt's backing band that summer. The resultant project, the Eagles, found the success he had craved.
Eagles
Leadon was the last original member to join the Eagles, a band initially formed by guitarist/singer Glenn Frey, drummer/singer Don Henley, and former Poco bassist/singer Randy Meisner. Leadon is often credited with helping shape the band's early country-rock sound, bringing his strong sense of harmony as well as his country, bluegrass and acoustic sensibilities to the group. Instruments he played during his tenure in the band were electric guitar, B-Bender, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and pedal steel guitar.
Upon the release of their debut album, Eagles, the group met with near instantaneous success, due largely to the strength of their hit singles "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", and "Witchy Woman" (co-written by Leadon and Henley), all of which highlighted Leadon's multi-instrumental talent on electric guitar, B-Bender, banjo, and harmony vocals. Their follow-up, Desperado, was another strong country-rock venture highlighted by the classics "Tequila Sunrise" and the title track. Leadon had a prominent role on the album, but it was met by surprisingly lukewarm reviews and lackluster sales. As a result, the band attempted to distance itself from the "country rock" label for their third album On the Border. In doing so, Leadon encouraged the group to recruit his old friend, guitarist Don Felder, to the band. The result was the guitar-heavy top 40 hit "Already Gone". The album also included "My Man", Leadon's touching tribute to his old bandmate and friend Gram Parsons, who had died of a drug overdose the year prior at Joshua Tree National Monument in southeastern California.
With the wild success of On the Border and its follow-up smash, One of These Nights, tension within the band grew, with some sources saying Leadon grew increasingly frustrated by the band's direction away from his beloved country and bluegrass and toward album-oriented stadium rock. He famously quit the band in 1975 by pouring a beer over Glenn Frey's head. He later cited a need to get healthy and break the vicious cycle of touring, recording, and heavy drug use that was rampant within the band.
Upon Leadon's departure, Asylum Records released Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), which highlighted the band's Leadon years and went on to become the best-selling album in United States history, with sales in excess of 38 million units. He was replaced by former James Gang guitarist and singer Joe Walsh.
Although it has long been believed that he left because he was dissatisfied with the band moving into rock and roll, Leadon denies it and said in 2013, "That's an oversimplification; it implies that I had no interest in rock or blues or anything but country rock. That's just not the case. I didn't just play Fender Telecaster. I played a Gibson Les Paul and I enjoyed rock & roll. That's evident from the early albums."
Later career
Upon leaving the Eagles, Leadon retreated from the limelight, only to resurface in 1977 with musician friend Michael Georgiades for the album, Natural Progressions (credited to The Bernie Leadon-Michael Georgiades Band), featuring Leadon and Georgiades on guitars and alternating lead vocals, along with Bryan Garofalo on bass, Dave Kemper on drums, and Steve Goldstein on keyboard.
In 1985, he recorded an album of bluegrass and gospel favorites under the name Ever Call Ready, featuring Chris Hillman and Al Perkins. He also had a short stint with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the late 1980s.
In 1993, he became a member of Run C&W, a novelty group singing Motown hits "bluegrass style", recording two albums for MCA Records.
In 1998, Leadon reunited with the Eagles in New York City for the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All seven current and former Eagles members performed together on "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California".
In 2004, he released his second solo effort in 27 years (and his first under solely his name), Mirror.
Leadon toured with The Eagles from 2013 through 2015 during their History of the Eagles Tour In 2015, Leadon appeared on producer Ethan Johns' third solo album, Silver Liner.
In February 2016, Leadon appeared at the Grammy Awards ceremony with Jackson Browne and the current surviving Eagles members - Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit - performing "Take it Easy", in tribute to Glenn Frey who had died a month earlier.
Personal life
His brother was musician Tom Leadon, who played in the band Mudcrutch, which began the career of Tom Petty.
For a few years in the mid-1970s, Leadon lived in Topanga Canyon, a bohemian enclave known for its musician residents. Leadon's house-plus-recording-studio had previously been owned by singer-songwriter Neil Young, and was the site of frequent parties. Leadon lived with Patti Davis, the free-spirited daughter of conservative California Governor Ronald Reagan, who was at that time campaigning for president, and distancing himself from his daughter because Leadon and she were unmarried but living together. Leadon and Davis co-wrote the song "I Wish You Peace", which Leadon insisted the Eagles include on the album One of These Nights, against the wishes of his bandmates.
He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is a session musician and producer.
Discography
References
Sources
External links
Bernie Leadon Online
The Complete Hearts and Flowers Liner Notes
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers
Rock of Ages' Bernie Leadon Interview
Bernie Leadon's Official Website-Archived
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:American multi-instrumentalists
Category:American bluegrass musicians
Category:American country rock musicians
Category:American banjoists
Category:American bluegrass guitarists
Category:American male guitarists
Category:American bluegrass mandolinists
Category:American country banjoists
Category:American country guitarists
Category:American country mandolinists
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American country rock singers
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American session musicians
Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Singer-songwriters from California
Category:American mandolinists
Category:American surfers
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:Pedal steel guitarists
Category:Resonator guitarists
Category:Eagles (band) members
Category:The Flying Burrito Brothers members
Category:Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members
Category:Asylum Records artists
Category:Musicians from Minneapolis
Category:Gainesville High School (Florida) alumni
Category:People from Topanga, California
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:21st-century American composers
Category:Singer-songwriters from Minnesota
Category:Guitarists from Minnesota
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:Catholics from California
Category:Run C&W members
Category:Country musicians from California
Category:Country musicians from Minnesota | [
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C_999f9d9ff37c4fa4a5d16a2a9777cd01_0 | Bernie Leadon | Bernard Mathew Leadon III (pronounced led-un; born July 19, 1947) is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of three pioneering and highly influential country rock bands: Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, dobro) coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles. | Eagles | Leadon was the last original member to join the Eagles, a band initially formed by guitarist/singer Glenn Frey, drummer/singer Don Henley, and former Poco bassist/singer Randy Meisner. Leadon is often credited with helping shape the band's early country-rock sound, bringing his strong sense of harmony as well as his country, bluegrass and acoustic sensibilities to the group. Instruments he played during his tenure in the band were electric guitar, B-Bender, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro and pedal steel guitar. Upon the release of their debut album, Eagles, the group met with near instantaneous success, due largely to the strength of their hit singles, "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Witchy Woman" (co-written by Leadon and Henley), all of which highlighted Leadon's multi-instrumental talent on electric guitar, B-Bender, banjo, and harmony vocals. Their follow-up, Desperado, was another strong country-rock venture highlighted by the classics "Tequila Sunrise" and the title track. Leadon had a prominent role on the album, but it was met by surprisingly lukewarm reviews and lackluster sales. As a result, the band attempted to distance itself from the "country rock" label for their third album On the Border. In doing so, Leadon encouraged the group to recruit his old friend, guitarist Don Felder, to the band. The result was the guitar-heavy top ten hit "Already Gone". The album also included "My Man", Leadon's touching tribute to his old bandmate and friend, Gram Parsons, who had died of a drug overdose the year prior at Joshua Tree National Monument in southeastern California. With the wild success of On the Border and its follow-up smash, One of These Nights, tension within the band grew, as Leadon grew increasingly frustrated by the band's direction away from his beloved country and bluegrass and toward album-oriented stadium rock. He famously quit the band in 1975 by pouring a beer over Glenn Frey's head. He later cited a need to get healthy and break the vicious cycle of touring, recording and heavy drug use that was rampant within the band. Upon his departure, Asylum Records released Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975), which highlighted the band's Leadon years and went on to become the biggest-selling album of all time for sales in excess of 42 million units, awarded to the band members by the RIAA. He was replaced by former James Gang guitarist/singer, Joe Walsh. Although it has long been believed that he left because he was dissatisfied with the band moving into rock and roll, Leadon denies it and said in 2013: "That's an oversimplification; it implies that I had no interest in rock or blues or anything but country rock. That's just not the case. I didn't just play Fender Telecaster. I played a Gibson Les Paul and I enjoyed rock & roll. That's evident from the early albums." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Bernard Matthew Leadon III (pronounced led-un; born July 19, 1947) is an American singer, musician, songwriter and founding member of the Eagles, for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of three country rock bands: Hearts & Flowers, Dillard & Clark, and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He is a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, dobro) coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles.
Leadon's music career since leaving the Eagles has been low-key, resulting in two solo albums (the first actually being a collaborative project with Michael Georgiades) with a gap of 27 years in between. Leadon has also appeared on many other artists' records as a session musician.
Early life and musical beginnings
In San Diego, California, Leadon met fellow musicians Ed Douglas and Larry Murray of the local bluegrass outfit the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers. The Barkers proved a breeding ground for future California country rock talent, including shy, 18-year-old mandolin player Chris Hillman, with whom Leadon maintained a lifelong friendship. Augmented by banjo player (and future Flying Burrito Brother) Kenny Wertz, the Squirrel Barkers eventually asked Leadon to join the group, upon Wertz's joining the Air Force in 1963.
He later met future Eagles lead guitarist Don Felder, whose band, the Continentals, had just lost guitarist Stephen Stills.
A call from ex-Squirrel Barker Larry Murray in 1967 to join his fledgling psychedelic country-folk group Hearts & Flowers brought Leadon to California, where he became involved with the burgeoning L.A. folk/country rock scene. Leadon recorded one album with the band, its second release, Of Horses, Kids, and Forgotten Women, for Capitol Records. The record was a local hit but failed to make much of a dent on the national album charts. Discouraged, the group disbanded the following year.
Dillard & Clark
By late 1968, Leadon had befriended bluegrass/banjo legend Doug Dillard, late of the Dillards. While staying with Dillard, informal jam sessions with songwriter and ex-Byrds member Gene Clark began to take shape, and morphed into what eventually became the country-rock band Dillard & Clark. In 1968, the group recorded The Fantastic Expedition of Dillard & Clark, featuring Leadon's backing vocals and multi-instrumental work. The album included several compositions co-written with Clark, most notably the future Eagles staple (and somewhat of a signature song for Leadon) from their debut album, "Train Leaves Here This Morning".
The Flying Burrito Brothers
Leadon left Dillard & Clark in 1969, eventually reconnecting with ex-Squirrel Barker (and ex-Byrd) Chris Hillman, who asked him to join the Flying Burrito Brothers, a fledgling country-rock band that Hillman had formed a year earlier with fellow ex-Byrd Gram Parsons. Leadon recorded two albums with the group: Burrito Deluxe and the post-Parsons LP The Flying Burrito Bros. After the latter album's release in 1971, Leadon had tired of the band's lack of commercial success and decided to leave the band to pursue an opportunity to play with three musicians he had worked with while moonlighting in Linda Ronstadt's backing band that summer. The resultant project, the Eagles, found the success he had craved.
Eagles
Leadon was the last original member to join the Eagles, a band initially formed by guitarist/singer Glenn Frey, drummer/singer Don Henley, and former Poco bassist/singer Randy Meisner. Leadon is often credited with helping shape the band's early country-rock sound, bringing his strong sense of harmony as well as his country, bluegrass and acoustic sensibilities to the group. Instruments he played during his tenure in the band were electric guitar, B-Bender, acoustic guitar, banjo, mandolin, dobro, and pedal steel guitar.
Upon the release of their debut album, Eagles, the group met with near instantaneous success, due largely to the strength of their hit singles "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", and "Witchy Woman" (co-written by Leadon and Henley), all of which highlighted Leadon's multi-instrumental talent on electric guitar, B-Bender, banjo, and harmony vocals. Their follow-up, Desperado, was another strong country-rock venture highlighted by the classics "Tequila Sunrise" and the title track. Leadon had a prominent role on the album, but it was met by surprisingly lukewarm reviews and lackluster sales. As a result, the band attempted to distance itself from the "country rock" label for their third album On the Border. In doing so, Leadon encouraged the group to recruit his old friend, guitarist Don Felder, to the band. The result was the guitar-heavy top 40 hit "Already Gone". The album also included "My Man", Leadon's touching tribute to his old bandmate and friend Gram Parsons, who had died of a drug overdose the year prior at Joshua Tree National Monument in southeastern California.
With the wild success of On the Border and its follow-up smash, One of These Nights, tension within the band grew, with some sources saying Leadon grew increasingly frustrated by the band's direction away from his beloved country and bluegrass and toward album-oriented stadium rock. He famously quit the band in 1975 by pouring a beer over Glenn Frey's head. He later cited a need to get healthy and break the vicious cycle of touring, recording, and heavy drug use that was rampant within the band.
Upon Leadon's departure, Asylum Records released Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975), which highlighted the band's Leadon years and went on to become the best-selling album in United States history, with sales in excess of 38 million units. He was replaced by former James Gang guitarist and singer Joe Walsh.
Although it has long been believed that he left because he was dissatisfied with the band moving into rock and roll, Leadon denies it and said in 2013, "That's an oversimplification; it implies that I had no interest in rock or blues or anything but country rock. That's just not the case. I didn't just play Fender Telecaster. I played a Gibson Les Paul and I enjoyed rock & roll. That's evident from the early albums."
Later career
Upon leaving the Eagles, Leadon retreated from the limelight, only to resurface in 1977 with musician friend Michael Georgiades for the album, Natural Progressions (credited to The Bernie Leadon-Michael Georgiades Band), featuring Leadon and Georgiades on guitars and alternating lead vocals, along with Bryan Garofalo on bass, Dave Kemper on drums, and Steve Goldstein on keyboard.
In 1985, he recorded an album of bluegrass and gospel favorites under the name Ever Call Ready, featuring Chris Hillman and Al Perkins. He also had a short stint with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the late 1980s.
In 1993, he became a member of Run C&W, a novelty group singing Motown hits "bluegrass style", recording two albums for MCA Records.
In 1998, Leadon reunited with the Eagles in New York City for the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All seven current and former Eagles members performed together on "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California".
In 2004, he released his second solo effort in 27 years (and his first under solely his name), Mirror.
Leadon toured with The Eagles from 2013 through 2015 during their History of the Eagles Tour In 2015, Leadon appeared on producer Ethan Johns' third solo album, Silver Liner.
In February 2016, Leadon appeared at the Grammy Awards ceremony with Jackson Browne and the current surviving Eagles members - Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Timothy B. Schmit - performing "Take it Easy", in tribute to Glenn Frey who had died a month earlier.
Personal life
His brother was musician Tom Leadon, who played in the band Mudcrutch, which began the career of Tom Petty.
For a few years in the mid-1970s, Leadon lived in Topanga Canyon, a bohemian enclave known for its musician residents. Leadon's house-plus-recording-studio had previously been owned by singer-songwriter Neil Young, and was the site of frequent parties. Leadon lived with Patti Davis, the free-spirited daughter of conservative California Governor Ronald Reagan, who was at that time campaigning for president, and distancing himself from his daughter because Leadon and she were unmarried but living together. Leadon and Davis co-wrote the song "I Wish You Peace", which Leadon insisted the Eagles include on the album One of These Nights, against the wishes of his bandmates.
He currently resides in Nashville, Tennessee, where he is a session musician and producer.
Discography
References
Sources
External links
Bernie Leadon Online
The Complete Hearts and Flowers Liner Notes
The Scottsville Squirrel Barkers
Rock of Ages' Bernie Leadon Interview
Bernie Leadon's Official Website-Archived
Category:American male singer-songwriters
Category:American multi-instrumentalists
Category:American bluegrass musicians
Category:American country rock musicians
Category:American banjoists
Category:American bluegrass guitarists
Category:American male guitarists
Category:American bluegrass mandolinists
Category:American country banjoists
Category:American country guitarists
Category:American country mandolinists
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American country rock singers
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American session musicians
Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Singer-songwriters from California
Category:American mandolinists
Category:American surfers
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:Pedal steel guitarists
Category:Resonator guitarists
Category:Eagles (band) members
Category:The Flying Burrito Brothers members
Category:Nitty Gritty Dirt Band members
Category:Asylum Records artists
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Category:Gainesville High School (Florida) alumni
Category:People from Topanga, California
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:21st-century American composers
Category:Singer-songwriters from Minnesota
Category:Guitarists from Minnesota
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:Catholics from California
Category:Run C&W members
Category:Country musicians from California
Category:Country musicians from Minnesota | [
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C_f9d8069ce5c14c45a92486e19a607c8b_0 | Hunter S. Thompson | Thompson was born into a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, the first of three sons of Virginia Ray Davison (1908, Springfield, Kentucky - March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, Horse Cave, Kentucky - July 3, 1952, Louisville), a public insurance adjuster and World War I veteran. His parents were introduced to each other by a friend from Jack's fraternity at the University of Kentucky in September 1934, and married on November 2, 1935. Thompson's first name came from a purported ancestor on his mother's side, the Scottish surgeon John Hunter. | Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas | The book for which Thompson gained most of his fame had its genesis during the research for Strange Rumblings in Aztlan, an expose for Rolling Stone on the 1970 killing of the Mexican-American television journalist Ruben Salazar. Salazar had been shot in the head at close range with a tear gas canister fired by officers of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War. One of Thompson's sources for the story was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a prominent Mexican-American activist and attorney. Finding it difficult to talk in the racially tense atmosphere of Los Angeles, Thompson and Acosta decided to travel to Las Vegas, and take advantage of an assignment by Sports Illustrated to write a 250-word photograph caption on the Mint 400 motorcycle race held there. What was to be a short caption quickly grew into something else entirely. Thompson first submitted to Sports Illustrated a manuscript of 2,500 words, which was, as he later wrote, "aggressively rejected." Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner was said to have liked "the first 20 or so jangled pages enough to take it seriously on its own terms and tentatively scheduled it for publication -- which gave me the push I needed to keep working on it", Thompson later wrote. The result of the trip to Las Vegas became the 1972 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which first appeared in the November 1971 issues of Rolling Stone as a two-part series. It is written as a first-person account by a journalist named Raoul Duke on a trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Gonzo, his "300-pound Samoan attorney", to cover a narcotics officers' convention and the "fabulous Mint 400". During the trip, Duke and his companion (always referred to as "my attorney") become sidetracked by a search for the American Dream, with "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls." Coming to terms with the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement is a major theme of the novel, and the book was greeted with considerable critical acclaim, including being heralded by The New York Times as "by far the best book yet written on the decade of dope". "The Vegas Book", as Thompson referred to it, was a mainstream success and introduced his Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of Hell's Angels (1967), a book for which he spent a year living and riding with the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences.
In 1970, he wrote an unconventional magazine feature titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which raised his profile and established his counterculture credibility. It also set him on the path to establishing his own subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a journalistic style in which the writer becomes a central figure and participant in the events of the narrative.
Thompson remains best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), a book first serialized in Rolling Stone in which he grapples with the implications of what he considered the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement. It was adapted for film twice: loosely in Where the Buffalo Roam starring Bill Murray as Thompson in 1980, and explicitly in 1998 by director Terry Gilliam in the eponymous film starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
Thompson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, in 1970 on the Freak Power ticket. His campaign was chronicled in the documentary film Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. He became known for his dislike of Richard Nixon, who he claimed represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character". He covered Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign for Rolling Stone and later collected the stories in book form as Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.
Thompson's output declined from the mid-1970s, as he struggled with the consequences of fame, and complained that he could no longer merely report on events, as he was too easily recognized. After several high-profile stories were quashed by the upper management of Rolling Stone, he found it increasingly difficult to get his work into mainstream outlets. He did continue to write for alternative newspapers, working as a columnist for the mainstream San Francisco Examiner for much of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most of his work from 1979 to 1994 was collected in The Gonzo Papers. He continued to write sporadically for various outlets, including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Esquire and ESPN.com until the end of his life.
He was known for his lifelong use of alcohol and illegal narcotics, his love of firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authority. He often remarked: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Thompson died by suicide at the age of 67, following a series of health problems. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by his friend Johnny Depp and attended by friends including then-Senator John Kerry and Jack Nicholson. Hari Kunzru wrote, "The true voice of Thompson is revealed to be that of American moralist ... one who often makes himself ugly to expose the ugliness he sees around him."
Early life
Thompson was born into a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, the first of three sons of Virginia Davison Ray (1908, Springfield, Kentucky – March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, Horse Cave, Kentucky – July 3, 1952, Louisville), a public insurance adjuster and World War I veteran. His parents were introduced by a friend from Jack's fraternity at the University of Kentucky in September 1934, and married on November 2, 1935. Journalist Nicholas Lezard of The Guardian stated that Thompson's first name, Hunter, came from an ancestor on his mother's side, the Scottish surgeon John Hunter. A more direct attribution is that Thompson's first and middle name, Hunter Stockton, came from his maternal grandparents, Prestly Stockton Ray and Lucille Hunter.
In December 1943, when Thompson was six years old, the family settled in the affluent Cherokee Triangle neighborhood of The Highlands. On July 3, 1952, when Thompson was 14, his father died of myasthenia gravis at age 58. Hunter and his brothers were raised by their mother. Virginia worked as a librarian to support her children, and was described as a "heavy drinker" following her husband's death.
Education
Interested in sports and athletically inclined from a young age, Thompson co-founded the Hawks Athletic Club while attending I.N. Bloom Elementary School, which led to an invitation to join Louisville's Castlewood Athletic Club for adolescents that prepared them for high-school sports. Ultimately, he never joined a sports team in high school.
Thompson attended I.N. Bloom Elementary School, Highland Middle School, and Atherton High School, before transferring to Louisville Male High School in fall 1952. Also in 1952, he was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum Literary Association, a school-sponsored literary and social club that dated to 1862. Its members at the time came from Louisville's upper-class families, and included Porter Bibb, who became the first publisher of Rolling Stone at Thompson's behest. During this time, Thompson read and admired J. P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man.
As an Athenaeum member, Thompson contributed articles to and helped produce the club's yearbook The Spectator until the group ejected Thompson in 1955 for criminal activity. Charged as an accessory to robbery after being in a car with the perpetrator, Thompson was sentenced to 60 days in Kentucky's Jefferson County Jail. He served 31 days, and during his incarceration, was refused permission to take final exams, preventing his graduation. Upon release, he enlisted in the United States Air Force.
Military service
Thompson completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and transferred to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois, to study electronics. He applied to become an aviator, but the Air Force's aviation-cadet program rejected his application. In 1956, he transferred to Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. While serving at Eglin, he took evening classes at Florida State University. At Eglin, he landed his first professional writing job as sports editor of The Command Courier by falsifying his job experience. As sports editor, Thompson traveled around the United States with the Eglin Eagles football team, covering its games. In early 1957, he wrote a sports column for The Playground News, a local newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His name did not appear on the column because Air Force regulations forbade outside employment.
In 1958, while he was an airman first class, his commanding officer recommended him for an early honorable discharge. "In summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy," chief of information services Colonel William S. Evans wrote to the Eglin personnel office. "Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members."
Early journalism career
After leaving the Air Force, Thompson worked as sports editor for a newspaper in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, before relocating to New York City. There he audited several courses at the Columbia University School of General Studies. During this time he worked briefly for Time as a copy boy for $51 a week. At work, he typed out parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in order to learn the authors' rhythms and writing styles. In 1959 Time fired him for insubordination. Later that year, he worked as a reporter for The Middletown Daily Record in Middletown, New York. He was fired from this job after damaging an office candy machine and arguing with the owner of a local restaurant who happened to be an advertiser with the paper.
In 1960, Thompson moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take a job with the sporting magazine El Sportivo, which ceased operations soon after his arrival. Thompson applied for a job with the Puerto Rican English-language daily The San Juan Star, but its managing editor, future novelist William J. Kennedy, turned him down. Nonetheless, the two became friends. After the demise of El Sportivo, Thompson worked as a stringer for the New York Herald Tribune and a few other stateside papers on Caribbean issues, with Kennedy working as his editor.
After returning to mainland United States in 1961, Thompson visited San Francisco and eventually lived in Big Sur, where he spent eight months as security guard and caretaker at Slates Hot Springs, just before it became the Esalen Institute. At the time, Big Sur was a Beat outpost and home of Henry Miller and the screenwriter Dennis Murphy, both of whom Thompson admired. During this period, he published his first magazine feature in Rogue about the artisan and bohemian culture of Big Sur. and wrote two novels, Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary and struggled to publish several short stories. The Rum Diary, based on Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico, was finally published in and in 2011 adapted as a motion picture.
In May 1962, Thompson traveled to South America for a year as a correspondent for the Dow Jones-owned weekly paper, the National Observer. In Brazil, he spent several months as a reporter for the Rio de Janeiro-based Brazil Herald, the country's only English-language daily. His longtime girlfriend Sandra Dawn Conklin (subsequently Sondi Wright) joined him in Rio. They married on May 19, 1963, shortly after returning to the United States, and lived briefly in Aspen, Colorado. Sandy was eight months pregnant when they relocated to Glen Ellen, California. Their son, Juan Fitzgerald Thompson, was born in March 1964. During the summer of that same year, Hunter began taking Dexedrine, which is what he would predominantly use for writing up until around 1974 when he began to write mostly under the influence of cocaine.
Thompson continued to write for the National Observer on an array of domestic subjects during the early 60s. One story told of his 1964 visit to Ketchum, Idaho, to investigate the reasons for Ernest Hemingway's suicide. While there, he stole a pair of elk antlers hanging above the front door of Hemingway's cabin. Later that year, Thompson moved to San Francisco, where he attended the 1964 GOP Convention at the Cow Palace. Thompson severed his ties with the Observer after his editor refused to print his review of Tom Wolfe's 1965 essay-collection The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. He later immersed himself in the drug and hippie culture taking root in the area, and soon began writing for the Berkeley underground paper Spider.
Hell's Angels
In 1965 Carey McWilliams, editor of The Nation, hired Thompson to write a story about the Hells Angels motorcycle club in California. At the time Thompson was living in a house near San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, where the Hells Angels lived across from the Grateful Dead. His article appeared on May 17, 1965, after which he received several book offers and spent the next year living and riding with the club. The relationship broke down when the bikers perceived that Thompson was exploiting them for personal gain and demanded a share of his profits. An argument at a party resulted in Thompson suffering a savage beating (or "stomping", as the Angels referred to it). Random House published the hard-cover Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966, and the fight between Thompson and the Angels was well-marketed. CBC Television even broadcast an encounter between Thompson and Hells Angel Skip Workman before a live studio audience.
A New York Times review praised the work as an "angry, knowledgeable, fascinating, and excitedly written book", that shows the Hells Angels "not so much as dropouts from society but as total misfits, or unfits—emotionally, intellectually and educationally unfit to achieve the rewards, such as they are, that the contemporary social order offers". The reviewer also praised Thompson as a "spirited, witty, observant, and original writer; his prose crackles like motorcycle exhaust".
Late 1960s
Following the success of Hell's Angels, Thompson sold stories to several national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Pageant, and Harper's.
In 1967, shortly before the Summer of Love, Thompson wrote "The 'Hashbury' is the Capital of the Hippies" for The New York Times Magazine. He criticized San Francisco's hippies as devoid of both the political convictions of the New Left and the artistic core of the Beats, resulting in a culture overrun with young people who spent their time in the pursuit of drugs. "The thrust is no longer for 'change' or 'progress' or 'revolution', but merely to escape, to live on the far perimeter of a world that might have been – perhaps should have been – and strike a bargain for survival on purely personal terms," he wrote.
Later that year, Thompson and his family moved back to Colorado and rented a house in Woody Creek, a small mountain hamlet outside Aspen. In early 1969, Thompson received a $15,000 royalty check for the paperback sales of Hell's Angels and used a portion of the proceeds on a down payment on a home and property where he would live for the rest of his life. He named the house Owl Farm and often described it as his "fortified compound".
In early 1968, Thompson signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. According to Thompson's letters from the period, he planned to write a book called The Joint Chiefs about "the death of the American Dream." He used a $6,000 advance from Random House to travel the country covering the 1968 United States presidential election and attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago for research. He watched the clashes between police and anti-war protesters from his hotel, and later wrote that events had a significant effect on his political views. While Thompson never completed the book, he carried its theme into later work. He fulfilled his Random House contract in 1972 with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He also signed a deal with Ballantine Books in 1968 to write a satirical book called The Johnson File about President Lyndon B. Johnson. A few weeks later, the deal fell through after Johnson withdrew from the election.
Middle years
Aspen sheriff campaign
In 1970, Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, as part of a group of citizens running for local offices on the "Freak Power" ticket. The platform included promoting the decriminalization of drugs (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteering), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy pedestrian malls, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, disarming all police forces, and renaming Aspen "Fat City" to deter investors. Thompson, having shaved his head, referred to the crew cut-wearing Republican candidate as "my long-haired opponent".
With polls showing him with a slight lead in a three-way race, Thompson appeared at Rolling Stone magazine headquarters in San Francisco with a six-pack of beer in hand, and declared to editor Jann Wenner that he was about to be elected sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, and wished to write about the "Freak Power" movement. "The Battle of Aspen" was Thompson's first feature for the magazine carrying the byline "By: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Candidate for Sheriff)". Despite the publicity, Thompson lost the election. While carrying the city of Aspen, he garnered only 44% of the county-wide vote in what had become, after the withdrawal of the Republican candidate, a two-way race. Thompson later said that the Rolling Stone article mobilized more opposition to the Freak Power ticket than supporters. The episode was the subject of the 2020 documentary film Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. Writing of the episode more than fifty years later, Wenner wrote "Aspen didn't get a new sheriff, but I realized that, in Hunter, I had a fellow traveller."
Birth of Gonzo
Also in 1970, Thompson wrote an article entitled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for the short-lived new journalism magazine Scanlan's Monthly. For that article, editor Warren Hinckle paired Thompson with illustrator Ralph Steadman, who drew expressionist illustrations with lipstick and eyeliner. Thompson's story virtually ignored the race and focused instead on the drunken revelry surrounding the annual event in his hometown. Writing in the first person, he sets the debauchery against the backdrop of the American political scene of the moment: President Richard Nixon had ordered bombing of Cambodia and four students had been killed by Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State University, in a massacre which occurred only two days later.
Thompson and Steadman collaborated regularly after that. Although it was not widely read, the article was the first to use the techniques of Gonzo journalism, a style Thompson later employed in almost every literary endeavor. The manic first-person subjectivity of the story was reportedly the result of sheer desperation; he was facing a looming deadline and started sending the magazine pages ripped out of his notebook.
The first use of the word "Gonzo" to describe Thompson's work is credited to the journalist Bill Cardoso, who first met Thompson on a bus full of journalists covering the 1968 New Hampshire primary. In 1970, Cardoso (who was then the editor of The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine) wrote to Thompson praising the "Kentucky Derby" piece as a breakthrough: "This is it, this is pure Gonzo. If this is a start, keep rolling." According to Steadman, Thompson took to the word right away and said, "Okay, that's what I do. Gonzo." Thompson's first published use of the word appears in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism."
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The book for which Thompson gained most of his fame began during the research for "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," an exposé for Rolling Stone on the 1970 killing of the Mexican-American television journalist Rubén Salazar. Salazar had been shot in the head at close range with a tear-gas canister fired by officers of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War. One of Thompson's sources for the story was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a prominent Mexican-American activist and attorney. Finding it difficult to talk in the racially tense atmosphere of Los Angeles, Thompson and Acosta decided to travel to Las Vegas, and take advantage of an assignment by Sports Illustrated to write a 250-word photograph caption on the Mint 400 motorcycle race held there.
What was to be a short caption quickly grew into something else entirely. Thompson first submitted to Sports Illustrated a manuscript of 2,500 words, which was, as he later wrote, "aggressively rejected." Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner liked "the first 20 or so jangled pages enough to take it seriously on its own terms and tentatively scheduled it for publication — which gave me the push I needed to keep working on it", Thompson wrote. Wenner, describing his first impression of it years later, called it "Sharp and insane."
To develop the story, Thompson and Acosta returned to Las Vegas to attend a drug enforcement conference. The two trips became the basis for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," which Rolling Stone serialized in two parts in November 1971. Random House published a book version the following year. It is written as a first-person account by a journalist named Raoul Duke with Dr. Gonzo, his "300-pound Samoan attorney." During the trip, Duke and his companion (always referred to as "my attorney") become sidetracked by a search for the American Dream, with "two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls."
Coming to terms with the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement is a major theme of the novel, and the book was greeted with considerable critical acclaim. The New York Times praised it as "the best book yet written on the decade of dope". "The Vegas Book", as Thompson referred to it, was a mainstream success and introduced his Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
In 1971 Wenner agreed to assign Thompson to cover the 1972 United States presidential election for Rolling Stone. Thompson was paid a retainer of $1,000 per month and rented a house in near Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C. at the magazine's expense. He was also given a deal to publish a book on the campaign after its conclusion, which subsequently appeared as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 in early 1973. Insider books on presidential politics had become popular during the prior decade starting with Theodore H. White's Making of the President series, the first of which appeared in 1961, with additional volumes in 1965 and 1969. Their success raised the overall profile of journalists assigned to cover the quadrennial presidential election in the U.S., and it became a common phrase among them to say they were "...Doing a Teddy White," meaning they planned to write their own insider book on the campaign.
Wenner had decided that Rolling Stone would cover the presidential election in part because of the passage in 1971 of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which lowered the legal voting age to 18 from 21, making a large part of its mostly young readership suddenly eligible to vote. "We intended to politicize our generation and wrest this stirring force away from the fake politics of the revolutionary," Wenner wrote in his memoirs of the plan to collaborate with Thompson.
Thompson's first campaign piece for Rolling Stone appeared as Fear and Loathing in Washington: Is This Trip Really Necessary> in the January 6, 1972 issue. The 14th and final installment appeared in the November 9 issue under the headline Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls....
Throughout the year, Thompson traveled with candidates running in the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the right to challenge the incumbent president, Republican Richard Nixon in the general election. Thompson's coverage focused mainly on Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, the early leader, and former vice-president Hubert Humphrey. Thompson supported McGovern and wrote critical coverage of the rival campaigns.
In the April 13 installment entitled Fear and Loathing: The Banshee Screams in Florida, Thompson relates how someone having apparently lifted his using his press credential, terrorized Muskie and his staff on a campaign train. The incident was later revealed to be an elaborate prank. In another installment, Thompson relates rumors — rumors he later admitted he had originated — that Muskie had become addicted to the psychoactive drug Ibogaine. The story damaged Muskie's reputation and played a role in his loss of the nomination to McGovern. In another, he tracked down McGovern in restroom in order to get a reaction quote after a senator from Iowa had switched his endorsement from McGovern to Muskie.
The series, and later, the book were praised for breaking boundaries with a new approach to political journalism. The literary critic Morris Dickstein, wrote that Thompson had learned to "approximate the effect of mind-blasting drugs in his prose style," and that he "recorded the nuts and bolts of a presidential campaign with all the contempt and incredulity that other reporters but feel but censor out."
Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern's campaign director, often described it the "most accurate and least factual" account of the 1972 campaign. In one vivid, yet invented anecdote, Thompson describes how Mankiewicz had leapt out from behind a bush to attack him with a hammer. To an uninitiated reader, it might have been unclear at first if the action Thompson described was fanciful or factual, and that seemed to be part of the point. As biographer William McKeen wrote "He wrote for his own amusement, and if others came along for the ride, that was all right."
Fame and its consequences
Thompson's journalistic work began to seriously suffer after his trip to Africa to cover the Rumble in the Jungle—the world heavyweight boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali—in 1974. He missed the match while intoxicated at his hotel, and did not submit a story to the magazine. As Wenner put it to the film critic Roger Ebert in the 2008 documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, "After Africa, he just couldn't write. He couldn't piece it together". It was around this time (1974) when Thompson also switched from writing on dextroamphetamine to mostly using cocaine for his writing instead with alcohol "being the only constant".
In 1975, Wenner assigned Thompson to travel to Vietnam to cover what appeared to be the end of the Vietnam War. Thompson arrived in Saigon just as South Vietnam was collapsing and as other journalists were leaving the country. Wenner allegedly canceled Thompson's medical insurance, which strained Thompson's relationship with Rolling Stone. He soon fled the country and refused to file his report until the ten-year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Wenner, writing in 2022, denied the claims that he cancelled Thompson's insurance, saying that Thompson spent most of his time in Saigon obsessing over evacuation plans. Thompson filed an unfinished dispatch that Wenner described "strong and promising, but nothing substantial." He then took a commercial flight to Bangkok where he met his wife for what Wenner described as a few weeks of "totally undeserved rest and recreation." While in Thailand, Thompson had a custom brass door plaque made that read "Rolling Stone: Global Affairs Suite. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" marked with a map of the world and two lightning bolts. "That was it," Wenner wrote. "No story. Just that plaque." Thompson later finished the story in time for the 10-year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.
Plans for Thompson to cover the 1976 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone and later publish a book fell through as Wenner closed Rolling Stone's book company. Thompson claimed Wenner canceled the project without informing him. In his memoirs, Wenner told a different story: "The issue wasn't money ... The real issue was whether he had the discipline to spend so much time on the campaign trail and whether he had that much to say about the same subject again." Thompson went on to spend a day with Jimmy Carter at the Georgia Governor's Mansion and write 10,000-word cover-story endorsing Carter for president. "After that, we were virtually an official part of the Carter campaign, and they treated us as such," Wenner wrote of the episode.
From the late 1970s on, most of Thompson's literary output appeared as a four-volume series of books entitled The Gonzo Papers. Beginning with The Great Shark Hunt in 1979 and ending with Better Than Sex in 1994, the series is largely a collection of rare newspaper and magazine pieces from the pre-gonzo period, along with almost all of his Rolling Stone pieces.
Starting around 1980, Thompson became less active by his standards. Aside from paid appearances, he largely retreated to his compound in Woody Creek, rejecting projects and assignments or failing to complete them. Despite a lack of new material, Wenner kept Thompson on the Rolling Stone masthead as chief of the "National Affairs Desk", a position he held until his death.
In 1980, Thompson divorced his wife Sandra Conklin. The same year marked the release of Where the Buffalo Roam, a loose film adaptation based on Thompson's early 1970s work, starring Bill Murray as the writer. Murray eventually became one of Thompson's trusted friends. Later that year, Thompson relocated to Hawaii to research and write The Curse of Lono, a Gonzo-style account of the 1980 Honolulu Marathon. Extensively illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the piece first appeared in Running in 1981 as "The Charge of the Weird Brigade" and was later excerpted in Playboy in 1983.
In 1983, he covered the U.S. invasion of Grenada, but did not write or discuss the experiences until the publication of Kingdom of Fear in 2003. Later that year, at the behest of Terry McDonell, he wrote "A Dog Took My Place", an exposé for Rolling Stone of the scandalous Roxanne Pulitzer divorce case and what he called the "Palm Beach lifestyle". The story included dubious insinuations of bestiality. Wenner described it as one of Thompson's "least-known but best pieces." In 1985, Thompson accepted an advance to write about "couples pornography" for Playboy. As part of his research, he spent evenings at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre striptease club in San Francisco. The experience evolved into an as-yet-unpublished novel tentatively entitled The Night Manager.
Thompson next accepted a role as weekly media columnist and critic for The San Francisco Examiner. The position was arranged by former editor and fellow Examiner columnist Warren Hinckle. His editor at The Examiner, David McCumber described, "One week it would be acid-soaked gibberish with a charm of its own. The next week it would be incisive political analysis of the highest order."
Many of these columns were collected in Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s (1988) and Gonzo Papers, Vol. 3: Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream (1990), a collection of autobiographical reminiscences, articles, and previously unpublished material.
Later years
Thompson faced a sexual assault charge in March 1990 when former pornographic film director Gail Palmer claimed that after she denied his sexual advances while at his home, Thompson threw a drink at her and twisted her left breast. He was tried for five felonies and three misdemeanors owing to the assault charge and allegations of drug abuse after the police raided his home. The charges were dropped two months later.
Throughout the early 1990s, Thompson claimed to be at work on a novel entitled Polo Is My Life. It was briefly excerpted in Rolling Stone in 1994. Wenner described it as "Hunter's last big piece of feature writing," and described Thompson as abusive toward two editorial assistants assigned to him. Thompson himself described it in 1996 as "a sex book — you know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's about the manager of a sex theater who's forced to leave and flee to the mountains. He falls in love and gets in even more trouble than he was in the sex theater in San Francisco." The novel was slated to be released by Random House in 1999, and was even assigned , but was never published.
Thompson continued to publish irregularly in Rolling Stone, ultimately contributing 17 pieces to the magazine between 1984 and 2004. "Fear and Loathing in Elko," published in 1992, was a well-received fictional rallying cry against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. "Trapped in Mr. Bill's Neighborhood" was a largely factual account of an interview with Bill Clinton at a Little Rock, Arkansas, steakhouse. Rather than traveling the campaign trail as he had done in previous presidential elections, Thompson monitored the proceedings on cable television; Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie, his account of the 1992 presidential campaign, is composed of reactive faxes to Rolling Stone. In 1994, the magazine published "He Was a Crook", a "scathing" obituary of Richard Nixon.
In November 2004, Rolling Stone published Thompson's final magazine feature "The Fun-Hogs in the Passing Lane: Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004", a brief account of the 2004 presidential election in which he compared the outcome of the Bush v. Gore court case to the Reichstag fire and formally endorsed Senator John Kerry, a longtime friend, for president.
Fear and Loathing redux
In 1996, Modern Library reissued Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas along with "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," and "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Two years later, the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas generated new interest in Thompson and his work, and a paperback edition was published as a tie-in. The same year, an early novel, The Rum Diary, was published. Two volumes of collected letters also appeared during this time.
Thompson's next, and penultimate, collection, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century, was widely publicized as Thompson's first memoir. Published in 2003, it combined new material (including reminiscences of the O'Farrell Theater), selected newspaper and digital clippings, and other older works.
Thompson finished his journalism career in the same way it had begun: Writing about sports. From 2000 until his death in 2005, he wrote a weekly column for ESPN.com's Page 2 entitled "Hey, Rube." In 2004, Simon & Schuster collected some of the columns from the first few years and released them in mid-2004 as Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
Thompson married assistant Anita Bejmuk on April 23, 2003.
Death
At 5:42 pm on February 20, 2005, Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm, his "fortified compound" in Woody Creek, Colorado. His son Juan, daughter-in-law Jennifer, and grandson were visiting for the weekend. His wife Anita, who was at the Aspen Club, was on the phone with him as he cocked the gun. According to the Aspen Daily News, Thompson asked her to come home to help him write his ESPN column, then set the receiver on the counter. Anita said she mistook the cocking of the gun for the sound of his typewriter keys and hung up as he fired. Will and Jennifer were in the next room when they heard the gunshot, but mistook the sound for a book falling and did not check on Thompson immediately. Juan Thompson found his father's body. According to the police report and Anita's cell phone records, he called the sheriff's office half an hour later, then walked outside and fired three shotgun blasts into the air to "mark the passing of his father." The police report stated that in Thompson's typewriter was a piece of paper with the date "Feb. 22 '05" and a single word, "counselor."
Years of alcohol and cocaine abuse contributed to his problem with depression. Thompson's inner circle told the press that he had been depressed and always found February a "gloomy" month, with football season over and the harsh Colorado winter weather. He was also upset over his advancing age and chronic medical problems, including a hip replacement; he would frequently mutter "This kid is getting old." Rolling Stone published what Douglas Brinkley described as a suicide note written by Thompson to his wife, titled "Football Season Is Over." It read:
Thompson's collaborator and friend Ralph Steadman wrote:
Funeral
On August 20, 2005, in a private funeral, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon. This was accompanied by red, white, blue, and green fireworks—all to the tune of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The cannon was placed atop a tower which had the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button, a symbol originally used in his 1970 campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. The plans for the monument were initially drawn by Thompson and Steadman, and were shown as part of an Omnibus program on the BBC titled Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978). It is included as a special feature on the second disc of the 2004 Criterion Collection DVD release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and labeled as Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood.
According to his widow, Anita, the $3 million funeral was funded by actor Johnny Depp, who was a close friend of Thompson's. Depp told the Associated Press, "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out." An estimated 280 people attended, including U.S. Senators John Kerry and George McGovern; 60 Minutes correspondents Ed Bradley and Charlie Rose; actors Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, and Josh Hartnett; musicians Lyle Lovett, John Oates and David Amram, and artist and long-time friend Ralph Steadman.
Legacy
Writing style
Thompson is often credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of writing that blurs distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. His work and style are considered to be a major part of the New Journalism literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which attempted to break free from the purely objective style of mainstream reportage of the time. Thompson almost always wrote in the first person, while extensively using his own experiences and emotions to color "the story" he was trying to follow.
Despite him having personally described his work as "Gonzo", it fell to later observers to articulate what the term actually meant. While Thompson's approach clearly involved injecting himself as a participant in the events of the narrative, it also involved adding invented, metaphoric elements, thus creating, for the uninitiated reader, a seemingly confusing amalgam of facts and fiction notable for the deliberately blurred lines between one and the other. Thompson, in a 1974 interview in Playboy addressed the issue himself, saying, "Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They're both much better reporters than I am, but then, I don't think of myself as a reporter." Tom Wolfe would later describe Thompson's style as "... part journalism and part personal memoir admixed with powers of wild invention and wilder rhetoric." Or as one description of the differences between Thompson and Wolfe's styles would elaborate, "While Tom Wolfe mastered the technique of being a fly on the wall, Thompson mastered the art of being a fly in the ointment."
The majority of Thompson's most popular and acclaimed work appeared within the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Publisher Jan Wenner said Thompson was "in the DNA of Rolling Stone." Along with Joe Eszterhas and David Felton, Thompson was instrumental in expanding the focus of the magazine past music criticism; indeed, Thompson was the only staff writer of the epoch never to contribute a music feature to the magazine. Nevertheless, his articles were always peppered with a wide array of pop music references ranging from Howlin' Wolf to Lou Reed. Armed with early fax machines wherever he went, he became notorious for haphazardly sending sometimes illegible material to the magazine's San Francisco offices as an issue was about to go to press.
Wenner said Thompson tended to work "in long bursts of energy, awake until dawn or, too often, two dawns." He said keeping Thompson on track which finishing a piece required "...companionship, or what editors call hand-holding, but in Hunter's case it was more like being a junior officer in his war. He required his creature comforts, which meant the right kind of typewriter and a certain color paper, Wild Turkey, the right drugs, and the proper music."
Robert Love, Thompson's editor of 23 years at Rolling Stone, wrote, "the dividing line between fact and fancy rarely blurred, and we didn't always use italics or some other typographical device to indicate the lurch into the fabulous. But if there were living, identifiable humans in a scene, we took certain steps ... Hunter was a close friend of many prominent Democrats, veterans of the ten or more presidential campaigns he covered, so when in doubt, we'd call the press secretary. 'People will believe almost any twisted kind of story about politicians or Washington,' he once said, and he was right."
Discerning the line between the fact and the fiction of Thompson's work presented a practical problem for editors and fact-checkers of his work. Love called fact-checking Thompson's work "one of the sketchiest occupations ever created in the publishing world", and "for the first-timer ... a trip through a journalistic fun house, where you didn't know what was real and what wasn't. You knew you had better learn enough about the subject at hand to know when the riff began and reality ended. Hunter was a stickler for numbers, for details like gross weight and model numbers, for lyrics and caliber, and there was no faking it."
Persona
Thompson often used a blend of fiction and fact when portraying himself in his writing, too, sometimes using the name Raoul Duke as an author surrogate whom he generally described as a callous, erratic, self-destructive journalist, constantly drinking and taking hallucinogenics. In the early 1980s, Wenner spoke with Thompson about his alcoholism and addiction to cocaine, and offered to pay for drug treatment. "Hunter was polite and firm," Wenner wrote in 2022. "He had thought about it and didn't feel he could or would change. He felt that this was they key to his talent. He said that if he didn't do drugs, he'd have the brain of an accountant. The abuse was already taking a toll on his gifts.... It was just too late and he knew it."
In the late 1960s, Thompson acquired the title of "Doctor" from the Universal Life Church.
A number of critics have commented that as he grew older, the line that distinguished Thompson from his literary self became increasingly blurred. Thompson admitted during a 1978 BBC interview that he sometimes felt pressured to live up to the fictional self that he had created, adding, "I'm never sure which one people expect me to be. Very often, they conflict — most often, as a matter of fact. ... I'm leading a normal life and right alongside me there is this myth, and it is growing and mushrooming and getting more and more warped. When I get invited to, say, speak at universities, I'm not sure if they are inviting Duke or Thompson. I'm not sure who to be."
Thompson's writing style and eccentric persona gave him a cult following in both literary and drug circles, and his cult status expanded into broader areas after being portrayed three times in major motion pictures. Hence, both his writing style and persona have been widely imitated, and his likeness has even become a popular costume choice for Halloween.
Political beliefs
Thompson was a firearms and explosives enthusiast (in his writing and in life) and owned a vast collection of handguns, rifles, shotguns, and various automatic and semiautomatic weapons, along with numerous forms of gaseous crowd-control and many homemade devices. He was a proponent of the right to bear arms and privacy rights. A member of the National Rifle Association, Thompson was also co-creator of the Fourth Amendment Foundation, an organization to assist victims in defending themselves against unwarranted search and seizure.
Part of his work with the Fourth Amendment Foundation centered around support of Lisl Auman, a Colorado woman who was sentenced for life in 1997 under felony murder charges for the death of police officer Bruce VanderJagt, despite contradictory statements and dubious evidence. Thompson organized rallies, provided legal support, and co-wrote an article in the June 2004 issue of Vanity Fair outlining the case. The Colorado Supreme Court eventually overturned Auman's sentence in March 2005, shortly after Thompson's death, and Auman is now free. Auman's supporters claim Thompson's support and publicity resulted in the successful appeal.
Thompson was also an ardent supporter of drug legalization and became known for his detailed accounts of his own drug use. He was an early supporter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and served on the group's advisory board for over 30 years, until his death. He told an interviewer in 1997 that drugs should be legalized "[a]cross the board. It might be a little rough on some people for a while, but I think it's the only way to deal with drugs. Look at Prohibition; all it did was make a lot of criminals rich."
In a 1965 letter to his friend Paul Semonin, Thompson explained an affection for the Industrial Workers of the World, "I have in recent months come to have a certain feeling for Joe Hill and the Wobbly crowd who, if nothing else, had the right idea. But not the right mechanics. I believe the IWW was probably the last human concept in American politics." In another letter to Semonin, Thompson wrote that he agreed with Karl Marx, and compared him to Thomas Jefferson. In a letter to William Kennedy, Thompson confided that he was "coming to view the free enterprise system as the single greatest evil in the history of human savagery." In the documentary Breakfast with Hunter, Hunter S. Thompson is seen in several scenes wearing different Che Guevara T-shirts. Additionally, actor and friend Benicio del Toro has stated that Thompson kept a "big" picture of Che in his kitchen. Thompson wrote on behalf of African-American rights and the civil rights movement. He strongly criticized the dominance in American society of what he called "white power structures".
After the September 11 attacks, Thompson voiced skepticism regarding the official story on who was responsible for the attacks. He speculated to several interviewers that it had been conducted by the U.S. government or with the government's assistance, though readily admitting he had no way to prove his theory.
In 2004, Thompson wrote: "[Richard] Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for—but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush–Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him."
Scholarships
Thompson's widow established two scholarship funds at Columbia University School of General Studies for U.S. military veterans and the University of Kentucky for journalism students.
Colorado NORML created the Hunter S. Thompson Scholarship to pay all expenses for a lawyer or law student to attend the NORML Legal Committee Conference in Aspen, generally the first few days of June each year. The funding from a silent auction has paid for two winners for some years. Many winners have gone on to become important cannabis lawyers on state and national levels.
Works
Books
Thompson published books from 1966 to the end of his life. His best-known works include Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary, The Curse of Lono, and Screwjack.
Articles
As a journalist over the course of decades, Thompson published numerous articles in various periodicals. He wrote for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The San Francisco Examiner, Time, Vanity Fair, The San Juan Star, and Playboy. He was also guest editor for a single edition of The Aspen Daily News. A collection of 100 of his columns from The San Francisco Examiner was published in 1988 as Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s. A collection of his articles for Rolling Stone was released in 2011 as Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writings of Hunter S. Thompson. The book was edited by the magazine's co-founder and publisher, Jann S. Wenner, who also provided an introduction to the collection.
Letters
Thompson wrote many letters, which were his primary means of personal communication. He made carbon copies of all his letters, usually typed, a habit begun in his teenaged years.
The Fear and Loathing Letters is a three-volume collection of selections from Thompson's correspondence, edited by historian Douglas Brinkley. The first volume, The Proud Highway, was published in 1997, and contains letters from 1955 to 1967. Fear and Loathing in America was published in 2000 and contains letters dating from 1968 to 1976. A third volume, titled The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop 1977–2005, was edited by Douglas Brinkley and prepared by Simon & Schuster in 2005. As of April 2023, it has yet to be sold to the public. It contains a special introduction by Johnny Depp.
Illustrations
Accompanying the eccentric and colorful writing of Hunter Thompson, illustrations by British artist Ralph Steadman offer visual representations of the Gonzo style. Steadman and Thompson developed a professional relationship. The two collaborated many times over Thompson's career, although at times they were known to argue violently. Wayne Ewing's documentary on Hunter captured an encounter where Steadman tells Hunter that he believes his drawings contributed as much to the success of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Hunter's writing. Hunter was furious at the suggestion and their relationship was certainly, at times, strained. Steadman in recent years has described Hunter as "rude" and "a bully." So while they are publicly known as great friends, the true nature of their relationship was considerably more nuanced.
Photography
Thompson was an avid amateur photographer throughout his life, and his photos have been exhibited since his death at art galleries in the United States and United Kingdom. In late 2006, AMMO Books published a limited-edition, 224-page collection of Thompson photos called Gonzo: Photographs by Hunter S. Thompson, with an introduction by Johnny Depp. Thompson's snapshots were a combination of the subjects he was covering, stylized self-portraits, and artistic still life photos. The London Observer called the photos "astonishingly good" and noted that "Thompson's pictures remind us, brilliantly in every sense, of very real people, real colours."
Feature films
The film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) depicts heavily fictionalized attempts by Thompson to cover the Super Bowl and the 1972 U.S. presidential election. It stars Bill Murray as Thompson and Peter Boyle as Thompson's attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, referred to in the movie as Carl Lazlo, Esq.
The 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was directed by Monty Python veteran Terry Gilliam and starred Johnny Depp (who moved into Thompson's basement to "study" Thompson's persona before assuming his role in the film) as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Oscar Zeta Acosta. The film has achieved something of a cult following.
In the 2001 film Ali, Thompson is briefly portrayed by actor Lee Cummings.
The film adaptation of Thompson's novel The Rum Diary was released in October 2011, also starring Johnny Depp as the main character, Paul Kemp. The novel's premise was inspired by Thompson's own experiences in Puerto Rico. The film was written and directed by Bruce Robinson.
At a press junket for The Rum Diary shortly before the film's release, Depp said that he would like to adapt The Curse of Lono, "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", and Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs for the big screen: "I'd just keep playing Hunter. There's a great comfort in it for me, because I get a great visit with my old friend who I miss dearly."
Documentaries
Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978) is an extended television profile by the BBC. It can be found on disc 2 of The Criterion Collection edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The Mitchell brothers, owners of the O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, made a documentary about Thompson in 1988 called Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die.
Wayne Ewing created three documentaries about Thompson. The film Breakfast with Hunter (2003) was directed and edited by Ewing. It documents Thompson's work on the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his arrest for drunk driving, and his subsequent fight with the court system. When I Die (2005) is a video chronicle of making Thompson's final farewell wishes a reality, and documents the send-off itself. Free Lisl: Fear and Loathing in Denver (2006) chronicles Thompson's efforts in helping to free Lisl Auman, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting of a police officer, a crime she did not commit. All three films are only available online.
In Come on Down: Searching for the American Dream (2004) Thompson gives director Adamm Liley insight into the nature of the American Dream over drinks at the Woody Creek Tavern.
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film (2006) was directed by Tom Thurman, written by Tom Marksbury, and produced by the Starz Entertainment Group. The original documentary features interviews with Thompson's inner circle of family and friends, but the thrust of the film focuses on the manner in which his life often overlapped with numerous Hollywood celebrities who became his close friends, such as Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Thompson's wife Anita, son Juan, former Senators George McGovern and Gary Hart, writers Tom Wolfe and William F. Buckley, actors Gary Busey and Harry Dean Stanton, and the illustrator Ralph Steadman among others.
Blasted!!! The Gonzo Patriots of Hunter S. Thompson (2006), produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Blue Kraning, is a documentary about the scores of fans who volunteered their privately owned artillery to fire the ashes of Thompson. Blasted!!! premiered at the 2006 Starz Denver International Film Festival, part of a tribute series to Thompson held at the Denver Press Club.
In 2008, Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side) wrote and directed a documentary on Thompson, titled Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The film premiered on January 20, 2008, at the Sundance Film Festival. Gibney uses intimate, never-before-seen home videos, interviews with friends, enemies, lovers, and clips from films adapted from Thompson's material to document his turbulent life.
Theater
Lou Stein's adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was performed at the Battersea Theatre. Stein persuades London's Time Out magazine to put Thompson up for a fortnight, in exchange for him writing a cover story to publicize the play. Thompson does not write the story, but does rampage around London on Time Outs expense account. The play was revived for the Vault Fringe Festival in 2014.
GONZO: A Brutal Chrysalis is a one-man show about Thompson written by Paul Addis, who also played the author. Set in the writing den of Thompson's Woody Creek home, the show portrays his life between 1968 and 1971. James Cartee began playing the role soon after Addis's arrest in 2009, and again after Addis's death in 2012.
Awards, accolades, and tributes
Thompson was named a Kentucky Colonel by the governor of Kentucky in a December 1996 tribute ceremony where he also received keys to the city of Louisville.
Author Tom Wolfe has called Thompson the greatest American comic writer of the 20th century.
Asked in an interview with Jody Denberg on KGSR Studio, in 2000, whether he would ever consider writing a book "like [his] buddy Hunter S. Thompson", the musician Warren Zevon responded: "Let's remember that Hunter S. Thompson is the finest writer of our generation; he didn't just toss off a book the other day..."
Thompson appeared on the cover of the 1,000th issue of Rolling Stone, May 18 – June 1, 2006, as a devil playing the guitar next to the two "L"'s in the word "Rolling". Johnny Depp also appeared on the cover.
Many have suggested that General Hunter Gathers in the Adult Swim animated series The Venture Bros. is a tribute to Thompson, as they have a similar name, mannerisms, and physical appearance.
In the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous, based on Crowe's experiences writing for Rolling Stone while on the road with the fictional band Stillwater", the writer is on the phone with an actor portraying Jann Wenner. Wenner tells the young journalist that he "is not there to join the party, we already have one Hunter Thompson" after the young writer amassed large hotel and traveling expenses and is overheard to be sharing his room with several young women.
Eric C. Shoaf donated a caché of approximately 800 items (in librarian terms, about 35-40 linear feet of material on a shelf) pertaining to the life and career of Thompson to the University of California at Santa Cruz. Shoaf also published a descriptive bibliography, Gonzology: A Hunter Thompson Bibliography, of the works of Hunter S. Thompson with over 1,000 entries, many never before documented appearances in print, hundreds of biographical entries about Thompson's life, full descriptions of all his primary works, preface by William McKeen, Phd, and photo section with rare and exclusive items depicted.
References
External links
Hunter S. Thompson – photography selection
"Hunter S. Thompson's ESPN Page 2 Archive", Totallygonzo.org
"Shotgun Golf With Bill Murray", Thompson's final column for ESPN.com's Page 2.
A collection of articles on Thompson from The Guardian
Wills, David S., High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism. Edinburgh: Beatdom Books, 2022. ISBN 978-0-9934099-8-1
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Category:United States Air Force airmen
Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky | [] | null | null |
C_f9d8069ce5c14c45a92486e19a607c8b_1 | Hunter S. Thompson | Thompson was born into a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, the first of three sons of Virginia Ray Davison (1908, Springfield, Kentucky - March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, Horse Cave, Kentucky - July 3, 1952, Louisville), a public insurance adjuster and World War I veteran. His parents were introduced to each other by a friend from Jack's fraternity at the University of Kentucky in September 1934, and married on November 2, 1935. Thompson's first name came from a purported ancestor on his mother's side, the Scottish surgeon John Hunter. | Late 1960s | Following the success of Hell's Angels, Thompson was able to publish articles in a number of well-known magazines during the late 1960s, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Pageant, and Harper's. In the Times Magazine article, published in 1967, shortly before the "Summer of Love", and titled "The Hashbury is the Capital of the Hippies", Thompson wrote in-depth about the Hippies of San Francisco, deriding a culture that began to lack the political convictions of the New Left and the artistic core of the Beats, instead becoming overrun with newcomers lacking any purpose other than obtaining drugs. It was an observation on the 1960s' counterculture that Thompson would further examine in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and other articles. By late 1967, Thompson and his family moved back to Colorado and rented a house in Woody Creek, a small mountain hamlet outside Aspen. In early 1969, Thompson finally received a $15,000 royalty check for the paperback sales of Hell's Angels and used two-thirds of the money for a down payment on a modest home and property where he would live for the rest of his life. He named the house Owl Farm and often described it as his "fortified compound." In early 1968, Thompson signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. According to Thompson's letters and his later writings, at this time he planned to write a book called The Joint Chiefs about "the death of the American Dream." He used a $6,000 advance from Random House to travel on the 1968 Presidential campaign trail and attend the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago for research purposes. From his hotel room in Chicago, Thompson watched the clashes between police and protesters, which he wrote had a great effect on his political views. The book was never finished, and the theme of the death of the American dream would be carried over into his later work. The contract with Random House was eventually fulfilled with the 1972 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He also signed a deal with Ballantine Books in 1968 to write a satirical book called The Johnson File about Lyndon B. Johnson. A few weeks after the contract was signed, however, Johnson announced that he would not run for re-election, and the deal was cancelled. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author who founded the gonzo journalism movement. He rose to prominence with the publication of Hell's Angels (1967), a book for which he spent a year living and riding with the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences.
In 1970, he wrote an unconventional magazine feature titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which raised his profile and established his counterculture credibility. It also set him on the path to establishing his own subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a journalistic style in which the writer becomes a central figure and participant in the events of the narrative.
Thompson remains best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), a book first serialized in Rolling Stone in which he grapples with the implications of what he considered the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement. It was adapted for film twice: loosely in Where the Buffalo Roam starring Bill Murray as Thompson in 1980, and explicitly in 1998 by director Terry Gilliam in the eponymous film starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
Thompson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, in 1970 on the Freak Power ticket. His campaign was chronicled in the documentary film Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. He became known for his dislike of Richard Nixon, who he claimed represented "that dark, venal, and incurably violent side of the American character". He covered Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign for Rolling Stone and later collected the stories in book form as Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.
Thompson's output declined from the mid-1970s, as he struggled with the consequences of fame, and complained that he could no longer merely report on events, as he was too easily recognized. After several high-profile stories were quashed by the upper management of Rolling Stone, he found it increasingly difficult to get his work into mainstream outlets. He did continue to write for alternative newspapers, working as a columnist for the mainstream San Francisco Examiner for much of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Most of his work from 1979 to 1994 was collected in The Gonzo Papers. He continued to write sporadically for various outlets, including Rolling Stone, Playboy, Esquire and ESPN.com until the end of his life.
He was known for his lifelong use of alcohol and illegal narcotics, his love of firearms, and his iconoclastic contempt for authority. He often remarked: "I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." Thompson died by suicide at the age of 67, following a series of health problems. In accordance with his wishes, his ashes were fired out of a cannon in a ceremony funded by his friend Johnny Depp and attended by friends including then-Senator John Kerry and Jack Nicholson. Hari Kunzru wrote, "The true voice of Thompson is revealed to be that of American moralist ... one who often makes himself ugly to expose the ugliness he sees around him."
Early life
Thompson was born into a middle-class family in Louisville, Kentucky, the first of three sons of Virginia Davison Ray (1908, Springfield, Kentucky – March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, Horse Cave, Kentucky – July 3, 1952, Louisville), a public insurance adjuster and World War I veteran. His parents were introduced by a friend from Jack's fraternity at the University of Kentucky in September 1934, and married on November 2, 1935. Journalist Nicholas Lezard of The Guardian stated that Thompson's first name, Hunter, came from an ancestor on his mother's side, the Scottish surgeon John Hunter. A more direct attribution is that Thompson's first and middle name, Hunter Stockton, came from his maternal grandparents, Prestly Stockton Ray and Lucille Hunter.
In December 1943, when Thompson was six years old, the family settled in the affluent Cherokee Triangle neighborhood of The Highlands. On July 3, 1952, when Thompson was 14, his father died of myasthenia gravis at age 58. Hunter and his brothers were raised by their mother. Virginia worked as a librarian to support her children, and was described as a "heavy drinker" following her husband's death.
Education
Interested in sports and athletically inclined from a young age, Thompson co-founded the Hawks Athletic Club while attending I.N. Bloom Elementary School, which led to an invitation to join Louisville's Castlewood Athletic Club for adolescents that prepared them for high-school sports. Ultimately, he never joined a sports team in high school.
Thompson attended I.N. Bloom Elementary School, Highland Middle School, and Atherton High School, before transferring to Louisville Male High School in fall 1952. Also in 1952, he was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum Literary Association, a school-sponsored literary and social club that dated to 1862. Its members at the time came from Louisville's upper-class families, and included Porter Bibb, who became the first publisher of Rolling Stone at Thompson's behest. During this time, Thompson read and admired J. P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man.
As an Athenaeum member, Thompson contributed articles to and helped produce the club's yearbook The Spectator until the group ejected Thompson in 1955 for criminal activity. Charged as an accessory to robbery after being in a car with the perpetrator, Thompson was sentenced to 60 days in Kentucky's Jefferson County Jail. He served 31 days, and during his incarceration, was refused permission to take final exams, preventing his graduation. Upon release, he enlisted in the United States Air Force.
Military service
Thompson completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, and transferred to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois, to study electronics. He applied to become an aviator, but the Air Force's aviation-cadet program rejected his application. In 1956, he transferred to Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. While serving at Eglin, he took evening classes at Florida State University. At Eglin, he landed his first professional writing job as sports editor of The Command Courier by falsifying his job experience. As sports editor, Thompson traveled around the United States with the Eglin Eagles football team, covering its games. In early 1957, he wrote a sports column for The Playground News, a local newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His name did not appear on the column because Air Force regulations forbade outside employment.
In 1958, while he was an airman first class, his commanding officer recommended him for an early honorable discharge. "In summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy," chief of information services Colonel William S. Evans wrote to the Eglin personnel office. "Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members."
Early journalism career
After leaving the Air Force, Thompson worked as sports editor for a newspaper in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, before relocating to New York City. There he audited several courses at the Columbia University School of General Studies. During this time he worked briefly for Time as a copy boy for $51 a week. At work, he typed out parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms in order to learn the authors' rhythms and writing styles. In 1959 Time fired him for insubordination. Later that year, he worked as a reporter for The Middletown Daily Record in Middletown, New York. He was fired from this job after damaging an office candy machine and arguing with the owner of a local restaurant who happened to be an advertiser with the paper.
In 1960, Thompson moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take a job with the sporting magazine El Sportivo, which ceased operations soon after his arrival. Thompson applied for a job with the Puerto Rican English-language daily The San Juan Star, but its managing editor, future novelist William J. Kennedy, turned him down. Nonetheless, the two became friends. After the demise of El Sportivo, Thompson worked as a stringer for the New York Herald Tribune and a few other stateside papers on Caribbean issues, with Kennedy working as his editor.
After returning to mainland United States in 1961, Thompson visited San Francisco and eventually lived in Big Sur, where he spent eight months as security guard and caretaker at Slates Hot Springs, just before it became the Esalen Institute. At the time, Big Sur was a Beat outpost and home of Henry Miller and the screenwriter Dennis Murphy, both of whom Thompson admired. During this period, he published his first magazine feature in Rogue about the artisan and bohemian culture of Big Sur. and wrote two novels, Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary and struggled to publish several short stories. The Rum Diary, based on Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico, was finally published in and in 2011 adapted as a motion picture.
In May 1962, Thompson traveled to South America for a year as a correspondent for the Dow Jones-owned weekly paper, the National Observer. In Brazil, he spent several months as a reporter for the Rio de Janeiro-based Brazil Herald, the country's only English-language daily. His longtime girlfriend Sandra Dawn Conklin (subsequently Sondi Wright) joined him in Rio. They married on May 19, 1963, shortly after returning to the United States, and lived briefly in Aspen, Colorado. Sandy was eight months pregnant when they relocated to Glen Ellen, California. Their son, Juan Fitzgerald Thompson, was born in March 1964. During the summer of that same year, Hunter began taking Dexedrine, which is what he would predominantly use for writing up until around 1974 when he began to write mostly under the influence of cocaine.
Thompson continued to write for the National Observer on an array of domestic subjects during the early 60s. One story told of his 1964 visit to Ketchum, Idaho, to investigate the reasons for Ernest Hemingway's suicide. While there, he stole a pair of elk antlers hanging above the front door of Hemingway's cabin. Later that year, Thompson moved to San Francisco, where he attended the 1964 GOP Convention at the Cow Palace. Thompson severed his ties with the Observer after his editor refused to print his review of Tom Wolfe's 1965 essay-collection The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. He later immersed himself in the drug and hippie culture taking root in the area, and soon began writing for the Berkeley underground paper Spider.
Hell's Angels
In 1965 Carey McWilliams, editor of The Nation, hired Thompson to write a story about the Hells Angels motorcycle club in California. At the time Thompson was living in a house near San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, where the Hells Angels lived across from the Grateful Dead. His article appeared on May 17, 1965, after which he received several book offers and spent the next year living and riding with the club. The relationship broke down when the bikers perceived that Thompson was exploiting them for personal gain and demanded a share of his profits. An argument at a party resulted in Thompson suffering a savage beating (or "stomping", as the Angels referred to it). Random House published the hard-cover Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966, and the fight between Thompson and the Angels was well-marketed. CBC Television even broadcast an encounter between Thompson and Hells Angel Skip Workman before a live studio audience.
A New York Times review praised the work as an "angry, knowledgeable, fascinating, and excitedly written book", that shows the Hells Angels "not so much as dropouts from society but as total misfits, or unfits—emotionally, intellectually and educationally unfit to achieve the rewards, such as they are, that the contemporary social order offers". The reviewer also praised Thompson as a "spirited, witty, observant, and original writer; his prose crackles like motorcycle exhaust".
Late 1960s
Following the success of Hell's Angels, Thompson sold stories to several national magazines, including The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Pageant, and Harper's.
In 1967, shortly before the Summer of Love, Thompson wrote "The 'Hashbury' is the Capital of the Hippies" for The New York Times Magazine. He criticized San Francisco's hippies as devoid of both the political convictions of the New Left and the artistic core of the Beats, resulting in a culture overrun with young people who spent their time in the pursuit of drugs. "The thrust is no longer for 'change' or 'progress' or 'revolution', but merely to escape, to live on the far perimeter of a world that might have been – perhaps should have been – and strike a bargain for survival on purely personal terms," he wrote.
Later that year, Thompson and his family moved back to Colorado and rented a house in Woody Creek, a small mountain hamlet outside Aspen. In early 1969, Thompson received a $15,000 royalty check for the paperback sales of Hell's Angels and used a portion of the proceeds on a down payment on a home and property where he would live for the rest of his life. He named the house Owl Farm and often described it as his "fortified compound".
In early 1968, Thompson signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War. According to Thompson's letters from the period, he planned to write a book called The Joint Chiefs about "the death of the American Dream." He used a $6,000 advance from Random House to travel the country covering the 1968 United States presidential election and attend the Democratic National Convention in Chicago for research. He watched the clashes between police and anti-war protesters from his hotel, and later wrote that events had a significant effect on his political views. While Thompson never completed the book, he carried its theme into later work. He fulfilled his Random House contract in 1972 with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He also signed a deal with Ballantine Books in 1968 to write a satirical book called The Johnson File about President Lyndon B. Johnson. A few weeks later, the deal fell through after Johnson withdrew from the election.
Middle years
Aspen sheriff campaign
In 1970, Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, as part of a group of citizens running for local offices on the "Freak Power" ticket. The platform included promoting the decriminalization of drugs (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteering), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy pedestrian malls, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, disarming all police forces, and renaming Aspen "Fat City" to deter investors. Thompson, having shaved his head, referred to the crew cut-wearing Republican candidate as "my long-haired opponent".
With polls showing him with a slight lead in a three-way race, Thompson appeared at Rolling Stone magazine headquarters in San Francisco with a six-pack of beer in hand, and declared to editor Jann Wenner that he was about to be elected sheriff of Aspen, Colorado, and wished to write about the "Freak Power" movement. "The Battle of Aspen" was Thompson's first feature for the magazine carrying the byline "By: Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Candidate for Sheriff)". Despite the publicity, Thompson lost the election. While carrying the city of Aspen, he garnered only 44% of the county-wide vote in what had become, after the withdrawal of the Republican candidate, a two-way race. Thompson later said that the Rolling Stone article mobilized more opposition to the Freak Power ticket than supporters. The episode was the subject of the 2020 documentary film Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb. Writing of the episode more than fifty years later, Wenner wrote "Aspen didn't get a new sheriff, but I realized that, in Hunter, I had a fellow traveller."
Birth of Gonzo
Also in 1970, Thompson wrote an article entitled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for the short-lived new journalism magazine Scanlan's Monthly. For that article, editor Warren Hinckle paired Thompson with illustrator Ralph Steadman, who drew expressionist illustrations with lipstick and eyeliner. Thompson's story virtually ignored the race and focused instead on the drunken revelry surrounding the annual event in his hometown. Writing in the first person, he sets the debauchery against the backdrop of the American political scene of the moment: President Richard Nixon had ordered bombing of Cambodia and four students had been killed by Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State University, in a massacre which occurred only two days later.
Thompson and Steadman collaborated regularly after that. Although it was not widely read, the article was the first to use the techniques of Gonzo journalism, a style Thompson later employed in almost every literary endeavor. The manic first-person subjectivity of the story was reportedly the result of sheer desperation; he was facing a looming deadline and started sending the magazine pages ripped out of his notebook.
The first use of the word "Gonzo" to describe Thompson's work is credited to the journalist Bill Cardoso, who first met Thompson on a bus full of journalists covering the 1968 New Hampshire primary. In 1970, Cardoso (who was then the editor of The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine) wrote to Thompson praising the "Kentucky Derby" piece as a breakthrough: "This is it, this is pure Gonzo. If this is a start, keep rolling." According to Steadman, Thompson took to the word right away and said, "Okay, that's what I do. Gonzo." Thompson's first published use of the word appears in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "Free Enterprise. The American Dream. Horatio Alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas. Do it now: pure Gonzo journalism."
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
The book for which Thompson gained most of his fame began during the research for "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," an exposé for Rolling Stone on the 1970 killing of the Mexican-American television journalist Rubén Salazar. Salazar had been shot in the head at close range with a tear-gas canister fired by officers of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during the National Chicano Moratorium March against the Vietnam War. One of Thompson's sources for the story was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a prominent Mexican-American activist and attorney. Finding it difficult to talk in the racially tense atmosphere of Los Angeles, Thompson and Acosta decided to travel to Las Vegas, and take advantage of an assignment by Sports Illustrated to write a 250-word photograph caption on the Mint 400 motorcycle race held there.
What was to be a short caption quickly grew into something else entirely. Thompson first submitted to Sports Illustrated a manuscript of 2,500 words, which was, as he later wrote, "aggressively rejected." Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner liked "the first 20 or so jangled pages enough to take it seriously on its own terms and tentatively scheduled it for publication — which gave me the push I needed to keep working on it", Thompson wrote. Wenner, describing his first impression of it years later, called it "Sharp and insane."
To develop the story, Thompson and Acosta returned to Las Vegas to attend a drug enforcement conference. The two trips became the basis for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," which Rolling Stone serialized in two parts in November 1971. Random House published a book version the following year. It is written as a first-person account by a journalist named Raoul Duke with Dr. Gonzo, his "300-pound Samoan attorney." During the trip, Duke and his companion (always referred to as "my attorney") become sidetracked by a search for the American Dream, with "two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers ... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether, and two dozen amyls."
Coming to terms with the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement is a major theme of the novel, and the book was greeted with considerable critical acclaim. The New York Times praised it as "the best book yet written on the decade of dope". "The Vegas Book", as Thompson referred to it, was a mainstream success and introduced his Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
In 1971 Wenner agreed to assign Thompson to cover the 1972 United States presidential election for Rolling Stone. Thompson was paid a retainer of $1,000 per month and rented a house in near Rock Creek Park in Washington D.C. at the magazine's expense. He was also given a deal to publish a book on the campaign after its conclusion, which subsequently appeared as Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 in early 1973. Insider books on presidential politics had become popular during the prior decade starting with Theodore H. White's Making of the President series, the first of which appeared in 1961, with additional volumes in 1965 and 1969. Their success raised the overall profile of journalists assigned to cover the quadrennial presidential election in the U.S., and it became a common phrase among them to say they were "...Doing a Teddy White," meaning they planned to write their own insider book on the campaign.
Wenner had decided that Rolling Stone would cover the presidential election in part because of the passage in 1971 of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which lowered the legal voting age to 18 from 21, making a large part of its mostly young readership suddenly eligible to vote. "We intended to politicize our generation and wrest this stirring force away from the fake politics of the revolutionary," Wenner wrote in his memoirs of the plan to collaborate with Thompson.
Thompson's first campaign piece for Rolling Stone appeared as Fear and Loathing in Washington: Is This Trip Really Necessary> in the January 6, 1972 issue. The 14th and final installment appeared in the November 9 issue under the headline Ask Not For Whom The Bell Tolls....
Throughout the year, Thompson traveled with candidates running in the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries for the right to challenge the incumbent president, Republican Richard Nixon in the general election. Thompson's coverage focused mainly on Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota, Sen. Edmund Muskie of Maine, the early leader, and former vice-president Hubert Humphrey. Thompson supported McGovern and wrote critical coverage of the rival campaigns.
In the April 13 installment entitled Fear and Loathing: The Banshee Screams in Florida, Thompson relates how someone having apparently lifted his using his press credential, terrorized Muskie and his staff on a campaign train. The incident was later revealed to be an elaborate prank. In another installment, Thompson relates rumors — rumors he later admitted he had originated — that Muskie had become addicted to the psychoactive drug Ibogaine. The story damaged Muskie's reputation and played a role in his loss of the nomination to McGovern. In another, he tracked down McGovern in restroom in order to get a reaction quote after a senator from Iowa had switched his endorsement from McGovern to Muskie.
The series, and later, the book were praised for breaking boundaries with a new approach to political journalism. The literary critic Morris Dickstein, wrote that Thompson had learned to "approximate the effect of mind-blasting drugs in his prose style," and that he "recorded the nuts and bolts of a presidential campaign with all the contempt and incredulity that other reporters but feel but censor out."
Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern's campaign director, often described it the "most accurate and least factual" account of the 1972 campaign. In one vivid, yet invented anecdote, Thompson describes how Mankiewicz had leapt out from behind a bush to attack him with a hammer. To an uninitiated reader, it might have been unclear at first if the action Thompson described was fanciful or factual, and that seemed to be part of the point. As biographer William McKeen wrote "He wrote for his own amusement, and if others came along for the ride, that was all right."
Fame and its consequences
Thompson's journalistic work began to seriously suffer after his trip to Africa to cover the Rumble in the Jungle—the world heavyweight boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali—in 1974. He missed the match while intoxicated at his hotel, and did not submit a story to the magazine. As Wenner put it to the film critic Roger Ebert in the 2008 documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, "After Africa, he just couldn't write. He couldn't piece it together". It was around this time (1974) when Thompson also switched from writing on dextroamphetamine to mostly using cocaine for his writing instead with alcohol "being the only constant".
In 1975, Wenner assigned Thompson to travel to Vietnam to cover what appeared to be the end of the Vietnam War. Thompson arrived in Saigon just as South Vietnam was collapsing and as other journalists were leaving the country. Wenner allegedly canceled Thompson's medical insurance, which strained Thompson's relationship with Rolling Stone. He soon fled the country and refused to file his report until the ten-year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon. Wenner, writing in 2022, denied the claims that he cancelled Thompson's insurance, saying that Thompson spent most of his time in Saigon obsessing over evacuation plans. Thompson filed an unfinished dispatch that Wenner described "strong and promising, but nothing substantial." He then took a commercial flight to Bangkok where he met his wife for what Wenner described as a few weeks of "totally undeserved rest and recreation." While in Thailand, Thompson had a custom brass door plaque made that read "Rolling Stone: Global Affairs Suite. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson" marked with a map of the world and two lightning bolts. "That was it," Wenner wrote. "No story. Just that plaque." Thompson later finished the story in time for the 10-year anniversary of the Fall of Saigon.
Plans for Thompson to cover the 1976 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone and later publish a book fell through as Wenner closed Rolling Stone's book company. Thompson claimed Wenner canceled the project without informing him. In his memoirs, Wenner told a different story: "The issue wasn't money ... The real issue was whether he had the discipline to spend so much time on the campaign trail and whether he had that much to say about the same subject again." Thompson went on to spend a day with Jimmy Carter at the Georgia Governor's Mansion and write 10,000-word cover-story endorsing Carter for president. "After that, we were virtually an official part of the Carter campaign, and they treated us as such," Wenner wrote of the episode.
From the late 1970s on, most of Thompson's literary output appeared as a four-volume series of books entitled The Gonzo Papers. Beginning with The Great Shark Hunt in 1979 and ending with Better Than Sex in 1994, the series is largely a collection of rare newspaper and magazine pieces from the pre-gonzo period, along with almost all of his Rolling Stone pieces.
Starting around 1980, Thompson became less active by his standards. Aside from paid appearances, he largely retreated to his compound in Woody Creek, rejecting projects and assignments or failing to complete them. Despite a lack of new material, Wenner kept Thompson on the Rolling Stone masthead as chief of the "National Affairs Desk", a position he held until his death.
In 1980, Thompson divorced his wife Sandra Conklin. The same year marked the release of Where the Buffalo Roam, a loose film adaptation based on Thompson's early 1970s work, starring Bill Murray as the writer. Murray eventually became one of Thompson's trusted friends. Later that year, Thompson relocated to Hawaii to research and write The Curse of Lono, a Gonzo-style account of the 1980 Honolulu Marathon. Extensively illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the piece first appeared in Running in 1981 as "The Charge of the Weird Brigade" and was later excerpted in Playboy in 1983.
In 1983, he covered the U.S. invasion of Grenada, but did not write or discuss the experiences until the publication of Kingdom of Fear in 2003. Later that year, at the behest of Terry McDonell, he wrote "A Dog Took My Place", an exposé for Rolling Stone of the scandalous Roxanne Pulitzer divorce case and what he called the "Palm Beach lifestyle". The story included dubious insinuations of bestiality. Wenner described it as one of Thompson's "least-known but best pieces." In 1985, Thompson accepted an advance to write about "couples pornography" for Playboy. As part of his research, he spent evenings at the Mitchell Brothers O'Farrell Theatre striptease club in San Francisco. The experience evolved into an as-yet-unpublished novel tentatively entitled The Night Manager.
Thompson next accepted a role as weekly media columnist and critic for The San Francisco Examiner. The position was arranged by former editor and fellow Examiner columnist Warren Hinckle. His editor at The Examiner, David McCumber described, "One week it would be acid-soaked gibberish with a charm of its own. The next week it would be incisive political analysis of the highest order."
Many of these columns were collected in Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s (1988) and Gonzo Papers, Vol. 3: Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream (1990), a collection of autobiographical reminiscences, articles, and previously unpublished material.
Later years
Thompson faced a sexual assault charge in March 1990 when former pornographic film director Gail Palmer claimed that after she denied his sexual advances while at his home, Thompson threw a drink at her and twisted her left breast. He was tried for five felonies and three misdemeanors owing to the assault charge and allegations of drug abuse after the police raided his home. The charges were dropped two months later.
Throughout the early 1990s, Thompson claimed to be at work on a novel entitled Polo Is My Life. It was briefly excerpted in Rolling Stone in 1994. Wenner described it as "Hunter's last big piece of feature writing," and described Thompson as abusive toward two editorial assistants assigned to him. Thompson himself described it in 1996 as "a sex book — you know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. It's about the manager of a sex theater who's forced to leave and flee to the mountains. He falls in love and gets in even more trouble than he was in the sex theater in San Francisco." The novel was slated to be released by Random House in 1999, and was even assigned , but was never published.
Thompson continued to publish irregularly in Rolling Stone, ultimately contributing 17 pieces to the magazine between 1984 and 2004. "Fear and Loathing in Elko," published in 1992, was a well-received fictional rallying cry against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States. "Trapped in Mr. Bill's Neighborhood" was a largely factual account of an interview with Bill Clinton at a Little Rock, Arkansas, steakhouse. Rather than traveling the campaign trail as he had done in previous presidential elections, Thompson monitored the proceedings on cable television; Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie, his account of the 1992 presidential campaign, is composed of reactive faxes to Rolling Stone. In 1994, the magazine published "He Was a Crook", a "scathing" obituary of Richard Nixon.
In November 2004, Rolling Stone published Thompson's final magazine feature "The Fun-Hogs in the Passing Lane: Fear and Loathing, Campaign 2004", a brief account of the 2004 presidential election in which he compared the outcome of the Bush v. Gore court case to the Reichstag fire and formally endorsed Senator John Kerry, a longtime friend, for president.
Fear and Loathing redux
In 1996, Modern Library reissued Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas along with "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," and "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Two years later, the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas generated new interest in Thompson and his work, and a paperback edition was published as a tie-in. The same year, an early novel, The Rum Diary, was published. Two volumes of collected letters also appeared during this time.
Thompson's next, and penultimate, collection, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century, was widely publicized as Thompson's first memoir. Published in 2003, it combined new material (including reminiscences of the O'Farrell Theater), selected newspaper and digital clippings, and other older works.
Thompson finished his journalism career in the same way it had begun: Writing about sports. From 2000 until his death in 2005, he wrote a weekly column for ESPN.com's Page 2 entitled "Hey, Rube." In 2004, Simon & Schuster collected some of the columns from the first few years and released them in mid-2004 as Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness.
Thompson married assistant Anita Bejmuk on April 23, 2003.
Death
At 5:42 pm on February 20, 2005, Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm, his "fortified compound" in Woody Creek, Colorado. His son Juan, daughter-in-law Jennifer, and grandson were visiting for the weekend. His wife Anita, who was at the Aspen Club, was on the phone with him as he cocked the gun. According to the Aspen Daily News, Thompson asked her to come home to help him write his ESPN column, then set the receiver on the counter. Anita said she mistook the cocking of the gun for the sound of his typewriter keys and hung up as he fired. Will and Jennifer were in the next room when they heard the gunshot, but mistook the sound for a book falling and did not check on Thompson immediately. Juan Thompson found his father's body. According to the police report and Anita's cell phone records, he called the sheriff's office half an hour later, then walked outside and fired three shotgun blasts into the air to "mark the passing of his father." The police report stated that in Thompson's typewriter was a piece of paper with the date "Feb. 22 '05" and a single word, "counselor."
Years of alcohol and cocaine abuse contributed to his problem with depression. Thompson's inner circle told the press that he had been depressed and always found February a "gloomy" month, with football season over and the harsh Colorado winter weather. He was also upset over his advancing age and chronic medical problems, including a hip replacement; he would frequently mutter "This kid is getting old." Rolling Stone published what Douglas Brinkley described as a suicide note written by Thompson to his wife, titled "Football Season Is Over." It read:
Thompson's collaborator and friend Ralph Steadman wrote:
Funeral
On August 20, 2005, in a private funeral, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon. This was accompanied by red, white, blue, and green fireworks—all to the tune of Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" and Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man". The cannon was placed atop a tower which had the shape of a double-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button, a symbol originally used in his 1970 campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. The plans for the monument were initially drawn by Thompson and Steadman, and were shown as part of an Omnibus program on the BBC titled Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978). It is included as a special feature on the second disc of the 2004 Criterion Collection DVD release of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and labeled as Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood.
According to his widow, Anita, the $3 million funeral was funded by actor Johnny Depp, who was a close friend of Thompson's. Depp told the Associated Press, "All I'm doing is trying to make sure his last wish comes true. I just want to send my pal out the way he wants to go out." An estimated 280 people attended, including U.S. Senators John Kerry and George McGovern; 60 Minutes correspondents Ed Bradley and Charlie Rose; actors Jack Nicholson, John Cusack, Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, and Josh Hartnett; musicians Lyle Lovett, John Oates and David Amram, and artist and long-time friend Ralph Steadman.
Legacy
Writing style
Thompson is often credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of writing that blurs distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. His work and style are considered to be a major part of the New Journalism literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which attempted to break free from the purely objective style of mainstream reportage of the time. Thompson almost always wrote in the first person, while extensively using his own experiences and emotions to color "the story" he was trying to follow.
Despite him having personally described his work as "Gonzo", it fell to later observers to articulate what the term actually meant. While Thompson's approach clearly involved injecting himself as a participant in the events of the narrative, it also involved adding invented, metaphoric elements, thus creating, for the uninitiated reader, a seemingly confusing amalgam of facts and fiction notable for the deliberately blurred lines between one and the other. Thompson, in a 1974 interview in Playboy addressed the issue himself, saying, "Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They're both much better reporters than I am, but then, I don't think of myself as a reporter." Tom Wolfe would later describe Thompson's style as "... part journalism and part personal memoir admixed with powers of wild invention and wilder rhetoric." Or as one description of the differences between Thompson and Wolfe's styles would elaborate, "While Tom Wolfe mastered the technique of being a fly on the wall, Thompson mastered the art of being a fly in the ointment."
The majority of Thompson's most popular and acclaimed work appeared within the pages of Rolling Stone magazine. Publisher Jan Wenner said Thompson was "in the DNA of Rolling Stone." Along with Joe Eszterhas and David Felton, Thompson was instrumental in expanding the focus of the magazine past music criticism; indeed, Thompson was the only staff writer of the epoch never to contribute a music feature to the magazine. Nevertheless, his articles were always peppered with a wide array of pop music references ranging from Howlin' Wolf to Lou Reed. Armed with early fax machines wherever he went, he became notorious for haphazardly sending sometimes illegible material to the magazine's San Francisco offices as an issue was about to go to press.
Wenner said Thompson tended to work "in long bursts of energy, awake until dawn or, too often, two dawns." He said keeping Thompson on track which finishing a piece required "...companionship, or what editors call hand-holding, but in Hunter's case it was more like being a junior officer in his war. He required his creature comforts, which meant the right kind of typewriter and a certain color paper, Wild Turkey, the right drugs, and the proper music."
Robert Love, Thompson's editor of 23 years at Rolling Stone, wrote, "the dividing line between fact and fancy rarely blurred, and we didn't always use italics or some other typographical device to indicate the lurch into the fabulous. But if there were living, identifiable humans in a scene, we took certain steps ... Hunter was a close friend of many prominent Democrats, veterans of the ten or more presidential campaigns he covered, so when in doubt, we'd call the press secretary. 'People will believe almost any twisted kind of story about politicians or Washington,' he once said, and he was right."
Discerning the line between the fact and the fiction of Thompson's work presented a practical problem for editors and fact-checkers of his work. Love called fact-checking Thompson's work "one of the sketchiest occupations ever created in the publishing world", and "for the first-timer ... a trip through a journalistic fun house, where you didn't know what was real and what wasn't. You knew you had better learn enough about the subject at hand to know when the riff began and reality ended. Hunter was a stickler for numbers, for details like gross weight and model numbers, for lyrics and caliber, and there was no faking it."
Persona
Thompson often used a blend of fiction and fact when portraying himself in his writing, too, sometimes using the name Raoul Duke as an author surrogate whom he generally described as a callous, erratic, self-destructive journalist, constantly drinking and taking hallucinogenics. In the early 1980s, Wenner spoke with Thompson about his alcoholism and addiction to cocaine, and offered to pay for drug treatment. "Hunter was polite and firm," Wenner wrote in 2022. "He had thought about it and didn't feel he could or would change. He felt that this was they key to his talent. He said that if he didn't do drugs, he'd have the brain of an accountant. The abuse was already taking a toll on his gifts.... It was just too late and he knew it."
In the late 1960s, Thompson acquired the title of "Doctor" from the Universal Life Church.
A number of critics have commented that as he grew older, the line that distinguished Thompson from his literary self became increasingly blurred. Thompson admitted during a 1978 BBC interview that he sometimes felt pressured to live up to the fictional self that he had created, adding, "I'm never sure which one people expect me to be. Very often, they conflict — most often, as a matter of fact. ... I'm leading a normal life and right alongside me there is this myth, and it is growing and mushrooming and getting more and more warped. When I get invited to, say, speak at universities, I'm not sure if they are inviting Duke or Thompson. I'm not sure who to be."
Thompson's writing style and eccentric persona gave him a cult following in both literary and drug circles, and his cult status expanded into broader areas after being portrayed three times in major motion pictures. Hence, both his writing style and persona have been widely imitated, and his likeness has even become a popular costume choice for Halloween.
Political beliefs
Thompson was a firearms and explosives enthusiast (in his writing and in life) and owned a vast collection of handguns, rifles, shotguns, and various automatic and semiautomatic weapons, along with numerous forms of gaseous crowd-control and many homemade devices. He was a proponent of the right to bear arms and privacy rights. A member of the National Rifle Association, Thompson was also co-creator of the Fourth Amendment Foundation, an organization to assist victims in defending themselves against unwarranted search and seizure.
Part of his work with the Fourth Amendment Foundation centered around support of Lisl Auman, a Colorado woman who was sentenced for life in 1997 under felony murder charges for the death of police officer Bruce VanderJagt, despite contradictory statements and dubious evidence. Thompson organized rallies, provided legal support, and co-wrote an article in the June 2004 issue of Vanity Fair outlining the case. The Colorado Supreme Court eventually overturned Auman's sentence in March 2005, shortly after Thompson's death, and Auman is now free. Auman's supporters claim Thompson's support and publicity resulted in the successful appeal.
Thompson was also an ardent supporter of drug legalization and became known for his detailed accounts of his own drug use. He was an early supporter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and served on the group's advisory board for over 30 years, until his death. He told an interviewer in 1997 that drugs should be legalized "[a]cross the board. It might be a little rough on some people for a while, but I think it's the only way to deal with drugs. Look at Prohibition; all it did was make a lot of criminals rich."
In a 1965 letter to his friend Paul Semonin, Thompson explained an affection for the Industrial Workers of the World, "I have in recent months come to have a certain feeling for Joe Hill and the Wobbly crowd who, if nothing else, had the right idea. But not the right mechanics. I believe the IWW was probably the last human concept in American politics." In another letter to Semonin, Thompson wrote that he agreed with Karl Marx, and compared him to Thomas Jefferson. In a letter to William Kennedy, Thompson confided that he was "coming to view the free enterprise system as the single greatest evil in the history of human savagery." In the documentary Breakfast with Hunter, Hunter S. Thompson is seen in several scenes wearing different Che Guevara T-shirts. Additionally, actor and friend Benicio del Toro has stated that Thompson kept a "big" picture of Che in his kitchen. Thompson wrote on behalf of African-American rights and the civil rights movement. He strongly criticized the dominance in American society of what he called "white power structures".
After the September 11 attacks, Thompson voiced skepticism regarding the official story on who was responsible for the attacks. He speculated to several interviewers that it had been conducted by the U.S. government or with the government's assistance, though readily admitting he had no way to prove his theory.
In 2004, Thompson wrote: "[Richard] Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for—but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush–Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him."
Scholarships
Thompson's widow established two scholarship funds at Columbia University School of General Studies for U.S. military veterans and the University of Kentucky for journalism students.
Colorado NORML created the Hunter S. Thompson Scholarship to pay all expenses for a lawyer or law student to attend the NORML Legal Committee Conference in Aspen, generally the first few days of June each year. The funding from a silent auction has paid for two winners for some years. Many winners have gone on to become important cannabis lawyers on state and national levels.
Works
Books
Thompson published books from 1966 to the end of his life. His best-known works include Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Rum Diary, The Curse of Lono, and Screwjack.
Articles
As a journalist over the course of decades, Thompson published numerous articles in various periodicals. He wrote for many publications, including Rolling Stone, Esquire, The Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The San Francisco Examiner, Time, Vanity Fair, The San Juan Star, and Playboy. He was also guest editor for a single edition of The Aspen Daily News. A collection of 100 of his columns from The San Francisco Examiner was published in 1988 as Gonzo Papers, Vol. 2: Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s. A collection of his articles for Rolling Stone was released in 2011 as Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writings of Hunter S. Thompson. The book was edited by the magazine's co-founder and publisher, Jann S. Wenner, who also provided an introduction to the collection.
Letters
Thompson wrote many letters, which were his primary means of personal communication. He made carbon copies of all his letters, usually typed, a habit begun in his teenaged years.
The Fear and Loathing Letters is a three-volume collection of selections from Thompson's correspondence, edited by historian Douglas Brinkley. The first volume, The Proud Highway, was published in 1997, and contains letters from 1955 to 1967. Fear and Loathing in America was published in 2000 and contains letters dating from 1968 to 1976. A third volume, titled The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop 1977–2005, was edited by Douglas Brinkley and prepared by Simon & Schuster in 2005. As of April 2023, it has yet to be sold to the public. It contains a special introduction by Johnny Depp.
Illustrations
Accompanying the eccentric and colorful writing of Hunter Thompson, illustrations by British artist Ralph Steadman offer visual representations of the Gonzo style. Steadman and Thompson developed a professional relationship. The two collaborated many times over Thompson's career, although at times they were known to argue violently. Wayne Ewing's documentary on Hunter captured an encounter where Steadman tells Hunter that he believes his drawings contributed as much to the success of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Hunter's writing. Hunter was furious at the suggestion and their relationship was certainly, at times, strained. Steadman in recent years has described Hunter as "rude" and "a bully." So while they are publicly known as great friends, the true nature of their relationship was considerably more nuanced.
Photography
Thompson was an avid amateur photographer throughout his life, and his photos have been exhibited since his death at art galleries in the United States and United Kingdom. In late 2006, AMMO Books published a limited-edition, 224-page collection of Thompson photos called Gonzo: Photographs by Hunter S. Thompson, with an introduction by Johnny Depp. Thompson's snapshots were a combination of the subjects he was covering, stylized self-portraits, and artistic still life photos. The London Observer called the photos "astonishingly good" and noted that "Thompson's pictures remind us, brilliantly in every sense, of very real people, real colours."
Feature films
The film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980) depicts heavily fictionalized attempts by Thompson to cover the Super Bowl and the 1972 U.S. presidential election. It stars Bill Murray as Thompson and Peter Boyle as Thompson's attorney Oscar Zeta Acosta, referred to in the movie as Carl Lazlo, Esq.
The 1998 film adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was directed by Monty Python veteran Terry Gilliam and starred Johnny Depp (who moved into Thompson's basement to "study" Thompson's persona before assuming his role in the film) as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Oscar Zeta Acosta. The film has achieved something of a cult following.
In the 2001 film Ali, Thompson is briefly portrayed by actor Lee Cummings.
The film adaptation of Thompson's novel The Rum Diary was released in October 2011, also starring Johnny Depp as the main character, Paul Kemp. The novel's premise was inspired by Thompson's own experiences in Puerto Rico. The film was written and directed by Bruce Robinson.
At a press junket for The Rum Diary shortly before the film's release, Depp said that he would like to adapt The Curse of Lono, "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", and Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs for the big screen: "I'd just keep playing Hunter. There's a great comfort in it for me, because I get a great visit with my old friend who I miss dearly."
Documentaries
Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision (1978) is an extended television profile by the BBC. It can be found on disc 2 of The Criterion Collection edition of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The Mitchell brothers, owners of the O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, made a documentary about Thompson in 1988 called Hunter S. Thompson: The Crazy Never Die.
Wayne Ewing created three documentaries about Thompson. The film Breakfast with Hunter (2003) was directed and edited by Ewing. It documents Thompson's work on the movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, his arrest for drunk driving, and his subsequent fight with the court system. When I Die (2005) is a video chronicle of making Thompson's final farewell wishes a reality, and documents the send-off itself. Free Lisl: Fear and Loathing in Denver (2006) chronicles Thompson's efforts in helping to free Lisl Auman, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the shooting of a police officer, a crime she did not commit. All three films are only available online.
In Come on Down: Searching for the American Dream (2004) Thompson gives director Adamm Liley insight into the nature of the American Dream over drinks at the Woody Creek Tavern.
Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film (2006) was directed by Tom Thurman, written by Tom Marksbury, and produced by the Starz Entertainment Group. The original documentary features interviews with Thompson's inner circle of family and friends, but the thrust of the film focuses on the manner in which his life often overlapped with numerous Hollywood celebrities who became his close friends, such as Johnny Depp, Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Thompson's wife Anita, son Juan, former Senators George McGovern and Gary Hart, writers Tom Wolfe and William F. Buckley, actors Gary Busey and Harry Dean Stanton, and the illustrator Ralph Steadman among others.
Blasted!!! The Gonzo Patriots of Hunter S. Thompson (2006), produced, directed, photographed, and edited by Blue Kraning, is a documentary about the scores of fans who volunteered their privately owned artillery to fire the ashes of Thompson. Blasted!!! premiered at the 2006 Starz Denver International Film Festival, part of a tribute series to Thompson held at the Denver Press Club.
In 2008, Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Taxi to the Dark Side) wrote and directed a documentary on Thompson, titled Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The film premiered on January 20, 2008, at the Sundance Film Festival. Gibney uses intimate, never-before-seen home videos, interviews with friends, enemies, lovers, and clips from films adapted from Thompson's material to document his turbulent life.
Theater
Lou Stein's adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was performed at the Battersea Theatre. Stein persuades London's Time Out magazine to put Thompson up for a fortnight, in exchange for him writing a cover story to publicize the play. Thompson does not write the story, but does rampage around London on Time Outs expense account. The play was revived for the Vault Fringe Festival in 2014.
GONZO: A Brutal Chrysalis is a one-man show about Thompson written by Paul Addis, who also played the author. Set in the writing den of Thompson's Woody Creek home, the show portrays his life between 1968 and 1971. James Cartee began playing the role soon after Addis's arrest in 2009, and again after Addis's death in 2012.
Awards, accolades, and tributes
Thompson was named a Kentucky Colonel by the governor of Kentucky in a December 1996 tribute ceremony where he also received keys to the city of Louisville.
Author Tom Wolfe has called Thompson the greatest American comic writer of the 20th century.
Asked in an interview with Jody Denberg on KGSR Studio, in 2000, whether he would ever consider writing a book "like [his] buddy Hunter S. Thompson", the musician Warren Zevon responded: "Let's remember that Hunter S. Thompson is the finest writer of our generation; he didn't just toss off a book the other day..."
Thompson appeared on the cover of the 1,000th issue of Rolling Stone, May 18 – June 1, 2006, as a devil playing the guitar next to the two "L"'s in the word "Rolling". Johnny Depp also appeared on the cover.
Many have suggested that General Hunter Gathers in the Adult Swim animated series The Venture Bros. is a tribute to Thompson, as they have a similar name, mannerisms, and physical appearance.
In the Cameron Crowe film Almost Famous, based on Crowe's experiences writing for Rolling Stone while on the road with the fictional band Stillwater", the writer is on the phone with an actor portraying Jann Wenner. Wenner tells the young journalist that he "is not there to join the party, we already have one Hunter Thompson" after the young writer amassed large hotel and traveling expenses and is overheard to be sharing his room with several young women.
Eric C. Shoaf donated a caché of approximately 800 items (in librarian terms, about 35-40 linear feet of material on a shelf) pertaining to the life and career of Thompson to the University of California at Santa Cruz. Shoaf also published a descriptive bibliography, Gonzology: A Hunter Thompson Bibliography, of the works of Hunter S. Thompson with over 1,000 entries, many never before documented appearances in print, hundreds of biographical entries about Thompson's life, full descriptions of all his primary works, preface by William McKeen, Phd, and photo section with rare and exclusive items depicted.
References
External links
Hunter S. Thompson – photography selection
"Hunter S. Thompson's ESPN Page 2 Archive", Totallygonzo.org
"Shotgun Golf With Bill Murray", Thompson's final column for ESPN.com's Page 2.
A collection of articles on Thompson from The Guardian
Wills, David S., High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism. Edinburgh: Beatdom Books, 2022. ISBN 978-0-9934099-8-1
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Category:Writers from Louisville, Kentucky | [] | null | null |
C_2456f9e2997745a2bdf69e61067fea11_0 | Augusto Pinochet | Augusto Jose Ramon Pinochet Ugarte (; Spanish: [au'gusto pino'(t)Se, -'(t)Set]; 25 November 1915 - 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general, politician and the dictator of Chile between 1973 and 1990 who remained the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 1998 and was also President of the Government Junta of Chile between 1973 and 1981. Pinochet assumed power in Chile following a United States-backed coup d'etat on 11 September 1973 that overthrew the democratically elected socialist Unidad Popular government of President Salvador Allende and ended civilian rule. | Accusations of fascism | Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist. However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalism but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity. World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists." Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that Pinochet's establishment cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic: It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state, I haven't heard anybody mention Jaime Guzman, Carlos Caceres, Hernan Buchi, Sergio de Castro. There is no mention of the true brains, or that the whole of the armed forces were involved in this, in dirty and symbolic tasks. Everything is embodied in Pinochet, it's very curious that figures of the stature of Buchi are immolated before the figure of Pinochet, in what is to me a fascist rite, give everything to the Fuhrer, "I did it, but ultimately it was him". CANNOTANSWER | [
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"Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism and including the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos.",
"Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States.",
"Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism",
"CANNOTANSWER",
"It is notable that in all the declarations of Pinochet's men, nobody has mentioned the creators of the new Chilean society and state,"
]
} | Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (;, , ,; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general and dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure president after a new constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980. His rule remains the longest of any Chilean leader in history.
Augusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973,
Pinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the US, that toppled Allende's democratically elected left-wing Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was at least 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.
Under the influence of the free market-oriented "Chicago Boys", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization following neoliberalism, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.
Pinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, while in London in 1998 Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.
Early life and education
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.
Pinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.
Military career
In September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the "Chacabuco" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the "Maipo" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.
By late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the "Carampangue" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.
The following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the "Rancagua" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.
In 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the "Esmeralda" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.
In January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.
Military coup of 1973
On 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).
In his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.
The new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.
In the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.
Canadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.
U.S. backing of the coup
The Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was "no evidence" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an "invisible blockade" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively "fomented" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were "apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover." Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating "I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government."
The US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled "CIA Activities in Chile", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.
Military junta
A military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.
Military dictatorship (1973–1990)
The junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself "Supreme Chief of the Nation" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to "President" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.
Pinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.
Armed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.
According to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.
In September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.
Suppression of opposition
Almost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.
All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.
The Rettig Report concluded that 2,279 people who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were pursued all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was carried out under Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to "save the country from communism". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.
Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the worst cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, "disappeared", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.
Many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) under the auspices of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.
Other victims of Condor included Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976; and Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered Letelier's assassination. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; and US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor. Furthermore, according to later investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 with toxins produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.
Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.
In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was murdered by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. This case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. The same month, 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show "Chacotero Sentimental".
On 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.
Economic policy
In 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons. Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, and had controlled prices. Inflation had reached 606%, income per capita had contracted by 7.14% in 1973 alone and 30% compared to 1970, GDP had contracted by 5% in 1973, and public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% of GDP between 1970 and 1973, creating a deficit equal to 25% of GDP. While some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis, others like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because aid and credit still existed (albeit in smaller quantities), and no formal trade embargo had been declared.
By mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted "to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.
In sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines "inalienable". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically; however, they would fall partly in American hands.
Wages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.
Financial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.
The Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.
Critics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.
American scholar Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. She contends this was the effective meaning of the theoretical model known as public choice, whose architect James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that "evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution" and "there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator."
1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy
According to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the "YES" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the "NO" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.
Another reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.
Political advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the "NO" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO ("Coalition of Parties for NO"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene ("Joy is coming"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.
On 5 October 1988, the "NO" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of "YES" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.
The Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.
Thereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.
The Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the "binomial" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called "Democracy and Progress" and then "Union for Chile"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.
Due to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was "no longer justifiable".
Relationship with the United Kingdom
Chile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.
In April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 "Las Panteras Negras" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as "the party of Pinochet" in 1999.
Human rights violations
Pinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.
Professor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or "disappeared" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.
According to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.
According to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, "routine sadism was taken to extremes" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and "unnatural acts involving dogs". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as "the telephone" involved the torturer slamming "his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal "with his hands and face extremely disfigured" and with "forty-four bullet holes".
The practice of murdering political opponents via "death flights", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given "free helicopter rides". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into "the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that "Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich."
During the 1990s, while no longer President still commander-in-chief, Pinochet scoffed at his human rights critics. When asked about the discovery of a mass grave of his government's victims, Pinochet was quoted in the Chilean press as joking that it was an "efficient" way of burial.
Ideology and public image
Pinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:
Lawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.
Jacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet "the last Prussian army in the world", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.
Historian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as "totemic", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts "all hate". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image "irreparably" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.
In 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the "Consejos Regionales" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.
According to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.
Pinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori "chinochet" instead of his ordinary nickname "chino". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as "Africa's Pinochet" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption "Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.
Accusations of fascism
Pinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.
However, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.
World Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that "Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
Historian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:
Intellectual life and academic work
Pinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica, Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.
Rodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.
Investigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.
During his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction.
Nicknames
Supporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for "Pinocchio", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of "the grandpa"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.
Post-dictatorship life
Arrest and court cases in the United Kingdom
Pinochet was arrested in London on "charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.
After having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.
Return to Chile
Pinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release. His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.
In March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of "ex-president", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially "disappeared": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of "homicide" difficult.
In July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, "Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have."
Pinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: "I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember."
In January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.
On 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday:
Two days later, he was again indicted and ordered preliminary house arrest on charges of kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.
Pinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.
Corruption and other issues
In 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.
Though the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:
Over several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.
In September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.
In 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.
Pinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the "disappeared" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.
The Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were "disappeared" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the September 11 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only "a former public official"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.
Death
Pinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).
Massive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.
In a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be "a violation of [her] conscience" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.
In Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.
Pinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón, on 12 December 2006, on his request to "avoid vandalism of his tomb", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.
Honours
National honours
:
Grand Master of the Order of Merit (1974–1990)
Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins (1974–1990)
President of the Republic Decoration
10 Years Service Award
20 Years Service Award
30 Years Service Award
Minerva Medal (Army War College)
Minerva Medal (Army War College)
Decoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross
Grand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica
Foreign honours
: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal
:
Order of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class
Official Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
Honorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador
: Order of José Matías Delgado
: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)
:
Grand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín
Grand Cross of the Order of May
: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova
: Crosses of Military Merit
See also
1970 Chilean presidential election
Book burnings in Chile
History of Chile
Pinochetism
Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult
Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup
No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule
David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)
United States involvement in regime change
Explanatory notes
References
Further reading
(Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)
External links
Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography
France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24
BBC coverage (special report)
Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco
CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive
Chile under Allende and Pinochet
Human rights violation under Pinochet
The Times obituary
Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine
Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review
What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)
When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!
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{
"text": "Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (;, , ,; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general and dictator who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of the Republic by the junta in 1974 and becoming the de facto dictator of Chile, and from 1981 to 1990 as de jure president after a new constitution, which confirmed him in the office, was approved by a referendum in 1980. His rule remains the longest of any Chilean leader in history.\n\t\nAugusto Pinochet rose through the ranks of the Chilean Army to become General Chief of Staff in early 1972 before being appointed its Commander-in-Chief on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende. On 11 September 1973, \nPinochet seized power in Chile in a coup d'état, with the support of the US, that toppled Allende's democratically elected left-wing Unidad Popular government and ended civilian rule. In December 1974, the ruling military junta appointed Pinochet Supreme Head of the nation by joint decree, although without the support of one of the coup's instigators, Air Force General Gustavo Leigh. After his rise to power, Pinochet persecuted leftists, socialists, and political critics, resulting in the executions of 1,200 to 3,200 people, the internment of as many as 80,000 people, and the torture of tens of thousands. According to the Chilean government, the number of executions and forced disappearances was at least 3,095. Operation Condor, a U.S.-supported terror operation focusing on South America, was founded at the behest of the Pinochet regime in late November 1975, his 60th birthday.\n\nUnder the influence of the free market-oriented \"Chicago Boys\", Pinochet's military government implemented economic liberalization following neoliberalism, including currency stabilization, removed tariff protections for local industry, banned trade unions, and privatized social security and hundreds of state-owned enterprises. Some of the government properties were sold below market price to politically connected buyers, including Pinochet's son-in-law. The regime used censorship of entertainment as a way to reward supporters of the regime and punish opponents. These policies produced high economic growth, but critics state that economic inequality dramatically increased and attribute the devastating effects of the 1982 monetary crisis on the Chilean economy to these policies. For most of the 1990s, Chile was the best-performing economy in Latin America, though the legacy of Pinochet's reforms continues to be in dispute. His fortune grew considerably during his years in power through dozens of bank accounts secretly held abroad and a fortune in real estate. He was later prosecuted for embezzlement, tax fraud, and for possible commissions levied on arms deals.\n\nPinochet's 17-year rule was given a legal framework through a controversial 1980 plebiscite, which approved a new constitution drafted by a government-appointed commission. In a 1988 plebiscite, 56% voted against Pinochet's continuing as president, which led to democratic elections for the presidency and Congress. After stepping down in 1990, Pinochet continued to serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Army until 10 March 1998, when he retired and became a senator-for-life in accordance with his 1980 Constitution. However, while in London in 1998 Pinochet was arrested under an international arrest warrant in connection with numerous human rights violations. Following a legal battle, he was released on grounds of ill-health and returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. In 2004, Chilean Judge Juan Guzmán Tapia ruled that Pinochet was medically fit to stand trial and placed him under house arrest. By the time of his death on 10 December 2006, about 300 criminal charges were still pending against him in Chile for numerous human rights violations during his 17-year rule, as well as tax evasion and embezzlement during and after his rule. He was also accused of having corruptly amassed at least US$28 million.\n\nEarly life and education\nAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was born in Valparaíso on 25 November 1915. He was the son and namesake of Augusto Pinochet Vera (1891–1944), a descendant of an 18th century French Breton immigrant from Lamballe, and Avelina Ugarte Martínez (1895–1986), a woman of Basque heritage whose family had been in Chile since the 17th century.\n\nPinochet went to primary and secondary school at the San Rafael Seminary of Valparaíso, the Rafael Ariztía Institute (Marist Brothers) in Quillota, the French Fathers' School of Valparaíso, and then to the Military School in Santiago, which he entered in 1931. In 1935, after four years studying military geography, he graduated with the rank of alférez (Second Lieutenant) in the infantry.\n\nMilitary career\nIn September 1937, Pinochet was assigned to the \"Chacabuco\" Regiment, in Concepción. Two years later, in 1939, then with the rank of Sub-lieutenant, he moved to the \"Maipo\" Regiment, garrisoned in Valparaíso. He returned to Infantry School in 1940. On 30 January 1943, Pinochet married Lucía Hiriart Rodríguez, with whom he had five children: Inés Lucía, María Verónica, Jacqueline Marie, Augusto Osvaldo and Marco Antonio.\n\nBy late 1945, Pinochet had been assigned to the \"Carampangue\" Regiment in the northern city of Iquique. Three years later, he entered the Chilean War Academy but had to postpone his studies because, being the youngest officer, he had to carry out a service mission in the coal zone of Lota. In 1948, Pinochet was initiated in the regular Masonic Lodge Victoria n°15 of San Bernardo, affiliated to the Grand Lodge of Chile. He received the Scottish Rite degree of companion, but he is thought not to have ever become a Grand Master.\n\nThe following year he returned to his studies in the academy, and after obtaining the title of Officer Chief of Staff, in 1951, he returned to teach at the Military School. At the same time, he worked as a teachers' aide at the War Academy, giving military geography and geopolitics classes. He was also the editor of the institutional magazine Cien Águilas ('One Hundred Eagles'). At the beginning of 1953, with the rank of major, he was sent for two years to the \"Rancagua\" Regiment in Arica. While there, he was appointed professor of the Chilean War Academy, and returned to Santiago to take up his new position.\n\nIn 1956, Pinochet and a group of young officers were chosen to form a military mission to collaborate in the organization of the War Academy of Ecuador in Quito. He remained with the Quito mission for four-and-a-half years, during which time he studied geopolitics, military geography and military intelligence. At the end of 1959 he returned to Chile and was sent to General Headquarters of the 1st Army Division, based in Antofagasta. The following year, he was appointed commander of the \"Esmeralda\" Regiment. Due to his success in this position, he was appointed Sub-director of the War Academy in 1963. In 1968, he was named Chief of Staff of the 2nd Army Division, based in Santiago, and at the end of that year, he was promoted to brigadier general and Commander in Chief of the 6th Division, garrisoned in Iquique. In his new function, he was also appointed Intendent of the Tarapacá Province.\n\nIn January 1971, Pinochet was promoted to division general and was named General Commander of the Santiago Army Garrison. On 8 June 1971, following the assassination of Edmundo Perez Zujovic by left-wing radicals, Allende appointed Pinochet a supreme authority of Santiago province, imposing a military curfew in the process, which was later lifted. However, on 2 December 1971, following a series of peaceful protests against economic policies of Allende, the curfew was re-installed, all protests prohibited, with Pinochet leading the crackdown on anti-Allende protests. At the beginning of 1972, he was appointed General Chief of Staff of the Army. With rising domestic strife in Chile, after General Prats resigned his position, Pinochet was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army on 23 August 1973 by President Salvador Allende just one day after the Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved a resolution asserting that the government was not respecting the Constitution. Less than a month later, the Chilean military deposed Allende.\n\nMilitary coup of 1973\n\nOn 11 September 1973, the combined Chilean Armed Forces (the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Carabineros) overthrew Allende's government in a coup, during which the presidential palace, La Moneda, was shelled and where Allende was said to have committed suicide. While the military claimed that he had committed suicide, controversy surrounded Allende's death, with many claiming that he had been assassinated (such theory was discarded by the Chilean Supreme Court in 2014).\n\nIn his memoirs, Pinochet said that he was the leading plotter of the coup and had used his position as commander-in-chief of the Army to coordinate a far-reaching scheme with the other two branches of the military and the national police. In later years, however, high military officials from the time have said that Pinochet reluctantly became involved only a few days before the coup was scheduled to occur, and followed the lead of the other branches (especially the Navy, under Merino) as they executed the coup.\n\nThe new government rounded up thousands of people and held them in the national stadium, where many were killed. This was followed by brutal repression during Pinochet's rule, during which approximately 3,000 people were killed, while more than 1,000 are still missing.\n\nIn the months that followed the coup, the junta, with authoring work by historian Gonzalo Vial and admiral Patricio Carvajal, published a book titled El Libro Blanco del cambio de gobierno en Chile (commonly known as El Libro Blanco, 'The White Book on the Change of Government in Chile'), in which they said that they were in fact anticipating a self-coup (the alleged Plan Zeta, or Plan Z) that Allende's government or its associates were purportedly preparing. United States intelligence agencies believed the plan to be untrue propaganda. Although later discredited and officially recognized as the product of political propaganda, Gonzalo Vial Correa insists in the similarities between the alleged Plan Z and other existing paramilitary plans of the Popular Unity parties in support of its legitimacy. Pinochet was also trained by the School of the Americas (SOA) where it is likely he first encountered the ideals of the coup.\n\nCanadian reporter Jean Charpentier of Télévision de Radio-Canada was the first foreign journalist to interview General Pinochet following the coup. After Allende's final radio address, he shot himself rather than becoming a prisoner.\n\nU.S. backing of the coup\n\nThe Church Report investigating the fallout of the Watergate scandal stated that while the U.S. tacitly supported the Pinochet government after the 1973 coup, there was \"no evidence\" that the US was directly involved in it. This view has been contradicted by several academics, such as Peter Winn, who writes that the role of the CIA was crucial to the consolidation of power after the coup; the CIA helped fabricate a conspiracy against the Allende government, which Pinochet was then portrayed as preventing. He stated that the coup itself was possible only through a three-year covert operation mounted by the United States. Winn also points out that the US imposed an \"invisible blockade\" that was designed to disrupt the economy under Allende, and contributed to the destabilization of the regime. Author Peter Kornbluh argues in The Pinochet File that the US was extensively involved and actively \"fomented\" the 1973 coup. Authors Tim Weiner (Legacy of Ashes) and Christopher Hitchens (The Trial of Henry Kissinger) similarly argue the case that US covert actions actively destabilized Allende's government and set the stage for the 1973 coup. Despite denial of countless American agencies, current declassified documentation has proven the American involvement. Nixon and Kissinger, along with both private and public intelligence agencies were \"apprised of, and even enmeshed in, the planning and executing of the military takeover.\" Along with this, CIA operatives directly involved, such as Jack Devine, have also come out and declared their involvement in the coup. Devine stating \"I sent CIA headquarters a special type of top-secret cable known as a CRITIC, which ... goes directly to the highest levels of government.\"\n\nThe US provided material support to the military government after the coup, although criticizing it in public. A document released by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2000, titled \"CIA Activities in Chile\", revealed that the CIA actively supported the military junta after the overthrow of Allende, and that it made many of Pinochet's officers into paid contacts of the CIA or U.S. military, even though some were known to be involved in human rights abuses. The CIA also maintained contacts in the Chilean DINA intelligence service. DINA led the multinational campaign known as Operation Condor, which amongst other activities carried out assassinations of prominent politicians in various Latin American countries, in Washington, D.C., and in Europe, and kidnapped, tortured and executed activists holding left-wing views, which culminated in the deaths of roughly 60,000 people. The United States provided key organizational, financial and technical assistance to the operation. CIA contact with DINA head Manuel Contreras was established in 1974 soon after the coup, during the Junta period prior to official transfer of Presidential powers to Pinochet; in 1975, the CIA reviewed a warning that keeping Contreras as an asset might threaten human rights in the region. The CIA chose to keep him as an asset, and at one point even paid him. In addition to the CIA's maintaining of assets in DINA beginning soon after the coup, several CIA assets, such as CORU Cuban exile militants Orlando Bosch and Guillermo Novo, collaborated in DINA operations under the Condor Plan in the early years of Pinochet's presidency.\n\nMilitary junta\n\nA military junta was established immediately following the coup, made up of General Pinochet representing the Army, Admiral José Toribio Merino representing the Navy, General Gustavo Leigh representing the Air Force, and General César Mendoza representing the Carabineros (national police). As established, the junta exercised both executive and legislative functions of the government, suspended the Constitution and the Congress, imposed strict censorship and curfew, banned all parties and halted all political and perceived subversive activities. This military junta held the executive role until 17 December 1974, after which it remained strictly as a legislative body, the executive powers being transferred to Pinochet with the title of President.\n\nMilitary dictatorship (1973–1990)\n\nThe junta members originally planned that the presidency would be held for a year by the commanders-in-chief of each of the four military branches in turn. However, Pinochet soon consolidated his control, first retaining sole chairmanship of the military junta, and then proclaiming himself \"Supreme Chief of the Nation\" (de facto provisional president) on 27 June 1974. He officially changed his title to \"President\" on 17 December 1974. General Leigh, head of the Air Force, became increasingly opposed to Pinochet's policies and was forced into retirement on 24 July 1978, after contradicting Pinochet on that year's plebiscite (officially called Consulta Nacional, or National Consultation, in response to a UN resolution condemning Pinochet's government). He was replaced by General Fernando Matthei.\n\nPinochet organized a plebiscite on 11 September 1980 to ratify a new constitution, replacing the 1925 Constitution drafted during Arturo Alessandri's presidency. The new Constitution, partly drafted by Jaime Guzmán, a close adviser to Pinochet who later founded the right-wing party Independent Democratic Union (UDI), gave a lot of power to the President of the Republic—Pinochet. It created some new institutions, such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the controversial National Security Council (COSENA). It also prescribed an 8-year presidential period, and a single-candidate presidential referendum in 1988, where a candidate nominated by the Junta would be approved or rejected for another 8-year period. The new constitution was approved by a margin of 67.04% to 30.19% according to official figures; the opposition, headed by ex-president Eduardo Frei Montalva (who had supported Pinochet's coup), denounced extensive irregularities such as the lack of an electoral register, which facilitated multiple voting, and said that the total number of votes reported to have been cast was very much larger than would be expected from the size of the electorate and turnout in previous elections. Interviews after Pinochet's departure with people involved with the referendum confirmed that fraud had, indeed, been widespread. The Constitution was promulgated on 21 October 1980, taking effect on 11 March 1981. Pinochet was replaced as President of the Junta that day by Admiral Merino. During Pinochet's reign it is estimated that some one million people had been forced to flee the country.\n\nArmed opposition to the Pinochet rule continued in remote parts of the country. In a massive operation spearheaded by Chilean Army para-commandos, some 2,000 security forces troops were deployed in the mountains of Neltume from June to November 1981, where they destroyed two MIR bases, seizing large caches of munitions and killing a number of guerrillas.\n\nAccording to author Ozren Agnic Krstulovic, weapons including C-4 plastic explosives, RPG-7 and M72 LAW rocket launchers, as well as more than 3,000 M-16 rifles, were smuggled into the country by opponents of the government.\n\nIn September 1986, weapons from the same source were used in an unsuccessful assassination attempt against Pinochet by the FPMR. His military bodyguard was taken by surprise, and five members were killed. Pinochet's bulletproof Mercedes Benz vehicle was struck by a rocket, but it failed to explode and Pinochet suffered only minor injuries.\n\nSuppression of opposition\n\nAlmost immediately after the military's seizure of power, the junta banned all the leftist parties that had constituted Allende's UP coalition.\nAll other parties were placed in \"indefinite recess\" and were later banned outright. The government's violence was directed not only against dissidents but also against their families and other civilians.\n\nThe Rettig Report concluded that 2,279 people who disappeared during the military government were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence. According to the later Valech Report approximately 31,947 were tortured and 1,312 exiled. The exiles were pursued all over the world by the intelligence agencies. In Latin America, this was carried out under Operation Condor, a cooperation plan between the various intelligence agencies of South American countries, assisted by a United States CIA communication base in Panama. Pinochet believed these operations were necessary in order to \"save the country from communism\". In 2011, the commission identified an additional 9,800 victims of political repression during Pinochet's rule, increasing the total number of victims to approximately 40,018, including 3,065 killed.\n\nSome political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing democratic system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the worst cases of human rights violation occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the Caravan of Death. Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi, both U.S. journalists, \"disappeared\", as did Víctor Olea Alegría, a member of the Socialist Party, and many others, in 1973. British priest Michael Woodward, who vanished within 10 days of the coup, was tortured and beaten to death aboard the Chilean naval ship, Esmeralda.\n\nMany other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA) under the auspices of Operation Condor. General Carlos Prats, Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1974. A year later, the murder of 119 opponents abroad was disguised as an internal conflict, the DINA setting up a propaganda campaign to support this idea (Operation Colombo), a campaign publicised by the leading newspaper in Chile, El Mercurio.\n\nOther victims of Condor included Juan José Torres, the former President of Bolivia, assassinated in Buenos Aires on 2 June 1976; Carmelo Soria, a UN diplomat working for the CEPAL, assassinated in July 1976; and Orlando Letelier, a former Chilean ambassador to the United States and minister in Allende's cabinet, assassinated after his release from internment and exile in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb on 21 September 1976. Documents confirm that Pinochet directly ordered Letelier's assassination. This led to strained relations with the US and to the extradition of Michael Townley, a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized Letelier's assassination. Other targeted victims, who escaped assassination, included Christian-Democrat Bernardo Leighton, who escaped an assassination attempt in Rome in 1975 by the Italian terrorist Stefano delle Chiaie; Carlos Altamirano, the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet, along with Volodia Teitelboim, member of the Communist Party; Pascal Allende, the nephew of Salvador Allende and president of the MIR, who escaped an assassination attempt in Costa Rica in March 1976; and US Congressman Edward Koch, who became aware in 2001 of relations between death threats and his denunciation of Operation Condor. Furthermore, according to later investigations, Eduardo Frei Montalva, the Christian Democrat President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 with toxins produced by DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios.\n\nProtests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the murder of three Communist Party members led to the resignation of César Mendoza, head of the Carabineros and member of the junta since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri and 18-year-old student Carmen Gloria Quintana were burnt alive, with only Carmen surviving.\n\nIn August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the FPMR (the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was murdered by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of Valparaíso's public prosecutor. This case was included in the Rettig Report. Among the killed and disappeared during the military junta were 440 MIR guerrillas. In December 2015, three former DINA agents were sentenced to ten years in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old theology student and activist, German Rodriguez Cortes, in 1978. The same month, 62-year-old Guillermo Reyes Rammsy, a former Chilean soldier during the Pinochet years, was arrested and charged with murder for boasting of participating in 18 executions during a live phone-in to the Chilean radio show \"Chacotero Sentimental\".\n\nOn 2 June 2017, Chilean judge Hernan Cristoso sentenced 106 former Chilean intelligence officials to between 541 days and 20 years in prison for their role in the kidnapping and murder of 16 left-wing activists in 1974 and 1975.\n\nEconomic policy\n\nIn 1973, the Chilean economy was deeply depressed for several reasons. Allende's government had expropriated many Chilean and foreign businesses, including all copper mines, and had controlled prices. Inflation had reached 606%, income per capita had contracted by 7.14% in 1973 alone and 30% compared to 1970, GDP had contracted by 5% in 1973, and public spending rose from 22.6% to 44.9% of GDP between 1970 and 1973, creating a deficit equal to 25% of GDP. While some authors like Peter Kornbluh also argue that economic sanctions by the Nixon administration helped to create the economic crisis, others like Paul Sigmund and Mark Falcoff argue there was no blockade because aid and credit still existed (albeit in smaller quantities), and no formal trade embargo had been declared.\n\nBy mid-1975, after two years of Keynesianism, the government set forth an economic policy of free-market reforms that attempted to stop inflation and collapse. Pinochet declared that he wanted \"to make Chile not a nation of proletarians, but a nation of proprietors\". To formulate the economic rescue, the government relied on the so-called Chicago Boys and a text called El ladrillo, and although Chile grew very quickly between 1976 and 1981, it had a large amount of debt which made Chile the most affected nation by the Latin American debt crisis.\n\nIn sharp contrast to the privatization done in other areas, Chile's nationalized main copper mines remained in government hands, with the 1980 Constitution later declaring the mines \"inalienable\". In 1976, Codelco was established to exploit them but new mineral deposits were opened to private investment. In November 1980, the pension system was restructured from a PAYGO-system to a fully funded capitalization system run by private sector pension funds. Healthcare and education were likewise privatized. These mines would ultimately help them economically; however, they would fall partly in American hands.\n\nWages decreased by 8%. Family allowances in 1989 were 28% of what they had been in 1970 and the budgets for education, health and housing had dropped by over 20% on average. The junta relied on the middle class, the oligarchy, foreign corporations, and foreign loans to maintain itself. Businesses recovered most of their lost industrial and agricultural holdings, for the junta returned properties to original owners who had lost them during expropriations, and sold other industries expropriated by Allende's Popular Unity government to private buyers. This period saw the expansion of business and widespread speculation.\n\nFinancial conglomerates became major beneficiaries of the liberalized economy and the flood of foreign bank loans. Large foreign banks reinstated the credit cycle, as debt obligations, such as resuming payment of principal and interest installments, were honored. International lending organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the Inter-American Development Bank lent vast sums anew. Many foreign multinational corporations such as International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Dow Chemical, and Firestone, all expropriated by Allende, returned to Chile. Pinochet's policies eventually led to substantial GDP growth, in contrast to the negative growth seen in the early years of his administration, while public debt also was kept high mostly to finance public spending which even after the privatization of services was kept at high rates (though far less than before privatization), for example, in 1991 after one year of post-Pinochet democracy debt was still at 37.4% of the GDP.\n\nThe Pinochet government implemented an economic model that had three main objectives: economic liberalization, privatization of state owned companies, and stabilization of inflation. In 1985, the government initiated a second round of privatization, revising previously introduced tariff increases and creating a greater supervisory role for the Central Bank. Pinochet's market liberalizations have continued after his death, led by Patricio Aylwin. According to a 2020 study in the Journal of Economic History, Pinochet sold firms at below-market prices to politically connected buyers.\n\nCritics argue the neoliberal economic policies of the Pinochet regime resulted in widening inequality and deepening poverty as they negatively impacted the wages, benefits and working conditions of Chile's working class. According to Chilean economist Alejandro Foxley, by the end of Pinochet's reign around 44% of Chilean families were living below the poverty line. According to The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, by the late 1980s, the economy had stabilized and was growing, but around 45% of the population had fallen into poverty while the wealthiest 10% saw their incomes rise by 83%. But others disagree, Chilean economist José Piñera argues that 2 years after Pinochet took power, poverty was still at 50% and the liberal reforms reduced it to 7.8% in 2013 as well as income per capita rising from US$4.000 in 1975 to US$25.000 in 2015, supporters of the reforms also argue that when Pinochet left power in 1990 poverty had fallen to 38% and some claim that since the consolidation of the neoliberal system inequality has been reducing. However, protests erupted in late 2019 in response to growing inequality in the country which can be traced back to the neoliberal policies of the Pinochet dictatorship.\n\nAmerican scholar Nancy MacLean, wrote that the concentration of money in the hands of the very rich and the perversion of democracy through the privatization of government was always the goal. She contends this was the effective meaning of the theoretical model known as public choice, whose architect James M. Buchanan, traveled to Chile and worked closely with the Pinochet regime. MacLean's account, however, has come under scrutiny. Economist Andrew Farrant examined the Chilean constitutional clauses that MacLean attributes to Buchanan, and discovered that they pre-dated his visit. He concludes that \"evidence suggests that Buchanan's May 1980 visit did not particularly influence the subsequent drafting of the Chilean Constitution\" and \"there is no evidence to suggest that Buchanan had any kind of audience with Pinochet or corresponded with the Chilean dictator.\"\n\n1988 referendum, attempt to stay in power and transition to democracy\n\nAccording to the transitional provisions of the 1980 Constitution, a referendum was scheduled for 5 October 1988, to vote on a new eight-year presidential term for Pinochet. Confronted with increasing opposition, notably at the international level, Pinochet legalized political parties in 1987 and called for a vote to determine whether or not he would remain in power until 1997. If the \"YES\" won, Pinochet would have to implement the dispositions of the 1980 Constitution, mainly the call for general elections, while he would himself remain in power as president. If the \"NO\" won, Pinochet would remain President for another year, and a joint Presidential and legislative election would be held.\n\nAnother reason for Pinochet's decision to call for elections was the April 1987 visit of Pope John Paul II to Chile. According to the US Catholic author George Weigel, he held a meeting with Pinochet during which they discussed a return to democracy. John Paul II allegedly pushed Pinochet to accept a democratic opening of his government, and even called for his resignation.\n\nPolitical advertising was legalized on 5 September 1987, as a necessary element for the campaign for the \"NO\" to the referendum, which countered the official campaign, which presaged a return to a Popular Unity government in case of a defeat of Pinochet. The Opposition, gathered into the Concertación de Partidos por el NO (\"Coalition of Parties for NO\"), organized a colorful and cheerful campaign under the slogan La alegría ya viene (\"Joy is coming\"). It was formed by the Christian Democracy, the Socialist Party and the Radical Party, gathered in the Alianza Democrática (Democratic Alliance). In 1988, several more parties, including the Humanist Party, the Ecologist Party, the Social Democrats, and several Socialist Party splinter groups added their support.\n\nOn 5 October 1988, the \"NO\" option won with 55.99% of the votes, against 44.01% of \"YES\" votes. In the wake of his electoral defeat, Pinochet attempted to implement a plan for an auto-coup. He attempted to implement efforts to orchestrate chaos and violence in the streets to justify his power grab, however, the Carabinero police refused an order to lift the cordon against street demonstrations in the capital, according to a CIA informant. In his final move, Pinochet convened a meeting of his junta at La Moneda, in which he requested that they give him extraordinary powers to have the military seize the capital. Air Force General Fernando Matthei refused, saying that he would not agree to such a thing under any circumstances, and the rest of the junta followed this stance, on grounds that Pinochet already had his turn and lost. Matthei would later become the first member of the junta to publicly admit that Pinochet had lost the plebiscite. Without any support from the junta, Pinochet was forced to accept the result. The ensuing Constitutional process led to presidential and legislative elections the following year.\n\nThe Coalition changed its name to Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia (Coalition of Parties for Democracy) and put forward Patricio Aylwin, a Christian Democrat who had opposed Allende, as presidential candidate, and also proposed a list of candidates for the parliamentary elections. The opposition and the Pinochet government made several negotiations to amend the Constitution and agreed to 54 modifications. These amendments changed the way the Constitution would be modified in the future, added restrictions to state of emergency dispositions, the affirmation of political pluralism, and enhanced constitutional rights as well as the democratic principle and participation to political life. In July 1989, a referendum on the proposed changes took place, supported by all the parties except the right-wing Southern Party and the Chilean Socialist Party. The Constitutional changes were approved by 91.25% of the voters.\n\nThereafter, Aylwin won the December 1989 presidential election with 55% of the votes, against less than 30% for the right-wing candidate, Hernán Büchi, who had been Pinochet's Minister of Finances since 1985 (there was also a third-party candidate, Francisco Javier Errázuriz, a wealthy aristocrat representing the extreme economic right, who garnered the remaining 15%). Pinochet thus left the presidency on 11 March 1990 and transferred power to the new democratically elected president.\n\nThe Concertación also won the majority of votes for the Parliament. However, due to the \"binomial\" representation system included in the constitution, the elected senators did not achieve a complete majority in Parliament, a situation that would last for over 15 years. This forced them to negotiate all law projects with the Alliance for Chile (originally called \"Democracy and Progress\" and then \"Union for Chile\"), a center-right coalition involving the Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI) and Renovación Nacional (RN), parties composed mainly of Pinochet's supporters.\n\nDue to the transitional provisions of the constitution, Pinochet remained as Commander-in-Chief of the Army until March 1998. He was then sworn in as a senator-for-life, a privilege granted by the 1980 constitution to former presidents with at least six years in office. His senatorship and consequent immunity from prosecution protected him from legal action. These were possible in Chile only after Pinochet was arrested in 1998 in the United Kingdom, on an extradition request issued by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón. Allegations of abuses had been made numerous times before his arrest, but never acted upon. The extradition attempt was dramatised in the 2006 BBC television docudrama Pinochet in Suburbia, with Pinochet played by Derek Jacobi. Shortly before giving up power, on September 15, 1989, Pinochet prohibited all forms of abortion, previously authorized in case of rape or risk to the life of the mother. Pinochet argued that due to advances in medicine, abortion was \"no longer justifiable\".\n\nRelationship with the United Kingdom\nChile was officially neutral during the Falklands War, but Chile's Westinghouse long-range radar that was deployed in the south of the country gave the British task force early warning of Argentinian air attacks. This allowed British ships and troops in the war zone to take defensive action. Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister at the time of the war, said that the day the radar was taken out of service for overdue maintenance was the day Argentinian fighter-bombers bombed the troopships Sir Galahad and Sir Tristram, leaving 53 dead and many injured. According to Chilean Junta member and former Air Force commander, General Fernando Matthei, Chilean support included military intelligence gathering, radar surveillance, allowing British aircraft to operate with Chilean colours, and facilitating the safe return of British special forces, among other forms of assistance.\n\nIn April and May 1982, a squadron of mothballed British Hawker Hunter fighter-bombers departed for Chile, arriving on 22 May and allowing the Chilean Air Force to reform the No. 9 \"Las Panteras Negras\" Squadron. A further consignment of three frontier surveillance and shipping reconnaissance Canberras left for Chile in October. Some authors have speculated that Argentina might have won the war had the military felt able to employ the elite VIth and VIIIth Mountain Brigades, which remained sitting in the Andes guarding against possible Chilean incursions. Pinochet subsequently visited the UK on more than one occasion. Pinochet's controversial relationship with Thatcher led Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to mock Thatcher's Conservatives as \"the party of Pinochet\" in 1999.\n\nHuman rights violations\n\nPinochet's regime was responsible for many human rights abuses during its reign, including forced disappearances, murder, and torture of political opponents. According to a government commission report that included testimony from more than 30,000 people, Pinochet's government killed at least 3,197 people and tortured about 29,000. Two-thirds of the cases listed in the report happened in 1973.\n\nProfessor Clive Foss, in The Tyrants: 2500 Years of Absolute Power and Corruption (Quercus Publishing 2006), estimates that 1,500–2,000 Chileans were killed or \"disappeared\" during the Pinochet regime. In October 1979, The New York Times reported that Amnesty International had documented the disappearance of approximately 1,500 Chileans since 1973. Among the killed and disappeared during the military regime were at least 663 Marxist MIR guerrillas. The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front, however, has stated that only 49 FPMR guerrillas were killed but hundreds detained and tortured. According to a study in Latin American Perspectives, at least 200,000 Chileans (about 2% of Chile's 1973 population) were forced to go into exile. Additionally, hundreds of thousands left the country in the wake of the economic crises that followed the military coup during the 1970s and 1980s. Some of the key individuals who fled because of political persecution were followed in their exile by the DINA secret police, in the framework of Operation Condor, which linked South American military dictatorships together against political opponents.\n\nAccording to John Dinges, author of The Condor Years (The New Press 2003), documents released in 2015 revealed a CIA report dated 28 April 1978 that showed the agency by then had knowledge that Pinochet ordered the assassination of Orlando Letelier, a leading political opponent living in exile in the United States.\n\nAccording to Peter Kornbluh in The Pinochet File, \"routine sadism was taken to extremes\" in the prison camps. The rape of women was common, including sexual torture such as the insertion of rats into genitals and \"unnatural acts involving dogs\". Detainees were forcibly immersed in vats of urine and excrement, and were occasionally forced to ingest it. Beatings with gun butts, fists and chains were routine; one technique known as \"the telephone\" involved the torturer slamming \"his open hands hard and rhythmically against the ears of the victim\", leaving the person deaf. At Villa Grimaldi, prisoners were dragged into the parking lot and had the bones in their legs crushed as they were run over with trucks. Some died from torture; prisoners were beaten with chains and left to die from internal injuries. Following abuse and execution, corpses were interred in secret graves, dropped into rivers or the ocean, or just dumped on urban streets in the night. The body of the renowned Chilean singer, theatre director and academic Víctor Jara was found in a dirty canal \"with his hands and face extremely disfigured\" and with \"forty-four bullet holes\".\n\nThe practice of murdering political opponents via \"death flights\", employed by the juntas of Argentina and Chile, has sometimes been the subject of numerous alt-right and other right-wing extremist groups internet memes, with the suggestion that political enemies and leftists be given \"free helicopter rides\". In 2001, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos informed the nation that during Pinochet's reign, 120 bodies had been tossed from helicopters into \"the ocean, the lakes and the rivers of Chile\". In a final assessment of his legacy during his funeral, Belisario Velasco, Chile's interior minister at the time remarked that \"Pinochet was a classic right-wing dictator who badly violated human rights and who became rich.\"\n\nDuring the 1990s, while no longer President still commander-in-chief, Pinochet scoffed at his human rights critics. When asked about the discovery of a mass grave of his government's victims, Pinochet was quoted in the Chilean press as joking that it was an \"efficient\" way of burial.\n\nIdeology and public image\nPinochet himself expressed his project in government as a national rebirth inspired by Diego Portales, a figure of the early republic:\n\nLawyer Jaime Guzmán participated in the design of important speeches of Pinochet, and provided frequent political and doctrinal advice and consultancy.\n\nJacobo Timerman has called the Chilean army under Pinochet \"the last Prussian army in the world\", suggesting a pre-Fascist origin to the model of Pinochet's military government.\n\nHistorian Alfredo Jocelyn-Holt has referred to Pinochet's figure as \"totemic\", and added that it serves as a scapegoat which attracts \"all hate\". Gabriel Salazar, also a historian, has lamented the lack of an international condemnation of Pinochet in court, since, according to Salazar, that would have damaged his image \"irreparably\" and that of the judicial system of Chile [for the good] too.\n\nIn 1989 indigenous Mapuche groups representing the \"Consejos Regionales\" bestowed Pinochet the title Ulmen Füta Lonko or Great Authority.\n\nAccording to Pinochet, who was aware of his ancestry, he was taught the French language by an uncle, although he later forgot most of it. Pinochet admired Napoleon as the greatest among French and had a framed picture of him. Another French ruler he admired was Louis XIV.\n\nPinochet's reputation led Peruvians in the 1990s to call Alberto Fujimori \"chinochet\" instead of his ordinary nickname \"chino\". Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, a Cold War ally of the West, has been characterized as \"Africa's Pinochet\" for ordering the torture and mass killing of political opponents during his reign, and for the decades long campaign to see him convicted of crimes against humanity. Images of Pinochet have been used in several Internet memes with the caption \"Pinochet's Free Helicopter Rides\", referencing death flights which saw political dissidents being thrown from helicopters over the Pacific or the Andes during Pinochet's rule. Variations of the internet meme have seen increased popularity with the rise of far-right and alt-right politics.\n\nAccusations of fascism\n\nPinochet and his government have been characterised as fascist. For example, journalist and author Samuel Chavkin, in his book Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege, repeatedly characterizes both Pinochet himself and the military dictatorship as fascist.\n\nHowever, he and his government are generally excluded from academic typologies of fascism. Roger Griffin included Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots distinct from fascism, which included the likes of Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. He argues that such regimes may be considered populist ultra-nationalist but lack the rhetoric of national rebirth, or palingenesis, necessary to make them conform to the model of palingenetic ultranationalism. Robert Paxton meanwhile compared Pinochet's regime to that of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), arguing that both were merely client states that lacked popular acclaim and the ability to expand. He further argued that had Pinochet attempted to build true fascism, the regime would likely have been toppled or at least been forced to alter its relationship to the United States. Anna Cento Bull also excluded Pinochet from fascism, although she has argued that his regime belongs to a strand of Cold War anti-communism that was happy to accommodate neo-fascist elements within its activity.\n\nWorld Fascism: a Historical Encyclopedia notes that \"Although he was authoritarian and ruled dictatorially, Pinochet's support of neoliberal economic policies and his unwillingness to support national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists.\"\n\nHistorian Gabriel Salazar stated that high visibility of Pinochet and neglect of co-workers was reminiscent of fascist leadership:\n\nIntellectual life and academic work\nPinochet was publicly known as a man with a lack of culture and this image was reinforced by the fact that he also portrayed himself as a common man with simple ideas. He was also known for being reserved, sharing little about his opinions or feelings. Before wresting power from Allende, Pinochet had written two books, Geopolítica (1968) and Campaña de Tarapacá (1972), which established him as a major figure in Chile's military literature. In Geopolítica, Pinochet plagiarized his mentor general Gregorio Rodríguez Tascón by using paragraphs from a 1949 conference presentation of Rodríguez without attributing them to him.\nRodríguez had previously lectured Pinochet and René Schneider and Carlos Prats in geography and geopolitics. In contrast to the two latter Pinochet was not an outstanding student but his persistence and interest in geopolitics made Rodríguez assume the role as his academic mentor. Rodríguez granted Pinochet a slot as assistant lecturer in geopolitics and in geography. According to Rodríguez, Pinochet would have been particularly impressed by his lectures on The Art of War. Pinochet would later succeed Rodríguez in the geopolitics and geography chair.\n\nInvestigative journalist Juan Cristóbal Peña has put forward the thesis that Pinochet felt intellectual envy of Carlos Prats and that the latter's assassination in 1974 was a relief for Pinochet.\n\nDuring his lifetime, Pinochet amassed more than 55,000 books in his private library, worth an estimated 2,840,000 US dollars (2006–07). The extent of his library was revealed to the public only after a police inspection in January 2006. Pinochet bought books at several small bookshops in the old centre of Santiago and was later supplied with books from abroad by military attachés who bought texts Pinochet was searching after. As ruler of Chile he used discretionary funds for these purchases. The library included many rare books including a first edition (1646) Historica relacion del Reyno de Chile and an original letter of Bernardo O'Higgins. A significant part of the books and documents of the library of José Manuel Balmaceda was found in Pinochet's library in 2006. Pinochet's library contained almost no poetry or fiction.\n\nNicknames\nSupporters sometimes refer to Pinochet as my general (the military salutation for a general) while opponents call him pinocho (Spanish for \"Pinocchio\", from the children's story). A common nickname used by both younger generations is el tata (Chilean Spanish equivalent of \"the grandpa\"). Since the Riggs Bank scandal he has been referred to sarcastically as Daniel Lopez, one of the fake identities he used to deposit money in the bank.\n\nPost-dictatorship life\n\nArrest and court cases in the United Kingdom\n\nPinochet was arrested in London on \"charges of genocide and terrorism that include murder\" in October 1998. The indictment and arrest of Pinochet was the first time that a former government head was arrested on the principle of universal jurisdiction.\n\nAfter having been placed under house arrest on the grounds of the Wentworth Club in Britain in October 1998 and initiating a judicial and public relations battle, the latter run by Thatcherite political operative Patrick Robertson, he was released in March 2000 on medical grounds by the Home Secretary Jack Straw without facing trial. Straw had overruled a House of Lords decision to extradite Pinochet to face trial in Spain.\n\nReturn to Chile\nPinochet returned to Chile on 3 March 2000. So as to avoid any potential disruption his flight back to Chile from the UK departed from RAF Waddington, evading those protesting against his release. His first act when landing in Santiago's airport was to triumphantly get up from his wheelchair to the acclaim of his supporters. He was greeted by his successor as head of the Chilean armed forces, General Ricardo Izurieta. President-elect Ricardo Lagos said the retired general's televised arrival had damaged the image of Chile, while thousands demonstrated against him.\n\nIn March 2000, Congress approved a constitutional amendment creating the status of \"ex-president\", which granted its holder immunity from prosecution and a financial allowance; this replaced Pinochet's senatorship-for-life. 111 legislators voted for, and 29 against.\n\nThe Supreme Court ruled in favor of judge Juan Guzmán's request in August 2000, and Pinochet was indicted on 1 December 2000 for the kidnapping of 75 opponents in the Caravan of Death case. Guzmán advanced the charge of kidnapping as the 75 were officially \"disappeared\": even though they were all most likely dead, the absence of their corpses made any charge of \"homicide\" difficult.\n\nIn July 2002, the Supreme Court dismissed Pinochet's indictment in the various human rights abuse cases, for medical reasons (vascular dementia). The debate concerned Pinochet's mental faculties, his legal team claiming that he was senile and could not remember, while others (including several physicians) claimed that he was affected only physically but retained all control of his faculties. The same year, the prosecuting attorney Hugo Guttierez, in charge of the Caravan of Death case, declared, \"Our country has the degree of justice that the political transition permits us to have.\"\n\nPinochet resigned from his senatorial seat shortly after the Supreme Court's July 2002 ruling. In May 2004, the Supreme Court overturned its precedent decision, and ruled that he was capable of standing trial. In arguing their case, the prosecution presented a recent TV interview Pinochet had given to journalist Maria Elvira Salazar for a Miami-based television network, which raised doubts about his alleged mental incapacity. In December 2004, he was charged with several crimes, including the 1974 assassination of General Prats and the Operation Colombo case in which 119 died, and was again placed under house arrest. He suffered a stroke on 18 December 2004. Questioned by his judges in order to know if, as president, he was the direct head of DINA, he answered: \"I don't remember, but it's not true. And if it were true, I don't remember.\"\n\nIn January 2005, the Chilean Army accepted institutional responsibility for past human rights abuses. In 2006, Pinochet was indicted for kidnappings and torture at the Villa Grimaldi detention center by judge Alejandro Madrid (Guzmán's successor), as well as for the 1995 assassination of the DINA biochemist Eugenio Berrios, himself involved in the Letelier case. Berrios, who had worked with Michael Townley, had produced sarin, anthrax and botulism in the Bacteriological War Army Laboratory for Pinochet; these materials were used against political opponents. The DINA biochemist was also alleged to have created black cocaine, which Pinochet then sold in Europe and the United States. The money for the drug trade was allegedly deposited into Pinochet's bank accounts. Pinochet's son Marco Antonio, who had been accused of participating in the drug trade, in 2006 denied claims of drug trafficking in his father's administration and said that he would sue Manuel Contreras, who had said that Pinochet sold cocaine.\n\nOn 25 November 2006, Pinochet marked his 91st birthday by having his wife read a statement he had written to admirers present for his birthday:\n\nTwo days later, he was again indicted and ordered preliminary house arrest on charges of kidnapping and murder of two bodyguards of Salvador Allende who were arrested the day of the 1973 coup and executed by firing squad during the Caravan of Death.\n\nPinochet died a few days later, on 10 December 2006, without having been convicted of any of the crimes of which he was accused.\n\nCorruption and other issues\n\nIn 2004, a United States Senate money laundering investigation led by Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Norm Coleman (R-MN)—ordered in the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks—uncovered a network of over 125 securities and bank accounts at Riggs Bank and other U.S. financial institutions used by Pinochet and his associates for twenty-five years to secretly move millions of dollars.\nThough the subcommittee was charged only with investigating compliance of financial institutions under the USA PATRIOT Act, and not the Pinochet regime, Senator Coleman noted:\n\nOver several months in 2005, Chilean judge Sergio Muñoz indicted Augusto Pinochet's wife, Lucia Hiriart; four of his children – Marco Antonio, Jacqueline, Veronica and Lucia Pinochet; his personal secretary, Monica Ananias; and his former aide Oscar Aitken on tax evasion and falsification charges stemming from the Riggs Bank investigation. In January 2006, daughter Lucia Pinochet was detained at Washington DC-Dulles airport and subsequently deported while attempting to evade the tax charges in Chile. In January 2007, the Santiago Court of Appeals revoked most of the indictment from Judge Carlos Cerda against the Pinochet family. But Pinochet's five children, his wife and 17 other persons (including two generals, one of his former lawyer and former secretary) were arrested in October 2007 on charges of embezzlement and use of false passports. They are accused of having illegally transferred $27m (£13.2m) to foreign bank accounts during Pinochet's rule.\n\nIn September 2005, a joint investigation by The Guardian and La Tercera revealed that the British arms firm BAE Systems had been identified as paying more than £1m to Pinochet, through a front company in the British Virgin Islands, which BAE has used to channel commission on arms deals. The payments began in 1997 and lasted until 2004.\n\nIn 2007, fifteen years of investigation led to the conclusion that the 1992 assassination of DINA Colonel Gerardo Huber was most probably related to various illegal arms traffic carried out, after Pinochet's resignation from power, by military circles very close to himself. Huber had been assassinated a short time before he was due to testify in the case concerning the 1991 illegal export of weapons to the Croatian army. The deal involved 370 tons of weapons, sold to Croatia by Chile on 7 December 1991, when the former country was under a United Nations' embargo because of the support for Croatia war in Yugoslavia. In January 1992, the judge Hernán Correa de la Cerda wanted to hear Gerardo Huber in this case, but the latter may have been silenced to avoid implicating Pinochet in this new case—although the latter was no longer President, he remained at the time Commander-in-Chief of the Army. Pinochet was at the center of this illegal arms trade, receiving money through various offshores and front companies, including the Banco Coutts International in Miami.\n\nPinochet was stripped of his parliamentary immunity in August 2000 by the Supreme Court, and indicted by judge Juan Guzmán Tapia. Guzmán had ordered in 1999 the arrest of five militarists, including General of the DINA, for their role in the Caravan of Death following the coup on 11 September. Arguing that the bodies of the \"disappeared\" were still missing, he made jurisprudence, which had as effect to lift any prescription on the crimes committed by the military. Pinochet's trial continued until his death on 10 December 2006, with an alternation of indictments for specific cases, lifting of immunities by the Supreme Court or to the contrary immunity from prosecution, with his health a main argument for, or against, his prosecution.\n\nThe Supreme Court affirmed, in March 2005, Pinochet's immunity concerning the 1974 assassination of General Carlos Prats in Buenos Aires, which had taken place in the frame of Operation Condor. However, he was deemed fit to stand trial for Operation Colombo, during which 119 political opponents were \"disappeared\" in Argentina. The Chilean justice also lifted his immunity on the Villa Grimaldi case, a detention and torture center in the outskirts of Santiago. Pinochet, who still benefited from a reputation of righteousness from his supporters, lost legitimacy when he was put under house arrest on tax fraud and passport forgery, following the publication by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of a report concerning the Riggs Bank in July 2004. The report was a consequence of investigations on financial funding of the September 11 attacks in the US. The bank controlled between US$4 million and $8 million of the assets of Pinochet, who lived in Santiago in a modest house, dissimulating his wealth. According to the report, Riggs participated in money laundering for Pinochet, setting up offshore shell corporations (referring to Pinochet as only \"a former public official\"), and hiding his accounts from regulatory agencies. Related to Pinochet's and his family secret bank accounts in United States and in Caribbean islands, this tax fraud filing for an amount of 27 million dollars shocked the conservative sectors who still supported him. Ninety percent of these funds would have been raised between 1990 and 1998, when Pinochet was chief of the Chilean armies, and would essentially have come from weapons traffic (when purchasing French 'Mirage' fighter aircraft in 1994, Dutch 'Leopard 2' tanks, Swiss 'MOWAG' armored vehicles or by illegal sales of weapons to Croatia, during the Balkans war.) His wife, Lucía Hiriart, and his son, Marco Antonio Pinochet, were also sued for complicity. For the fourth time in seven years, Pinochet was indicted by the Chilean justice.\n\nDeath\n\nPinochet suffered a heart attack on the morning of 3 December 2006 and was given the last rites the same day. On 4 December 2006, the Chilean Court of Appeals ordered the suspension of his house arrest. On 10 December 2006 at 13:30 local time (16:30 UTC) he was taken to the intensive care unit. He died of congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema, surrounded by family members, at the Military Hospital at 14:15 local time (17:15 UTC).\n\nMassive spontaneous street demonstrations broke out throughout the country upon the news of his death. In Santiago, opponents celebrated his death in Alameda Avenue, while supporters grieved outside the Military Hospital. Pinochet's remains lay in repose on 11 December 2006 at the Military Academy in Las Condes. During this ceremony, Francisco Cuadrado Prats—the grandson of Carlos Prats (a former Commander-in-Chief of the Army in the Allende government who was murdered by Pinochet's secret police)—spat on the coffin, and was quickly surrounded by supporters of Pinochet, who assaulted him. Pinochet's funeral took place the following day at the same venue before a gathering of 60,000 supporters.\n\nIn a government decision, he was not granted a state funeral (an honor normally bestowed upon past presidents of Chile) but a military funeral as former commander-in-chief of the Army appointed by Allende. The government also refused to declare an official national day of mourning, but it did authorize flags at military barracks to be flown at half staff, and for the Chilean flag to be draped on Pinochet's coffin. Socialist President Michelle Bachelet, whose father Alberto was temporarily imprisoned and tortured after the 1973 coup and died shortly afterwards from heart complications, said that it would be \"a violation of [her] conscience\" to attend a state funeral for Pinochet. The only government authority present at the public funeral was the Defense Minister, Vivianne Blanlot.\n\nIn Spain, supporters of late dictator Francisco Franco paid homage to Pinochet. Antonio Tejero, who led the failed coup of 1981, attended a memorial service in Madrid.\nPinochet's body was cremated in Parque del Mar Cemetery, Concón, on 12 December 2006, on his request to \"avoid vandalism of his tomb\", according to his son Marco Antonio. His ashes were delivered to his family later that day, and are deposited in Los Boldos, Santo Domingo, Valparaiso, Chile; one of his personal residences. The armed forces refused to allow his ashes to be deposited on military property.\n\nHonours\n\nNational honours\n :\n Grand Master of the Order of Merit (1974–1990)\n Grand Master of the Order of Bernardo O'Higgins (1974–1990)\n President of the Republic Decoration\n 10 Years Service Award\n20 Years Service Award\n30 Years Service Award\nMinerva Medal (Army War College)\nMinerva Medal (Army War College)\nDecoration of the President of the Chilean Red Cross\nGrand Knight of the Altiplano of Arica\n\nForeign honours\n: Grand Cross of the Order of the Quetzal\n: \nOrder of Abdon Calderón, 1st Class\nOfficial Honorary General Staff Decoration of the Armed Forces of Ecuador\nHonorary Staff Officer of the Armed Forces of Ecuador\n: Order of José Matías Delgado\n: Collar of Francisco Solano Lopez Grade of the National Order of Merit (Paraguay)\n: \nGrand Cross of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín\nGrand Cross of the Order of May\n: Commander of the Order of Military Merit José María Córdova\n: Crosses of Military Merit\n\nSee also\n\n 1970 Chilean presidential election\n Book burnings in Chile\n History of Chile\n Pinochetism\n Colonia, a film about two West Germans caught up in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup who end up in the Colonia Dignidad cult\n Missing, a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup\n No, an Academy Award-nominated film presenting a dramatized account of the 1988 national plebiscite campaign on Pinochet's rule\n David H. Popper, US ambassador to Chile (1974–1977)\n United States involvement in regime change\n\nExplanatory notes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n\n \n \n \n (Reviewed in The Washington Post, Book World, p. 2, 2009-10-19)\n\nExternal links\n\n Extensive bio by Fundación CIDOB (in Spanish)\n Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) – A Biography\n France 24 coverage – Augusto Pinochet's Necrology on France 24\n BBC coverage (special report)\n Documentary Film on Chilean Concentration Camp from Pinochet's Regime: Chacabuco\n CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet's Repression from The National Security Archive\n Chile under Allende and Pinochet\n Human rights violation under Pinochet\n The Times obituary\n Analysis of economic policy under Pinochet by economist Jim Cypher in Dollars & Sense magazine\n Chile: The Price of Democracy New English Review\n What Pinochet Did for Chile Hoover Digest (2007 No. 1)\n When US-Backed Pinochet Forces Took Power in Chile – video report by Democracy Now!\n\n \nCategory:1915 births\nCategory:2006 deaths\nCategory:Burials in Chile\nCategory:20th-century criminals\nCategory:21st-century criminals\nCategory:Candidates for President of Chile\nCategory:Chilean anti-communists\nCategory:Chilean Army generals\nCategory:Chilean Freemasons\nCategory:Chilean memoirists\nCategory:Chilean people of Basque descent\nCategory:Chilean people of Breton descent\nCategory:Chilean people of French descent\nCategory:Chilean Roman Catholics\nCategory:Far-right politics in Chile\nCategory:Heads of state of Chile\nCategory:Leaders who took power by coup\nCategory:Legislators with life tenure\nCategory:Military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990)\nCategory:Neoliberalism\nCategory:Operation Condor\nCategory:Opposition to Fidel Castro\nCategory:People convicted of tax crimes\nCategory:People from Valparaíso\nCategory:Instituto Rafael Ariztía alumni\nCategory:People indicted for crimes against humanity\nCategory:Political corruption\nCategory:Presidents of Chile\nCategory:Recipients of the Order of the Liberator General San Martin\nAugusto Pinochet\nCategory:Grand Crosses of Military Merit\nCategory:Grand Crosses of the Order of the Quetzal\nCategory:Bibliophiles\nCategory:Geopoliticians\nCategory:Chilean politicians convicted of crimes\nCategory:Politicide perpetrators\nCategory:20th-century Chilean military personnel\nCategory:People of the Cold War\nCategory:Heads of government who were later imprisoned\nCategory:20th-century memoirists\nAugusto\nCategory:Deaths from pulmonary edema\nCategory:Survivors of terrorist attacks\nCategory:University of Chile alumni\nCategory:Deaths from congestive heart failure\nCategory:Chilean prisoners and detainees\nCategory:Prisoners and detainees of Chile",
"title": "Augusto Pinochet"
},
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"text": "Augusto is an Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish given name or surname.\nDerived from Augustus, meaning in Latin \"majestic,\" \"the increaser,\" or \"venerable\", it is notable as being the name of the first emperor of Ancient Rome. The Greek translation of the title Augustus was Sebastos, from which the name Sebastian descends.\n\nNotable people with the name include:\n\nAugusto Aníbal\nAugusto dos Anjos\nAugusto Arbizo\nAugusto Barbera (born 1938), Italian law professor, politician and judge\nAugusto Benedico\nAugusto Boal\nAugusto de Campos\nAugusto César Sandino\nAugusto Fantozzi \nAugusto Genina\nAugusto B. Leguía\nAugusto Monterroso\nAugusto Odone, Italian economist who invented Lorenzo's oil\nAugusto Pestana (1868-1934)\nAugusto Pinochet\nAugusto Righi\nAugusto Roa Bastos\nAugusto Silj\nAugusto Vargas Alzamora\nAugusto de Vasconcelos\nAugusto Vera\n\nPeople in sports\nAugusto (footballer, born 1992), Brazilian football player, full name Augusto Bruno da Silva\nAugusto Farfus, Brazilian race car driver\nAugusto Fernández, Argentine footballer\nAugusto Franqui, Cuban baseball player\nAugusto Inácio, Portuguese footballer\nAugusto Oliveira da Silva Brazilian footballer\nLuís Augusto Osório Romão (1983) Brazilian footballer\nCésar Augusto Ramírez, Paraguayan footballer\nJosé Augusto de Almeida, Portuguese footballer\nJosé Augusto Torres, Portuguese footballer\nRenato Soares de Oliveira Augusto (1988) Brazilian footballer\nZé Augusto, Portuguese footballer\n\nOther\nEstádio Augusto Bauer, a football (soccer) stadium located in Brusque, Brazil\n\nSee also\nAugust (name)\nAugustus (disambiguation)\nAgosto (disambiguation)\nAuguste\n\nCategory:Italian masculine given names\nCategory:Portuguese masculine given names\nCategory:Spanish masculine given names",
"title": "Augusto"
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"The accusations were that Pinochet and his government have been characterized as fascist, with journalist and author Samuel Chavkin repeatedly characterizing both Pinochet and the military dictatorship as such in his book \"Storm Over Chile: The Junta Under Siege.\" Historian Gabriel Salazar also stated that Pinochet's establishment of a cult of personality around him was a fascist tactic.",
"Pinochet was accused of being a fascist.",
"The text does not provide information on whether there was conflict because of Pinochet's views.",
"The text does not provide information on whether Pinochet had many followers.",
"Based on the text, one interesting thing to note is the debate among academics and authors as to whether Pinochet's regime could be classified as fascist. Some like Samuel Chavkin and Gabriel Salazar characterized it as such, but scholars like Roger Griffin, Robert Paxton, and Anna Cento Bull differentiate it from classical fascism. Notably, Griffin placed Pinochet in a group of pseudo-populist despots including Saddam Hussein, Suharto, and Ferdinand Marcos. Meanwhile, the World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia noted that while Pinochet's rule was authoritarian and dictatorial, his support for neoliberal economic policies and his lack of support for national businesses distinguished him from classical fascists."
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C_44bc1642b5534417a63ed34163341f5e_1 | Ralph Waldo Emerson | Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 - April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States. Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence". | Early life, family, and education | Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803, a son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson, a Unitarian minister. He was named after his mother's brother Ralph and his father's great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. Ralph Waldo was the second of five sons who survived into adulthood; the others were William, Edward, Robert Bulkeley, and Charles. Three other children--Phebe, John Clarke, and Mary Caroline--died in childhood. Emerson was entirely of English ancestry, and his family had been in New England since the early colonial period. Emerson's father died from stomach cancer on May 12, 1811, less than two weeks before Emerson's eighth birthday. Emerson was raised by his mother, with the help of the other women in the family; his aunt Mary Moody Emerson in particular had a profound effect on him. She lived with the family off and on and maintained a constant correspondence with Emerson until her death in 1863. Emerson's formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812, when he was nine. In October 1817, at 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty. Midway through his junior year, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read and started a journal in a series of notebooks that would be called "Wide World". He took outside jobs to cover his school expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and as an occasional teacher working with his uncle Samuel and aunt Sarah Ripley in Waltham, Massachusetts. By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Waldo. Emerson served as Class Poet; as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29, 1821, when he was 18. He did not stand out as a student and graduated in the exact middle of his class of 59 people. In 1826, faced with poor health, Emerson went to seek a warmer climate. He first went to Charleston, South Carolina, but found the weather was still too cold. He then went further south, to St. Augustine, Florida, where he took long walks on the beach and began writing poetry. While in St. Augustine he made the acquaintance of Prince Achille Murat, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Murat was two years his senior; they became good friends and enjoyed one another's company. The two engaged in enlightening discussions of religion, society, philosophy, and government. Emerson considered Murat an important figure in his intellectual education. While in St. Augustine, Emerson had his first encounter with slavery. At one point, he attended a meeting of the Bible Society while a slave auction was taking place in the yard outside. He wrote, "One ear therefore heard the glad tidings of great joy, whilst the other was regaled with 'Going, gentlemen, going!'" CANNOTANSWER | [
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"What year was he born ?",
"Who was his father ?",
"Was he the only child of his parent ?",
"What school did he attended ?"
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} | Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society. Friedrich Nietzsche considered him “the most gifted of the Americans” and Walt Whitman referred to him as his “master”.
Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of transcendentalism in his 1836 essay "Nature". Following this work, he gave a speech entitled "The American Scholar" in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. considered to be America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence."
Emerson wrote most of his important essays as lectures first and then revised them for print. His first two collections of essays, Essays: First Series (1841) and Essays: Second Series (1844), represent the core of his thinking. They include the well-known essays "Self-Reliance", "The Over-Soul", "Circles", "The Poet", and "Experience." Together with "Nature", these essays made the decade from the mid-1830s to the mid-1840s Emerson's most fertile period. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for mankind to realize almost anything, and the relationship between the soul and the surrounding world. Emerson's "nature" was more philosophical than naturalistic: "Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul." Emerson is one of several figures who "took a more pantheist or pandeist approach by rejecting views of God as separate from the world."
He remains among the linchpins of the American romantic movement, and his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers and poets that followed him. "In all my lectures," he wrote, "I have taught one doctrine, namely, the infinitude of the private man." Emerson is also well known as a mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow transcendentalist.
Early life, family, and education
Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on May 25, 1803, a son of Ruth Haskins and the Rev. William Emerson, a Unitarian minister. He was named after his mother's brother Ralph and his father's great-grandmother Rebecca Waldo. Ralph Waldo was the second of five sons who survived into adulthood; the others were William, Edward, Robert Bulkeley, and Charles. Three other children—Phoebe, John Clarke, and Mary Caroline—died in childhood. Emerson was entirely of English ancestry, and his family had been in New England since the early colonial period.
Emerson's father died from stomach cancer on May 12, 1811, less than two weeks before Emerson's eighth birthday. Emerson was raised by his mother, with the help of the other women in the family; his aunt Mary Moody Emerson in particular had a profound effect on him. She lived with the family off and on and maintained a constant correspondence with Emerson until her death in 1863.
Emerson's formal schooling began at the Boston Latin School in 1812, when he was nine. In October 1817, at age 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty. Midway through his junior year, Emerson began keeping a list of books he had read and started a journal in a series of notebooks that would be called "Wide World". He took outside jobs to cover his school expenses, including as a waiter for the Junior Commons and as an occasional teacher working with his uncle Samuel and aunt Sarah Ripley in Waltham, Massachusetts. By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Waldo. Emerson served as Class Poet; as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29, 1821, when he was 18. He did not stand out as a student and graduated in the exact middle of his class of 59 people. In the early 1820s, Emerson was a teacher at the School for Young Ladies (which was run by his brother William). He would next spend two years living in a cabin in the Canterbury section of Roxbury, Massachusetts, where he wrote and studied nature. In his honor, this area is now called Schoolmaster Hill in Boston's Franklin Park.
In 1826, faced with poor health, Emerson went to seek a warmer climate. He first went to Charleston, South Carolina, but found the weather was still too cold. He then went farther south, to St. Augustine, Florida, where he took long walks on the beach and began writing poetry. While in St. Augustine he made the acquaintance of Prince Achille Murat, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Murat was two years his senior; they became good friends and enjoyed each other's company. The two engaged in enlightening discussions of religion, society, philosophy, and government. Emerson considered Murat an important figure in his intellectual education.
While in St. Augustine, Emerson had his first encounter with slavery. At one point, he attended a meeting of the Bible Society while a slave auction was taking place in the yard outside. He wrote, "One ear therefore heard the glad tidings of great joy, whilst the other was regaled with 'Going, gentlemen, going!'"
Early career
After Harvard, Emerson assisted his brother William in a school for young women established in their mother's house, after he had established his own school in Chelmsford, Massachusetts; when his brother William went to Göttingen to study law in mid-1824, Ralph Waldo closed the school but continued to teach in Cambridge, Massachusetts, until early 1825. Emerson was accepted into the Harvard Divinity School in late 1824, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1828. Emerson's brother Edward, two years younger than he, entered the office of the lawyer Daniel Webster, after graduating from Harvard first in his class. Edward's physical health began to deteriorate, and he soon suffered a mental collapse as well; he was taken to McLean Asylum in June 1828 at age 25. Although he recovered his mental equilibrium, he died in 1834, apparently from long-standing tuberculosis. Another of Emerson's bright and promising younger brothers, Charles, born in 1808, died in 1836, also of tuberculosis, making him the third young person in Emerson's innermost circle to die in a period of a few years.
Emerson met his first wife, Ellen Louisa Tucker, in Concord, New Hampshire, on Christmas Day, 1827, and married her when she was 18 two years later. The couple moved to Boston, with Emerson's mother, Ruth, moving with them to help take care of Ellen, who was already ill with tuberculosis. Less than two years after that, on February 8, 1831, Ellen died, at the age of 20, after uttering her last words: "I have not forgotten the peace and joy". Emerson was heavily affected by her death and visited her grave in Roxbury daily. In a journal entry dated March 29, 1832, he wrote, "I visited Ellen's tomb & opened the coffin".
Boston's Second Church invited Emerson to serve as its junior pastor, and he was ordained on January 11, 1829. His initial salary was $1,200 per year (), increasing to $1,400 in July, but with his church role he took on other responsibilities: he was the chaplain of the Massachusetts legislature and a member of the Boston school committee. His church activities kept him busy, though during this period, facing the imminent death of his wife, he began to doubt his own beliefs.
After his wife's death, he began to disagree with the church's methods, writing in his journal in June 1832, "I have sometimes thought that, in order to be a good minister, it was necessary to leave the ministry. The profession is antiquated. In an altered age, we worship in the dead forms of our forefathers". His disagreements with church officials over the administration of the Communion service and misgivings about public prayer eventually led to his resignation in 1832. As he wrote, "This mode of commemorating Christ is not suitable to me. That is reason enough why I should abandon it". As one Emerson scholar has pointed out, "Doffing the decent black of the pastor, he was free to choose the gown of the lecturer and teacher, of the thinker not confined within the limits of an institution or a tradition".
Emerson toured Europe in 1833 and later wrote of his travels in English Traits (1856). He left aboard the brig Jasper on Christmas Day, 1832, sailing first to Malta. During his European trip, he spent several months in Italy, visiting Rome, Florence and Venice, among other cities. When in Rome, he met with John Stuart Mill, who gave him a letter of recommendation to meet Thomas Carlyle. He went to Switzerland, and had to be dragged by fellow passengers to visit Voltaire's home in Ferney, "protesting all the way upon the unworthiness of his memory". He then went on to Paris, a "loud modern New York of a place", where he visited the Jardin des Plantes. He was greatly moved by the organization of plants according to Jussieu's system of classification, and the way all such objects were related and connected. As Robert D. Richardson says, "Emerson's moment of insight into the interconnectedness of things in the Jardin des Plantes was a moment of almost visionary intensity that pointed him away from theology and toward science".
Moving north to England, Emerson met William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle in particular was a strong influence on him; Emerson would later serve as an unofficial literary agent in the United States for Carlyle, and in March 1835, he tried to persuade Carlyle to come to America to lecture. The two maintained a correspondence until Carlyle's death in 1881.
Emerson returned to the United States on October 9, 1833, and lived with his mother in Newton, Massachusetts. In October 1834, he moved to Concord, Massachusetts, to live with his step-grandfather, Dr. Ezra Ripley, at what was later named The Old Manse. Given the budding Lyceum movement, which provided lectures on all sorts of topics, Emerson saw a possible career as a lecturer. On November 5, 1833, he made the first of what would eventually be some 1,500 lectures, "The Uses of Natural History", in Boston. This was an expanded account of his experience in Paris. In this lecture, he set out some of his important beliefs and the ideas he would later develop in his first published essay, "Nature":
On January 24, 1835, Emerson wrote a letter to Lydia Jackson proposing marriage. Her acceptance reached him by mail on the 28th. In July 1835, he bought a house on the Cambridge and Concord Turnpike in Concord, Massachusetts, which he named Bush; it is now open to the public as the Ralph Waldo Emerson House. Emerson quickly became one of the leading citizens in the town. He gave a lecture to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the town of Concord on September 12, 1835. Two days later, he married Jackson in her home town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, and moved to the new home in Concord together with Emerson's mother on September 15.
Emerson quickly changed his wife's name to Lidian, and would call her Queenie, and sometimes Asia, and she called him Mr. Emerson. Their children were Waldo, Ellen, Edith, and Edward Waldo Emerson. Edward Waldo Emerson was the father of Raymond Emerson. Ellen was named for his first wife, at Lidian's suggestion.
Emerson was poor when he was at Harvard, but was later able to support his family for much of his life. He inherited a fair amount of money after his first wife's death, though he had to file a lawsuit against the Tucker family in 1836 to get it. He received $11,600 in May 1834 (), and a further $11,674.49 in July 1837 (). In 1834, he considered that he had an income of $1,200 a year from the initial payment of the estate, equivalent to what he had earned as a pastor.
Literary career and transcendentalism
On September 8, 1836, the day before the publication of Nature, Emerson met with Frederic Henry Hedge, George Putnam, and George Ripley to plan periodic gatherings of other like-minded intellectuals. This was the beginning of the Transcendental Club, which served as a center for the movement. Its first official meeting was held on September 19, 1836. On September 1, 1837, women attended a meeting of the Transcendental Club for the first time. Emerson invited Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Hoar, and Sarah Ripley for dinner at his home before the meeting to ensure that they would be present for the evening get-together. Fuller would prove to be an important figure in transcendentalism.
Emerson anonymously sent his first essay, "Nature", to James Munroe and Company to be published on September 9, 1836. A year later, on August 31, 1837, he delivered his now-famous Phi Beta Kappa address, "The American Scholar", then entitled "An Oration, Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge"; it was renamed for a collection of essays (which included the first general publication of "Nature") in 1849. Friends urged him to publish the talk, and he did so at his own expense, in an edition of 500 copies, which sold out in a month. In the speech, Emerson declared literary independence in the United States and urged Americans to create a writing style all their own, free from Europe. James Russell Lowell, who was a student at Harvard at the time, called it "an event without former parallel on our literary annals". Another member of the audience, Reverend John Pierce, called it "an apparently incoherent and unintelligible address".
In 1837, Emerson befriended Henry David Thoreau. Though they had likely met as early as 1835, in the fall of 1837, Emerson asked Thoreau, "Do you keep a journal?" The question went on to be a lifelong inspiration for Thoreau. Emerson's own journal was published in 16 large volumes, in the definitive Harvard University Press edition issued between 1960 and 1982. Some scholars consider the journal to be Emerson's key literary work.
In March 1837, Emerson gave a series of lectures on the philosophy of history at the Masonic Temple in Boston. This was the first time he managed a lecture series on his own, and it was the beginning of his career as a lecturer. The profits from this series of lectures were much larger than when he was paid by an organization to talk, and he continued to manage his own lectures often throughout his lifetime. He eventually gave as many as 80 lectures a year, traveling across the northern United States as far as St. Louis, Des Moines, Minneapolis, and California.
On July 15, 1838, Emerson was invited to Divinity Hall, Harvard Divinity School, to deliver the school's graduation address, which came to be known as the "Divinity School Address". Emerson discounted biblical miracles and proclaimed that, while Jesus was a great man, he was not God: historical Christianity, he said, had turned Jesus into a "demigod, as the Orientals or the Greeks would describe Osiris or Apollo". His comments outraged the establishment and the general Protestant community. He was denounced as an atheist and a poisoner of young men's minds. Despite the roar of critics, he made no reply, leaving others to put forward a defense. He was not invited back to speak at Harvard for another thirty years.
The transcendental group began to publish its flagship journal, The Dial, in July 1840. They planned the journal as early as October 1839, but work did not begin until the first week of 1840. George Ripley was the managing editor. Margaret Fuller was the first editor, having been approached by Emerson after several others had declined the role. Fuller stayed on for about two years, when Emerson took over, using the journal to promote talented young writers including Ellery Channing and Thoreau.
In 1841 Emerson published Essays, his second book, which included the famous essay "Self-Reliance". His aunt called it a "strange medley of atheism and false independence", but it gained favorable reviews in London and Paris. This book, and its popular reception, more than any of Emerson's contributions to date laid the groundwork for his international fame.
In January 1842 Emerson's first son, Waldo, died of scarlet fever. Emerson wrote of his grief in the poem "Threnody" ("For this losing is true dying"), and the essay "Experience". In the same month, William James was born, and Emerson agreed to be his godfather.
Bronson Alcott announced his plans in November 1842 to find "a farm of a hundred acres in excellent condition with good buildings, a good orchard and grounds". Charles Lane purchased a farm in Harvard, Massachusetts, in May 1843 for what would become Fruitlands, a community based on Utopian ideals inspired in part by transcendentalism. The farm would run based on a communal effort, using no animals for labor; its participants would eat no meat and use no wool or leather. Emerson said he felt "sad at heart" for not engaging in the experiment himself. Even so, he did not feel Fruitlands would be a success. "Their whole doctrine is spiritual", he wrote, "but they always end with saying, Give us much land and money". Even Alcott admitted he was not prepared for the difficulty in operating Fruitlands. "None of us were prepared to actualize practically the ideal life of which we dreamed. So we fell apart", he wrote. After its failure, Emerson helped buy a farm for Alcott's family in Concord which Alcott named "Hillside".
The Dial ceased publication in April 1844; Horace Greeley reported it as an end to the "most original and thoughtful periodical ever published in this country".
In 1844, Emerson published his second collection of essays, Essays: Second Series. This collection included "The Poet", "Experience", "Gifts", and an essay entitled "Nature", a different work from the 1836 essay of the same name.
Emerson made a living as a popular lecturer in New England and much of the rest of the country. He had begun lecturing in 1833; by the 1850s he was giving as many as 80 lectures per year. He addressed the Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and the Gloucester Lyceum, among others. Emerson spoke on a wide variety of subjects, and many of his essays grew out of his lectures. He charged between $10 and $50 for each appearance, bringing him as much as $2,000 in a typical winter lecture season. This was more than his earnings from other sources. In some years, he earned as much as $900 for a series of six lectures, and in another, for a winter series of talks in Boston, he netted $1,600. He eventually gave some 1,500 lectures in his lifetime. His earnings allowed him to expand his property, buying of land by Walden Pond and a few more acres in a neighboring pine grove. He wrote that he was "landlord and water lord of 14 acres, more or less".
Emerson was introduced to Indian philosophy through the works of the French philosopher Victor Cousin. In 1845, Emerson's journals show he was reading the Bhagavad Gita and Henry Thomas Colebrooke's Essays on the Vedas. He was strongly influenced by Vedanta, and much of his writing has strong shades of nondualism. One of the clearest examples of this can be found in his essay "The Over-soul":
The central message Emerson drew from his Asian studies was that "the purpose of life was spiritual transformation and direct experience of divine power, here and now on earth."
In 1847–48, he toured the British Isles. He also visited Paris between the French Revolution of 1848 and the bloody June Days. When he arrived, he saw the stumps of trees that had been cut down to form barricades in the February riots. On May 21, he stood on the Champ de Mars in the midst of mass celebrations for concord, peace and labor. He wrote in his journal, "At the end of the year we shall take account, & see if the Revolution was worth the trees." The trip left an important imprint on Emerson's later work. His 1856 book English Traits is based largely on observations recorded in his travel journals and notebooks. Emerson later came to see the American Civil War as a "revolution" that shared common ground with the European revolutions of 1848.
In a speech in Concord, Massachusetts on May 3, 1851, Emerson denounced the Fugitive Slave Act:
That summer, he wrote in his diary:
In February 1852 Emerson and James Freeman Clarke and William Henry Channing edited an edition of the works and letters of Margaret Fuller, who had died in 1850. Within a week of her death, her New York editor, Horace Greeley, suggested to Emerson that a biography of Fuller, to be called Margaret and Her Friends, be prepared quickly "before the interest excited by her sad decease has passed away". Published under the title The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Fuller's words were heavily censored or rewritten. The three editors were not concerned about accuracy; they believed public interest in Fuller was temporary and that she would not survive as a historical figure. Even so, it was the best-selling biography of the decade and went through thirteen editions before the end of the century.
Walt Whitman published the innovative poetry collection Leaves of Grass in 1855 and sent a copy to Emerson for his opinion. Emerson responded positively, sending Whitman a flattering five-page letter in response. Emerson's approval helped the first edition of Leaves of Grass stir up significant interest and convinced Whitman to issue a second edition shortly thereafter. This edition quoted a phrase from Emerson's letter, printed in gold leaf on the cover: "I Greet You at the Beginning of a Great Career". Emerson took offense that this letter was made public and later was more critical of the work.
Philosophers Camp at Follensbee Pond – Adirondacks
Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the summer of 1858, would venture into the great wilderness of upstate New York.
Joining him were nine of the most illustrious intellectuals ever to camp out in the Adirondacks to connect with nature: Louis Agassiz, James Russell Lowell, John Holmes, Horatio Woodman, Ebenezer Rockwell Hoar, Jeffries Wyman, Estes Howe, Amos Binney, and William James Stillman. Invited, but unable to make the trip for diverse reasons, were: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Charles Eliot Norton, all members of the Saturday Club (Boston, Massachusetts).
This social club was mostly a literary membership that met the last Saturday of the month at the Boston Parker House Hotel (Omni Parker House). William James Stillman was a painter and founding editor of an art journal called the Crayon. Stillman was born and grew up in Schenectady which was just south of the Adirondack mountains. He would later travel there to paint the wilderness landscape and to fish and hunt. He would share his experiences in this wilderness to the members of the Saturday Club, raising their interest in this unknown region.
James Russell Lowell and William Stillman would lead the effort to organize a trip to the Adirondacks. They would begin their journey on August 2, 1858, traveling by train, steam boat, stagecoach, and canoe guide boats. News that these cultured men were living like "Sacs and Sioux" in the wilderness appeared in newspapers across the nation. This would become known as the "Philosophers Camp".
This event was a landmark in the nineteenth-century intellectual movement, linking nature with art and literature.
Although much has been written over many years by scholars and biographers of Emerson's life, little has been written of what has become known as the "Philosophers Camp" at Follensbee Pond. Yet, his epic poem "Adirondac" reads like a journal of his day to day detailed description of adventures in the wilderness with his fellow members of the Saturday Club. This two week camping excursion (1858 in the Adirondacks) brought him face to face with a true wilderness, something he spoke of in his essay "Nature", published in 1836. He said, "in the wilderness I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages".
Civil War years
Emerson was staunchly opposed to slavery, but he did not appreciate being in the public limelight and was hesitant about lecturing on the subject. In the years leading up to the Civil War, he did give a number of lectures, however, beginning as early as November 1837. A number of his friends and family members were more active abolitionists than he, at first, but from 1844 on he more actively opposed slavery. He gave a number of speeches and lectures, and welcomed John Brown to his home during Brown's visits to Concord. He voted for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, but was disappointed that Lincoln was more concerned about preserving the Union than eliminating slavery outright. Once the American Civil War broke out, Emerson made it clear that he believed in immediate emancipation of the slaves.
Around this time, in 1860, Emerson published The Conduct of Life, his seventh collection of essays. It "grappled with some of the thorniest issues of the moment," and "his experience in the abolition ranks is a telling influence in his conclusions." In these essays Emerson strongly embraced the idea of war as a means of national rebirth: "Civil war, national bankruptcy, or revolution, [are] more rich in the central tones than languid years of prosperity."
Emerson visited Washington, D.C, at the end of January 1862. He gave a public lecture at the Smithsonian on January 31, 1862, and declared:, "The South calls slavery an institution ... I call it destitution ... Emancipation is the demand of civilization". The next day, February 1, his friend Charles Sumner took him to meet Lincoln at the White House. Lincoln was familiar with Emerson's work, having previously seen him lecture. Emerson's misgivings about Lincoln began to soften after this meeting. In 1865, he spoke at a memorial service held for Lincoln in Concord: "Old as history is, and manifold as are its tragedies, I doubt if any death has caused so much pain as this has caused, or will have caused, on its announcement." Emerson also met a number of high-ranking government officials, including Salmon P. Chase, the secretary of the treasury; Edward Bates, the attorney general; Edwin M. Stanton, the secretary of war; Gideon Welles, the secretary of the navy; and William Seward, the secretary of state.
On May 6, 1862, Emerson's protégé Henry David Thoreau died of tuberculosis at the age of 44. Emerson delivered his eulogy. He often referred to Thoreau as his best friend, despite a falling-out that began in 1849 after Thoreau published A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Another friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne, died two years after Thoreau, in 1864. Emerson served as a pallbearer when Hawthorne was buried in Concord, as Emerson wrote, "in a pomp of sunshine and verdure".
He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1864. In 1867, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.
Final years and death
Starting in 1867, Emerson's health began declining; he wrote much less in his journals. Beginning as early as the summer of 1871 or in the spring of 1872, he started experiencing memory problems and suffered from aphasia. By the end of the decade, he forgot his own name at times and, if asked how he felt, would respond "Quite well; I have lost my mental faculties, but am perfectly well".
In the spring of 1871, Emerson took a trip on the transcontinental railroad, barely two years after its completion. Along the way and in California he met a number of dignitaries, including Brigham Young during a stopover in Salt Lake City. Part of his California visit included a trip to Yosemite, and while there he met a young and unknown John Muir, a signature event in Muir's career.
Emerson's Concord home caught fire on July 24, 1872. He called for help from neighbors and, giving up on putting out the flames, all tried to save as many objects as possible. The fire was put out by Ephraim Bull Jr., the one-armed son of Ephraim Wales Bull. Donations were collected by friends to help the Emersons rebuild, including $5,000 gathered by Francis Cabot Lowell, another $10,000 collected by LeBaron Russell Briggs, and a personal donation of $1,000 from George Bancroft. Support for shelter was offered as well; though the Emersons ended up staying with family at the Old Manse, invitations came from Anne Lynch Botta, James Elliot Cabot, James T. Fields and Annie Adams Fields. The fire marked an end to Emerson's serious lecturing career; from then on, he would lecture only on special occasions and only in front of familiar audiences.
While the house was being rebuilt, Emerson took a trip to England, continental Europe, and Egypt. He left on October 23, 1872, along with his daughter Ellen, while his wife Lidian spent time at the Old Manse and with friends. Emerson and his daughter Ellen returned to the United States on the ship Olympus along with friend Charles Eliot Norton on April 15, 1873. Emerson's return to Concord was celebrated by the town, and school was canceled that day.
In late 1874, Emerson published an anthology of poetry entitled Parnassus, which included poems by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Julia Caroline Dorr, Jean Ingelow, Lucy Larcom, Jones Very, as well as Thoreau and several others. Originally, the anthology had been prepared as early as the fall of 1871, but it was delayed when the publishers asked for revisions.
The problems with his memory had become embarrassing to Emerson and he ceased his public appearances by 1879. In reply to an invitation to a retirement celebration for Octavius B. Frothingham, he wrote, “I am not in condition to make visits, or take any part in conversation. Old age has rushed on me in the last year, and tied my tongue, and hid my memory, and thus made it a duty to stay at home.” The New York Times quoted his reply and noted that his regrets were read aloud at the celebration. Holmes wrote of the problem saying, "Emerson is afraid to trust himself in society much, on account of the failure of his memory and the great difficulty he finds in getting the words he wants. It is painful to witness his embarrassment at times".
On April 21, 1882, Emerson was found to be suffering from pneumonia. He died six days later. Emerson is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts. He was placed in his coffin wearing a white robe given by the American sculptor Daniel Chester French.
Lifestyle and beliefs
Emerson's religious views were often considered radical at the time. He believed that all things are connected to God and, therefore, all things are divine. Critics believed that Emerson was removing the central God figure; as Henry Ware Jr. said, Emerson was in danger of taking away "the Father of the Universe" and leaving "but a company of children in an orphan asylum". Emerson was partly influenced by German philosophy and Biblical criticism. His views, the basis of Transcendentalism, suggested that God does not have to reveal the truth, but that the truth could be intuitively experienced directly from nature. When asked his religious belief, Emerson stated, "I am more of a Quaker than anything else. I believe in the 'still, small voice', and that voice is Christ within us."
Emerson was a supporter of the spread of community libraries in the 19th century, having this to say of them: "Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom."
Emerson had a number of romantic interests in various women throughout his life, such as Anna Barker and Caroline Sturgis. During his early years at Harvard (around age 14–16), he wrote erotic poetry about a fellow classmate named Martin Gay.
Race and slavery
Emerson did not become an ardent abolitionist until 1844, though his journals show he was concerned with slavery beginning in his youth, even dreaming about helping to free slaves. In June 1856, shortly after Charles Sumner, a United States Senator, was beaten for his staunch abolitionist views, Emerson lamented that he himself was not as committed to the cause. He wrote, "There are men who as soon as they are born take a bee-line to the axe of the inquisitor. ... Wonderful the way in which we are saved by this unfailing supply of the moral element". After Sumner's attack, Emerson began to speak out about slavery. "I think we must get rid of slavery, or we must get rid of freedom", he said at a meeting at Concord that summer. Emerson used slavery as an example of a human injustice, especially in his role as a minister. In early 1838, provoked by the murder of an abolitionist publisher from Alton, Illinois, named Elijah Parish Lovejoy, Emerson gave his first public antislavery address. As he said, "It is but the other day that the brave Lovejoy gave his breast to the bullets of a mob, for the rights of free speech and opinion, and died when it was better not to live". John Quincy Adams said the mob-murder of Lovejoy "sent a shock as of any earthquake throughout this continent". However, Emerson maintained that reform would be achieved through moral agreement rather than by militant action. By August 1, 1844, at a lecture in Concord, he stated more clearly his support for the abolitionist movement: "We are indebted mainly to this movement, and to the continuers of it, for the popular discussion of every point of practical ethics".
Emerson is often known as one of the most liberal democratic thinkers of his time who believed that through the democratic process, slavery should be abolished. While being an avid abolitionist who was known for his criticism of the legality of slavery, Emerson struggled with the implications of race. His usual liberal leanings did not clearly translate when it came to believing that all races had equal capability or function, which was a common conception for the period in which he lived. Many critics believe that it was his views on race that inhibited him from becoming an abolitionist earlier in his life and also inhibited him from being more active in the antislavery movement. Much of his early life, he was silent on the topic of race and slavery. Not until he was well into his 30s did Emerson begin to publish writings on race and slavery, and not until he was in his late 40s and 50s did he became known as an antislavery activist.
During his early life, Emerson seemed to develop a hierarchy of races based on faculty to reason or rather, whether African slaves were distinguishably equal to white men based on their ability to reason. In a journal entry written in 1822, Emerson wrote about a personal observation: "It can hardly be true that the difference lies in the attribute of reason. I saw ten, twenty, a hundred large lipped, lowbrowed black men in the streets who, except in the mere matter of language, did not exceed the sagacity of the elephant. Now is it true that these were created superior to this wise animal, and designed to control it? And in comparison with the highest orders of men, the Africans will stand so low as to make the difference which subsists between themselves & the sagacious beasts inconsiderable."
As with many supporters of slavery, during his early years, Emerson seems to have thought that the faculties of African slaves were not equal to those of white slave-owners. But this belief in racial inferiorities did not make Emerson a supporter of slavery. Emerson wrote later that year that "No ingenious sophistry can ever reconcile the unperverted mind to the pardon of Slavery; nothing but tremendous familiarity, and the bias of private interest". Emerson saw the removal of people from their homeland, the treatment of slaves, and the self-seeking benefactors of slaves as gross injustices. For Emerson, slavery was a moral issue, while superiority of the races was an issue he tried to analyze from a scientific perspective based on what he believed to be inherited traits.
Emerson saw himself as a man of "Saxon descent". In a speech given in 1835 titled "Permanent Traits of the English National Genius", he said, "The inhabitants of the United States, especially of the Northern portion, are descended from the people of England and have inherited the traits of their national character". He saw direct ties between race based on national identity and the inherent nature of the human being. White Americans who were native-born in the United States and of English ancestry were categorized by him as a separate "race", which he thought had a position of being superior to other nations. His idea of race was based on a shared culture, environment, and history. He believed that native-born Americans of English descent were superior to European immigrants, including the Irish, French, and Germans, and also as being superior to English people from England, whom he considered a close second and the only really comparable group.
Later in his life, Emerson's ideas on race changed when he became more involved in the abolitionist movement while at the same time he began to more thoroughly analyze the philosophical implications of race and racial hierarchies. His beliefs shifted focus to the potential outcomes of racial conflicts. Emerson's racial views were closely related to his views on nationalism and national superiority, which was a common view in the United States at that time. Emerson used contemporary theories of race and natural science to support a theory of race development. He believed that the current political battle and the current enslavement of other races was an inevitable racial struggle, one that would result in the inevitable union of the United States. Such conflicts were necessary for the dialectic of change that would eventually allow the progress of the nation. In much of his later work, Emerson seems to allow the notion that different European races will eventually mix in America. This hybridization process would lead to a superior race that would be to the advantage of the superiority of the United States.
Legacy
As a lecturer and orator, Emerson—nicknamed the Sage of Concord—became the leading voice of intellectual culture in the United States. James Russell Lowell, editor of the Atlantic Monthly and the North American Review, commented in his book My Study Windows (1871), that Emerson was not only the "most steadily attractive lecturer in America," but also "one of the pioneers of the lecturing system." Herman Melville, who had met Emerson in 1849, originally thought he had "a defect in the region of the heart" and a "self-conceit so intensely intellectual that at first one hesitates to call it by its right name", though he later admitted Emerson was "a great man". Theodore Parker, a minister and transcendentalist, noted Emerson's ability to influence and inspire others: "the brilliant genius of Emerson rose in the winter nights, and hung over Boston, drawing the eyes of ingenuous young people to look up to that great new star, a beauty and a mystery, which charmed for the moment, while it gave also perennial inspiration, as it led them forward along new paths, and towards new hopes".
Emerson's work not only influenced his contemporaries, such as Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, but would continue to influence thinkers and writers in the United States and around the world down to the present. Notable thinkers who recognize Emerson's influence include Nietzsche and William James, Emerson's godson. There is little disagreement that Emerson was the most influential writer of 19th-century America, though these days he is largely the concern of scholars. Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau and William James were all positive Emersonians, while Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James were Emersonians in denial—while they set themselves in opposition to the sage, there was no escaping his influence. To T. S. Eliot, Emerson's essays were an "encumbrance". Waldo the Sage was eclipsed from 1914 until 1965, when he returned to shine, after surviving in the work of major American poets like Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens and Hart Crane.
In his book The American Religion, Harold Bloom repeatedly refers to Emerson as "The prophet of the American Religion", which in the context of the book refers to indigenously American religions such as Mormonism and Christian Science, which arose largely in Emerson's lifetime, but also to mainline Protestant churches that Bloom says have become in the United States more gnostic than their European counterparts. In The Western Canon, Bloom compares Emerson to Michel de Montaigne: "The only equivalent reading experience that I know is to reread endlessly in the notebooks and journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American version of Montaigne." Several of Emerson's poems were included in Bloom's The Best Poems of the English Language, although he wrote that none of the poems are as outstanding as the best of Emerson's essays, which Bloom listed as "Self-Reliance", "Circles", "Experience", and "nearly all of Conduct of Life". In his belief that line lengths, rhythms, and phrases are determined by breath, Emerson's poetry foreshadowed the theories of Charles Olson.
Namesakes
In May 2006, 168 years after Emerson delivered his "Divinity School Address", Harvard Divinity School announced the establishment of the Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Professorship. Harvard has also named a building, Emerson Hall (1900), after him.
The Emerson String Quartet, formed in 1976, took their name from him.
The Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize is awarded annually to high school students for essays on historical subjects.
The Emerson Collective is a company devoted to social change.
Emerson Street in Napier, New Zealand is named after him.
Selected works
Collections
Essays: First Series (1841)
Essays: Second Series (1844)
Poems (1847)
Nature, Addresses and Lectures (1849)
Representative Men (1850)
English Traits (1856)
The Conduct of Life (1860)
May-Day and Other Pieces (1867)
Society and Solitude (1870)
Natural History of the Intellect: the last lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1871)
Letters and Social Aims (1875)
Individual essays
"Nature" (1836)
"Self-Reliance" (Essays: First Series)
"Compensation" (First Series)
"The Over-Soul" (First Series)
"Circles" (First Series)
"The Poet" (Essays: Second Series)
"Experience" (Essays: Second Series)
"Politics" (Second Series)
"Saadi" in the Atlantic Monthly (1864)
"The American Scholar"
"New England Reformers"
"History"
"Fate"
Poems
"Concord Hymn"
"The Rhodora"
"Brahma"
"Uriel"
Letters
Letter to Martin Van Buren
The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834–72
See also
American philosophy
List of American philosophers
Notes
References
Mudge, Jean McClure (ed.) (2015). Mr. Emerson's Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Open Book.
Slater, Joseph (ed.) (1964). The Correspondence of Emerson and Carlyle. New York: Columbia University Press.
Further reading
Sacks, Kenneth S. (2003). Understanding Emerson: "The American Scholar" and His Struggle for Self-Reliance. Princeton: Princeton University Press. .
Archival sources
Ralph Waldo Emerson papers, 1814–1867 (25 boxes) are housed at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University
Finding aid to Ralph Waldo Emerson letters at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Ralph Waldo Emerson additional papers, 1852–1898 (.5 linear feet) are housed at Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Ralph Waldo Emerson lectures and sermons, c. 1831–1882 (10 linear feet) are housed at Houghton Library at Harvard University.
Ralph Waldo Emerson letters to Charles King Newcomb, 1842 March 18 – 1, 858 July 25 (22 items) are housed at the Concord Public Library.
External links
The Collected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harvard University Press, Ronald A. Bosco, General Editor; Joel Myerson, Textual Editor
The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson at RWE.org
Reading Ralph Waldo Emerson, a blog featuring excerpts from Emerson's journals
Representative Men from American Studies at the University of Virginia.
Mark Twain on Ralph Waldo Emerson Shapell Manuscript Foundation
The Enduring Significance of Emerson's Divinity School Address" – by John Haynes Holmes
The Living Legacy of Ralph Waldo Emerson by Rev. Schulman and R. Richardson
A Tribute to Ralph Waldo Emerson – a hypertext guide, in English and in Italian
Ralph Waldo Emerson complete Works at the University of Michigan
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: " Ralph Waldo Emerson" – by Russell Goodman
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Ralph Waldo Emerson" – by Vince Brewton
Life in the Ralph Waldo Emerson House – slideshow by The New York Times
A bibliography of books about Emerson
"Writings of Emerson and Thoreau" from C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey Through History
Ralph Waldo Emerson letters and manuscript. Available online through Lehigh University's I Remain: A Digital Archive of Letters, Manuscripts, and Ephemera.
Category:1803 births
Category:1882 deaths
Category:19th-century American philosophers
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:19th-century mystics
Category:19th-century American theologians
Category:Abolitionists from Boston
Category:American diarists
Category:American essayists
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:American male poets
Category:American people of English descent
Category:American political philosophers
Category:American spiritual writers
Category:American Unitarians
Category:Boston Latin School alumni
Category:Boston School Committee members
Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Category:Furness family
Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Harvard Divinity School alumni
Category:Individualism
Category:Lecturers
Category:Members of the Transcendental Club
Category:Natural philosophers
Category:Neo-Vedanta
Category:Panentheists
Category:People from Concord, Massachusetts
Category:Philosophers from Massachusetts
Category:Philosophers of culture
Category:Philosophers of history
Category:Philosophers of literature
Category:Philosophers of mind
Category:Philosophers of religion
Category:Poets from Massachusetts
Category:American social commentators
Category:Social philosophers
Category:Transcendentalism
Category:Writers from Boston
Category:19th-century diarists | [] | [
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} | Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man (1962), Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Tennessee Steinmetz in The Love Bug (1968), and the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid (1989).
Early life
Hackett was one of two children born into a Jewish family living in Brooklyn, New York. His mother Anna (née Geller) worked in the garment trades while his father Philip Hacker was a furniture upholsterer and part-time inventor. Hackett grew up across from Public School 103 on 54th Street and 14th Avenue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and was active in varsity football and drama club at New Utrecht High School. Hackett suffered from Bell's palsy as a child, the lingering effects of which contributed to his distinctive slurred speech and facial expression.
While still a student, Hackett worked as a "tummler" (Yiddish for "tumult maker") entertaining guests in the Catskills Borscht Belt resorts. While there, he began performing stand-up comedy in the resort nightclubs as "Butch Hacker". He appeared first at the Golden Hotel in Hurleyville, New York, claiming later he did not get one single laugh. Following his graduation from high school in 1942, Hackett enlisted in the United States Army and served during World War II for three years in an anti-aircraft battery.
Career
Early career
Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. It was here that he changed his name from Leonard Hacker to Buddy Hackett. He made appearances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and continued to perform in the Catskills. He acted on Broadway, in Lunatics and Lovers, where Max Liebman saw him and put him in two television specials.
Hackett's movie career began in 1950 with a 10-minute "World of Sports" reel for Columbia Pictures called King of the Pins. The film demonstrated championship bowling techniques, with expert Joe Wilman demonstrating the right way and Hackett (in pantomime) exemplifying the wrong way. There was an anecdote that, because of this appearance, Hackett received an offer to join the Three Stooges from Jules White, the head of Columbia short subject department, in 1952. Curly Howard had suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946; his older brother Shemp Howard was intended to replace him only on a temporary basis until he fully recovered, but Curly died in January 1952. It was said Hackett even joined Moe Howard and Larry Fine for a rehearsal, but turned down the offer eventually when he felt he did not fit with the act's comedy style and wanted to develop his own style as a solo act. This rumor was later dismissed as either untrue or unfounded.
Hackett would not return to movies until 1953, after one of his nightclub routines attracted attention. With a rubber band around his head to slant his eyes, Hackett's "The Chinese Waiter" lampooned the heavy dialect, frustration, and communication problems encountered by a busy waiter in a Chinese restaurant: "No, we no have sprit-pea soup ... We gotta wonton, we got eh-roll ... No orda for her, juss orda for you!" The routine was such a hit that Hackett made a recording of it, and was hired to reprise it in the Universal-International musical Walking My Baby Back Home (1953), in which he was third-billed under Donald O'Connor and Janet Leigh.
Hackett was an emergency replacement for the similarly built Lou Costello in 1954. Abbott and Costello were set to make a feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child, featuring Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Several scenes had been shot with stunt doubles when Lou Costello was forced to withdraw due to illness. Universal-International salvaged the project by hiring Hugh O'Brian and Hackett to take over the Abbott and Costello roles with Jones and his band becoming the main attraction.
Hackett became known to a wider audience when he appeared on television in the 1950s and '60s as a frequent guest on variety talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, often off-color jokes, and mugging at the camera. Hackett was a frequent guest on both the Jack Paar and the Johnny Carson versions of The Tonight Show. According to the board game Trivial Pursuit, Hackett has the distinction of making the most guest appearances in the history of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. During this time, he also appeared as a panelist and mystery guest on CBS-TV's What's My Line? and filled in as emcee for the game show Treasure Hunt. He made fifteen guest appearances on NBC-TV's The Perry Como Show between 1955 and 1961. He appeared with his roommate Lenny Bruce on the Patrice Munsel Show (1957-1958), calling their comedy duo the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," 20 years before the cast of Saturday Night Live used the same name.
Hackett appeared twice on ABC's The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. In both episodes, "Bloodlines" (1959) and "The Clarence Bibs Story" (1961), his fellow guest star was Denver Pyle. He was cast as Daniel Malakie in "Bloodlines", the father of three boisterous brothers headed to trouble, and then as Clarence Bibs in the episode of that same name. Bibs is a handyman who after cleaning a gun accidentally kills a notorious outlaw, Longden (X Brands). Then, Longden's former partner, George Tanner (Denver Pyle), comes to town but avoids confrontation with Bibs and accepts the explanation that Wicks' death was accidental.
Stanley
Hackett starred as the title character on NBC-TV's Stanley, a 1956–57 situation comedy which ran for 19 weeks on Monday evenings at 8:30 pm ET. The half-hour series also featured a young Carol Burnett and the voice of Paul Lynde. The Max Liebman produced program aired live before a studio audience and was one of the last sitcoms from New York to do so. Stanley revolved around the adventures of the titular character (Hackett) as the operator of a newsstand in a posh New York City hotel.
Hackett appeared opposite Robert Preston in the film adaptation of The Music Man (1962). In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Hackett was paired with Mickey Rooney, with whom he had also recently made Everything's Ducky (1961), in which they played two sailors who smuggle a talking duck aboard a Navy ship. Children became familiar with him as lovable hippie auto mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz in Disney's The Love Bug (1968).
In 1964, he had a stint on Broadway, appearing with Richard Kiley in I Had a Ball.
He appeared many times on the game show Hollywood Squares in the late 1960s and 1970s. In one episode, Hackett (who was Jewish) was asked which country had the highest ratio of doctors to populace; he answered Israel, or in his words, "The country with the most Jews." Despite the audience roaring with laughter (and Hackett's own belief that the actual answer was Sweden), the answer turned out to be correct. Hackett's regular guest shots on Jack Paar's Tonight Show in the early 1960s were rewarded with a coveted appearance on Paar's final Tonight program on March 29, 1962.
Later career
Hackett continued to appear on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show until Carson left the series in 1992.
In 1974 Hackett published a book of poetry entitled The Naked Mind of Buddy Hackett.
In 1978, Hackett delivered a dramatic performance as Lou Costello in the television movie Bud and Lou opposite Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott. The film told the story of Abbott and Costello, and he and Korman did a rendition of the team's famous "Who's on First?" routine.
In 1979, Hackett was the voice of the groundhog "Pardon Me Pete", and the narrator of the Rankin/Bass Christmas special Jack Frost (1979). He starred in the 1980 film Hey Babe!. That same year, he hosted a syndicated revival of the 1950–61 Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life which lasted for one year.
Hackett appeared regularly in TV ads for Tuscan Dairy popsicles and yogurt throughout the 1970s, but his most famous television campaign was for Lay's potato chips ("Nobody can eat just one!") which ran from 1968 to 1971; Hackett had succeeded Bert Lahr as Lay's spokesman. He guest-starred in the Space Rangers episode, "To Be Or Not To Be", as has-been comedian Lenny Hacker, a parody of his stage persona. The character's name was Hackett's own real name. He also appeared on the television series The Love Boat in 1979 (Season 3, Episode 3), playing the part of a cab driver, Mickey, who accepted an offer to join his jilted passenger (Arlene Golonka) on a three-day cruise. In 1987, Hackett appeared on Murder, She Wrote (Season 3, Episode 18). He also appeared in LA Law as a friend of Secretary Roxanne helping her by doing free TV infomercials.
Other
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hackett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.
In April 1998, Hackett guest starred in an episode of LateLine called "Buddy Hackett". The episode focused on a news broadcast paying tribute to Hackett following his death, only to discover that the report of his death was a mistake. Robert Reich and Dick Gephardt also appeared in the episode, paying tribute to Hackett, by singing along to Hackett's rendition of Shipoopi from The Music Man.
In his final years, Hackett had a recurring spot called "Tuesdays with Buddy" on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn in which he shared stories of his career and delivered some of his comedic routines.
In 1999 he appeared in 13 episodes of Fox's Action TV series as a security guard and chauffeur named Lonnie Dragon.
In 2021, Hackett was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Personal life
On June 12, 1955, Hackett married Sherry Cohen. They lived in Leonia, New Jersey, in the late 1950s. In August 1958, they bought the house previously owned by deceased crime boss Albert Anastasia in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After renovations, they moved in and lived there through most of the 1960s. In 2003, Hackett and his wife established the Singita Animal Sanctuary in California's San Fernando Valley.
Hackett's son, Sandy, followed his father into the comedy world, and for years opened for his father before his performances. Sandy created a one-man stage show about his father after his death.
He was an avid firearms collector and owned a large collection that he sold off in his later years.
Death
In the early 1990s, Hackett was diagnosed with severe heart disease, but steadfastly refused to consider bypass surgery. His heart disease was the primary cause of his death on June 30, 2003, at his beach house in Malibu, California, at the age of 78. His son, comedian Sandy Hackett, said his father had been suffering from diabetes for several years and suffered a stroke nearly a week before his death, which may have contributed to his demise. Two days later, on July 2, 2003, he was cremated and his ashes were given to family and friends.
Discography
How You Do (Coral CRL 757422)
The Original Chinese Waiter (Dot 3351, reissued as Pickwick SPC 3198)
Ba-Lert
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
References
External links
Disney Legends profile
The final days: Buddy Hackett's last interview
Premiere: Hecta Sample Buddy Hackett for Their Eerie Dance Track, "The Concept"
Category:1924 births
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Category:People from Borough Park, Brooklyn
Category:People from Fort Lee, New Jersey
Category:People from Leonia, New Jersey
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:United States Army soldiers | [] | [
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"Yes, there are several interesting aspects in this context. It mentions that the show 'Stanley' was one of the last sitcoms from New York to be aired live before a studio audience. The show also featured a young Carol Burnett and the voice of Paul Lynde. In addition, the context provides details of Hackett's with various other films and shows. Notably, he appeared in Dan Raven, The Music Man, and Disney's The Love Bug. Hackett even had a notable appearance on Jack Paar's final Tonight program in 1962. The context also remarks on a memorable instance from the game show Hollywood Squares where Hackett correctly, albeit humorously, identified the country with the highest ratio of doctors to populace as Israel.",
"On the game show Hollywood Squares, Hackett was asked about the country with the highest ratio of doctors to populace. He humorously answered \"Israel\", adding \"The country with the most Jews.\" Despite the humorous intent and the audience's laughter, his answer turned out to be correct.",
"Yes, the context mentions that Hackett starred in several other productions. After starring on Broadway in \"I Had a Ball\", he appeared opposite Robert Preston in the film adaptation of \"The Music Man\" in 1962. In \"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World\" in 1963, Hackett was paired with Mickey Rooney. The two had also worked together in \"Everything's Ducky\" in 1961. Additionally, Hackett played the lovable hippie auto mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz in Disney's \"The Love Bug\" in 1969.",
"Yes, apart from Stanley, Hackett also appeared on numerous other shows. He was a guest on Jack Paar's Tonight Show in the early 1960s, and this culminated in an appearance on Paar's final Tonight program on March 29, 1962. He also appeared as himself in an episode of NBC's short-lived crime drama Dan Raven, set on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood, on September 30, 1960. Moreover, he was frequently seen on the game show Hollywood Squares in the late 1960s.",
"The context does not provide information on the success or ratings of the show Stanley or any other shows Hackett appeared in.",
"Yes, Stanley was a situation comedy.",
"The context mainly mentions Hackett's roles in comedy shows and films, such as \"Stanley,\" \"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,\" and \"The Love Bug\". However, it also mentions his appearance in NBC's short-lived crime drama \"Dan Raven,\" indicating that he did not work exclusively in comedy.",
"According to the context provided, Hackett appeared on the game show Hollywood Squares. The context does not mention him appearing on any other game shows. However, without additional information, it cannot be definitively stated that this was the only game show he was on.",
"The context mentions several significant projects Hackett worked on. These include the comedy show Stanley, the film adaptation of The Music Man, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Everything's Ducky, and Disney's The Love Bug. Additionally, Hackett made frequent appearances on the game show Hollywood Squares and regular guest appearances on Jack Paar's Tonight Show. Lastly, he featured in an episode of NBC's crime drama Dan Raven.",
"The text does not provide specific information on how well-received Hackett was by audiences or critics."
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C_648a4ddf31a44a7c87339dba68db02dc_1 | Buddy Hackett | Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York to Anna (nee Geller) and Philip Hacker, an upholsterer and part-time inventor. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103 (now a yeshiva). He graduated from New Utrecht High School in 1942. | Early career | Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. It was here that he changed his name from Leonard Hacker to Buddy Hackett. He made appearances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and continued to perform in the Catskills. He acted on Broadway, in Lunatics and Lovers, where Max Liebman saw him and put him in two television specials. Hackett's movie career began in 1950 with a 10-minute "World of Sports" reel for Columbia Pictures called King of the Pins. The film demonstrated championship bowling techniques, with expert Joe Wilman demonstrating the right way and Hackett (in pantomime) exemplifying the wrong way. Hackett would not return to movies until 1953, after one of his nightclub routines attracted attention. With a rubber band around his head to slant his eyes, Hackett's "The Chinese Waiter" lampooned the heavy dialect, frustration, and communication problems encountered by a busy waiter in a Chinese restaurant: "No, we no have sprit-pea soup ... We gotta wonton, we got eh-roll ... No orda for her, juss orda for you!" The routine was such a hit that Hackett made a recording of it, and was hired to reprise it in the Universal-International musical Walking My Baby Back Home (1953), in which he was third-billed under Donald O'Connor and Janet Leigh. Hackett was an emergency replacement for the similarly built Lou Costello in 1954. Abbott and Costello were set to make a feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child, featuring Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Several scenes had been shot with stunt doubles when Lou Costello was forced to withdraw due to illness. Universal-International salvaged the project by hiring Hugh O'Brian and Hackett to take over the Abbott and Costello roles, using already shot footage of the comedy duo in some long shots; Jones and his band became the main attraction. Hackett became known to a wider audience when he appeared on television in the 1950s and '60s as a frequent guest on variety talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, often off-color jokes, and mugging at the camera. Hackett was a frequent guest on both the Jack Paar and the Johnny Carson versions of The Tonight Show. According to the board game Trivial Pursuit, Hackett has the distinction of making the most guest appearances in the history of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. During this time, he also appeared as a panelist and mystery guest on CBS-TV's What's My Line? and filled in as emcee for the game show Treasure Hunt. He made fifteen guest appearances on NBC-TV's The Perry Como Show between 1955 and 1961. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker; August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American actor, comedian and singer. His best remembered roles include Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man (1962), Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Tennessee Steinmetz in The Love Bug (1968), and the voice of Scuttle in The Little Mermaid (1989).
Early life
Hackett was one of two children born into a Jewish family living in Brooklyn, New York. His mother Anna (née Geller) worked in the garment trades while his father Philip Hacker was a furniture upholsterer and part-time inventor. Hackett grew up across from Public School 103 on 54th Street and 14th Avenue in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and was active in varsity football and drama club at New Utrecht High School. Hackett suffered from Bell's palsy as a child, the lingering effects of which contributed to his distinctive slurred speech and facial expression.
While still a student, Hackett worked as a "tummler" (Yiddish for "tumult maker") entertaining guests in the Catskills Borscht Belt resorts. While there, he began performing stand-up comedy in the resort nightclubs as "Butch Hacker". He appeared first at the Golden Hotel in Hurleyville, New York, claiming later he did not get one single laugh. Following his graduation from high school in 1942, Hackett enlisted in the United States Army and served during World War II for three years in an anti-aircraft battery.
Career
Early career
Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. It was here that he changed his name from Leonard Hacker to Buddy Hackett. He made appearances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and continued to perform in the Catskills. He acted on Broadway, in Lunatics and Lovers, where Max Liebman saw him and put him in two television specials.
Hackett's movie career began in 1950 with a 10-minute "World of Sports" reel for Columbia Pictures called King of the Pins. The film demonstrated championship bowling techniques, with expert Joe Wilman demonstrating the right way and Hackett (in pantomime) exemplifying the wrong way. There was an anecdote that, because of this appearance, Hackett received an offer to join the Three Stooges from Jules White, the head of Columbia short subject department, in 1952. Curly Howard had suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946; his older brother Shemp Howard was intended to replace him only on a temporary basis until he fully recovered, but Curly died in January 1952. It was said Hackett even joined Moe Howard and Larry Fine for a rehearsal, but turned down the offer eventually when he felt he did not fit with the act's comedy style and wanted to develop his own style as a solo act. This rumor was later dismissed as either untrue or unfounded.
Hackett would not return to movies until 1953, after one of his nightclub routines attracted attention. With a rubber band around his head to slant his eyes, Hackett's "The Chinese Waiter" lampooned the heavy dialect, frustration, and communication problems encountered by a busy waiter in a Chinese restaurant: "No, we no have sprit-pea soup ... We gotta wonton, we got eh-roll ... No orda for her, juss orda for you!" The routine was such a hit that Hackett made a recording of it, and was hired to reprise it in the Universal-International musical Walking My Baby Back Home (1953), in which he was third-billed under Donald O'Connor and Janet Leigh.
Hackett was an emergency replacement for the similarly built Lou Costello in 1954. Abbott and Costello were set to make a feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child, featuring Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Several scenes had been shot with stunt doubles when Lou Costello was forced to withdraw due to illness. Universal-International salvaged the project by hiring Hugh O'Brian and Hackett to take over the Abbott and Costello roles with Jones and his band becoming the main attraction.
Hackett became known to a wider audience when he appeared on television in the 1950s and '60s as a frequent guest on variety talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, often off-color jokes, and mugging at the camera. Hackett was a frequent guest on both the Jack Paar and the Johnny Carson versions of The Tonight Show. According to the board game Trivial Pursuit, Hackett has the distinction of making the most guest appearances in the history of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. During this time, he also appeared as a panelist and mystery guest on CBS-TV's What's My Line? and filled in as emcee for the game show Treasure Hunt. He made fifteen guest appearances on NBC-TV's The Perry Como Show between 1955 and 1961. He appeared with his roommate Lenny Bruce on the Patrice Munsel Show (1957-1958), calling their comedy duo the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players," 20 years before the cast of Saturday Night Live used the same name.
Hackett appeared twice on ABC's The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. In both episodes, "Bloodlines" (1959) and "The Clarence Bibs Story" (1961), his fellow guest star was Denver Pyle. He was cast as Daniel Malakie in "Bloodlines", the father of three boisterous brothers headed to trouble, and then as Clarence Bibs in the episode of that same name. Bibs is a handyman who after cleaning a gun accidentally kills a notorious outlaw, Longden (X Brands). Then, Longden's former partner, George Tanner (Denver Pyle), comes to town but avoids confrontation with Bibs and accepts the explanation that Wicks' death was accidental.
Stanley
Hackett starred as the title character on NBC-TV's Stanley, a 1956–57 situation comedy which ran for 19 weeks on Monday evenings at 8:30 pm ET. The half-hour series also featured a young Carol Burnett and the voice of Paul Lynde. The Max Liebman produced program aired live before a studio audience and was one of the last sitcoms from New York to do so. Stanley revolved around the adventures of the titular character (Hackett) as the operator of a newsstand in a posh New York City hotel.
Hackett appeared opposite Robert Preston in the film adaptation of The Music Man (1962). In It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Hackett was paired with Mickey Rooney, with whom he had also recently made Everything's Ducky (1961), in which they played two sailors who smuggle a talking duck aboard a Navy ship. Children became familiar with him as lovable hippie auto mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz in Disney's The Love Bug (1968).
In 1964, he had a stint on Broadway, appearing with Richard Kiley in I Had a Ball.
He appeared many times on the game show Hollywood Squares in the late 1960s and 1970s. In one episode, Hackett (who was Jewish) was asked which country had the highest ratio of doctors to populace; he answered Israel, or in his words, "The country with the most Jews." Despite the audience roaring with laughter (and Hackett's own belief that the actual answer was Sweden), the answer turned out to be correct. Hackett's regular guest shots on Jack Paar's Tonight Show in the early 1960s were rewarded with a coveted appearance on Paar's final Tonight program on March 29, 1962.
Later career
Hackett continued to appear on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show until Carson left the series in 1992.
In 1974 Hackett published a book of poetry entitled The Naked Mind of Buddy Hackett.
In 1978, Hackett delivered a dramatic performance as Lou Costello in the television movie Bud and Lou opposite Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott. The film told the story of Abbott and Costello, and he and Korman did a rendition of the team's famous "Who's on First?" routine.
In 1979, Hackett was the voice of the groundhog "Pardon Me Pete", and the narrator of the Rankin/Bass Christmas special Jack Frost (1979). He starred in the 1980 film Hey Babe!. That same year, he hosted a syndicated revival of the 1950–61 Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life which lasted for one year.
Hackett appeared regularly in TV ads for Tuscan Dairy popsicles and yogurt throughout the 1970s, but his most famous television campaign was for Lay's potato chips ("Nobody can eat just one!") which ran from 1968 to 1971; Hackett had succeeded Bert Lahr as Lay's spokesman. He guest-starred in the Space Rangers episode, "To Be Or Not To Be", as has-been comedian Lenny Hacker, a parody of his stage persona. The character's name was Hackett's own real name. He also appeared on the television series The Love Boat in 1979 (Season 3, Episode 3), playing the part of a cab driver, Mickey, who accepted an offer to join his jilted passenger (Arlene Golonka) on a three-day cruise. In 1987, Hackett appeared on Murder, She Wrote (Season 3, Episode 18). He also appeared in LA Law as a friend of Secretary Roxanne helping her by doing free TV infomercials.
Other
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hackett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2000, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to him.
In April 1998, Hackett guest starred in an episode of LateLine called "Buddy Hackett". The episode focused on a news broadcast paying tribute to Hackett following his death, only to discover that the report of his death was a mistake. Robert Reich and Dick Gephardt also appeared in the episode, paying tribute to Hackett, by singing along to Hackett's rendition of Shipoopi from The Music Man.
In his final years, Hackett had a recurring spot called "Tuesdays with Buddy" on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn in which he shared stories of his career and delivered some of his comedic routines.
In 1999 he appeared in 13 episodes of Fox's Action TV series as a security guard and chauffeur named Lonnie Dragon.
In 2021, Hackett was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
Personal life
On June 12, 1955, Hackett married Sherry Cohen. They lived in Leonia, New Jersey, in the late 1950s. In August 1958, they bought the house previously owned by deceased crime boss Albert Anastasia in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After renovations, they moved in and lived there through most of the 1960s. In 2003, Hackett and his wife established the Singita Animal Sanctuary in California's San Fernando Valley.
Hackett's son, Sandy, followed his father into the comedy world, and for years opened for his father before his performances. Sandy created a one-man stage show about his father after his death.
He was an avid firearms collector and owned a large collection that he sold off in his later years.
Death
In the early 1990s, Hackett was diagnosed with severe heart disease, but steadfastly refused to consider bypass surgery. His heart disease was the primary cause of his death on June 30, 2003, at his beach house in Malibu, California, at the age of 78. His son, comedian Sandy Hackett, said his father had been suffering from diabetes for several years and suffered a stroke nearly a week before his death, which may have contributed to his demise. Two days later, on July 2, 2003, he was cremated and his ashes were given to family and friends.
Discography
How You Do (Coral CRL 757422)
The Original Chinese Waiter (Dot 3351, reissued as Pickwick SPC 3198)
Ba-Lert
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
References
External links
Disney Legends profile
The final days: Buddy Hackett's last interview
Premiere: Hecta Sample Buddy Hackett for Their Eerie Dance Track, "The Concept"
Category:1924 births
Category:2003 deaths
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:American male comedians
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American stand-up comedians
Category:Comedians from New Jersey
Category:Comedians from New York City
Category:Comedians from New York (state)
Category:Deaths from diabetes
Category:Donaldson Award winners
Category:Jewish American comedians
Category:Jewish American male actors
Category:Jewish American male comedians
Category:Jewish American military personnel
Category:Jewish male comedians
Category:Male actors from New York City
Category:Military personnel from New York City
Category:New Utrecht High School alumni
Category:People from Borough Park, Brooklyn
Category:People from Fort Lee, New Jersey
Category:People from Leonia, New Jersey
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:United States Army soldiers | [] | [
"Buddy Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club.",
"Some interesting aspects from the article include: Buddy Hackett's change of his real name Leonard Hacker to his stage name, his first movie career where he mimicked wrong bowling techniques for humor, his famous \"The Chinese Waiter\" routine that written into a musical, his work replacing Lou Costello in a feature-length comedy, his frequent appearances on a variety of talk shows including The Tonight Show, and his record for the most guest appearances in the history of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.",
"The text does not provide information on the general reception of Buddy Hackett's careers or specific performances.",
"Buddy Hackett returned to movies in 1953 after one of his nightclub routines, \"The Chinese Waiter\", attracted attention. This routine was such a hit that he made a recording of it and was hired to reprise it in the Universal-International musical Walking My Baby Back Home.",
"The text does not provide information on any flops in Buddy Hackett's career.",
"In his early career, Buddy Hackett was cast in two television specials by Max Liebman after Liebman saw him acting on Broadway in Lunatics and Lovers. He also starred in a Columbia Pictures' \"World of Sports\" reel called King of the Pins. Moreover, he took over Lou Costello's role in the feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child when Costello had to withdraw due to illness.",
"Yes, Buddy Hackett appeared on various television shows in the 1950s and '60s, often as a guest on variety talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey. He was a frequent guest on both the Jack Paar and the Johnny Carson versions of The Tonight Show and also appeared as a panelist and mystery guest on CBS-TV's What's My Line? He filled in as emcee for the game show Treasure Hunt and made fifteen guest appearances on NBC-TV's The Perry Como Show between 1955 and 1961.",
"Buddy Hackett frequently appeared on variety talk shows, specifically The Tonight Show in both its Jack Paar and Johnny Carson versions.",
"Yes, Buddy Hackett frequently appeared on The Tonight Show in its versions with hosts Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. In fact, according to the board game Trivial Pursuit, Hackett appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson more times than any other guest in the show's history.",
"Another notable aspect from the article is that Buddy Hackett was an emergency replacement for Lou Costello in the feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child in 1954. Also, his routine known as \"The Chinese Waiter\" became so popular that it was implemented into a musical. Furthermore, according to the board game Trivial Pursuit, he has the distinction of making the most guest appearances in the history of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.",
"Yes, apart from being a frequent guest on The Tonight Show, Buddy Hackett also appeared on CBS-TV's \"What's My Line?\" as a panelist and mystery guest, and filled in as an emcee for the game show \"Treasure Hunt\"."
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C_f726b9f556564c25a23df832b054406d_0 | Lester Young | Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 - March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike". Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music. | Leaving Basie | Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons spurring his dismissal, although Young and drummer Jo Jones would later state that his departure had been in the works for months. He subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist. During this period Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions (during 1937 - 1941 period) and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians. Small record labels not bound by union contracts continued to record and he recorded some sessions for Harry Lim's Keynote label in 1943. In December 1943 Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II (see below). Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he never abandoned the cane reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944 Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues. CANNOTANSWER | [
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"In August 1944 Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry \"Sweets\" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues."
]
} | Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike".
Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.
Early life and career
Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. to Lizetta Young (née Johnson), and Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. Lester had two siblings – a brother, Leonidas Raymond, known as Lee Young, who became a drummer, and a sister, Irma Cornelia. He grew up in a musical family. His father was a teacher and band leader. While growing up in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, he worked from the age of five to make money for the family. He sold newspapers and shined shoes. By the time he was ten, he had learned the basics of the trumpet, violin, and drums, and joined the Young Family Band touring with carnivals and playing in regional cities in the Southwest
In his teens he and his father clashed, and he often left home for long periods. His family moved to Minneapolis in 1919 and Young stayed there for much of the 1920s, first picking up the tenor saxophone while living there. Young left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities. He became a member of the Bostonians, led by Art Bronson, and chose tenor saxophone over alto as his primary instrument. He made a habit of leaving, working, then going home. He left home permanently in 1932 when he became a member of the Blue Devils led by Walter Page.
With the Count Basie Orchestra
In 1933, Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day. One of Young's key influences was Frankie Trumbauer, who came to prominence in the 1920s with Paul Whiteman and played the C-melody saxophone (between the alto and tenor in pitch).
Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson, and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. Young is described as playing the clarinet in a "liquid, nervous style." As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938–39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman. Billie and Lester met at a Harlem jam session in the early 30s and worked together in the Count Basie band and in nightclubs on New York's 52nd St. At one point Lester moved into the apartment Billie shared with her mother, Sadie Fagan. Holiday always insisted their relationship was strictly platonic. She gave Lester the nickname "Prez" after President Franklin Roosevelt, the "greatest man around" in Billie's mind. Playing on her name, he would call her "Lady Day." Their famously empathetic classic recordings with Teddy Wilson date from this era.
After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life—see below).
Leaving Basie
Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal although Young and drummer Jo Jones would later state that his departure had been in the works for months. He subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.
During this period Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions (1937–1941) and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians. Small record labels not bound by union contracts continued to record, and Young recorded some sessions for Harry Lim's Keynote label in 1943.
In December 1943, Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II. Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he never abandoned the cane reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944, Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.
Army service
In September 1944, Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was assigned to the regular army where he was not allowed to play his saxophone. Based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Young was found with marijuana and alcohol among his possessions. He was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one traumatic year in a detention barracks and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).
Post-war recordings
Young's career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe in 1946, touring regularly with JATP over the next 12 years. He made many studio recordings under Granz's supervision as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1945-1947, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942) and for Savoy (1944, 1949 and 1950), some sessions of which included Basie on piano.
Struggle and revival
From around 1951, Young's level of playing declined more precipitously as his drinking increased. His playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). Young's playing and health went into a crisis, culminating in a November 1955 hospital admission following a nervous breakdown.
He emerged from this treatment improved. In January 1956, he recorded two Granz-produced sessions including a reunion with pianist Teddy Wilson, trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones – which were issued as The Jazz Giants '56 and Pres and Teddy albums. 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful residency at Olivia Davis' Patio Lounge in Washington, DC, with the Bill Potts Trio. Live recording of Young and Potts in Washington were issued later.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Young occasionally played as a featured guest with the Count Basie Orchestra. The best-known of these appearances is the July 1957 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, with a line-up including many of his 1940s colleagues: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. In 1952 he was featured on Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio, released in 1954 on Norgran. In 1956, he recorded two LPs with his 1930s collaborators Teddy Wilson and Jo Jones. Allmusic's Scott Yanow, reviewing one of the albums, Pres and Teddy, commented:
Family life
Lester married three times. His first marriage was to Beatrice Tolliver, in Albuquerque, on 23 February 1930. His second was to Mary Dale.
His third wife was Mary Berkeley. They had two children: Lester W. Young Jr. (born 1947) and Yvette Young (born 1957). Both hold a PhD in Education, according to drummer Roy Haynes, who was interviewed as part of an attempt to create a film biography of Young. On January 31, 2008, Sady Sullivan conducted an oral history interview with Dr. Lester W. Young Jr. At approximately 1:10:00 he speaks about his father, listening to jazz, learning to play, and how having a famous father did not convey any favors. In 2021 Lester Young Jr. was elected as Chancellor (Head) of the New York State Board of Regents, the legislative body that oversees all educational policy in the State of New York as well as the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
Final years
On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tune "Fine and Mellow." It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact over the years. She was also in physical decline, near the end of her career, yet they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, acclaimed by some observers as an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion; Nat Hentoff, one of the show's producers, later commented, "Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard ... in the control room we were all crying."
Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and drank heavily. On a flight to New York City, he suffered from internal bleeding due to the effects of alcoholism and died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49.
According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later on July 17, 1959, at age 44.
Influence on other musicians
Young's playing style influenced many other tenor saxophonists, including Stan Getz, as well as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Warne Marsh, as well as baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and alto saxophonists Lee Konitz, and Paul Desmond. Paul Quinichette modeled his style so closely on Young's that he was sometimes referred to as the "Vice Prez" (sic). Sonny Stitt began to incorporate elements from Lester Young's approach when he made the transition to tenor saxophone. Lester Young also had a direct influence on the young Charlie Parker, and thus the entire be-bop movement.
Non-musical legacy
Lester Young is said to have popularized use of the term "cool" to mean something fashionable. Another slang term he is rumoured to have popularized was the term "bread" for money. He would ask, "How does the bread smell?" when asking how much a gig was going to pay.
Posthumous dedications
Charles Mingus dedicated an elegy to Young, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", only a few months after his death. At Mingus’s request, Joni Mitchell wrote lyrics to “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” which incorporated stories Mingus told Mitchell about Young; the song was featured on Mitchell’s 1979 album release, Mingus, a collaboration instigated by Mingus during the last year of his life as he struggled with the ALS that would kill him. The resulting song then became both an elegy to Young, and, implicitly, Mingus as well. Wayne Shorter, then of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, composed a tribute, called "Lester Left Town".
In 1981 OyamO (Charles F. Gordon) published the book The Resurrection of Lady Lester, subtitled "A Poetic Mood Song Based on the Legend of Lester Young", depicting Young's life. The work was subsequently adapted for the theater, and was staged in November of that year at the Manhattan Theater Club, New York City, with a four-piece jazz combo led by Dwight Andrews.
In the 1986 film Round Midnight, the fictional main character Dale Turner, played by Dexter Gordon, was partly based on Young – incorporating flashback references to his army experiences, and loosely depicting his time in Paris and his return to New York just before his death. Young is a major character in English writer Geoff Dyer's 1991 fictional book about jazz, But Beautiful.
The 1994 documentary about the 1958 Esquire "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph of jazz musicians in New York, contains many remembrances of Young. For many of the other participants, the photo shoot was the last time they saw him alive; he was the first musician in the famous photo to pass away.
Don Byron recorded the album Ivey-Divey in gratitude for what he learned from studying Lester Young's work, modeled after a 1946 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole. "Ivey-Divey" was one of Lester Young's common eccentric phrases.
Young was the subject and inspiration of Prez. Homage to Lester Young (1993), a book of poetry by Vancouver writer Jamie Reid.
Young was the subject of an opera, Prez: A Jazz Opera, that was written by Bernard Cash and Alan Plater and broadcast by BBC television in 1985.
Peter Straub's short story collection Magic Terror (2000) contains a story called "Pork Pie Hat", a fictionalized account of the life of Lester Young. Straub was inspired by Young's appearance on the 1957 CBS-TV show The Sound of Jazz, which he watched repeatedly, wondering how such a genius could have ended up "this present shambles, this human wreckage, hardly able to play at all".
On 17 March 2003, Young was added to the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame, along with Sidney Bechet, Al Cohn, Nat "King" Cole, Peggy Lee and Teddy Wilson. He was represented at the ceremony by his children Lester Young Jr and Yvette Young.
Discography
As leader
Norgran Records
Verve Records
Charlie Parker Records (company)
Pablo Records
Compilations (as leader)
The Kansas City Sessions (recorded in 1938 and 1944) Commodore Records
The Complete Aladdin Recordings (1942–47) – the 1942 Nat King Cole session and more from the post-war period
The Complete Savoy Recordings (recorded 1944–50)
The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions on Verve – 8-CD boxed set (includes the only two Young interviews known to exist)
As sideman
With the Count Basie Orchestra
The Original American Decca Recordings (GRP, 1937-39 [1992])
America's No.1 Band: The Columbia Years (1936–1940 and non-Young sessions to 1942) Columbia Records
The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936-1940 Mosaic Records [2007]
Classic Columbia, OKeh, and Vocalion Lester Young with Count Basie 1936-1940
Super Chief (1936–1940 and non-Young sessions to 1964) Columbia Records
Count Basie at Newport (Verve, 1957)
With Jazz at the Philharmonic
The Complete Jazz at the Philharmonic on Verve: 1944-1949 (Verve, 1998)
The Drum Battle (Verve, 1952 [1960])
With Billie Holiday
Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia Columbia Records
Billie Holiday and Lester Young: A Musical Romance (1937-1941) Columbia Records [2002]
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Büchmann-Møller, Frank (1990) You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester Young. Praeger.
Büchmann-Møller, Frank You Got to Be Original, Man! The Music of Lester Young (discography)
Daniels, Douglas Henry (1990) Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester 'Pres' Young. Beacon Press.
Delannoy, Luc Prez: The Story of Lester Young. University of Arkansas Press.
Porter, Lewis (1991) Lester Young: A Reader. Smithsonian Institution Press .
Porter, Lewis (2005, revised edition) Lester Young. University of Michigan Press.
External links
Lester Young 100th Year Anniversary Site
Category:1909 births
Category:1959 deaths
Category:Jazz musicians from Mississippi
Category:Jazz musicians from Missouri
Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans
Category:Musicians from Kansas City, Missouri
Category:People from Woodville, Mississippi
Category:20th-century African-American musicians
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:20th-century saxophonists
Category:African-American saxophonists
Category:Alcohol-related deaths in New York City
Category:American jazz clarinetists
Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists
Category:American male saxophonists
Category:Cool jazz saxophonists
Category:Count Basie Orchestra members
Category:Savoy Records artists
Category:Vocalion Records artists
Category:Swing clarinetists
Category:Swing saxophonists
Category:Vaudeville performers
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:Oklahoma City Blue Devils members
Category:Aladdin Records artists
Category:Verve Records artists
Category:Victor Records artists
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:Signature Records artists | [
{
"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
"title": "Bibliography"
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C_f726b9f556564c25a23df832b054406d_1 | Lester Young | Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 - March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike". Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music. | With the Count Basie Orchestra | In 1933 Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day. One of Young's key influences was Frank Trumbauer, who came to prominence in the 1920s with Paul Whiteman and played the C-melody saxophone (between the alto and tenor in pitch). Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson, and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. Young is described as playing the clarinet in a "liquid, nervous style." As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938-39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman. Billie and Lester met at a Harlem jam session in the early 30s and worked together in the Count Basie band and in nightclubs on New York's 52nd St. At one point Lester moved into the apartment Billie shared with her mother, Sadie Fagan. Holiday always insisted their relationship was strictly platonic. She gave Lester the nickname "Prez" after President Franklin Roosevelt, the "greatest man around" in Billie's mind. Playing on her name, he would call her "Lady Day." Their famously empathetic classic recordings with Teddy Wilson date from this era. After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life--see below). CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist.
Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most influential players on his instrument. In contrast to many of his hard-driving peers, Young played with a relaxed, cool tone and used sophisticated harmonies, using what one critic called "a free-floating style, wheeling and diving like a gull, banking with low, funky riffs that pleased dancers and listeners alike".
Known for his hip, introverted style, he invented or popularized much of the hipster jargon which came to be associated with the music.
Early life and career
Lester Young was born in Woodville, Mississippi, on August 27, 1909. to Lizetta Young (née Johnson), and Willis Handy Young, originally from Louisiana. Lester had two siblings – a brother, Leonidas Raymond, known as Lee Young, who became a drummer, and a sister, Irma Cornelia. He grew up in a musical family. His father was a teacher and band leader. While growing up in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, he worked from the age of five to make money for the family. He sold newspapers and shined shoes. By the time he was ten, he had learned the basics of the trumpet, violin, and drums, and joined the Young Family Band touring with carnivals and playing in regional cities in the Southwest
In his teens he and his father clashed, and he often left home for long periods. His family moved to Minneapolis in 1919 and Young stayed there for much of the 1920s, first picking up the tenor saxophone while living there. Young left the family band in 1927 at the age of 18 because he refused to tour in the Southern United States, where Jim Crow laws were in effect and racial segregation was required in public facilities. He became a member of the Bostonians, led by Art Bronson, and chose tenor saxophone over alto as his primary instrument. He made a habit of leaving, working, then going home. He left home permanently in 1932 when he became a member of the Blue Devils led by Walter Page.
With the Count Basie Orchestra
In 1933, Young settled in Kansas City, where after playing briefly in several bands, he rose to prominence with Count Basie. His playing in the Basie band was characterized by a relaxed style which contrasted sharply with the more forceful approach of Coleman Hawkins, the dominant tenor sax player of the day. One of Young's key influences was Frankie Trumbauer, who came to prominence in the 1920s with Paul Whiteman and played the C-melody saxophone (between the alto and tenor in pitch).
Young left the Basie band to replace Hawkins in Fletcher Henderson's orchestra. He soon left Henderson to play in the Andy Kirk band (for six months) before returning to Basie. While with Basie, Young made small-group recordings for Milt Gabler's Commodore Records, The Kansas City Sessions. Although they were recorded in New York (in 1938, with a reunion in 1944), they are named after the group, the Kansas City Seven, and comprised Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, Basie, Young, Freddie Green, Rodney Richardson, and Jo Jones. Young played clarinet as well as tenor in these sessions. Young is described as playing the clarinet in a "liquid, nervous style." As well as the Kansas City Sessions, his clarinet work from 1938–39 is documented on recordings with Basie, Billie Holiday, Basie small groups, and the organist Glenn Hardman. Billie and Lester met at a Harlem jam session in the early 30s and worked together in the Count Basie band and in nightclubs on New York's 52nd St. At one point Lester moved into the apartment Billie shared with her mother, Sadie Fagan. Holiday always insisted their relationship was strictly platonic. She gave Lester the nickname "Prez" after President Franklin Roosevelt, the "greatest man around" in Billie's mind. Playing on her name, he would call her "Lady Day." Their famously empathetic classic recordings with Teddy Wilson date from this era.
After Young's clarinet was stolen in 1939, he abandoned the instrument until about 1957. That year Norman Granz gave him one and urged him to play it (with far different results at that stage in Young's life—see below).
Leaving Basie
Young left the Basie band in late 1940. He is rumored to have refused to play with the band on Friday, December 13 of that year for superstitious reasons, spurring his dismissal although Young and drummer Jo Jones would later state that his departure had been in the works for months. He subsequently led a number of small groups that often included his brother, drummer Lee Young, for the next couple of years; live and broadcast recordings from this period exist.
During this period Young accompanied the singer Billie Holiday in a couple of studio sessions (1937–1941) and also made a small set of recordings with Nat "King" Cole (their first of several collaborations) in June 1942. His studio recordings are relatively sparse during the 1942 to 1943 period, largely due to the recording ban by the American Federation of Musicians. Small record labels not bound by union contracts continued to record, and Young recorded some sessions for Harry Lim's Keynote label in 1943.
In December 1943, Young returned to the Basie fold for a 10-month stint, cut short by his being drafted into the army during World War II. Recordings made during this and subsequent periods suggest Young was beginning to make much greater use of a plastic reed, which tended to give his playing a somewhat heavier, breathier tone (although still quite smooth compared to that of many other players). While he never abandoned the cane reed, he used the plastic reed a significant share of the time from 1943 until the end of his life. Another cause for the thickening of his tone around this time was a change in saxophone mouthpiece from a metal Otto Link to an ebonite Brilhart. In August 1944, Young appeared alongside drummer Jo Jones, trumpeter Harry "Sweets" Edison, and fellow tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet in Gjon Mili's short film Jammin' the Blues.
Army service
In September 1944, Young and Jo Jones were in Los Angeles with the Basie Band when they were inducted into the U.S. Army. Unlike many white musicians, who were placed in band outfits such as the ones led by Glenn Miller and Artie Shaw, Young was assigned to the regular army where he was not allowed to play his saxophone. Based in Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Young was found with marijuana and alcohol among his possessions. He was soon court-martialed. Young did not fight the charges and was convicted. He served one traumatic year in a detention barracks and was dishonorably discharged in late 1945. His experience inspired his composition "D.B. Blues" (with D.B. standing for detention barracks).
Post-war recordings
Young's career after World War II was far more prolific and lucrative than in the pre-war years in terms of recordings made, live performances, and annual income. Young joined Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic troupe in 1946, touring regularly with JATP over the next 12 years. He made many studio recordings under Granz's supervision as well, including more trio recordings with Nat King Cole. Young also recorded extensively in the late 1940s for Aladdin Records (1945-1947, where he had made the Cole recordings in 1942) and for Savoy (1944, 1949 and 1950), some sessions of which included Basie on piano.
Struggle and revival
From around 1951, Young's level of playing declined more precipitously as his drinking increased. His playing showed reliance on a small number of clichéd phrases and reduced creativity and originality, despite his claims that he did not want to be a "repeater pencil" (Young coined this phrase to describe the act of repeating one's own past ideas). Young's playing and health went into a crisis, culminating in a November 1955 hospital admission following a nervous breakdown.
He emerged from this treatment improved. In January 1956, he recorded two Granz-produced sessions including a reunion with pianist Teddy Wilson, trumpet player Roy Eldridge, trombonist Vic Dickenson, bassist Gene Ramey, and drummer Jo Jones – which were issued as The Jazz Giants '56 and Pres and Teddy albums. 1956 was a relatively good year for Lester Young, including a tour of Europe with Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Quartet and a successful residency at Olivia Davis' Patio Lounge in Washington, DC, with the Bill Potts Trio. Live recording of Young and Potts in Washington were issued later.
Throughout the 1940s and 50s, Young occasionally played as a featured guest with the Count Basie Orchestra. The best-known of these appearances is the July 1957 performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, with a line-up including many of his 1940s colleagues: Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Illinois Jacquet and Jimmy Rushing. In 1952 he was featured on Lester Young with the Oscar Peterson Trio, released in 1954 on Norgran. In 1956, he recorded two LPs with his 1930s collaborators Teddy Wilson and Jo Jones. Allmusic's Scott Yanow, reviewing one of the albums, Pres and Teddy, commented:
Family life
Lester married three times. His first marriage was to Beatrice Tolliver, in Albuquerque, on 23 February 1930. His second was to Mary Dale.
His third wife was Mary Berkeley. They had two children: Lester W. Young Jr. (born 1947) and Yvette Young (born 1957). Both hold a PhD in Education, according to drummer Roy Haynes, who was interviewed as part of an attempt to create a film biography of Young. On January 31, 2008, Sady Sullivan conducted an oral history interview with Dr. Lester W. Young Jr. At approximately 1:10:00 he speaks about his father, listening to jazz, learning to play, and how having a famous father did not convey any favors. In 2021 Lester Young Jr. was elected as Chancellor (Head) of the New York State Board of Regents, the legislative body that oversees all educational policy in the State of New York as well as the State University of New York (SUNY) system.
Final years
On December 8, 1957, Young appeared with Billie Holiday, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, and Gerry Mulligan in the CBS television special The Sound of Jazz, performing Holiday's tune "Fine and Mellow." It was a reunion with Holiday, with whom he had lost contact over the years. She was also in physical decline, near the end of her career, yet they both gave moving performances. Young's solo was brilliant, acclaimed by some observers as an unparalleled marvel of economy, phrasing and extraordinarily moving emotion; Nat Hentoff, one of the show's producers, later commented, "Lester got up, and he played the purest blues I have ever heard ... in the control room we were all crying."
Young made his final studio recordings and live performances in Paris in March 1959 with drummer Kenny Clarke at the tail end of an abbreviated European tour during which he ate next to nothing and drank heavily. On a flight to New York City, he suffered from internal bleeding due to the effects of alcoholism and died in the early morning hours of March 15, 1959, only hours after arriving back in New York, at the age of 49.
According to jazz critic Leonard Feather, who rode with Holiday in a taxi to Young's funeral, she said after the services, "I'll be the next one to go." Holiday died four months later on July 17, 1959, at age 44.
Influence on other musicians
Young's playing style influenced many other tenor saxophonists, including Stan Getz, as well as Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Warne Marsh, as well as baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan and alto saxophonists Lee Konitz, and Paul Desmond. Paul Quinichette modeled his style so closely on Young's that he was sometimes referred to as the "Vice Prez" (sic). Sonny Stitt began to incorporate elements from Lester Young's approach when he made the transition to tenor saxophone. Lester Young also had a direct influence on the young Charlie Parker, and thus the entire be-bop movement.
Non-musical legacy
Lester Young is said to have popularized use of the term "cool" to mean something fashionable. Another slang term he is rumoured to have popularized was the term "bread" for money. He would ask, "How does the bread smell?" when asking how much a gig was going to pay.
Posthumous dedications
Charles Mingus dedicated an elegy to Young, "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat", only a few months after his death. At Mingus’s request, Joni Mitchell wrote lyrics to “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” which incorporated stories Mingus told Mitchell about Young; the song was featured on Mitchell’s 1979 album release, Mingus, a collaboration instigated by Mingus during the last year of his life as he struggled with the ALS that would kill him. The resulting song then became both an elegy to Young, and, implicitly, Mingus as well. Wayne Shorter, then of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, composed a tribute, called "Lester Left Town".
In 1981 OyamO (Charles F. Gordon) published the book The Resurrection of Lady Lester, subtitled "A Poetic Mood Song Based on the Legend of Lester Young", depicting Young's life. The work was subsequently adapted for the theater, and was staged in November of that year at the Manhattan Theater Club, New York City, with a four-piece jazz combo led by Dwight Andrews.
In the 1986 film Round Midnight, the fictional main character Dale Turner, played by Dexter Gordon, was partly based on Young – incorporating flashback references to his army experiences, and loosely depicting his time in Paris and his return to New York just before his death. Young is a major character in English writer Geoff Dyer's 1991 fictional book about jazz, But Beautiful.
The 1994 documentary about the 1958 Esquire "A Great Day in Harlem" photograph of jazz musicians in New York, contains many remembrances of Young. For many of the other participants, the photo shoot was the last time they saw him alive; he was the first musician in the famous photo to pass away.
Don Byron recorded the album Ivey-Divey in gratitude for what he learned from studying Lester Young's work, modeled after a 1946 trio date with Buddy Rich and Nat King Cole. "Ivey-Divey" was one of Lester Young's common eccentric phrases.
Young was the subject and inspiration of Prez. Homage to Lester Young (1993), a book of poetry by Vancouver writer Jamie Reid.
Young was the subject of an opera, Prez: A Jazz Opera, that was written by Bernard Cash and Alan Plater and broadcast by BBC television in 1985.
Peter Straub's short story collection Magic Terror (2000) contains a story called "Pork Pie Hat", a fictionalized account of the life of Lester Young. Straub was inspired by Young's appearance on the 1957 CBS-TV show The Sound of Jazz, which he watched repeatedly, wondering how such a genius could have ended up "this present shambles, this human wreckage, hardly able to play at all".
On 17 March 2003, Young was added to the ASCAP Jazz Wall of Fame, along with Sidney Bechet, Al Cohn, Nat "King" Cole, Peggy Lee and Teddy Wilson. He was represented at the ceremony by his children Lester Young Jr and Yvette Young.
Discography
As leader
Norgran Records
Verve Records
Charlie Parker Records (company)
Pablo Records
Compilations (as leader)
The Kansas City Sessions (recorded in 1938 and 1944) Commodore Records
The Complete Aladdin Recordings (1942–47) – the 1942 Nat King Cole session and more from the post-war period
The Complete Savoy Recordings (recorded 1944–50)
The Complete Lester Young Studio Sessions on Verve – 8-CD boxed set (includes the only two Young interviews known to exist)
As sideman
With the Count Basie Orchestra
The Original American Decca Recordings (GRP, 1937-39 [1992])
America's No.1 Band: The Columbia Years (1936–1940 and non-Young sessions to 1942) Columbia Records
The Lester Young Count Basie Sessions 1936-1940 Mosaic Records [2007]
Classic Columbia, OKeh, and Vocalion Lester Young with Count Basie 1936-1940
Super Chief (1936–1940 and non-Young sessions to 1964) Columbia Records
Count Basie at Newport (Verve, 1957)
With Jazz at the Philharmonic
The Complete Jazz at the Philharmonic on Verve: 1944-1949 (Verve, 1998)
The Drum Battle (Verve, 1952 [1960])
With Billie Holiday
Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia Columbia Records
Billie Holiday and Lester Young: A Musical Romance (1937-1941) Columbia Records [2002]
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Büchmann-Møller, Frank (1990) You Just Fight for Your Life: The Story of Lester Young. Praeger.
Büchmann-Møller, Frank You Got to Be Original, Man! The Music of Lester Young (discography)
Daniels, Douglas Henry (1990) Lester Leaps In: The Life and Times of Lester 'Pres' Young. Beacon Press.
Delannoy, Luc Prez: The Story of Lester Young. University of Arkansas Press.
Porter, Lewis (1991) Lester Young: A Reader. Smithsonian Institution Press .
Porter, Lewis (2005, revised edition) Lester Young. University of Michigan Press.
External links
Lester Young 100th Year Anniversary Site
Category:1909 births
Category:1959 deaths
Category:Jazz musicians from Mississippi
Category:Jazz musicians from Missouri
Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans
Category:Musicians from Kansas City, Missouri
Category:People from Woodville, Mississippi
Category:20th-century African-American musicians
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:20th-century saxophonists
Category:African-American saxophonists
Category:Alcohol-related deaths in New York City
Category:American jazz clarinetists
Category:American jazz tenor saxophonists
Category:American male saxophonists
Category:Cool jazz saxophonists
Category:Count Basie Orchestra members
Category:Savoy Records artists
Category:Vocalion Records artists
Category:Swing clarinetists
Category:Swing saxophonists
Category:Vaudeville performers
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:Oklahoma City Blue Devils members
Category:Aladdin Records artists
Category:Verve Records artists
Category:Victor Records artists
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:Signature Records artists | [
{
"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
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C_1cfb6ba9d9bb4992b0668e75cc3a353e_1 | Irving Thalberg | Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 - September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather production staff, and make profitable films, including Grand Hotel, China Seas, Camille, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Good Earth. His films carved out an international market, "projecting a seductive image of American life brimming with vitality and rooted in democracy and personal freedom," states biographer Roland Flamini. | Early years | Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, to German Jewish immigrant parents, William and Henrietta (Haymann). Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with "blue baby syndrome," caused by a congenital disease that limited the oxygen supply to his heart. The prognosis from the family's doctor and specialists was that he might live to age twenty, or at most, age thirty. During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and fatigue. This affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17, he contracted rheumatic fever, and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, Henrietta, to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books, and tutors to teach him at home. She also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the "tantalizing sounds" of children playing outside his window. With little to entertain him, he read books as a main activity. He devoured popular novels, classics, plays, and biographies. His books, of necessity, replaced the streets of New York, and led to his interest in classical philosophy and philosophers, such as William James. When Thalberg returned to school, he finished high school but lacked the stamina for college, which he felt would have required constant late-night studying and cramming for exams. Instead, he took part-time jobs as a store clerk, and in the evenings, to gain some job skills, taught himself typing, shorthand and Spanish at a night vocational school. When he turned 18, he placed an ad with the local newspaper hoping to find better work: "Situation Wanted: Secretary, stenographer, Spanish, English, high school education, no experience; $15." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather production staff, and make profitable films, including Grand Hotel, China Seas, A Night at the Opera, Mutiny on the Bounty, Camille and The Good Earth. His films carved out an international market, "projecting a seductive image of American life brimming with vitality and rooted in democracy and personal freedom", states biographer Roland Flamini.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child was afflicted with a congenital heart disease that doctors said would kill him before he reached the age of thirty. After graduating from high school he worked as a store clerk during the day and to gain some job skills took a night class in typing. He then found work as a secretary with Universal Studios' New York office, and was later made studio manager for their Los Angeles facility. There, he oversaw production of a hundred films during his three years with the company. Among the films he produced was The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
In Los Angeles, he partnered with Louis B. Mayer's new studio and, after it merged with two other studios, helped create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). He was made head of production of MGM in 1925, at the age of twenty-six, helping MGM become the most successful studio in Hollywood. During his twelve years with MGM, until his premature death at the age of 37, he produced four hundred films, most of which bore his imprint and innovations, including story conferences with writers, sneak previews to gain early feedback, and extensive re-shooting of scenes to improve the film. In addition, he introduced horror films to audiences and coauthored the "Production Code", guidelines for morality followed by all studios. During the 1920s and 1930s, he synthesized and merged the world of stage drama and literary classics with Hollywood films.
Thalberg created numerous new stars and groomed their screen images. Among them were Lon Chaney, Ramon Novarro, Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Spencer Tracy, Luise Rainer, and Norma Shearer, who became his wife. He had the ability to combine quality with commercial success, and was credited with bringing his artistic aspirations in line with the demands of audiences. After his death, Hollywood's producers said he had been the world's "foremost figure in motion-picture history". President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces." The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given out periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1937, has been awarded to producers whose body of work reflected consistently high-quality films.
Early years
Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, to German Jewish immigrant parents, William and Henrietta (Haymann). Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with "blue baby syndrome", caused by a congenital disease that limited the oxygen supply to his heart. The prognosis from the family's doctor and specialists was that he might live to the age of twenty, or at most, to thirty.
During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and fatigue. This affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17 he contracted rheumatic fever, and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, in order to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books, and tutors to teach him at home. She also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the "tantalizing sounds" of children playing outside his window.
With little to entertain him, he read books as a main activity. He devoured popular novels, classics, plays, and biographies. His books, of necessity, replaced the streets of New York, and led to his interest in classical philosophy and philosophers, such as William James.
When Thalberg returned to school, he finished high school but lacked the stamina for college, which he felt would have required constant late-night studying and cramming for exams. Instead, he took part-time jobs as a store clerk, and in the evenings, to gain some job skills, taught himself typing, shorthand and Spanish at a night vocational school. When he turned 18, he placed an advertisement in the local newspaper hoping to find better work:
Career as producer
Universal Studios
He found work as an office secretary at Universal Pictures' New York office, and later became personal secretary to the studio's founder and president, Carl Laemmle. Among Thalberg's duties were transcribing and editing notes that Laemmle had written during screenings of his films. He earned $25 weekly, becoming adept at making insightful observations, which impressed Laemmle.
Laemmle took Thalberg to see his Los Angeles production facility, where he spent a month watching how movie production worked. Before returning to New York, Laemmle told Thalberg to remain and "keep an eye on things for me." Two months later, Laemmle returned to California, partly to see how well Thalberg was able to handle the responsibilities he was given. Thalberg gave him suggestions, and thus impressed Laemmle by his ability to understand and explain problems.
Thalberg suggested, "The first thing you should do is establish a new job of studio manager and give him the responsibility of watching day-to-day operations." Laemmle immediately agreed: "All right. You're it." In shock, Thalberg replied, "I'm what?" Laemmle told him to take charge of the Los Angeles studio, which he did in early 1919. When aged 20, Thalberg became responsible for immediately overseeing the nine ongoing film productions and nearly thirty scenarios then under development.
In describing the rationale for this early appointment as studio manager, film historian David Thomson writes that his new job "owed nothing to nepotism, private wealth, or experience in the film industry." He reasons that despite "Thalberg's youth, modest education, and frail appearance ... it is clear that he had the charm, insight, and ability, or the appearance of it, to captivate the film world."
Thalberg was one among the majority of Hollywood film industry workers who migrated from the East Coast, primarily from New York. Some film actors, such as Conrad Nagel, did not like the five-day train trip or the sudden warmth of the California climate. Neither did Marion Davies, who was not used to such "big wide spaces". Samuel Marx, a close friend of Thalberg's from New York, recalled how easily Thalberg adapted to Southern California, often standing outside his doorway during moments of contemplation to enjoy the scenery. "We were all young", said comedian Buster Keaton. "The air in California was like wine. Our business was also young—and growing like nothing ever seen before."
Confrontation with Erich von Stroheim
He quickly established his tenacity as he battled with well-known director Erich von Stroheim over the length of Foolish Wives (1922). Biographer Roland Flamini notes that the film was Universal's most expensive "jewel" ever in production, and its director and star, von Stroheim, was taking the film far over budget. Thalberg, now Universal's general manager, was forced to have the director quickly finalize production before the studio's working capital was used up. Flamini describes the situation:
Thalberg had von Stroheim come to his office, which he did still wearing his film costume as a Russian Imperial Guard and escorted by members of his production team. Thalberg calmly told him, "I have seen all the film and you have all you need for the picture. I want you to stop shooting", to which von Stroheim replied, "But I have not finished as yet." "Yes, you have", said Thalberg. "You have spent all the money this company can afford. I cannot allow you to spend any more."
Thalberg quietly explained that the director worked under the producer, and it was his responsibility to control costs. Von Stroheim, surrounded by his assistants, then confronted Thalberg: "If you were not my superior, I would smash you in the face." Thalberg, unflinching, said "Don't let that stop you." The result was that Thalberg soon afterward removed the cameras from von Stroheim's studio and took over editing. The uncut footage was pared down from five-and-a-half hours to three hours, to von Stroheim's deep dissatisfaction.
A similar problem developed with von Stroheim's next film, Merry-Go-Round (1923). Although he had promised Thalberg to remain within budget this time, he continued production until it went to twice the agreed length and was not yet near completion. Flamini speculates why this happened:
Thalberg again called von Stroheim to his office, handed him a long letter written and signed by himself, describing the problems, and summarily fired von Stroheim as of that moment. Thalberg's letter stated among the reasons,
totally inexcusable and repeated acts of insubordination ... extravagant ideas which you have been unwilling to sacrifice ... unnecessary delays ... and your apparent idea that you are greater and more powerful than the organization that employs you.
His dismissal of von Stroheim was considered an "earthquake in movie circles", notes Flamini. Producer David O. Selznick said that "it was the first time a director had been fired. It took great guts and courage ... Von Stroheim was utterly indifferent over money and could have gone on and spent millions, with nobody to stop him". The opinion was shared by director Rouben Mamoulian, who said that the "little fellow at Universal", in one bold stroke, had "asserted the primacy of the studio over the director" and forever altered the balance of power in the movie industry.
Effects of his young age
According to Flamini, his youth was a subject of conversation within the movie community. Executives from other studios, actors, and film crew, often mistook him to be a junior employee. Movie columnist Louella Parsons, upon first being introduced to him, asked, "What's the joke? Where's the new general manager?" After five minutes of talking to Thalberg, however, she later wrote about "Universal's Boy Wonder": "He might be a boy in looks and age, but it was no child's mind that was being asked to cope with the intricate politics of Universal City." Novelist Edna Ferber responded the same way, writing that "I had fancied motion-picture producers as large gentlemen smoking oversized cigars. But this young man whose word seemed so final at Universal City ... impressed me deeply."
The male actors in the studio had a similar reaction. Lionel Barrymore, who was nearly twice his age, recalled their meetings:
Thalberg likewise gained the respect of leading playwrights, some of whom also looked down on him due to his youth. George S. Kaufman, co-author of Dinner at Eight, several Marx Brothers films, and two George Gershwin plays, came from New York to meet with Thalberg. Afterward he confided to his friend, Groucho Marx: "That man has never written a word, yet he can tell me exactly what to do with a story. I didn't know you had people like that out here."
Actress Norma Shearer, whom he later married, was surprised after he greeted her at the door, then walked her to his office for her first job interview: "Then you're not the office boy?" she asked. He smiled, as he sat himself behind his desk: "No, Miss Shearer, I'm Irving Thalberg, vice-president of the Mayer Company. I'm the man who sent for you."
His younger-than-normal age for a studio executive was usually mentioned even after he left Universal to help start up MGM. Screenwriter Agnes Christine Johnson, who worked with Thalberg for years, described his contribution during meetings:
The same quality was observed by director and screenwriter Hobart Henley: "If something that read well in conference turns out not so good on the screen, I go to him and, like that—Henley snaps his fingers—he has a remedy. He's brilliant." Another assistant producer to Thalberg explains:
His youth also contributed to his open-mindedness to the ideas of others. Conrad Nagel, who starred in numerous Thalberg films, reported that Thalberg was generally empathetic to those he worked alongside: "Thalberg never raised his voice. He just looked into your eyes, spoke softly, and after a few minutes he cast a spell on you." Studio attorney Edwin Loeb, who also worked to create AMPAS, explained that "the real foundation of Irving's success was his ability to look at life through the eyes of any given person. He had a gift of empathy, and almost complete perspective." Those opinions were also shared by producer Walter Wanger: "You thought that you were talking to an Indian savant. He could cast a spell on anybody."
His talent as a producer was enhanced by his "near-miraculous" powers of concentration, notes film critic J. Hoberman. As a result, he was never bored or tired, and supplemented his spare time with reading for his own amusement, recalls screenwriter Bayard Veiller, with some of his favorite authors being Francis Bacon, Epictetus, and Immanuel Kant.
Film projects at Universal
Biographer Bob Thomas writes that after three years at the studio, Thalberg continually proved his value. Universal's pictures improved noticeably, primarily due to Thalberg's "uncanny sense of story." He took tight control over many key aspects of production, including his requirement that from then on scripts were tightly constructed before filming began, rather than during production. Thomas adds that he also "showed a remarkable capacity for working with actors, casting them aptly and advising them on their careers."
After producing two films that were in production when he began work at Universal, he presented Laemmle with his idea for a film based on one of his favorite classic stories, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rather than just a horror picture, Thalberg suggested turning it into a spectacle which would include a replica of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He had Lon Chaney play the hunchback. The film became Universal's most profitable silent film and established Chaney's career as a top-flight star.
After nearly three years with Universal, Thalberg had supervised over a hundred movies, reorganized the studio to give more control to the managers, and had "stopped the defection" of many of their leading stars by offering them better, higher-paying contracts. He also produced a number of Universal's prestige films, which made the company profitable. However, he decided it was time to find a studio in Los Angeles more suitable to his skills, and spread word that he was available.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Cecil B. DeMille was the first who wanted to hire him, telling his partner Jesse Lasky, "The boy is a genius. I can see it. I know it." Lasky opposed the hire, stating, "Geniuses we have all we need." Thalberg then received an offer from Hal Roach, but the offer was withdrawn because Thalberg lacked experience with slapstick comedy films. In late 1922, Thalberg was introduced to Louis B. Mayer, president of a small but dynamic and fast-growing studio. At that first meeting, Thalberg "made a deep, immediate impression on Mayer", writes Flamini. After Thalberg had left, Mayer said to studio attorney Edwin Loeb: "Tell him if he comes to work for me, I'll look after him as though he were my son."
Although their personalities were in many ways opposite, Mayer being more outspoken and nearly twice the younger man's age, Thalberg was hired as vice president in charge of production at Louis B. Mayer Productions. Years later, Mayer's daughter Irene Mayer Selznick recalled that "it was hard to believe anyone that boyish could be so important." According to Flamini, Thalberg was hired because, although Mayer was an astute businessman, "what he lacked was Thalberg's almost unerring ability to combine quality with commercial success, to bring artistic aspiration in line with the demands of the box office." Mayer's company subsequently merged with two others to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with the 24-year-old Thalberg made part-owner and accorded the same position as vice president in charge of production. Three years after the merger, MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood.
During his twelve years at MGM, Thalberg supervised the production of over four hundred films. Although Thalberg and his colleagues at MGM knew he was "doomed" to not live much past the age of 30 due to heart disease, he loved producing films. He continued developing innovative ideas and overseeing most of MGM's pictures. Under Thalberg's management, MGM released over 40% more films yearly than Warner Brothers, and more than double Paramount's releases. From 1924 until 1936, when Thalberg died at the age of 37, "almost every film bore Thalberg's imprint", wrote Mark Vieira.
Production innovations
Thalberg's production techniques "broke new ground in filmmaking", adds Vieira. Among his contributions at MGM was his innovation of story conferences, sneak previews and scene retakes. He introduced the first horror films and coauthored the Production Code, the set of moral guidelines that all film studios agreed to follow. Thalberg helped synthesize and merge the world of stage drama and literary classics with Hollywood films.
MGM thereby became the only movie studio to consistently show a profit during the Great Depression. Flamini explains that the equation for MGM's success depended on combining stars, a Broadway hit or popular classic, and high standards of production. This combination at the time was considered a "revolutionary approach" in the film industry, which until then assumed a star was all that was needed for success, regardless of the story or production quality. The other studios began following MGM's lead with that same formula.
Production techniques
Thalberg generally followed a system in managing his productions. According to one of his assistants, Lawrence Weingarten, who later became a producer, "Thalberg directed the film on paper, and then the director directed the film on film."
Thalberg was generally opposed to location shooting overseas where he could not oversee production and control costs, as happened with Ben Hur. Thus, he kept hundreds of back-lot carpenters at work creating realistic sets, as he did for fifteenth-century Romeo and Juliet (1936), or with China Seas (1935), to replicate the harbors of Hong Kong.
Vieira points out that Thalberg's "fascination with Broadway plays" often had him create and present stories visually. For China Seas, for instance, he described for the screenwriters, director and others, exactly how he wanted the film to appear on screen:
To be certain of achieving the desired effects, Thalberg made sure his cinematographers were careful in their use of light and shadow. Vieira observes that "more than any other producer or any other studio, Thalberg and MGM manipulated lenses, filters, and lighting instruments to affect the viewer." As a result, he notes, "most of Thalberg's films contain moments such as these, in which cinematic technique transcends mere exposition and gives the viewer something to treasure."
Thalberg was supported by most of the studio in these kinds of creative decisions. "It was a big family," notes Weingarten. "If we had a success, everybody—and I mean every cutter, every painter, every plasterer—was excited about it, was abuzz, was in a tizzy about the whole idea of picture making."
Taking risks with new subjects and stars
In 1929, MGM released fifty films, and all but five showed a profit. Of those that failed, Hallelujah was also a gamble by Thalberg. When King Vidor, the film's producer and director, proposed the idea to Thalberg of a major film cast, for the first time, exclusively with African Americans, he told Thalberg directly, "I doubt that it will make a dollar at the box office." Thalberg replied, "Don't worry about that. I've told you that MGM can afford an occasional experiment."
By the early 1930s, a number of stars began failing at the box office, partly due to the Great Depression that was now undermining the economy, along with the public's ability to spend on entertainment. Thalberg began using two stars in a film, rather than one, as had been the tradition at all the studios, such as pairing Greta Garbo with John Gilbert, Clark Gable with Jean Harlow, and William Powell with Myrna Loy. After experimenting with a few such films, including Mata Hari (1931), which were profitable, he decided on a multi-star production of another Broadway play, Grand Hotel (1932). It had five major stars, including Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery. "Before Thalberg," writes Vieira, "there was no Grand Hotel in the American consciousness." The film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1932.
Thalberg went against consensus and took another risk with The Great Ziegfeld (1936), costarring Luise Rainer. Although Louis B. Mayer did not want her in the role, which he felt was too minor for a new star, Thalberg felt that "only she could play the part", wrote biographer Charles Higham. Shortly after shooting began in late 1935, doubts of Rainer's acting ability emerged in the press. However, despite her limited appearances in the film, Rainer "so impressed audiences with one highly emotional scene" that she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
After her winning role in The Great Ziegfeld, Thalberg wanted her to play a role that was the opposite of her previous character, for The Good Earth (1937). For the part as a Chinese peasant, she was required to act totally subservient to her husband, being perpetually huddled in submission, and barely spoke a word of dialogue during the entire film. Rainer recalls that Mayer did not approve of the film being produced or her part in it: "He was horrified at Irving Thalberg's insistence for me to play O-lan, the poor uncomely little Chinese peasant." However, she again won the Oscar for Best Actress, becoming the first actress to win two consecutive Oscars, a feat not matched until Katharine Hepburn's two Oscar wins thirty years later.
Grooming new stars
Besides bringing a distinctive high quality "look" to MGM films and often recreating well-known stories or plays, Thalberg's actors themselves took on a characteristic quality. Thalberg wanted his female actors to appear "cool, classy and beautiful," notes Flamini. And he strove to make the male actors appear "worldly and in control." In general, Thalberg movies and actors came to be "luxurious," "glossy," and "technically flawless." By doing so, he made stars or boosted the careers of actors such as Lon Chaney, Ramon Novarro, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and Luise Rainer.
Greta Garbo
In 1925, a young Greta Garbo, then twenty, and unable to speak any English, was brought over from Sweden at Mayer's request, as he saw how she looked in still photos. A Swedish friend thought he would help her by contacting Thalberg, who then agreed to give her a screen test. According to author Frederick Sands, "the result of the test was electrifying." Thalberg was impressed and began grooming the new starlet the following day: "the studio arranged to fix her teeth, made sure she lost weight, and gave her an English tutor."
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford's first role was a Thalberg production at MGM and she became one of their leading stars for the next thirty years. Crawford was somewhat jealous of Norma Shearer as she thought she was given the better material by her husband Thalberg out of nepotism. Nevertheless, she felt that his contribution to MGM was vital to the film industry. Not long after his early death, she recalls her concerns: "Thalberg was dead and the concept of the quality 'big' picture pretty much went out the window."
Marie Dressler
Thalberg also realized that old stars few had heard of could be made into new ones. Marie Dressler, a fifty-nine-year-old early vaudeville and movie star, who had played the top-billed lead, above Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand), in the first feature-length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), was unable to get any roles in films after leaving show business for some years, finally working as a maid. MGM screenwriter Frances Marion suggested to Thalberg that she might fit well in a starring role for a new film, and was surprised that he knew of her prior successes. Thalberg approved of using her without a screen test and offered his rationale:
By 1932, shortly before she died, Dressler was the country's number one box office star.
Wallace Beery
Marie Dressler was paired twice, in Min and Bill (1930) and Tugboat Annie (1933), with Wallace Beery, another major silent star who had been struggling to get work in sound pictures until Thalberg cast him. Beery had enjoyed a hugely successful silent film career dating back to 1913, but had been fired by Paramount shortly after sound pictures appeared. Thalberg cast him in the role of "Machine Gun Butch," which had been meant for recently deceased Lon Chaney, in The Big House (1930), an energetic prison picture that became a huge hit. Beery was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and his burgeoning career at MGM had transformed him into the studio's highest paid actor within two more years, during which time he won the Oscar for The Champ and had become a phenomenal box office draw as a result of Thalberg's foresight.
Getting audience feedback and reshooting
According to Vieira, MGM had few failures during this period, and numerous blockbusters. Among the reasons was Thalberg's unique system of developing a script during story conferences with writers before filming began, and later giving "sneak previews" followed by audience feedback through written questionnaires. Often, where he felt improvement was needed, he arranged for scenes to be reshot. As Thalberg once stated, "The difference between something good and something superior is often very small."
Bad decisions and missed opportunities
Thalberg felt he had his "finger on the pulse of America. I know what people will do and what they won't do," he said. His judgment was not always accurate, however. Thalberg's bringing Broadway productions to the screen to develop higher picture standards sometimes resulted in "studied" acting or "stagey" sets, notes Flamini. In 1927, after the successful release of the first full-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), he nevertheless felt that talking pictures were a fad. Thalberg likewise did not think that color would replace black-and-white in movies.
When an assistant protested against a script that envisioned a love scene in Paris with an ocean background, Thalberg refused to make changes, saying "We can't cater to a handful of people who know Paris." A more serious distraction to Thalberg's efforts was his obsession with making his wife Norma Shearer a prominent star, efforts which sometimes led to "overblown and overglamous" productions. Thalberg himself admitted to his obsession years later when he told a fellow producer: "You're behaving like I did with Norma. I knew positively that she could play anything. It's a kind of romantic astigmatism that attacks producers when they fall for an actress."
Important films at MGM
Ben Hur (1925)
One of the first pictures he took charge of, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, was inherited and already in production by another studio when MGM was formed. The film was turning into a disastrous expense with cost overruns already in the millions due to its lavish sets and location shooting in Rome. Most studio executives chose to terminate the film to cut their losses. Thalberg, however, felt differently, and thought the film would affect movie audiences, due to its classic literary source, and would highlight MGM as a major new studio.
He therefore discarded much of the original footage shot in Italy and recreated the set on MGM's back lots in Culver City, which added more millions to the production, yet gave him more control over production. The new set also included a replica of Circus Maximus for the dramatic chariot race scenes. Flamini notes that Thalberg's "gamble paid off," drawing international attention to MGM, and to Thalberg within the movie industry for his bold action.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty was the studio's next most expensive film after Ben Hur, with some now calling it "Thalberg's masterpiece." He initially had difficulty convincing Mayer that he could make the film without making heroes of the mutineers. He achieved that by instead making a hero of the British Royal Navy, whereby the officers and shipmates would from then on display their mutual respect. Thalberg also had to convince Clark Gable to accept the role against his will. He pleaded with Gable, eventually promising him that "If it isn't one of your greatest successes, I'll never ask you again to play a part you don't want." The film's other main stars were Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actor, and winning it for Best Picture. Thalberg accepted the award as producer from Frank Capra.
Thalberg and Mayer partnership
At first, Thalberg and studio chief Louis B. Mayer got along splendidly; however, they had different production philosophies. Thalberg preferred literary works, while Mayer preferred glitzy crowd-pleasing films. A clash was inevitable, and their relationship grew decidedly frosty. When Thalberg fell ill in the final weeks of 1932, Mayer took advantage of the situation and replaced him with David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger. Thalberg's reputation by that time for working long hours was widely known, and rumors about the related strain on his fragile health had become front-page news in entertainment trade publications. The Hollywood Reporter in January 1933 updated its readership about his condition and addressed growing concerns that he might be forced, despite his young age, to quit the business:
Once Thalberg recovered sufficiently from his bout with the "flu" and was able to return to work later in 1933, it was as one of MGM's unit producers, albeit one who had first choice on projects as well as preferential access to all the studio's resources, including over casting its stars. Thalberg's good relationship with Nicholas Schenck, then president of Loew's Incorporated, proved to be an ongoing advantage for him. Loew's was the corporate parent of MGM, so Schenck was the true power and ultimate arbiter at the studio; and he usually supported Thalberg's decisions and continued to do so whenever disagreements about projects or production needs arose. As a result, Thalberg also continued to produce or coproduce some of MGM's most prestigious and critically acclaimed ventures in this period, such as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) starring his wife Norma Shearer, China Seas (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), San Francisco (1936), and Romeo and Juliet (1936).
Personal life
During his few years with Universal while living in New York, Thalberg had become romantically involved with Carl Laemmle's daughter, Rosabelle. Still in his early twenties and later spending most of his time in Los Angeles, his feelings toward her were no longer as strong. Flamini suspects that this may have affected his position at Universal and partly caused his decision to leave the company. "The Laemmles prayed that Irving would marry Rosabelle", notes Flamini. "They wanted their sons to be educated and their daughters to marry nice Jewish boys."
Less than a year after he and Mayer took charge of the newly created MGM studios, and still only twenty-five years old, Thalberg suffered a serious heart attack due to overwork. Mayer also became aware of Thalberg's congenital heart problems and now worried about the prospect of running MGM without him. Mayer also became concerned that one of his daughters might become romantically involved, and told them so:
Thalberg, aware of Mayer's feelings, made it a point of never giving too much attention to his daughters at social events.
One of Thalberg's traits was his ability to work long hours into the night with little sign of fatigue. According to Vieira, Thalberg believed that as long as his mind was active in his work and he was not bored, he would not feel tired. Thalberg, who often got by with only five hours of sleep, felt that most people could get by with less than they realized. To keep his mental faculties at peak, he would read philosophical books by Bacon, Epictetus, or Kant. "They stimulate me. I'd drop out of sight in no time if I didn't read and keep up with current thought—and the philosophers are brain sharpeners."
During the early 1930s, Thalberg was ambivalent about political events in Europe. While he feared Nazism and the rise of Hitler, he also feared Communism. At the time, notes Vieira, "given a choice between communism and fascism, many Americans—including Thalberg—would prefer the latter." Thalberg stated his opinion:
When others suggested that many Jews could die in Germany as a result of Nazi anti-Semitism, he replied that in his opinion "Hitler and Hitlerism will pass." On one occasion, Catholic Prince Löwenstein of Germany, who himself had almost been captured before fleeing Germany, told him: "Mr. Thalberg, your own people are being systematically hunted down and rooted out of Germany." Thalberg suggested that world Jewry should nevertheless not interfere, that the Jewish race would survive Hitler. Within a few years, American film distribution was "choked off" in Germany. Led by Warner Brothers, all American studios eventually closed their German offices.
Thalberg began dating actress Norma Shearer a few years after he joined MGM. Following her conversion to Judaism, they married on Thursday, September 29, 1927, in a private ceremony in the garden of his rented house in Beverly Hills. Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin officiated at the event, with Shearer's brother Douglas Shearer giving the bride away, and Louis B. Mayer serving as best man. The couple drove to Monterey for their honeymoon and then moved into their newly constructed home in Beverly Hills.
After their second child was born, Shearer considered retiring from films, but Thalberg convinced her to continue acting, saying he could find her good roles. She went on to be one of MGM's biggest stars of the 1930s. Their two children were Irving Jr. (1930–1987) and Katharine (1935–2006).
Death
Thalberg and Shearer took a much-needed Labor Day weekend vacation in Monterey, California, in 1936, staying at the same beachfront hotel where they spent their honeymoon. A few weeks earlier, Thalberg's leading screenwriter, Al Lewin, had proposed doing a film based on a soon-to-be published book, Gone with the Wind. Although Thalberg said it would be a "sensational" role for Gable, and a "terrific picture," he decided not to do it:
Besides, Thalberg told Mayer, "[n]o Civil War picture ever made a nickel". Shortly after returning from Monterey, Thalberg was diagnosed with pneumonia while on the set of A Day at the Races. His condition worsened steadily, and he eventually required an oxygen tent at home. He died on September 14, at the age of 37.
Sam Wood, while directing A Day at the Races, was given the news by phone. He returned to the set with tears in his eyes and told the others. As the news spread, "the studio was paralyzed with shock", notes Thomas. "Work stopped and hundreds of people wept", with stars, writers, directors, and studio employees "all sharing a sense of loss at the death of a man who had been a part of their working lives", states Flamini.
His funeral took place two days later, and when the services began the other studios throughout Hollywood observed five minutes of silence. Producer Sam Goldwyn "wept uncontrollably for two days" and was unable to regain his composure enough to attend. The MGM studio closed for that day.
Services were held at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple that Thalberg had occasionally attended. The funeral attracted thousands of spectators who came to view the arrival of countless stars from MGM and other studios, including Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, Al Jolson, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, among the screen luminaries. The ushers who led them to their seats included Clark Gable, Fredric March, and playwright Moss Hart. Erich von Stroheim, who had been fired by Thalberg, came to pay his respects. Producers Louis B. Mayer, the Warner brothers, Adolph Zukor, and Nicholas Schenck sat together solemnly as Rabbi Magnin gave the eulogy.
Thalberg is buried in a private marble tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, lying at rest beside his wife, Norma Shearer Thalberg Arrouge (Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer).
Over the following days, tributes were published by the national press. Louis B. Mayer, his co-founding partner at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, said he had lost "the finest friend a man could ever have", while MGM president Nicholas Schenck stated that "Thalberg was the most important man in the production end of the motion-picture industry." Leading producers from the other studios also expressed their feelings in published tributes to Thalberg:
David O. Selznick described him as "beyond any question the greatest individual force for fine pictures." Samuel Goldwyn called him "the foremost figure in the motion-picture industry ... and an inspiration." M. H. Aylesworth, Chairman of RKO, wrote that "his integrity, vision and ability made him the spearhead of all motion-picture production throughout the world." Harry Warner, president of Warner Bros., described him as "gifted with one of the finest minds ever placed at the service of motion-picture production." Sidney R. Kent, president of Twentieth Century Fox, said that "he made the whole world richer by giving it the highest type of entertainment. He was a true genius." Columbia president Harry Cohn said the "motion picture industry has suffered a loss from which it will not soon recover...". Darryl F. Zanuck noted, "More than any other man he raised the industry to its present world prestige." Adolph Zukor, chairman of Paramount, stated, "Irving Thalberg was the most brilliant young man in the motion picture business." Jesse Lasky said, "It will be utterly impossible to replace him."
Among the condolences that came from world political leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces."
Among the pictures that were unfinished or not yet released at the time of his death were A Day at the Races, The Good Earth, Camille, Maytime, and Romeo and Juliet. Groucho Marx, star of A Day at the Races, wrote, "After Thalberg's death, my interest in the movies waned. I continued to appear in them, but ... The fun had gone out of picture making." Thalberg's widow, Norma Shearer, recalled, "Grief does very strange things to you. I didn't seem to feel the shock for two weeks afterwards. ... then, at the end of those two weeks, I collapsed."
Legacy in the movie industry
Thalberg's legacy to the movie industry is "incalculable", states biographer Bob Thomas. He notes that with his numerous production innovations and grand stories, often turning classic literature and Broadway stage productions into big-screen pictures, he managed to keep "American movies supreme throughout the world for a generation". Darryl F. Zanuck, founder of 20th Century-Fox said that during Thalberg's brief career, he had become the "most creative producer in the history of films". Thomas describes some of his contributions:
Most of MGM's major films in the 1930s were, according to Flamini, "in a very real sense", made by Thalberg. He closely supervised the making of "more pictures than any other producer in Hollywood's history", and was considered the "archetype of the creative producer", adds Flamini. Upon his early death, aged 37, an editorial in The New York Times called him "the most important force" in the motion picture industry. The paper added that for the film industry, he "set the pace and others followed ... because his way combined style, glamour, and profit." He is described by Flamini as having been "a revolutionary in a gray flannel suit".
Thalberg refused to take credit as producer, and as a result, his name never appeared on the screen while he was alive. Thalberg claimed that "credit you give yourself is not worth having". He also said "If a picture is good, they'll know who produced it. If it's bad, nobody cares." His final film, released after he died, was The Good Earth (1937), which won numerous Academy Awards. Its opening screen credit was dedicated to Thalberg:
In 1938, the new multimillion-dollar MGM administration building in Culver City was named for Thalberg. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also named for him, awards producers for consistently high production achievements.
Cultural legacy
The Last Tycoon
In October 1939, American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald began writing The Last Tycoon, a fictionalized biography of Thalberg, naming the protagonist Monroe Stahr to represent Thalberg. "Thalberg has always fascinated me", he wrote to an editor. "His peculiar charm, his extraordinary good looks, his bountiful success, the tragic end of his great adventure. The events I have built around him are fiction, but all of them are things which might very well have happened. ... I've long chosen him for a hero (this has been in my mind for three years) because he is one of the half-dozen men I have known who were built on a grand scale."
Thomas notes that among the reasons Fitzgerald chose to write a book about a Thalberg-like character, was that "throughout his literary career, Fitzgerald borrowed his heroes from friends he admired, and inevitably a bit of Fitzgerald entered the characterizations." Fitzgerald himself writes that "When I like men, I want to be like them ..." Fitzgerald and Thalberg had real-life similarities: both were prodigies, both had heart ailments, and they both died at early ages.
According to biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli, Fitzgerald believed that Thalberg, with his "taste and courage, represented the best of Hollywood. ... [and] saw Thalberg as a model for what could be done in the movies." Fitzgerald died before the novel was completed, however. Bruccoli writes of Fitzgerald's book:
Although parallels between Monroe Stahr in the novel and Thalberg were evident, many who knew Thalberg intimately stated that they did not see similarities in their personalities. Norma Shearer said that the Stahr character was not at all like her former husband.
In the 1976 film version, directed by Elia Kazan, Monroe Stahr was played by Robert De Niro. Kazan, in his pre-production notes, described the Stahr character as he saw him:
In the 2016 television series based on the novel, Monroe Stahr is played by Matt Bomer.
Others
Fitzgerald also based his short story "Crazy Sunday", originally published in the October 1932 issue of American Mercury, on an incident at a party thrown by Thalberg and Shearer. The story is included in Fitzgerald's collection Taps at Reveille (1935).
Thalberg was portrayed in the movie Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) by Robert Evans, who went on to become a studio head himself.
Thalberg was portrayed by Bill Cusack in Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (1994), a TV film based on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, in which Indiana Jones is depicted as taking part in Thalberg's conflict with Erich von Stroheim over Foolish Wives.
In 2020, Thalberg is played by Ferdinand Kingsley in the David Fincher film Mank. Max Minghella portrays him in Damien Chazelle's 2022 film Babylon.
Filmography
Producer
Reputation (1921)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
His Hour (1924)
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The Unholy Three (1925)
The Merry Widow (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Torrent (1926)
La Bohème (1926)
Brown of Harvard (1926)
The Road to Mandalay (1926)
The Temptress (1926)
Valencia (1926)
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Twelve Miles Out (1927)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
London After Midnight (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
Show People (1928)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
The Broadway Melody (1929)
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
Voice of the City (1929)
Where East Is East (1929)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Hallelujah (1929)
His Glorious Night (1929)
The Kiss (1929)
Anna Christie (1930)
Redemption (1930)
The Divorcee (1930)
The Rogue Song (1930)
The Big House (1930)
The Unholy Three (1930)
Let Us Be Gay (1930)
Billy the Kid (1930)
Way for a Sailor (1930)
A Lady's Morals (1930)
Inspiration (1931)
Trader Horn (1931)
The Secret Six (1931)
A Free Soul (1931)
Just a Gigolo (1931)
Menschen hinter Gittern (1931), German-language version of The Big House (1930)
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
The Guardsman (1931)
The Champ (1931)
Possessed (1931)
Private Lives (1931)
Mata Hari (1931)
Freaks (1932)
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Grand Hotel (1932)
Letty Lynton (1932)
As You Desire Me (1932)
Red-Headed Woman (1932)
Smilin' Through (1932)
Red Dust (1932)
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
Strange Interlude (1932)
Tugboat Annie (1933)
Bombshell (1933)
Eskimo (1933)
La Veuve Joyeuse (1934) French-language version of The Merry Widow
Riptide (1934)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
The Merry Widow (1934)
What Every Woman Knows (1934)
Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935)
No More Ladies (1935)
China Seas (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Riffraff (1936)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
Camille (1936)
Maytime (1937)
A Day at the Races (1937)
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
The Good Earth (1937)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Writer
The Trap (1922)
The Dangerous Little Demon (1922)
Awards
Academy Awards
Notes
Further reading
Books
Flamini, Roland. Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M (1994)
Marx, Samuel. Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-believe Saints (1975)
Thomas, Bob. Thalberg: Life and Legend (1969)
Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg's M-G-M. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2008.
Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
Articles
Starman, Ray. "Irving Thalberg", Films In Review, June/July 1987, p. 347–353
External links
Irving Thalberg at TCM
Cinemagraphe Review of the Roland Flamini biography of Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of MGM
Irving Thalberg at Virtual History
Irving Thalberg profiled in Collier's Magazine (1924)
Videos
Category:1899 births
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Category:20th-century American screenwriters | [] | [
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C_1cfb6ba9d9bb4992b0668e75cc3a353e_0 | Irving Thalberg | Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 - September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather production staff, and make profitable films, including Grand Hotel, China Seas, Camille, Mutiny on the Bounty, and The Good Earth. His films carved out an international market, "projecting a seductive image of American life brimming with vitality and rooted in democracy and personal freedom," states biographer Roland Flamini. | Universal Studios | He found work as an office secretary at Universal Pictures' New York office, and later became personal secretary to the studio's founder and president, Carl Laemmle. Among Thalberg's duties were transcribing and editing notes that Laemmle had written during screenings of his films. He earned $25 weekly, becoming adept at making insightful observations, which impressed Laemmle. Laemmle took Thalberg to see his Los Angeles production facility, where he spent a month watching how movie production worked. Before returning to New York, Laemmle told Thalberg to remain and "keep an eye on things for me." Two months later, Laemmle returned to California, partly to see how well Thalberg was able to handle the responsibilities he was given. Thalberg gave him suggestions, which impressed Laemmle by his ability to understand and explain problems. Thalberg suggested, "The first thing you should do is establish a new job of studio manager and give him the responsibility of watching day-to-day operations." Laemmle immediately agreed, "All right. You're it." In shock, Thalberg replied, "I'm what?" Laemmle told him to take charge of the Los Angeles studio, which he did in early 1919. At age 20, Thalberg became responsible for immediately overseeing the nine ongoing film productions and nearly thirty scenarios then under development. In describing the rationale for this early appointment as studio manager, film historian David Thomson writes that his new job "owed nothing to nepotism, private wealth, or experience in the film industry." He reasons that despite "Thalberg's youth, modest education, and frail appearance . . . it is clear that he had the charm, insight, and ability, or the appearance of it, to captivate the film world." Thalberg was one among the majority of Hollywood film industry workers who migrated from the East Coast, primarily from New York. Some film actors, such as Conrad Nagel, did not like the 5-day train trip or the sudden warmth of the California climate. Neither did Marion Davies, who was not used to such "big wide spaces." Samuel Marx, a close friend of Thalberg's from New York, recalled how easily Thalberg adapted to Southern California, often standing outside his doorway during moments of contemplation to enjoy the scenery. "We were all young," said comedian Buster Keaton. "The air in California was like wine. Our business was also young--and growing like nothing ever seen before." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Irving Grant Thalberg (May 30, 1899 – September 14, 1936) was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and ability to select scripts, choose actors, gather production staff, and make profitable films, including Grand Hotel, China Seas, A Night at the Opera, Mutiny on the Bounty, Camille and The Good Earth. His films carved out an international market, "projecting a seductive image of American life brimming with vitality and rooted in democracy and personal freedom", states biographer Roland Flamini.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child was afflicted with a congenital heart disease that doctors said would kill him before he reached the age of thirty. After graduating from high school he worked as a store clerk during the day and to gain some job skills took a night class in typing. He then found work as a secretary with Universal Studios' New York office, and was later made studio manager for their Los Angeles facility. There, he oversaw production of a hundred films during his three years with the company. Among the films he produced was The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923).
In Los Angeles, he partnered with Louis B. Mayer's new studio and, after it merged with two other studios, helped create Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). He was made head of production of MGM in 1925, at the age of twenty-six, helping MGM become the most successful studio in Hollywood. During his twelve years with MGM, until his premature death at the age of 37, he produced four hundred films, most of which bore his imprint and innovations, including story conferences with writers, sneak previews to gain early feedback, and extensive re-shooting of scenes to improve the film. In addition, he introduced horror films to audiences and coauthored the "Production Code", guidelines for morality followed by all studios. During the 1920s and 1930s, he synthesized and merged the world of stage drama and literary classics with Hollywood films.
Thalberg created numerous new stars and groomed their screen images. Among them were Lon Chaney, Ramon Novarro, Greta Garbo, John Gilbert, Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Wallace Beery, Spencer Tracy, Luise Rainer, and Norma Shearer, who became his wife. He had the ability to combine quality with commercial success, and was credited with bringing his artistic aspirations in line with the demands of audiences. After his death, Hollywood's producers said he had been the world's "foremost figure in motion-picture history". President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces." The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, given out periodically by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1937, has been awarded to producers whose body of work reflected consistently high-quality films.
Early years
Thalberg was born in Brooklyn, to German Jewish immigrant parents, William and Henrietta (Haymann). Shortly after birth, he was diagnosed with "blue baby syndrome", caused by a congenital disease that limited the oxygen supply to his heart. The prognosis from the family's doctor and specialists was that he might live to the age of twenty, or at most, to thirty.
During his high school years in Brooklyn, he began having attacks of chest pains, dizziness and fatigue. This affected his ability to study, though until that time he was a good student. When he was 17 he contracted rheumatic fever, and was confined to bed for a year. His mother, in order to prevent him falling too far behind other students, brought him homework from school, books, and tutors to teach him at home. She also hoped that the schoolwork and reading would distract him from the "tantalizing sounds" of children playing outside his window.
With little to entertain him, he read books as a main activity. He devoured popular novels, classics, plays, and biographies. His books, of necessity, replaced the streets of New York, and led to his interest in classical philosophy and philosophers, such as William James.
When Thalberg returned to school, he finished high school but lacked the stamina for college, which he felt would have required constant late-night studying and cramming for exams. Instead, he took part-time jobs as a store clerk, and in the evenings, to gain some job skills, taught himself typing, shorthand and Spanish at a night vocational school. When he turned 18, he placed an advertisement in the local newspaper hoping to find better work:
Career as producer
Universal Studios
He found work as an office secretary at Universal Pictures' New York office, and later became personal secretary to the studio's founder and president, Carl Laemmle. Among Thalberg's duties were transcribing and editing notes that Laemmle had written during screenings of his films. He earned $25 weekly, becoming adept at making insightful observations, which impressed Laemmle.
Laemmle took Thalberg to see his Los Angeles production facility, where he spent a month watching how movie production worked. Before returning to New York, Laemmle told Thalberg to remain and "keep an eye on things for me." Two months later, Laemmle returned to California, partly to see how well Thalberg was able to handle the responsibilities he was given. Thalberg gave him suggestions, and thus impressed Laemmle by his ability to understand and explain problems.
Thalberg suggested, "The first thing you should do is establish a new job of studio manager and give him the responsibility of watching day-to-day operations." Laemmle immediately agreed: "All right. You're it." In shock, Thalberg replied, "I'm what?" Laemmle told him to take charge of the Los Angeles studio, which he did in early 1919. When aged 20, Thalberg became responsible for immediately overseeing the nine ongoing film productions and nearly thirty scenarios then under development.
In describing the rationale for this early appointment as studio manager, film historian David Thomson writes that his new job "owed nothing to nepotism, private wealth, or experience in the film industry." He reasons that despite "Thalberg's youth, modest education, and frail appearance ... it is clear that he had the charm, insight, and ability, or the appearance of it, to captivate the film world."
Thalberg was one among the majority of Hollywood film industry workers who migrated from the East Coast, primarily from New York. Some film actors, such as Conrad Nagel, did not like the five-day train trip or the sudden warmth of the California climate. Neither did Marion Davies, who was not used to such "big wide spaces". Samuel Marx, a close friend of Thalberg's from New York, recalled how easily Thalberg adapted to Southern California, often standing outside his doorway during moments of contemplation to enjoy the scenery. "We were all young", said comedian Buster Keaton. "The air in California was like wine. Our business was also young—and growing like nothing ever seen before."
Confrontation with Erich von Stroheim
He quickly established his tenacity as he battled with well-known director Erich von Stroheim over the length of Foolish Wives (1922). Biographer Roland Flamini notes that the film was Universal's most expensive "jewel" ever in production, and its director and star, von Stroheim, was taking the film far over budget. Thalberg, now Universal's general manager, was forced to have the director quickly finalize production before the studio's working capital was used up. Flamini describes the situation:
Thalberg had von Stroheim come to his office, which he did still wearing his film costume as a Russian Imperial Guard and escorted by members of his production team. Thalberg calmly told him, "I have seen all the film and you have all you need for the picture. I want you to stop shooting", to which von Stroheim replied, "But I have not finished as yet." "Yes, you have", said Thalberg. "You have spent all the money this company can afford. I cannot allow you to spend any more."
Thalberg quietly explained that the director worked under the producer, and it was his responsibility to control costs. Von Stroheim, surrounded by his assistants, then confronted Thalberg: "If you were not my superior, I would smash you in the face." Thalberg, unflinching, said "Don't let that stop you." The result was that Thalberg soon afterward removed the cameras from von Stroheim's studio and took over editing. The uncut footage was pared down from five-and-a-half hours to three hours, to von Stroheim's deep dissatisfaction.
A similar problem developed with von Stroheim's next film, Merry-Go-Round (1923). Although he had promised Thalberg to remain within budget this time, he continued production until it went to twice the agreed length and was not yet near completion. Flamini speculates why this happened:
Thalberg again called von Stroheim to his office, handed him a long letter written and signed by himself, describing the problems, and summarily fired von Stroheim as of that moment. Thalberg's letter stated among the reasons,
totally inexcusable and repeated acts of insubordination ... extravagant ideas which you have been unwilling to sacrifice ... unnecessary delays ... and your apparent idea that you are greater and more powerful than the organization that employs you.
His dismissal of von Stroheim was considered an "earthquake in movie circles", notes Flamini. Producer David O. Selznick said that "it was the first time a director had been fired. It took great guts and courage ... Von Stroheim was utterly indifferent over money and could have gone on and spent millions, with nobody to stop him". The opinion was shared by director Rouben Mamoulian, who said that the "little fellow at Universal", in one bold stroke, had "asserted the primacy of the studio over the director" and forever altered the balance of power in the movie industry.
Effects of his young age
According to Flamini, his youth was a subject of conversation within the movie community. Executives from other studios, actors, and film crew, often mistook him to be a junior employee. Movie columnist Louella Parsons, upon first being introduced to him, asked, "What's the joke? Where's the new general manager?" After five minutes of talking to Thalberg, however, she later wrote about "Universal's Boy Wonder": "He might be a boy in looks and age, but it was no child's mind that was being asked to cope with the intricate politics of Universal City." Novelist Edna Ferber responded the same way, writing that "I had fancied motion-picture producers as large gentlemen smoking oversized cigars. But this young man whose word seemed so final at Universal City ... impressed me deeply."
The male actors in the studio had a similar reaction. Lionel Barrymore, who was nearly twice his age, recalled their meetings:
Thalberg likewise gained the respect of leading playwrights, some of whom also looked down on him due to his youth. George S. Kaufman, co-author of Dinner at Eight, several Marx Brothers films, and two George Gershwin plays, came from New York to meet with Thalberg. Afterward he confided to his friend, Groucho Marx: "That man has never written a word, yet he can tell me exactly what to do with a story. I didn't know you had people like that out here."
Actress Norma Shearer, whom he later married, was surprised after he greeted her at the door, then walked her to his office for her first job interview: "Then you're not the office boy?" she asked. He smiled, as he sat himself behind his desk: "No, Miss Shearer, I'm Irving Thalberg, vice-president of the Mayer Company. I'm the man who sent for you."
His younger-than-normal age for a studio executive was usually mentioned even after he left Universal to help start up MGM. Screenwriter Agnes Christine Johnson, who worked with Thalberg for years, described his contribution during meetings:
The same quality was observed by director and screenwriter Hobart Henley: "If something that read well in conference turns out not so good on the screen, I go to him and, like that—Henley snaps his fingers—he has a remedy. He's brilliant." Another assistant producer to Thalberg explains:
His youth also contributed to his open-mindedness to the ideas of others. Conrad Nagel, who starred in numerous Thalberg films, reported that Thalberg was generally empathetic to those he worked alongside: "Thalberg never raised his voice. He just looked into your eyes, spoke softly, and after a few minutes he cast a spell on you." Studio attorney Edwin Loeb, who also worked to create AMPAS, explained that "the real foundation of Irving's success was his ability to look at life through the eyes of any given person. He had a gift of empathy, and almost complete perspective." Those opinions were also shared by producer Walter Wanger: "You thought that you were talking to an Indian savant. He could cast a spell on anybody."
His talent as a producer was enhanced by his "near-miraculous" powers of concentration, notes film critic J. Hoberman. As a result, he was never bored or tired, and supplemented his spare time with reading for his own amusement, recalls screenwriter Bayard Veiller, with some of his favorite authors being Francis Bacon, Epictetus, and Immanuel Kant.
Film projects at Universal
Biographer Bob Thomas writes that after three years at the studio, Thalberg continually proved his value. Universal's pictures improved noticeably, primarily due to Thalberg's "uncanny sense of story." He took tight control over many key aspects of production, including his requirement that from then on scripts were tightly constructed before filming began, rather than during production. Thomas adds that he also "showed a remarkable capacity for working with actors, casting them aptly and advising them on their careers."
After producing two films that were in production when he began work at Universal, he presented Laemmle with his idea for a film based on one of his favorite classic stories, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rather than just a horror picture, Thalberg suggested turning it into a spectacle which would include a replica of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He had Lon Chaney play the hunchback. The film became Universal's most profitable silent film and established Chaney's career as a top-flight star.
After nearly three years with Universal, Thalberg had supervised over a hundred movies, reorganized the studio to give more control to the managers, and had "stopped the defection" of many of their leading stars by offering them better, higher-paying contracts. He also produced a number of Universal's prestige films, which made the company profitable. However, he decided it was time to find a studio in Los Angeles more suitable to his skills, and spread word that he was available.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Cecil B. DeMille was the first who wanted to hire him, telling his partner Jesse Lasky, "The boy is a genius. I can see it. I know it." Lasky opposed the hire, stating, "Geniuses we have all we need." Thalberg then received an offer from Hal Roach, but the offer was withdrawn because Thalberg lacked experience with slapstick comedy films. In late 1922, Thalberg was introduced to Louis B. Mayer, president of a small but dynamic and fast-growing studio. At that first meeting, Thalberg "made a deep, immediate impression on Mayer", writes Flamini. After Thalberg had left, Mayer said to studio attorney Edwin Loeb: "Tell him if he comes to work for me, I'll look after him as though he were my son."
Although their personalities were in many ways opposite, Mayer being more outspoken and nearly twice the younger man's age, Thalberg was hired as vice president in charge of production at Louis B. Mayer Productions. Years later, Mayer's daughter Irene Mayer Selznick recalled that "it was hard to believe anyone that boyish could be so important." According to Flamini, Thalberg was hired because, although Mayer was an astute businessman, "what he lacked was Thalberg's almost unerring ability to combine quality with commercial success, to bring artistic aspiration in line with the demands of the box office." Mayer's company subsequently merged with two others to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), with the 24-year-old Thalberg made part-owner and accorded the same position as vice president in charge of production. Three years after the merger, MGM became the most successful studio in Hollywood.
During his twelve years at MGM, Thalberg supervised the production of over four hundred films. Although Thalberg and his colleagues at MGM knew he was "doomed" to not live much past the age of 30 due to heart disease, he loved producing films. He continued developing innovative ideas and overseeing most of MGM's pictures. Under Thalberg's management, MGM released over 40% more films yearly than Warner Brothers, and more than double Paramount's releases. From 1924 until 1936, when Thalberg died at the age of 37, "almost every film bore Thalberg's imprint", wrote Mark Vieira.
Production innovations
Thalberg's production techniques "broke new ground in filmmaking", adds Vieira. Among his contributions at MGM was his innovation of story conferences, sneak previews and scene retakes. He introduced the first horror films and coauthored the Production Code, the set of moral guidelines that all film studios agreed to follow. Thalberg helped synthesize and merge the world of stage drama and literary classics with Hollywood films.
MGM thereby became the only movie studio to consistently show a profit during the Great Depression. Flamini explains that the equation for MGM's success depended on combining stars, a Broadway hit or popular classic, and high standards of production. This combination at the time was considered a "revolutionary approach" in the film industry, which until then assumed a star was all that was needed for success, regardless of the story or production quality. The other studios began following MGM's lead with that same formula.
Production techniques
Thalberg generally followed a system in managing his productions. According to one of his assistants, Lawrence Weingarten, who later became a producer, "Thalberg directed the film on paper, and then the director directed the film on film."
Thalberg was generally opposed to location shooting overseas where he could not oversee production and control costs, as happened with Ben Hur. Thus, he kept hundreds of back-lot carpenters at work creating realistic sets, as he did for fifteenth-century Romeo and Juliet (1936), or with China Seas (1935), to replicate the harbors of Hong Kong.
Vieira points out that Thalberg's "fascination with Broadway plays" often had him create and present stories visually. For China Seas, for instance, he described for the screenwriters, director and others, exactly how he wanted the film to appear on screen:
To be certain of achieving the desired effects, Thalberg made sure his cinematographers were careful in their use of light and shadow. Vieira observes that "more than any other producer or any other studio, Thalberg and MGM manipulated lenses, filters, and lighting instruments to affect the viewer." As a result, he notes, "most of Thalberg's films contain moments such as these, in which cinematic technique transcends mere exposition and gives the viewer something to treasure."
Thalberg was supported by most of the studio in these kinds of creative decisions. "It was a big family," notes Weingarten. "If we had a success, everybody—and I mean every cutter, every painter, every plasterer—was excited about it, was abuzz, was in a tizzy about the whole idea of picture making."
Taking risks with new subjects and stars
In 1929, MGM released fifty films, and all but five showed a profit. Of those that failed, Hallelujah was also a gamble by Thalberg. When King Vidor, the film's producer and director, proposed the idea to Thalberg of a major film cast, for the first time, exclusively with African Americans, he told Thalberg directly, "I doubt that it will make a dollar at the box office." Thalberg replied, "Don't worry about that. I've told you that MGM can afford an occasional experiment."
By the early 1930s, a number of stars began failing at the box office, partly due to the Great Depression that was now undermining the economy, along with the public's ability to spend on entertainment. Thalberg began using two stars in a film, rather than one, as had been the tradition at all the studios, such as pairing Greta Garbo with John Gilbert, Clark Gable with Jean Harlow, and William Powell with Myrna Loy. After experimenting with a few such films, including Mata Hari (1931), which were profitable, he decided on a multi-star production of another Broadway play, Grand Hotel (1932). It had five major stars, including Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, and Wallace Beery. "Before Thalberg," writes Vieira, "there was no Grand Hotel in the American consciousness." The film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1932.
Thalberg went against consensus and took another risk with The Great Ziegfeld (1936), costarring Luise Rainer. Although Louis B. Mayer did not want her in the role, which he felt was too minor for a new star, Thalberg felt that "only she could play the part", wrote biographer Charles Higham. Shortly after shooting began in late 1935, doubts of Rainer's acting ability emerged in the press. However, despite her limited appearances in the film, Rainer "so impressed audiences with one highly emotional scene" that she won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
After her winning role in The Great Ziegfeld, Thalberg wanted her to play a role that was the opposite of her previous character, for The Good Earth (1937). For the part as a Chinese peasant, she was required to act totally subservient to her husband, being perpetually huddled in submission, and barely spoke a word of dialogue during the entire film. Rainer recalls that Mayer did not approve of the film being produced or her part in it: "He was horrified at Irving Thalberg's insistence for me to play O-lan, the poor uncomely little Chinese peasant." However, she again won the Oscar for Best Actress, becoming the first actress to win two consecutive Oscars, a feat not matched until Katharine Hepburn's two Oscar wins thirty years later.
Grooming new stars
Besides bringing a distinctive high quality "look" to MGM films and often recreating well-known stories or plays, Thalberg's actors themselves took on a characteristic quality. Thalberg wanted his female actors to appear "cool, classy and beautiful," notes Flamini. And he strove to make the male actors appear "worldly and in control." In general, Thalberg movies and actors came to be "luxurious," "glossy," and "technically flawless." By doing so, he made stars or boosted the careers of actors such as Lon Chaney, Ramon Novarro, John Gilbert, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore and Luise Rainer.
Greta Garbo
In 1925, a young Greta Garbo, then twenty, and unable to speak any English, was brought over from Sweden at Mayer's request, as he saw how she looked in still photos. A Swedish friend thought he would help her by contacting Thalberg, who then agreed to give her a screen test. According to author Frederick Sands, "the result of the test was electrifying." Thalberg was impressed and began grooming the new starlet the following day: "the studio arranged to fix her teeth, made sure she lost weight, and gave her an English tutor."
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford's first role was a Thalberg production at MGM and she became one of their leading stars for the next thirty years. Crawford was somewhat jealous of Norma Shearer as she thought she was given the better material by her husband Thalberg out of nepotism. Nevertheless, she felt that his contribution to MGM was vital to the film industry. Not long after his early death, she recalls her concerns: "Thalberg was dead and the concept of the quality 'big' picture pretty much went out the window."
Marie Dressler
Thalberg also realized that old stars few had heard of could be made into new ones. Marie Dressler, a fifty-nine-year-old early vaudeville and movie star, who had played the top-billed lead, above Charles Chaplin and Mabel Normand), in the first feature-length comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance (1914), was unable to get any roles in films after leaving show business for some years, finally working as a maid. MGM screenwriter Frances Marion suggested to Thalberg that she might fit well in a starring role for a new film, and was surprised that he knew of her prior successes. Thalberg approved of using her without a screen test and offered his rationale:
By 1932, shortly before she died, Dressler was the country's number one box office star.
Wallace Beery
Marie Dressler was paired twice, in Min and Bill (1930) and Tugboat Annie (1933), with Wallace Beery, another major silent star who had been struggling to get work in sound pictures until Thalberg cast him. Beery had enjoyed a hugely successful silent film career dating back to 1913, but had been fired by Paramount shortly after sound pictures appeared. Thalberg cast him in the role of "Machine Gun Butch," which had been meant for recently deceased Lon Chaney, in The Big House (1930), an energetic prison picture that became a huge hit. Beery was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, and his burgeoning career at MGM had transformed him into the studio's highest paid actor within two more years, during which time he won the Oscar for The Champ and had become a phenomenal box office draw as a result of Thalberg's foresight.
Getting audience feedback and reshooting
According to Vieira, MGM had few failures during this period, and numerous blockbusters. Among the reasons was Thalberg's unique system of developing a script during story conferences with writers before filming began, and later giving "sneak previews" followed by audience feedback through written questionnaires. Often, where he felt improvement was needed, he arranged for scenes to be reshot. As Thalberg once stated, "The difference between something good and something superior is often very small."
Bad decisions and missed opportunities
Thalberg felt he had his "finger on the pulse of America. I know what people will do and what they won't do," he said. His judgment was not always accurate, however. Thalberg's bringing Broadway productions to the screen to develop higher picture standards sometimes resulted in "studied" acting or "stagey" sets, notes Flamini. In 1927, after the successful release of the first full-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer (1927), he nevertheless felt that talking pictures were a fad. Thalberg likewise did not think that color would replace black-and-white in movies.
When an assistant protested against a script that envisioned a love scene in Paris with an ocean background, Thalberg refused to make changes, saying "We can't cater to a handful of people who know Paris." A more serious distraction to Thalberg's efforts was his obsession with making his wife Norma Shearer a prominent star, efforts which sometimes led to "overblown and overglamous" productions. Thalberg himself admitted to his obsession years later when he told a fellow producer: "You're behaving like I did with Norma. I knew positively that she could play anything. It's a kind of romantic astigmatism that attacks producers when they fall for an actress."
Important films at MGM
Ben Hur (1925)
One of the first pictures he took charge of, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, was inherited and already in production by another studio when MGM was formed. The film was turning into a disastrous expense with cost overruns already in the millions due to its lavish sets and location shooting in Rome. Most studio executives chose to terminate the film to cut their losses. Thalberg, however, felt differently, and thought the film would affect movie audiences, due to its classic literary source, and would highlight MGM as a major new studio.
He therefore discarded much of the original footage shot in Italy and recreated the set on MGM's back lots in Culver City, which added more millions to the production, yet gave him more control over production. The new set also included a replica of Circus Maximus for the dramatic chariot race scenes. Flamini notes that Thalberg's "gamble paid off," drawing international attention to MGM, and to Thalberg within the movie industry for his bold action.
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty was the studio's next most expensive film after Ben Hur, with some now calling it "Thalberg's masterpiece." He initially had difficulty convincing Mayer that he could make the film without making heroes of the mutineers. He achieved that by instead making a hero of the British Royal Navy, whereby the officers and shipmates would from then on display their mutual respect. Thalberg also had to convince Clark Gable to accept the role against his will. He pleaded with Gable, eventually promising him that "If it isn't one of your greatest successes, I'll never ask you again to play a part you don't want." The film's other main stars were Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actor, and winning it for Best Picture. Thalberg accepted the award as producer from Frank Capra.
Thalberg and Mayer partnership
At first, Thalberg and studio chief Louis B. Mayer got along splendidly; however, they had different production philosophies. Thalberg preferred literary works, while Mayer preferred glitzy crowd-pleasing films. A clash was inevitable, and their relationship grew decidedly frosty. When Thalberg fell ill in the final weeks of 1932, Mayer took advantage of the situation and replaced him with David O. Selznick and Walter Wanger. Thalberg's reputation by that time for working long hours was widely known, and rumors about the related strain on his fragile health had become front-page news in entertainment trade publications. The Hollywood Reporter in January 1933 updated its readership about his condition and addressed growing concerns that he might be forced, despite his young age, to quit the business:
Once Thalberg recovered sufficiently from his bout with the "flu" and was able to return to work later in 1933, it was as one of MGM's unit producers, albeit one who had first choice on projects as well as preferential access to all the studio's resources, including over casting its stars. Thalberg's good relationship with Nicholas Schenck, then president of Loew's Incorporated, proved to be an ongoing advantage for him. Loew's was the corporate parent of MGM, so Schenck was the true power and ultimate arbiter at the studio; and he usually supported Thalberg's decisions and continued to do so whenever disagreements about projects or production needs arose. As a result, Thalberg also continued to produce or coproduce some of MGM's most prestigious and critically acclaimed ventures in this period, such as The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) starring his wife Norma Shearer, China Seas (1935), A Night at the Opera (1935), San Francisco (1936), and Romeo and Juliet (1936).
Personal life
During his few years with Universal while living in New York, Thalberg had become romantically involved with Carl Laemmle's daughter, Rosabelle. Still in his early twenties and later spending most of his time in Los Angeles, his feelings toward her were no longer as strong. Flamini suspects that this may have affected his position at Universal and partly caused his decision to leave the company. "The Laemmles prayed that Irving would marry Rosabelle", notes Flamini. "They wanted their sons to be educated and their daughters to marry nice Jewish boys."
Less than a year after he and Mayer took charge of the newly created MGM studios, and still only twenty-five years old, Thalberg suffered a serious heart attack due to overwork. Mayer also became aware of Thalberg's congenital heart problems and now worried about the prospect of running MGM without him. Mayer also became concerned that one of his daughters might become romantically involved, and told them so:
Thalberg, aware of Mayer's feelings, made it a point of never giving too much attention to his daughters at social events.
One of Thalberg's traits was his ability to work long hours into the night with little sign of fatigue. According to Vieira, Thalberg believed that as long as his mind was active in his work and he was not bored, he would not feel tired. Thalberg, who often got by with only five hours of sleep, felt that most people could get by with less than they realized. To keep his mental faculties at peak, he would read philosophical books by Bacon, Epictetus, or Kant. "They stimulate me. I'd drop out of sight in no time if I didn't read and keep up with current thought—and the philosophers are brain sharpeners."
During the early 1930s, Thalberg was ambivalent about political events in Europe. While he feared Nazism and the rise of Hitler, he also feared Communism. At the time, notes Vieira, "given a choice between communism and fascism, many Americans—including Thalberg—would prefer the latter." Thalberg stated his opinion:
When others suggested that many Jews could die in Germany as a result of Nazi anti-Semitism, he replied that in his opinion "Hitler and Hitlerism will pass." On one occasion, Catholic Prince Löwenstein of Germany, who himself had almost been captured before fleeing Germany, told him: "Mr. Thalberg, your own people are being systematically hunted down and rooted out of Germany." Thalberg suggested that world Jewry should nevertheless not interfere, that the Jewish race would survive Hitler. Within a few years, American film distribution was "choked off" in Germany. Led by Warner Brothers, all American studios eventually closed their German offices.
Thalberg began dating actress Norma Shearer a few years after he joined MGM. Following her conversion to Judaism, they married on Thursday, September 29, 1927, in a private ceremony in the garden of his rented house in Beverly Hills. Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin officiated at the event, with Shearer's brother Douglas Shearer giving the bride away, and Louis B. Mayer serving as best man. The couple drove to Monterey for their honeymoon and then moved into their newly constructed home in Beverly Hills.
After their second child was born, Shearer considered retiring from films, but Thalberg convinced her to continue acting, saying he could find her good roles. She went on to be one of MGM's biggest stars of the 1930s. Their two children were Irving Jr. (1930–1987) and Katharine (1935–2006).
Death
Thalberg and Shearer took a much-needed Labor Day weekend vacation in Monterey, California, in 1936, staying at the same beachfront hotel where they spent their honeymoon. A few weeks earlier, Thalberg's leading screenwriter, Al Lewin, had proposed doing a film based on a soon-to-be published book, Gone with the Wind. Although Thalberg said it would be a "sensational" role for Gable, and a "terrific picture," he decided not to do it:
Besides, Thalberg told Mayer, "[n]o Civil War picture ever made a nickel". Shortly after returning from Monterey, Thalberg was diagnosed with pneumonia while on the set of A Day at the Races. His condition worsened steadily, and he eventually required an oxygen tent at home. He died on September 14, at the age of 37.
Sam Wood, while directing A Day at the Races, was given the news by phone. He returned to the set with tears in his eyes and told the others. As the news spread, "the studio was paralyzed with shock", notes Thomas. "Work stopped and hundreds of people wept", with stars, writers, directors, and studio employees "all sharing a sense of loss at the death of a man who had been a part of their working lives", states Flamini.
His funeral took place two days later, and when the services began the other studios throughout Hollywood observed five minutes of silence. Producer Sam Goldwyn "wept uncontrollably for two days" and was unable to regain his composure enough to attend. The MGM studio closed for that day.
Services were held at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple that Thalberg had occasionally attended. The funeral attracted thousands of spectators who came to view the arrival of countless stars from MGM and other studios, including Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, Al Jolson, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, among the screen luminaries. The ushers who led them to their seats included Clark Gable, Fredric March, and playwright Moss Hart. Erich von Stroheim, who had been fired by Thalberg, came to pay his respects. Producers Louis B. Mayer, the Warner brothers, Adolph Zukor, and Nicholas Schenck sat together solemnly as Rabbi Magnin gave the eulogy.
Thalberg is buried in a private marble tomb in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, lying at rest beside his wife, Norma Shearer Thalberg Arrouge (Thalberg's crypt was engraved "My Sweetheart Forever" by Shearer).
Over the following days, tributes were published by the national press. Louis B. Mayer, his co-founding partner at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, said he had lost "the finest friend a man could ever have", while MGM president Nicholas Schenck stated that "Thalberg was the most important man in the production end of the motion-picture industry." Leading producers from the other studios also expressed their feelings in published tributes to Thalberg:
David O. Selznick described him as "beyond any question the greatest individual force for fine pictures." Samuel Goldwyn called him "the foremost figure in the motion-picture industry ... and an inspiration." M. H. Aylesworth, Chairman of RKO, wrote that "his integrity, vision and ability made him the spearhead of all motion-picture production throughout the world." Harry Warner, president of Warner Bros., described him as "gifted with one of the finest minds ever placed at the service of motion-picture production." Sidney R. Kent, president of Twentieth Century Fox, said that "he made the whole world richer by giving it the highest type of entertainment. He was a true genius." Columbia president Harry Cohn said the "motion picture industry has suffered a loss from which it will not soon recover...". Darryl F. Zanuck noted, "More than any other man he raised the industry to its present world prestige." Adolph Zukor, chairman of Paramount, stated, "Irving Thalberg was the most brilliant young man in the motion picture business." Jesse Lasky said, "It will be utterly impossible to replace him."
Among the condolences that came from world political leaders, President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote, "The world of art is poorer with the passing of Irving Thalberg. His high ideals, insight and imagination went into the production of his masterpieces."
Among the pictures that were unfinished or not yet released at the time of his death were A Day at the Races, The Good Earth, Camille, Maytime, and Romeo and Juliet. Groucho Marx, star of A Day at the Races, wrote, "After Thalberg's death, my interest in the movies waned. I continued to appear in them, but ... The fun had gone out of picture making." Thalberg's widow, Norma Shearer, recalled, "Grief does very strange things to you. I didn't seem to feel the shock for two weeks afterwards. ... then, at the end of those two weeks, I collapsed."
Legacy in the movie industry
Thalberg's legacy to the movie industry is "incalculable", states biographer Bob Thomas. He notes that with his numerous production innovations and grand stories, often turning classic literature and Broadway stage productions into big-screen pictures, he managed to keep "American movies supreme throughout the world for a generation". Darryl F. Zanuck, founder of 20th Century-Fox said that during Thalberg's brief career, he had become the "most creative producer in the history of films". Thomas describes some of his contributions:
Most of MGM's major films in the 1930s were, according to Flamini, "in a very real sense", made by Thalberg. He closely supervised the making of "more pictures than any other producer in Hollywood's history", and was considered the "archetype of the creative producer", adds Flamini. Upon his early death, aged 37, an editorial in The New York Times called him "the most important force" in the motion picture industry. The paper added that for the film industry, he "set the pace and others followed ... because his way combined style, glamour, and profit." He is described by Flamini as having been "a revolutionary in a gray flannel suit".
Thalberg refused to take credit as producer, and as a result, his name never appeared on the screen while he was alive. Thalberg claimed that "credit you give yourself is not worth having". He also said "If a picture is good, they'll know who produced it. If it's bad, nobody cares." His final film, released after he died, was The Good Earth (1937), which won numerous Academy Awards. Its opening screen credit was dedicated to Thalberg:
In 1938, the new multimillion-dollar MGM administration building in Culver City was named for Thalberg. The Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also named for him, awards producers for consistently high production achievements.
Cultural legacy
The Last Tycoon
In October 1939, American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald began writing The Last Tycoon, a fictionalized biography of Thalberg, naming the protagonist Monroe Stahr to represent Thalberg. "Thalberg has always fascinated me", he wrote to an editor. "His peculiar charm, his extraordinary good looks, his bountiful success, the tragic end of his great adventure. The events I have built around him are fiction, but all of them are things which might very well have happened. ... I've long chosen him for a hero (this has been in my mind for three years) because he is one of the half-dozen men I have known who were built on a grand scale."
Thomas notes that among the reasons Fitzgerald chose to write a book about a Thalberg-like character, was that "throughout his literary career, Fitzgerald borrowed his heroes from friends he admired, and inevitably a bit of Fitzgerald entered the characterizations." Fitzgerald himself writes that "When I like men, I want to be like them ..." Fitzgerald and Thalberg had real-life similarities: both were prodigies, both had heart ailments, and they both died at early ages.
According to biographer Matthew J. Bruccoli, Fitzgerald believed that Thalberg, with his "taste and courage, represented the best of Hollywood. ... [and] saw Thalberg as a model for what could be done in the movies." Fitzgerald died before the novel was completed, however. Bruccoli writes of Fitzgerald's book:
Although parallels between Monroe Stahr in the novel and Thalberg were evident, many who knew Thalberg intimately stated that they did not see similarities in their personalities. Norma Shearer said that the Stahr character was not at all like her former husband.
In the 1976 film version, directed by Elia Kazan, Monroe Stahr was played by Robert De Niro. Kazan, in his pre-production notes, described the Stahr character as he saw him:
In the 2016 television series based on the novel, Monroe Stahr is played by Matt Bomer.
Others
Fitzgerald also based his short story "Crazy Sunday", originally published in the October 1932 issue of American Mercury, on an incident at a party thrown by Thalberg and Shearer. The story is included in Fitzgerald's collection Taps at Reveille (1935).
Thalberg was portrayed in the movie Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) by Robert Evans, who went on to become a studio head himself.
Thalberg was portrayed by Bill Cusack in Young Indiana Jones and the Hollywood Follies (1994), a TV film based on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, in which Indiana Jones is depicted as taking part in Thalberg's conflict with Erich von Stroheim over Foolish Wives.
In 2020, Thalberg is played by Ferdinand Kingsley in the David Fincher film Mank. Max Minghella portrays him in Damien Chazelle's 2022 film Babylon.
Filmography
Producer
Reputation (1921)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
His Hour (1924)
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The Unholy Three (1925)
The Merry Widow (1925)
The Tower of Lies (1925)
The Big Parade (1925)
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925)
Torrent (1926)
La Bohème (1926)
Brown of Harvard (1926)
The Road to Mandalay (1926)
The Temptress (1926)
Valencia (1926)
Flesh and the Devil (1926)
Twelve Miles Out (1927)
The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
London After Midnight (1927)
The Crowd (1928)
Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
White Shadows in the South Seas (1928)
Show People (1928)
West of Zanzibar (1928)
The Broadway Melody (1929)
The Trial of Mary Dugan (1929)
Voice of the City (1929)
Where East Is East (1929)
The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1929)
The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929)
Hallelujah (1929)
His Glorious Night (1929)
The Kiss (1929)
Anna Christie (1930)
Redemption (1930)
The Divorcee (1930)
The Rogue Song (1930)
The Big House (1930)
The Unholy Three (1930)
Let Us Be Gay (1930)
Billy the Kid (1930)
Way for a Sailor (1930)
A Lady's Morals (1930)
Inspiration (1931)
Trader Horn (1931)
The Secret Six (1931)
A Free Soul (1931)
Just a Gigolo (1931)
Menschen hinter Gittern (1931), German-language version of The Big House (1930)
The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)
The Guardsman (1931)
The Champ (1931)
Possessed (1931)
Private Lives (1931)
Mata Hari (1931)
Freaks (1932)
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932)
Grand Hotel (1932)
Letty Lynton (1932)
As You Desire Me (1932)
Red-Headed Woman (1932)
Smilin' Through (1932)
Red Dust (1932)
Rasputin and the Empress (1932)
Strange Interlude (1932)
Tugboat Annie (1933)
Bombshell (1933)
Eskimo (1933)
La Veuve Joyeuse (1934) French-language version of The Merry Widow
Riptide (1934)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
The Merry Widow (1934)
What Every Woman Knows (1934)
Biography of a Bachelor Girl (1935)
No More Ladies (1935)
China Seas (1935)
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
Riffraff (1936)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
Camille (1936)
Maytime (1937)
A Day at the Races (1937)
Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937)
The Good Earth (1937)
Marie Antoinette (1938)
Writer
The Trap (1922)
The Dangerous Little Demon (1922)
Awards
Academy Awards
Notes
Further reading
Books
Flamini, Roland. Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of M-G-M (1994)
Marx, Samuel. Mayer and Thalberg: The Make-believe Saints (1975)
Thomas, Bob. Thalberg: Life and Legend (1969)
Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg's M-G-M. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2008.
Vieira, Mark A. Irving Thalberg: Boy Wonder to Producer Prince. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
Articles
Starman, Ray. "Irving Thalberg", Films In Review, June/July 1987, p. 347–353
External links
Irving Thalberg at TCM
Cinemagraphe Review of the Roland Flamini biography of Thalberg: The Last Tycoon and the World of MGM
Irving Thalberg at Virtual History
Irving Thalberg profiled in Collier's Magazine (1924)
Videos
Category:1899 births
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Category:20th-century American businesspeople
Category:Screenwriters from California
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Category:20th-century American screenwriters | [] | [
"The text does not provide specific information on when Irving started with Universal.",
"The work as an office secretary led to Irving Thalberg becoming the personal secretary to the Universal Pictures' founder and president, Carl Laemmle. It ultimately led to him being told to take charge of the Los Angeles studio, thus becoming responsible for overseeing the ongoing film productions and scenarios under development, effectively acting as studio manager.",
"Becoming a personal secretary to Carl Laemmle, the founder and president of Universal Pictures, helped Thalberg's career greatly. He was able to gain major industry insight and knowledge through this role, along with demonstrating his adeptness at making insightful observations and managing responsibilities. His suggestions and ability to understand and explain problems impressed Laemmle enough to give him the charge of the Los Angeles studio. At age 20, Thalberg thus became responsible for overseeing the nine ongoing film productions and nearly thirty scenarios then under development.",
"Irving Thalberg got involved with films when he became the personal secretary to Carl Laemmle, the studio's founder and president, at Universal Pictures. His roles included transcribing and editing notes that Laemmle wrote during film screenings. He also spent a month in Los Angeles at the production facility to understand how the film production process worked. Thalberg was eventually put in charge of the Los Angeles studio, responsible for managing ongoing film productions and scenarios under development.",
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"The text does not provide specific information on whether Irving Thalberg produced any films himself.",
"At Universal, besides initially working as an office secretary and later as personal secretary to the founder and president Carl Laemmle, Irving Thalberg was also given the responsibility of overseeing the Los Angeles studio. In addition to transcribing and editing notes written by Laemmle during film screenings, he took charge of the studio to supervise the ongoing film productions and scenarios under development. He was also tasked by Laemmle with keeping an eye on things at the production facility. However, the text does not provide further specifics on what else Thalberg may have done at Universal."
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C_15f21e1c196940a0bca257c69575ab00_1 | Etruscan civilization | The Etruscan civilization () is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Lazio. As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from before the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions (c. 700 BC) until its assimilation into the Roman Republic, beginning in the late 4th century BC with the Roman-Etruscan Wars. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, approximately over the range of the preceding Iron Age Villanovan culture. The latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by Ancient Greek culture. | Art and music | The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tusci or Etrusci. Their Roman name is the origin of the terms "Tuscany", which refers to their heartland, and "Etruria", which can refer to their wider region. In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians (Turrenoi, Turrhenoi, earlier Tursenoi Tursenoi), from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrheni, Tyrrhenia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhenum (Tyrrhenian Sea), prompting some to associate them with the Teresh (Sea Peoples). The word may also be related to the Hittite Taruisa. The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was syncopated to Rasna or Rasna. The origins of the Etruscans are mostly lost in prehistory, although Greek historians as early as the 5th century BC repeatedly associated the Tyrrhenians (Turrhenoi/Turrenoi, Tursenoi/Tursenoi) with Pelasgians. Thucydides, Herodotus and Strabo all denote Lemnos as settled by Pelasgians whom Thucydides identifies as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" (to de pleiston Pelasgikon, ton kai Lemnon pote kai Athenas Tursenon), and although both Strabo and Herodotus agree that Tyrrhenus/Tyrsenos, son of Atys, king of Lydia, led the migration, Strabo specifies that it was the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros who followed Tyrrhenus/Tyrsenos to the Italian Peninsula. The Lemnian-Pelasgian link was further manifested by the discovery of the Lemnos Stele, whose inscriptions were written in a language which shows strong structural resemblances to the language of the Tyrrhenians (Etruscans). Dionysius of Halicarnassus records a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly to the Italian peninsula, noting that "the Pelasgi made themselves masters of some of the lands belonging to the Umbri"; Herodotus describes how the Tyrrheni migrated from Lydia to the lands of the Umbri (Ombrikoi). Strabo as well as the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus make mention of the Tyrrhenians as pirates. Pliny the Elder put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79): Adjoining these the (Alpine) Noricans are the Raeti and Vindelici. All are divided into a number of states. The Raeti are believed to be people of Tuscan race driven out by the Gauls, their leader was named Raetus. Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly consumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia, Spain and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks. Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily. A few years later, in 474, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites. In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BC. Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly lifesize on sarcophagi or temples), wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was apparently little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including Carrara marble, which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the fresco wall-paintings, which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects. Bucchero wares in black were the early and native styles of fine Etruscan pottery. There was also a tradition of elaborate Etruscan vase painting, which sprung from its Greek equivalent; the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek vases. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colourfully painted terracotta antefixes and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art. The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the plagiaulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the tintinnabulum, tympanum and crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Etruscan civilization ( ) was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio, as well as what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region. Etruscan civilization endured until it was assimilated into Roman society. Assimilation began in the late 4thcenturyBC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars; it accelerated with the grant of Roman citizenship in 90 BC, and became complete in 27 BC, when the Etruscans' territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire.
The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 750 BC, during the foundational period of the Roman Kingdom. Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of Etruria (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and that of Campania. The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy. The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500BC, the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from the Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic.
The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700BC. The Etruscans developed a system of writing derived from the Euboean alphabet, which was used in the Magna Graecia (coastal areas located in Southern Italy). The Etruscan language remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In the Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual small cities, and probably in its prominent individual families. At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries.
Legend and history
Ethnonym and etymology
The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was shortened to Rasna or Raśna (Neo-Etruscan), with both etymologies unknown.
In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians (, Tyrrhēnoi, earlier Tyrsēnoi), from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum (Tyrrhenian Sea), prompting some to associate them with the Teresh (one of the Sea Peoples named by the Egyptians).
The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī (singular Tuscus). Their Roman name is the origin of the terms "Toscana", which refers to their heartland, and "Etruria", which can refer to their wider region. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been the Umbrian word for "Etruscan", based on an inscription on an ancient bronze tablet from a nearby region. The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen, literally "the Tuscan name". Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci, which would, through metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis, be likely to lead to the form, E-trus-ci.
As for the original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the word Latin turris, means "tower", and comes from the Greek word for tower: . On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders". This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to the simple Latins. The proposed etymology has a long history, Dionysius of Halicarnassus having observed in the first century B. C., "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers." In his recent Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Robert Beekes claims the Greek word is a "loanword from a Mediterranean language," a hypothesis that goes back to an article by Paul Kretschmer in Glotta from 1934.
Origins
Ancient sources
Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about the origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were Pelasgians who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy and were not from Greece.
The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to Dionysus referred to them as pirates. Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east, and did not associate them with the Pelasgians.
It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks", respectively.
The 5th-century BC historians Thucydides and Herodotus, and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo, did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of the Greek island of Lemnos. They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" (). As Strabo and Herodotus told it, the migration to Lemnos was led by Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, the son of Atys (who was king of Lydia). Strabo added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to the Italian Peninsula. And, according to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos, there was a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians.
There is some evidence suggesting a link between the island of Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The Lemnos Stele bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "Tyrrhenian language group" comprising Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic spoken in the Alps.
However, the 1st-century BC historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians. Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian Xanthus of Lydia, who was originally from Sardis and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians.
The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna.
Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian Livy, in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri, said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin.
First-century historian Pliny the Elder also put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north, and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79):
Archeological evidence and modern etruscology
The question of Etruscan origins has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered so far by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an indigenous origin of the Etruscans. There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria. Modern etruscologists and archeologists, such as Massimo Pallottino (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless. In 2000, the etruscologist Dominique Briquel explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek historians' writings on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents. He argues that the ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and on the mere fact that there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks. He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration.
Several archaeologists specializing in Prehistory and Protohistory, who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to material culture or to social practices, that can support a migration theory. The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in the area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, which is a Continental European practice, derived from the Urnfield culture; there is nothing about it that suggests an ethnic contribution from Asia Minor or the Near East.
A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings, based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities, showed a continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years. Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during the last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous Proto-Villanovan culture, and that the subsequent Iron Age Villanovan culture is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization. It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaean world at the end of the Bronze Age. However contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of Greece, Aegean Sea Islands, Asia Minor, and the Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan ethnogenesis was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Phoenician-Punic colonies in Sardinia, and the consequent orientalizing period.
One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of the past, has been to associate the later Orientalizing period of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves, and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria. Orientalizing period in the Etruscans was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with the Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations. The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures, and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean, that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to other several civilizations in the central and western Mediterranean up to the Iberian Peninsula. Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the Tomb of the Augurs, the Tomb of the Triclinium or the Tomb of the Leopards, as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia, were painted by Greek painters or, in any case, foreigner artists. These images have, therefore, a very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population. It was only from the end of the 4th century B.C. that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic.
Genetic research
An mtDNA study in 2004, based on Etruscan samples from Veneto, Tuscany, Lazio, and Campania, stated that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity, and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European, but only a few haplotypes were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among Germans (seven haplotypes in common), the Cornish from South West England (five haplotypes in common), the Turks (four haplotypes in common), and the Tuscans (two haplotypes in common).
A couple of mitochondrial DNA studies, published in 2013 in the journals PLOS One and American Journal of Physical Anthropology, based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that the Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to fall very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Hungary) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the Villanovan culture, as already supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research, and that genetic links between Tuscany and western Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T) and U5, with a minority of mtDNA H1b.
In the collective volume Etruscology published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes that "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".
A 2019 genetic study published in the journal Science analyzed the remains of eleven Iron Age individuals from the areas around Rome, of which four were Etruscan individuals, one buried in Veio Grotta Gramiccia from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near Civitavecchia from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the Latins (900–500 BC) from Latium vetus were genetically similar, with genetic differences between the examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant. The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of ca. 30% steppe ancestry. Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds Copper Age ancestry (EEF + WHG; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%), and one-third Steppe-related ancestry (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%). The only sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283), found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried exactly the M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from Croatia (1631-1531 calBCE). While the four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1, H, T2b32, K1a4. Therefore, Etruscans had also Steppe-related ancestry despite speaking a non-Indo-European language.
A 2021 genetic study, published in the journal Science Advances, analyzed the autosomal DNA of 48 Iron Age individuals from Tuscany and Lazio, spanning from 800 to 1 BC, and confirmed that in the Etruscan individuals the ancestral component Steppe was present in the same percentages found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and in the Etruscan DNA was completely absent a signal of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean, concluding that the Etruscans were autochthonous and they had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. Both Etruscans and Latins joined firmly the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscan cluster is a mixture of WHG, EEF, and Steppe ancestry; 75% of the Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to haplogroup R1b, especially R1b-P312 and its derivative R1b-L2 whose direct ancestor is R1b-U152, while the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was H.
In his 2021 book, A Short History of Humanity, German geneticist Johannes Krause, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena, concludes that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque, Paleo-Sardinian, and Minoan) "developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution".
Periodization of Etruscan civilization
The Etruscan civilization begins with the Villanovan culture, regarded as the oldest phase. The Etruscans themselves dated the origin of the Etruscan nation to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC. The Villanovan culture emerges with the phenomenon of regionalization from the late Bronze Age culture called "Proto-Villanovan", part of the central European Urnfield culture system. In the last Villanovan phase, called the recent phase (about 770–730 BC), the Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first Greek immigrants in southern Italy (in Pithecusa and then in Cuma), so much so as to initially absorb techniques and figurative models and soon more properly cultural models, with the introduction, for example, of writing, of a new way of banqueting, of a heroic funerary ideology, that is, a new aristocratic way of life, such as to profoundly change the physiognomy of Etruscan society. Thus, thanks to the growing number of contacts with the Greeks, the Etruscans entered what is called the Orientalizing phase. In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from the most advanced areas of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. Also directly Phoenician, or otherwise Near Eastern, craftsmen, merchants and artists contributed to the spread in southern Europe of Near Eastern cultural and artistic motifs. The last three phases of Etruscan civilization are called, respectively, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic, which roughly correspond to the homonymous phases of the ancient Greek civilization.
Chronology
Expansion
Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly subsumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia, Spain and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks.
Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily. A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites.
In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars, Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BC.
Etruscan League
According to legend, there was a period between 600 BC and 500 BC in which an alliance was formed among twelve Etruscan settlements, known today as the Etruscan League, Etruscan Federation, or Dodecapolis (in Greek Δωδεκάπολις). According to a legend, the Etruscan League of twelve cities was founded by Tarchon and his brother Tyrrhenus. Tarchon lent his name to the city of Tarchna, or Tarquinnii, as it was known by the Romans. Tyrrhenus gave his name to the Tyrrhenians, the alternative name for the Etruscans. Although there is no consensus on which cities were in the league, the following list may be close to the mark: Arretium, Caisra, Clevsin, Curtun, Perusna, Pupluna, Veii, Tarchna, Vetluna, Volterra, Velzna, and Velch. Some modern authors include Rusellae. The league was mostly an economic and religious league, or a loose confederation, similar to the Greek states. During the later imperial times, when Etruria was just one of many regions controlled by Rome, the number of cities in the league increased by three. This is noted on many later grave stones from the 2nd century BC onwards. According to Livy, the twelve city-states met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae at Volsinii, where a leader was chosen to represent the league.
There were two other Etruscan leagues ("Lega dei popoli"): that of Campania, the main city of which was Capua, and the Po Valley city-states in northern Italy, which included Bologna, Spina and Adria.
Possible founding of Rome
Those who subscribe to a Latin foundation of Rome followed by an Etruscan invasion typically speak of an Etruscan "influence" on Roman culture – that is, cultural objects which were adopted by Rome from neighbouring Etruria. The prevailing view is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage. Rome was probably a small settlement until the arrival of the Etruscans, who constructed the first elements of its urban infrastructure such as the drainage system.
The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to the Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome.
Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills – the steeper the better – and surrounded by thick walls. According to Roman mythology, when Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on the Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a pomerium or sacred ditch. Then, they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form Ruma-χ meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with the same suffix -χ: Velzna-χ '(someone) from Volsinii' and Sveama-χ '(someone) from Sovana'. This in itself, however, is not enough to prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from θefarie, then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar (Tiber) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390 BC, the city of Rome was attacked by the Gauls, and as a result may have lost many – though not all – of its earlier records.
Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus, the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, Demaratus of Corinth) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians would argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome was founded by Etruscans. The true picture is rather more complicated, not least because the Etruscan cities were separate entities which never came together to form a single Etruscan state. Furthermore, there were strong Latin and Italic elements to Roman culture, and later Romans proudly celebrated these multiple, 'multicultural' influences on the city.
Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius, the people were said to have been divided into thirty curiae and three tribes. Few Etruscan words entered Latin, but the names of at least two of the tribes – Ramnes and Luceres – seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title lucumo, while the regalia were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin – the golden crown, the sceptre, the toga palmata (a special robe), the sella curulis (curule chair), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the fasces. The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe, carried by the king's lictors. An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan Vetulonia. This allowed archaeologists to identify the depiction of a fasces on the grave stele of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word populus, which appears as an Etruscan deity, Fufluns.
Roman families of Etruscan origin
Society
Government
The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. It is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic republic (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC.
The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the gorgon, an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by a common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of , "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates, without much of a hint as to their function: The , the , the , the , the , and so on. The people were the mech.
Family
The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscription evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking the growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the gens at Rome and perhaps even its model. The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the centre of the society was the married couple, tusurthir. The Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing.
Similarly, the behaviour of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by western culture as an apotropaic device, appearing finally on the figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability. It is worth noting that a number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in the form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family.
Military
The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as a means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. It is likely that individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs as an honor to fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patrocles.
Cities
The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities. They were entirely assimilated by Italic, Celtic, or Roman ethnic groups, but the names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age, marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic.
That many Roman cities were formerly Etruscan was well known to all the Roman authors. Some cities were founded by Etruscans in prehistoric times, and bore entirely Etruscan names. Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually Italic.
Culture
Religion
The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of divine power and that power was subdivided into deities that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favour of human affairs. How to understand the will of deities, and how to behave, had been revealed to the Etruscans by two initiators, Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land and immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure. Their teachings were kept in a series of sacred books. Three layers of deities are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature: Catha and Usil, the sun; Tivr, the moon; Selvans, a civil god; Turan, the goddess of love; Laran, the god of war; Leinth, the goddess of death; Maris; Thalna; Turms; and the ever-popular Fufluns, whose name is related in some way to the city of Populonia and the populus Romanus, possibly, the god of the people.
Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess. In addition, some Greek and Roman gods were taken into the Etruscan system: Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva), Pacha (Dionysus). The Greek heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs.
Architecture
Relatively little is known about the architecture of the ancient Etruscans. They adapted the native Italic styles with influence from the external appearance of Greek architecture. In turn, ancient Roman architecture began with Etruscan styles, and then accepted still further Greek influence. Roman temples show many of the same differences in form to Greek ones that Etruscan temples do, but like the Greeks, use stone, in which they closely copy Greek conventions. The houses of the wealthy were evidently often large and comfortable, but the burial chambers of tombs, often filled with grave-goods, are the nearest approach to them to survive. In the southern Etruscan area, tombs have large rock-cut chambers under a tumulus in large necropoleis, and these, together with some city walls, are the only Etruscan constructions to survive. Etruscan architecture is not generally considered as part of the body of Greco-Roman classical architecture.
Art and music
Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly lifesize on sarcophagi or temples), wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was apparently little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including Carrara marble, which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the fresco wall-paintings, a minority of which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects.
Bucchero wares in black were the early and native styles of fine Etruscan pottery. There was also a tradition of elaborate Etruscan vase painting, which sprung from its Greek equivalent; the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek vases. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colourfully painted terracotta antefixes and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.
The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the plagiaulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the tintinnabulum, tympanum and crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara.
Language
Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions which have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a Pre-Indo-European and Paleo-European language, and the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is unrelated directly to other known language groups. Since Rix (1998), it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups Raetic and Lemnian are related to Etruscan.
Literature
Etruscan texts, written in a space of seven centuries, use a form of the Greek alphabet due to close contact between the Etruscans and the Greek colonies at Pithecusae and Cumae in the 8th century BC (until it was no longer used, at the beginning of the 1st century AD). Etruscan inscriptions disappeared from Chiusi, Perugia and Arezzo around this time. Only a few fragments survive, religious and especially funeral texts most of which are late (from the 4th century BC). In addition to the original texts that have survived to this day, there are a large number of quotations and allusions from classical authors. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus wrote that literary culture was one of the great achievements of the Etruscans. Little is known of it and even what is known of their language is due to the repetition of the same few words in the many inscriptions found (by way of the modern epitaphs) contrasted in bilingual or trilingual texts with Latin and Punic. Out of the aforementioned genres, is just one such Volnio (Volnius) cited in classical sources mention. With a few exceptions, such as the Liber Linteus, the only written records in the Etruscan language that remain are inscriptions, mainly funerary. The language is written in the Etruscan alphabet, a script related to the early Euboean Greek alphabet. Many thousand inscriptions in Etruscan are known, mostly epitaphs, and a few very short texts have survived, which are mainly religious. Etruscan imaginative literature is evidenced only in references by later Roman authors, but it is evident from their visual art that the Greek myths were well-known.
References
Sources
Further reading
Bartoloni, Gilda (ed). Introduzione all'Etruscologia (in Italian). Milan: Hoepli, 2012.
Sinclair Bell and Carpino A. Alexandra (eds). A Companion to the Etruscans, Oxford; Chichester; Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016.
Bonfante, Giuliano and Bonfante Larissa. The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Bonfante, Larissa. Out of Etruria: Etruscan Influence North and South. Oxford: B.A.R., 1981.
Bonfante, Larissa. Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986.
Bonfante, Larissa. Etruscan Myths. London: British Museum Press, 2006.
Briquel, Dominique. Les Étrusques, peuple de la différence, series Civilisations U, éditions Armand Colin, Paris, 1993.
Briquel, Dominique. La civilisation étrusque, éditions Fayard, Paris, 1999.
De Grummond, Nancy T. (2014). Ethnicity and the Etruscans. In McInerney, Jeremy (ed.). A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 405–422.
Haynes, Sybille. Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
Izzet, Vedia. The Archaeology of Etruscan Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Naso, Alessandro (ed). Etruscology, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017.
Pallottino, Massimo. Etruscologia. Milan: Hoepli, 1942 (English ed., The Etruscans. David Ridgway, editor. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975).
Shipley, Lucy. The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations, London: Reaktion Books, 2017.
Smith, C. The Etruscans: a very short introduction , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Spivey, Nigel. Etruscan Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Swaddling, Judith and Philip Perkins. Etruscan by Definition: The Culture, Regional, and Personal Identity of the Etruscans: Papers in Honor of Sybille Haynes. London: British Museum, 2009.
* Torelli, M. (ed.) (2001) The Etruscans. London.
Turfa, Jean MacIntosh (ed). The Etruscan World. London: Routledge, 2013.
Turfa, Jean MacIntosh. The Etruscans. In Farney, Gary D.; Bradley, Gary (eds.). The Peoples of Ancient Italy. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 637–672.
Cities and sites
(Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria) "The Cai Cutu Etruscan tomb" An undisturbed late Etruscan family tomb, reused between the 3rd and 1st century BC, reassembled in the National Archeological Museum of Perugia
Hypogeum of the Volumnis digital media archive (creative commons-licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas), data from a University of Ferrara/CyArk research partnership
External links
Category:Archaeological cultures in Italy
Category:Ancient peoples of Italy
Category:9th-century BC establishments in Italy
Category:States and territories established in the 9th century BC
Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1st century BC
Category:Former confederations | [] | [
"The Etruscans were known for their art that was produced between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. This includes figurative sculpture in terracotta, mainly lifesize on sarcophagi or temples, wall-painting and metalworking, particularly engraved bronze mirrors. Etruscan art was strongly connected to their religious beliefs and their views on the afterlife.",
"The context does not provide specific information on the shapes the Etruscans made in their art.",
"Yes, some pieces of Etruscan art are still around today. Most of the surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the fresco wall-paintings which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects. There are also colorfully painted terracotta antefixes and other fittings, though the Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze has mostly [not] survived, being too valuable and hence recycled later.",
"The Etruscan civilization is depicted in frescoes and bas-reliefs playing different types of pipes such as the plagiaulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe, and the famous double pipes. They also used percussion instruments like the tintinnabulum, tympanum, crotales, and later, stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara. However, the context does not provide information on the specific style or genre of music they were known for.",
"The Etruscans played different types of pipes including the plagiaulos, which are the pipes of Pan or Syrinx, the alabaster pipe and the double pipes.",
"The context does not provide specific information on where the Etruscans played their music.",
"The context notes that Etruscan art, produced between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC, was particularly strong in figurative sculpture in terracotta, wall-painting, and metalworking, especially engraved bronze mirrors. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including wall-paintings which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects. In terms of pottery, black Bucchero wares represented early and native styles. Notably, their art was strongly connected to their religious beliefs, particularly the afterlife.\n\nIn terms of music, the context mentions various Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs, including different types of pipes (the plagiaulos, alabaster pipe, and double pipes), percussion instruments (the tintinnabulum, tympanum and crotales), and stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara. However, the context does not state any specific noteworthy features about the music itself.",
"The context does not provide specific information on the religion of the Etruscans. However, it is mentioned that their art was strongly connected to their religion and the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art."
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C_15f21e1c196940a0bca257c69575ab00_0 | Etruscan civilization | The Etruscan civilization () is the modern name given to a powerful and wealthy civilization of ancient Italy in the area corresponding roughly to Tuscany, western Umbria and northern Lazio. As distinguished by its unique language, this civilization endured from before the time of the earliest Etruscan inscriptions (c. 700 BC) until its assimilation into the Roman Republic, beginning in the late 4th century BC with the Roman-Etruscan Wars. Culture that is identifiably Etruscan developed in Italy after about 800 BC, approximately over the range of the preceding Iron Age Villanovan culture. The latter gave way in the 7th century BC to a culture that was influenced by Ancient Greek culture. | Language and etymology | Knowledge of the Etruscan language is still far from complete. The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a non-Indo-European language; the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is, unrelated directly to other known language groups. Since Rix (1998), it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups Raetic and Lemnian are related to Etruscan. No etymology exists for Rasna, the Etruscans' name for themselves, although Italian historic linguist Massimo Pittau has proposed the meaning of 'Shaved' or 'Beardless', backing the opinion of ancient figurines collector and author Paolo Campidori. The etymology of Tusci is based on a beneficiary phrase in the third Iguvine tablet, which is a major source for the Umbrian language. The phrase is turskum ... nomen, "the Tuscan name", from which a root *Tursci can be reconstructed. A metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis produce E-trus-ci. A common hypothesis is that *Turs- along with Latin turris, "tower", come from Greek tursis, "tower." The Tusci were therefore the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders." This venerable etymology is at least as old as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who said "And there is no reason that the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers." Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante (Bonfante, 2002) speculate that Etruscan houses seemed like towers to the simple Latins. It is true that the Etruscans preferred to build hill towns on high precipices enhanced by walls. On the other hand, if the Tyrrhenian name came from an incursion of Sea Peoples or later migrants, then it might well be related to the name of Troy, the city of towers in that case. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Etruscan civilization ( ) was developed by a people of Etruria in ancient Italy with a common language and culture who formed a federation of city-states. After conquering adjacent lands, its territory covered, at its greatest extent, roughly what is now Tuscany, western Umbria, and northern Lazio, as well as what are now the Po Valley, Emilia-Romagna, south-eastern Lombardy, southern Veneto, and western Campania.
The earliest evidence of a culture that is identifiably Etruscan dates from about 900BC. This is the period of the Iron Age Villanovan culture, considered to be the earliest phase of Etruscan civilization, which itself developed from the previous late Bronze Age Proto-Villanovan culture in the same region. Etruscan civilization endured until it was assimilated into Roman society. Assimilation began in the late 4thcenturyBC as a result of the Roman–Etruscan Wars; it accelerated with the grant of Roman citizenship in 90 BC, and became complete in 27 BC, when the Etruscans' territory was incorporated into the newly established Roman Empire.
The territorial extent of Etruscan civilization reached its maximum around 750 BC, during the foundational period of the Roman Kingdom. Its culture flourished in three confederacies of cities: that of Etruria (Tuscany, Latium and Umbria), that of the Po Valley with the eastern Alps, and that of Campania. The league in northern Italy is mentioned in Livy. The reduction in Etruscan territory was gradual, but after 500BC, the political balance of power on the Italian peninsula shifted away from the Etruscans in favor of the rising Roman Republic.
The earliest known examples of Etruscan writing are inscriptions found in southern Etruria that date to around 700BC. The Etruscans developed a system of writing derived from the Euboean alphabet, which was used in the Magna Graecia (coastal areas located in Southern Italy). The Etruscan language remains only partly understood, making modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. In the Etruscan political system, authority resided in its individual small cities, and probably in its prominent individual families. At the height of Etruscan power, elite Etruscan families grew very rich through trade with the Celtic world to the north and the Greeks to the south, and they filled their large family tombs with imported luxuries.
Legend and history
Ethnonym and etymology
The Etruscans called themselves Rasenna, which was shortened to Rasna or Raśna (Neo-Etruscan), with both etymologies unknown.
In Attic Greek, the Etruscans were known as Tyrrhenians (, Tyrrhēnoi, earlier Tyrsēnoi), from which the Romans derived the names Tyrrhēnī, Tyrrhēnia (Etruria), and Mare Tyrrhēnum (Tyrrhenian Sea), prompting some to associate them with the Teresh (one of the Sea Peoples named by the Egyptians).
The ancient Romans referred to the Etruscans as the Tuscī or Etruscī (singular Tuscus). Their Roman name is the origin of the terms "Toscana", which refers to their heartland, and "Etruria", which can refer to their wider region. The term Tusci is thought by linguists to have been the Umbrian word for "Etruscan", based on an inscription on an ancient bronze tablet from a nearby region. The inscription contains the phrase turskum ... nomen, literally "the Tuscan name". Based on a knowledge of Umbrian grammar, linguists can infer that the base form of the word turskum is *Tursci, which would, through metathesis and a word-initial epenthesis, be likely to lead to the form, E-trus-ci.
As for the original meaning of the root, *Turs-, a widely cited hypothesis is that it, like the word Latin turris, means "tower", and comes from the Greek word for tower: . On this hypothesis, the Tusci were called the "people who build towers" or "the tower builders". This proposed etymology is made the more plausible because the Etruscans preferred to build their towns on high precipices reinforced by walls. Alternatively, Giuliano and Larissa Bonfante have speculated that Etruscan houses may have seemed like towers to the simple Latins. The proposed etymology has a long history, Dionysius of Halicarnassus having observed in the first century B. C., "[T]here is no reason that the Greeks should not have called [the Etruscans] by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers." In his recent Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Robert Beekes claims the Greek word is a "loanword from a Mediterranean language," a hypothesis that goes back to an article by Paul Kretschmer in Glotta from 1934.
Origins
Ancient sources
Literary and historical texts in the Etruscan language have not survived, and the language itself is only partially understood by modern scholars. This makes modern understanding of their society and culture heavily dependent on much later and generally disapproving Roman and Greek sources. These ancient writers differed in their theories about the origin of the Etruscan people. Some suggested they were Pelasgians who had migrated there from Greece. Others maintained that they were indigenous to central Italy and were not from Greece.
The first Greek author to mention the Etruscans, whom the Ancient Greeks called Tyrrhenians, was the 8th-century BC poet Hesiod, in his work, the Theogony. He mentioned them as residing in central Italy alongside the Latins. The 7th-century BC Homeric Hymn to Dionysus referred to them as pirates. Unlike later Greek authors, these authors did not suggest that Etruscans had migrated to Italy from the east, and did not associate them with the Pelasgians.
It was only in the 5th century BC, when the Etruscan civilization had been established for several centuries, that Greek writers started associating the name "Tyrrhenians" with the "Pelasgians", and even then, some did so in a way that suggests they were meant only as generic, descriptive labels for "non-Greek" and "indigenous ancestors of Greeks", respectively.
The 5th-century BC historians Thucydides and Herodotus, and the 1st-century BC historian Strabo, did seem to suggest that the Tyrrhenians were originally Pelasgians who migrated to Italy from Lydia by way of the Greek island of Lemnos. They all described Lemnos as having been settled by Pelasgians, whom Thucydides identified as "belonging to the Tyrrhenians" (). As Strabo and Herodotus told it, the migration to Lemnos was led by Tyrrhenus / Tyrsenos, the son of Atys (who was king of Lydia). Strabo added that the Pelasgians of Lemnos and Imbros then followed Tyrrhenus to the Italian Peninsula. And, according to the logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos, there was a Pelasgian migration from Thessaly in Greece to the Italian peninsula, as part of which the Pelasgians colonized the area he called Tyrrhenia, and they then came to be called Tyrrhenians.
There is some evidence suggesting a link between the island of Lemnos and the Tyrrhenians. The Lemnos Stele bears inscriptions in a language with strong structural resemblances to the language of the Etruscans. The discovery of these inscriptions in modern times has led to the suggestion of a "Tyrrhenian language group" comprising Etruscan, Lemnian, and the Raetic spoken in the Alps.
However, the 1st-century BC historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a Greek living in Rome, dismissed many of the ancient theories of other Greek historians and postulated that the Etruscans were indigenous people who had always lived in Etruria and were different from both the Pelasgians and the Lydians. Dionysius noted that the 5th-century historian Xanthus of Lydia, who was originally from Sardis and was regarded as an important source and authority for the history of Lydia, never suggested a Lydian origin of the Etruscans and never named Tyrrhenus as a ruler of the Lydians.
The credibility of Dionysius of Halicarnassus is arguably bolstered by the fact that he was the first ancient writer to report the endonym of the Etruscans: Rasenna.
Similarly, the 1st-century BC historian Livy, in his Ab Urbe Condita Libri, said that the Rhaetians were Etruscans who had been driven into the mountains by the invading Gauls; and he asserted that the inhabitants of Raetia were of Etruscan origin.
First-century historian Pliny the Elder also put the Etruscans in the context of the Rhaetian people to the north, and wrote in his Natural History (AD 79):
Archeological evidence and modern etruscology
The question of Etruscan origins has long been a subject of interest and debate among historians. In modern times, all the evidence gathered so far by prehistoric and protohistoric archaeologists, anthropologists, and etruscologists points to an indigenous origin of the Etruscans. There is no archaeological or linguistic evidence of a migration of the Lydians or Pelasgians into Etruria. Modern etruscologists and archeologists, such as Massimo Pallottino (1947), have shown that early historians' assumptions and assertions on the subject were groundless. In 2000, the etruscologist Dominique Briquel explained in detail why he believes that ancient Greek historians' writings on Etruscan origins should not even count as historical documents. He argues that the ancient story of the Etruscans' 'Lydian origins' was a deliberate, politically motivated fabrication, and that ancient Greeks inferred a connection between the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians solely on the basis of certain Greek and local traditions and on the mere fact that there had been trade between the Etruscans and Greeks. He noted that, even if these stories include historical facts suggesting contact, such contact is more plausibly traceable to cultural exchange than to migration.
Several archaeologists specializing in Prehistory and Protohistory, who have analyzed Bronze Age and Iron Age remains that were excavated in the territory of historical Etruria have pointed out that no evidence has been found, related either to material culture or to social practices, that can support a migration theory. The most marked and radical change that has been archaeologically attested in the area is the adoption, starting in about the 12th century BC, of the funeral rite of incineration in terracotta urns, which is a Continental European practice, derived from the Urnfield culture; there is nothing about it that suggests an ethnic contribution from Asia Minor or the Near East.
A 2012 survey of the previous 30 years' archaeological findings, based on excavations of the major Etruscan cities, showed a continuity of culture from the last phase of the Bronze Age (13th–11th century BC) to the Iron Age (10th–9th century BC). This is evidence that the Etruscan civilization, which emerged around 900 BC, was built by people whose ancestors had inhabited that region for at least the previous 200 years. Based on this cultural continuity, there is now a consensus among archeologists that Proto-Etruscan culture developed, during the last phase of the Bronze Age, from the indigenous Proto-Villanovan culture, and that the subsequent Iron Age Villanovan culture is most accurately described as an early phase of the Etruscan civilization. It is possible that there were contacts between northern-central Italy and the Mycenaean world at the end of the Bronze Age. However contacts between the inhabitants of Etruria and inhabitants of Greece, Aegean Sea Islands, Asia Minor, and the Near East are attested only centuries later, when Etruscan civilization was already flourishing and Etruscan ethnogenesis was well established. The first of these attested contacts relate to the Greek colonies in Southern Italy and Phoenician-Punic colonies in Sardinia, and the consequent orientalizing period.
One of the most common mistakes for a long time, even among some scholars of the past, has been to associate the later Orientalizing period of Etruscan civilization with the question of its origins. Orientalization was an artistic and cultural phenomenon that spread among the Greeks themselves, and throughout much of the central and western Mediterranean, not only in Etruria. Orientalizing period in the Etruscans was due, as has been amply demonstrated by archeologists, to contacts with the Greeks and the Eastern Mediterranean and not to mass migrations. The facial features (the profile, almond-shaped eyes, large nose) in the frescoes and sculptures, and the depiction of reddish-brown men and light-skinned women, influenced by archaic Greek art, followed the artistic traditions from the Eastern Mediterranean, that had spread even among the Greeks themselves, and to a lesser extent also to other several civilizations in the central and western Mediterranean up to the Iberian Peninsula. Actually, many of the tombs of the Late Orientalizing and Archaic periods, such as the Tomb of the Augurs, the Tomb of the Triclinium or the Tomb of the Leopards, as well as other tombs from the archaic period in the Monterozzi necropolis in Tarquinia, were painted by Greek painters or, in any case, foreigner artists. These images have, therefore, a very limited value for a realistic representation of the Etruscan population. It was only from the end of the 4th century B.C. that evidence of physiognomic portraits began to be found in Etruscan art and Etruscan portraiture became more realistic.
Genetic research
An mtDNA study in 2004, based on Etruscan samples from Veneto, Tuscany, Lazio, and Campania, stated that the Etruscans had no significant heterogeneity, and that all mitochondrial lineages observed among the Etruscan samples appear typically European, but only a few haplotypes were shared with modern populations. Allele sharing between the Etruscans and modern populations is highest among Germans (seven haplotypes in common), the Cornish from South West England (five haplotypes in common), the Turks (four haplotypes in common), and the Tuscans (two haplotypes in common).
A couple of mitochondrial DNA studies, published in 2013 in the journals PLOS One and American Journal of Physical Anthropology, based on Etruscan samples from Tuscany and Latium, concluded that the Etruscans were an indigenous population, showing that Etruscan mtDNA appears to fall very close to a Neolithic population from Central Europe (Germany, Austria, Hungary) and to other Tuscan populations, strongly suggesting that the Etruscan civilization developed locally from the Villanovan culture, as already supported by archaeological evidence and anthropological research, and that genetic links between Tuscany and western Anatolia date back to at least 5,000 years ago during the Neolithic and the "most likely separation time between Tuscany and Western Anatolia falls around 7,600 years ago", at the time of the migrations of Early European Farmers (EEF) from Anatolia to Europe in the early Neolithic. The ancient Etruscan samples had mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (mtDNA) JT (subclades of J and T) and U5, with a minority of mtDNA H1b.
In the collective volume Etruscology published in 2017, British archeologist Phil Perkins provides an analysis of the state of DNA studies and writes that "none of the DNA studies to date conclusively prove that Etruscans were an intrusive population in Italy that originated in the Eastern Mediterranean or Anatolia" and "there are indications that the evidence of DNA can support the theory that Etruscan people are autochthonous in central Italy".
A 2019 genetic study published in the journal Science analyzed the remains of eleven Iron Age individuals from the areas around Rome, of which four were Etruscan individuals, one buried in Veio Grotta Gramiccia from the Villanovan era (900-800 BC) and three buried in La Mattonara Necropolis near Civitavecchia from the Orientalizing period (700-600 BC). The study concluded that Etruscans (900–600 BC) and the Latins (900–500 BC) from Latium vetus were genetically similar, with genetic differences between the examined Etruscans and Latins found to be insignificant. The Etruscan individuals and contemporary Latins were distinguished from preceding populations of Italy by the presence of ca. 30% steppe ancestry. Their DNA was a mixture of two-thirds Copper Age ancestry (EEF + WHG; Etruscans ~66–72%, Latins ~62–75%), and one-third Steppe-related ancestry (Etruscans ~27–33%, Latins ~24–37%). The only sample of Y-DNA extracted belonged to haplogroup J-M12 (J2b-L283), found in an individual dated 700-600 BC, and carried exactly the M314 derived allele also found in a Middle Bronze Age individual from Croatia (1631-1531 calBCE). While the four samples of mtDNA extracted belonged to haplogroups U5a1, H, T2b32, K1a4. Therefore, Etruscans had also Steppe-related ancestry despite speaking a non-Indo-European language.
A 2021 genetic study, published in the journal Science Advances, analyzed the autosomal DNA of 48 Iron Age individuals from Tuscany and Lazio, spanning from 800 to 1 BC, and confirmed that in the Etruscan individuals the ancestral component Steppe was present in the same percentages found in the previously analyzed Iron Age Latins, and in the Etruscan DNA was completely absent a signal of recent admixture with Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean, concluding that the Etruscans were autochthonous and they had a genetic profile similar to their Latin neighbors. Both Etruscans and Latins joined firmly the European cluster, west of modern Italians. The Etruscan cluster is a mixture of WHG, EEF, and Steppe ancestry; 75% of the Etruscan male individuals were found to belong to haplogroup R1b, especially R1b-P312 and its derivative R1b-L2 whose direct ancestor is R1b-U152, while the most common mitochondrial DNA haplogroup among the Etruscans was H.
In his 2021 book, A Short History of Humanity, German geneticist Johannes Krause, co-director of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Jena, concludes that it is likely that the Etruscan language (as well as Basque, Paleo-Sardinian, and Minoan) "developed on the continent in the course of the Neolithic Revolution".
Periodization of Etruscan civilization
The Etruscan civilization begins with the Villanovan culture, regarded as the oldest phase. The Etruscans themselves dated the origin of the Etruscan nation to a date corresponding to the 11th or 10th century BC. The Villanovan culture emerges with the phenomenon of regionalization from the late Bronze Age culture called "Proto-Villanovan", part of the central European Urnfield culture system. In the last Villanovan phase, called the recent phase (about 770–730 BC), the Etruscans established relations of a certain consistency with the first Greek immigrants in southern Italy (in Pithecusa and then in Cuma), so much so as to initially absorb techniques and figurative models and soon more properly cultural models, with the introduction, for example, of writing, of a new way of banqueting, of a heroic funerary ideology, that is, a new aristocratic way of life, such as to profoundly change the physiognomy of Etruscan society. Thus, thanks to the growing number of contacts with the Greeks, the Etruscans entered what is called the Orientalizing phase. In this phase, there was a heavy influence in Greece, most of Italy and some areas of Spain, from the most advanced areas of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East. Also directly Phoenician, or otherwise Near Eastern, craftsmen, merchants and artists contributed to the spread in southern Europe of Near Eastern cultural and artistic motifs. The last three phases of Etruscan civilization are called, respectively, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic, which roughly correspond to the homonymous phases of the ancient Greek civilization.
Chronology
Expansion
Etruscan expansion was focused both to the north beyond the Apennine Mountains and into Campania. Some small towns in the sixth century BC disappeared during this time, ostensibly subsumed by greater, more powerful neighbours. However, it is certain that the political structure of the Etruscan culture was similar to, albeit more aristocratic than, Magna Graecia in the south. The mining and commerce of metal, especially copper and iron, led to an enrichment of the Etruscans and to the expansion of their influence in the Italian peninsula and the western Mediterranean Sea. Here, their interests collided with those of the Greeks, especially in the sixth century BC, when Phocaeans of Italy founded colonies along the coast of Sardinia, Spain and Corsica. This led the Etruscans to ally themselves with Carthage, whose interests also collided with the Greeks.
Around 540 BC, the Battle of Alalia led to a new distribution of power in the western Mediterranean. Though the battle had no clear winner, Carthage managed to expand its sphere of influence at the expense of the Greeks, and Etruria saw itself relegated to the northern Tyrrhenian Sea with full ownership of Corsica. From the first half of the 5th century BC, the new political situation meant the beginning of the Etruscan decline after losing their southern provinces. In 480 BC, Etruria's ally Carthage was defeated by a coalition of Magna Graecia cities led by Syracuse, Sicily. A few years later, in 474 BC, Syracuse's tyrant Hiero defeated the Etruscans at the Battle of Cumae. Etruria's influence over the cities of Latium and Campania weakened, and the area was taken over by Romans and Samnites.
In the 4th century BC, Etruria saw a Gallic invasion end its influence over the Po Valley and the Adriatic coast. Meanwhile, Rome had started annexing Etruscan cities. This led to the loss of the northern Etruscan provinces. During the Roman–Etruscan Wars, Etruria was conquered by Rome in the 3rd century BC.
Etruscan League
According to legend, there was a period between 600 BC and 500 BC in which an alliance was formed among twelve Etruscan settlements, known today as the Etruscan League, Etruscan Federation, or Dodecapolis (in Greek Δωδεκάπολις). According to a legend, the Etruscan League of twelve cities was founded by Tarchon and his brother Tyrrhenus. Tarchon lent his name to the city of Tarchna, or Tarquinnii, as it was known by the Romans. Tyrrhenus gave his name to the Tyrrhenians, the alternative name for the Etruscans. Although there is no consensus on which cities were in the league, the following list may be close to the mark: Arretium, Caisra, Clevsin, Curtun, Perusna, Pupluna, Veii, Tarchna, Vetluna, Volterra, Velzna, and Velch. Some modern authors include Rusellae. The league was mostly an economic and religious league, or a loose confederation, similar to the Greek states. During the later imperial times, when Etruria was just one of many regions controlled by Rome, the number of cities in the league increased by three. This is noted on many later grave stones from the 2nd century BC onwards. According to Livy, the twelve city-states met once a year at the Fanum Voltumnae at Volsinii, where a leader was chosen to represent the league.
There were two other Etruscan leagues ("Lega dei popoli"): that of Campania, the main city of which was Capua, and the Po Valley city-states in northern Italy, which included Bologna, Spina and Adria.
Possible founding of Rome
Those who subscribe to a Latin foundation of Rome followed by an Etruscan invasion typically speak of an Etruscan "influence" on Roman culture – that is, cultural objects which were adopted by Rome from neighbouring Etruria. The prevailing view is that Rome was founded by Latins who later merged with Etruscans. In this interpretation, Etruscan cultural objects are considered influences rather than part of a heritage. Rome was probably a small settlement until the arrival of the Etruscans, who constructed the first elements of its urban infrastructure such as the drainage system.
The main criterion for deciding whether an object originated at Rome and traveled by influence to the Etruscans, or descended to the Romans from the Etruscans, is date. Many, if not most, of the Etruscan cities were older than Rome. If one finds that a given feature was there first, it cannot have originated at Rome. A second criterion is the opinion of the ancient sources. These would indicate that certain institutions and customs came directly from the Etruscans. Rome is located on the edge of what was Etruscan territory. When Etruscan settlements turned up south of the border, it was presumed that the Etruscans spread there after the foundation of Rome, but the settlements are now known to have preceded Rome.
Etruscan settlements were frequently built on hills – the steeper the better – and surrounded by thick walls. According to Roman mythology, when Romulus and Remus founded Rome, they did so on the Palatine Hill according to Etruscan ritual; that is, they began with a pomerium or sacred ditch. Then, they proceeded to the walls. Romulus was required to kill Remus when the latter jumped over the wall, breaking its magic spell (see also under Pons Sublicius). The name of Rome is attested in Etruscan in the form Ruma-χ meaning 'Roman', a form that mirrors other attested ethnonyms in that language with the same suffix -χ: Velzna-χ '(someone) from Volsinii' and Sveama-χ '(someone) from Sovana'. This in itself, however, is not enough to prove Etruscan origin conclusively. If Tiberius is from θefarie, then Ruma would have been placed on the Thefar (Tiber) river. A heavily discussed topic among scholars is who was the founding population of Rome. In 390 BC, the city of Rome was attacked by the Gauls, and as a result may have lost many – though not all – of its earlier records.
Later history relates that some Etruscans lived in the Vicus Tuscus, the "Etruscan quarter", and that there was an Etruscan line of kings (albeit ones descended from a Greek, Demaratus of Corinth) that succeeded kings of Latin and Sabine origin. Etruscophile historians would argue that this, together with evidence for institutions, religious elements and other cultural elements, proves that Rome was founded by Etruscans. The true picture is rather more complicated, not least because the Etruscan cities were separate entities which never came together to form a single Etruscan state. Furthermore, there were strong Latin and Italic elements to Roman culture, and later Romans proudly celebrated these multiple, 'multicultural' influences on the city.
Under Romulus and Numa Pompilius, the people were said to have been divided into thirty curiae and three tribes. Few Etruscan words entered Latin, but the names of at least two of the tribes – Ramnes and Luceres – seem to be Etruscan. The last kings may have borne the Etruscan title lucumo, while the regalia were traditionally considered of Etruscan origin – the golden crown, the sceptre, the toga palmata (a special robe), the sella curulis (curule chair), and above all the primary symbol of state power: the fasces. The latter was a bundle of whipping rods surrounding a double-bladed axe, carried by the king's lictors. An example of the fasces are the remains of bronze rods and the axe from a tomb in Etruscan Vetulonia. This allowed archaeologists to identify the depiction of a fasces on the grave stele of Avele Feluske, who is shown as a warrior wielding the fasces. The most telling Etruscan feature is the word populus, which appears as an Etruscan deity, Fufluns.
Roman families of Etruscan origin
Society
Government
The historical Etruscans had achieved a state system of society, with remnants of the chiefdom and tribal forms. Rome was in a sense the first Italic state, but it began as an Etruscan one. It is believed that the Etruscan government style changed from total monarchy to oligarchic republic (as the Roman Republic) in the 6th century BC.
The government was viewed as being a central authority, ruling over all tribal and clan organizations. It retained the power of life and death; in fact, the gorgon, an ancient symbol of that power, appears as a motif in Etruscan decoration. The adherents to this state power were united by a common religion. Political unity in Etruscan society was the city-state, which was probably the referent of , "district". Etruscan texts name quite a number of magistrates, without much of a hint as to their function: The , the , the , the , the , and so on. The people were the mech.
Family
The princely tombs were not of individuals. The inscription evidence shows that families were interred there over long periods, marking the growth of the aristocratic family as a fixed institution, parallel to the gens at Rome and perhaps even its model. The Etruscans could have used any model of the eastern Mediterranean. That the growth of this class is related to the new acquisition of wealth through trade is unquestioned. The wealthiest cities were located near the coast. At the centre of the society was the married couple, tusurthir. The Etruscans were a monogamous society that emphasized pairing.
Similarly, the behaviour of some wealthy women is not uniquely Etruscan. The apparent promiscuous revelry has a spiritual explanation. Swaddling and Bonfante (among others) explain that depictions of the nude embrace, or symplegma, "had the power to ward off evil", as did baring the breast, which was adopted by western culture as an apotropaic device, appearing finally on the figureheads of sailing ships as a nude female upper torso. It is also possible that Greek and Roman attitudes to the Etruscans were based on a misunderstanding of the place of women within their society. In both Greece and the earliest Republican Rome, respectable women were confined to the house and mixed-sex socialising did not occur. Thus, the freedom of women within Etruscan society could have been misunderstood as implying their sexual availability. It is worth noting that a number of Etruscan tombs carry funerary inscriptions in the form "X son of (father) and (mother)", indicating the importance of the mother's side of the family.
Military
The Etruscans, like the contemporary cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, had a significant military tradition. In addition to marking the rank and power of certain individuals, warfare was a considerable economic advantage to Etruscan civilization. Like many ancient societies, the Etruscans conducted campaigns during summer months, raiding neighboring areas, attempting to gain territory and combating piracy as a means of acquiring valuable resources, such as land, prestige, goods, and slaves. It is likely that individuals taken in battle would be ransomed back to their families and clans at high cost. Prisoners could also potentially be sacrificed on tombs as an honor to fallen leaders of Etruscan society, not unlike the sacrifices made by Achilles for Patrocles.
Cities
The range of Etruscan civilization is marked by its cities. They were entirely assimilated by Italic, Celtic, or Roman ethnic groups, but the names survive from inscriptions and their ruins are of aesthetic and historic interest in most of the cities of central Italy. Etruscan cities flourished over most of Italy during the Roman Iron Age, marking the farthest extent of Etruscan civilization. They were gradually assimilated first by Italics in the south, then by Celts in the north and finally in Etruria itself by the growing Roman Republic.
That many Roman cities were formerly Etruscan was well known to all the Roman authors. Some cities were founded by Etruscans in prehistoric times, and bore entirely Etruscan names. Others were colonized by Etruscans who Etruscanized the name, usually Italic.
Culture
Religion
The Etruscan system of belief was an immanent polytheism; that is, all visible phenomena were considered to be a manifestation of divine power and that power was subdivided into deities that acted continually on the world of man and could be dissuaded or persuaded in favour of human affairs. How to understand the will of deities, and how to behave, had been revealed to the Etruscans by two initiators, Tages, a childlike figure born from tilled land and immediately gifted with prescience, and Vegoia, a female figure. Their teachings were kept in a series of sacred books. Three layers of deities are evident in the extensive Etruscan art motifs. One appears to be divinities of an indigenous nature: Catha and Usil, the sun; Tivr, the moon; Selvans, a civil god; Turan, the goddess of love; Laran, the god of war; Leinth, the goddess of death; Maris; Thalna; Turms; and the ever-popular Fufluns, whose name is related in some way to the city of Populonia and the populus Romanus, possibly, the god of the people.
Ruling over this pantheon of lesser deities were higher ones that seem to reflect the Indo-European system: Tin or Tinia, the sky, Uni his wife (Juno), and Cel, the earth goddess. In addition, some Greek and Roman gods were taken into the Etruscan system: Aritimi (Artemis), Menrva (Minerva), Pacha (Dionysus). The Greek heroes taken from Homer also appear extensively in art motifs.
Architecture
Relatively little is known about the architecture of the ancient Etruscans. They adapted the native Italic styles with influence from the external appearance of Greek architecture. In turn, ancient Roman architecture began with Etruscan styles, and then accepted still further Greek influence. Roman temples show many of the same differences in form to Greek ones that Etruscan temples do, but like the Greeks, use stone, in which they closely copy Greek conventions. The houses of the wealthy were evidently often large and comfortable, but the burial chambers of tombs, often filled with grave-goods, are the nearest approach to them to survive. In the southern Etruscan area, tombs have large rock-cut chambers under a tumulus in large necropoleis, and these, together with some city walls, are the only Etruscan constructions to survive. Etruscan architecture is not generally considered as part of the body of Greco-Roman classical architecture.
Art and music
Etruscan art was produced by the Etruscan civilization between the 9th and 2nd centuries BC. Particularly strong in this tradition were figurative sculpture in terracotta (particularly lifesize on sarcophagi or temples), wall-painting and metalworking (especially engraved bronze mirrors). Etruscan sculpture in cast bronze was famous and widely exported, but few large examples have survived (the material was too valuable, and recycled later). In contrast to terracotta and bronze, there was apparently little Etruscan sculpture in stone, despite the Etruscans controlling fine sources of marble, including Carrara marble, which seems not to have been exploited until the Romans. Most surviving Etruscan art comes from tombs, including all the fresco wall-paintings, a minority of which show scenes of feasting and some narrative mythological subjects.
Bucchero wares in black were the early and native styles of fine Etruscan pottery. There was also a tradition of elaborate Etruscan vase painting, which sprung from its Greek equivalent; the Etruscans were the main export market for Greek vases. Etruscan temples were heavily decorated with colourfully painted terracotta antefixes and other fittings, which survive in large numbers where the wooden superstructure has vanished. Etruscan art was strongly connected to religion; the afterlife was of major importance in Etruscan art.
The Etruscan musical instruments seen in frescoes and bas-reliefs are different types of pipes, such as the plagiaulos (the pipes of Pan or Syrinx), the alabaster pipe and the famous double pipes, accompanied on percussion instruments such as the tintinnabulum, tympanum and crotales, and later by stringed instruments like the lyre and kithara.
Language
Etruscans left around 13,000 inscriptions which have been found so far, only a small minority of which are of significant length. Attested from 700 BC to AD 50, the relation of Etruscan to other languages has been a source of long-running speculation and study. The Etruscans are believed to have spoken a Pre-Indo-European and Paleo-European language, and the majority consensus is that Etruscan is related only to other members of what is called the Tyrsenian language family, which in itself is an isolate family, that is unrelated directly to other known language groups. Since Rix (1998), it is widely accepted that the Tyrsenian family groups Raetic and Lemnian are related to Etruscan.
Literature
Etruscan texts, written in a space of seven centuries, use a form of the Greek alphabet due to close contact between the Etruscans and the Greek colonies at Pithecusae and Cumae in the 8th century BC (until it was no longer used, at the beginning of the 1st century AD). Etruscan inscriptions disappeared from Chiusi, Perugia and Arezzo around this time. Only a few fragments survive, religious and especially funeral texts most of which are late (from the 4th century BC). In addition to the original texts that have survived to this day, there are a large number of quotations and allusions from classical authors. In the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus wrote that literary culture was one of the great achievements of the Etruscans. Little is known of it and even what is known of their language is due to the repetition of the same few words in the many inscriptions found (by way of the modern epitaphs) contrasted in bilingual or trilingual texts with Latin and Punic. Out of the aforementioned genres, is just one such Volnio (Volnius) cited in classical sources mention. With a few exceptions, such as the Liber Linteus, the only written records in the Etruscan language that remain are inscriptions, mainly funerary. The language is written in the Etruscan alphabet, a script related to the early Euboean Greek alphabet. Many thousand inscriptions in Etruscan are known, mostly epitaphs, and a few very short texts have survived, which are mainly religious. Etruscan imaginative literature is evidenced only in references by later Roman authors, but it is evident from their visual art that the Greek myths were well-known.
References
Sources
Further reading
Bartoloni, Gilda (ed). Introduzione all'Etruscologia (in Italian). Milan: Hoepli, 2012.
Sinclair Bell and Carpino A. Alexandra (eds). A Companion to the Etruscans, Oxford; Chichester; Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell, 2016.
Bonfante, Giuliano and Bonfante Larissa. The Etruscan Language: An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002.
Bonfante, Larissa. Out of Etruria: Etruscan Influence North and South. Oxford: B.A.R., 1981.
Bonfante, Larissa. Etruscan Life and Afterlife: A Handbook of Etruscan Studies. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1986.
Bonfante, Larissa. Etruscan Myths. London: British Museum Press, 2006.
Briquel, Dominique. Les Étrusques, peuple de la différence, series Civilisations U, éditions Armand Colin, Paris, 1993.
Briquel, Dominique. La civilisation étrusque, éditions Fayard, Paris, 1999.
De Grummond, Nancy T. (2014). Ethnicity and the Etruscans. In McInerney, Jeremy (ed.). A Companion to Ethnicity in the Ancient Mediterranean. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 405–422.
Haynes, Sybille. Etruscan Civilization: A Cultural History. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2000.
Izzet, Vedia. The Archaeology of Etruscan Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Naso, Alessandro (ed). Etruscology, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2017.
Pallottino, Massimo. Etruscologia. Milan: Hoepli, 1942 (English ed., The Etruscans. David Ridgway, editor. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1975).
Shipley, Lucy. The Etruscans: Lost Civilizations, London: Reaktion Books, 2017.
Smith, C. The Etruscans: a very short introduction , Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Spivey, Nigel. Etruscan Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1997.
Swaddling, Judith and Philip Perkins. Etruscan by Definition: The Culture, Regional, and Personal Identity of the Etruscans: Papers in Honor of Sybille Haynes. London: British Museum, 2009.
* Torelli, M. (ed.) (2001) The Etruscans. London.
Turfa, Jean MacIntosh (ed). The Etruscan World. London: Routledge, 2013.
Turfa, Jean MacIntosh. The Etruscans. In Farney, Gary D.; Bradley, Gary (eds.). The Peoples of Ancient Italy. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 637–672.
Cities and sites
(Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici dell'Umbria) "The Cai Cutu Etruscan tomb" An undisturbed late Etruscan family tomb, reused between the 3rd and 1st century BC, reassembled in the National Archeological Museum of Perugia
Hypogeum of the Volumnis digital media archive (creative commons-licensed photos, laser scans, panoramas), data from a University of Ferrara/CyArk research partnership
External links
Category:Archaeological cultures in Italy
Category:Ancient peoples of Italy
Category:9th-century BC establishments in Italy
Category:States and territories established in the 9th century BC
Category:States and territories disestablished in the 1st century BC
Category:Former confederations | [] | [
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C_f3b8e9e3d21f48a999ee0f39c304a0b6_0 | Matt Groening | Groening was born on February 15, 1954 in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children (older brother Mark and sister Patty were born in 1950 and 1952, while the younger sisters Lisa and Maggie in 1956 and 1958, respectively). His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (nee Wiggum; March 23, 1919 - April 22, 2013), was once a teacher, and his German Canadian father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 - March 15, 1996), was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Mennonite, Plautdietsch-speaking family. | Futurama | After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer/producer David X. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life." The show premiered on March 28, 1999. Groening's writing credits for the show are for the premiere episode, "Space Pilot 3000" (co-written with Cohen), "Rebirth" (story) and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" (story). After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox. In a situation similar to Family Guy, however, strong DVD sales and very stable ratings on Adult Swim brought Futurama back to life. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four straight-to-DVD films - Bender's Big Score (2007), The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Bender's Game (2008) and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) - would be produced. Since no new Futurama projects were in production, the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me". Comedy Central commissioned an additional 26 new episodes, and began airing them in 2010. The show continued in to 2013, before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. The final episode aired on September 4, 2013. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977–2012) and the television series The Simpsons (1989–present), Futurama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present), and Disenchantment (2018–present). The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom.
Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. At its peak, the cartoon was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. Life in Hell caught the attention of American producer James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening about adapting Life in Hell for animated sequences for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening created a new set of characters, the Simpson family. The shorts were spun off into their own series, The Simpsons, which has since aired episodes.
In 1997, Groening and former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999, running for four years on Fox, then picked up by Comedy Central for additional seasons. In 2016, Groening developed a new series for Netflix, Disenchantment, which premiered in August 2018.
Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama, and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.
Early life
Groening was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children (older brother Mark and sister Patty were born in 1950 and 1952, while the younger sisters Lisa and Maggie in 1956 and 1958, respectively). His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (née Wiggum; March 23, 1919 – April 22, 2013), was once a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 – March 15, 1996), was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Plautdietsch-speaking family.
Matt's grandfather, Abraham Groening, was a professor at Tabor College, a Mennonite Brethren liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, before moving to Albany College (now known as Lewis and Clark College) in Oregon in 1930.
Groening grew up in Portland and attended Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. Following his high school graduation in 1972, Groening attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a liberal arts school that he described as "a hippie college, with no grades or required classes, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest." He served as the editor of the campus newspaper, "The Cooper Point Journal," for which he also wrote articles and drew cartoons. He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry after discovering that she had written a fan letter to Joseph Heller, one of Groening's favorite authors, and had received a reply. Groening has credited Barry with being "probably [his] biggest inspiration." He first became interested in cartoons after watching the Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and he has also cited Robert Crumb, Ernie Bushmiller, Ronald Searle, Monty Python, and Charles M. Schulz as inspirations. Groening graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1977.
Career
Early career
In 1977, at the age of 23, Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. He went through what he described as "a series of lousy jobs," including being an extra in the television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July, busing tables, washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at the Hollywood Licorice Pizza record store, landscaping in a sewage treatment plant, and chauffeuring and ghostwriting for a retired Western director.
Life in Hell
Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. Groening distributed the comic book in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. The strip, titled "Forbidden Words," appeared in the September/October issue of that year.
Groening had gained employment at the Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed alternative newspaper, delivering papers, typesetting, editing and answering phones. He showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix," in 1982. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. In an effort to add more music to the column, he "just made stuff up," concocting and reviewing fictional bands and nonexistent records. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. Eventually, he was finally asked to give up the "music" column. Among the fans of the column was Harry Shearer, who would later become a voice actor on The Simpsons.
Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. In November 1984, Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker at the Reader, offered to publish "Love is Hell", a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form. Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. Soon afterward, Caplan and Groening left and put together the Life in Hell Co., which handled merchandising for Life in Hell. Groening also started Acme Features Syndicate, which initially syndicated Life in Hell as well as work by Lynda Barry and John Callahan, but would eventually only syndicate Life in Hell. At the end of its run, Life in Hell was carried in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, The Big Book of Hell, and The Huge Book of Hell. Although Groening previously stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. It's my foundation," the June 16, 2012 strip marked Life in Hells conclusion. After Groening ended the strip, the Center for Cartoon Studies commissioned a poster that was presented to Groening in honor of his work. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by Life in Hell.
The Simpsons
Creation
Life in Hell caught the attention of Hollywood writer-director-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, who had been shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation on an undefined future project, which would turn out to be developing a series of short animated skits, called "bumpers," for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. Groening feared that he would have to give up his ownership rights, and that the show would fail and take down his comic strip with it. Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family: Homer, the overweight father; Marge, the slim mother; Bart, the bratty oldest child; Lisa, the intelligent middle child; and Maggie, the baby. Groening famously named the main Simpson characters after members of his own family: his parents, Homer and Marge (Margaret or Marjorie in full), and his younger sisters, Lisa and Margaret (Maggie). Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart," an anagram of brat. However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, and in a 1995 interview Groening divulged that Mark "is the actual inspiration for Bart."
Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake.
The Tracey Ullman Show
The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his own initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. Marge's distinct beehive hairstyle was inspired by Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and "not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color" gave him spikes that appear to be an extension of his head. Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. While designing Lisa, Groening "couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hair styles". When designing Lisa and Maggie, he "just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color". Groening storyboarded and scripted every short (now known as The Simpsons shorts), which were then animated by a team including David Silverman and Wes Archer, both of whom would later become directors on the series.
The Simpsons shorts first appeared in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Another family member, Grampa Simpson, was introduced in the later shorts. Years later, during the early seasons of The Simpsons, when it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. By coincidence, they chose "Abraham", unaware that it was the name of Groening's grandfather.
Half-hour
Although The Tracey Ullman Show was not a big hit, the popularity of the shorts led to a half-hour spin-off in 1989. A team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special. "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems.
The series quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, to the surprise of many. Groening said: "Nobody thought The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. It sneaked up on everybody." The Simpsons was co-developed by Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects. Groening and Simon, however, did not get along and were often in conflict over the show; Groening once described their relationship as "very contentious." Simon eventually left the show in 1993 over creative differences.
Like the main family members, several characters from the show have names that were inspired by people, locations or films. The name "Wiggum" for police chief Chief Wiggum is Groening's mother's maiden name. The names of a few other characters were taken from major street names in Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, including Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby and Kearney. Despite common fan belief that Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliker from the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from The Simpsons, those attempts have been unsuccessful. In 1994, Groening and other Simpsons producers pitched a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown (with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead role), but were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. Groening has also pitched "Young Homer" and a spin-off about the non-Simpsons citizens of Springfield.
In 1995, Groening got into a major disagreement with Brooks and other Simpsons producers over "A Star Is Burns", a crossover episode with The Critic, an animated show also produced by Brooks and staffed with many former Simpsons crew members. Groening claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced The Critic. He requested his name be taken off the episode.
Groening is credited with writing or co-writing the episodes "Some Enchanted Evening", "The Telltale Head", "Colonel Homer" and "22 Short Films About Springfield". He also co-wrote and produced The Simpsons Movie, released in 2007. He has had several cameo appearances in the show, with a speaking role in the episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". He currently serves at The Simpsons as an executive producer and creative consultant.
Futurama
After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer and producer David X. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life." The show premiered on March 28, 1999. Groening's writing credits for the show are for the premiere episode, "Space Pilot 3000" (co-written with Cohen), "Rebirth" (story) and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" (story).
After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox. In a situation similar to Family Guy, however, strong DVD sales and very stable ratings on Adult Swim brought Futurama back to life. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four straight-to-DVD films – Bender's Big Score (2007), The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Bender's Game (2008) and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) – would be produced.
Since no new Futurama projects were in production, the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me". Comedy Central commissioned an additional 26 new episodes, and began airing them in 2010. The show continued in to 2013, before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. The final episode aired on September 4, 2013.
On February 9, 2022, the series was revived at Hulu, set for a 2023 release.
Disenchantment
On January 15, 2016, it was announced that Groening was in talks with Netflix to develop a new animated series. On July 25, 2017, the series, Disenchantment, was ordered by Netflix. He described the fantasy-oriented series as originating in a sketchbook full of "fantastic creatures we couldn't do on The Simpsons". The cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, and Nat Faxon.
Other pursuits
In 1994, Groening formed Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from Life in Hell) with Steve Vance, Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison, which publishes comic books based on The Simpsons and Futurama (including Futurama Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis, a crossover between the two), as well as a few original titles. According to Groening, the goal with Bongo is to "[try] to bring humor into the fairly grim comic book market." He also formed Zongo Comics in 1995, an imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers, which included three issues of Mary Fleener's Fleener and seven issues of his close friend Gary Panter's Jimbo comics.
Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. His favorite artist is Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention and his favorite album is Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart (which was produced by Zappa). He guest-edited Da Capo Press's Best Music Writing 2003 and curated a US All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2003. He illustrated the cover of Frank Zappa's posthumous album Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996). In May 2010, he curated another edition of All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England. He also plays the drums in the all-author rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders (although he is listed as the cowbell player), whose other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry and Greg Iles. In July 2013, Groening co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders (published by Coliloquy, LLC).
Personal life
Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and had two sons together, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe, both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. The couple divorced in 1999.
In 2011, Groening married Agustina Picasso, an Argentine artist, after a four-year relationship, and became stepfather to her daughter Camila Costantini. In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West. She joked that "his godfather is SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg". In 2015, Groening's daughters Luna Margaret and India Mia were born. On June 16, 2018, he became the father of twins for a second time when his wife gave birth to Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth, announced via Instagram. In 2020, their daughter Nirvana was born. In January 2022, they had another child, Satori.
Matt was the brother-in-law of Hey Arnold!, Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! creator, Craig Bartlett, who was married to Groening's sister, Lisa, until they divorced in 2015. Bartlett used to appear in Simpsons Illustrated.
Groening is a self-identified agnostic.
Groening was mentioned in a lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre over allegedly being forced by sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to massage Groening's feet while on Epstein's jet in 2001.
Politics
Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, all towards Democratic Party candidates and organizations. He has donated money to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, as well as previously donating to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign. Groening also collectively donated to the Democratic senatorial campaign committee and to the Senate campaigns of Barbara Boxer (California), Dianne Feinstein (California), Paul Simon (Illinois), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Carl Levin (Michigan), Hillary Clinton (New York), Harvey Gantt (North Carolina), Howard Metzenbaum (Ohio), and Tom Bruggere (Oregon). He also donated to the now-defunct Hollywood Women's Political Committee, which supported and campaigned for the Democratic Party. His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, was a member of the Oregon State Senate, representing eastern Multnomah County.
In an interview with Wired from 1999, he stated that if he was president, his first act would be "campaign finance reform", stating that it is "a real detriment to democracy".
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Music video
Theme park
Awards
Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen, eleven for The Simpsons and two for Futurama in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less)" category. Groening received the 2002 National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award, and had been nominated for the same award in 2000. He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2007, he was ranked fourth (and highest American by birth) in a list of the "top 100 living geniuses", published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1988.
He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.
Bibliography
Groening, Matt (1977–2012). Life in Hell
Love Is Hell (1986)
Work Is Hell (1986)
School Is Hell (1987)
Box Full of Hell (1988)
Childhood Is Hell (1988)
Greetings from Hell (1989)
Akbar and Jeff's Guide to Life (1989)
The Big Book of Hell (1990)
With Love from Hell (1991)
How to Go to Hell (1991)
The Road to Hell (1992)
Binky's Guide to Love (1994)
Love Is Hell: Special Ultra Jumbo 10th Anniversary Edition (1994)
The Huge Book of Hell (1997)
Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe (2007)
References
External links
Category:1954 births
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century American screenwriters
Category:21st-century American male writers
Category:21st-century American screenwriters
Category:Living people
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Category:Lincoln High School (Portland, Oregon) alumni
Category:Mennonite writers
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Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon | [] | null | null |
C_f3b8e9e3d21f48a999ee0f39c304a0b6_1 | Matt Groening | Groening was born on February 15, 1954 in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children (older brother Mark and sister Patty were born in 1950 and 1952, while the younger sisters Lisa and Maggie in 1956 and 1958, respectively). His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (nee Wiggum; March 23, 1919 - April 22, 2013), was once a teacher, and his German Canadian father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 - March 15, 1996), was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Mennonite, Plautdietsch-speaking family. | Life in Hell | Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. Groening distributed the comic book in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. The strip, titled "Forbidden Words," appeared in the September/October issue of that year. Groening had gained employment at the Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed alternative newspaper, delivering papers, typesetting, editing and answering phones. He showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix," in 1982. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. In an effort to add more music to the column, he "just made stuff up," concocting and reviewing fictional bands and nonexistent records. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. Eventually, he was finally asked to give up the "music" column. Among the fans of the column was Harry Shearer, who would later become a voice on The Simpsons. Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. In November 1984, Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker at the Reader, offered to publish "Love is Hell", a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form. Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. Soon afterward, Caplan and Groening left and put together the Life in Hell Co., which handled merchandising for Life in Hell. Groening also started Acme Features Syndicate, which syndicated Life in Hell, Lynda Barry and John Callahan, but now only syndicates Life in Hell. At the end of its run, Life in Hell was carried in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, The Big Book of Hell, and The Huge Book of Hell. Although Groening has stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. It's my foundation," he announced that the June 16, 2012 strip would mark Life in Hell's conclusion. After Groening ended the strip, the Center for Cartoon Studies commissioned a poster that was presented to Groening in honor of his work. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by Life in Hell. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Matthew Abram Groening ( ; born February 15, 1954) is an American cartoonist, writer, producer, and animator. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell (1977–2012) and the television series The Simpsons (1989–present), Futurama (1999–2003, 2008–2013, 2023–present), and Disenchantment (2018–present). The Simpsons is the longest-running U.S. primetime-television series in history and the longest-running U.S. animated series and sitcom.
Groening made his first professional cartoon sale of Life in Hell to the avant-garde magazine Wet in 1978. At its peak, the cartoon was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. Life in Hell caught the attention of American producer James L. Brooks. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening about adapting Life in Hell for animated sequences for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Fearing the loss of ownership rights, Groening created a new set of characters, the Simpson family. The shorts were spun off into their own series, The Simpsons, which has since aired episodes.
In 1997, Groening and former Simpsons writer David X. Cohen developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000, which premiered in 1999, running for four years on Fox, then picked up by Comedy Central for additional seasons. In 2016, Groening developed a new series for Netflix, Disenchantment, which premiered in August 2018.
Groening has won 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, 11 for The Simpsons and 2 for Futurama, and a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2002, he won the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award for his work on Life in Hell. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.
Early life
Groening was born on February 15, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, the middle of five children (older brother Mark and sister Patty were born in 1950 and 1952, while the younger sisters Lisa and Maggie in 1956 and 1958, respectively). His Norwegian American mother, Margaret Ruth (née Wiggum; March 23, 1919 – April 22, 2013), was once a teacher, and his Russian Mennonite father, Homer Philip Groening (December 30, 1919 – March 15, 1996), was a filmmaker, advertiser, writer and cartoonist. Homer, born in Main Centre, Saskatchewan, Canada, grew up in a Plautdietsch-speaking family.
Matt's grandfather, Abraham Groening, was a professor at Tabor College, a Mennonite Brethren liberal arts college in Hillsboro, Kansas, before moving to Albany College (now known as Lewis and Clark College) in Oregon in 1930.
Groening grew up in Portland and attended Ainsworth Elementary School and Lincoln High School. Following his high school graduation in 1972, Groening attended the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, a liberal arts school that he described as "a hippie college, with no grades or required classes, that drew every weirdo in the Northwest." He served as the editor of the campus newspaper, "The Cooper Point Journal," for which he also wrote articles and drew cartoons. He befriended fellow cartoonist Lynda Barry after discovering that she had written a fan letter to Joseph Heller, one of Groening's favorite authors, and had received a reply. Groening has credited Barry with being "probably [his] biggest inspiration." He first became interested in cartoons after watching the Disney animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and he has also cited Robert Crumb, Ernie Bushmiller, Ronald Searle, Monty Python, and Charles M. Schulz as inspirations. Groening graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1977.
Career
Early career
In 1977, at the age of 23, Groening moved to Los Angeles to become a writer. He went through what he described as "a series of lousy jobs," including being an extra in the television movie When Every Day Was the Fourth of July, busing tables, washing dishes at a nursing home, clerking at the Hollywood Licorice Pizza record store, landscaping in a sewage treatment plant, and chauffeuring and ghostwriting for a retired Western director.
Life in Hell
Groening described life in Los Angeles to his friends in the form of the self-published comic book Life in Hell, which was loosely inspired by the chapter "How to Go to Hell" in Walter Kaufmann's book Critique of Religion and Philosophy. Groening distributed the comic book in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked. He made his first professional cartoon sale to the avant-garde Wet magazine in 1978. The strip, titled "Forbidden Words," appeared in the September/October issue of that year.
Groening had gained employment at the Los Angeles Reader, a newly formed alternative newspaper, delivering papers, typesetting, editing and answering phones. He showed his cartoons to the editor, James Vowell, who was impressed and eventually gave him a spot in the paper. Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Reader on April 25, 1980. Vowell also gave Groening his own weekly music column, "Sound Mix," in 1982. However, the column would rarely actually be about music, as he would often write about his "various enthusiasms, obsessions, pet peeves and problems" instead. In an effort to add more music to the column, he "just made stuff up," concocting and reviewing fictional bands and nonexistent records. In the following week's column, he would confess to fabricating everything in the previous column and swear that everything in the new column was true. Eventually, he was finally asked to give up the "music" column. Among the fans of the column was Harry Shearer, who would later become a voice actor on The Simpsons.
Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. In November 1984, Deborah Caplan, Groening's then-girlfriend and co-worker at the Reader, offered to publish "Love is Hell", a series of relationship-themed Life in Hell strips, in book form. Released a month later, the book was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings. Work is Hell soon followed, also published by Caplan. Soon afterward, Caplan and Groening left and put together the Life in Hell Co., which handled merchandising for Life in Hell. Groening also started Acme Features Syndicate, which initially syndicated Life in Hell as well as work by Lynda Barry and John Callahan, but would eventually only syndicate Life in Hell. At the end of its run, Life in Hell was carried in 250 weekly newspapers and has been anthologized in a series of books, including School is Hell, Childhood is Hell, The Big Book of Hell, and The Huge Book of Hell. Although Groening previously stated, "I'll never give up the comic strip. It's my foundation," the June 16, 2012 strip marked Life in Hells conclusion. After Groening ended the strip, the Center for Cartoon Studies commissioned a poster that was presented to Groening in honor of his work. The poster contained tribute cartoons by 22 of Groening's cartoonist friends who were influenced by Life in Hell.
The Simpsons
Creation
Life in Hell caught the attention of Hollywood writer-director-producer and Gracie Films founder James L. Brooks, who had been shown the strip by fellow producer Polly Platt. In 1985, Brooks contacted Groening with the proposition of working in animation on an undefined future project, which would turn out to be developing a series of short animated skits, called "bumpers," for the Fox variety show The Tracey Ullman Show. Originally, Brooks wanted Groening to adapt his Life in Hell characters for the show. Groening feared that he would have to give up his ownership rights, and that the show would fail and take down his comic strip with it. Groening conceived of the idea for the Simpsons in the lobby of James L. Brooks's office and hurriedly sketched out his version of a dysfunctional family: Homer, the overweight father; Marge, the slim mother; Bart, the bratty oldest child; Lisa, the intelligent middle child; and Maggie, the baby. Groening famously named the main Simpson characters after members of his own family: his parents, Homer and Marge (Margaret or Marjorie in full), and his younger sisters, Lisa and Margaret (Maggie). Claiming that it was a bit too obvious to name a character after himself, he chose the name "Bart," an anagram of brat. However, he stresses that aside from some of the sibling rivalry, his family is nothing like the Simpsons. Groening also has an older brother and sister, Mark and Patty, and in a 1995 interview Groening divulged that Mark "is the actual inspiration for Bart."
Maggie Groening has co-written a few Simpsons books featuring her cartoon namesake.
The Tracey Ullman Show
The family was crudely drawn, because Groening had submitted basic sketches to the animators, assuming they would clean them up; instead, they just traced over his drawings. The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be recognizable in silhouette. When Groening originally designed Homer, he put his own initials into the character's hairline and ear: the hairline resembled an 'M', and the right ear resembled a 'G'. Groening decided that this would be too distracting though, and redesigned the ear to look normal. He still draws the ear as a 'G' when he draws pictures of Homer for fans. Marge's distinct beehive hairstyle was inspired by Bride of Frankenstein and the style that Margaret Groening wore during the 1960s, although her hair was never blue. Bart's original design, which appeared in the first shorts, had spikier hair, and the spikes were of different lengths. The number was later limited to nine spikes, all of the same size. At the time Groening was primarily drawing in black and "not thinking that [Bart] would eventually be drawn in color" gave him spikes that appear to be an extension of his head. Lisa's physical features are generally not used in other characters; for example, in the later seasons, no character other than Maggie shares her hairline. While designing Lisa, Groening "couldn't be bothered to even think about girls' hair styles". When designing Lisa and Maggie, he "just gave them this kind of spiky starfish hair style, not thinking that they would eventually be drawn in color". Groening storyboarded and scripted every short (now known as The Simpsons shorts), which were then animated by a team including David Silverman and Wes Archer, both of whom would later become directors on the series.
The Simpsons shorts first appeared in The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. Another family member, Grampa Simpson, was introduced in the later shorts. Years later, during the early seasons of The Simpsons, when it came time to give Grampa a first name, Groening says he refused to name him after his own grandfather, Abraham Groening, leaving it to other writers to choose a name. By coincidence, they chose "Abraham", unaware that it was the name of Groening's grandfather.
Half-hour
Although The Tracey Ullman Show was not a big hit, the popularity of the shorts led to a half-hour spin-off in 1989. A team of production companies adapted The Simpsons into a half-hour series for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The team included what is now the Klasky Csupo animation house. James L. Brooks negotiated a provision in the contract with the Fox network that prevented Fox from interfering with the show's content. Groening said his goal in creating the show was to offer the audience an alternative to what he called "the mainstream trash" that they were watching. The half-hour series premiered on December 17, 1989, with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire", a Christmas special. "Some Enchanted Evening" was the first full-length episode produced, but it did not broadcast until May 1990, as the last episode of the first season, because of animation problems.
The series quickly became a worldwide phenomenon, to the surprise of many. Groening said: "Nobody thought The Simpsons was going to be a big hit. It sneaked up on everybody." The Simpsons was co-developed by Groening, Brooks, and Sam Simon, a writer-producer with whom Brooks had worked on previous projects. Groening and Simon, however, did not get along and were often in conflict over the show; Groening once described their relationship as "very contentious." Simon eventually left the show in 1993 over creative differences.
Like the main family members, several characters from the show have names that were inspired by people, locations or films. The name "Wiggum" for police chief Chief Wiggum is Groening's mother's maiden name. The names of a few other characters were taken from major street names in Groening's hometown of Portland, Oregon, including Flanders, Lovejoy, Powell, Quimby and Kearney. Despite common fan belief that Sideshow Bob Terwilliger was named after SW Terwilliger Boulevard in Portland, he was actually named after the character Dr. Terwilliker from the film The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.
Although Groening has pitched a number of spin-offs from The Simpsons, those attempts have been unsuccessful. In 1994, Groening and other Simpsons producers pitched a live-action spin-off about Krusty the Clown (with Dan Castellaneta playing the lead role), but were unsuccessful in getting it off the ground. Groening has also pitched "Young Homer" and a spin-off about the non-Simpsons citizens of Springfield.
In 1995, Groening got into a major disagreement with Brooks and other Simpsons producers over "A Star Is Burns", a crossover episode with The Critic, an animated show also produced by Brooks and staffed with many former Simpsons crew members. Groening claimed that he feared viewers would "see it as nothing but a pathetic attempt to advertise The Critic at the expense of The Simpsons," and was concerned about the possible implication that he had created or produced The Critic. He requested his name be taken off the episode.
Groening is credited with writing or co-writing the episodes "Some Enchanted Evening", "The Telltale Head", "Colonel Homer" and "22 Short Films About Springfield". He also co-wrote and produced The Simpsons Movie, released in 2007. He has had several cameo appearances in the show, with a speaking role in the episode "My Big Fat Geek Wedding". He currently serves at The Simpsons as an executive producer and creative consultant.
Futurama
After spending a few years researching science fiction, Groening got together with Simpsons writer and producer David X. Cohen (known as David S. Cohen at the time) in 1997 and developed Futurama, an animated series about life in the year 3000. By the time they pitched the series to Fox in April 1998, Groening and Cohen had composed many characters and storylines; Groening claimed they had gone "overboard" in their discussions. Groening described trying to get the show on the air as "by far the worst experience of [his] grown-up life." The show premiered on March 28, 1999. Groening's writing credits for the show are for the premiere episode, "Space Pilot 3000" (co-written with Cohen), "Rebirth" (story) and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Leela" (story).
After four years on the air, the show was canceled by Fox. In a situation similar to Family Guy, however, strong DVD sales and very stable ratings on Adult Swim brought Futurama back to life. When Comedy Central began negotiating for the rights to air Futurama reruns, Fox suggested that there was a possibility of also creating new episodes. When Comedy Central committed to sixteen new episodes, it was decided that four straight-to-DVD films – Bender's Big Score (2007), The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008), Bender's Game (2008) and Into the Wild Green Yonder (2009) – would be produced.
Since no new Futurama projects were in production, the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder was designed to stand as the Futurama series finale. However, Groening had expressed a desire to continue the Futurama franchise in some form, including as a theatrical film. In an interview with CNN, Groening said that "we have a great relationship with Comedy Central and we would love to do more episodes for them, but I don't know... We're having discussions and there is some enthusiasm but I can't tell if it's just me". Comedy Central commissioned an additional 26 new episodes, and began airing them in 2010. The show continued in to 2013, before Comedy Central announced in April 2013 that they would not be renewing it beyond its seventh season. The final episode aired on September 4, 2013.
On February 9, 2022, the series was revived at Hulu, set for a 2023 release.
Disenchantment
On January 15, 2016, it was announced that Groening was in talks with Netflix to develop a new animated series. On July 25, 2017, the series, Disenchantment, was ordered by Netflix. He described the fantasy-oriented series as originating in a sketchbook full of "fantastic creatures we couldn't do on The Simpsons". The cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Eric Andre, and Nat Faxon.
Other pursuits
In 1994, Groening formed Bongo Comics (named after the character Bongo from Life in Hell) with Steve Vance, Cindy Vance and Bill Morrison, which publishes comic books based on The Simpsons and Futurama (including Futurama Simpsons Infinitely Secret Crossover Crisis, a crossover between the two), as well as a few original titles. According to Groening, the goal with Bongo is to "[try] to bring humor into the fairly grim comic book market." He also formed Zongo Comics in 1995, an imprint of Bongo that published comics for more mature readers, which included three issues of Mary Fleener's Fleener and seven issues of his close friend Gary Panter's Jimbo comics.
Groening is known for his eclectic taste in music. His favorite artist is Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention and his favorite album is Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart (which was produced by Zappa). He guest-edited Da Capo Press's Best Music Writing 2003 and curated a US All Tomorrow's Parties music festival in 2003. He illustrated the cover of Frank Zappa's posthumous album Frank Zappa Plays the Music of Frank Zappa: A Memorial Tribute (1996). In May 2010, he curated another edition of All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead, England. He also plays the drums in the all-author rock and roll band The Rock Bottom Remainders (although he is listed as the cowbell player), whose other members include Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, James McBride, Mitch Albom, Roy Blount Jr., Stephen King, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Sam Barry and Greg Iles. In July 2013, Groening co-authored Hard Listening (2013) with the rest of the Rock Bottom Remainders (published by Coliloquy, LLC).
Personal life
Groening and Deborah Caplan married in 1986 and had two sons together, Homer (who goes by Will) and Abe, both of whom Groening occasionally portrays as rabbits in Life in Hell. The couple divorced in 1999.
In 2011, Groening married Agustina Picasso, an Argentine artist, after a four-year relationship, and became stepfather to her daughter Camila Costantini. In May 2013, Picasso gave birth to Nathaniel Philip Picasso Groening, named after writer Nathanael West. She joked that "his godfather is SpongeBob's creator Stephen Hillenburg". In 2015, Groening's daughters Luna Margaret and India Mia were born. On June 16, 2018, he became the father of twins for a second time when his wife gave birth to Sol Matthew and Venus Ruth, announced via Instagram. In 2020, their daughter Nirvana was born. In January 2022, they had another child, Satori.
Matt was the brother-in-law of Hey Arnold!, Dinosaur Train and Ready Jet Go! creator, Craig Bartlett, who was married to Groening's sister, Lisa, until they divorced in 2015. Bartlett used to appear in Simpsons Illustrated.
Groening is a self-identified agnostic.
Groening was mentioned in a lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre over allegedly being forced by sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to massage Groening's feet while on Epstein's jet in 2001.
Politics
Groening has made a number of campaign contributions, all towards Democratic Party candidates and organizations. He has donated money to the unsuccessful presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, as well as previously donating to Kerry's Massachusetts senator campaign. Groening also collectively donated to the Democratic senatorial campaign committee and to the Senate campaigns of Barbara Boxer (California), Dianne Feinstein (California), Paul Simon (Illinois), Ted Kennedy (Massachusetts), Carl Levin (Michigan), Hillary Clinton (New York), Harvey Gantt (North Carolina), Howard Metzenbaum (Ohio), and Tom Bruggere (Oregon). He also donated to the now-defunct Hollywood Women's Political Committee, which supported and campaigned for the Democratic Party. His first cousin, Laurie Monnes Anderson, was a member of the Oregon State Senate, representing eastern Multnomah County.
In an interview with Wired from 1999, he stated that if he was president, his first act would be "campaign finance reform", stating that it is "a real detriment to democracy".
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
Music video
Theme park
Awards
Groening has been nominated for 41 Emmy Awards and has won thirteen, eleven for The Simpsons and two for Futurama in the "Outstanding Animated Program (for programming one hour or less)" category. Groening received the 2002 National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award, and had been nominated for the same award in 2000. He received a British Comedy Award for "outstanding contribution to comedy" in 2004. In 2007, he was ranked fourth (and highest American by birth) in a list of the "top 100 living geniuses", published by British newspaper The Daily Telegraph.
He was awarded the Inkpot Award in 1988.
He received the 2,459th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 14, 2012.
Bibliography
Groening, Matt (1977–2012). Life in Hell
Love Is Hell (1986)
Work Is Hell (1986)
School Is Hell (1987)
Box Full of Hell (1988)
Childhood Is Hell (1988)
Greetings from Hell (1989)
Akbar and Jeff's Guide to Life (1989)
The Big Book of Hell (1990)
With Love from Hell (1991)
How to Go to Hell (1991)
The Road to Hell (1992)
Binky's Guide to Love (1994)
Love Is Hell: Special Ultra Jumbo 10th Anniversary Edition (1994)
The Huge Book of Hell (1997)
Will and Abe's Guide to the Universe (2007)
References
External links
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Category:Writers from Portland, Oregon | [] | [
"Life in Hell is a self-published comic book by Groening, which was distributed in the book corner of Licorice Pizza, a record store in which he worked. It made its official debut as a comic strip in the Los Angeles Reader on April 25, 1980. The comic strip series became popular and was also published in the form of several books, including \"Love is Hell\" and \"Work is Hell\". The series concluded with the June 16, 2012 strip.",
"Life in Hell made its official debut as a comic strip in the Los Angeles Reader on April 25, 1980.",
"Life in Hell was an ongoing comic strip series. It made its official debut in the Los Angeles Reader in 1980 and concluded with the June 16, 2012 strip.",
"The article shares that Groening had a unique approach to his weekly music column, \"Sound Mix.\" Instead of focusing on music, he would often write about various other topics. Sometimes, in an effort to incorporate more music, he would invent and review fictional bands and non-existent records, only to confess the fabrication in the next edition and assure readers that the current column was truthful. Furthermore, Life in Hell became a popular series quite quickly and was eventually published in book form. This series and Groening's other works had a significant influence on other cartoonists.",
"No, Life in Hell is no longer being published. The comic strip concluded with the June 16, 2012 strip.",
"Yes, Life in Hell became popular almost immediately. At the end of its run, it was carried in 250 weekly newspapers. In addition, the book form of the series, \"Love is Hell,\" was an underground success, selling 22,000 copies in its first two printings."
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C_3a8c970dc74a4bdb9e8d6f00eea63e33_1 | Philharmonia Orchestra | The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Since 1995, the orchestra has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. The Philharmonia also has residencies at De Montfort Hall, Leicester; the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; the Corn Exchange, Bedford; and The Anvil, Basingstoke. | Early decades | The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge. As Legge was a recording producer for EMI, it was believed that the orchestra was primarily formed for recording purposes, but that was not Legge's intention. He had been Sir Thomas Beecham's assistant at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, before World War II, and, assuming that he and Beecham would be in charge there again after the war, Legge planned to establish a first-class orchestra for opera, concerts and recordings. After the war, opera resumed at Covent Garden under a different management, but Legge went ahead with his plans for a new orchestra. His contacts in the musical world during the war enabled him to secure the services of a large number of talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces in 1945. At the Philharmonia's first concert on 25 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were still officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert (for the fee of one cigar), but as he refused to be Legge's employee and Legge refused to cede control of the orchestra, Beecham instead went on to found the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In its early years, with financial support of the Last Maharaja of Mysore, Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur (1919-1974), the orchestra engaged many prominent conductors, including Arturo Toscanini, Richard Strauss and Wilhelm Furtwangler. Herbert von Karajan was closely associated with the Philharmonia in its early years, although he never held an official title with the orchestra. At first, Legge was against appointing an official principal conductor, feeling that no one conductor should have more importance to the orchestra than Legge himself. But Karajan was principal conductor in all but name. He built the orchestra into one of the finest in the world and made numerous recordings, including all the Beethoven symphonies. In 1954, Karajan was elected music director of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and subsequently curtailed his work with the Philharmonia. Needing to find a new conductor for the orchestra, Legge turned to Otto Klemperer, whose career was flagging at the time. Klemperer's name became closely linked with the orchestra during an "Indian summer" of celebrated recordings. In 1959, Klemperer was named music director for life. On 10 March 1964, Legge announced that he was going to disband the Philharmonia Orchestra. At a recording session with Klemperer, a meeting was convened where those present unanimously agreed that they would not allow the orchestra to be disbanded. Klemperer gave his immediate support. On 17 March 1964, the members of the orchestra elected their own governing body and adopted the name New Philharmonia Orchestra. The inaugural concert of the New Philharmonia under its own auspices took place on 27 October 1964. It was a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, conducted by Klemperer, who was now honorary president of the orchestra. From 1966 until 1972, the chairman of the orchestra was the principal flautist, Gareth Morris. The orchestra gave many more live performances after it became self-governing than it had under Legge's management. It reacquired the rights to the name "Philharmonia Orchestra" in 1977, and has been known by that name ever since. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Philharmonia Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It was founded in 1945 by Walter Legge, a classical music record producer for EMI. Among the conductors who worked with the orchestra in its early years were Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Arturo Toscanini; of the Philharmonia's younger conductors, the most important to its development was Herbert von Karajan who, though never formally chief conductor, was closely associated with the orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Philharmonia became widely regarded as the finest of London's five symphony orchestras in its first two decades.
From the late 1950s to the early 1970s the orchestra's chief conductor was Otto Klemperer, with whom the orchestra gave many concerts and made numerous recordings of the core orchestral repertoire. During Klemperer's tenure Legge, citing the difficulty of maintaining the orchestra's high standards, attempted to disband it in 1964, but the players, backed by Klemperer, formed themselves into a self-governing ensemble as the New Philharmonia Orchestra. After thirteen years under this title, they negotiated the rights to revert to the original name.
In Klemperer's last years the orchestra suffered a decline, both financial and artistic, but recovered under his successor, Riccardo Muti, who revitalised the orchestra in his ten-year term from 1972 to 1982. The orchestra's standards remained high throughout the controversial chief conductorship of Giuseppe Sinopoli from 1984 to 1994, and the more orthodox tenure of Christoph von Dohnányi between 1997 and 2008. Esa-Pekka Salonen, principal conductor from 2008 to 2021 was succeeded by Santtu-Matias Rouvali.
The Philharmonia has had many celebrated players in its ranks and has commissioned more than 100 compositions. It gives more than 160 concerts a year, tours widely, and from its inception has been known for its many recordings.
History
Background
The name "Philharmonia" was adopted by the impresario and recording producer Walter Legge for a string quartet he brought together in 1941, comprising Henry Holst, Jean Pougnet, Frederick Riddle and Anthony Pini. The name was taken from the title page of the published score Legge used for the first work they recorded. Temporarily augmented to a septet, the ensemble gave its first concert in the Wigmore Hall, the main item being Ravel's Introduction and Allegro. With several changes of personnel the quartet continued to play in concert and in the recording studio during the Second World War. In 1942 the editor of The Gramophone, Compton Mackenzie, wrote that he had no hesitation in calling the Philharmonia the best string quartet in the country.
During the war, Legge was in charge of the music division of ENSA, which provided entertainment for British and allied armed forces. In this role he was in close touch with many first-rate musicians in the armed services, from whom he intended to draw when creating a new orchestra after the end of the war. He later set out his guiding principles:
Before the war, Legge had been assistant to Sir Thomas Beecham at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Both men wrongly assumed that they would be able to resume their control of the opera house after the war, and Legge conceived of a new orchestra based there, operating on the lines of the Vienna Philharmonic – playing in the pit for the opera and also giving concerts and making records on its own account. The committee appointed by the British government to re-establish opera and ballet at Covent Garden abandoned the pre-war system of opera seasons, in favour of a permanent year-round company. Neither Beecham nor Legge was invited to run it. Legge nevertheless decided to go ahead with his plans to form an orchestra. Although London already had three permanent symphony orchestras – the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) and London Philharmonic (LPO), their personnel and standards had declined during the war and he was convinced he could do better.
First concerts
Legge secured the services of many talented young musicians still serving in the armed forces. He first assembled a "Philharmonia String Orchestra" for recordings in 1945, composed of musicians from the RAF orchestra. He then recruited wind and percussion players, including some of the country's top instrumentalists who had been playing in other orchestras during the war. At the Philharmonia Orchestra's first concert, on 27 October 1945, more than sixty per cent of the players were still officially in the services. Beecham conducted the concert (for the fee of one cigar), but as he refused to be Legge's employee and Legge refused to cede control of the orchestra, they went their separate ways. Beecham founded the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) the following year.
Unlike the existing London orchestras, but like Beecham's Royal Philharmonic, the early Philharmonia was not a permanent ensemble: it was convened ad hoc from available players on Legge's list. Several of those players were also on Beecham's list, and were able to play for both orchestras, including the horn player, Dennis Brain, the clarinettist Reginald Kell and the timpanist James Bradshaw. Although this gave both orchestras access to the finest players, a review of the London orchestral scene of the late 1940s commented, "The Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic share a very serious disability: that neither is a permanently constituted orchestra. Both assemble and disperse more or less at random ... there is no style which is distinctively RPO or Philharmonia." It was widely felt in musical circles that the Philharmonia was essentially a recording orchestra that also gave concerts, although Legge firmly denied this. Nevertheless, the orchestra played far fewer concerts than the older London orchestras: in 1949–50 the Philharmonia gave 32 concerts compared with 55 by the BBC SO, 103 by the LSO, and 248 by the LPO.
From its early years the orchestra played under prominent conductors including Richard Strauss for a single concert in 1947, and from 1948 onwards, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan for concerts and recordings. Until the opening of the Royal Festival Hall in 1951, London lacked a suitable hall for symphony concerts. Filling the vast Royal Albert Hall was difficult, except for such sell-out performances as Strauss's concert, a cycle of the Beethoven piano concertos with Artur Schnabel as soloist (1946), or the world premiere of Strauss's Four Last Songs with Kirsten Flagstad as soloist and Furtwängler conducting (1950). For other, less popular, concerts in the orchestra's early years Legge was partly dependent on financial support from a musical benefactor, the last Maharaja of Mysore.
1950s: Karajan and Toscanini
By the early 1950s the conductor most associated with the orchestra was Karajan, although he was not, officially or even unofficially, its chief conductor. He chose to work mainly with the Philharmonia and came to London for long spells twice or three times a year giving concerts and making recordings. Legge's practice of tying concerts in with studio recordings ensured longer than usual rehearsal time, paid for by EMI. In the early years, Karajan's concerts were criticised in the press for their unadventurous programming; but a financially hazardous tour of Europe in 1952 necessitated programmes that were box-office attractions. Karajan told the orchestra that he felt it his duty to show Europe "the exceptional qualities of tone, aristocracy and vitality" of the Philharmonia's playing. The violinist Joseph Szigeti commented that the Philharmonia "showed the Continent for the first time all the qualities of perfect chamber-music playing raised to the power of a great symphony orchestra."
While the orchestra was in Italy it so impressed Arturo Toscanini that he offered to come to London to conduct it. His two concerts at the Festival Hall in September 1952 (the four symphonies of Brahms) were a critical and commercial success. In the same year, Furtwängler conducted the orchestra and soloists headed by Flagstad in a recording of Tristan und Isolde that has remained in the catalogues ever since. Legge realised that Furtwängler was in declining health and that sooner or later Karajan would succeed him as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Salzburg Festival and be lost to the Philharmonia. Legge began to seek out suitable successors.
1950s: Karajan to Klemperer
As Legge had expected, Karajan succeeded to the Berlin and Salzburg positions after Furtwängler died in 1954. Karajan remained under contract to EMI, but he quickly reduced his commitments to the Philharmonia. Among alternatives favoured by Legge and the orchestra was Guido Cantelli, who conducted some well-received recordings and concerts; his death in a plane crash in 1956 at the age of thirty-six deprived the Philharmonia of a potential replacement for Karajan. Another of Legge's protégés, Carlo Maria Giulini, seemed promising, but had not at that point established himself with the orchestra or the public, and had a restricted repertory. Legge gradually built up a strong relationship with the veteran Otto Klemperer, who was admired by the players, the critics and the public.
The year after Cantelli's death, the orchestra suffered a still worse blow with the death in a car crash of Dennis Brain, not only a supremely gifted player, but the most popular member of the orchestra among his colleagues. He was succeeded as principal horn by his deputy, Alan Civil.
In 1957 Legge launched the Philharmonia Chorus, an amateur body with a stiffening of professionals when needed. The chorus made its debut in Beethoven's Choral Symphony conducted by Klemperer, and won extremely favourable reviews. In The Observer Peter Heyworth wrote that with so fine a choir and "our best orchestra" and a great conductor, Legge had given London "a Beethoven cycle that any city in the world, be it Vienna or New York, would envy". In 1959 Legge abandoned his policy that the orchestra should have no permanent conductor, and appointed Klemperer "conductor-for-life".
1960–1964
In the early 1960s the Philharmonia continued to be widely regarded as London's best orchestra. The RPO went through difficult times after Beecham's death in 1961; neither the BBC SO or the LPO had yet regained its pre-war excellence; and the LSO was only in the early stages of its return to eminence. The Philharmonia entered into a new three-year contract with EMI on advantageous terms in 1960; the number of players applying to join the orchestra was increasing; its records sold well; and its concerts under Klemperer, Giulini, Sir John Barbirolli and others (occasionally including Karajan, who made his last appearance with the orchestra in 1960) were well received by the public and the critics. Unknown to the public, and to a considerable extent the players, a combination of factors beyond the orchestra's control was leading to a crisis. First, to avoid clashes of repertoire the Festival Hall management set up a committee to co-ordinate programming by the London orchestras. Secondly, at EMI a similar rationalisation was taking place, with an internal committee deciding which works producers, including Legge, could schedule. Legge, an autocrat by temperament, resented any curtailment of his personal control, and found committees intolerable. Finance also started to become a problem. The Philharmonia's lucrative recording contract depended on regular work in the studio, and having by now recorded most of the standard repertoire first in mono and again in stereo the orchestra's prospects for recording were diminishing. This meant that Legge's scope for having concert rehearsals subsidised by EMI was also shrinking.
Although few agreed with him, Legge contended that the quality of the orchestra was declining. Looking back in 1975 at the heyday of his orchestra, he singled out for particular mention not only Brain and Civil, Kell and Bradshaw, but also Clement Lawton (tuba), Arthur Gleghorn (piccolo), Gareth Morris (flute), Sidney ("Jock") Sutcliffe (oboe), Frederick Thurston and Bernard Walton (clarinets), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon), and two leaders, Manoug Parikian and Hugh Bean. Legge maintained retrospectively that in the absence of enough recording work to attract the finest new orchestral players to follow such stars he had no alternative to disbanding the Philharmonia.
In March 1964, with no advance warning to the orchestra, Legge issued a press statement announcing that "after the fulfilment of its present commitments the activities of the Philharmonia Orchestra will be suspended for an indefinite period." The historian of the orchestra Stephen Pettitt comments, "If Legge thought that by suspending the Philharmonia Orchestra he was killing it, he had reckoned without the players". They formed themselves into a self-governing company, led by Bernard Walton, the principal clarinet, and adopted the name New Philharmonia Orchestra (NPO). Hitherto, the players had been technically freelance, paid by Legge for each performance, but they now became employees of the company they collectively owned, with security of employment.
Klemperer, Giulini and Barbirolli gave the new orchestra their strong backing, as did Sir Adrian Boult, who incensed Legge by addressing the audience at a Philharmonia concert a few days later: "Do you want to see this great orchestra snuffed out like a candle? It must not be allowed to die!" He urged the public to support the orchestra by going to all its concerts, whatever the programmes. The music critic of The Times commented that Boult's point was underlined by "the resplendent, intense sound he drew from choir and orchestra during the concert."
1964–1977: New Philharmonia
In its early years as an independent body the New Philharmonia flourished, in the concert hall and the recording studio. As well as its existing regular conductors, the orchestra worked with Ernest Ansermet, Pierre Boulez, Benjamin Britten and James Levine and many others. It reciprocated Klemperer's loyalty and appointed him its president and chief conductor, but this led to a decline in orchestral discipline and standards as Klemperer grew older, frailer and less in command. Giulini became disillusioned and began to distance himself; Barbirolli remained firmly loyal until his death in 1970. Klemperer's decline led to a diminution in recording sessions, and the orchestra's finances became difficult by the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were serious but inconclusive discussions about a merger with the LPO, which was also in some difficulties at the time. The NPO was rescued from financial disaster by two musical philanthropists, one anonymous and the other Ian Stoutzker, a prominent banker, who offered either to buy the orchestra outright or, as occurred, to underwrite its finances.
Leading players of the early 1970s included Raymond Cohen, Desmond Bradley, Carlos Villa (violins), Herbert Downes (viola), Gareth Morris (flute), John McCaw (clarinet), Gwydion Brooke (bassoon) and Nicholas Busch (horn). The Philharmonia was ahead of some of its London rivals in admitting female players. By 1972, seventeen of the sixty-six string players were women, although the other three sections remained exclusively male, except for the veteran harpist, Sidonie Goossens.
In Klemperer's later years the orchestra appointed Lorin Maazel, nominally as "associate principal conductor", from 1970, although in practice his role was more like a chief conductorship, with Klemperer as a figurehead, albeit one still capable of inspiring magnificent performances on occasion. Maazel sought more control than the self-governing orchestra was willing to concede, and resigned from his post in early 1972, although he continued to accept invitations to conduct the orchestra. Shortly afterwards, Klemperer announced his retirement; he died, aged 88, the following year. The orchestra recognised that a strong chief conductor was needed to restore its standards and finances, but there was no immediately obvious candidate. Although Legge no longer had any stake in the orchestra he watched its progress benevolently, and having spotted the potential of Riccardo Muti he recommended him to the New Philharmonia's general manager, Terence McDonald. Other potential candidates were considered, but Muti was appointed as the orchestra's chief conductor from 1973.
Muti, although he disclaimed such a description, was a firm disciplinarian, and under his conductorship the orchestra restored its standards. Richard Morrison later wrote in The Times that in his ten years in charge, Muti turned a struggling orchestra into "a great ensemble". Critics at the time commented on the orchestra's "superb performance", "immense virtuosity", its "astoundingly delicate" string playing and "woodwind phrasing even more magical than their Berlin colleagues". Muti was under contract to EMI, which brought the orchestra much valuable studio work. With Muti the orchestra recorded opera (Aida, 1974; Un ballo in maschera, 1975; Nabucco, 1977; I puritani, 1979; Cavalleria rusticana, 1979; La traviata, 1980; Orfeo ed Euridice, 1981; and Don Pasquale, 1982); a wide range of the symphonic repertoire including Schumann and Tchaikovsky cycles; concertos with soloists including Sviatoslav Richter, Andrei Gavrilov, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Gidon Kremer; and choral music by Cherubini and Vivaldi. After Legge's departure the orchestra was no longer exclusively tied to EMI, and made more than seventy recordings for Decca, starting in December 1964. Later Decca sessions were conducted by Boult, Britten, Giulini, Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Munch, Leopold Stokowski, and in 1967 Christoph von Dohnányi, who three decades later became the orchestra's chief conductor.
During Muti's tenure, the orchestra recovered its original title, after prolonged and complex negotiations. From September 1977 the "New" was dropped, and the orchestra has been the Philharmonia since then. Walter Legge died in 1979, and the orchestra dedicated a Tchaikovsky symphony cycle at the Festival Hall to his memory; reviewing one of the concerts in The Guardian, Edward Greenfield commented that Muti had brought the orchestra's playing "within reach of that earlier peerless example".
Late 20th century
Leading members of the orchestra in the later years of Muti's tenure included Raymond Ovens (leader), Gordon Hunt (oboe), Adrian Leaper (horn), John Wallace (trumpet) and David Corkhill (percussion). Clement Relf, singled out for praise by Legge in his memoirs, remained the orchestral librarian as he had been since 1945. In 1980 the orchestra received royal recognition when the Prince of Wales accepted an invitation to be the Philharmonia's honorary patron.
Muti stepped down as chief conductor in 1982. Giuseppe Sinopoli succeeded him in 1984 and, like Muti, served for ten years. Although the orchestra's standards remained high during Sinopoli's tenure, the conductor had what David Nice has described in The Guardian as "a love-hate relationship" with the public and critics, because of his "slow speeds and mannered, sometimes lifeless phrasing". The same writer continues that the Philharmonia players did not take to "Sinopoli's peculiarly Italian brand of intellectualism; London musicians never like too much talk, let alone an analytic seminar on the work in question". By 1990 it was far from certain that Sinopoli's appointment would last until 1994 as scheduled, but he brought to the orchestra a lucrative recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon and tours to countries including Japan and Germany where the conductor was held in very much higher regard than in Britain. Although Sinopoli's Philharmonia performances of works such as Elgar's Second Symphony attracted much disparaging criticism, he was felt to be more successful in opera. Nice comments that the Philharmonia players "lent an unprecedented degree of tonal beauty" to their opera recordings with Sinopoli; they included Manon Lescaut, 1983; La forza del destino, 1985; Madama Butterfly, 1987; Cavalleria Rusticana, 1990; and Tosca, 1992.
In 1995 the orchestra celebrated its 50th anniversary and launched its UK and international residency programme, with residencies at the Southbank Centre, London, and the Corn Exchange, Bedford. The orchestra developed further long-term partnerships, beginning with De Montfort Hall in Leicester (from 1997). Further partnerships followed in later decades.
It was three years before the Philharmonia recruited a chief conductor to replace Sinopoli: Christoph von Dohnányi took up the position in 1997. The music critic Andrew Clements commented that the Philharmonia's players had "maintained their coherence remarkably well through the long interregnum", but that securing "a conductor of Dohnányi's pedigree" was a major achievement, and that the conductor's skill as an orchestral trainer, combined with his excellence in interpretation augured well for the orchestra's future. Dohnányi's conducting was regarded as reliable and musically admirable, although sometimes rather cool. His commitment to modern music influenced the orchestra's programming and won approval from the press. With Dohnányi the Philharmonia played in Vienna, Salzburg, Amsterdam, Lucerne and Paris. For several seasons they were in residence at the Théâtre du Châtelet, where they took part in new productions of six operas: Arabella, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die schweigsame Frau, Moses und Aron, Oedipus Rex and Hänsel und Gretel.
In 1999 the orchestra took part in what was described as a "fly-on-the-wall" television documentary, giving the public glimpses of day-to-day orchestral life. It showed the efforts to which individual players went to secure sponsorship for the orchestra, and the heavy workload they sustained.
In 2000, under the direction of Gilbert Levine, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus performed Haydn's The Creation in a series of concerts in Baltimore, London, and Rome, including televised concerts in Baltimore and at the Vatican, as part of the "Millennium Creation Series"
21st century
In a survey of British orchestras in 2006, Morrison described the current Philharmonia as "a serious, high-quality orchestra". He praised its "astute and canny" management, and commented that the orchestra had a large, loyal following in London, and had gained additional support elsewhere in Britain by extending its touring programme while the Festival Hall was closed for renovation between 2005 and 2007. Since 2000 the orchestra has established further residencies: at The Anvil, Basingstoke (from 2001), the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury and the Three Choirs Festival. Dohnányi's final tour with the orchestra as chief conductor was of the US, where they gave concerts in Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Costa Mesa, California.
In 2008 Esa-Pekka Salonen became the Philharmonia's fifth principal conductor. He first conducted the orchestra in 1983, when he was 25, and from 1985 to 1994 he was its principal guest conductor. Vladimir Ashkenazy is the orchestra's conductor laureate; Dohnányi is its honorary conductor for life. From 2017 Jakub Hrůša and Santtu-Matias Rouvali have been the orchestra's principal guest conductors. The orchestra's website reported in 2018 that Salonen and the orchestra had experimented in "groundbreaking ways to present music". The examples quoted were:
The Philharmonia performs more than 160 concerts a year, more than 35 of them at the Festival Hall. It has commissioned more than a hundred works. It also records music for films, computer games and commercial CD releases. Under Salonen the orchestra has taken part in a series of projects at the Festival Hall: "City of Light: Paris 1900–1950" (2015), "City of Dreams: Vienna 1900–1935" (2009), "Bill Viola's Tristan und Isolde" (2010), "Infernal Dance: Inside the World of Béla Bartók" (2011), "Woven Words", a centenary celebration of Witold Lutosławski (2013) and "Myths and Rituals", a five-concert festival of music by Igor Stravinsky (2015–17). In recent years the Philharmonia's extensive international touring schedule has included appearances in China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Since 2017, the Philharmonia has been a resident orchestra at the Garsington Opera festival.
Salonen concluded his principal conductorship after the 2020–2021 season, and Helen Sprott stood down as its managing director. Santtu-Matias Rouvali was appointed as the next principal conductor, effective with the 2021–2022 season, with an initial contract of 5 years. Salonen took the title of conductor emeritus and became an honorary member of the orchestra.
In 2023 members of the orchestra were selected to play at the coronation of Charles III and Camilla.
Recordings
The orchestra's first recording, a sinfonia by J. C. Bach, made in July 1945, was never released. Wolf's Italian Serenade recorded at the same sessions, was the Philharmonia's first published record. It was conducted by Walter Susskind, who made many recordings with the orchestra over the next fifteen years. In the same period, others who worked regularly with the orchestra were Alceo Galliera and Paul Kletzki. For Viennese operettas, Lovro von Matačić and Otto Ackermann were Legge's favoured conductors.
Many of the orchestra's highest-profile releases were operas. Within days of its inauguration the Philharmonia played in a complete recording of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas conducted by Constant Lambert. Among the opera sets in which the orchestra played in the 1950s were the 1952 Tristan und Isolde mentioned above, and six sets conducted by Karajan: Hansel and Gretel (1953), Così fan tutte (1954), Ariadne auf Naxos (1954), Die Fledermaus (1955), Der Rosenkavalier (1956) and Falstaff (1956). Later sets from the 1950s were The Barber of Seville (Galliera, 1957); Capriccio (Sawallisch, 1957); Lucia di Lammermoor (Serafin, 1959), Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni (both Giulini, 1959).
Other recordings by the Philharmonia in the 1940s and 1950s include Leonard Bernstein as soloist and conductor in Ravel's Piano Concerto in G, a series of Walton's major works, conducted by the composer, Schumann's Piano Concerto with Dinu Lipatti as soloist and Karajan conducting (his first recording with the orchestra), Mozart's Horn Concertos with Brain as soloist and Karajan conducting, and cycles of Beethoven and Brahms symphonies conducted by Klemperer.
In the 1960s and 1970s the orchestra made many recordings. Of those made for EMI, the company later reissued many in the series "Great Recordings of the Century". They include piano concertos by Beethoven with Emil Gilels and Daniel Barenboim as soloists, Chopin with Maurizio Pollini and Mozart with Annie Fischer; symphonies by Bruckner and Mahler conducted by Barbirolli and Klemperer; orchestral music by Debussy (conducted by Giulini) and Wagner (Klemperer); choral works including Bach's Mass in B minor, St Matthew Passion, Beethoven's Missa solemnis and Brahms's German Requiem under Klemperer, and Verdi's Requiem under Giulini; Mahler's orchestral songs sung by Christa Ludwig and Janet Baker; and in the operatic repertoire Così fan tutte conducted by Karl Böhm and Fidelio and Der fliegende Holländer conducted by Klemperer.
In the 1980s, in addition to the recordings made with its chief conductors, mentioned above, the orchestra recorded extensively. Recordings from this decade include the symphonies of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Walton, conducted by Bernard Haitink for EMI; a Sibelius symphony cycle conducted by Ashkenazy and the Mozart piano concertos with Ashkenazy directing from the keyboard, for Decca; Madama Butterfly with Maazel (CBS) and Fauré's Requiem with Giulini (DG). In the last decade of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st, the orchestra's recordings included more discs conducted by Ashkenazy, including symphonies by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky for Decca; Beethoven and Schumann symphonies with Christian Thielemann for DG, and a series of recordings of the major works of Stravinsky, and another of those of Schoenberg, conducted by Robert Craft, released on the Naxos label.
Live recordings of some of the orchestra's early concerts have been issued on CD, including Strauss conducting the Sinfonia Domestica, Furtwängler and Flagstad in the first performance of the Four Last Songs, and Toscanini's Brahms cycle. A later live recording was the last concert conducted by Klemperer (September 1971: Beethoven Overture: King Stephen, and Fourth Piano Concerto with Daniel Adni; and Brahms's Third Symphony).
In 2009 the orchestra began a collaboration with the record label Signum, with the release of a live recording of Schoenberg's Gurrelieder; later recordings by the Philharmonia on Signum have ranged from the symphonic repertoire (including symphonies by Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Elgar, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Schubert and Tchaikovsky) to opera and ballet (Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin).
Film scores
The British Film Institute lists more than a hundred films with soundtrack scores played by the Philharmonia. They include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1946); Hamlet, Oliver Twist and Scott of the Antarctic (1948); Kind Hearts and Coronets and Passport to Pimlico (1949); The Cruel Sea (1953); Battle of the Bulge (1965); Lady Caroline Lamb (1972); King David (1985); The King and I (1999); Great Expectations (2012); and The Lady in the Van (2015).
Voyager Golden Record
In 1977, a recording of the First Movement of Beethoven's 5th Symphony by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Klemperer was selected by NASA to be included on the Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper record that was sent into space on the Voyager space craft. The record contained sounds and images which had been selected as examples of the diversity of life and culture on Earth.
Notes, references and sources
Notes
References
Sources
External links
Philharmonia Orchestra official website
Category:British symphony orchestras
Category:London orchestras
Category:Musical groups established in 1945
Category:1945 establishments in England
Category:Erato Records artists
Category:Albany Records artists | [] | [
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C_459f6c31567045bf935d4dc5879b2490_0 | Aesop Rock | Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American hip hop recording artist and producer residing in Portland, Oregon. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it went on hiatus in 2010. betterPropaganda ranked him at number 19 at the Top 100 Artists of the Decade. | 2005-2007: Fast Cars EP, None Shall Pass, Nike+iPod | In February 2005, Aesop Rock released a new EP, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives. The first pressing of the EP included an 88-page booklet with lyrics from every release from Float until this EP (the lyric booklet is titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow); later pressings of the album come without the booklet, but with an additional bonus track, "Facemelter". In addition, a limited number of albums were available direct from Def Jux with Aesop Rock's graffiti tag on them. In response to demands from his fans, Rock did less production on the EP: three songs are produced by Blockhead, three produced by Aesop, and one by Rob Sonic. During this time he was asked to join The Weathermen to replace Vast Aire. Aesop Rock was commissioned to create a 45-minute instrumental track for the Nike+iPod running system, entitled All Day. It was released in February 2007. Distributed via the iTunes Music Store and featuring his wife Allyson Baker on guitar and scratches from DJ Big Wiz, Aesop has described the release as "something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes." All Day was followed in August of the same year by Bavitz's fifth full-length album, None Shall Pass released in 2007. The album also contained original artwork by Jeremy Fish. About Jeremy Fish, Aesop Rock said: "Man that guy is my hero. We have a friend in common who hit me up a while back saying that this guy Jeremy Fish had an opportunity to pitch a cartoon to Disney and wanted me to be involved in the music side. I flipped out cuz I was also a fan of his, and owned some of his work." Aesop Rock also teamed up with Jeremy Fish again in a project called Ghosts of the Barbary Coast. Aesop Rock made a song called "Tomorrow Morning", to go along with a slideshow of drawings that Jeremy Fish drew. This was displayed in San Francisco, but was also made available for download online. None Shall Pass had positive reviews from critics and fans, applauding Aesop for his change in sound. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Ian Matthias Bavitz (born June 5, 1976), better known by his stage name Aesop Rock, is an American rapper and producer from Long Island, New York. He was at the forefront of the new wave of underground and alternative hip hop acts that emerged during the late 1990s and early 2000s. He was signed to El-P's Definitive Jux label until it went on hiatus in 2010. In a 2010 retrospective, betterPropaganda ranked him at number 19 at the Top 100 Artists of the Decade.
He released his first album, Music for Earthworms, in 1997, with Float following 3 years later. Labor Days, his third studio album, was released on September 18, 2001. His next release came two years later, titled Bazooka Tooth, released on September 23, 2003. His fourth studio album, None Shall Pass, was released on August 28, 2007. Its titular song became one of Ian's most popular and well-known songs. His sixth record, Skelethon, was released on July 10, 2012. His seventh release, The Impossible Kid, came out on April 29, 2016. His eighth and most recent album, Spirit World Field Guide, came out on November 13, 2020.
He was a member of the groups The Weathermen, Hail Mary Mallon, and the Uncluded, and is currently the vocalist of duo Malibu Ken.
Regarding his name, he said: "I acquired the name Aesop from a movie I had acted in with some friends. It was my character's name and it sort of stuck. The rock part came later just from throwing it in rhymes."
Early life and education
Early and personal life
Bavitz was born at Syosset Hospital in Syosset, New York, and raised in Northport, Long Island, New York to his father Paul and mother Jameija. Bavitz has two brothers: Christopher T. Bavitz (born 1973), a clinical professor at Harvard Law School and director of Cyberlaw Clinic at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, and Graham J. Bavitz (born 1978). Along with his siblings, Ian was raised Catholic, but he later became agnostic. Bavitz attended Northport High School in 1990 and graduated in 1994. In 2005, he married Allyson Baker, guitarist and vocalist of rock band Dirty Ghosts; they resided in San Francisco, but have since divorced.
1994–1998: College
After graduating from high school, Bavitz attended Boston University in Massachusetts where he studied visual arts. He acquired his bachelor's in 1998. He met his future collaborator, Blockhead, in 1994 during the latter's only year at the school. After hearing Aesop Rock freestyle, Blockhead decided to forgo his own dreams of rapping in favor of focusing on production. Blockhead was involved with a crew in New York called The Overground that included Dub-L. During his early adulthood, Aesop Rock held various odd jobs including positions answering phones for clothing catalogs, packaging artwork in art gallery storerooms and working for one-hour photo developers.
Musical career
1985–2001: New York City underground music scene
As a youth, Bavitz and his family would usually commute to New York City. This had a great impact on him and the way he viewed the hip hop culture. Bavitz began rapping in the early 1990s. He cites Public Enemy, BDP, KMD, and Run DMC as early influences. Bavitz also listened to rock acts such as Dead Kennedys, Fugazi, and Ministry; he was introduced to these groups by his older brother Chris. Bavitz started to play the piano and bass at an early age and eventually acquired a sampler.
While attending college, Bavitz initially recorded and released two self-financed efforts, Music for Earthworms (1997), a full-length featuring underground artist Percee P on two tracks. Bavitz also released a music video for "Abandon All Hope", which was one of the tracks on the CD. The album sold over 300 copies, largely from a grassroots internet-based promotion at his website AesopRock.com and then-popular web portal, MP3.com. With the money he made from his previous release, he then released his Appleseed EP in 1999 which received critical acclaim in the underground hip-hop circuit. His early records were mostly produced by his long-time friend Blockhead and underground producer Dub-L.
After his breakthrough success in the underground hip hop and indie rap community, he was eventually noticed by the Mush label and obtained his first record deal in 1999, just a year after he graduated from college. Aesop released his first major album, Float (2000), with guest appearances from Vast Aire, Slug, and Dose One. Production was split between Blockhead and Aesop himself, with one track by Omega One. During this time, Aesop worked at a photography gallery. In August 2001, Bavitz had a nervous breakdown. The song "One of Four" on his Daylight EP documents his struggles.
2001–2004: Labor Days, Daylight EP, and Bazooka Tooth
Shortly after releasing Float, Aesop Rock signed to Manhattan-based label Definitive Jux (commonly shortened to Def Jux), where he released Labor Days (2001), an album dedicated to the discussion of labor in American society and the concept of "wage slaves". This album was most well known for its single "Daylight". Because of its popularity, Daylight was re-released in 2002 as a seven-track EP, including an "alternative" new version of the song "Night Light", whose paraphrased lyrics simultaneously refer back to, and stand in stark opposition to, the original's. The song "Labor" (from Labor Days) was featured in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4; it also was the first album in his catalog to break through the Billboard charts, peaking at number 15 at the United States Independent Charts.
Labor Days was followed by Bazooka Tooth in 2003. For the first time, production was mostly handled by Bavitz himself, with three tracks from longtime collaborator Blockhead and one from close friend and Definitive Jux label CEO El-P. Guest appearances include Party Fun Action Committee, El-P, and Mr. Lif (all Definitive Jux labelmates) and Camp Lo. With this release Aesop hit a higher level of recognition, releasing "No Jumper Cables" as a single and music video, then another single, "Freeze", shortly after. A remix of "No Jumper Cables" was featured on Tony Hawk's Underground 2, furthering Aesop's recognition. In 2004, he released Build Your Own Bazooka Tooth and created a contest in which contestants had to create a remix of an Aesop Rock song using the a cappellas and instrumentals.
2005–2007: Fast Cars EP, None Shall Pass and Nike+iPod
In February 2005, Aesop Rock released a new EP, Fast Cars, Danger, Fire and Knives. The first pressing of the EP included an 88-page booklet with lyrics from every release from Float until this EP (the lyric booklet is titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow); later pressings of the album come without the booklet, but with an additional bonus track, "Facemelter". In addition, a limited number of albums were available direct from Def Jux with Aesop Rock's graffiti tag on them. In response to demands from his fans, Bavitz did less production on the EP; three songs are produced by Blockhead, three produced by Aesop, and one by Rob Sonic. During this time, he was asked to join The Weathermen to replace Vast Aire.
Aesop Rock was commissioned to create a 45-minute instrumental track for the Nike+iPod running system, entitled All Day. It was released in February 2007. Distributed via the iTunes Music Store and featuring Allyson Baker on guitar and with scratches from DJ Big Wiz, Aesop has described the release as "something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes."
All Day was followed in August of the same year by Bavitz's fifth full-length album, None Shall Pass, released in 2007. The album contained original art by Jeremy Fish, whose work Rock set to a slideshow backed by a track titled "Tomorrow Morning". It was exhibited in San Francisco and was available for download online. None Shall Pass had positive reviews from critics and fans, applauding Aesop for his change in sound.
2007–2011: Hiatus
In February 2010, El-P announced that the label would be put "on hiatus," aside from selling its catalog and merchandise. During this time, Bavitz was absent in terms of making any new albums or EPs, albeit being featured on other artists' records and producing.
2008–2013: Rhymesayers, HMM, Kimya Dawson and Skelethon
In 2009, Bavitz produced Felt's third album, Felt 3: A Tribute to Rosie Perez.
On April 20, 2011, it was announced that Rhymesayers Entertainment would release Hail Mary Mallon's debut album Are You Going To Eat That?. A music video for their first single off the album Smock was announced that same day.
In November 2011, Bavitz announced via Reddit that he was working on his next solo album, and had a majority of it complete.
In December 2011, Aesop Rock was first reported to be working on an album with anti-folk singer Kimya Dawson, famous for being one half of the group The Moldy Peaches. The working title for the project was Hokey Fright. The group has since been named The Uncluded.
On January 17, 2012, it was reported that Aesop Rock finished recording his upcoming solo album Skelethon, which was scheduled to be released on July 10, 2012, through Rhymesayers Entertainment.
On April 10, 2012, the first official single from Aesop Rock's Rhymesayers debut album Skelethon, "Zero Dark Thirty", was released on both SoundCloud and YouTube. As of April 20, 2012, the song had already received combined plays/views of 86,434. Skelethon was released on July 10, 2012.
On February 11, 2013, the first music video from The Uncluded was released on YouTube, and the duo's first album Hokey Fright was released on May 7, 2013. The album will consist of 16 tracks. The video for their third single "Delicate Cycle" has a cameo by the celebrity cat Lil Bub.
2013–present: The Impossible Kid, Malibu Ken and Spirit World Field Guide
Aesop Rock toured the United States to promote Skelethon. He has also been touring with Kimya Dawson and performing material as The Uncluded. Along with playing a number of individual events, The Uncluded performed as part of a Rhymesayers lineup at Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On the Skelethon tour, a majority of his touring equipment was stolen, prompting Aesop to raise funds by releasing limited edition artwork. It was announced he will be performing on the first day of Coachella 2013.
In February 2016, Aesop Rock released a music video for the song "Rings" and announced his seventh studio album The Impossible Kid, which was released on April 29, 2016. "Rings" was featured in the video game Madden NFL 17.
In 2017, Aesop Rock scored his first film soundtrack for Bushwick. In January 2019, Aesop Rock collaborated with electronic musician Tobacco under the name Malibu Ken. The duo released a self-titled album in the same month. In late 2020, Aesop announced his eighth solo album, titled Spirit World Field Guide, along with the release of the album's first single, "The Gates". In October 2021, Aesop announced a reunion with his former producer Blockhead with an upcoming album titled Garbology. The album was released on November 12 of the same year.
On 9 December 2022, Aesop Rock released the song “Pumpkin Seeds” featuring the Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco and produced by Blockhead. The song is a fundraiser for the Collaboratory, an organization promoting two local DIY skateparks in Dayton, Ohio.
Lyrics
Bavitz's lyrics are generally seen as being both complex and abstract while others dismiss them as verbose. His frequent use of homonyms exacerbates this. Critics state that the use of words can be so detailed that it becomes difficult to determine any meaning. The lyrics are sometimes inspired by events which have occurred in Bavitz's personal life and are thus naturally prone to subjective interpretation by outsiders.
Questioned about his lyrical style in an interview, Bavitz responded:
It's probably because it's not the most accessible music in the world. It may pose a slight challenge to the listener beyond your average pop song. I'm no genius by a long shot, but these songs are not nonsensical, that's pretty preposterous. I'd have to be a genius to pull this many nonsensical records over people's eyes. It's not exactly fast food but when people pretend I'm just spewing non-sequiturs and gibberish I can't help but think they simply haven't listened and are regurgitating some rumor they've heard about me. Even if it's not laid out in perfect sentences—is any rap?—you'd have to be an idiot to not at least grasp a few things from these songs. Or have had no interest in pulling anything from them in the first place.
In 2002, on the song "One of Four" (a hidden track on the Daylight EP) Aesop Rock explains:
But I can tell you that I only write shit down when I believe it / so take this how you want but know I mean it.
— Aesop Rock, "One of Four" Daylight EP (2002)
In May 2014, a study by Matt Daniels found that Aesop Rock's vocabulary in his music surpassed 85 other major hip-hop and rap artists, as well as Shakespeare's works and Herman Melville's Moby Dick; he was cited as having the largest vocabulary in hip hop. To build up his vocabulary, he reads a lot of news and science articles and writes down all the words he finds interesting. Analysis of his lyrics identified him as the rapper with the most expansive vocabulary; using the most unique words in a rapper's first 35,000 lyrics, he had 7,839 unique words.
Discography
Music for Earthworms (1997)
Float (2000)
Labor Days (2001)
Bazooka Tooth (2003)
None Shall Pass (2007)
Skelethon (2012)
The Impossible Kid (2016)
Spirit World Field Guide (2020)
Garbology (with Blockhead) (2021)
Filmography
References
External links
Mush Records Biography
Aesop Rock interview and profile in Exclaim! magazine
Category:1976 births
Category:Alternative hip hop musicians
Category:American agnostics
Category:American electronic musicians
Category:American graffiti artists
Category:American hip hop record producers
Category:American multi-instrumentalists
Category:American male rappers
Category:Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni
Category:East Coast hip hop musicians
Category:Former Roman Catholics
Category:Living people
Category:People from Syosset, New York
Category:Rappers from New York (state)
Category:Underground rappers
Category:People from Northport, New York
Category:Rhymesayers Entertainment artists
Category:21st-century American rappers
Category:Record producers from New York (state)
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:Definitive Jux artists
Category:Mush Records artists
Category:The Weathermen (hip hop group) members
Category:American people of Lithuanian descent | [] | [
"Fast Cars was released in February 2005.",
"Yes, during the release of Fast Cars, the first pressing of the EP included an 88-page booklet with lyrics from every release from Float until this EP, which was titled The Living Human Curiosity Sideshow. In later pressings, the album came without the booklet but included an additional bonus track, \"Facemelter.\" A limited number of albums were also made available direct from Def Jux with Aesop Rock's graffiti tag on them. Rock did less production on the EP in response to demands from fans, it was produced by Blockhead, Rob Sonic, and Aesop himself. At this time, Rock was also asked to join The Weathermen to replace Vast Aire.",
"Yes, later pressings of the album were made. However, these did not include the original 88-page booklet but did include an additional bonus track named \"Facemelter\".",
"Aesop Rock was commissioned to create a 45-minute instrumental track for the Nike+iPod running system. The track was titled All Day and was released in February 2007. It was distributed via the iTunes Music Store and featured Aesop's wife Allyson Baker on guitar and scratches from DJ Big Wiz. Aesop described the release as \"something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes.\"",
"The special thing about this track, called \"All Day,\" was that it was a 45-minute instrumental track created specifically for the Nike+iPod running system. It featured Aesop Rock's wife, Allyson Baker, on guitar and scratches from DJ Big Wiz. It was designed to be constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through different cities or landscapes, offering a unique auditory experience for runners.",
"Aesop Rock described the track as \"something that evolved enough that the sound was constantly fresh and attractive, as though the runner were moving through a set of differing cities or landscapes.\". This indicates that he was pleased with the track and felt that it offered a dynamic and captivating experience.",
"None Shall Pass came along in August of 2007.",
"During the release of the album None Shall Pass, Aesop Rock had teamed up with artist Jeremy Fish, who provided original artwork for the album. Aesop Rock also participated in a project called Ghosts of the Barbary Coast with Fish. He made a song called \"Tomorrow Morning\" to accompany a slideshow of drawings that Fish created. This was displayed in San Francisco and also made available for download online. The album received positive reviews from critics and fans for Aesop Rock's change in sound."
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C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_1 | Nicole Kidman | Kidman was born 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her father was Antony Kidman (1938-2014), a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, who died of a heart attack in Singapore aged 75. Her mother, Janelle Ann (nee Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Kidman's ancestry includes Irish, Scottish and English heritage. | Relationships and children | Kidman has been married twice: previously to actor Tom Cruise, and currently to country singer Keith Urban. She has an adopted son and daughter with Cruise as well as two biological daughters with Urban. Kidman met Cruise in November 1989, while filming Days of Thunder, they were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and the marriage was dissolved in August of that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of the ectopic pregnancy early in her marriage. "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage, by everyone who picked up the story." "So it's huge news, and it didn't happen." In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] breakup with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider (1986) co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with Adrien Brody. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004. Robbie Williams confirmed he had a short romance with Kidman on her yacht in summer 2004. In a 2007 Vanity Fair interview, Kidman revealed that she had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her present relationship to New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. In an interview in 2015, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other - we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), Los Angeles, and Nashville (Tennessee, USA). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban had their second daughter via surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital. In an on-stage interview by Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World (WITW) conference, Kidman stated that she turned her attention to her career after her divorce from Tom Cruise: "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded so that was an interesting thing for me", and led to her Academy Award in 2002. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). For her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama The Hours (2002), Kidman won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021). Her highest-grossing releases include The Others (2001), The Golden Compass (2007), Just Go with It (2011), Paddington (2014), and Aquaman (2018).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author. She also has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star." The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C, having moved there shortly after Kidman's birth. Her family eventually returned to Australia three years later. She grew up in Sydney where she attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years.
Kidman has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself." During her teenage years, she attended the Phillip Street Theatre, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts, and the Australian Theatre for Young People, where she took up drama and mime as she found acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the sun drove her to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she was encouraged to pursue acting full-time, which she did by dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City (1988), based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a castaway at sea, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice, opposite Alec Baldwin, and the drama My Life, opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. That same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding her performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." For her performance, she received her first Golden Globe Award. In the following years, she appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, she starred alongside Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Practical Magic as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from finding lasting love. While the film opened at the top of the charts during its North American opening weekend, it was a commercial box office failure. She returned to the stage that same year for the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, she took on the role of cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." She subsequently received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Also in 2001, Kidman starred in Alejandro Amenábar's psychological horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, her performance earned her several award nominations, including a Goya Award nomination for Best Actress, in addition to receiving her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
The following year, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". She won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." That same year, she was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three distinct films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the American Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the drama film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, she addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". For her performance, she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. That same year, she starred alongside Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. The following year, she starred opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and starred alongside Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, she and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. No. 5 the Film, a three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5, made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, she was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on Forbes 2005 Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million between 2004 and 2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur, opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film at the time. The following year, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. Also in 2007, she starred as the main antagonist Marisa Coulter in the fantasy-adventure film The Golden Compass, which grossed over US$370 million worldwide, also becoming one of her highest-grossing films to date.
The following year, Kidman reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia (2008), set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Starring opposite Hugh Jackman, she played an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it turned out to be a box office success, grossing over $211 million worldwide against a budget of $130 million. In 2009, she appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the muse Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
Kidman began the 2010s by producing and starring in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart. Her performance as a grieving mother coping with the death of her son earned her critical acclaim, and she received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. The following year, she appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife, and subsequently starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage.
In 2012, Kidman starred alongside Clive Owen in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between journalist couple Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. For her performance as Gellhorn, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. That same year, she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless in Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012). The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and Kidman's performance garnered her nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. Also in 2012, her audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. The following year she starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker, which was released to positive reception and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. She also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which she played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, she returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her work in the show.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, she played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman took on the role of Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman, which grossed over US$1.1 billion worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film to date. Also in 2018, she was interviewed for a BAFTA event A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. In 2019, she took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, she received an additional Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
Kidman started off the 2020s with her role of Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. She served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, she received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Her only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key. The following year, she starred and served as executive producer on the Hulu drama miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. That same year, she portrayed actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth nomination overall.
In September 2021, Kidman starred in a commercial for AMC Theatres entitled "We Make Movies Better", which would play before every film in the theaters owned by the chain beginning that month and Kidman's sponsorship was later extended for another year in August 2022. The commercial and Kidman's delivery of her speech proved popular with audiences who viewed it as a way to drive moviegoers back to seeing films theatrically in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2022, Kidman appeared in an episode of the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 short story collection, in addition to serving as executive producer. That same month, she starred alongside her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe in the historical drama The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. The film was received with widespread acclaim upon its release.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will be reprising the role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She is also set to star and serve as executive producer on four television series: the drama miniseries Expats, the series adaptation of the Norwegian drama film Hope, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries. Kidman is also set to voice Queen Ellsmere in the animated fantasy film Spellbound. In January 2023, Kidman joined the cast of the Paramount+ television series Special Ops: Lioness, on which she was already serving as an executive producer. and joined Netflix series The Perfect Couple based on Elin Hilderbrand’s novel
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking eccentric roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her volatile performances and versatile work, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century, and in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, she was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.
Kidman is known to practise method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she oftentimes transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has adversely affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Scholars have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Colorado. While married, the couple adopted a daughter and a son. On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of a miscarriage early in her marriage: "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen. I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him". In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time of her divorce from Cruise led to increased public attention to her career, stating, "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met in 2005 at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in a Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the source material had been "watered down a little" and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2014, Kidman designed a gold coloured Paddington Bear statue, one of fifty located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2010, Kidman starred in the inauguration campaign of the Brazilian mall VillageMall, owned by the company Multiplan, located in Barra da Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and The Northman (2022). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
Nicole Kidman is selected for the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award and will receive it at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre on 10 June 2023.
See also
List of Australian Academy Award winners and nominees
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1967 births
Category:20th-century Australian actresses
Category:21st-century Australian actresses
Category:21st-century Australian singers
Category:21st-century Australian women singers
Category:Actresses from Honolulu
Category:Actresses from Sydney
Category:Audiobook narrators
Category:Australian company founders
Category:Australian film actresses
Category:Australian expatriate actresses in the United States
Category:Australian film producers
Category:Australian people of English descent
Category:Australian people of Irish descent
Category:Australian people of Scottish descent
Category:Australian Roman Catholics
Category:Australian television actresses
Category:Australian women ambassadors
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Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners
Category:Best Actress BAFTA Award winners
Category:Best Drama Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Miniseries or Television Movie Actress Golden Globe winners
Category:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners
Category:Best Supporting Actress AACTA Award winners
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Category:Businesspeople from Hawaii
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Category:Living people
Category:Logie Award winners
Category:Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie Screen Actors Guild Award winners
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Category:UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors | [] | [
"Nicole Kidman has been in relationships with several people. Prior to her first marriage, she was involved with Australian actor Marcus Graham and her Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. She was also said to be involved with actor Adrien Brody. In 2003, she met musician Lenny Kravitz and dated him into 2004. She also had a short romance with Robbie Williams on her yacht in the summer of 2004. It was mentioned in a 2007 Vanity Fair interview that Kidman had been secretly engaged to someone prior to her current marriage. She met her current husband, New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, in January 2005 at an event honouring Australians and married him in June 2006.",
"After her divorce from Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman was involved with musician Lenny Kravitz and had a short romance with Robbie Williams. She was secretly engaged to an undisclosed person prior to meeting her current husband Keith Urban, whom she married in June 2006.",
"Nicole Kidman has an adopted son and daughter from her marriage to Tom Cruise. The son's name is Connor Anthony and the daughter's name is Isabella Jane.",
"Nicole Kidman also has two biological daughters with her current husband, Keith Urban.",
"Nicole Kidman met her first husband, Tom Cruise, in November 1989 while filming Days of Thunder. She then met her current husband, Keith Urban, at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians, in January 2005.\nShe also had relationships with several people including Australian actor Marcus Graham, her Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson, Adrien Brody, musician Lenny Kravitz, and singer Robbie Williams at various times throughout her life."
] | [
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes"
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C_365c6134db2c45cb96f35f5b84dddb71_0 | Nicole Kidman | Kidman was born 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her father was Antony Kidman (1938-2014), a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, who died of a heart attack in Singapore aged 75. Her mother, Janelle Ann (nee Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. Kidman's ancestry includes Irish, Scottish and English heritage. | Wealth, philanthropy and honours | In 2002, Kidman first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and in 2004, she was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. Kidman joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. In the 2006 Australia Day Honours, Kidman was made a Companion of Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally." However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it wasn't until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. Kidman was appointed goodwill ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. In this capacity, Kidman has addressed international audiences at UN events, raised awareness through the media and testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence against Women Act. Kidman visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO - UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. In the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated character, Kidman's second stamp showed her as Satine from Moulin Rouge!. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international center located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2015, Kidman became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League, and once served as a club ambassador. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work across various film and television productions from several genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards.
Kidman began her acting career in Australia with the 1983 films Bush Christmas and BMX Bandits. Her breakthrough came in 1989 with the thriller film Dead Calm and the miniseries Bangkok Hilton. In 1990, she achieved international success with the action film Days of Thunder. She received greater recognition with lead roles in Far and Away (1992), Batman Forever (1995), To Die For (1995) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999). For her portrayal of writer Virginia Woolf in the drama The Hours (2002), Kidman won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received additional Academy Award nominations for her roles in the musical Moulin Rouge! (2001) and the dramas Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016) and Being the Ricardos (2021). Her highest-grossing releases include The Others (2001), The Golden Compass (2007), Just Go with It (2011), Paddington (2014), and Aquaman (2018).
Kidman's television roles include Hemingway & Gellhorn (2012), Big Little Lies (2017–2019), Top of the Lake: China Girl (2017), The Undoing (2020) and Nine Perfect Strangers (2021). For Big Little Lies, she received two Primetime Emmy Awards, one for Outstanding Lead Actress and the other for Outstanding Limited Series as an executive producer.
Kidman has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1994 and for UNIFEM since 2006. In 2006, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia. She was married to actor Tom Cruise from 1990 to 2001 and has been married to country music singer Keith Urban since 2006. In 2010, she founded the production company Blossom Films. In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine included her on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century.
Early life
Nicole Mary Kidman was born on 20 June 1967 in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were temporarily in the United States on student visas. Her mother is a nursing instructor who edited her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby; her father, Antony Kidman, was a biochemist, clinical psychologist, and author. She also has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist and TV presenter. Having been born in the American state of Hawaii to Australian parents, Kidman holds dual citizenship of Australia and the United States. She has English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry. Being born in Hawaii, she was given the Hawaiian name "Hōkūlani" (), meaning "heavenly star." The inspiration came from a baby elephant born around the same time at the Honolulu Zoo.
When Kidman was born, her father was a graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He became a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, her parents participated in anti-war protests while living in Washington, D.C, having moved there shortly after Kidman's birth. Her family eventually returned to Australia three years later. She grew up in Sydney where she attended Lane Cove Public School and North Sydney Girls' High School. She was enrolled in ballet at the age of three and showed her natural talent for acting during her primary and high school years.
Kidman has said she first aspired to become an actress upon watching Margaret Hamilton's performance as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She revealed that she was timid as a child, saying, "I am very shy – really shy – I even had a stutter as a kid, which I slowly got over, but I still regress into that shyness. So I don't like walking into a crowded restaurant by myself; I don't like going to a party by myself." During her teenage years, she attended the Phillip Street Theatre, alongside fellow actress Naomi Watts, and the Australian Theatre for Young People, where she took up drama and mime as she found acting to be a refuge. Owing to her fair skin and naturally red hair, the sun drove her to rehearse in the halls of the theatre. A regular at the Phillip Street Theatre, she was encouraged to pursue acting full-time, which she did by dropping out of high school.
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1983–1994)
In 1983, 16-year-old Kidman made her film debut in a remake of the Australian holiday classic Bush Christmas. By the end of that year, she had a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek. In 1984, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, which caused Kidman to halt her acting work temporarily while she studied massage therapy in order to help her mother with physical therapy. She began gaining recognition during this decade after appearing in several Australian films, such as the action comedy BMX Bandits (1983) and the romantic comedy Windrider (1986). Throughout the rest of the 1980s, she appeared in various Australian television programs, including the 1987 miniseries Vietnam, for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
Kidman next appeared in the Australian film Emerald City (1988), based on the play of the same name, which earned her a second Australian Film Institute Award. She then starred alongside Sam Neill in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of a naval officer who is menaced by a castaway at sea, played by Billy Zane. The film proved to be her breakthrough role, and was one of the first films for which she gained international recognition. Regarding her performance, Variety commented how "throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." She followed that up with the Australian miniseries Bangkok Hilton before moving on to star alongside her then-boyfriend and future ex-husband, Tom Cruise, in the 1990 sports action film Days of Thunder, as a young doctor who falls in love with a NASCAR driver. Considered to be her international breakout film, it was among the highest-grossing films of the year.
In 1991, Kidman co-starred alongside Thandiwe Newton and former classmate Naomi Watts in the Australian independent film Flirting. They portrayed high school girls in this coming of age story, which won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Film. That same year, her work in the film Billy Bathgate earned Kidman her first Golden Globe Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress. The New York Times, in its film review, called her "a beauty with, it seems, a sense of humor". The following year, she and Cruise re-teamed for Ron Howard's Irish epic Far and Away (1992), which was a modest critical and commercial success. In 1993, she starred in the thriller Malice, opposite Alec Baldwin, and the drama My Life, opposite Michael Keaton.
Worldwide recognition and critical acclaim (1995–2003)
In 1995, Kidman played Dr. Chase Meridian, the damsel in distress, in the superhero film Batman Forever, opposite Val Kilmer as the film's title character. That same year, she starred in Gus Van Sant's critically acclaimed dark comedy To Die For, in which she played the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone. Regarding her performance, Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said "[she] brings to the role layers of meaning, intention and impulse. Telling her story in close-up – as she does throughout the film – Kidman lets you see the calculation, the wheels turning, the transparent efforts to charm that succeed in charming all the same." For her performance, she received her first Golden Globe Award. In the following years, she appeared alongside Barbara Hershey and John Malkovich in The Portrait of a Lady (1996), based on the novel of the same name, and starred in The Peacemaker (1997) as nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly, opposite George Clooney. The latter film grossed US$110 million worldwide. In 1998, she starred alongside Sandra Bullock in the romantic comedy Practical Magic as two witch sisters who face a threatening curse that prevents them from finding lasting love. While the film opened at the top of the charts during its North American opening weekend, it was a commercial box office failure. She returned to the stage that same year for the David Hare play The Blue Room, which opened in London. For her performance, she received a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
In 1999, Kidman reunited with then-husband Tom Cruise to portray a couple on a sexual odyssey in Eyes Wide Shut, their third film together and the final film of director Stanley Kubrick. It was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes. After a brief hiatus and a highly publicised divorce from Cruise, Kidman returned to the screen to play a mail-order bride in the British-American drama Birthday Girl. In 2001, she took on the role of cabaret actress and courtesan Satine in Baz Luhrmann's musical Moulin Rouge!, opposite Ewan McGregor. Her performance and her singing received positive reviews; Paul Clinton of CNN called it her best work since To Die For, and wrote "[she] is smoldering and stunning as Satine. She moves with total confidence throughout the film [...] Kidman seems to specialize in 'ice queen' characters, but with Satine, she allows herself to thaw, just a bit." She subsequently received her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, among several other awards and nominations, including her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Also in 2001, Kidman starred in Alejandro Amenábar's psychological horror film The Others (2001) as Grace Stewart, a mother living in the Channel Islands during World War II who suspects her house is haunted. Grossing over US$210 million worldwide, her performance earned her several award nominations, including a Goya Award nomination for Best Actress, in addition to receiving her second BAFTA Award and fifth Golden Globe Award nominations. Roger Ebert commented that "Alejandro Amenábar has the patience to create a languorous, dreamy atmosphere, and Nicole Kidman succeeds in convincing us that she is a normal person in a disturbing situation, and not just a standard-issue horror movie hysteric."
The following year, Kidman garnered critical acclaim for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry's The Hours, co-starring alongside Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman wore prosthetics, which were applied to her nose, in order to portray the author during 1920s England, making her look almost unrecognisable. The film was a critical success, earning several awards and nominations, including a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The New York Times wrote that "Ms. Kidman, in a performance of astounding bravery, evokes the savage inner war waged by a brilliant mind against a system of faulty wiring that transmits a searing, crazy static into her brain". She won numerous critic and industry awards for her performance, including her first BAFTA Award, third Golden Globe Award, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Australian to win the award. During her Oscar's acceptance speech, she referenced the Iraq War which was occurring at the time when speaking about the importance of art saying, "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld." That same year, she was named the World's Most Beautiful Person by People magazine.
Following her Oscar win, Kidman appeared in three distinct films in 2003. The first of those, a leading role in director Lars von Trier's Dogville, was an experimental film set on a bare soundstage. Though the film divided critics in the United States, Kidman earned praise for her performance. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone stated, "Kidman gives the most emotionally bruising performance of her career in Dogville, a movie that never met a cliche it didn't stomp on." The second film was an adaptation of Philip Roth's novel The Human Stain, opposite Anthony Hopkins. Her third film that year was Anthony Minghella's war drama Cold Mountain, where she starred opposite Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, playing Southerner Ada Monroe, a woman who falls in love with Law's character and become separated by the American Civil War. Regarding her performance, Time magazine wrote, "Kidman takes strength from Ada's plight and grows steadily, literally luminous. Her sculptural pallor gives way to warm radiance in the firelight". The film garnered several awards and nominations, most notably for the performances of the cast, with Kidman receiving her sixth Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Established actress (2004–2009)
In 2004, Kidman starred in the drama film Birth, which sparked controversy over a scene in which she shares a bath with her co-star Cameron Bright, then aged ten. During a press conference at the 61st Venice International Film Festival, she addressed the controversy saying, "It wasn't that I wanted to make a film where I kiss a 10-year-old boy. I wanted to make a film where you understand love". For her performance, she received her seventh Golden Globe nomination. That same year, she starred alongside Matthew Broderick, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken and Glenn Close in the black comedy science-fiction film The Stepford Wives, a remake of the 1975 film of the same name, directed by Frank Oz. The following year, she starred opposite Sean Penn in the Sydney Pollack thriller The Interpreter, playing UN translator Silvia Broome, and starred alongside Will Ferrell in the romantic comedy Bewitched, based on the 1960s TV sitcom of the same name. While neither film fared well in the United States, both were international successes. For the latter film, she and Ferrell earned the Razzie Award for Worst Screen Couple.
In conjunction with her success within the film industry, Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann, to promote the fragrance during the holiday seasons of 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2008. No. 5 the Film, a three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5, made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned US$12 million for the three-minute advert. During this time, she was also featured as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on Forbes 2005 Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million between 2004 and 2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's highest-paid actresses, Kidman came in second behind Julia Roberts, with a US$16–17 million per-film price tag.
In 2006, Kidman portrayed photographer Diane Arbus in the biographical film Fur, opposite Robert Downey Jr., and lent her voice to the animated film Happy Feet, which grossed over US$384 million worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film at the time. The following year, she starred in the science-fiction film The Invasion, a remake of the 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers, directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and starred opposite Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black in Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding, which earned her a Satellite Award nomination for Best Actress – Musical or Comedy. Also in 2007, she starred as the main antagonist Marisa Coulter in the fantasy-adventure film The Golden Compass, which grossed over US$370 million worldwide, also becoming one of her highest-grossing films to date.
The following year, Kidman reunited with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann for the Australian period film Australia (2008), set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Starring opposite Hugh Jackman, she played an Englishwoman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. Though the film received mixed reviews from critics, it turned out to be a box office success, grossing over $211 million worldwide against a budget of $130 million. In 2009, she appeared in the Rob Marshall musical Nine, portraying the muse Claudia Jenssen, alongside an ensemble cast consisting of Daniel Day-Lewis, Marion Cotillard, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Fergie, Kate Hudson and Sophia Loren. Kidman, whose screen time was brief in comparison to the other actresses, performed the musical number "Unusual Way" alongside Day-Lewis. The film received several Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations, with Kidman earning her fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, as part of the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award.
Biographical and independent films (2010–2015)
Kidman began the 2010s by producing and starring in the film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole, alongside Aaron Eckhart. Her performance as a grieving mother coping with the death of her son earned her critical acclaim, and she received nominations for the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. The following year, she appeared with Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston in Dennis Dugan's romantic comedy Just Go with It, as a trophy wife, and subsequently starred alongside Nicolas Cage in director Joel Schumacher's action-thriller Trespass, with the stars playing a married couple taken hostage.
In 2012, Kidman starred alongside Clive Owen in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn, which depicted the relationship between journalist couple Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn. For her performance as Gellhorn, she received her first Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. That same year, she portrayed death row groupie Charlotte Bless in Lee Daniels' adaptation of the Pete Dexter novel, The Paperboy (2012). The film competed at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and Kidman's performance garnered her nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award and the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress, in addition to her second Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her tenth nomination overall. Also in 2012, her audiobook recording of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse was released through Audible. The following year she starred as an unstable mother in Park Chan-wook's Stoker, which was released to positive reception and a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. In April 2013, she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
In 2014, Kidman starred as the titular character in the biographical film Grace of Monaco, which chronicles the 1962 crisis in which Charles de Gaulle blockaded the tiny principality, angered by Monaco's status as a tax haven for wealthy French subjects and Kelly's contemplative Hollywood return to star in Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie. Opening out of competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, the film received largely negative reviews. She also starred in two films with Colin Firth that year, the first being the British-Australian historical drama The Railway Man, in which she played an officer's wife. Katherine Monk of the Montreal Gazette said of Kidman's performance, "It's a truly masterful piece of acting that transcends Teplitzky's store-bought framing, but it's Kidman who delivers the biggest surprise: For the first time since her eyebrows turned into solid marble arches, the Australian Oscar winner is truly terrific". Her second film with Firth was the British thriller film Before I Go To Sleep, portraying a car crash survivor with brain damage. Also in 2014, she appeared in the live-action animated comedy film Paddington as the film's main antagonist.
In 2015, Kidman starred in the drama Strangerland, which opened at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, and the Jason Bateman-directed The Family Fang, produced by Kidman's production company, Blossom Films, which premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In her other 2015 film release, the biographical drama Queen of the Desert, she portrayed writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist Gertrude Bell. That same year, she played a district attorney, opposite Julia Roberts and Chiwetel Ejiofor, in the film Secret in Their Eyes, a remake of the 2009 Argentine film of the same name, both based on the novel La pregunta de sus ojos by author Eduardo Sacheri. After more than 15 years, she returned to the West End in the UK premiere of Photograph 51 at the Noël Coward Theatre. She starred as British scientist Rosalind Franklin, working for the discovery of the structure of DNA, in the production from 5 September to 21 November 2015, directed by Michael Grandage. The production was met with considerable praise from critics, particularly for Kidman, and her return to the West End was hailed a success. For her performance, she won an Evening Standard Theatre Award and received a second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.
Lion, Big Little Lies and continued acclaim (2016–present)
In 2016's Lion, Kidman portrayed Sue, the adoptive mother of Saroo Brierley, an Indian boy who was separated from his birth family, a role she felt connected to as she herself is the mother of adopted children. She received positive reviews for her performance, in addition to her first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress, her fourth nomination overall, and her eleventh Golden Globe Award nomination, among several others. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times thought that "Kidman gives a powerful and moving performance as Saroo's adoptive mother, who loves her son with every molecule of her being, but comes to understand his quest. It's as good as anything she's done in the last decade." Budgeted at US$12 million, Lion earned over US$140 million globally. She also gave a voice-over performance for the English version of the animated film The Guardian Brothers.
In 2017, Kidman returned to television for Big Little Lies, a drama series based on Liane Moriarty's novel of the same name, which premiered on HBO. She also served as executive producer alongside her co-star, Reese Witherspoon, and the show's director, Jean-Marc Vallée. She played Celeste Wright, a former lawyer and housewife, who conceals an abusive relationship with her husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård. Matthew Jacobs of The Huffington Post considered that she "delivered a career-defining performance", while Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote that "Kidman belongs in the pantheon of great actresses". She won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance, as well as the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Limited Series as a producer. She also received a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Critics' Choice Television Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for her work in the show.
Kidman next played Martha Farnsworth, the headmistress of an all-girls school during the American Civil War, in Sofia Coppola's drama The Beguiled, a remake of the 1971 film of the same name, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, competing for the Palme d'Or. Both films were adaptations of a novel by Thomas P. Cullinan. The film was an arthouse success, and Katie Walsh of the Tribune News Service found Kidman "particularly, unsurprisingly excellent in her performance as the steely Miss Martha. She is controlled and in control, unflappable. Her genteel manners and femininity co-exist easily with her toughness." Kidman had two other films premiere at the festival: the science-fiction romantic comedy How to Talk to Girls at Parties, reuniting her with director John Cameron Mitchell, and the psychological thriller The Killing of a Sacred Deer, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, which also competed for the Palme d'Or. Also in 2017, she played supporting roles in the BBC Two television series Top of the Lake: China Girl and in the comedy-drama The Upside, a remake of the 2011 French comedy The Intouchables, starring Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart.
In 2018, Kidman starred in two dramasDestroyer and Boy Erased. In the former, she played a detective troubled by a case for two decades. Peter Debruge of Variety and Brooke Marine of W both found her "unrecognizable" in the role and Debruge added that "she disappears into an entirely new skin, rearranging her insides to fit the character's tough hide", whereas Marine highlighted Kidman's method acting. The latter film is based on Garrard Conley's Boy Erased: A Memoir, and features Russell Crowe and Kidman as socially conservative parents who send their son (played by Lucas Hedges) to a gay conversion program. Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair credited all three performers for "elevating the fairly standard-issue material to poignant highs". That same year, Kidman took on the role of Queen Atlanna, the mother of the title character, in the DC Extended Universe superhero film Aquaman, which grossed over US$1.1 billion worldwide, becoming her highest-grossing film to date. Also in 2018, she was interviewed for a BAFTA event A Life in Pictures, where she reflected on her extensive film career.
Forbes ranked her as the fourth highest-paid actress in the world in 2019, with an annual income of $34 million. In 2019, she took on the supporting part of a rich socialite in John Crowley's drama The Goldfinch, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Donna Tartt, starring Ansel Elgort. Although it was poorly received, Owen Gleiberman commended Kidman for playing her part with "elegant affection". She next co-starred alongside Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie in the drama Bombshell, a film depicting the scandal concerning the sexual harassment accusations against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, in which she portrayed journalist Gretchen Carlson. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times opined that despite lesser screen time than her two co-protagonists, Kidman successfully made Carlson "ever-so-slightly ridiculous, adding a sharp sliver of comedy that underscores how self-serving and futile her rebellious gestures at the network are". For her performance, she received an additional Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.
Kidman started off the 2020s with her role of Grace Fraser, a successful New York therapist, in the HBO psychological thriller miniseries The Undoing, based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. She served as executive producer alongside the show's director, Susanne Bier, and David E. Kelley, who previously adapted and produced Big Little Lies. For her performance, she received additional Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Her only film release of 2020 was the musical comedy The Prom, based on the Broadway musical of the same name, starring alongside Meryl Streep, James Corden and Keegan-Michael Key. The following year, she starred and served as executive producer on the Hulu drama miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers, based on the novel of the same name by Liane Moriarty. That same year, she portrayed actress-comedian Lucille Ball alongside Javier Bardem as Ball's husband, Desi Arnaz, in the biographical drama Being the Ricardos, directed by Aaron Sorkin. Despite unfavourable reactions in response to her casting as Ball, her portrayal was met with critical acclaim. She subsequently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for her performance, in addition to receiving nominations for the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role, as well as her fourth Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, her fifth nomination overall.
In September 2021, Kidman starred in a commercial for AMC Theatres entitled "We Make Movies Better", which would play before every film in the theaters owned by the chain beginning that month and Kidman's sponsorship was later extended for another year in August 2022. The commercial and Kidman's delivery of her speech proved popular with audiences who viewed it as a way to drive moviegoers back to seeing films theatrically in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2022, Kidman appeared in an episode of the anthology series Roar, based on Cecelia Ahern's 2018 short story collection, in addition to serving as executive producer. That same month, she starred alongside her Big Little Lies co-star Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe in the historical drama The Northman, directed by Robert Eggers. The film was received with widespread acclaim upon its release.
Upcoming projects
Kidman will be reprising the role of Queen Atlanna in the sequel to the 2018 superhero film Aquaman, titled Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. She is also set to star and serve as executive producer on four television series: the drama miniseries Expats, the series adaptation of the Norwegian drama film Hope, the thriller miniseries Pretty Things, based on the upcoming novel of the same name by Janelle Brown, and the family-drama series Things I Know To Be True, based on the Australian play of the same name. Unlike her other television projects, Things I Know To Be True is envisioned as an ongoing series with multiple seasons rather than a miniseries. Kidman is also set to voice Queen Ellsmere in the animated fantasy film Spellbound. In January 2023, Kidman joined the cast of the Paramount+ television series Special Ops: Lioness, on which she was already serving as an executive producer. and joined Netflix series The Perfect Couple based on Elin Hilderbrand’s novel
Reception and legacy
Kidman is often regarded to be among the finest actresses of her generation. She has been noted for seeking eccentric roles in risky projects helmed by auteurs, as well as for her volatile performances and versatile work, having appeared in a variety of eclectic films from several genres throughout her extensive career spanning over nearly four decades. Vanity Fair stated that, despite struggling with her personal life being publicly scrutinised by the media during the early years of her career, "[Kidman] has shown herself to be a major talent, a remarkable actress who can get in there with the best of them, go toe-to-toe, and come out with her credibility intact. What's more, she's proved herself to be a star with a capital S, the one-in-a-generation kind who, like Elizabeth Taylor, is bigger than the Hollywood system, and is also unafraid to be human and real, which only makes her more popular." According to The New York Times, "the plucky, disciplined indomitability she brings to her performances, even more than the artistry she displays within them, may be the secret of her appeal, the source of her bond with the audience." Emily Nussbaum of The New Yorker commented how "in each role, there is something waxen and watchful and self-possessed about Kidman, so that, even when she's smiling, she never seems liberated. While other actors specialize in transparency, Kidman has a different gift: she can wear a mask and simultaneously let you feel what it's like to hide behind it." In 2004 and 2018, Time magazine named Kidman one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her fifth on its list of the greatest actors of the 21st century, and in a 2022 readers' poll by Empire magazine, she was voted one of the 50 greatest actors of all time.
Kidman is known to practise method acting for many of her roles. It has been noted that she oftentimes transforms herself physically, mentally and emotionally in order to resemble her characters, to the point where it has adversely affected her health. Mark Caro from the Los Angeles Times stated that "to Nicole Kidman, acting isn't a mere technical feat; it's the art of transformation. To hear her tell it, the change can be as dramatic as a caterpillar-into-butterfly metamorphosis. She'll be working and working to get under the skin of a character." W Magazine described her as a "cipher", and pointed out how "she gets under her character's skin so thoroughly, it's nearly impossible to distinguish the actress from the role. It's why she has become so synonymous with a few key roles [...] and why those films are so defined by Kidman's presence in them."
Scholars have also commented on her acting style and approach to roles. Sharon Marie Carnicke, a professor of critical studies and acting at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, mentioned that "Kidman's [acting] choices are believable and natural as reactions to the specific circumstances in her world" and described her work as "kinetic". Dennis Bingham, a professor of English and director of film studies at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, stated that "Kidman acts always a step or two outside the character, telegraphing her reactions, elongating the time she takes to articulate her decisions and conclusions. Even her emotional responses are presented as signs." Pam Cook, a professor of film at the University of Southampton, suggests in her biography of Kidman that "her emphasis on artifice and technique points to a conception of screen acting that looks to cinematic expression rather than to the actor's body and intentions for the realisation of character." Mary Luckhurst, a professor and head of the University of Bristol School of Arts with credentials in theatre and performance, stated how "she has strategically pursued a high-risk mutability and versatility, and regularly traverses between naturalist and non-naturalist roles and artforms." She continues saying that "she can continually test her own emotional limits, physical skills, politics, values and frames of reference" and mentions how "her conception of character acting involves metamorphosing gradually into something that she feels is so 'other' that she frequently speaks of losing herself or getting lost in the role, and her preparedness to challenge herself in this respect has continually surprised other actors, directors and producers."
Kidman has also been described as a fashion icon. The chartreuse Dior gown she wore to the 1997 Academy Awards is regarded as one of the greatest dresses in Oscar history and has been credited with changing red carpet fashion forever. Vogue described how "from her embroidered chartreuse John Galliano for Christian Dior gown in 1997, at the side of then-husband Tom Cruise, to that impeccable red Balenciaga moment at the 2007 Oscars, to the unforgettable Calvin Klein ballerina dress she wore to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, the Australian native has mastered the art of red carpet dressing, always piquing our [interest] and taking risks while never overdoing it." Insider stated that "over the years, Kidman has experimented with all sorts of trends, including bold colors, statement jewelry, and everything in between, making herself one of the most iconic celebrities when it comes to her fashion choices." In 2003, she received the Fashion Icon Award, which was awarded to her by the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Regarding her bestowal, Peter Arnold, executive director of the CFDA, said in a statement, "Nicole Kidman's style, both on and off the screen, has had an undeniable impact on fashion. As an actress, she has developed her many memorable characters with an innate understanding of the artistry of clothes. At the same time, she has elegantly established her personal style and own iconic presence worldwide."
Personal life
Relationships and family
Kidman has been married twice: first to actor Tom Cruise, and later to country singer Keith Urban. Kidman met Cruise in 1989 while working on the set of Days of Thunder, a film in which they both starred, and they married on Christmas Eve of 1990 in Colorado. While married, the couple adopted a daughter and a son. On 5 February 2001, the couple's spokesperson announced their separation. Cruise filed for divorce two days later, and their marriage was dissolved later that year, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences. In a 2007 interview with Marie Claire, Kidman noted the incorrect reporting of a miscarriage early in her marriage: "It was wrongly reported as miscarriage by everyone who picked up the story. So it's huge news, and it didn't happen. I had a miscarriage at the end of my marriage, but I had an ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of my marriage."
In the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman revealed that she still loved Cruise despite their divorce: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me and I loved him. I still love him". In addition, she expressed shock about the divorce. In 2015, former Church of Scientology executive Mark Rathbun claimed in a documentary film that he was instructed to "facilitate [Cruise's] break-up with Nicole Kidman". Cruise's auditor further claimed Kidman had been wiretapped on Cruise's suggestion. In an interview with Tina Brown at the 2015 Women in the World conference, she expressed that the attention surrounding her at the time of her divorce from Cruise led to increased public attention to her career, stating, "Out of my divorce came work that was applauded, so that was an interesting thing for me." She went on to receive an Academy Award in 2003, shortly after her divorce.
Prior to marrying Cruise, Kidman had been involved in relationships with Australian actor Marcus Graham and Windrider co-star Tom Burlinson. The film Cold Mountain brought rumours that an affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both denied the allegations, and Kidman won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She began dating musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 before becoming engaged to him, but they ultimately decided to break off their engagement. She was also romantically involved with rapper Q-Tip.
During an interview for Vanity Fair in 2007, Kidman mentioned that she had been secretly engaged to someone, later revealed to have been Lenny Kravitz, prior to her present relationship with New Zealand-Australian country singer Keith Urban, whom she met in 2005 at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians. Kidman married Urban on 25 June 2006 at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly, in Sydney. In a 2015 interview, regarding her relationship with Urban, Kidman said, "We didn't really know each other – we got to know each other during our marriage." They maintain homes in Nashville (Tennessee, U.S.), Beverly Hills (California, U.S.), two apartments in Sydney (New South Wales, Australia), a farmhouse in Sutton Forest (New South Wales, Australia), and an apartment in Manhattan (New York, U.S.). The couple's first daughter was born in 2008, in Nashville. In 2010, Kidman and Urban welcomed their second daughter via gestational surrogacy at Nashville's Centennial Women's Hospital.
Religious and political views
Kidman was brought up in a Catholic family and remains practising. She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. Following criticism by Catholic leaders regarding her role in The Golden Compass as anti-Catholic, Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that the source material had been "watered down a little" and that her religious beliefs would prevent her from taking a role in a film she perceived as anti-Catholic. Since her divorce from Tom Cruise, she has been reluctant to discuss Scientology.
A supporter of women's rights, Kidman testified before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs to support the International Violence Against Women Act in 2009. In January 2017, she stated her support for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Australia. Kidman has also donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates.
Wealth, philanthropy and honours
Kidman has featured in annual rankings of the world's highest-paid actors multiple times, including the top spot for a woman in 2006. In 2002, she first appeared on the Australian rich list published annually in the Business Review Weekly with an estimated net worth of A$122 million. In the 2011 published list, Kidman's wealth was estimated at A$304 million, down from A$329 million in 2010. In 2015, her wealth was estimated to have risen up to A$331 million.
Kidman has raised money for, and drawn attention to, disadvantaged children around the world. In 1994, she was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF. She also joined the Little Tee Campaign for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money to fight the disease; motivated by her mother's own battle with breast cancer in 1984. Kidman was also appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) in 2006. She visited Kosovo in 2006 to learn about women's experiences of conflict and UNIFEM's support efforts. She is also the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO – UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative. Kidman and the UNIFEM executive director presented over five million signatures collected during the first phase of this to the UN Secretary-General on 25 November 2008. On 8 January 2010, alongside Nancy Pelosi, Joan Chen and Joe Torre, Kidman attended the ceremony to help the Family Violence Prevention Fund break ground on a new international centre located in the Presidio of San Francisco. In 2014, Kidman designed a gold coloured Paddington Bear statue, one of fifty located around London prior to the release of the film Paddington, which was auctioned to raise funds for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC). In 2016, she donated $50,000 to UN Women.
In 2004, Kidman was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations. During the 2006 Australia Day Honours, she was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally". However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was not until 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour. It was presented by the Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery, in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra. At the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of postage stamps featuring Australian actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-nominated characters, with Kidman appearing as Satine from Moulin Rouge!.
Other work
Kidman has taken part in several endorsement deals representing various companies. In 2003, she served as the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume. She has also served as an ambassador for Omega watches since 2005. In 2007, Nintendo announced that she would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market. In 2010, Kidman starred in the inauguration campaign of the Brazilian mall VillageMall, owned by the company Multiplan, located in Barra da Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro. In 2013, she served as the face of Jimmy Choo shoes. In 2015, she became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways. In 2017, she was announced as the new face of Neutrogena. In 2020, she joined SeraLabs as their global brand ambassador.
Kidman supports the Nashville Predators, being seen and photographed almost nightly throughout the season. Additionally, she supports the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League and once served as a club ambassador.
Acting credits and awards
According to the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, which assigns film scores based on critic reviews and audience reception, some of Kidman's highest-scoring films include Paddington (2014), Flirting (1990), To Die For (1995), Rabbit Hole (2010), Lion (2016), The Others (2001), The Family Fang (2015), Dead Calm (1989), Boy Erased (2018), The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) and The Northman (2022). Her most financially successful films include Aquaman (2018), Happy Feet (2006), The Golden Compass (2008), Batman Forever (1995) and Paddington (2014), as listed by the box office tracking website The Numbers as her highest-grossing films. Her other screen credits include:
In 2003, Kidman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her achievements in the motion picture industry. In addition to her Academy Award for Best Actress win, she has received many other awards and nominations for her performances on the screen and stage, including four additional Academy Award nominations, one BAFTA Award from five nominations, two Laurence Olivier Award nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards from three nominations, a Screen Actors Guild Award from fifteen nominations, three Critics' Choice Awards from fifteen nominations and six Golden Globe Awards from seventeen nominations, among various others.
Discography
Kidman's discography consists of several audio recordings, including one spoken word album, one extended play and three singles. Kidman, primarily known for her acting career, entered the music industry during the early 2000s after recording a number of tracks for the original motion picture soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's 2001 musical film Moulin Rouge!, which she starred in. Her duet with Ewan McGregor entitled "Come What May" was released as her debut single and the second single off of the film's original soundtrack album through Interscope Records on 24 September 2001. The composition became the eighth-highest selling single by an Australian artist that year, being certified Gold by the Australian Recording Industry Association, while peaking at number twenty-seven on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the song received a Best Original Song nomination at the 59th Golden Globe Awards and was listed at eighty-fifth within AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs by the American Film Institute.
"Somethin' Stupid", a cover version of Frank and Nancy Sinatra's version, followed soon after. The track, recorded as a duet with English singer-songwriter Robbie Williams, was issued on 14 December 2001 by Chrysalis Records as the lead single off his fourth studio album, Swing When You're Winning. Kidman's second single topped the official music charts in New Zealand, Portugal, and the UK, in addition to reaching top ten placings all over Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as Australia. Apart from being certified either Gold in a number of countries, it was ranked as the thirteenth best-selling single of 2002 in the UK, the fifty-ninth in Australia and the ninety-third in France, respectively. The song peaked at No. 8 on the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart and at No. 1, for three weeks, in the UK.
On 5 April 2002, Kidman released through Interscope Records her third single, a cover of Randy Crawford's "One Day I'll Fly Away". The song, a Tony Philips remix, was promoted as the pilot single for the follow-up to the Moulin Rouge! original soundtrack, titled Moulin Rouge! Vol. 2. In 2006, she contributed to the original motion picture soundtrack of Happy Feet, recording a rendition of the Prince song "Kiss" for the film. In 2009, she was featured on the original soundtrack of Rob Marshall's 2009 musical film Nine, recording the song
"Unusual Way". In 2012, she narrated an audiobook and in 2017, she contributed with background vocals to her husband's, country music singer Keith Urban, song titled "Female".
Nicole Kidman is selected for the 49th AFI Life Achievement Award and will receive it at Hollywood's Dolby Theatre on 10 June 2023.
See also
List of Australian Academy Award winners and nominees
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1967 births
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Category:UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors | [] | [
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"Nicole Kidman is a wealthy actress who first appeared on the Australian rich list in 2002. Her wealth fluctuated between 2002 and 2011. In addition to her acting career, she has been involved in various humanitarian efforts. She has served as a goodwill ambassador for both UNICEF and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Kidman has also been honoured by the United Nations as a \"Citizen of the World\" and by Australia with the Companion of Order of Australia (AC). She has contributed to cancer research and advocated for improvement of medical treatment for women and children. She has raised money for breast cancer care and drawn attention to disadvantaged children around the world. Additionally, she is the international spokesperson for UNIFEM's Say NO - UNiTE to End Violence against Women initiative, and has supported the International Violence against Women Act. She became the brand ambassador for Etihad Airways in 2015 and supports sports teams including the Nashville Predators and Sydney Swans.",
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C_ad5c8ff76bea458fbc490ce44942e6ee_0 | Nas | Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born on September 14, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician, from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (Little) Jones, was a Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has one sibling, a brother named Jabari Fret who is best known as "Jungle", a member of the hip-hop group Bravehearts. | 1995-1997: Mainstream direction and The Firm | Columbia Records began to press Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of The Notorious B.I.G., who had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained radio-friendly appeal. In 1995, Nas did guest performances on the albums Doe or Die by AZ, The Infamous by The Infamous Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap. Nas also parted ways with manager MC Serch, enlisted Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second LP, It Was Written, consciously working towards a crossover-oriented sound. It Was Written, chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of Trackmasters, was released in mid-1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams", including a remix with R. Kelly were instant hits. These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. It Was Written featured the debut of The Firm, a supergroup consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega. The album also expanded on Nas's Escobar persona, who lived a Scarface/Casino-esque lifestyle. On the other hand, references to Scarface protagonist Tony Montana notwithstanding, Illmatic was more about his early life growing up in the projects. Signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, The Firm began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega subsequently became one of Nas's most vocal opponents and released a number of underground hip hop singles "dissing" Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who replaced Cormega as the fourth member of The Firm. Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The album failed to live up to its expected sales, despite being certified platinum, and the members of the group disbanded to go their separate ways. During this period, Nas was one of four rappers (the others being B-Real, KRS-One and RBX) in the hip-hop supergroup Group Therapy, who appeared on the song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" from Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (; born September 14, 1973), better known by his stage name Nas (), is an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Jones began his musical career in 1989 as he adopted the moniker of "Nasty Nas" and recorded demos for Large Professor. He was later featured on the 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque" by Main Source.
Nas's debut album, Illmatic (1994), received universal acclaim upon release, and is considered to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time; in 2020, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. His second album It Was Written (1996) debuted atop the Billboard 200 and charted for four consecutive weeks; the album, along with its single "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill), catapulted Nas into international success. Both released in 1999, Nas's albums I Am and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and too commercially oriented, and critics and fans feared that his output was declining in quality.
From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with Jay-Z, popularized by the diss track "Ether". It was this feud, along with Nas's albums Stillmatic (2001), God's Son (2002), and the double album Street's Disciple (2004), that helped restore his critical standing. After squashing the feud, Nas signed to Jay-Z's Def Jam Recordings in 2006 and went in a more provocative, politicized direction with the albums Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and his untitled 9th studio album (2008). In 2010, Nas released Distant Relatives, a collaboration album with Damian Marley, donating all royalties to charities active in Africa. His 10th studio album, Life Is Good (2012), was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. After receiving thirteen nominations, his 12th studio album, King's Disease (2020), won him his first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards; he then followed it by releasing his 13th studio album, King's Disease II (2021), as the album's sequel. In the same year, his 14th studio album, Magic, was released on Christmas Eve. King's Disease III (2022) is his fourth consecutive album with producer Hit-Boy.
In 2012, The Source ranked him second on their list of the "Top 50 Lyricists of All Time". In 2013, Nas was ranked 4th on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list. About.com ranked him first on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. He is also an entrepreneur through his own record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records.
Nas has released fifteen studio albums since 1994, ten of which are certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S.
Early life
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 14, 1973, to African American parents. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (née Little; 1941–2002) was a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of hip hop group Bravehearts. His father adopted the name "Olu Dara" from the Yoruba people. "Nasir" is an Arabic name meaning "helper and protector", while "bin" means "son of" in Arabic. He is a cousin of actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.
As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge Houses in the borough of Queens. His neighbor, Willy "Ill Will" Graham, influenced his interest in hip hop by playing him records. His parents divorced in 1985, and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade. He educated himself about African culture through the Five-Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam) and the Nuwaubian Nation. In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.
Career
As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willie "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting his more commonly known alias of "Nasty Nas". In 1989, then-16-year-old Nas met up with producer Large Professor and went to the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums. When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material. However, none of it was ever released.
1991–1994: The beginnings and Illmatic
In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", also produced by Large Professor. In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records during the same year. Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead. Called the new Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip hop community.
In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic, was released. It featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several singles, including "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News called Illmatic "the first classic LP" of 1994. In 1994, Nas also recorded the song "One on One" for the soundtrack to the film Street Fighter. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, William Jelani Cobb writes of Nas's impact at the time:
Illmatic was awarded best album of 1994 by The Source. Steve Huey of AllMusic described Nas's lyrics on Illmatic as "highly literate" and his raps "superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary", adding that Nas is "able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto life without losing hope or forgetting the good times". About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip hop album of all time, and Prefix magazine praised it as "the best hip hop record ever made".
1994–1998: Transition to mainstream direction and the Firm
In 1995, Nas did guest performances on the albums Doe or Die by AZ, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap. Nas also parted ways with manager MC Serch, enlisted Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second album, It Was Written. The album was chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of the Trackmasters, as Nas consciously worked towards a crossover-oriented sound. Columbia Records had begun to pressure Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of The Notorious B.I.G., who had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained radio-friendly appeal. The album also expanded on Nas's Escobar persona, who lived a Scarface/Casino-esque lifestyle. On the other hand, references to Scarface protagonist Tony Montana notwithstanding, Illmatic was more about his early life growing up in the projects.
It Was Written was released in mid-1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams" (including a remix with R. Kelly), were instant hits. These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. Reviewing It Was Written, Leo Stanley of Allmusic believed the album's rhymes were not as complex as those of Illmatic, but still thought Nas had "deepened his talents, creating a complex series of rhymes that not only flow, but manage to tell coherent stories as well." It Was Written featured the debut of the Firm, a supergroup consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega.
Signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, the Firm began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega subsequently became one of Nas's most vocal opponents and released a number of underground hip hop singles dissing Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who replaced Cormega as the fourth member of the Firm. Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The album failed to live up to its expected sales, despite being certified platinum, and the members of the group disbanded to go their separate ways.
During this period, Nas was one of four rappers (the others being B-Real, KRS-One and RBX) in the hip-hop supergroup Group Therapy, who appeared on the song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" from Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath.
1998–2001: Heightened commercial direction and inconsistent output
In late 1998, Nas began working on a double album, to be entitled I Am... The Autobiography; he intended it as the middle ground between Illmatic and It Was Written, with each track detailing a part of his life. In 1998, Nas co-wrote and starred in Hype Williams's feature film Belly. I Am... The Autobiography was completed in early 1999, and a music video was shot for its lead single, "Nas Is Like". It was produced by DJ Premier and contained vocal samples from "It Ain't Hard to Tell". Music critic M.F. DiBella noticed that Nas also covered "politics, the state of hip-hop, Y2K, race, and religion with his own unique perspective" in the album besides autobiographical lyrics. Much of the LP was leaked into MP3 format onto the Internet, and Nas and Stoute quickly recorded enough substitute material to constitute a single-disc release.
The second single on I Am... was "Hate Me Now", featuring Sean "Puffy" Combs, which was used as an example by Nas's critics accusing him of moving towards more commercial themes. The video featured Nas and Combs being crucified in a manner similar to Jesus Christ; after the video was completed, Combs requested his crucifixion scene be edited out of the video. However, the unedited copy of the "Hate Me Now" video made its way to MTV. Within minutes of the broadcast, Combs and his bodyguards allegedly made their way into Steve Stoute's office and assaulted him, at one point apparently hitting Stoute over the head with a champagne bottle. Stoute pressed charges, but he and Combs settled out-of-court that June. Columbia had scheduled to release the infringed material from I Am... under the title Nastradamus during the later half of 1999, but, at the last minute, Nas decided to record an entire new album for the 1999 release of Nastradamus. Nastradamus was therefore rushed to meet a November release date. Though critical reviews were unfavorable, it did result in a minor hit, "You Owe Me". Fans and critics feared that Nas's career was declining, artistically and commercially, as both I Am... and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and overtly-commercialized.
In 2000, Nas & Ill Will Records Presents QB's Finest, which is popularly known as simply QB's Finest, was released on Nas's Ill Will Records. QB's Finest is a compilation album that featured Nas and a number of other rappers from Queensbridge projects, including Mobb Deep, Nature, Capone, the Bravehearts, Tragedy Khadafi, Millennium Thug and Cormega, who had briefly reconciled with Nas. The album also featured guest appearances from Queensbridge hip-hop legends Roxanne Shanté, MC Shan, and Marley Marl. Shan and Marley Marl both appeared on the lead single "Da Bridge 2001", which was based on Shan & Marl's 1986 recording "The Bridge".
2001–2006: Feud with Jay-Z, Stillmatic, God's Son, and double album
After trading veiled criticisms on various songs, freestyles and mixtape appearances, the highly publicised dispute between Nas and Jay-Z became widely known to the public in 2001. Jay-Z, in his song "Takeover", criticised Nas by calling him "fake" and his career "lame". Nas responded with "Ether", in which he compared Jay-Z to such characters as J.J. Evans from the sitcom Good Times and cigarette company mascot Joe Camel. The song was included on Nas's fifth studio album, Stillmatic, released in December 2001. His daughter, Destiny, is listed as an executive producer on Stillmatic so she could receive royalty checks from the album. Stillmatic peaked at No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and featured the singles "Got Ur Self A..." and "One Mic".
In response to "Ether", Jay-Z released the song "Supa Ugly", which Hot 97 radio host Angie Martinez premiered on December 11, 2001. In the song, Jay-Z explicitly boasts about having an affair with Nas's girlfriend, Carmen Bryan. New York City hip-hop radio station Hot 97 issued a poll asking listeners which rapper made the better diss song; Nas won with 58% while Jay-Z got 42% of the votes. In 2002, in the midst of the dispute between the two New York rappers, Eminem cited both Nas and Jay-Z as being two of the best MCs in the industry, in his song 'Till I Collapse. Both the dispute and Stillmatic signaled an artistic comeback for Nas after a string of inconsistent albums. The Lost Tapes, a compilation of previously unreleased or bootlegged songs from 1998 to 2001, was released by Columbia in September 2002. The collection attained respectable sales and received rave reviews from critics.
In December 2002, Nas released the God's Son album including its lead single, "Made You Look" which used a pitched down sample of the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache". The album peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts despite widespread Internet bootlegging. Time Magazine named his album best hip-hop album of the year. Vibe gave it four stars and The Source gave it four mics. The second single, "I Can", which reworked elements from Beethoven's "Für Elise", became Nas's biggest hit to date in 2003, garnering substantial radio airplay on urban, rhythmic, and top 40 radio stations, as well as on the MTV and VH1 music video networks. God's Son also includes several songs dedicated to Nas's mother, who died of cancer in April 2002, including "Dance". In 2003, Nas was featured on the Korn song "Play Me", from Korn's Take a Look in the Mirror LP. Also in 2003, a live performance in New York City, featuring Ludacris, Jadakiss, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run-D.M.C. fame), was released on DVD as Made You Look: God's Son Live.
God's Son was critical in the power struggle between Nas and Jay-Z in the hip-hop industry at the time. In an article at the time, Joseph Jones of PopMatters stated, "Whether you like it or not, "Ether" did this. With God's Son, Nas has the opportunity to cement his status as the King of NY, at least for another 3-4-year term, or he could prove that he is not the savior that hip-hop fans should be pinning their hopes on." After the album's release, he began helping the Bravehearts, an act including his younger brother Jungle and friend Wiz (Wizard), put together their debut album, Bravehearted. The album featured guest appearances from Nas, Nashawn (Millennium Thug), Lil Jon, and Jully Black.
Nas released his seventh album Street's Disciple, a sprawling double album, on November 30, 2004. It addressed subject matter both political and personal, including his impending marriage to recording artist Kelis. The double-sided single "Thief's Theme"/"You Know My Style" was released months before the album's release, followed by the single "Bridging the Gap" upon the album's release. Although Street's Disciple went platinum, it served as a drop-off from Nas's previous commercial successes.
In 2005, New York-based rapper 50 Cent dissed Nas on his song "Piggy Bank", which brought his reputation into question in hip-hop circles. In October, Nas made a surprise appearance at Jay-Z's "I Declare War" concert, where they reconciled their beef. At the show, Jay-Z announced to the crowd, "It's bigger than 'I Declare War'. Let's go, Esco!" and Nas then joined him onstage, and the two performed Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" (1996) together, a song that featured a prominent sample of Nas's 1994 track, "The World Is Yours" (1994).
2006–2008: Hip Hop Is Dead, Untitled, and politicized efforts
The reconciliation between Nas and Jay-Z created the opportunity for Nas to sign a deal with Def Jam Recordings, of which Jay-Z was president at the time. Jay-Z signed Nas on January 23, 2006; the signing included an agreement that Nas was to be paid about $3,000,000, including a recording budget, for each of his first two albums with Def Jam.
Tentatively called Hip Hop Is Dead...The N, Hip Hop Is Dead was a commentary on the state of hip-hop and featured "Black Republican", a hyped collaboration with Jay-Z. The album debuted on Def Jam and Nas new imprint at that label, The Jones Experience, at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 355,000 copies—Nas's third number one album, along with It Was Written and I Am.... It also inspired reactions about the state of hip-hop, particularly controversy with Southern hip hop artists who felt the album's title was a criticism aimed at them. Nas's 2004 song, "Thief's Theme", was featured in the 2006 film, The Departed. Nas's former label, Columbia Records, released the compilation Greatest Hits in November.
On October 12, 2007, Nas announced that his next album would be called Nigger. Both progressive commentators, such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the conservative-aligned news channel Fox News were outraged; Jackson called on entertainers to stop using the epithet after comedian Michael Richards used it onstage in late 2006. Controversy escalated as the album's impending release date drew nearer, going as far as to spark rumors that Def Jam was planning to drop Nas unless he changed the title. Additionally, then-Fort Greene, Brooklyn assemblyman (later United States Representative) Hakeem Jeffries requested that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli withdraw $84,000,000 from the state pension fund that had been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album's title was not changed. On the opposite side of the spectrum, many of the most famous names in the entertainment industry supported Nas for using the racial epithet as the title of his full-length LP. Nas's management worried the album would not be sold by chain stores such as Wal-Mart, thus limiting its distribution.
On May 19, 2008, Nas decided to forgo an album title. Responding to Jesse Jackson's remarks and use of the word "nigger", Nas called him "the biggest player hater", stating "His time is up. All you old niggas' time is up. We heard your voice, we saw your marching, we heard your sermons. We don't want to hear that shit no more. It's a new day. It's a new voice. I'm here now. We don't need Jesse; I'm here. I got this. We the voice now. It's no more Jesse. Sorry. Goodbye. You ain't helping nobody in the 'hood and that's the bottom line." He also said of the album's title: "It's important to me that this album gets to the fans. It's been a long time coming. I want my fans to know that creatively and lyrically, they can expect the same content and the same messages. The people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it."
The album was ultimately released on July 15, 2008, untitled. It featured production from Polow da Don, stic.man of Dead Prez, Sons of Light and J. Myers, "Hero", the album's lead single released on June 23, 2008, reached No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 87 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. In July, Nas attained a shoe deal with Fila. In an interview with MTV News in July, Nas speculated that he might release two albums: one produced by DJ Premier and another by Dr. Dre—simultaneously the same day. Nas worked on Dr. Dre's studio album Detox. Nas was also awarded 'Emcee of the Year' in the HipHopDX 2008 Awards for his latest solo effort, the quality of his appearances on other albums and was described as having "become an artist who thrives off of reinvention and going against the system."
2009–2012: Distant Relatives and Life Is Good
At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Nas confirmed he was collaborating on an album with reggae singer Damian Marley which was expected to be released in late 2009. Nas said of the collaboration in an interview "I was a big fan of his father and of course all the children, all the offspring, and Damian, I kind of looked at Damian as a rap guy. His stuff is not really singing, or if he does, it comes off more hard, like on some street shit. I always liked how reggae and hip-hop have always been intertwined and always kind of pushed each other, I always liked the connection. I'd worked with people before from the reggae world but when I worked with Damian, the whole workout was perfect". A portion of the profit was planned to go towards building a school in Africa. He went on to say that it was "too early to tell the title or anything like that". The Los Angeles Times reported that the album would be titled Distant Relatives.
Nas also revealed that he would begin working on his tenth studio album following the release of Distant Relatives. During late 2009, Nas used his live band Mulatto with music director Dustin Moore for concerts in Europe and Australia.
After announcing a possible release in 2010, a follow-up compilation to The Lost Tapes (2002) was delayed indefinitely due to issues between him and Def Jam. His eleventh studio album, Life Is Good (2012) was produced primarily by Salaam Remi and No I.D, and released on July 13, 2012. Nas called the album a "magic moment" in his rap career.
In 2011, Nas announced that he would release collaboration albums with Mobb Deep, Common, and a third with DJ Premier. Common said of the project in a 2011 interview, "At some point, we will do that. We'd talked about it and we had a good idea to call it Nas.Com. That was actually going to be a mixtape at one point. But we decided that we should make it an album." Life is Good would be nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
2013–2019: Nasir and The Lost Tapes 2
In January 2013, Nas announced he had begun working on his twelfth studio album, which would be his final album for Def Jam. The album was supposed to be released during 2015. In October 2013, DJ Premier said that his collaboration album with Nas, would be released following his twelfth studio album. In October 2013, Nas confirmed that a rumored song "Sinatra in the Sands" featuring Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland would be featured on the album.
On April 16, 2014, on the twentieth anniversary of Illmatic, the documentary Nas: Time Is Illmatic was premiered which recounted circumstances leading up to Nas's debut album. It was reported on September 10, that Nas has finished his last album with Def Jam. On October 30, Nas released a song which might have been the first single on his new album, titled "The Season", produced by J Dilla. Nas has also collaborated with the Australian hip-hop group, Bliss n Eso, in 2014. They released the track "I Am Somebody" in May 2014. Nas was featured on the song "We Are" from Justin Bieber's fourth studio album, Purpose, released in November 2015.
Nas was announced as one of the executive producers of the Netflix original series, The Get Down, prior to its release in August 2016. He narrated the series and rapped as adult Ezekiel of 1996.
On October 16, 2016, he received the Jimmy Iovine Icon Award at 2016 REVOLT Music Conference for having a lasting impact and unique influence on music, numerous years in the rap business, his partnership with Hennessy, and Mass Appeal imprint by Puff Daddy. In November 2016, Nas collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dave East and Aloe Blacc on a song called "Wrote My Way Out", which appears on The Hamilton Mixtape. On April 12, 2017, Nas released the song Angel Dust as soundtrack for TV series The Getdown. It contains a sample of the Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson song Angel Dust.
In June 2017, Nas appeared in the award-winning 2017 documentary The American Epic Sessions directed by Bernard MacMahon, where he recorded live direct-to-disc on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. He performed "On the Road Again", a 1928 song by the Memphis Jug Band, which received universal acclaim with The Hollywood Reporter describing his performance as "fantastic" and the Financial Times praising his "superb cover of the Memphis Jug Band's "On the Road Again", exposing the hip-hop blueprint within the 1928 stomper." "On the Road Again", and a performance of "One Mic", were released on Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on June 9, 2017.
In April 2018, Kanye West announced on Twitter that Nas's twelfth studio album will be released on June 15, also serving as executive producer for the album. The album was announced the day before release, titled Nasir.
Following the release of Nasir, Nas confirmed he would return to completing a previous album, including production from Swizz Beatz and RZA. This project was released as The Lost Tapes 2 on July 19, 2019, which included production from Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, The Alchemist, and RZA. This album was a sequel to Nas's 2002 release, The Lost Tapes.
2020–present: King's Disease series and Magic
In August 2020, Nas announced that he would be releasing his 13th album. On August 13, he revealed the album's title, King's Disease. The album, executive-produced by Hit-Boy, was preceded by the lead single, "Ultra Black", a song detailing perseverance and pride "despite the system". The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, becoming Nas' first Grammy. The sequel album, King's Disease II, was released on August 6, 2021, and included the song "Nobody" featuring Lauryn Hill. King's Disease II debuted at number-three on the US Billboard 200, becoming Nas's highest-charting album since 2012. On December 24, Nas released the album Magic. It is his third album executive produced by Hit-Boy, and includes guest appearances from ASAP Rocky and DJ Premier.
Nas's third installment in the King's Disease series, King's Disease III, was released the following year. Like its two predecessors, King's Disease III was mainly produced by Hit-Boy; however, it was notably Nas's first studio album to forgo any guest appearances from outside artists. Upon release, King's Disease III would become one of the most critically acclaimed albums of Nas's career, becoming his highest-scoring new studio album on review aggregator Metacritic and receiving critical praise for the cohesion of Hit-Boy's production with Nas's storytelling and lyricism. Praising King's Disease III, British music publication NME stated that Nas, "three decades in, [is] still a force to be reckoned with", while Marcus Shorter of Consequence would write that the album was Nas's and Hit-Boy's "most focused and confident collaboration" and that Nas was "at peace with his legacy, life, and the fact that old age is inevitable".
Artistry
Nas has been praised for his ability to create a "devastating match between lyrics and production" by journalist Peter Shapiro, as well as creating a "potent evocation of life on the street", and he has even been compared to Rakim for his lyrical technique. In his book Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009), writer Adam Bradley states, "Nas is perhaps contemporary rap's greatest innovator in storytelling. His catalog includes songs narrated before birth ('Fetus') and after death ('Amongst Kings'), biographies ('UBR [Unauthorized Biography of Rakim]') and autobiographies ('Doo Rags'), allegorical tales ('Money Is My Bitch') and epistolary ones ('One Love'), he's rapped in the voice of a woman ('Sekou Story') and even of a gun ('I Gave You Power')." Robert Christgau writes that "Nas has been transfiguring [gangsta rap] since Illmatic". Kool Moe Dee notes that Nas has an "off-beat conversational flow" in his book There's a God on the Mic – he says: "before Nas, every MC focused on rhyming with a cadence that ultimately put the words that rhymed on beat with the snare drum. Nas created a style of rapping that was more conversational than ever before".
OC of D.I.T.C. comments in the book How to Rap: "Nas did the song backwards ['Rewind']... that was a brilliant idea". Also in How to Rap, 2Mex of The Visionaries describes Nas's flow as "effervescent", Rah Digga says Nas's lyrics have "intricacy", Bootie Brown of The Pharcyde explains that Nas does not always have to make words rhyme as he is "charismatic", and Nas is also described as having a "densely packed" flow, with compound rhymes that "run over from one beat into the next or even into another bar".
About.com ranked him 1st on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. The Source ranked him No. 2 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time. In 2013, Nas was ranked fourth on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list. His debut, Illmatic, is widely considered among the greatest hip hop albums of all time.
Controversies and feuds
Jay-Z
Initially friends, Nas and Jay-Z had met a number of times in the 1990s with no animosity between the two. Jay-Z requested that Nas appear on his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt on the track "Bring it On"; however, Nas never showed up to the studio and was not included on the album. In response to this, Jay-Z asked producer Ski Beatz to sample a line from Nas's song The World is Yours, with the sample featured heavily in what went on to be Dead Presidents II. The two traded subliminal responses for the next couple of years, until the beef was escalated further in 2001 after Jay-Z publicly addressed Nas at the Summer Jam, performing what would go on to be known as Takeover, ending the performance by saying "ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov". After Jay-Z eventually released the song on his 2001 album The Blueprint, Nas responded with the song "Ether", from his album Stillmatic, with both fans and critics saying that the song had effectively saved Nas's career and marked his return to prominence, and almost unanimously agreeing Nas had won their feud. Jay-Z responded with a freestyle over the instrumental to Nas's "Got Ur Self a Gun", known as "Supa Ugly". In the song, Jay-Z makes reference to Nas's girlfriend and daughter, going into graphic detail about having an affair with his girlfriend. Jay-Z's mother was personally disgusted by the song, and demanded he apologise to Nas and his family, which he did in December 2001 on Hot 97. Supa Ugly marked the last direct diss song between Jay-Z and Nas, however, the two continued to trade subliminals on their subsequent releases. The feud was officially brought to an end in 2005, when Jay-Z and Nas performed on stage together in a surprise concert also featuring P Diddy, Kanye West and Beanie Sigel. The following year, Nas signed with Def Jam Recordings, of which Jay-Z then served as president.
Cam'ron
After Nas was removed from the 2002 Summer Jam lineup due to allegedly planning to perform the song Ether while a mock lynching of a Jay-Z effigy took place behind him, Cam'ron was announced as a last minute replacement and headlined the show instead. Nas appeared on Power 105.1 days later and addressed a number of fellow artists, including Nelly, Noreaga and Cam'ron himself. Nas praised Cam'ron as a good lyricist, but branded his album Come Home With Me as "wack". After Cam'ron heard of Nas's words, he appeared on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 and performed a freestyle diss over the beat to Nas's "Hate Me Now", making reference to Nas's mother, baby mother and daughter. Nas did not respond directly but appeared on the radio days later, calling Cam'ron a "dummy" for supposedly being used by Hot 97 to generate ratings. Nas eventually responded on his 2002 album God's Son on the song "Zone Out", claiming Cam'ron had HIV. Cam'ron and the rest of The Diplomats, specifically Jim Jones continued to attack Nas throughout 2003, on numerous mixtapes, albums and radio freestyles, however, the feud between the two slowly died down and they eventually reconciled in 2014.
2Pac
After 2Pac interpreted lines directed to the Notorious B.I.G. on Nas's 1996 album It Was Written to be aimed towards him, he attacked Nas on the track "Against All Odds" from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. Nas himself later admitted he was brought to tears when he heard the diss because he idolized 2Pac. The two later met in Central Park before the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards and ended their feud, with 2Pac promising to remove any disses aimed at Nas from the official album release; however, 2Pac was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada three days later on September 7, dying of his wounds on September 13, before any edits to the album could be made.
Young Jeezy
After Nas blamed Southern hip hop as the cause of the perceived artistic decline of the genre on his 2006 single "Hip Hop Is Dead", from the album of the same name, his then-Def Jam labelmate Young Jeezy took offense by claiming that Nas had "no street credibility" and vowing his album The Inspiration would outsell Hip Hop is Dead, which were released one week apart from each other in December 2006. After failing to do so, Young Jeezy took back his disses towards Nas, and the two later collaborated on the 2008 hit single "My President".
Bill O'Reilly and Virginia Tech controversy
On September 6, 2007, Nas performed at a free concert for the Virginia Tech student body and faculty, following the school shooting there. He was joined by John Mayer, Alan Jackson, Phil Vassar, and Dave Matthews Band. When announced that Nas was to perform, political commentator Bill O'Reilly and Fox News denounced the concert and called for Nas's removal, citing "violent" lyrics on songs such as "Shoot 'Em Up", "Got Urself a Gun", and "Made You Look". During his "Talking Points Memo" segment for August 15, 2007, an argument erupted in which O'Reilly claimed that it was not only Nas's lyrical content that made him inappropriate for the event, citing the gun conviction on Nas's criminal record.
On September 6, 2007, during his set at "A Concert for Virginia Tech", Nas twice referred to Bill O'Reilly as "a chump", prompting loud cheers by members of the crowd. About two weeks later, Nas was interviewed by Shaheem Reid of MTV News, where he criticised O'Reilly, calling him uncivilized and willing to go to extremes for publicity. Responding to O'Reilly, Nas, in an interview with MTV News, said:
On July 23, 2008, Nas appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss his opinion of O'Reilly and Fox News, which he accused of bias against the African-American community and re-challenged O'Reilly to a debate. During the appearance, Nas sat on boxes of more than 625,000 signatures gathered by online advocacy organisation Color of Change in support of a petition accusing Fox of race-baiting and fear-mongering.
Lijadu Sisters
On his 2006 mixtape, The Prophecy, Vol 2: The Beginning of the N, Nas had a track titled "Life's Gone Low". It was a substantial sampling of "Life's Gone Down Low", a song released by Nigerian musician twin Lijadu Sisters in their 1976 Danger album. Nas lifted vocal hooks and the entire beats from the duo's work. Nas neither obtained clearance nor did he credit the Sisters for the reuse. Reacting to the issue, the Lijadu Sisters were reported to have said: "We can't forgive him," but "If other people want to use your stuff, that tells that you did something good."
Doja Cat
In 2020, after Doja Cat faced accusations of participating in racist conversations on the internet, Nas referenced her in his song "Ultra Black", calling her "the opposite of ultra black". The response to the lyric was mixed, with some defending his right to criticize her, and others resurfacing allegations that he verbally abused his ex-wife, Kelis. Doja Cat shrugged off the namedrop, jokingly referencing the lyric in a TikTok video. In an interview with Fat Joe, Doja Cat said that she has no interest in "beefing" with Nas saying "I fucking love Nas, thank fucking god he noticed me. I love Nas. So I don't give a shit. He can say whatever he wants. I really don't care". Nas later claimed that the line was not meant to be perceived as a "diss", and that he was "just trying to find another word that worked with the scheme of the song."
Business ventures
On April 10, 2013, Nas invested an undisclosed six-figure sum into Mass Appeal magazine, where he went on to serve as the publication's associate publisher, joined by creative firm Decon and White Owl Capital Partners. In June 2013, he opened his own sneaker store.
In September 2013, he invested in a technology startup company, a job search appmaker called Proven. In 2014, Nas invested as part of a $2.8M round in viral video startup ViralGains another addition to Queens-bridge venture partners portfolio.
Nas has a partnership with Hennessy and has been working with their "Wild Rabbit" campaign.
In May 2014, Nas partnered with job placement startup Koru to fund a scholarship for 10 college graduates to go through Koru's training program. Nas will also be joining the startup as a guest coach. Nas is a co-owner of a Cloud-based service LANDR, an automated, drag-and-drop digital audio postproduction tool which automates "mastering", the final stage in audio production. In June 2015, Nas joined forces with New York City soul food restaurant Sweet Chick. He plans to expand the restaurant brand nationally. The Los Angeles location opened in April 2017. He owns his own clothing line called HSTRY.
In June 2018, Nas was paid $40 million after Amazon acquired the doorbell company Ring Inc. as well as PillPack - the latter of which he invested in via his investment firm, Queensbridge Venture Partners.
He has continued to invest heavily in technology startups including Dropbox, Lyft, and Robinhood.
Personal life
Nas is a spokesperson and mentor for P'Tones Records, a non-profit after-school music program with the mission "to create constructive opportunities for urban youth through no-cost music programs."
On June 15, 1994, Nas's ex-fiancée Carmen Bryan gave birth to their daughter, Destiny. She later confessed to Nas that she had a relationship with his then-rival rapper and nemesis Jay-Z, also accusing Jay-Z of putting subliminal messages in his lyrics about their relationship together, causing an even bigger rift in the feud between the two men.
Nas also briefly dated Mary J. Blige and Nicki Minaj respectively. In 2005, Nas married R&B singer Kelis in Atlanta after a two-year relationship. On April 30, 2009, a spokesperson confirmed that Kelis filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Kelis gave birth to Nas's first son on July 21, 2009, although the event was soured by a disagreement which ended in Nas announcing the birth of his son, Knight, at a gig in Queens, New York, against Kelis's wishes. The birth was also announced by Nas via an online video. The couple's divorce was finalized on May 21, 2010. In 2018, Kelis accused Nas of being physically and mentally abusive during their marriage. Nas replied to the accusations on social media, accusing Kelis of attempting to slander him in the time of a custody battle and accusing Kelis of abusing his daughter, Destiny.
In January 2012, Nas was involved in a dispute with a concert promoter in Angola, having accepted $300,000 for a concert in Luanda, Angola's capital for New Year's Eve and then not showing up. American promoter Patrick Allocco and his son, who arranged for Nas's concert, were detained at gunpoint and taken to an Angolan jail by the local promoter who fronted the $300,000 for the concert. Only after the U.S. Embassy intervened were the promoter and his son allowed to leave jail—but were placed under house arrest at their hotel. By the end of the month Nas had returned all $300,000, and, after 49 days of travel ban, Allocco and his son were both released.
On March 15, 2012, Nas became the first rapper to have a personal verified account on Genius, where he explains his own lyrics and occasionally comments on lyrics from other rappers he admires.
In September 2009 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against Nas for over $2.5 million, seeking unpaid taxes dating back to 2006. By early 2011 this figure had ballooned to over $6.4 million. Early in 2012 reports emerged that the IRS had filed papers in Georgia to garnish a portion of Nas's earnings from material published under BMI and ASCAP, until his delinquent tax bill is settled.
In May 2013, it was announced that Nas would open a sneaker store in Las Vegas called 12 am RUN (pronounced Midnight Run) as part of The LINQ retail development.
In July 2013, Harvard University established the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship, to fund scholars and artists who show potential and creativity in the arts in connection to hip hop.
In an October 2014 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, Nas learned about five generations of his ancestry. His great-great-great-grandmother, Pocahontas Little, was an enslaved woman who was sold for $830. When host Henry Louis Gates showed Nas her bill of sale and told him more about the man who bought her, Nas remarked that he is considering buying the land where the slave owner lived. Nas was also shown the marriage certificate of his great-great-great-grandmother, Pocahontas, and great-great-great-grandfather, Calvin.
On November 12, 2019, Nas was honored by Haute Living, along with Watches of Switzerland and Hennessy, in a celebratory affair that included a violin rendition of iconic Nas songs performed by Edward W. Hardy.
Nas is a fan of his hometown baseball team the New York Mets and English soccer team Everton FC.
Discography
Studio albums
Illmatic (1994)
It Was Written (1996)
I Am... (1999)
Nastradamus (1999)
Stillmatic (2001)
God's Son (2002)
Street's Disciple (2004)
Hip Hop Is Dead (2006)
Untitled (2008)
Life Is Good (2012)
Nasir (2018)
King's Disease (2020)
King's Disease II (2021)
Magic (2021)
King's Disease III (2022)
Collaboration albums
The Album (with the Firm) (1997)
Distant Relatives (with Damian Marley) (2010)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are held annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Nas has won 1 Grammy out of 15 nominations altogether.
|-
| rowspan="1" | 1997
| "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)"
| Best Rap Solo Performance
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | 2000
| I Am...
| Best Rap Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |2003
| "One Mic"
| Best Music Video
|
|-
| "The Essence" (with AZ)
| rowspan="2" |Best Rap Performance by a Duo or a Group
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008
| "Better Than I've Ever Been" (with Kanye West & KRS-One)
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | Hip Hop Is Dead
| rowspan="2" |Best Rap Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2009
| rowspan="1" | Nas
|
|-
| "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)"
| Best Rap Solo Performance
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | 2010
| "Too Many Rappers" (with Beastie Boys)
| Best Rap Performance by a Duo or a Group
|
|-
|rowspan="4"|2013
|rowspan="2"|"Daughters"
|Best Rap Performance
|
|-
|Best Rap Song
|
|-
|"Cherry Wine" (featuring Amy Winehouse)
|Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
|
|-
|Life Is Good
|rowspan="3"| Best Rap Album
|
|-
| 2021
| King's Disease
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2022
| King's Disease II
|
|-
| "Bath Salts" (with DMX & Jay-Z)
|Best Rap Song
|
|-
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| 1999
| "Hate Me Now" (featuring Puff Daddy)
| Best Rap Video
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2002
|rowspan="2"| "One Mic"
| Video of the Year
|
|-
|rowspan="3"| Best Rap Video
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2003
| "I Can"
|
|-
| "Thugz Mansion" (with Tupac Shakur and J. Phoenix)
|
|-
| 2005
| "Bridging the Gap" (featuring Olu Dara)
| Best Hip-Hop Video
|
|}
BET Hip Hop Awards
|-
| 2006
| Nas
| I Am Hip-Hop Icon Award
|
|-
| 2007
| "Hip Hop Is Dead"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008
| "Untitled"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2012
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| "Daughters"
| Impact Track
|
|-
| 2013
| "Life is Good"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| 2021
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2022
| "King's Disease II"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| "Nobody" featuring Lauryn Hill
| Impact Track
|
|-
|}
References
Further reading
External links
Nas on Spotify
Category:1973 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:21st-century American businesspeople
Category:21st-century American rappers
Category:African-American fashion designers
Category:American fashion designers
Category:African-American investors
Category:American investors
Category:African-American male rappers
Category:American retail chief executives
Category:American magazine publishers (people)
Category:American music industry executives
Category:American restaurateurs
Category:Businesspeople from Queens, New York
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Def Jam Recordings artists
Category:East Coast hip hop musicians
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Hardcore hip hop artists
Category:Ill Will Records artists
Category:People from Long Island City, Queens
Category:Rappers from New York City
Category:Songwriters from New York (state)
Category:The Firm (hip hop group) members
Category:African-American songwriters | [] | [
"The mainstream direction was going towards a crossover-oriented sound with more commercial topics, as demonstrated by Nas's move to incorporate these elements into his second LP, \"It Was Written\".",
"Nas was a member of The Firm, a supergroup which also consisted of AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega (who was later replaced by Nature). They worked on their debut album under Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label.",
"The supergroup, The Firm, worked on their debut album. However, midway through the production, Cormega was fired from the group and was replaced by Nature. Their album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. Despite being certified platinum, the album did not meet its expected sales. Following this, the members of The Firm disbanded and went their separate ways.",
"The debut album of the supergroup The Firm was called \"Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album\".",
"The album \"Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album\" had mixed reviews and failed to live up to its expected sales, despite being certified platinum. Therefore, its success could be viewed as limited.",
"One interesting aspect is the conflict and changes within The Firm. Midway through the production of their debut album, Steve Stoute fired Cormega from the group and replaced him with Nature. This led to Cormega becoming a vocal opponent of Nas and releasing a series of diss tracks against him. Another interesting aspect is how Nas started consciously working towards a crossover-oriented sound for his second LP to appeal to the mainstream audience, under pressure from Columbia Records.",
"The text does not provide enough information to definitively assess the success of The Firm. While their debut album was certified platinum, it failed to meet its expected sales and received mixed reviews. Shortly after the release of their album, the members of The Firm disbanded and went their separate ways. This suggests that their success may have been limited."
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C_ad5c8ff76bea458fbc490ce44942e6ee_1 | Nas | Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born on September 14, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician, from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (Little) Jones, was a Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has one sibling, a brother named Jabari Fret who is best known as "Jungle", a member of the hip-hop group Bravehearts. | Late 1980s-1994: Underground beginnings and album debut | As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willy "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting his more commonly known alias of "Nasty Nas". In the late-1980s, he met up with the producer Large Professor and went to the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums. When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material. However, none of it was ever released. In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque". In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records during the same year. Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead. Called the new Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip-hop community. In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic, was finally released. It was awarded best album of 1994 by The Source. It also featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several singles, including "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News called Illmatic "the first classic LP" of 1994. In 1994, Nas also recorded the song "One on One" for the soundtrack to the film Street Fighter. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, William Jelani Cobb writes of Nas's impact at the time: Nas, the poetic sage of the Queensbridge projects, was hailed as the second coming of Rakim--as if the first had reached his expiration date. [...] Nas never became 'the next Rakim,' nor did he really have to. Illmatic stood on its own terms. The sublime lyricism of the CD, combined with the fact that it was delivered into the crucible of the boiling East-West conflict, quickly solidified [his] reputation as the premier writer of his time. Steve Huey of AllMusic described Nas's lyrics on Illmatic as "highly literate" and his raps "superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary", adding that Nas is "able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto life without losing hope or forgetting the good times". Reviewing Nas's second album It Was Written, Leo Stanley of allmusic believed the rhymes to be not as complex as those in Illmatic but still "not only flow, but manage to tell coherent stories as well". About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip-hop album of all time, and Prefix magazine praised it as "the best hip-hop record ever made". CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones (; born September 14, 1973), better known by his stage name Nas (), is an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop, he is regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time. The son of jazz musician Olu Dara, Jones began his musical career in 1989 as he adopted the moniker of "Nasty Nas" and recorded demos for Large Professor. He was later featured on the 1991 song "Live at the Barbeque" by Main Source.
Nas's debut album, Illmatic (1994), received universal acclaim upon release, and is considered to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time; in 2020, the album was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. His second album It Was Written (1996) debuted atop the Billboard 200 and charted for four consecutive weeks; the album, along with its single "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill), catapulted Nas into international success. Both released in 1999, Nas's albums I Am and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and too commercially oriented, and critics and fans feared that his output was declining in quality.
From 2001 to 2005, Nas was involved in a highly publicized feud with Jay-Z, popularized by the diss track "Ether". It was this feud, along with Nas's albums Stillmatic (2001), God's Son (2002), and the double album Street's Disciple (2004), that helped restore his critical standing. After squashing the feud, Nas signed to Jay-Z's Def Jam Recordings in 2006 and went in a more provocative, politicized direction with the albums Hip Hop Is Dead (2006) and his untitled 9th studio album (2008). In 2010, Nas released Distant Relatives, a collaboration album with Damian Marley, donating all royalties to charities active in Africa. His 10th studio album, Life Is Good (2012), was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 55th Annual Grammy Awards. After receiving thirteen nominations, his 12th studio album, King's Disease (2020), won him his first Grammy for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards; he then followed it by releasing his 13th studio album, King's Disease II (2021), as the album's sequel. In the same year, his 14th studio album, Magic, was released on Christmas Eve. King's Disease III (2022) is his fourth consecutive album with producer Hit-Boy.
In 2012, The Source ranked him second on their list of the "Top 50 Lyricists of All Time". In 2013, Nas was ranked 4th on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list. About.com ranked him first on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. He is also an entrepreneur through his own record label; he serves as associate publisher of Mass Appeal magazine and the co-founder of Mass Appeal Records.
Nas has released fifteen studio albums since 1994, ten of which are certified gold, platinum or multi-platinum in the U.S.
Early life
Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on September 14, 1973, to African American parents. His father, Olu Dara (born Charles Jones III), is a jazz and blues musician from Mississippi. His mother, Fannie Ann (née Little; 1941–2002) was a U.S. Postal Service worker from North Carolina. He has a brother, Jabari Fret, who raps under the name Jungle and is a member of hip hop group Bravehearts. His father adopted the name "Olu Dara" from the Yoruba people. "Nasir" is an Arabic name meaning "helper and protector", while "bin" means "son of" in Arabic. He is a cousin of actors Yara Shahidi and Sayeed Shahidi.
As a young child, Nas and his family relocated to the Queensbridge Houses in the borough of Queens. His neighbor, Willy "Ill Will" Graham, influenced his interest in hip hop by playing him records. His parents divorced in 1985, and he dropped out of school after the eighth grade. He educated himself about African culture through the Five-Percent Nation (a splinter group of the Nation of Islam) and the Nuwaubian Nation. In his early years, he played the trumpet and began writing his own rhymes.
Career
As a teenager, Nas enlisted his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willie "Ill Will" Graham as his DJ. Nas initially went by the nickname "Kid Wave" before adopting his more commonly known alias of "Nasty Nas". In 1989, then-16-year-old Nas met up with producer Large Professor and went to the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums. When they were not in the recording studio, Nas would go into the booth and record his own material. However, none of it was ever released.
1991–1994: The beginnings and Illmatic
In 1991, Nas performed on Main Source's "Live at the Barbeque", also produced by Large Professor. In mid-1992, Nas was approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who became his manager and secured Nas a record deal with Columbia Records during the same year. Nas made his solo debut under the name of "Nasty Nas" on the single "Halftime" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead. Called the new Rakim, his rhyming skills attracted a significant amount of attention within the hip hop community.
In 1994, Nas's debut album, Illmatic, was released. It featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara. The album spawned several singles, including "The World Is Yours", "It Ain't Hard to Tell", and "One Love". Shaheem Reid of MTV News called Illmatic "the first classic LP" of 1994. In 1994, Nas also recorded the song "One on One" for the soundtrack to the film Street Fighter. In his book To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic, William Jelani Cobb writes of Nas's impact at the time:
Illmatic was awarded best album of 1994 by The Source. Steve Huey of AllMusic described Nas's lyrics on Illmatic as "highly literate" and his raps "superbly fluid regardless of the size of his vocabulary", adding that Nas is "able to evoke the bleak reality of ghetto life without losing hope or forgetting the good times". About.com ranked Illmatic as the greatest hip hop album of all time, and Prefix magazine praised it as "the best hip hop record ever made".
1994–1998: Transition to mainstream direction and the Firm
In 1995, Nas did guest performances on the albums Doe or Die by AZ, The Infamous by Mobb Deep, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx by Raekwon and 4,5,6 by Kool G Rap. Nas also parted ways with manager MC Serch, enlisted Steve Stoute, and began preparation for his second album, It Was Written. The album was chiefly produced by Tone and Poke of the Trackmasters, as Nas consciously worked towards a crossover-oriented sound. Columbia Records had begun to pressure Nas to work towards more commercial topics, such as that of The Notorious B.I.G., who had become successful by releasing street singles that still retained radio-friendly appeal. The album also expanded on Nas's Escobar persona, who lived a Scarface/Casino-esque lifestyle. On the other hand, references to Scarface protagonist Tony Montana notwithstanding, Illmatic was more about his early life growing up in the projects.
It Was Written was released in mid-1996. Two singles, "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)" (featuring Lauryn Hill of The Fugees) and "Street Dreams" (including a remix with R. Kelly), were instant hits. These songs were promoted by big-budget music videos directed by Hype Williams, making Nas a common name among mainstream hip-hop. Reviewing It Was Written, Leo Stanley of Allmusic believed the album's rhymes were not as complex as those of Illmatic, but still thought Nas had "deepened his talents, creating a complex series of rhymes that not only flow, but manage to tell coherent stories as well." It Was Written featured the debut of the Firm, a supergroup consisting of Nas, AZ, Foxy Brown, and Cormega.
Signed to Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment label, the Firm began working on their debut album. Halfway through the production of the album, Cormega was fired from the group by Steve Stoute, who had unsuccessfully attempted to force Cormega to sign a deal with his management company. Cormega subsequently became one of Nas's most vocal opponents and released a number of underground hip hop singles dissing Nas, Stoute, and Nature, who replaced Cormega as the fourth member of the Firm. Nas, Foxy Brown, AZ, and Nature Present The Firm: The Album was finally released in 1997 to mixed reviews. The album failed to live up to its expected sales, despite being certified platinum, and the members of the group disbanded to go their separate ways.
During this period, Nas was one of four rappers (the others being B-Real, KRS-One and RBX) in the hip-hop supergroup Group Therapy, who appeared on the song "East Coast/West Coast Killas" from Dr. Dre Presents the Aftermath.
1998–2001: Heightened commercial direction and inconsistent output
In late 1998, Nas began working on a double album, to be entitled I Am... The Autobiography; he intended it as the middle ground between Illmatic and It Was Written, with each track detailing a part of his life. In 1998, Nas co-wrote and starred in Hype Williams's feature film Belly. I Am... The Autobiography was completed in early 1999, and a music video was shot for its lead single, "Nas Is Like". It was produced by DJ Premier and contained vocal samples from "It Ain't Hard to Tell". Music critic M.F. DiBella noticed that Nas also covered "politics, the state of hip-hop, Y2K, race, and religion with his own unique perspective" in the album besides autobiographical lyrics. Much of the LP was leaked into MP3 format onto the Internet, and Nas and Stoute quickly recorded enough substitute material to constitute a single-disc release.
The second single on I Am... was "Hate Me Now", featuring Sean "Puffy" Combs, which was used as an example by Nas's critics accusing him of moving towards more commercial themes. The video featured Nas and Combs being crucified in a manner similar to Jesus Christ; after the video was completed, Combs requested his crucifixion scene be edited out of the video. However, the unedited copy of the "Hate Me Now" video made its way to MTV. Within minutes of the broadcast, Combs and his bodyguards allegedly made their way into Steve Stoute's office and assaulted him, at one point apparently hitting Stoute over the head with a champagne bottle. Stoute pressed charges, but he and Combs settled out-of-court that June. Columbia had scheduled to release the infringed material from I Am... under the title Nastradamus during the later half of 1999, but, at the last minute, Nas decided to record an entire new album for the 1999 release of Nastradamus. Nastradamus was therefore rushed to meet a November release date. Though critical reviews were unfavorable, it did result in a minor hit, "You Owe Me". Fans and critics feared that Nas's career was declining, artistically and commercially, as both I Am... and Nastradamus were criticized as inconsistent and overtly-commercialized.
In 2000, Nas & Ill Will Records Presents QB's Finest, which is popularly known as simply QB's Finest, was released on Nas's Ill Will Records. QB's Finest is a compilation album that featured Nas and a number of other rappers from Queensbridge projects, including Mobb Deep, Nature, Capone, the Bravehearts, Tragedy Khadafi, Millennium Thug and Cormega, who had briefly reconciled with Nas. The album also featured guest appearances from Queensbridge hip-hop legends Roxanne Shanté, MC Shan, and Marley Marl. Shan and Marley Marl both appeared on the lead single "Da Bridge 2001", which was based on Shan & Marl's 1986 recording "The Bridge".
2001–2006: Feud with Jay-Z, Stillmatic, God's Son, and double album
After trading veiled criticisms on various songs, freestyles and mixtape appearances, the highly publicised dispute between Nas and Jay-Z became widely known to the public in 2001. Jay-Z, in his song "Takeover", criticised Nas by calling him "fake" and his career "lame". Nas responded with "Ether", in which he compared Jay-Z to such characters as J.J. Evans from the sitcom Good Times and cigarette company mascot Joe Camel. The song was included on Nas's fifth studio album, Stillmatic, released in December 2001. His daughter, Destiny, is listed as an executive producer on Stillmatic so she could receive royalty checks from the album. Stillmatic peaked at No. 5 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and featured the singles "Got Ur Self A..." and "One Mic".
In response to "Ether", Jay-Z released the song "Supa Ugly", which Hot 97 radio host Angie Martinez premiered on December 11, 2001. In the song, Jay-Z explicitly boasts about having an affair with Nas's girlfriend, Carmen Bryan. New York City hip-hop radio station Hot 97 issued a poll asking listeners which rapper made the better diss song; Nas won with 58% while Jay-Z got 42% of the votes. In 2002, in the midst of the dispute between the two New York rappers, Eminem cited both Nas and Jay-Z as being two of the best MCs in the industry, in his song 'Till I Collapse. Both the dispute and Stillmatic signaled an artistic comeback for Nas after a string of inconsistent albums. The Lost Tapes, a compilation of previously unreleased or bootlegged songs from 1998 to 2001, was released by Columbia in September 2002. The collection attained respectable sales and received rave reviews from critics.
In December 2002, Nas released the God's Son album including its lead single, "Made You Look" which used a pitched down sample of the Incredible Bongo Band's "Apache". The album peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts despite widespread Internet bootlegging. Time Magazine named his album best hip-hop album of the year. Vibe gave it four stars and The Source gave it four mics. The second single, "I Can", which reworked elements from Beethoven's "Für Elise", became Nas's biggest hit to date in 2003, garnering substantial radio airplay on urban, rhythmic, and top 40 radio stations, as well as on the MTV and VH1 music video networks. God's Son also includes several songs dedicated to Nas's mother, who died of cancer in April 2002, including "Dance". In 2003, Nas was featured on the Korn song "Play Me", from Korn's Take a Look in the Mirror LP. Also in 2003, a live performance in New York City, featuring Ludacris, Jadakiss, and Darryl McDaniels (of Run-D.M.C. fame), was released on DVD as Made You Look: God's Son Live.
God's Son was critical in the power struggle between Nas and Jay-Z in the hip-hop industry at the time. In an article at the time, Joseph Jones of PopMatters stated, "Whether you like it or not, "Ether" did this. With God's Son, Nas has the opportunity to cement his status as the King of NY, at least for another 3-4-year term, or he could prove that he is not the savior that hip-hop fans should be pinning their hopes on." After the album's release, he began helping the Bravehearts, an act including his younger brother Jungle and friend Wiz (Wizard), put together their debut album, Bravehearted. The album featured guest appearances from Nas, Nashawn (Millennium Thug), Lil Jon, and Jully Black.
Nas released his seventh album Street's Disciple, a sprawling double album, on November 30, 2004. It addressed subject matter both political and personal, including his impending marriage to recording artist Kelis. The double-sided single "Thief's Theme"/"You Know My Style" was released months before the album's release, followed by the single "Bridging the Gap" upon the album's release. Although Street's Disciple went platinum, it served as a drop-off from Nas's previous commercial successes.
In 2005, New York-based rapper 50 Cent dissed Nas on his song "Piggy Bank", which brought his reputation into question in hip-hop circles. In October, Nas made a surprise appearance at Jay-Z's "I Declare War" concert, where they reconciled their beef. At the show, Jay-Z announced to the crowd, "It's bigger than 'I Declare War'. Let's go, Esco!" and Nas then joined him onstage, and the two performed Jay-Z's "Dead Presidents" (1996) together, a song that featured a prominent sample of Nas's 1994 track, "The World Is Yours" (1994).
2006–2008: Hip Hop Is Dead, Untitled, and politicized efforts
The reconciliation between Nas and Jay-Z created the opportunity for Nas to sign a deal with Def Jam Recordings, of which Jay-Z was president at the time. Jay-Z signed Nas on January 23, 2006; the signing included an agreement that Nas was to be paid about $3,000,000, including a recording budget, for each of his first two albums with Def Jam.
Tentatively called Hip Hop Is Dead...The N, Hip Hop Is Dead was a commentary on the state of hip-hop and featured "Black Republican", a hyped collaboration with Jay-Z. The album debuted on Def Jam and Nas new imprint at that label, The Jones Experience, at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 charts, selling 355,000 copies—Nas's third number one album, along with It Was Written and I Am.... It also inspired reactions about the state of hip-hop, particularly controversy with Southern hip hop artists who felt the album's title was a criticism aimed at them. Nas's 2004 song, "Thief's Theme", was featured in the 2006 film, The Departed. Nas's former label, Columbia Records, released the compilation Greatest Hits in November.
On October 12, 2007, Nas announced that his next album would be called Nigger. Both progressive commentators, such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and the conservative-aligned news channel Fox News were outraged; Jackson called on entertainers to stop using the epithet after comedian Michael Richards used it onstage in late 2006. Controversy escalated as the album's impending release date drew nearer, going as far as to spark rumors that Def Jam was planning to drop Nas unless he changed the title. Additionally, then-Fort Greene, Brooklyn assemblyman (later United States Representative) Hakeem Jeffries requested that New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli withdraw $84,000,000 from the state pension fund that had been invested into Universal and its parent company, Vivendi, if the album's title was not changed. On the opposite side of the spectrum, many of the most famous names in the entertainment industry supported Nas for using the racial epithet as the title of his full-length LP. Nas's management worried the album would not be sold by chain stores such as Wal-Mart, thus limiting its distribution.
On May 19, 2008, Nas decided to forgo an album title. Responding to Jesse Jackson's remarks and use of the word "nigger", Nas called him "the biggest player hater", stating "His time is up. All you old niggas' time is up. We heard your voice, we saw your marching, we heard your sermons. We don't want to hear that shit no more. It's a new day. It's a new voice. I'm here now. We don't need Jesse; I'm here. I got this. We the voice now. It's no more Jesse. Sorry. Goodbye. You ain't helping nobody in the 'hood and that's the bottom line." He also said of the album's title: "It's important to me that this album gets to the fans. It's been a long time coming. I want my fans to know that creatively and lyrically, they can expect the same content and the same messages. The people will always know what the real title of this album is and what to call it."
The album was ultimately released on July 15, 2008, untitled. It featured production from Polow da Don, stic.man of Dead Prez, Sons of Light and J. Myers, "Hero", the album's lead single released on June 23, 2008, reached No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 87 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks. In July, Nas attained a shoe deal with Fila. In an interview with MTV News in July, Nas speculated that he might release two albums: one produced by DJ Premier and another by Dr. Dre—simultaneously the same day. Nas worked on Dr. Dre's studio album Detox. Nas was also awarded 'Emcee of the Year' in the HipHopDX 2008 Awards for his latest solo effort, the quality of his appearances on other albums and was described as having "become an artist who thrives off of reinvention and going against the system."
2009–2012: Distant Relatives and Life Is Good
At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Nas confirmed he was collaborating on an album with reggae singer Damian Marley which was expected to be released in late 2009. Nas said of the collaboration in an interview "I was a big fan of his father and of course all the children, all the offspring, and Damian, I kind of looked at Damian as a rap guy. His stuff is not really singing, or if he does, it comes off more hard, like on some street shit. I always liked how reggae and hip-hop have always been intertwined and always kind of pushed each other, I always liked the connection. I'd worked with people before from the reggae world but when I worked with Damian, the whole workout was perfect". A portion of the profit was planned to go towards building a school in Africa. He went on to say that it was "too early to tell the title or anything like that". The Los Angeles Times reported that the album would be titled Distant Relatives.
Nas also revealed that he would begin working on his tenth studio album following the release of Distant Relatives. During late 2009, Nas used his live band Mulatto with music director Dustin Moore for concerts in Europe and Australia.
After announcing a possible release in 2010, a follow-up compilation to The Lost Tapes (2002) was delayed indefinitely due to issues between him and Def Jam. His eleventh studio album, Life Is Good (2012) was produced primarily by Salaam Remi and No I.D, and released on July 13, 2012. Nas called the album a "magic moment" in his rap career.
In 2011, Nas announced that he would release collaboration albums with Mobb Deep, Common, and a third with DJ Premier. Common said of the project in a 2011 interview, "At some point, we will do that. We'd talked about it and we had a good idea to call it Nas.Com. That was actually going to be a mixtape at one point. But we decided that we should make it an album." Life is Good would be nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
2013–2019: Nasir and The Lost Tapes 2
In January 2013, Nas announced he had begun working on his twelfth studio album, which would be his final album for Def Jam. The album was supposed to be released during 2015. In October 2013, DJ Premier said that his collaboration album with Nas, would be released following his twelfth studio album. In October 2013, Nas confirmed that a rumored song "Sinatra in the Sands" featuring Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Timbaland would be featured on the album.
On April 16, 2014, on the twentieth anniversary of Illmatic, the documentary Nas: Time Is Illmatic was premiered which recounted circumstances leading up to Nas's debut album. It was reported on September 10, that Nas has finished his last album with Def Jam. On October 30, Nas released a song which might have been the first single on his new album, titled "The Season", produced by J Dilla. Nas has also collaborated with the Australian hip-hop group, Bliss n Eso, in 2014. They released the track "I Am Somebody" in May 2014. Nas was featured on the song "We Are" from Justin Bieber's fourth studio album, Purpose, released in November 2015.
Nas was announced as one of the executive producers of the Netflix original series, The Get Down, prior to its release in August 2016. He narrated the series and rapped as adult Ezekiel of 1996.
On October 16, 2016, he received the Jimmy Iovine Icon Award at 2016 REVOLT Music Conference for having a lasting impact and unique influence on music, numerous years in the rap business, his partnership with Hennessy, and Mass Appeal imprint by Puff Daddy. In November 2016, Nas collaborated with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Dave East and Aloe Blacc on a song called "Wrote My Way Out", which appears on The Hamilton Mixtape. On April 12, 2017, Nas released the song Angel Dust as soundtrack for TV series The Getdown. It contains a sample of the Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson song Angel Dust.
In June 2017, Nas appeared in the award-winning 2017 documentary The American Epic Sessions directed by Bernard MacMahon, where he recorded live direct-to-disc on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. He performed "On the Road Again", a 1928 song by the Memphis Jug Band, which received universal acclaim with The Hollywood Reporter describing his performance as "fantastic" and the Financial Times praising his "superb cover of the Memphis Jug Band's "On the Road Again", exposing the hip-hop blueprint within the 1928 stomper." "On the Road Again", and a performance of "One Mic", were released on Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on June 9, 2017.
In April 2018, Kanye West announced on Twitter that Nas's twelfth studio album will be released on June 15, also serving as executive producer for the album. The album was announced the day before release, titled Nasir.
Following the release of Nasir, Nas confirmed he would return to completing a previous album, including production from Swizz Beatz and RZA. This project was released as The Lost Tapes 2 on July 19, 2019, which included production from Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, The Alchemist, and RZA. This album was a sequel to Nas's 2002 release, The Lost Tapes.
2020–present: King's Disease series and Magic
In August 2020, Nas announced that he would be releasing his 13th album. On August 13, he revealed the album's title, King's Disease. The album, executive-produced by Hit-Boy, was preceded by the lead single, "Ultra Black", a song detailing perseverance and pride "despite the system". The album won the Grammy Award for Best Rap Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, becoming Nas' first Grammy. The sequel album, King's Disease II, was released on August 6, 2021, and included the song "Nobody" featuring Lauryn Hill. King's Disease II debuted at number-three on the US Billboard 200, becoming Nas's highest-charting album since 2012. On December 24, Nas released the album Magic. It is his third album executive produced by Hit-Boy, and includes guest appearances from ASAP Rocky and DJ Premier.
Nas's third installment in the King's Disease series, King's Disease III, was released the following year. Like its two predecessors, King's Disease III was mainly produced by Hit-Boy; however, it was notably Nas's first studio album to forgo any guest appearances from outside artists. Upon release, King's Disease III would become one of the most critically acclaimed albums of Nas's career, becoming his highest-scoring new studio album on review aggregator Metacritic and receiving critical praise for the cohesion of Hit-Boy's production with Nas's storytelling and lyricism. Praising King's Disease III, British music publication NME stated that Nas, "three decades in, [is] still a force to be reckoned with", while Marcus Shorter of Consequence would write that the album was Nas's and Hit-Boy's "most focused and confident collaboration" and that Nas was "at peace with his legacy, life, and the fact that old age is inevitable".
Artistry
Nas has been praised for his ability to create a "devastating match between lyrics and production" by journalist Peter Shapiro, as well as creating a "potent evocation of life on the street", and he has even been compared to Rakim for his lyrical technique. In his book Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop (2009), writer Adam Bradley states, "Nas is perhaps contemporary rap's greatest innovator in storytelling. His catalog includes songs narrated before birth ('Fetus') and after death ('Amongst Kings'), biographies ('UBR [Unauthorized Biography of Rakim]') and autobiographies ('Doo Rags'), allegorical tales ('Money Is My Bitch') and epistolary ones ('One Love'), he's rapped in the voice of a woman ('Sekou Story') and even of a gun ('I Gave You Power')." Robert Christgau writes that "Nas has been transfiguring [gangsta rap] since Illmatic". Kool Moe Dee notes that Nas has an "off-beat conversational flow" in his book There's a God on the Mic – he says: "before Nas, every MC focused on rhyming with a cadence that ultimately put the words that rhymed on beat with the snare drum. Nas created a style of rapping that was more conversational than ever before".
OC of D.I.T.C. comments in the book How to Rap: "Nas did the song backwards ['Rewind']... that was a brilliant idea". Also in How to Rap, 2Mex of The Visionaries describes Nas's flow as "effervescent", Rah Digga says Nas's lyrics have "intricacy", Bootie Brown of The Pharcyde explains that Nas does not always have to make words rhyme as he is "charismatic", and Nas is also described as having a "densely packed" flow, with compound rhymes that "run over from one beat into the next or even into another bar".
About.com ranked him 1st on their list of the "50 Greatest MCs of All Time" in 2014, and a year later, Nas was featured on the "10 Best Rappers of All Time" list by Billboard. The Source ranked him No. 2 on their list of the Top 50 Lyricists of All Time. In 2013, Nas was ranked fourth on MTV's "Hottest MCs in the Game" list. His debut, Illmatic, is widely considered among the greatest hip hop albums of all time.
Controversies and feuds
Jay-Z
Initially friends, Nas and Jay-Z had met a number of times in the 1990s with no animosity between the two. Jay-Z requested that Nas appear on his 1996 album Reasonable Doubt on the track "Bring it On"; however, Nas never showed up to the studio and was not included on the album. In response to this, Jay-Z asked producer Ski Beatz to sample a line from Nas's song The World is Yours, with the sample featured heavily in what went on to be Dead Presidents II. The two traded subliminal responses for the next couple of years, until the beef was escalated further in 2001 after Jay-Z publicly addressed Nas at the Summer Jam, performing what would go on to be known as Takeover, ending the performance by saying "ask Nas, he don't want it with Hov". After Jay-Z eventually released the song on his 2001 album The Blueprint, Nas responded with the song "Ether", from his album Stillmatic, with both fans and critics saying that the song had effectively saved Nas's career and marked his return to prominence, and almost unanimously agreeing Nas had won their feud. Jay-Z responded with a freestyle over the instrumental to Nas's "Got Ur Self a Gun", known as "Supa Ugly". In the song, Jay-Z makes reference to Nas's girlfriend and daughter, going into graphic detail about having an affair with his girlfriend. Jay-Z's mother was personally disgusted by the song, and demanded he apologise to Nas and his family, which he did in December 2001 on Hot 97. Supa Ugly marked the last direct diss song between Jay-Z and Nas, however, the two continued to trade subliminals on their subsequent releases. The feud was officially brought to an end in 2005, when Jay-Z and Nas performed on stage together in a surprise concert also featuring P Diddy, Kanye West and Beanie Sigel. The following year, Nas signed with Def Jam Recordings, of which Jay-Z then served as president.
Cam'ron
After Nas was removed from the 2002 Summer Jam lineup due to allegedly planning to perform the song Ether while a mock lynching of a Jay-Z effigy took place behind him, Cam'ron was announced as a last minute replacement and headlined the show instead. Nas appeared on Power 105.1 days later and addressed a number of fellow artists, including Nelly, Noreaga and Cam'ron himself. Nas praised Cam'ron as a good lyricist, but branded his album Come Home With Me as "wack". After Cam'ron heard of Nas's words, he appeared on Funkmaster Flex's Hot 97 and performed a freestyle diss over the beat to Nas's "Hate Me Now", making reference to Nas's mother, baby mother and daughter. Nas did not respond directly but appeared on the radio days later, calling Cam'ron a "dummy" for supposedly being used by Hot 97 to generate ratings. Nas eventually responded on his 2002 album God's Son on the song "Zone Out", claiming Cam'ron had HIV. Cam'ron and the rest of The Diplomats, specifically Jim Jones continued to attack Nas throughout 2003, on numerous mixtapes, albums and radio freestyles, however, the feud between the two slowly died down and they eventually reconciled in 2014.
2Pac
After 2Pac interpreted lines directed to the Notorious B.I.G. on Nas's 1996 album It Was Written to be aimed towards him, he attacked Nas on the track "Against All Odds" from The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory. Nas himself later admitted he was brought to tears when he heard the diss because he idolized 2Pac. The two later met in Central Park before the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards and ended their feud, with 2Pac promising to remove any disses aimed at Nas from the official album release; however, 2Pac was shot four times in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada three days later on September 7, dying of his wounds on September 13, before any edits to the album could be made.
Young Jeezy
After Nas blamed Southern hip hop as the cause of the perceived artistic decline of the genre on his 2006 single "Hip Hop Is Dead", from the album of the same name, his then-Def Jam labelmate Young Jeezy took offense by claiming that Nas had "no street credibility" and vowing his album The Inspiration would outsell Hip Hop is Dead, which were released one week apart from each other in December 2006. After failing to do so, Young Jeezy took back his disses towards Nas, and the two later collaborated on the 2008 hit single "My President".
Bill O'Reilly and Virginia Tech controversy
On September 6, 2007, Nas performed at a free concert for the Virginia Tech student body and faculty, following the school shooting there. He was joined by John Mayer, Alan Jackson, Phil Vassar, and Dave Matthews Band. When announced that Nas was to perform, political commentator Bill O'Reilly and Fox News denounced the concert and called for Nas's removal, citing "violent" lyrics on songs such as "Shoot 'Em Up", "Got Urself a Gun", and "Made You Look". During his "Talking Points Memo" segment for August 15, 2007, an argument erupted in which O'Reilly claimed that it was not only Nas's lyrical content that made him inappropriate for the event, citing the gun conviction on Nas's criminal record.
On September 6, 2007, during his set at "A Concert for Virginia Tech", Nas twice referred to Bill O'Reilly as "a chump", prompting loud cheers by members of the crowd. About two weeks later, Nas was interviewed by Shaheem Reid of MTV News, where he criticised O'Reilly, calling him uncivilized and willing to go to extremes for publicity. Responding to O'Reilly, Nas, in an interview with MTV News, said:
On July 23, 2008, Nas appeared on The Colbert Report to discuss his opinion of O'Reilly and Fox News, which he accused of bias against the African-American community and re-challenged O'Reilly to a debate. During the appearance, Nas sat on boxes of more than 625,000 signatures gathered by online advocacy organisation Color of Change in support of a petition accusing Fox of race-baiting and fear-mongering.
Lijadu Sisters
On his 2006 mixtape, The Prophecy, Vol 2: The Beginning of the N, Nas had a track titled "Life's Gone Low". It was a substantial sampling of "Life's Gone Down Low", a song released by Nigerian musician twin Lijadu Sisters in their 1976 Danger album. Nas lifted vocal hooks and the entire beats from the duo's work. Nas neither obtained clearance nor did he credit the Sisters for the reuse. Reacting to the issue, the Lijadu Sisters were reported to have said: "We can't forgive him," but "If other people want to use your stuff, that tells that you did something good."
Doja Cat
In 2020, after Doja Cat faced accusations of participating in racist conversations on the internet, Nas referenced her in his song "Ultra Black", calling her "the opposite of ultra black". The response to the lyric was mixed, with some defending his right to criticize her, and others resurfacing allegations that he verbally abused his ex-wife, Kelis. Doja Cat shrugged off the namedrop, jokingly referencing the lyric in a TikTok video. In an interview with Fat Joe, Doja Cat said that she has no interest in "beefing" with Nas saying "I fucking love Nas, thank fucking god he noticed me. I love Nas. So I don't give a shit. He can say whatever he wants. I really don't care". Nas later claimed that the line was not meant to be perceived as a "diss", and that he was "just trying to find another word that worked with the scheme of the song."
Business ventures
On April 10, 2013, Nas invested an undisclosed six-figure sum into Mass Appeal magazine, where he went on to serve as the publication's associate publisher, joined by creative firm Decon and White Owl Capital Partners. In June 2013, he opened his own sneaker store.
In September 2013, he invested in a technology startup company, a job search appmaker called Proven. In 2014, Nas invested as part of a $2.8M round in viral video startup ViralGains another addition to Queens-bridge venture partners portfolio.
Nas has a partnership with Hennessy and has been working with their "Wild Rabbit" campaign.
In May 2014, Nas partnered with job placement startup Koru to fund a scholarship for 10 college graduates to go through Koru's training program. Nas will also be joining the startup as a guest coach. Nas is a co-owner of a Cloud-based service LANDR, an automated, drag-and-drop digital audio postproduction tool which automates "mastering", the final stage in audio production. In June 2015, Nas joined forces with New York City soul food restaurant Sweet Chick. He plans to expand the restaurant brand nationally. The Los Angeles location opened in April 2017. He owns his own clothing line called HSTRY.
In June 2018, Nas was paid $40 million after Amazon acquired the doorbell company Ring Inc. as well as PillPack - the latter of which he invested in via his investment firm, Queensbridge Venture Partners.
He has continued to invest heavily in technology startups including Dropbox, Lyft, and Robinhood.
Personal life
Nas is a spokesperson and mentor for P'Tones Records, a non-profit after-school music program with the mission "to create constructive opportunities for urban youth through no-cost music programs."
On June 15, 1994, Nas's ex-fiancée Carmen Bryan gave birth to their daughter, Destiny. She later confessed to Nas that she had a relationship with his then-rival rapper and nemesis Jay-Z, also accusing Jay-Z of putting subliminal messages in his lyrics about their relationship together, causing an even bigger rift in the feud between the two men.
Nas also briefly dated Mary J. Blige and Nicki Minaj respectively. In 2005, Nas married R&B singer Kelis in Atlanta after a two-year relationship. On April 30, 2009, a spokesperson confirmed that Kelis filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. Kelis gave birth to Nas's first son on July 21, 2009, although the event was soured by a disagreement which ended in Nas announcing the birth of his son, Knight, at a gig in Queens, New York, against Kelis's wishes. The birth was also announced by Nas via an online video. The couple's divorce was finalized on May 21, 2010. In 2018, Kelis accused Nas of being physically and mentally abusive during their marriage. Nas replied to the accusations on social media, accusing Kelis of attempting to slander him in the time of a custody battle and accusing Kelis of abusing his daughter, Destiny.
In January 2012, Nas was involved in a dispute with a concert promoter in Angola, having accepted $300,000 for a concert in Luanda, Angola's capital for New Year's Eve and then not showing up. American promoter Patrick Allocco and his son, who arranged for Nas's concert, were detained at gunpoint and taken to an Angolan jail by the local promoter who fronted the $300,000 for the concert. Only after the U.S. Embassy intervened were the promoter and his son allowed to leave jail—but were placed under house arrest at their hotel. By the end of the month Nas had returned all $300,000, and, after 49 days of travel ban, Allocco and his son were both released.
On March 15, 2012, Nas became the first rapper to have a personal verified account on Genius, where he explains his own lyrics and occasionally comments on lyrics from other rappers he admires.
In September 2009 the U.S. Internal Revenue Service filed a federal tax lien against Nas for over $2.5 million, seeking unpaid taxes dating back to 2006. By early 2011 this figure had ballooned to over $6.4 million. Early in 2012 reports emerged that the IRS had filed papers in Georgia to garnish a portion of Nas's earnings from material published under BMI and ASCAP, until his delinquent tax bill is settled.
In May 2013, it was announced that Nas would open a sneaker store in Las Vegas called 12 am RUN (pronounced Midnight Run) as part of The LINQ retail development.
In July 2013, Harvard University established the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship, to fund scholars and artists who show potential and creativity in the arts in connection to hip hop.
In an October 2014 episode of PBS's Finding Your Roots, Nas learned about five generations of his ancestry. His great-great-great-grandmother, Pocahontas Little, was an enslaved woman who was sold for $830. When host Henry Louis Gates showed Nas her bill of sale and told him more about the man who bought her, Nas remarked that he is considering buying the land where the slave owner lived. Nas was also shown the marriage certificate of his great-great-great-grandmother, Pocahontas, and great-great-great-grandfather, Calvin.
On November 12, 2019, Nas was honored by Haute Living, along with Watches of Switzerland and Hennessy, in a celebratory affair that included a violin rendition of iconic Nas songs performed by Edward W. Hardy.
Nas is a fan of his hometown baseball team the New York Mets and English soccer team Everton FC.
Discography
Studio albums
Illmatic (1994)
It Was Written (1996)
I Am... (1999)
Nastradamus (1999)
Stillmatic (2001)
God's Son (2002)
Street's Disciple (2004)
Hip Hop Is Dead (2006)
Untitled (2008)
Life Is Good (2012)
Nasir (2018)
King's Disease (2020)
King's Disease II (2021)
Magic (2021)
King's Disease III (2022)
Collaboration albums
The Album (with the Firm) (1997)
Distant Relatives (with Damian Marley) (2010)
Filmography
Awards and nominations
Grammy Awards
The Grammy Awards are held annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Nas has won 1 Grammy out of 15 nominations altogether.
|-
| rowspan="1" | 1997
| "If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)"
| Best Rap Solo Performance
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | 2000
| I Am...
| Best Rap Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |2003
| "One Mic"
| Best Music Video
|
|-
| "The Essence" (with AZ)
| rowspan="2" |Best Rap Performance by a Duo or a Group
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008
| "Better Than I've Ever Been" (with Kanye West & KRS-One)
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | Hip Hop Is Dead
| rowspan="2" |Best Rap Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2009
| rowspan="1" | Nas
|
|-
| "N.I.G.G.E.R. (The Slave and the Master)"
| Best Rap Solo Performance
|
|-
| rowspan="1" | 2010
| "Too Many Rappers" (with Beastie Boys)
| Best Rap Performance by a Duo or a Group
|
|-
|rowspan="4"|2013
|rowspan="2"|"Daughters"
|Best Rap Performance
|
|-
|Best Rap Song
|
|-
|"Cherry Wine" (featuring Amy Winehouse)
|Best Rap/Sung Collaboration
|
|-
|Life Is Good
|rowspan="3"| Best Rap Album
|
|-
| 2021
| King's Disease
|
|-
|rowspan="2"|2022
| King's Disease II
|
|-
| "Bath Salts" (with DMX & Jay-Z)
|Best Rap Song
|
|-
MTV Video Music Awards
|-
| 1999
| "Hate Me Now" (featuring Puff Daddy)
| Best Rap Video
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2002
|rowspan="2"| "One Mic"
| Video of the Year
|
|-
|rowspan="3"| Best Rap Video
|
|-
|rowspan="2"| 2003
| "I Can"
|
|-
| "Thugz Mansion" (with Tupac Shakur and J. Phoenix)
|
|-
| 2005
| "Bridging the Gap" (featuring Olu Dara)
| Best Hip-Hop Video
|
|}
BET Hip Hop Awards
|-
| 2006
| Nas
| I Am Hip-Hop Icon Award
|
|-
| 2007
| "Hip Hop Is Dead"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2008
| "Untitled"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2012
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| "Daughters"
| Impact Track
|
|-
| 2013
| "Life is Good"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| 2021
| Nas
| Lyricist of the Year Award
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2022
| "King's Disease II"
| Hip Hop Album of the Year
|
|-
| "Nobody" featuring Lauryn Hill
| Impact Track
|
|-
|}
References
Further reading
External links
Nas on Spotify
Category:1973 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American musicians
Category:21st-century American businesspeople
Category:21st-century American rappers
Category:African-American fashion designers
Category:American fashion designers
Category:African-American investors
Category:American investors
Category:African-American male rappers
Category:American retail chief executives
Category:American magazine publishers (people)
Category:American music industry executives
Category:American restaurateurs
Category:Businesspeople from Queens, New York
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Def Jam Recordings artists
Category:East Coast hip hop musicians
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Hardcore hip hop artists
Category:Ill Will Records artists
Category:People from Long Island City, Queens
Category:Rappers from New York City
Category:Songwriters from New York (state)
Category:The Firm (hip hop group) members
Category:African-American songwriters | [] | [
"Nas began his career as a teenager, enlisting his best friend and upstairs neighbor Willy \"Ill Will\" Graham as his DJ. He initially went by the nickname \"Kid Wave\" before adopting the alias of \"Nasty Nas\". In the late-1980s, he met up with producer Large Professor and started recording his own material in the studio where Rakim and Kool G Rap were recording their albums. His first released performance was in 1991 on Main Source's \"Live at the Barbeque\". Nas was later approached by MC Serch of 3rd Bass in mid-1992, who became his manager and secured him a record deal with Columbia Records.",
"In addition to his best friend Willy \"Ill Will\" Graham and MC Serch of 3rd Bass, Nas was also helped by Large Professor, who he met in the late 1980s, and who would later contribute to the production of his debut album, Illmatic. Other contributors on the album included Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier, as well as guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara.",
"Nas's first album was \"Illmatic\", which was released in 1994.",
"Yes, before releasing his debut album, Nas performed on Main Source's \"Live at the Barbeque\" in 1991. He also made his solo debut under the name of \"Nasty Nas\" on the single \"Halftime\" from MC Serch's soundtrack for the film Zebrahead.",
"Nas worked with several people throughout his early career. His best friend Willy \"Ill Will\" Graham was his DJ, and he was managed by MC Serch of 3rd Bass, who also secured him a record deal with Columbia Records. He also collaborated with producer Large Professor. His debut album, Illmatic, featured production from Large Professor, Pete Rock, Q-Tip, LES and DJ Premier. The album also included guest appearances from Nas's friend AZ and his father Olu Dara.",
"From his debut album, Illmatic, Nas had several singles including \"The World Is Yours\", \"It Ain't Hard to Tell\", and \"One Love\".",
"The context does not provide information on any other hit singles by Nas apart from \"The World Is Yours\", \"It Ain't Hard to Tell\", and \"One Love\" from his debut album, Illmatic."
] | [
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"no"
] |
C_2fd2e1cafae44deca81b0e5df98b3727_1 | Ai Weiwei | Ai Weiwei (Chinese: Ai Wei Wei ; pinyin: Ai Weiwei, English pronunciation ; born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. His father's (Ai Qing) original surname was written Jiang (Jiang ). Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. | Release | On 22 June 2011, the Chinese authorities released Ai from jail after almost three months' detention on charges of tax evasion. Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. (Chinese: Bei Jing Fa Ke Wen Hua Gong Si ), a company Ai controlled, had allegedly evaded taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents. State media also reports that Ai was granted bail on account of Ai's "good attitude in confessing his crimes", willingness to pay back taxes, and his chronic illnesses. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he is prohibited from leaving Beijing without permission for one year. Ai's supporters widely viewed his detention as retaliation for his vocal criticism of the government. On 23 June 2011, professor Wang Yujin of China University of Political Science and Law stated that the release of Ai on bail shows that the Chinese government could not find any solid evidence of Ai's alleged "economic crime". On 24 June 2011, Ai told a Radio Free Asia reporter that he was thankful for the support of the Hong Kong public, and praised Hong Kong's conscious society. Ai also mentioned that his detention by the Chinese regime was hellish (Chinese: Jiu Si Yi Sheng ), and stressed that he is forbidden to say too much to reporters. After his release, his sister gave some details about his detention condition to the press, explaining that he was subjected to a kind of psychological torture: he was detained in a tiny room with constant light, and two guards were set very close to him at all times, and watched him constantly. In November, Chinese authorities were again investigating Ai and his associates, this time under the charge of spreading pornography. Lu was subsequently questioned by police, and released after several hours though the exact charges remain unclear. In January 2012, in its International Review issue Art in America magazine featured an interview with Ai Weiwei at his home in China. J.J. Camille (the pen name of a Chinese-born writer living in New York), "neither a journalist nor an activist but simply an art lover who wanted to talk to him" had travelled to Beijing the previous September to conduct the interview and to write about his visit to "China's most famous dissident artist" for the magazine. On 21 June 2012, Ai's bail was lifted. Although he is allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he is still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is "suspected of other crimes," including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. Until 2015, he remained under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continues to criticize through his work. In July 2015, he was given a passport and may travel abroad. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.
Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and his personal poetry in his many sculptures, photographs, and public works. In doing this, he makes use of Chinese art forms to display Chinese political and social issues.
After being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany, in Cambridge, UK, with his family, and in Portugal.
Life
Early life and work
Ai's father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement. In 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1961, where they lived for 16 years. Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.
In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation. In 1978, he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Mao Lizi, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Ah Cheng and Qu Leilei. The group disbanded in 1983, yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).
Life in the United States
From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States. He was among the first generation of students to study abroad following China's reform in 1980, being one of the 161 students to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in 1981. For the first few years, Ai lived in Philadelphia and San Francisco. He studied English at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. Later, he moved to New York City. He studied briefly at Parsons School of Design. Ai attended the Art Students League of New York from 1983 to 1986, where he studied with Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin and Richard Pousette-Dart. He later dropped out of school and made a living out of drawing street portraits and working odd jobs. During this period, he gained exposure to the works of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, and began creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects.
Ai befriended beat poet Allen Ginsberg while living in New York, following a chance meeting at a poetry reading where Ginsberg read out several poems about China. Ginsberg had traveled to China and met with Ai's father, the noted poet Ai Qing, and consequently Ginsberg and Ai became friends.
When he was living in the East Village (from 1983 to 1993), Ai carried a camera with him all the time and would take pictures of his surroundings wherever he was. The resulting collection of photos were later selected and is now known as the New York Photographs. At the same time, Ai became fascinated by blackjack card games and frequented Atlantic City casinos. He is still regarded in gambling circles as a top tier professional blackjack player according to an article published on blackjackchamp.com.
Return to China
In 1993, Ai returned to China after his father became ill. He helped establish the experimental artists' Beijing East Village and co-published a series of three books about this new generation of artists with Chinese curator Feng Boyi: Black Cover Book (1994), White Cover Book (1995), and Gray Cover Book (1997).
In 1999, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house – his first architectural project. Due to his interest in architecture, he founded the architecture studio FAKE Design, in 2003. In 2000, he co-curated the art exhibition Fuck Off with curator Feng Boyi in Shanghai, China.
Life in Europe
In 2011, Ai was arrested in China on charges of tax evasion, jailed for 81 days, and then released. The government had confiscated his passport and refused him any other travel papers. Following the return of his passport in 2015, Ai moved to Berlin where he maintained a large studio in a former brewery. He lived in the studio and used it as the base for his international work.
In 2019, he announced he would be leaving Berlin, saying that Germany is not an open culture. In September 2019, he moved to live in Cambridge, England.
As of 2021, Ai lives in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. He still maintains a base in Cambridge, where his son attends school, and a studio in Berlin. Ai says he will stay in Portugal long-term "unless something happens".
Ai sits on the Board of Advisors for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK).
Personal life
Ai is married to artist Lu Qing. He has a son, Ai Lao, born 2009 with Wang Fen. Ai is fond of cats.
Political activity and controversies
Internet activities
In 2005, Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China. He posted his first blog on 19 November. For four years, he "turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings." The blog was shut down by Sina on 28 May 2009. Ai then turned to Twitter and wrote prolifically on the platform, claiming at least eight hours online every day. He wrote almost exclusively in Chinese using the account @aiww. As of 31 December 2013, Ai has declared that he would stop tweeting but the account remains active in forms of retweets and Instagram posts. In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked Ai's blog as the fourth greatest work of performance art ever, with the writer arguing, "Much in the way early performance artists documented with film and video, Ai used the prevalent medium of his time—the web—to examine the increasingly fine line between public life and the artist's work. Ai here used his presence to create something full and tangible rather than just a symbolic representation of his critique." In 2023 he created a mobile app to which gives users a picture of Ai's own middle finger which they can insert over another image of any place on earth (from google earth) which they disapprove of.
Citizens' investigation on Sichuan earthquake student casualties
Ten days after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province on 12 May 2008, Ai led a team to survey and film the post-quake conditions in various disaster zones. In response to the government's lack of transparency in revealing names of students who perished in the earthquake due to substandard school campus constructions, Ai recruited volunteers online and launched a "Citizens' Investigation" to compile names and information of the student victims. On 20 March 2009, he posted a blog titled "Citizens' Investigation" and wrote: "To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility, and for the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a 'Citizens' Investigation.' We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will remember them."
As of 14 April 2009, the list had accumulated 5,385 names. Ai published the collected names as well as numerous articles documenting the investigation on his blog which was shut down by Chinese authorities in May 2009. He also posted his list of names of schoolchildren who died on the wall of his office at FAKE Design in Beijing.
Ai suffered headaches and claimed he had difficulty concentrating on his work since returning from Chengdu in August 2009, where he was beaten by the police for trying to testify for Tan Zuoren, a fellow investigator of the shoddy construction and student casualties in the earthquake. On 14 September 2009, Ai was diagnosed to be suffering internal bleeding in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and the doctor arranged for emergency brain surgery. The cerebral hemorrhage is believed to be linked to the police attack.
According to the Financial Times, in an attempt to force Ai to leave the country, two accounts used by him had been hacked in a sophisticated attack on Google in China dubbed Operation Aurora, their contents read and copied; his bank accounts were investigated by state security agents who claimed he was under investigation for "unspecified suspected crimes".
Shanghai studio controversy
Ai was placed under house arrest in November 2010 by the Chinese police. He said this was to prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his brand new Shanghai studio.
The building was designed by Ai himself with assistance, and potency coming from a "high official [from Shanghai]" the new studio was a part of a new traditionally design by Shanghai Municipal jurisdiction. He was going to use it as a studio and mentor different architecture courses. After Ai was charged with constructing the studio without the required approval and the knockdown notice had been processed, Ai said officials had been anxious and the paperwork and planning process was "under government supervision". According to Ai, a few different artists were invited to create and structure new studios in this area of Shanghai because officials wanted to create a friendly environment.
Ai stated on 3 November 2010 that authorities had let him know him two months earlier that the newly completed studio would be knocked down because it was illegal and did not meet the needs. Ai criticized that this was biased, stating that he was "the only one singled out to have my studio destroyed". The Guardian reported Ai saying Shanghai municipal authorities were "upset " by documentaries on subjects they considered delicate—in particular a documentary featuring Shanghai resident Feng Zhenghu, who lived in forced separation for three months in Narita Airport, Tokyo, and one focused on Yang Jia, who murdered six Shanghai police officers.
At the end of the term, the gathering took place without Ai. All of his fans had a river crab, an allusion to "harmony", and a euphemism used to jeer official censorship. Ai was eventually released from house arrest the next day.
Like other activists and intellectuals, Ai was stopped from leaving China in late 2010. Ai suggested that the higher ups wanted to stop him from attending a ceremony in December 2010 to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo. Ai said that he was never invited to the ceremony and was attempting to travel to South Korea where he had an important meeting when he was told that he could not leave for reasons of national security.
On 11 January 2011, Ai's studio was knocked down and destroyed in a surprise move by the government, who had previously told him the studio would be destroyed only after the beginning of the New Year on 3 February 2011.
2011 arrest
On 3 April 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport just before catching a flight to Hong Kong and his studio facilities were searched. A police contingent of approximately 50 officers came to his studio, threw a cordon around it and searched the premises. They took away laptops and the hard drive from the main computer; along with Ai, police also detained eight staff members and Ai's wife, Lu Qing. Police also visited the mother of Ai's two-year-old son. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 7 April that Ai was arrested under investigation for alleged economic crimes. Then, on 8 April, police returned to Ai's workshop to examine his financial affairs. On 9 April, Ai's accountant, as well as studio partner Liu Zhenggang and driver Zhang Jingsong, disappeared, while Ai's assistant Wen Tao has remained missing since Ai's arrest on 3 April. Ai's wife said that she was summoned by the Beijing Chaoyang district tax bureau, where she was interrogated about his studio's tax on 12 April. South China Morning Post reports that Ai received at least two visits from the police, the last being on 31 March – three days before his detention – apparently with offers of membership to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A staff member recalled that Ai had mentioned receiving the offer earlier, "[but Ai] didn't say if it was a membership of the CPPCC at the municipal or national level, how he responded or whether he accepted it or not."
On 24 February, amid an online campaign for Middle East-style protests in major Chinese cities by overseas dissidents, Ai posted on his Twitter account: "I didn't care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"
Response to Ai's arrest
Analysts and other activists said Ai had been widely thought to be untouchable, but Nicholas Bequelin from Human Rights Watch suggested that his arrest was calculated to send a message that no one is immune and that the arrest must have had the approval of someone in the top leadership. International governments, human rights groups and art institutions, among others, called for Ai's release, while Chinese officials did not notify Ai's family of his whereabouts.
State media started describing Ai as a "deviant and a plagiarist" in early 2011. A Chinese Communist Party tabloid Global Times editorial on 6 April 2011 attacked Ai, and two days later, the journal scorned Western media for questioning Ai's charge as a "catch-all crime", and denounced the use of his political activism as a "legal shield" against everyday crimes. Frank Ching expressed in the South China Morning Post that how the Global Times could radically shift its position from one day to the next was reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.
Michael Sheridan of The Times suggested that Ai had offered himself to the authorities on a platter with some of his provocative art, particularly photographs of himself nude with only a toy alpaca hiding his modesty – with a caption『草泥马挡中央』 ("grass mud horse covering the middle"). The term possesses a double meaning in Chinese: one possible interpretation was given by Sheridan as: "Fuck your mother, the party central committee".
Ming Pao in Hong Kong reacted strongly to the state media's character attack on Ai, saying that authorities had employed "a chain of actions outside the law, doing further damage to an already weak system of laws, and to the overall image of the country." Pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, announced that Ai was under arrest for tax evasion, bigamy and spreading indecent images on the internet, and vilified him with multiple instances of strong rhetoric. Supporters said "the article should be seen as a mainland media commentary attacking Ai, rather than as an accurate account of the investigation."
The United States and European Union protested Ai's detention. The international arts community also mobilised petitions calling for the release of Ai: "1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei" was organized by Creative Time of New York that calls for artists to bring chairs to Chinese embassies and consulates around the world on 17 April 2011, at 1 pm local time "to sit peacefully in support of the artist's immediate release."> Artists in Hong Kong, Germany and Taiwan demonstrated and called for Ai to be released.
One of the major protests by U.S. museums took place on 19 and 20 May when the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego organized a 24-hour silent protest in which volunteer participants, including community members, media, and museum staff, occupied two traditionally styled Chinese chairs for one-hour periods. The 24-hour sit-in referenced Ai's sculpture series, Marble Chair, two of which were on view and were subsequently acquired for the museum's permanent collection.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the International Council of Museums, which organised petitions, said they had collected more than 90,000 signatures calling for the release of Ai. On 13 April 2011, a group of European intellectuals led by Václav Havel had issued an open letter to Wen Jiabao, condemning the arrest and demanding the immediate release of Ai. The signatories include Ivan Klíma, Jiří Gruša, Jáchym Topol, Elfriede Jelinek, Adam Michnik, Adam Zagajewski, Helmuth Frauendorfer; Bei Ling (Chinese:贝岭), a Chinese poet in exile drafted and also signed the open letter.
On 16 May 2011, the Chinese authorities allowed Ai's wife to visit him briefly. Liu Xiaoyuan, his attorney and personal friend, reported that Wei was in good physical condition and receiving treatment for his chronic diabetes and hypertension; he was not in a prison or hospital but under some form of house arrest.
He is the subject of the 2012 documentary film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by American filmmaker Alison Klayman, which received a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and opened the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, North America's largest documentary festival, in Toronto on 26 April 2012.
Release
On 22 June 2011, the Chinese authorities released Ai from jail after almost three months' detention on charges of tax evasion. Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. (), a company Ai controlled, had allegedly evaded taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents. State media also reports that Ai was granted bail on account of Ai's "good attitude in confessing his crimes", willingness to pay back taxes, and his chronic illnesses. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he was prohibited from leaving Beijing without permission for one year. Ai's supporters widely viewed his detention as retaliation for his vocal criticism of the government. On 23 June 2011, professor Wang Yujin of China University of Political Science and Law stated that the release of Ai on bail shows that the Chinese government could not find any solid evidence of Ai's alleged "economic crime". On 24 June 2011, Ai told a Radio Free Asia reporter that he was thankful for the support of the Hong Kong public, and praised Hong Kong's conscious society. Ai also mentioned that his detention by the Chinese regime was hellish (Chinese: 九死一生), and stressed that he is forbidden to say too much to reporters.
After his release, his sister gave some details about his detention condition to the press, explaining that he was subjected to a kind of psychological torture: he was detained in a tiny room with constant light, and two guards were set very close to him at all times, and watched him constantly. In November, Chinese authorities were again investigating Ai and his associates, this time under the charge of spreading pornography.
Lu was subsequently questioned by police, and released after several hours though the exact charges remain unclear.
In January 2012, in its International Review issue Art in America magazine featured an interview with Ai Weiwei at his home in China. J.J. Camille (the pen name of a Chinese-born writer living in New York), "neither a journalist nor an activist but simply an art lover who wanted to talk to him" had travelled to Beijing the previous September to conduct the interview and to write about his visit to "China's most famous dissident artist" for the magazine.
On 21 June 2012, Ai's bail was lifted. Although he was allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he was still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is "suspected of other crimes", including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. Until 2015, he remained under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continued to criticize through his work. In July 2015, he was given a passport and permitted to travel abroad.
Ai says that at the beginning of his detention he was proud of being detained much like his father had been earlier. He also says it allowed him to try a dialogue with the authorities, something which had never been possible before.
Tax case
In June 2011, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau demanded a total of over 12 million yuan (US$1.85 million) from Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. in unpaid taxes and fines, and accorded three days to appeal the demand in writing. According to Ai's wife, Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. has hired two Beijing lawyers as defense attorneys. Ai's family state that Ai is "neither the chief executive nor the legal representative of the design company, which is registered in his wife's name."
Offers of donations poured in from Ai's fans across the world when the fine was announced. Eventually, an online loan campaign was initiated on 4 November 2011, and close to 9 million RMB was collected within ten days, from 30,000 contributions. Notes were folded into paper planes and thrown over the studio walls, and donations were made in symbolic amounts such as 8964 (4 June 1989, Tiananmen Massacre) or 512 (12 May 2008, Sichuan earthquake). To thank creditors and acknowledge the contributions as loans, Ai designed and issued loan receipts to all who participated in the campaign. Funds raised from the campaign were used as collateral, required by law for an appeal on the tax case. Lawyers acting for Ai submitted an appeal against the fine in January 2012; the Chinese government subsequently agreed to conduct a review.
In June 2012, the court heard the tax appeal case. Ai's wife, Lu Qing, the legal representative of the design company, attended the hearing. Lu was accompanied by several lawyers and an accountant, but the witnesses they had requested to testify, including Ai, were prevented from attending a court hearing. Ai asserts that the entire matter – including the 81 days he spent in jail in 2011 – is intended to suppress his provocations. Ai said he had no illusions as to how the case would turn out, as he believes the court will protect the government's own interests. On 20 June, hundreds of Ai's supporters gathered outside the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing despite a small army of police officers, some of whom videotaped the crowd and led several people away. On 20 July, Ai's tax appeal was rejected in court. The same day Ai's studio released "The Fake Case" which tracks the status and history of this case including a timeline and the release of official documents. On 27 September, the court upheld the tax evasion fine. Ai had previously deposited in a government-controlled account in order to appeal. Ai said he will not pay the remainder because he does not recognize the charge.
In October 2012, authorities revoked the license of Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. for failing to re-register, an annual requirement by the administration. The company was not able to complete this procedure as its materials and stamps were confiscated by the government.
"15 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA)" – Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2014
On 26 April 2014, Ai's name was removed from a group show taking place at the Shanghai Power Station of Art. The exhibition was held to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the art prize created by Uli Sigg in 1998, with the purpose of promoting and developing Chinese contemporary art. Ai won the Lifetime Contribution Award in 2008 and was part of the jury during the first three editions of the prize. He was then invited to take part in the group show together with the other selected Chinese artists. Shortly before the exhibition's opening, some museum workers removed his name from the list of winners and jury members painted on a wall. Also, Ai's works Sunflower Seeds and Stools were removed from the show and kept in a museum office (see photo on Ai Weiwei's Instagram). Sigg declared that it was not his decision and that it was a decision of the Power Station of Art and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture.
"Hans van Dijk: 5000 Names – UCCA"
In May 2014, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, a non-profit art center situated in the 798 art district of Beijing, held a retrospective exhibition in honor of the late curator and scholar, Hans Van Dijk. Ai, a good friend of Hans and a fellow co-founder of the China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW), participated in the exhibition with three artworks. On the day of the opening, Ai realized his name was omitted from both Chinese and English versions of the exhibition's press release. Ai's assistants went to the art center and removed his works. It is Ai's belief that, in omitting his name, the museum altered the historical record of van Dijk's work with him. Ai started his own research about what actually happened, and between 23 and 25 May he interviewed the UCCA's director, Philip Tinari, the guest curator of the exhibition, Marianne Brouwer, and the UCCA chief, Xue Mei. He published the transcripts of the interviews on Instagram. In one of the interviews, the CEO of the UCCA, Xue Mei, admitted that, due to the sensitive time of the exhibition, Ai's name was taken out of the press releases on the day of the opening and it was supposed to be restored afterwards. This was to avoid problems with the Chinese authorities, who threatened to arrest her.
Support for Julian Assange
Ai has long advocated for the release of Julian Assange. In 2016, he co-signed a letter which stated that the UK and Sweden were undermining the UN by ignoring the findings of a UN working group that found Assange was being arbitrarily detained. The letter called on the UK and Sweden to guarantee Assange's freedom of movement and provide compensation. Ai visited Assange in high security Belmarsh Prison after his arrest by the UK. In September 2019, Ai held a silent protest in support of Assange outside London's Old Bailey court where Assange's extradition hearing was being held. Ai called for Assange's freedom and said "He truly represents the very core value of why we are fighting, the freedom of the press."
In 2021, Ai was invited to submit a piece for the virtual UK art exhibition The Great Big Art Exhibition, which was organised by Firstsite. Ai's piece, called Postcard for Political Prisoners, incorporated a photograph of the running machine used by Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. After initially accepting Ai's idea, Firstsite's director said that it could not include his project "due to time constraints, and because it did not fit with the concept of the exhibition." Ai said he thought the reason for the rejection was that the exhibition did not "want to touch on a topic like Assange."
Artistic works
Weiwei is often referred to as China's most famous artist. He has created works that focus on human rights abuses using video, photography, wallpaper, and porcelain.
Documentaries
Beijing video works
From 2003 to 2005, Ai Weiwei recorded the results of Beijing's developing urban infrastructure and its social conditions.
Beijing 2003
2003, Video, 150 hours
Beginning under the Dabeiyao highway interchange, the vehicle from which Beijing 2003 was shot traveled every road within the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing and documented the road conditions. Approximately 2400 kilometers and 150 hours of footage later, it ended where it began under the Dabeiyao highway interchange. The documentation of these winding alleyways of the city center – now largely torn down for redevelopment – preserved a visual record of the city that is free of aesthetic judgment.
Chang'an Boulevard
2004, Video, 10h 13m
Moving from east to west, Chang'an Boulevard traverses Beijing's most iconic avenue. Along the boulevard's 45-kilometer length, it recorded the changing densities of its far-flung suburbs, central business districts, and political core. At each 50-meter increment, the artist records a single frame for one minute. The work reveals the rhythm of Beijing as a capital city, its social structure, cityscape, socialist-planned economy, capitalist market, political power center, commercial buildings, and industrial units as pieces of a multi-layered urban collage.
Beijing: The Second Ring
2005, Video, 1h 6m
Beijing: The Third Ring
2005 Video, 1h 50m
Beijing: The Second Ring and Beijing: The Third Ring capture two opposite views of traffic flow on every bridge of each Ring Road, the innermost arterial highways of Beijing. The artist records a single frame for one minute for each view on the bridge. Beijing: The Second Ring was entirely shot on cloudy days, while the segments for Beijing: The Third Ring were entirely shot on sunny days. The films document the historic aspects and modern development of a city with a population of nearly 11 million people.
Fairytale
2007, video, 2h 32m
Fairytale covers Ai Weiwei's project Fairytale, part of Europe's most innovative five-year art event Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany in 2007. Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens of different ages and from various backgrounds to travel to Kassel, Germany to experience a fairytale of their own.
The 152-minute long film documents the ideation and process of staging Fairytale and covering project preparations, participants' challenges, and travel to Germany.
Along with this documentary, Fairytale was documented through written materials and photographs of participants and artifacts from the event.
Fairytale was an act of social subversion, improving relationships between China and the West through interactions among participants and the citizens of Kassel. Ai Weiwei felt that he was able to make a positive influence on both participants of Fairytale and Kassel citizens.
Little Girl's Cheeks
2008, video, 1h 18m
On 15 December 2008, a citizens' investigation began with the goal of seeking an explanation for the casualties of the Sichuan earthquake that happened on 12 May 2008. The investigation covered 14 counties and 74 townships within the disaster zone, and studied the conditions of 153 schools that were affected by the earthquake.
By gathering and confirming comprehensive details about the students, such as their age, region, school, and grade, the group managed to affirm that there were 5,192 students who perished in the disaster.
Among a hundred volunteers, 38 of them participated in fieldwork, with 25 of them being controlled by the Sichuan police for a total of 45 times.
This documentary is a structural element of the citizens' investigation.
4851
2009, looped video, 1h 27m
At 14:28 on 12 May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. Over 5,000 students in primary and secondary schools perished in the earthquake, yet their names went unannounced. In reaction to the government's lack of transparency, a citizen's investigation was initiated to find out their names and details about their schools and families.
As of 2 September 2009, there were 4,851 confirmed. This video is a tribute to these perished students and a memorial for innocent lives lost.
A Beautiful Life
2009, video, 48m
This video documents the story of Chinese citizen Feng Zhenghu and his struggles to return home.
In 2009, authorities in Shanghai prevented Feng Zhenghu, who was originally from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, from returning home a total of eight times that year. On 4 November 2009 Feng Zhenghu attempted to return home for the ninth time but instead Chinese police forcibly put him on a flight to Japan. Upon arrival at Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Feng refused to enter Japan and decided to live in the Immigration Hall at Terminal 1, as an act of protest. He relied on gifts of food from tourists for sustenance and lived in a passageway in the Narita Airport for 92 days. He posted updates over Twitter which attracted international media coverage and concern from Chinese netizens and international communities.
On 31 January, Feng announced an end to his protest at the Narita Airport. On 12 February Feng was allowed to re-enter China, where he reunited with his family at their home in Shanghai.
Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire process of his return to China.
Disturbing the Peace (Laoma Tihua)
2009, video, 1h 19m
Ai Weiwei studio production Laoma Tihua is a documentary of an incident during Tan Zuoren's trial on 12 August 2009. Tan Zuoren was charged with "inciting subversion of state power". Chengdu police detained witnessed during the trial of the civil rights advocate, which is an obstruction of justice and violence.
Tan Zuoren was charged as a result of his research and questioning regarding the 5.12 Wenchuan students' casualties and the corruption resulting poor building construction. Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years of prison.
One Recluse
2010, video, 3h
In June 2008, Yang Jia carried a knife, a hammer, a gas mask, pepper spray, gloves and Molotov cocktails to the Zhabei Public Security Branch Bureau and killed six police officers, injuring another police officer and a guard. He was arrested on the scene, and was subsequently charged with intentional homicide. In the following six months, while Yang Jia was detained and trials were held, his mother has mysteriously disappeared.
This video is a documentary that traces the reasons and motivations behind the tragedy and investigates into a trial process filled with shady cover-ups and questionable decisions. The film provides a glimpse into the realities of a government-controlled judicial system and its impact on the citizens' lives.
Hua Hao Yue Yuan
2010, video, 2h 6m
"The future dictionary definition of 'crackdown' will be: First cover one's head up firmly, and then beat him or her up violently". – @aiww
In the summer of 2010, the Chinese government began a crackdown on dissent, and Hua Hao Yue Yuan documents the stories of Liu Dejun and Liu Shasha, whose activism and outspoken attitude led them to violent abuse from the authorities. On separate occasions, they were kidnapped, beaten and thrown into remote locations. The incidents attracted much concern over the Internet, as well as wide speculation and theories about what exactly happened. This documentary presents interviews of the two victims, witnesses and concerned netizens. In which it gathers various perspectives about the two beatings, and brings us closer to the brutal reality of China's "crackdown on crime".
Remembrance
2010, voice recording, 3h 41m
On 24 April 2010 at 00:51, Ai Weiwei (@aiww) started a Twitter campaign to commemorate students who perished in the earthquake in Sichuan on 12 May 2008. 3,444 friends from the Internet delivered voice recordings, the names of 5,205 perished were recited 12,140 times.
Remembrance is an audio work dedicated to the young people who lost their lives in the Sichuan earthquake. It expresses thoughts for the passing of innocent lives and indignation for the cover-ups on truths about sub-standard architecture, which led to the large number of schools that collapsed during the earthquake.
San Hua
2010, video, 1h 8m
The shooting and editing of this video lasted nearly seven months at the Ai Weiwei studio. It began near the end of 2007 in an interception organized by cat-saving volunteers in Tianjin, and the film locations included Tianjin, Shanghai, Rugao of Jiangsu, Chaoshan of Guangzhou, and Hebei Province. The documentary depicts a complete picture of a chain in the cat-trading industry.
Since the end of 2009 when the government began soliciting expert opinion for the Animal Protection Act, the focus of public debate has always been on whether one should be eating cats or not, or whether cat-eating is a Chinese tradition or not. There are even people who would go as far as to say that the call to stop eating cat meat is "imposing the will of the minority on the majority". Yet the "majority" does not understand the complete truth of cat-meat trading chains: cat theft, cat trafficking, killing cats, selling cats, and eating cats, all the various stages of the trade and how they are distributed across the country, in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Rugao, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Hebei.
Ordos 100
2011, video, 1h 1m
This documentary is about the construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and design a 1000 square meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei. On 25 January 2008, the 100 architects gathered in Ordos for a first site visit. The film Ordos 100 documents the total of three site visits to Ordos, during which time the master plan and design of each villa was completed. As of 2016, the Ordos 100 project remains unrealized.
So Sorry
2011, video, 54m
As a sequel to Ai Weiwei's film Lao Ma Ti Hua, the film so sorry (named after the artist's 2009 exhibition in Munich, Germany) shows the beginnings of the tension between Ai Weiwei and the Chinese Government. In Lao Ma Ti Hua, Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu, Sichuan to attend the trial of the civil rights advocate Tan Zuoren, as a witness. So Sorry shows the investigation led by Ai Weiwei studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake as a result of corruption and poor building constructions leading to the confrontation between Ai Weiwei and the Chengdu police. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the museum Haus der Kunst. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage and was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei's struggle and surveillance at the hands of the state police.
Ping'an Yueqing
2011, video, 2h 22m
This documentary investigates the death of popular Zhaiqiao village leader Qian Yunhui in the fishing village of Yueqing, Zhejiang province. When the local government confiscated marshlands in order to convert them into construction land, the villagers were deprived of the opportunity to cultivate these lands and be fully self-subsistent. Qian Yunhui, unafraid of speaking up for his villagers, travelled to Beijing several times to report this injustice to the central government. In order to silence him, he was detained by local government repeatedly. On 25 December 2010, Qian Yunhui was hit by a truck and died on the scene. News of the incident and photos of the scene quickly spread over the internet. The local government claimed that Qian Yunhui was the victim of an ordinary traffic accident. This film is an investigation conducted by Ai Weiwei studio into the circumstances of the incident and its connection to the land dispute case, mainly based on interviews of family members, villagers and officials. It is an attempt by Ai Weiwei to establish the facts and find out what really happened on 25 December 2010.
During shooting and production, Ai Weiwei studio experienced significant obstruction and resistance from local government. The film crew was followed, sometimes physically stopped from shooting certain scenes and there were even attempts to buy off footage. All villagers interviewed for the purposes of this documentary have been interrogated or illegally detained by local government to some extent.
The Crab House
2011, video, 1h 1m
Early in 2008, the district government of Jiading, Shanghai invited Ai Weiwei to build a studio in Malu Township, as a part of the local government's efforts in developing its cultural assets. By August 2010, the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio completed all of its construction work. In October 2010, the Shanghai government declared the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio an illegal construction, and it was subjected to demolition. On 7 November 2010, when Ai Weiwei was placed under house arrest by public security in Beijing, over 1,000 netizens attended the "River Crab Feast" at the Shanghai Studio. On 11 January 2011, the Shanghai city government forcibly demolished the Ai Weiwei Studio within a day, without any prior notice.
Stay Home
2013, video, 1h 17m
This video tells the story of Liu Ximei, who at her birth in 1985 was given to relatives to be raised because she was born in violation of China's strict one-child policy. When she was ten years old, Liu was severely injured while working in the fields and lost large amounts of blood. While undergoing treatment at a local hospital, she was given a blood transfusion that was later revealed to be contaminated with HIV. Following this exposure to the virus, Liu contracted AIDS. According to official statistics, in 2001 there were 850,000 AIDS sufferers in China, many of whom contracted the illness in the 1980s and 1990s as the result of a widespread plasma market operating in rural, impoverished areas and using unsafe collection methods.
Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50
2014, video, 2h 8m
Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50 opens with Ai Weiwei's mother at the Venice Biennial in the summer of 2013 examining Ai's large S.A.C.R.E.D. installation portraying his 81-day imprisonment. The documentary goes onto chronologically reconstruct the events that occurred from the time he was arrested at the Beijing airport in April 2011 to his final court appeal in September 2012. The film portrays the day-to-day activity surrounding Ai Weiwei, his family and his associates ranging from consistent visits by the authorities, interviews with reporters, support and donations from fans, and court dates. The Film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on 23 January 2014.
Fukushima Art Project
2015, video, 30m
This documentary on the Fukushima Art Project is about artist Ai Weiwei's investigation of the site as well as the project's installation process. In August 2014, Ai Weiwei was invited as one of the participating artists for the Fukushima Nuclear Zone by the Japanese art coalition Chim↑Pom, as part of the project Don't Follow the Wind. Ai accepted the invitation and sent his assistant Ma Yan to the exclusion zone in Japan to investigate the site. The Fukushima Exclusion Zone is thus far located within the 20-kilometer radius of land area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 25,000 people have already been evacuated from the Exclusion Zone. Both water and electric circuits were cut off. Entrance restriction is expected to be relieved in the next thirty years, or even longer. The art project will also be open to public at that time. The three spots usable as exhibition spaces by the artists are all former residential houses, among which exhibition sites one and two were used for working and lodging; and exhibition site three was used as a community entertainment facility with an ostrich farm.
Ai brought about two projects, A Ray of Hope and Family Album after analyzing materials and information generated from the site.
In A Ray of Hope, a solar photovoltaic system is built on exhibition site one, on the second level of the old warehouse. Integral LED lighting devices are used in the two rooms. The lights would turn on automatically from 7 to 10pm, and from 6 to 8am daily. This lighting system is the only light source in the Exclusion Zone after this project was installed.
Photos of Ai and his studio staff at Caochangdi that make up project Family Album are displayed on exhibition site two and three, in the seven rooms where locals used to live. The twenty-two selected photos are divided in five categories according to types of events spanning eight years. Among these photos, six of them were taken from the site investigation at the 2008 Sichuan earthquake; two were taken during the time when he was illegally detained after pleading the Tan Zuoren case in Chengdu, China in August 2009; and three others taken during his surgical treatment for his head injury from being attacked in the head by police officers in Chengdu; five taken of him being followed by the police and his Beijing studio Fake Design under surveillance due to the studio tax case from 2011 to 2012; four are photos of Ai Weiwei and his family from year 2011 to year 2013; and the other two were taken earlier of him in his studio in Caochangdi (One taken in 2005 and the other in 2006).
Human Flow
A feature documentary directed by Weiwei and co-produced by Andy Cohen about the global refugee crisis.
Coronation
A feature-length documentary directed by Weiwei about happenings in Wuhan, China during the COVID-19 pandemic. When discussing the film Weiwei claimed "it's obvious the disease is not from an animal. It's not a natural disease, it's something that's leaked out, after years of research."
Visual arts
Ai's visual art includes sculptural installations, woodworking, video and photography. "Ai Weiwei: According to What", adapted and expanded by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, was Ai's first North American museum retrospective. It opened at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. in 2013, and subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York,
and two other venues. His works address his investigation into the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake and responses to the Chinese government's detention and surveillance of him. His recent public pieces have called attention to the Syrian refugee crisis.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
(1995) Performance in which Ai lets an ancient ceramic urn fall from his hands and smash to pieces on the ground. The performance was memorialized in a series of three photographic still frames.
Map of China
(2008) Sculpture resembling a park bench or tree trunk, but its cross-section is a map of China. It is four metres long and weighs 635 kilograms. It is made from wood salvaged from Qing dynasty temples.
Table with two legs on the wall
(2008) Ming dynasty table cut in half and rejoined at a right angle to rest two feet on the wall and two on the floor. The reconstruction was completed using Chinese period specific joinery techniques.
Straight
(2008–2012) 150 tons of twisted steel reinforcements recovered from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake building collapse sites were straightened out and displayed as an installation.
Sunflower Seeds
(2010) In October 2010, at the Tate Modern in London, Ai displayed 100 million handmade and painted porcelain sunflower seeds. The work as installed was called 1-125,000,000 and subsequent installations have been titled Sunflower Seeds. The initial installation had the seeds spread across the floor of the Turbine Hall in a thin 10 cm layer. The seeds weigh about 10 metric tonnes and were made by artisans over two and a half years by 1,600 Jingdezhen artisans in a city where porcelain had been made for over a thousand years. The sculpture refers to chairman Mao's rule and the Chinese Communist Party. The mass of tiny seeds represents that, together, the people of China can stand up and overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. The seeds also refer to China's current mass automated production, based on Western consumerist culture. The sculpture challenges the "Made in China" mantra, memorialising labour-intensive traditional methods of crafting objects.
Surveillance Camera
(2010) Ai WeiWei's marble sculpture resembles a Surveillance Camera to express the alarming rate of how technological advancements are being used in the modern world. WeiWei created this sculpture in response to the Chinese Government surveilling and incorporating listening devices in and around his studio, located in Beijing. The Chinese government did this as punishment for WeiWei's outspoken criticism of the Chinese Government.
He Xie/Crab
(2010) Sculptures of a large amount of crabs.
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
(2011) Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads are sculptures of zodiac animals inspired by the water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace.
Belongings of Ye Haiyan
(2013) Ye Haiyan's (叶海燕) Belongings is a collaborative piece between Ai Weiwei and Ye Haiyan. Ye, also referred to as "Hooligan Sparrow", is an activist for women's rights and sex worker's rights. After consistent surveillance and harassment for her outspoken activism as chronicled in Nanfu Wang's documentary Hooligan Sparrow, Haiyan and her daughter were met with multiple evictions in various cities and ultimately ended up on the side of the road with all of their belongings and no place to go. Ai Weiwei was able to help them financially and included this piece in his exhibition "According to What?". The display consists of four walls which display pictures of Haiyan, her daughter, and their life's belongings that they packed quickly prior to their first eviction. In the center, Ai recreated their belongings before they were confiscated. The whole arrangement demonstrates the realities of publicly speaking out against injustices in China.
Coca-Cola Vases
(1994) Han dynasty vases with the Coca-Cola logo brushed onto them is one of the artists' longest running series, begun in 1994 and continuing to the present day.
Grapes
(2014) 32 Qing dynasty stools joined together in a cluster with legs pointing out.
Free-speech Puzzle
(2014) Individual porcelain ornaments, each painted with characters for "free speech", which when set together form a map of China.
Trace
(2014) Consisting of 176 2D-portraits in Lego which are set onto a large floor space, Trace was commissioned by the FOR-SITE Foundation, the United States National Park Service and the Golden Gate Park Conservancy. The original installation was at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay; the 176 portraits being of various political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. After seeing one million visitors during its one-year display at Alcatraz, the installation was moved and put on display at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. (in a modified form; the pieces had to be arranged to fit the circular floor space). The display at the Hirshhorn ran from 28 June 2017 – 1 January 2018. The display also included two versions of his wallpaper work The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca and a video running on a loop.
The 2019 documentary film Yours Truly covered the creation of Trace and an associated exhibit, Yours Truly, also at Alcatraz, where visitors could write postcards to be sent to selected political prisoners.
Law of the Journey
(2017) As the culmination of Ai's experiences visiting 40 refugee camps in 2016, Law of the Journey featured an all-black, inflatable boat carrying 258 faceless refugee figures. The art piece is currently on display at the National Gallery in Prague until 7 January 2018.
Two Iron Trees at The Shrine of Book
(2017) Permanent exhibit, unique setting of two Iron Trees from now on frame the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, Israel where Dead Sea Scrolls are preserved.
Journey of Laziz
(2017) The exhibition was on the view in the Israel Museum until the end of October 2017. Journey of Laziz is a video installation, showing the mental breakdown and overall suffering of a tiger living in the "world's worst zoo" in Gaza.
Hansel and Gretel
(2017) The exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory from 7 June- 6 August 2017, Hansel and Gretel was an installation exploring the theme of surveillance. The project, a collaboration of Ai Weiwei and architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, features surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition software, near-infrared floor projections, tethered, autonomous drones and sonar beacons. A companion website includes a curatorial statement, artist biographies, a livestream of the installation and a timeline of surveillance technology from ancient to modern times.
The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca
(2017) The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca, and its companion piece The Plain Version of The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca, is a wallpaper work consisting of intricate tiled patterns showing various pieces of surveillance equipment in whimsical arrangements. The two pieces were installed at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of a full-floor exhibition of his work that also included a video and the 2014 installation Trace.
man in a cube
(2017) Ai Weiwei created the sculpture man in a cube for the exhibition Luther and the Avantgarde in Wittenberg to mark the 2017 quincentenary of the Reformation. In it, the artist worked through his experiences of anxiety and isolation following his arrest by Chinese authorities: "My work is physically a concrete block, which contains within it a single figure in solitude. That figure is the likeness of myself during my eighty-one days under secret detention in 2011." Concentrating on ideas and language helped Ai Weiwei endure his imprisonment. He was also intrigued by the connectedness of freedom, language and ideas in Martin Luther, to whom he explicitly paid tribute with man in a cube.
Once the exhibition in Wittenberg closed, the Stiftung Lutherhaus Eisenach endeavored to make this exceptional manifestation of contemporary Reformation commemoration, man in a cube, permanently accessible to a wide audience. Thanks to the generous support of numerous backers, the museum managed to acquire the sculpture in 2019. It was erected in the courtyard of the Lutherhaus and presented to the public in a ceremony the following year, the five hundredth anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther's treatise On the Freedom of a Christian.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Ai Weiwei's 2017–18 New York City-wide public art exhibition.
Forever Bicycles
Forever Bicycles is a sculpture made of many interconnected bicycles. The sculpture was installed as 1,300 bicycles in Austin, Texas, in 2017. The sculpture was moved to The Forks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and reassembled as 1,254 bicycles in 2019.
The sculpture's bicycles are made to resemble the Shanghai Forever Co. bicycles that were financially out of reach for the artist's family during his youth.
Forever
A sculpture of many bicycles is displayed as public art in the gardens of the Artz Pedregal shopping mall in Mexico City since its opening in March 2018, and it is part of Fundación Arte Abierto's collection.
Priceless
A collaboration with conceptual artist Kevin Abosch primarily made up of two standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, called PRICELESS (PRCLS is its symbol). One of these tokens is forever unavailable to anyone, but the other is meant for distribution and is divisible up to 18 decimal places, meaning it can be given away one quintillionth at a time. A nominal amount of the distributable token was "burned" (put into digital wallets with the keys thrown away), and these wallet addresses were printed on paper and sold to art buyers in a series of 12 physical works. Each wallet address alphanumeric is a proxy for a shared moment between Abosch and Ai.
Er Xi
A monstrous sculptures at Le Bon Marché in Paris to "speak to our inner child". Artist Ai Weiwei has used traditional Chinese kite-making techniques to create mythological characters and creatures for windows, atriums and the gallery at Paris department store Le Bon Marché (+ slideshow). Er Xi opened on 16 January 2016 until 20 February 2016 at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, located on Rue de Sèvres in Paris' 7th arrondissement.
Architecture
Ai Weiwei is also a notable architect known for his collaborations with Herzog & de Meuron and Wang Shu. In 2005, Ai was invited by Wang Shu as an external teacher of the Architecture Department of China Academy of Art.
Jinhua Park
In 2002, he was the curator of the project Jinhua Architecture Park.
Tsai Residence
In 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York. According to The New York Times, the Tsai Residence is divided into four modules and the details are "extraordinarily refined". In 2009, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design selected the home for its International Architecture Awards, one of the world's most prestigious global awards for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning. In 2010, Wallpaper* magazine nominated the residence for its Wallpaper Design Awards category: Best New Private House. A detached guesthouse, also designed by Ai and HHF Architects, was completed after the main house and, according to New York Magazine, looks like a "floating boomerang of rusty Cor-Ten steel".
Ordos 100
In 2008, Ai curated the architecture project Ordos 100 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. He invited 100 architects from 29 countries to participate in this project.
Beijing National Stadium
Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Bird's Nest". Although ignored by the Chinese media, he had voiced his anti-Olympics views. He later distanced himself from the project, saying, "I've already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it," saying it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste. In August 2007, he also accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment." In February 2008, Spielberg withdrew from his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics. When asked why he participated in the designing of the Bird's Nest in the first place, Ai replied "I did it because I love design."
Serpentine Pavilion
In summer 2012, Ai teamed again with Herzog & de Meuron on a "would-be archaeological site [as] a game of make-believe and fleeting memory" as the year's temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens.
Books
Venice Elegy
This edition of Yang Lian's poems and Ai Weiwei's visual images was realized by the publishing house Damocle Edizioni – Venice in 200 numbered copies on Fabriano Paper. The book was printed in Venice, May 2018. Every book is hand signed by Yang Lian and Ai Weiwei.
Traces of Survival
In December 2014 Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq provided drawing materials to three refugee camps in Iraq: Camp Shariya, Camp Baharka and Mar Elia Camp. Ruya Foundation collected over 500 submissions. A number of these images were then selected by Ai Weiwei for a major publication, Traces of Survival: Drawings by Refugees in Iraq selected by Ai Weiwei, that was published to coincide with the Iraq Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
Released in November 2021, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows is a memoir that documents the life of Ai Weiwei with a focus on his father, the renowned Chinese poet, Ai Qing. The book begins by documenting AI Weiwei's relationship with his father and the parallels between their lives and struggles before describing Ai's success as an artist and his constant struggle with the Chinese authorities over censorship and personal freedoms.
Music
On 24 October 2012, Ai went live with a cover of Gangnam Style, the famous K-pop phenomenon by South Korean rapper PSY, through the posting of a four-minute long parody video on YouTube. The video was an attempt to criticize the Chinese government's attempt to silence his activism and was quickly blocked by national authorities.
On 22 May 2013, Ai debuted his first single Dumbass over the internet, with a music video shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The video was a reconstruction of Ai's experience in prison, during his 81-day detention, and dives in and out of the prison's reality and the guarding soldiers' fantasies. He later released a second single, Laoma Tihua, on 20 June 2013 along with a video on his experience of state surveillance, with footage compiled from his studio's documentaries. On 22 June 2013, the two-year anniversary of Ai's release, he released his first music album The Divine Comedy. Later in August, he released a third music video for the song Chaoyang Park, also included in the album.
Other engagements
Ai is the artistic director of China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), which he co-founded in 1997. This contemporary art archive and experimental gallery in Beijing concentrates on experimental art from the People's Republic of China, initiates and facilitates exhibitions and other forms of introductions inside and outside China. The building which houses it was designed by Ai in 2000.
On 15 March 2010, Ai took part in Digital Activism in China, a discussion hosted by The Paley Media Center in New York with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Richard MacManus. Also in 2010 he served as jury member for Future Generation Art Prize, Kiev, Ukraine; contributed design for Comme de Garcons Aoyama Store, Tokyo, Japan; and participated in a talk with Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller at the International Culture festival in Cologne, Germany.
In 2011, Ai sat on the jury of an international initiative to find a universal Logo for Human Rights. The winning design, combining the silhouette of a hand with that of a bird, was chosen from more than 15,300 suggestions from over 190 countries. The initiative's goal was to create an internationally recognized logo to support the global human rights movement.[98] In 2013, after the existence of the PRISM surveillance program was revealed, Ai said "Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual rights."[99]
In 2012, Ai interviewed a member of the 50 Cent Party, a group of "online commentators" (otherwise known as sockpuppets) covertly hired by the Chinese government to post "comments favourable towards party policies and [intending] to shape public opinion on internet message boards and forums". Keeping Ai's source anonymous, the transcript was published by the British magazine New Statesman on 17 October 2012, offering insights on the education, life, methods and tactics used by professional trolls serving pro-government interests.
Ai designed the cover for 17 June 2013 issue of Time magazine. The cover story, by Hannah Beech, is "How China Sees the World". Time magazine called it "the most beautiful cover we've ever done in our history."
In 2011, Ai served as co-director and curator of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and co-curator of the exhibition Shanshui at The Museum of Art Lucerne. Also in 2011, Ai spoke at TED (conference) and was a guest lecturer at Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
In 2013, Ai became a Reporters Without Borders ambassador. He also gave a hundred pictures to the NGO in order to release a Photo book and a digital album, both sold in order to fund freedom of information projects.
In 2014–2015, Ai explored human rights and freedom of expression through an exhibition of his art exclusively created for Alcatraz, a notorious federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. Ai's @Large exhibit raised questions and contradictions about human rights and the freedom of expression through his artwork at the island's layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress.
In February 2016, Ai WeiWei attached 14,000 bright orange life jackets to the columns of the Konzerthaus in Berlin. The life jackets had been discarded by refugees arriving on the shore on the Greek island of Lesbos. Later that year, he installed a different piece, also using discarded life jackets, at the pond at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna.
In 2017, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei are among the six artists that have designed covers for ES Magazine celebrating the "resilience of London" in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and recent terror attacks.
In September 2019, the newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis opened with a major exhibition of work by Ai Weiwei: "Bare Life".
A film by Ai Weiwei, CIRCA 20:20, was screened on global network of billboard screens in London, Tokyo and Seoul in October 2020.
From March 16 until September 4, 2022, a retrospective on Ai Weiwei's work is on display at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria under the title "Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity".
Awards and honors
2008
Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Lifetime Achievement
2009
GQ Men of the Year 2009, Moral Courage (Germany); the ArtReview Power 100, rank 43; International Architecture Awards, Anthenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, Chicago, US
2010
In March 2010, Ai received an honorary doctorate degree from the Faculty of Politics and Social Science, University of Ghent, Belgium.
In September 2010, Ai received Das Glas der Vernunft (The Prism of Reason), Kassel Citizen Award, Kassel, Germany.
Ai was ranked 13th in ArtReviews guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010. In 2010, he was also awarded a Wallpaper Design Award for the Tsai Residence, which won Best New Private House.
Asteroid 83598 Aiweiwei, discovered by Bill Yeung in 2001, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 28 November 2010 ().
2011
On 20 April 2011, Ai was appointed visiting professor of the Berlin University of the Arts.
In October 2011, when ArtReview magazine named Ai number one in their annual Power 100 list, the decision was criticized by the Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded, "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine".
In December 2011, Ai was one of four runners-up in Times Person of the Year award. Other awards included: Wall Street Journal Innovators Award (Art); Foreign Policy Top Global Thinkers of 2011, rank 18; the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation Award for Courage; ArtReview Power 100, rank 1; membership at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany; the 2011 Time 100; the Wallpaper* 150; honorary academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; and Skowhegan Medal for Multidisciplinary Art, New York City, US.
2012
Along with Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, Ai received the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent of the Human Rights Foundation on 2 May 2012. Ai was also awarded an honorary degree from Pratt Institute, honorary fellowship from Royal Institute of British Architects, elected as foreign member of Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, and recipient of the International Center of Photography Cornell Capa Award. Ai was ranked 3rd in ArtReviews Power 100. He was one of 12 visionaries honoured by Condé Nast Traveler, along with Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, and Nelson Mandela.
2013
In April, Ai received the Appraisers Association Award for Excellence in the Arts. Fast Company has listed him among its 2013 list of 100 Most Creative People in Business. His guest-edit in the 18 October issue of New Statesman has won an Amnesty Media Award in June 2013. He has received the St. Moritz Art Masters Lifetime Achievement Award by Cartier in August. His documentary Ping'an Yueqing (2012) has won the Spirit of Independence award at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. He was ranked no.9 in ArtReview Power 100. He received an honorary doctorate in fine arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, US.
2015
On 21 May 2015, Ai, along with the folk singer Joan Baez, received Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, in Berlin, for showing exceptional leadership in the fight for human rights, through his life and work. The artist, who was at the time under surveillance and forbidden from leaving China, could not take part in the ceremony. His son Ai Lao accepted the prize on behalf of his father, called on the stage by Tate Modern director, Chris Dercon, who also spoke on behalf of the Chinese activist. Chris Dercon, who received the award on behalf of Ai Weiwei, said that Ai Weiwei wanted to pay tribute to those people in worse conditions than him, including civil rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang who faces eight years in prison, imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize-winning poet Liu Xiaobo, journalist Gao Yu, women's rights activist Su Changlan, activist Liu Ping and academic Ilham Tohti.
2018
In 2018, Ai Weiwei received Marina Kellen French Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award granted by the Americans for the Arts.
See also
WeiweiCam
Notes
References
Further reading
Medium, Artists on the Cutting Edge, by Addison Fach, 1 December 2017
WideWalls magazine, Excessivism – A Phenomenon Every Art Collector Should Know, by Angie Kordic
Gallereo magazine, The Newest Art Movement You've Never Heard of, 20 November 2015
The Huffington Post, Excessivism: Irony, *Imbalance and a New Rococo, by Shana Nys Dambrot, art critic, curator, 23 September 2015
Spalding, David. @large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, 2014. Print. @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
Ai, Weiwei; Anthony Pins. Ai Weiwei: Spatial Matters : Art Architecture and Activism, 2014. Print. Ai Weiwei: spatial matters : art architecture and activism
External links
Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts London
Ai Weiwei at De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art
Ai Weiwei. Study of Perspective. Photographic series produced 1995–2011. Public Delivery
Category:1957 births
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Category:Chinese artists | [] | null | null |
C_2fd2e1cafae44deca81b0e5df98b3727_0 | Ai Weiwei | Ai Weiwei (Chinese: Ai Wei Wei ; pinyin: Ai Weiwei, English pronunciation ; born 28 August 1957 in Beijing) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. His father's (Ai Qing) original surname was written Jiang (Jiang ). Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. | Tax case | In June 2011, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau demanded a total of over 12 million yuan (US$1.85 million) from Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. in unpaid taxes and fines, and accorded three days to appeal the demand in writing. According to Ai's wife, Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. has hired two Beijing lawyers as defense attorneys. Ai's family state that Ai is "neither the chief executive nor the legal representative of the design company, which is registered in his wife's name." Offers of donations poured in from Ai's fans across the world when the fine was announced. Eventually an online loan campaign was initiated on 4 November 2011, and close to 9 million RMB was collected within ten days, from 30,000 contributions. Notes were folded into paper planes and thrown over the studio walls, and donations were made in symbolic amounts such as 8964 (4 June 1989, Tiananmen Massacre) or 512 (12 May 2008, Sichuan earthquake). To thank creditors and acknowledge the contributions as loans, Ai designed and issued loan receipts to all who participated in the campaign. Funds raised from the campaign were used as collateral, required by law for an appeal on the tax case. Lawyers acting for Ai submitted an appeal against the fine in January 2012; the Chinese government subsequently agreed to conduct a review. In June 2012, the court heard the tax appeal case. Ai's wife, Lu Qing, the legal representative of the design company, attended the hearing. Lu was accompanied by several lawyers and an accountant, but the witnesses they had requested to testify, including Ai, were prevented from attending a court hearing. Ai asserts that the entire matter - including the 81 days he spent in jail in 2011 - is intended to suppress his provocations. Ai said he had no illusions as to how the case would turn out, as he believes the court will protect the government's own interests. On 20 June, hundreds of Ai's supporters gathered outside the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing despite a small army of police officers, some of whom videotaped the crowd and led several people away. On 20 July, Ai's tax appeal was rejected in court. The same day Ai's studio released "The Fake Case" which tracks the status and history of this case including a timeline and the release of official documents. On 27 September, the court upheld the 2.4 million tax evasion fine. Ai had previously deposited 1.33 million in a government-controlled account in order to appeal. Ai said he will not pay the remainder because he does not recognize the charge. In October 2012, authorities revoked the license of Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. for failing to re-register, an annual requirement by the administration. The company was not able to complete this procedure as its materials and stamps were confiscated by the government. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Ai Weiwei (, ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of "tofu-dreg schools" in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for "economic crimes". He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators.
Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and his personal poetry in his many sculptures, photographs, and public works. In doing this, he makes use of Chinese art forms to display Chinese political and social issues.
After being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany, in Cambridge, UK, with his family, and in Portugal.
Life
Early life and work
Ai's father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement. In 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1961, where they lived for 16 years. Upon Mao Zedong's death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, the family returned to Beijing in 1976.
In 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation. In 1978, he was one of the founders of the early avant garde art group the "Stars", together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Mao Lizi, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Ah Cheng and Qu Leilei. The group disbanded in 1983, yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars: Ten Years, 1989 (Hanart Gallery, Hong Kong and Taipei), and a retrospective exhibition in Beijing in 2007: Origin Point (Today Art Museum, Beijing).
Life in the United States
From 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States. He was among the first generation of students to study abroad following China's reform in 1980, being one of the 161 students to take the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) in 1981. For the first few years, Ai lived in Philadelphia and San Francisco. He studied English at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley. Later, he moved to New York City. He studied briefly at Parsons School of Design. Ai attended the Art Students League of New York from 1983 to 1986, where he studied with Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin and Richard Pousette-Dart. He later dropped out of school and made a living out of drawing street portraits and working odd jobs. During this period, he gained exposure to the works of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, and began creating conceptual art by altering readymade objects.
Ai befriended beat poet Allen Ginsberg while living in New York, following a chance meeting at a poetry reading where Ginsberg read out several poems about China. Ginsberg had traveled to China and met with Ai's father, the noted poet Ai Qing, and consequently Ginsberg and Ai became friends.
When he was living in the East Village (from 1983 to 1993), Ai carried a camera with him all the time and would take pictures of his surroundings wherever he was. The resulting collection of photos were later selected and is now known as the New York Photographs. At the same time, Ai became fascinated by blackjack card games and frequented Atlantic City casinos. He is still regarded in gambling circles as a top tier professional blackjack player according to an article published on blackjackchamp.com.
Return to China
In 1993, Ai returned to China after his father became ill. He helped establish the experimental artists' Beijing East Village and co-published a series of three books about this new generation of artists with Chinese curator Feng Boyi: Black Cover Book (1994), White Cover Book (1995), and Gray Cover Book (1997).
In 1999, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house – his first architectural project. Due to his interest in architecture, he founded the architecture studio FAKE Design, in 2003. In 2000, he co-curated the art exhibition Fuck Off with curator Feng Boyi in Shanghai, China.
Life in Europe
In 2011, Ai was arrested in China on charges of tax evasion, jailed for 81 days, and then released. The government had confiscated his passport and refused him any other travel papers. Following the return of his passport in 2015, Ai moved to Berlin where he maintained a large studio in a former brewery. He lived in the studio and used it as the base for his international work.
In 2019, he announced he would be leaving Berlin, saying that Germany is not an open culture. In September 2019, he moved to live in Cambridge, England.
As of 2021, Ai lives in Montemor-o-Novo, Portugal. He still maintains a base in Cambridge, where his son attends school, and a studio in Berlin. Ai says he will stay in Portugal long-term "unless something happens".
Ai sits on the Board of Advisors for the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK).
Personal life
Ai is married to artist Lu Qing. He has a son, Ai Lao, born 2009 with Wang Fen. Ai is fond of cats.
Political activity and controversies
Internet activities
In 2005, Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China. He posted his first blog on 19 November. For four years, he "turned out a steady stream of scathing social commentary, criticism of government policy, thoughts on art and architecture, and autobiographical writings." The blog was shut down by Sina on 28 May 2009. Ai then turned to Twitter and wrote prolifically on the platform, claiming at least eight hours online every day. He wrote almost exclusively in Chinese using the account @aiww. As of 31 December 2013, Ai has declared that he would stop tweeting but the account remains active in forms of retweets and Instagram posts. In 2013, Dale Eisinger of Complex ranked Ai's blog as the fourth greatest work of performance art ever, with the writer arguing, "Much in the way early performance artists documented with film and video, Ai used the prevalent medium of his time—the web—to examine the increasingly fine line between public life and the artist's work. Ai here used his presence to create something full and tangible rather than just a symbolic representation of his critique." In 2023 he created a mobile app to which gives users a picture of Ai's own middle finger which they can insert over another image of any place on earth (from google earth) which they disapprove of.
Citizens' investigation on Sichuan earthquake student casualties
Ten days after the 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province on 12 May 2008, Ai led a team to survey and film the post-quake conditions in various disaster zones. In response to the government's lack of transparency in revealing names of students who perished in the earthquake due to substandard school campus constructions, Ai recruited volunteers online and launched a "Citizens' Investigation" to compile names and information of the student victims. On 20 March 2009, he posted a blog titled "Citizens' Investigation" and wrote: "To remember the departed, to show concern for life, to take responsibility, and for the potential happiness of the survivors, we are initiating a 'Citizens' Investigation.' We will seek out the names of each departed child, and we will remember them."
As of 14 April 2009, the list had accumulated 5,385 names. Ai published the collected names as well as numerous articles documenting the investigation on his blog which was shut down by Chinese authorities in May 2009. He also posted his list of names of schoolchildren who died on the wall of his office at FAKE Design in Beijing.
Ai suffered headaches and claimed he had difficulty concentrating on his work since returning from Chengdu in August 2009, where he was beaten by the police for trying to testify for Tan Zuoren, a fellow investigator of the shoddy construction and student casualties in the earthquake. On 14 September 2009, Ai was diagnosed to be suffering internal bleeding in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and the doctor arranged for emergency brain surgery. The cerebral hemorrhage is believed to be linked to the police attack.
According to the Financial Times, in an attempt to force Ai to leave the country, two accounts used by him had been hacked in a sophisticated attack on Google in China dubbed Operation Aurora, their contents read and copied; his bank accounts were investigated by state security agents who claimed he was under investigation for "unspecified suspected crimes".
Shanghai studio controversy
Ai was placed under house arrest in November 2010 by the Chinese police. He said this was to prevent the planned party marking the demolition of his brand new Shanghai studio.
The building was designed by Ai himself with assistance, and potency coming from a "high official [from Shanghai]" the new studio was a part of a new traditionally design by Shanghai Municipal jurisdiction. He was going to use it as a studio and mentor different architecture courses. After Ai was charged with constructing the studio without the required approval and the knockdown notice had been processed, Ai said officials had been anxious and the paperwork and planning process was "under government supervision". According to Ai, a few different artists were invited to create and structure new studios in this area of Shanghai because officials wanted to create a friendly environment.
Ai stated on 3 November 2010 that authorities had let him know him two months earlier that the newly completed studio would be knocked down because it was illegal and did not meet the needs. Ai criticized that this was biased, stating that he was "the only one singled out to have my studio destroyed". The Guardian reported Ai saying Shanghai municipal authorities were "upset " by documentaries on subjects they considered delicate—in particular a documentary featuring Shanghai resident Feng Zhenghu, who lived in forced separation for three months in Narita Airport, Tokyo, and one focused on Yang Jia, who murdered six Shanghai police officers.
At the end of the term, the gathering took place without Ai. All of his fans had a river crab, an allusion to "harmony", and a euphemism used to jeer official censorship. Ai was eventually released from house arrest the next day.
Like other activists and intellectuals, Ai was stopped from leaving China in late 2010. Ai suggested that the higher ups wanted to stop him from attending a ceremony in December 2010 to award the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize to fellow dissident Liu Xiaobo. Ai said that he was never invited to the ceremony and was attempting to travel to South Korea where he had an important meeting when he was told that he could not leave for reasons of national security.
On 11 January 2011, Ai's studio was knocked down and destroyed in a surprise move by the government, who had previously told him the studio would be destroyed only after the beginning of the New Year on 3 February 2011.
2011 arrest
On 3 April 2011, Ai was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport just before catching a flight to Hong Kong and his studio facilities were searched. A police contingent of approximately 50 officers came to his studio, threw a cordon around it and searched the premises. They took away laptops and the hard drive from the main computer; along with Ai, police also detained eight staff members and Ai's wife, Lu Qing. Police also visited the mother of Ai's two-year-old son. The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on 7 April that Ai was arrested under investigation for alleged economic crimes. Then, on 8 April, police returned to Ai's workshop to examine his financial affairs. On 9 April, Ai's accountant, as well as studio partner Liu Zhenggang and driver Zhang Jingsong, disappeared, while Ai's assistant Wen Tao has remained missing since Ai's arrest on 3 April. Ai's wife said that she was summoned by the Beijing Chaoyang district tax bureau, where she was interrogated about his studio's tax on 12 April. South China Morning Post reports that Ai received at least two visits from the police, the last being on 31 March – three days before his detention – apparently with offers of membership to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. A staff member recalled that Ai had mentioned receiving the offer earlier, "[but Ai] didn't say if it was a membership of the CPPCC at the municipal or national level, how he responded or whether he accepted it or not."
On 24 February, amid an online campaign for Middle East-style protests in major Chinese cities by overseas dissidents, Ai posted on his Twitter account: "I didn't care about jasmine at first, but people who are scared by jasmine sent out information about how harmful jasmine is often, which makes me realize that jasmine is what scares them the most. What a jasmine!"
Response to Ai's arrest
Analysts and other activists said Ai had been widely thought to be untouchable, but Nicholas Bequelin from Human Rights Watch suggested that his arrest was calculated to send a message that no one is immune and that the arrest must have had the approval of someone in the top leadership. International governments, human rights groups and art institutions, among others, called for Ai's release, while Chinese officials did not notify Ai's family of his whereabouts.
State media started describing Ai as a "deviant and a plagiarist" in early 2011. A Chinese Communist Party tabloid Global Times editorial on 6 April 2011 attacked Ai, and two days later, the journal scorned Western media for questioning Ai's charge as a "catch-all crime", and denounced the use of his political activism as a "legal shield" against everyday crimes. Frank Ching expressed in the South China Morning Post that how the Global Times could radically shift its position from one day to the next was reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.
Michael Sheridan of The Times suggested that Ai had offered himself to the authorities on a platter with some of his provocative art, particularly photographs of himself nude with only a toy alpaca hiding his modesty – with a caption『草泥马挡中央』 ("grass mud horse covering the middle"). The term possesses a double meaning in Chinese: one possible interpretation was given by Sheridan as: "Fuck your mother, the party central committee".
Ming Pao in Hong Kong reacted strongly to the state media's character attack on Ai, saying that authorities had employed "a chain of actions outside the law, doing further damage to an already weak system of laws, and to the overall image of the country." Pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, announced that Ai was under arrest for tax evasion, bigamy and spreading indecent images on the internet, and vilified him with multiple instances of strong rhetoric. Supporters said "the article should be seen as a mainland media commentary attacking Ai, rather than as an accurate account of the investigation."
The United States and European Union protested Ai's detention. The international arts community also mobilised petitions calling for the release of Ai: "1001 Chairs for Ai Weiwei" was organized by Creative Time of New York that calls for artists to bring chairs to Chinese embassies and consulates around the world on 17 April 2011, at 1 pm local time "to sit peacefully in support of the artist's immediate release."> Artists in Hong Kong, Germany and Taiwan demonstrated and called for Ai to be released.
One of the major protests by U.S. museums took place on 19 and 20 May when the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego organized a 24-hour silent protest in which volunteer participants, including community members, media, and museum staff, occupied two traditionally styled Chinese chairs for one-hour periods. The 24-hour sit-in referenced Ai's sculpture series, Marble Chair, two of which were on view and were subsequently acquired for the museum's permanent collection.
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and the International Council of Museums, which organised petitions, said they had collected more than 90,000 signatures calling for the release of Ai. On 13 April 2011, a group of European intellectuals led by Václav Havel had issued an open letter to Wen Jiabao, condemning the arrest and demanding the immediate release of Ai. The signatories include Ivan Klíma, Jiří Gruša, Jáchym Topol, Elfriede Jelinek, Adam Michnik, Adam Zagajewski, Helmuth Frauendorfer; Bei Ling (Chinese:贝岭), a Chinese poet in exile drafted and also signed the open letter.
On 16 May 2011, the Chinese authorities allowed Ai's wife to visit him briefly. Liu Xiaoyuan, his attorney and personal friend, reported that Wei was in good physical condition and receiving treatment for his chronic diabetes and hypertension; he was not in a prison or hospital but under some form of house arrest.
He is the subject of the 2012 documentary film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, directed by American filmmaker Alison Klayman, which received a special jury prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and opened the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, North America's largest documentary festival, in Toronto on 26 April 2012.
Release
On 22 June 2011, the Chinese authorities released Ai from jail after almost three months' detention on charges of tax evasion. Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. (), a company Ai controlled, had allegedly evaded taxes and intentionally destroyed accounting documents. State media also reports that Ai was granted bail on account of Ai's "good attitude in confessing his crimes", willingness to pay back taxes, and his chronic illnesses. According to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, he was prohibited from leaving Beijing without permission for one year. Ai's supporters widely viewed his detention as retaliation for his vocal criticism of the government. On 23 June 2011, professor Wang Yujin of China University of Political Science and Law stated that the release of Ai on bail shows that the Chinese government could not find any solid evidence of Ai's alleged "economic crime". On 24 June 2011, Ai told a Radio Free Asia reporter that he was thankful for the support of the Hong Kong public, and praised Hong Kong's conscious society. Ai also mentioned that his detention by the Chinese regime was hellish (Chinese: 九死一生), and stressed that he is forbidden to say too much to reporters.
After his release, his sister gave some details about his detention condition to the press, explaining that he was subjected to a kind of psychological torture: he was detained in a tiny room with constant light, and two guards were set very close to him at all times, and watched him constantly. In November, Chinese authorities were again investigating Ai and his associates, this time under the charge of spreading pornography.
Lu was subsequently questioned by police, and released after several hours though the exact charges remain unclear.
In January 2012, in its International Review issue Art in America magazine featured an interview with Ai Weiwei at his home in China. J.J. Camille (the pen name of a Chinese-born writer living in New York), "neither a journalist nor an activist but simply an art lover who wanted to talk to him" had travelled to Beijing the previous September to conduct the interview and to write about his visit to "China's most famous dissident artist" for the magazine.
On 21 June 2012, Ai's bail was lifted. Although he was allowed to leave Beijing, the police informed him that he was still prohibited from traveling to other countries because he is "suspected of other crimes", including pornography, bigamy and illicit exchange of foreign currency. Until 2015, he remained under heavy surveillance and restrictions of movement, but continued to criticize through his work. In July 2015, he was given a passport and permitted to travel abroad.
Ai says that at the beginning of his detention he was proud of being detained much like his father had been earlier. He also says it allowed him to try a dialogue with the authorities, something which had never been possible before.
Tax case
In June 2011, the Beijing Local Taxation Bureau demanded a total of over 12 million yuan (US$1.85 million) from Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. in unpaid taxes and fines, and accorded three days to appeal the demand in writing. According to Ai's wife, Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. has hired two Beijing lawyers as defense attorneys. Ai's family state that Ai is "neither the chief executive nor the legal representative of the design company, which is registered in his wife's name."
Offers of donations poured in from Ai's fans across the world when the fine was announced. Eventually, an online loan campaign was initiated on 4 November 2011, and close to 9 million RMB was collected within ten days, from 30,000 contributions. Notes were folded into paper planes and thrown over the studio walls, and donations were made in symbolic amounts such as 8964 (4 June 1989, Tiananmen Massacre) or 512 (12 May 2008, Sichuan earthquake). To thank creditors and acknowledge the contributions as loans, Ai designed and issued loan receipts to all who participated in the campaign. Funds raised from the campaign were used as collateral, required by law for an appeal on the tax case. Lawyers acting for Ai submitted an appeal against the fine in January 2012; the Chinese government subsequently agreed to conduct a review.
In June 2012, the court heard the tax appeal case. Ai's wife, Lu Qing, the legal representative of the design company, attended the hearing. Lu was accompanied by several lawyers and an accountant, but the witnesses they had requested to testify, including Ai, were prevented from attending a court hearing. Ai asserts that the entire matter – including the 81 days he spent in jail in 2011 – is intended to suppress his provocations. Ai said he had no illusions as to how the case would turn out, as he believes the court will protect the government's own interests. On 20 June, hundreds of Ai's supporters gathered outside the Chaoyang District Court in Beijing despite a small army of police officers, some of whom videotaped the crowd and led several people away. On 20 July, Ai's tax appeal was rejected in court. The same day Ai's studio released "The Fake Case" which tracks the status and history of this case including a timeline and the release of official documents. On 27 September, the court upheld the tax evasion fine. Ai had previously deposited in a government-controlled account in order to appeal. Ai said he will not pay the remainder because he does not recognize the charge.
In October 2012, authorities revoked the license of Beijing Fa Ke Cultural Development Ltd. for failing to re-register, an annual requirement by the administration. The company was not able to complete this procedure as its materials and stamps were confiscated by the government.
"15 Years of Chinese Contemporary Art Award (CCAA)" – Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2014
On 26 April 2014, Ai's name was removed from a group show taking place at the Shanghai Power Station of Art. The exhibition was held to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the art prize created by Uli Sigg in 1998, with the purpose of promoting and developing Chinese contemporary art. Ai won the Lifetime Contribution Award in 2008 and was part of the jury during the first three editions of the prize. He was then invited to take part in the group show together with the other selected Chinese artists. Shortly before the exhibition's opening, some museum workers removed his name from the list of winners and jury members painted on a wall. Also, Ai's works Sunflower Seeds and Stools were removed from the show and kept in a museum office (see photo on Ai Weiwei's Instagram). Sigg declared that it was not his decision and that it was a decision of the Power Station of Art and the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture.
"Hans van Dijk: 5000 Names – UCCA"
In May 2014, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, a non-profit art center situated in the 798 art district of Beijing, held a retrospective exhibition in honor of the late curator and scholar, Hans Van Dijk. Ai, a good friend of Hans and a fellow co-founder of the China Art Archives and Warehouse (CAAW), participated in the exhibition with three artworks. On the day of the opening, Ai realized his name was omitted from both Chinese and English versions of the exhibition's press release. Ai's assistants went to the art center and removed his works. It is Ai's belief that, in omitting his name, the museum altered the historical record of van Dijk's work with him. Ai started his own research about what actually happened, and between 23 and 25 May he interviewed the UCCA's director, Philip Tinari, the guest curator of the exhibition, Marianne Brouwer, and the UCCA chief, Xue Mei. He published the transcripts of the interviews on Instagram. In one of the interviews, the CEO of the UCCA, Xue Mei, admitted that, due to the sensitive time of the exhibition, Ai's name was taken out of the press releases on the day of the opening and it was supposed to be restored afterwards. This was to avoid problems with the Chinese authorities, who threatened to arrest her.
Support for Julian Assange
Ai has long advocated for the release of Julian Assange. In 2016, he co-signed a letter which stated that the UK and Sweden were undermining the UN by ignoring the findings of a UN working group that found Assange was being arbitrarily detained. The letter called on the UK and Sweden to guarantee Assange's freedom of movement and provide compensation. Ai visited Assange in high security Belmarsh Prison after his arrest by the UK. In September 2019, Ai held a silent protest in support of Assange outside London's Old Bailey court where Assange's extradition hearing was being held. Ai called for Assange's freedom and said "He truly represents the very core value of why we are fighting, the freedom of the press."
In 2021, Ai was invited to submit a piece for the virtual UK art exhibition The Great Big Art Exhibition, which was organised by Firstsite. Ai's piece, called Postcard for Political Prisoners, incorporated a photograph of the running machine used by Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy. After initially accepting Ai's idea, Firstsite's director said that it could not include his project "due to time constraints, and because it did not fit with the concept of the exhibition." Ai said he thought the reason for the rejection was that the exhibition did not "want to touch on a topic like Assange."
Artistic works
Weiwei is often referred to as China's most famous artist. He has created works that focus on human rights abuses using video, photography, wallpaper, and porcelain.
Documentaries
Beijing video works
From 2003 to 2005, Ai Weiwei recorded the results of Beijing's developing urban infrastructure and its social conditions.
Beijing 2003
2003, Video, 150 hours
Beginning under the Dabeiyao highway interchange, the vehicle from which Beijing 2003 was shot traveled every road within the Fourth Ring Road of Beijing and documented the road conditions. Approximately 2400 kilometers and 150 hours of footage later, it ended where it began under the Dabeiyao highway interchange. The documentation of these winding alleyways of the city center – now largely torn down for redevelopment – preserved a visual record of the city that is free of aesthetic judgment.
Chang'an Boulevard
2004, Video, 10h 13m
Moving from east to west, Chang'an Boulevard traverses Beijing's most iconic avenue. Along the boulevard's 45-kilometer length, it recorded the changing densities of its far-flung suburbs, central business districts, and political core. At each 50-meter increment, the artist records a single frame for one minute. The work reveals the rhythm of Beijing as a capital city, its social structure, cityscape, socialist-planned economy, capitalist market, political power center, commercial buildings, and industrial units as pieces of a multi-layered urban collage.
Beijing: The Second Ring
2005, Video, 1h 6m
Beijing: The Third Ring
2005 Video, 1h 50m
Beijing: The Second Ring and Beijing: The Third Ring capture two opposite views of traffic flow on every bridge of each Ring Road, the innermost arterial highways of Beijing. The artist records a single frame for one minute for each view on the bridge. Beijing: The Second Ring was entirely shot on cloudy days, while the segments for Beijing: The Third Ring were entirely shot on sunny days. The films document the historic aspects and modern development of a city with a population of nearly 11 million people.
Fairytale
2007, video, 2h 32m
Fairytale covers Ai Weiwei's project Fairytale, part of Europe's most innovative five-year art event Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany in 2007. Ai invited 1001 Chinese citizens of different ages and from various backgrounds to travel to Kassel, Germany to experience a fairytale of their own.
The 152-minute long film documents the ideation and process of staging Fairytale and covering project preparations, participants' challenges, and travel to Germany.
Along with this documentary, Fairytale was documented through written materials and photographs of participants and artifacts from the event.
Fairytale was an act of social subversion, improving relationships between China and the West through interactions among participants and the citizens of Kassel. Ai Weiwei felt that he was able to make a positive influence on both participants of Fairytale and Kassel citizens.
Little Girl's Cheeks
2008, video, 1h 18m
On 15 December 2008, a citizens' investigation began with the goal of seeking an explanation for the casualties of the Sichuan earthquake that happened on 12 May 2008. The investigation covered 14 counties and 74 townships within the disaster zone, and studied the conditions of 153 schools that were affected by the earthquake.
By gathering and confirming comprehensive details about the students, such as their age, region, school, and grade, the group managed to affirm that there were 5,192 students who perished in the disaster.
Among a hundred volunteers, 38 of them participated in fieldwork, with 25 of them being controlled by the Sichuan police for a total of 45 times.
This documentary is a structural element of the citizens' investigation.
4851
2009, looped video, 1h 27m
At 14:28 on 12 May 2008, an 8.0-magnitude earthquake happened in Sichuan, China. Over 5,000 students in primary and secondary schools perished in the earthquake, yet their names went unannounced. In reaction to the government's lack of transparency, a citizen's investigation was initiated to find out their names and details about their schools and families.
As of 2 September 2009, there were 4,851 confirmed. This video is a tribute to these perished students and a memorial for innocent lives lost.
A Beautiful Life
2009, video, 48m
This video documents the story of Chinese citizen Feng Zhenghu and his struggles to return home.
In 2009, authorities in Shanghai prevented Feng Zhenghu, who was originally from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, from returning home a total of eight times that year. On 4 November 2009 Feng Zhenghu attempted to return home for the ninth time but instead Chinese police forcibly put him on a flight to Japan. Upon arrival at Narita Airport outside of Tokyo, Feng refused to enter Japan and decided to live in the Immigration Hall at Terminal 1, as an act of protest. He relied on gifts of food from tourists for sustenance and lived in a passageway in the Narita Airport for 92 days. He posted updates over Twitter which attracted international media coverage and concern from Chinese netizens and international communities.
On 31 January, Feng announced an end to his protest at the Narita Airport. On 12 February Feng was allowed to re-enter China, where he reunited with his family at their home in Shanghai.
Ai Weiwei and his assistant Gao Yuan, went from Beijing to interview Feng Zhenghu three times at Narita Airport, on 16 November, 20 November 2009 and 31 January 2010 and documented his stay in the airport passageway and the entire process of his return to China.
Disturbing the Peace (Laoma Tihua)
2009, video, 1h 19m
Ai Weiwei studio production Laoma Tihua is a documentary of an incident during Tan Zuoren's trial on 12 August 2009. Tan Zuoren was charged with "inciting subversion of state power". Chengdu police detained witnessed during the trial of the civil rights advocate, which is an obstruction of justice and violence.
Tan Zuoren was charged as a result of his research and questioning regarding the 5.12 Wenchuan students' casualties and the corruption resulting poor building construction. Tan Zuoren was sentenced to five years of prison.
One Recluse
2010, video, 3h
In June 2008, Yang Jia carried a knife, a hammer, a gas mask, pepper spray, gloves and Molotov cocktails to the Zhabei Public Security Branch Bureau and killed six police officers, injuring another police officer and a guard. He was arrested on the scene, and was subsequently charged with intentional homicide. In the following six months, while Yang Jia was detained and trials were held, his mother has mysteriously disappeared.
This video is a documentary that traces the reasons and motivations behind the tragedy and investigates into a trial process filled with shady cover-ups and questionable decisions. The film provides a glimpse into the realities of a government-controlled judicial system and its impact on the citizens' lives.
Hua Hao Yue Yuan
2010, video, 2h 6m
"The future dictionary definition of 'crackdown' will be: First cover one's head up firmly, and then beat him or her up violently". – @aiww
In the summer of 2010, the Chinese government began a crackdown on dissent, and Hua Hao Yue Yuan documents the stories of Liu Dejun and Liu Shasha, whose activism and outspoken attitude led them to violent abuse from the authorities. On separate occasions, they were kidnapped, beaten and thrown into remote locations. The incidents attracted much concern over the Internet, as well as wide speculation and theories about what exactly happened. This documentary presents interviews of the two victims, witnesses and concerned netizens. In which it gathers various perspectives about the two beatings, and brings us closer to the brutal reality of China's "crackdown on crime".
Remembrance
2010, voice recording, 3h 41m
On 24 April 2010 at 00:51, Ai Weiwei (@aiww) started a Twitter campaign to commemorate students who perished in the earthquake in Sichuan on 12 May 2008. 3,444 friends from the Internet delivered voice recordings, the names of 5,205 perished were recited 12,140 times.
Remembrance is an audio work dedicated to the young people who lost their lives in the Sichuan earthquake. It expresses thoughts for the passing of innocent lives and indignation for the cover-ups on truths about sub-standard architecture, which led to the large number of schools that collapsed during the earthquake.
San Hua
2010, video, 1h 8m
The shooting and editing of this video lasted nearly seven months at the Ai Weiwei studio. It began near the end of 2007 in an interception organized by cat-saving volunteers in Tianjin, and the film locations included Tianjin, Shanghai, Rugao of Jiangsu, Chaoshan of Guangzhou, and Hebei Province. The documentary depicts a complete picture of a chain in the cat-trading industry.
Since the end of 2009 when the government began soliciting expert opinion for the Animal Protection Act, the focus of public debate has always been on whether one should be eating cats or not, or whether cat-eating is a Chinese tradition or not. There are even people who would go as far as to say that the call to stop eating cat meat is "imposing the will of the minority on the majority". Yet the "majority" does not understand the complete truth of cat-meat trading chains: cat theft, cat trafficking, killing cats, selling cats, and eating cats, all the various stages of the trade and how they are distributed across the country, in cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Rugao, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Hebei.
Ordos 100
2011, video, 1h 1m
This documentary is about the construction project curated by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. One hundred architects from 27 countries were chosen to participate and design a 1000 square meter villa to be built in a new community in Inner Mongolia. The 100 villas would be designed to fit a master plan designed by Ai Weiwei. On 25 January 2008, the 100 architects gathered in Ordos for a first site visit. The film Ordos 100 documents the total of three site visits to Ordos, during which time the master plan and design of each villa was completed. As of 2016, the Ordos 100 project remains unrealized.
So Sorry
2011, video, 54m
As a sequel to Ai Weiwei's film Lao Ma Ti Hua, the film so sorry (named after the artist's 2009 exhibition in Munich, Germany) shows the beginnings of the tension between Ai Weiwei and the Chinese Government. In Lao Ma Ti Hua, Ai Weiwei travels to Chengdu, Sichuan to attend the trial of the civil rights advocate Tan Zuoren, as a witness. So Sorry shows the investigation led by Ai Weiwei studio to identify the students who died during the Sichuan earthquake as a result of corruption and poor building constructions leading to the confrontation between Ai Weiwei and the Chengdu police. After being beaten by the police, Ai Weiwei traveled to Munich, Germany to prepare his exhibition at the museum Haus der Kunst. The result of his beating led to intense headaches caused by a brain hemorrhage and was treated by emergency surgery. These events mark the beginning of Ai Weiwei's struggle and surveillance at the hands of the state police.
Ping'an Yueqing
2011, video, 2h 22m
This documentary investigates the death of popular Zhaiqiao village leader Qian Yunhui in the fishing village of Yueqing, Zhejiang province. When the local government confiscated marshlands in order to convert them into construction land, the villagers were deprived of the opportunity to cultivate these lands and be fully self-subsistent. Qian Yunhui, unafraid of speaking up for his villagers, travelled to Beijing several times to report this injustice to the central government. In order to silence him, he was detained by local government repeatedly. On 25 December 2010, Qian Yunhui was hit by a truck and died on the scene. News of the incident and photos of the scene quickly spread over the internet. The local government claimed that Qian Yunhui was the victim of an ordinary traffic accident. This film is an investigation conducted by Ai Weiwei studio into the circumstances of the incident and its connection to the land dispute case, mainly based on interviews of family members, villagers and officials. It is an attempt by Ai Weiwei to establish the facts and find out what really happened on 25 December 2010.
During shooting and production, Ai Weiwei studio experienced significant obstruction and resistance from local government. The film crew was followed, sometimes physically stopped from shooting certain scenes and there were even attempts to buy off footage. All villagers interviewed for the purposes of this documentary have been interrogated or illegally detained by local government to some extent.
The Crab House
2011, video, 1h 1m
Early in 2008, the district government of Jiading, Shanghai invited Ai Weiwei to build a studio in Malu Township, as a part of the local government's efforts in developing its cultural assets. By August 2010, the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio completed all of its construction work. In October 2010, the Shanghai government declared the Ai Weiwei Shanghai Studio an illegal construction, and it was subjected to demolition. On 7 November 2010, when Ai Weiwei was placed under house arrest by public security in Beijing, over 1,000 netizens attended the "River Crab Feast" at the Shanghai Studio. On 11 January 2011, the Shanghai city government forcibly demolished the Ai Weiwei Studio within a day, without any prior notice.
Stay Home
2013, video, 1h 17m
This video tells the story of Liu Ximei, who at her birth in 1985 was given to relatives to be raised because she was born in violation of China's strict one-child policy. When she was ten years old, Liu was severely injured while working in the fields and lost large amounts of blood. While undergoing treatment at a local hospital, she was given a blood transfusion that was later revealed to be contaminated with HIV. Following this exposure to the virus, Liu contracted AIDS. According to official statistics, in 2001 there were 850,000 AIDS sufferers in China, many of whom contracted the illness in the 1980s and 1990s as the result of a widespread plasma market operating in rural, impoverished areas and using unsafe collection methods.
Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50
2014, video, 2h 8m
Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50 opens with Ai Weiwei's mother at the Venice Biennial in the summer of 2013 examining Ai's large S.A.C.R.E.D. installation portraying his 81-day imprisonment. The documentary goes onto chronologically reconstruct the events that occurred from the time he was arrested at the Beijing airport in April 2011 to his final court appeal in September 2012. The film portrays the day-to-day activity surrounding Ai Weiwei, his family and his associates ranging from consistent visits by the authorities, interviews with reporters, support and donations from fans, and court dates. The Film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on 23 January 2014.
Fukushima Art Project
2015, video, 30m
This documentary on the Fukushima Art Project is about artist Ai Weiwei's investigation of the site as well as the project's installation process. In August 2014, Ai Weiwei was invited as one of the participating artists for the Fukushima Nuclear Zone by the Japanese art coalition Chim↑Pom, as part of the project Don't Follow the Wind. Ai accepted the invitation and sent his assistant Ma Yan to the exclusion zone in Japan to investigate the site. The Fukushima Exclusion Zone is thus far located within the 20-kilometer radius of land area of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. 25,000 people have already been evacuated from the Exclusion Zone. Both water and electric circuits were cut off. Entrance restriction is expected to be relieved in the next thirty years, or even longer. The art project will also be open to public at that time. The three spots usable as exhibition spaces by the artists are all former residential houses, among which exhibition sites one and two were used for working and lodging; and exhibition site three was used as a community entertainment facility with an ostrich farm.
Ai brought about two projects, A Ray of Hope and Family Album after analyzing materials and information generated from the site.
In A Ray of Hope, a solar photovoltaic system is built on exhibition site one, on the second level of the old warehouse. Integral LED lighting devices are used in the two rooms. The lights would turn on automatically from 7 to 10pm, and from 6 to 8am daily. This lighting system is the only light source in the Exclusion Zone after this project was installed.
Photos of Ai and his studio staff at Caochangdi that make up project Family Album are displayed on exhibition site two and three, in the seven rooms where locals used to live. The twenty-two selected photos are divided in five categories according to types of events spanning eight years. Among these photos, six of them were taken from the site investigation at the 2008 Sichuan earthquake; two were taken during the time when he was illegally detained after pleading the Tan Zuoren case in Chengdu, China in August 2009; and three others taken during his surgical treatment for his head injury from being attacked in the head by police officers in Chengdu; five taken of him being followed by the police and his Beijing studio Fake Design under surveillance due to the studio tax case from 2011 to 2012; four are photos of Ai Weiwei and his family from year 2011 to year 2013; and the other two were taken earlier of him in his studio in Caochangdi (One taken in 2005 and the other in 2006).
Human Flow
A feature documentary directed by Weiwei and co-produced by Andy Cohen about the global refugee crisis.
Coronation
A feature-length documentary directed by Weiwei about happenings in Wuhan, China during the COVID-19 pandemic. When discussing the film Weiwei claimed "it's obvious the disease is not from an animal. It's not a natural disease, it's something that's leaked out, after years of research."
Visual arts
Ai's visual art includes sculptural installations, woodworking, video and photography. "Ai Weiwei: According to What", adapted and expanded by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden from a 2009 exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum, was Ai's first North American museum retrospective. It opened at the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. in 2013, and subsequently traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, New York,
and two other venues. His works address his investigation into the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake and responses to the Chinese government's detention and surveillance of him. His recent public pieces have called attention to the Syrian refugee crisis.
Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn
(1995) Performance in which Ai lets an ancient ceramic urn fall from his hands and smash to pieces on the ground. The performance was memorialized in a series of three photographic still frames.
Map of China
(2008) Sculpture resembling a park bench or tree trunk, but its cross-section is a map of China. It is four metres long and weighs 635 kilograms. It is made from wood salvaged from Qing dynasty temples.
Table with two legs on the wall
(2008) Ming dynasty table cut in half and rejoined at a right angle to rest two feet on the wall and two on the floor. The reconstruction was completed using Chinese period specific joinery techniques.
Straight
(2008–2012) 150 tons of twisted steel reinforcements recovered from the 2008 Sichuan earthquake building collapse sites were straightened out and displayed as an installation.
Sunflower Seeds
(2010) In October 2010, at the Tate Modern in London, Ai displayed 100 million handmade and painted porcelain sunflower seeds. The work as installed was called 1-125,000,000 and subsequent installations have been titled Sunflower Seeds. The initial installation had the seeds spread across the floor of the Turbine Hall in a thin 10 cm layer. The seeds weigh about 10 metric tonnes and were made by artisans over two and a half years by 1,600 Jingdezhen artisans in a city where porcelain had been made for over a thousand years. The sculpture refers to chairman Mao's rule and the Chinese Communist Party. The mass of tiny seeds represents that, together, the people of China can stand up and overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. The seeds also refer to China's current mass automated production, based on Western consumerist culture. The sculpture challenges the "Made in China" mantra, memorialising labour-intensive traditional methods of crafting objects.
Surveillance Camera
(2010) Ai WeiWei's marble sculpture resembles a Surveillance Camera to express the alarming rate of how technological advancements are being used in the modern world. WeiWei created this sculpture in response to the Chinese Government surveilling and incorporating listening devices in and around his studio, located in Beijing. The Chinese government did this as punishment for WeiWei's outspoken criticism of the Chinese Government.
He Xie/Crab
(2010) Sculptures of a large amount of crabs.
Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads
(2011) Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads are sculptures of zodiac animals inspired by the water clock-fountain at the Old Summer Palace.
Belongings of Ye Haiyan
(2013) Ye Haiyan's (叶海燕) Belongings is a collaborative piece between Ai Weiwei and Ye Haiyan. Ye, also referred to as "Hooligan Sparrow", is an activist for women's rights and sex worker's rights. After consistent surveillance and harassment for her outspoken activism as chronicled in Nanfu Wang's documentary Hooligan Sparrow, Haiyan and her daughter were met with multiple evictions in various cities and ultimately ended up on the side of the road with all of their belongings and no place to go. Ai Weiwei was able to help them financially and included this piece in his exhibition "According to What?". The display consists of four walls which display pictures of Haiyan, her daughter, and their life's belongings that they packed quickly prior to their first eviction. In the center, Ai recreated their belongings before they were confiscated. The whole arrangement demonstrates the realities of publicly speaking out against injustices in China.
Coca-Cola Vases
(1994) Han dynasty vases with the Coca-Cola logo brushed onto them is one of the artists' longest running series, begun in 1994 and continuing to the present day.
Grapes
(2014) 32 Qing dynasty stools joined together in a cluster with legs pointing out.
Free-speech Puzzle
(2014) Individual porcelain ornaments, each painted with characters for "free speech", which when set together form a map of China.
Trace
(2014) Consisting of 176 2D-portraits in Lego which are set onto a large floor space, Trace was commissioned by the FOR-SITE Foundation, the United States National Park Service and the Golden Gate Park Conservancy. The original installation was at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay; the 176 portraits being of various political prisoners and prisoners of conscience. After seeing one million visitors during its one-year display at Alcatraz, the installation was moved and put on display at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. (in a modified form; the pieces had to be arranged to fit the circular floor space). The display at the Hirshhorn ran from 28 June 2017 – 1 January 2018. The display also included two versions of his wallpaper work The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca and a video running on a loop.
The 2019 documentary film Yours Truly covered the creation of Trace and an associated exhibit, Yours Truly, also at Alcatraz, where visitors could write postcards to be sent to selected political prisoners.
Law of the Journey
(2017) As the culmination of Ai's experiences visiting 40 refugee camps in 2016, Law of the Journey featured an all-black, inflatable boat carrying 258 faceless refugee figures. The art piece is currently on display at the National Gallery in Prague until 7 January 2018.
Two Iron Trees at The Shrine of Book
(2017) Permanent exhibit, unique setting of two Iron Trees from now on frame the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem, Israel where Dead Sea Scrolls are preserved.
Journey of Laziz
(2017) The exhibition was on the view in the Israel Museum until the end of October 2017. Journey of Laziz is a video installation, showing the mental breakdown and overall suffering of a tiger living in the "world's worst zoo" in Gaza.
Hansel and Gretel
(2017) The exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory from 7 June- 6 August 2017, Hansel and Gretel was an installation exploring the theme of surveillance. The project, a collaboration of Ai Weiwei and architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, features surveillance cameras equipped with facial recognition software, near-infrared floor projections, tethered, autonomous drones and sonar beacons. A companion website includes a curatorial statement, artist biographies, a livestream of the installation and a timeline of surveillance technology from ancient to modern times.
The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca
(2017) The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca, and its companion piece The Plain Version of The Animal That Looks Like a Llama but Is Really an Alpaca, is a wallpaper work consisting of intricate tiled patterns showing various pieces of surveillance equipment in whimsical arrangements. The two pieces were installed at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., as part of a full-floor exhibition of his work that also included a video and the 2014 installation Trace.
man in a cube
(2017) Ai Weiwei created the sculpture man in a cube for the exhibition Luther and the Avantgarde in Wittenberg to mark the 2017 quincentenary of the Reformation. In it, the artist worked through his experiences of anxiety and isolation following his arrest by Chinese authorities: "My work is physically a concrete block, which contains within it a single figure in solitude. That figure is the likeness of myself during my eighty-one days under secret detention in 2011." Concentrating on ideas and language helped Ai Weiwei endure his imprisonment. He was also intrigued by the connectedness of freedom, language and ideas in Martin Luther, to whom he explicitly paid tribute with man in a cube.
Once the exhibition in Wittenberg closed, the Stiftung Lutherhaus Eisenach endeavored to make this exceptional manifestation of contemporary Reformation commemoration, man in a cube, permanently accessible to a wide audience. Thanks to the generous support of numerous backers, the museum managed to acquire the sculpture in 2019. It was erected in the courtyard of the Lutherhaus and presented to the public in a ceremony the following year, the five hundredth anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther's treatise On the Freedom of a Christian.
Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
Ai Weiwei's 2017–18 New York City-wide public art exhibition.
Forever Bicycles
Forever Bicycles is a sculpture made of many interconnected bicycles. The sculpture was installed as 1,300 bicycles in Austin, Texas, in 2017. The sculpture was moved to The Forks in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and reassembled as 1,254 bicycles in 2019.
The sculpture's bicycles are made to resemble the Shanghai Forever Co. bicycles that were financially out of reach for the artist's family during his youth.
Forever
A sculpture of many bicycles is displayed as public art in the gardens of the Artz Pedregal shopping mall in Mexico City since its opening in March 2018, and it is part of Fundación Arte Abierto's collection.
Priceless
A collaboration with conceptual artist Kevin Abosch primarily made up of two standard ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, called PRICELESS (PRCLS is its symbol). One of these tokens is forever unavailable to anyone, but the other is meant for distribution and is divisible up to 18 decimal places, meaning it can be given away one quintillionth at a time. A nominal amount of the distributable token was "burned" (put into digital wallets with the keys thrown away), and these wallet addresses were printed on paper and sold to art buyers in a series of 12 physical works. Each wallet address alphanumeric is a proxy for a shared moment between Abosch and Ai.
Er Xi
A monstrous sculptures at Le Bon Marché in Paris to "speak to our inner child". Artist Ai Weiwei has used traditional Chinese kite-making techniques to create mythological characters and creatures for windows, atriums and the gallery at Paris department store Le Bon Marché (+ slideshow). Er Xi opened on 16 January 2016 until 20 February 2016 at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, located on Rue de Sèvres in Paris' 7th arrondissement.
Architecture
Ai Weiwei is also a notable architect known for his collaborations with Herzog & de Meuron and Wang Shu. In 2005, Ai was invited by Wang Shu as an external teacher of the Architecture Department of China Academy of Art.
Jinhua Park
In 2002, he was the curator of the project Jinhua Architecture Park.
Tsai Residence
In 2006, Ai and HHF Architects designed a private residence in upstate New York. According to The New York Times, the Tsai Residence is divided into four modules and the details are "extraordinarily refined". In 2009, the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design selected the home for its International Architecture Awards, one of the world's most prestigious global awards for new architecture, landscape architecture, interiors and urban planning. In 2010, Wallpaper* magazine nominated the residence for its Wallpaper Design Awards category: Best New Private House. A detached guesthouse, also designed by Ai and HHF Architects, was completed after the main house and, according to New York Magazine, looks like a "floating boomerang of rusty Cor-Ten steel".
Ordos 100
In 2008, Ai curated the architecture project Ordos 100 in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. He invited 100 architects from 29 countries to participate in this project.
Beijing National Stadium
Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for design, collaborating with the Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron, for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Summer Olympics, also known as the "Bird's Nest". Although ignored by the Chinese media, he had voiced his anti-Olympics views. He later distanced himself from the project, saying, "I've already forgotten about it. I turn down all the demands to have photographs with it," saying it is part of a "pretend smile" of bad taste. In August 2007, he also accused those choreographing the Olympic opening ceremony, including Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou, of failing to live up to their responsibility as artists. Ai said "It's disgusting. I don't like anyone who shamelessly abuses their profession, who makes no moral judgment." In February 2008, Spielberg withdrew from his role as advisor to the 2008 Summer Olympics. When asked why he participated in the designing of the Bird's Nest in the first place, Ai replied "I did it because I love design."
Serpentine Pavilion
In summer 2012, Ai teamed again with Herzog & de Meuron on a "would-be archaeological site [as] a game of make-believe and fleeting memory" as the year's temporary Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London's Kensington Gardens.
Books
Venice Elegy
This edition of Yang Lian's poems and Ai Weiwei's visual images was realized by the publishing house Damocle Edizioni – Venice in 200 numbered copies on Fabriano Paper. The book was printed in Venice, May 2018. Every book is hand signed by Yang Lian and Ai Weiwei.
Traces of Survival
In December 2014 Ruya Foundation for Contemporary Culture in Iraq provided drawing materials to three refugee camps in Iraq: Camp Shariya, Camp Baharka and Mar Elia Camp. Ruya Foundation collected over 500 submissions. A number of these images were then selected by Ai Weiwei for a major publication, Traces of Survival: Drawings by Refugees in Iraq selected by Ai Weiwei, that was published to coincide with the Iraq Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale.
1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows
Released in November 2021, 1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows is a memoir that documents the life of Ai Weiwei with a focus on his father, the renowned Chinese poet, Ai Qing. The book begins by documenting AI Weiwei's relationship with his father and the parallels between their lives and struggles before describing Ai's success as an artist and his constant struggle with the Chinese authorities over censorship and personal freedoms.
Music
On 24 October 2012, Ai went live with a cover of Gangnam Style, the famous K-pop phenomenon by South Korean rapper PSY, through the posting of a four-minute long parody video on YouTube. The video was an attempt to criticize the Chinese government's attempt to silence his activism and was quickly blocked by national authorities.
On 22 May 2013, Ai debuted his first single Dumbass over the internet, with a music video shot by cinematographer Christopher Doyle. The video was a reconstruction of Ai's experience in prison, during his 81-day detention, and dives in and out of the prison's reality and the guarding soldiers' fantasies. He later released a second single, Laoma Tihua, on 20 June 2013 along with a video on his experience of state surveillance, with footage compiled from his studio's documentaries. On 22 June 2013, the two-year anniversary of Ai's release, he released his first music album The Divine Comedy. Later in August, he released a third music video for the song Chaoyang Park, also included in the album.
Other engagements
Ai is the artistic director of China Art Archives & Warehouse (CAAW), which he co-founded in 1997. This contemporary art archive and experimental gallery in Beijing concentrates on experimental art from the People's Republic of China, initiates and facilitates exhibitions and other forms of introductions inside and outside China. The building which houses it was designed by Ai in 2000.
On 15 March 2010, Ai took part in Digital Activism in China, a discussion hosted by The Paley Media Center in New York with Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter) and Richard MacManus. Also in 2010 he served as jury member for Future Generation Art Prize, Kiev, Ukraine; contributed design for Comme de Garcons Aoyama Store, Tokyo, Japan; and participated in a talk with Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller at the International Culture festival in Cologne, Germany.
In 2011, Ai sat on the jury of an international initiative to find a universal Logo for Human Rights. The winning design, combining the silhouette of a hand with that of a bird, was chosen from more than 15,300 suggestions from over 190 countries. The initiative's goal was to create an internationally recognized logo to support the global human rights movement.[98] In 2013, after the existence of the PRISM surveillance program was revealed, Ai said "Even though we know governments do all kinds of things I was shocked by the information about the US surveillance operation, Prism. To me, it's abusively using government powers to interfere in individuals' privacy. This is an important moment for international society to reconsider and protect individual rights."[99]
In 2012, Ai interviewed a member of the 50 Cent Party, a group of "online commentators" (otherwise known as sockpuppets) covertly hired by the Chinese government to post "comments favourable towards party policies and [intending] to shape public opinion on internet message boards and forums". Keeping Ai's source anonymous, the transcript was published by the British magazine New Statesman on 17 October 2012, offering insights on the education, life, methods and tactics used by professional trolls serving pro-government interests.
Ai designed the cover for 17 June 2013 issue of Time magazine. The cover story, by Hannah Beech, is "How China Sees the World". Time magazine called it "the most beautiful cover we've ever done in our history."
In 2011, Ai served as co-director and curator of the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, and co-curator of the exhibition Shanshui at The Museum of Art Lucerne. Also in 2011, Ai spoke at TED (conference) and was a guest lecturer at Oslo School of Architecture and Design.
In 2013, Ai became a Reporters Without Borders ambassador. He also gave a hundred pictures to the NGO in order to release a Photo book and a digital album, both sold in order to fund freedom of information projects.
In 2014–2015, Ai explored human rights and freedom of expression through an exhibition of his art exclusively created for Alcatraz, a notorious federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. Ai's @Large exhibit raised questions and contradictions about human rights and the freedom of expression through his artwork at the island's layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress.
In February 2016, Ai WeiWei attached 14,000 bright orange life jackets to the columns of the Konzerthaus in Berlin. The life jackets had been discarded by refugees arriving on the shore on the Greek island of Lesbos. Later that year, he installed a different piece, also using discarded life jackets, at the pond at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna.
In 2017, Wolfgang Tillmans, Anish Kapoor and Ai Weiwei are among the six artists that have designed covers for ES Magazine celebrating the "resilience of London" in the wake of the Grenfell Tower fire and recent terror attacks.
In September 2019, the newly expanded and renovated Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis opened with a major exhibition of work by Ai Weiwei: "Bare Life".
A film by Ai Weiwei, CIRCA 20:20, was screened on global network of billboard screens in London, Tokyo and Seoul in October 2020.
From March 16 until September 4, 2022, a retrospective on Ai Weiwei's work is on display at the Albertina in Vienna, Austria under the title "Ai Weiwei. In Search of Humanity".
Awards and honors
2008
Chinese Contemporary Art Awards, Lifetime Achievement
2009
GQ Men of the Year 2009, Moral Courage (Germany); the ArtReview Power 100, rank 43; International Architecture Awards, Anthenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design, Chicago, US
2010
In March 2010, Ai received an honorary doctorate degree from the Faculty of Politics and Social Science, University of Ghent, Belgium.
In September 2010, Ai received Das Glas der Vernunft (The Prism of Reason), Kassel Citizen Award, Kassel, Germany.
Ai was ranked 13th in ArtReviews guide to the 100 most powerful figures in contemporary art: Power 100, 2010. In 2010, he was also awarded a Wallpaper Design Award for the Tsai Residence, which won Best New Private House.
Asteroid 83598 Aiweiwei, discovered by Bill Yeung in 2001, was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 28 November 2010 ().
2011
On 20 April 2011, Ai was appointed visiting professor of the Berlin University of the Arts.
In October 2011, when ArtReview magazine named Ai number one in their annual Power 100 list, the decision was criticized by the Chinese authorities. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin responded, "China has many artists who have sufficient ability. We feel that a selection that is based purely on a political bias and perspective has violated the objectives of the magazine".
In December 2011, Ai was one of four runners-up in Times Person of the Year award. Other awards included: Wall Street Journal Innovators Award (Art); Foreign Policy Top Global Thinkers of 2011, rank 18; the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation Award for Courage; ArtReview Power 100, rank 1; membership at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany; the 2011 Time 100; the Wallpaper* 150; honorary academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; and Skowhegan Medal for Multidisciplinary Art, New York City, US.
2012
Along with Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal al-Sharif and Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, Ai received the inaugural Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent of the Human Rights Foundation on 2 May 2012. Ai was also awarded an honorary degree from Pratt Institute, honorary fellowship from Royal Institute of British Architects, elected as foreign member of Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, and recipient of the International Center of Photography Cornell Capa Award. Ai was ranked 3rd in ArtReviews Power 100. He was one of 12 visionaries honoured by Condé Nast Traveler, along with Hillary Clinton, Kofi Annan, and Nelson Mandela.
2013
In April, Ai received the Appraisers Association Award for Excellence in the Arts. Fast Company has listed him among its 2013 list of 100 Most Creative People in Business. His guest-edit in the 18 October issue of New Statesman has won an Amnesty Media Award in June 2013. He has received the St. Moritz Art Masters Lifetime Achievement Award by Cartier in August. His documentary Ping'an Yueqing (2012) has won the Spirit of Independence award at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. He was ranked no.9 in ArtReview Power 100. He received an honorary doctorate in fine arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, US.
2015
On 21 May 2015, Ai, along with the folk singer Joan Baez, received Amnesty International's Ambassador of Conscience Award, in Berlin, for showing exceptional leadership in the fight for human rights, through his life and work. The artist, who was at the time under surveillance and forbidden from leaving China, could not take part in the ceremony. His son Ai Lao accepted the prize on behalf of his father, called on the stage by Tate Modern director, Chris Dercon, who also spoke on behalf of the Chinese activist. Chris Dercon, who received the award on behalf of Ai Weiwei, said that Ai Weiwei wanted to pay tribute to those people in worse conditions than him, including civil rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang who faces eight years in prison, imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize-winning poet Liu Xiaobo, journalist Gao Yu, women's rights activist Su Changlan, activist Liu Ping and academic Ilham Tohti.
2018
In 2018, Ai Weiwei received Marina Kellen French Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award granted by the Americans for the Arts.
See also
WeiweiCam
Notes
References
Further reading
Medium, Artists on the Cutting Edge, by Addison Fach, 1 December 2017
WideWalls magazine, Excessivism – A Phenomenon Every Art Collector Should Know, by Angie Kordic
Gallereo magazine, The Newest Art Movement You've Never Heard of, 20 November 2015
The Huffington Post, Excessivism: Irony, *Imbalance and a New Rococo, by Shana Nys Dambrot, art critic, curator, 23 September 2015
Spalding, David. @large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz, 2014. Print. @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz
Ai, Weiwei; Anthony Pins. Ai Weiwei: Spatial Matters : Art Architecture and Activism, 2014. Print. Ai Weiwei: spatial matters : art architecture and activism
External links
Ai Weiwei exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts London
Ai Weiwei at De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art
Ai Weiwei. Study of Perspective. Photographic series produced 1995–2011. Public Delivery
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Category:Chinese artists | [] | null | null |
C_4afd5375282049259a462c9d271a3e3c_1 | Fred Rogers | Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 - February 27, 2003) was an American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister. Rogers was famous for creating, hosting and composing the theme music for the educational preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001), which featured his kind-hearted grandfatherly personality, and direct connection to his audiences. Originally trained and ordained as a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children at the time, and made an effort to change this when he began to write for and perform on local Pittsburgh-area shows dedicated to youth. Rogers developed his own show on WQED in 1968, and it was distributed nationwide by Eastern Educational Television Network. | Early and personal life | Rogers was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 40 miles (65 km) southeast of Pittsburgh, to James and Nancy Rogers; he had one sister, Elaine. Early in life, he spent much of his free time with his maternal grandfather, Fred McFeely, who had an interest in music. He would often sing along as his mother would play the piano, and he himself began playing at five. He obtained a pilot's license while still in high school. Rogers graduated from Latrobe High School (1946). He studied at Dartmouth College (1946-48), then transferred to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where he earned a B.A. in Music Composition in 1951. Rogers was also a trained general aviation pilot. At Rollins, he met Sara Joanne Byrd (born c. 1928), an Oakland, Florida, native; they married on June 9, 1952. They had two sons, James (b. 1959) and John (b. 1961). In 1963, Rogers graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained a minister in the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Rogers had an apartment in New York City and a summer home on Nantucket island in Massachusetts. Rogers was red-green color blind, swam every morning, and neither smoked nor drank. He was a vegetarian on ethical grounds, stating "I don't want to eat anything that has a mother." Despite recurring rumors, he never served in the military. His office at WQED Pittsburgh famously did not have a desk, only a sofa and armchairs, because Rogers thought a desk was "too much of a barrier". CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children's programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his 30-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children's shows The Children's Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children's emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children's television has been widely lauded, and he received more than 40 honorary degrees and several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children's television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
Early life
Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, at 705 Main Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about outside of Pittsburgh. His father, James Hillis Rogers, was "a very successful businessman" who was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's most prominent businesses. His mother, Nancy (née McFeely), knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.
Rogers grew up in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe. He had a sister, Elaine, whom the Rogerses adopted when he was 11 years old. Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets, and also spent time with his grandfather. He began playing the piano when he was five. Through an ancestor who immigrated from Germany to the U.S., Johannes Meffert (born 1732), Rogers is the sixth cousin of American actor Tom Hanks, who portrays him in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).
Rogers had a difficult childhood. Shy, introverted, and overweight, he was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma. He was bullied as a child for his weight and called "Fat Freddy". According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".
Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness. "It was tough for me at the beginning," Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984. "And then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was okay. And one of them was... the head of the football team". He became president of the student council, a member of the National Honor Society, and editor-in-chief of the school yearbook. He registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1948 at age 20, where he was classified 1-A (available for military service). However, his status was changed to unqualified for military service following an Armed Forces physical on October 12, 1950. He attended Dartmouth College for one year before transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.
He graduated magna cum laude from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity, and was ordained a minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963. His mission as an ordained minister, rather than a church pastor, was to minister to children and their families through television. He regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.
Career
Early work
Rogers wanted to enter seminary after college, but instead chose to go into the nascent medium of television after encountering a TV at his parents' home in 1951 during his senior year at Rollins College. In a CNN interview, he said, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen". After graduating in 1951, he worked at NBC in New York City as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes's children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.
In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with him to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers worked off-camera to develop puppets, characters, and music for the show. He used many puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named after WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere), King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named after Rogers's wife), X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work. Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer. The Children's Corner won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's programming in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC. While working on the show, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland—who, according to Rogers's biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru". Much of Rogers's "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland. She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhoods scripts and songs for 30 years.
In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto contracted Rogers to come to Toronto to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963 to 1967. It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. CBC's children's programming head Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air". Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer. Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he developed, despite a potentially promising career with CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh. On Rogers' recommendation, Coombs remained in Toronto and became Rogers' Canadian equivalent of an iconic television personality, creating the long-running children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996. Rogers's work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (also called the Neighborhood), a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing nationally in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes. It was videotaped at WQED in Pittsburgh and broadcast by National Educational Television (NET), which later became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Its first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Each subsequent season, filmed in color and funded by PBS, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and other charities, consisted of 65 episodes. By the time it ended production in December 2000, its average rating was about 0.7% of television households or 680,000 homes, and it aired on 384 PBS stations. At its peak in 1985–1986, its ratings were 2.1%, or 1.8 million homes. The last original episode aired in 2001, but PBS continued to air reruns, and by 2016 it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.
Many of the sets and props in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, like the trolley, the sneakers, and the castle, were created for Rogers's show in Toronto by CBC designers and producers. The program also "incorporated most of the highly imaginative elements that later became famous", such as its slow pace and its host's quiet manner. The format of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "remained virtually unchanged" for the entire run of the program. Every episode begins with a camera's-eye view of a model of a neighborhood, then panning in closer to a representation of a house while a piano instrumental of the theme song, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", performed by music director Johnny Costa and inspired by a Beethoven sonata, is played. The camera zooms in to a model representing Mr. Rogers's house, then cuts to the house's interior and pans across the room to the front door, which Rogers opens as he sings the theme song to greet his visitors while changing his suit jacket to a cardigan (knitted by his mother) and his dress shoes to sneakers, "complete with a shoe tossed from one hand to another". The episode's theme is introduced, and Mr. Rogers leaves his home to visit another location, the camera panning back to the neighborhood model and zooming in to the new location as he enters it. Once this segment ends, Mr. Rogers leaves and returns to his home, indicating that it is time to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Mr. Rogers proceeds to the window seat by the trolley track and sets up the action there as the Trolley comes out. The camera follows it down a tunnel in the back wall of the house as it enters the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The stories and lessons take place over a week's worth of episodes and involve puppets and human characters. The end of the visit occurs when the Trolley returns to the same tunnel from which it emerged, reappearing in Mr. Rogers's home. He then talks to the viewers before concluding the episode. He often feeds his fish, cleans up any props he has used, and returns to the front room, where he sings the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket. He exits the front door as he ends the song, and the camera zooms out of his home and pans across the neighborhood model as the episode ends.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood emphasized young children's social and emotional needs, and unlike another PBS show, Sesame Street, which premiered in 1969, did not focus on cognitive learning. Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson said, "While both shows target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten, Sesame Street concentrates on school-readiness skills while Mister Rogers Neighborhood focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and sense of moral and ethical reasoning". The Neighborhood also spent fewer resources on research than Sesame Street, but Rogers used early childhood education concepts taught by his mentor Margaret McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton in his lessons. As the Washington Post noted, Rogers taught young children about civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence". He tackled difficult topics such as the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, the addition of a newborn into a family, moving and enrolling in a new school, and divorce. For example, he wrote a special segment that dealt with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy that aired on June 7, 1968, two days after the assassination occurred.
According to King, the process of putting each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood together was "painstaking" and Rogers's contribution to the program was "astounding". Rogers wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano and sang for most of the songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, created all the characters (both puppet and human), played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, and produced and approved every detail of the program. The puppets created for the Neighborhood of Make-Believe "included an extraordinary variety of personalities". They were simple puppets but "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings". In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI, now The Fred Rogers Company), to produce the Neighborhood, other programs, and non-broadcast materials.
In 1975, Rogers stopped producing Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to focus on adult programming. Reruns of the Neighborhood continued to air on PBS. King reports that the decision caught many of his coworkers and supporters "off guard". Rogers continued to confer with McFarland about child development and early childhood education, however. In 1979, after an almost five-year hiatus, Rogers returned to producing the Neighborhood; King calls the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever". King writes that by the program's second run in the 1980s, it was "such a cultural touchstone that it had inspired numerous parodies", most notably Eddie Murphy's parody on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s.
Rogers retired from producing the Neighborhood in 2001 at age 73, although reruns continued to air. He and FCI had been making about two or three weeks of new programs per year for many years, "filling the rest of his time slots from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979". The final original episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired on August 31, 2001.
Other work and appearances
In 1969, Rogers testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, which was chaired by Democratic Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed a $20 million bill for the creation of PBS before he left office, but his successor, Richard Nixon, wanted to cut the funding to $10 million. Even though Rogers was not yet nationally known, he was chosen to testify because of his ability to make persuasive arguments and to connect emotionally with his audience. The clip of Rogers's testimony, which was televised and has since been viewed by millions of people on the internet, helped to secure funding for PBS for many years afterward. According to King, Rogers's testimony was "considered one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress, and one of the most powerful pieces of video presentation ever filmed". It brought Pastore to tears and also, according to King, has been studied by public relations experts and academics. Congressional funding for PBS increased from $9 million to $22 million. In 1970, Nixon appointed Rogers as chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
In 1978, while on hiatus from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a 30-minute interview program for adults on PBS called Old Friends... New Friends. It lasted 20 episodes. Rogers's guests included Hoagy Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Berle, Lorin Hollander, poet Robert Frost's daughter Lesley, and Willie Stargell.
In September 1987, Rogers visited Moscow to appear as the first guest on the long-running Soviet children's TV show Good Night, Little Ones! with host Tatiana Vedeneyeva. The appearance was broadcast in the Soviet Union on December 7, coinciding with the Washington Summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C. Vedeneyeva visited the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in November. Her visit was taped and later aired in March 1988 as part of Rogers's program. In 1994, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes, which featured interviews and portraits of four people from across the country who were having a positive impact on children and education. The first time Rogers appeared on television as an actor, and not himself, was in a 1996 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, playing a preacher.
Rogers gave "scores of interviews". Though reluctant to appear on television talk shows, he would usually "charm the host with his quick wit and ability to ad-lib on a moment's notice". Rogers was "one of the country's most sought-after commencement speakers", making over 150 speeches. His friend and colleague David Newell reported that Rogers would "agonize over a speech", and King reported that Rogers was at his least guarded during his speeches, which were about children, television, education, his view of the world, how to make the world a better place, and his quest for self-knowledge. His tone was quiet and informal but "commanded attention". In many speeches, including the ones he made accepting a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997, for his induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, and his final commencement speech at Dartmouth College in 2002, he instructed his audiences to remain silent and think for a moment about someone who had a good influence on them.
Personal life
Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd (called "Joanne") from Jacksonville, Florida, while attending Rollins College. They were married from 1952 until he died in 2003. They had two sons, James and John. Joanne Rogers (fr) was "an accomplished pianist", who like Fred earned a Bachelor of Music from Rollins, and went on to earn a Master of Music from Florida State University. She performed publicly with her college classmate, Jeannine Morrison, from 1976 to 2008. According to biographer Maxwell King, Rogers's close associates said he was "absolutely faithful to his marriage vows".
Rogers was red-green color-blind. He became a pescatarian in 1970, after the death of his father, and a vegetarian in the early 1980s, saying he "couldn't eat anything that had a mother". He became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times in the mid-1980s and said in one issue, "I love tofu burgers and beets". He told Vegetarian Times that he became a vegetarian for both ethical and health reasons. According to his biographer Maxwell King, Rogers also signed his name to a statement protesting wearing animal furs. Rogers was a registered Republican, but according to Joanne Rogers, he was "very independent in the way he voted", choosing not to talk about politics because he wanted to be impartial. Rogers was a Presbyterian, and many of the messages he expressed in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood were inspired by the core tenets of Christianity. Rogers rarely spoke about his faith on air; he believed that teaching through example was as powerful as preaching. He said, "You don't need to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across". According to writer Shea Tuttle, Rogers considered his faith a fundamental part of his personality and "called the space between the viewer and the television set 'holy ground'". He also studied Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Buddhism, and other faiths and cultures. King called him "that unique television star with a real spiritual life", emphasizing the values of patience, reflection, and "silence in a noisy world". King reported that despite Rogers's family's wealth, he cared little about making money, and lived frugally, especially as he and his wife grew older. King reported that Rogers's relationship with his young audience was important to him. For example, since hosting Misterogers in Canada, he answered every letter sent to him by hand. After Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began airing in the U.S., the letters increased in volume, and he hired staff member and producer Hedda Sharapan to answer them, but he read, edited, and signed each one. King wrote that Rogers saw responding to his viewers' letters as "a pastoral duty of sorts".
The New York Times called Rogers "a dedicated lap-swimmer", and Tom Junod, author of "Can You Say... Hero?", the 1998 Esquire profile of Rogers, said, "Nearly every morning of his life, Mister Rogers has gone swimming". Rogers began swimming when he was a child at his family's vacation home outside Latrobe, where they owned a pool, and during their winter trips to Florida. King wrote that swimming and playing the piano were "lifelong passions" and that "both gave him a chance to feel capable and in charge of his destiny", and that swimming became "an important part of the strong sense of self-discipline he cultivated". Rogers swam daily at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, after waking every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 A.M. to pray and to "read the Bible and prepare himself for the day". He did not smoke or drink. According to Junod, he did nothing to change his weight from the he weighed for most of his adult life; by 1998, this also included napping daily, going to bed at 9:30 P.M., and sleeping eight hours per night without interruption. Junod said Rogers saw his weight "as a destiny fulfilled", telling Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you'".
Death and memorials
After Rogers' retirement in 2001, he remained busy working with FCI, studying religion and spirituality, making public appearances, traveling, and working on a children's media center named after him at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe with Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of the college. By the summer of 2002, his chronic stomach pain became severe enough for him to see a doctor about it, and in October 2002, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He delayed treatment until after he served as Grand Marshal of the 2003 Rose Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby, in January. On January 6, Rogers underwent stomach surgery. He died less than two months later, on February 27, 2003, at his home in Pittsburgh, with his wife of 50 years, Joanne, at his side. While comatose shortly before his death, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church from Archabbot Nowicki.
The following day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered Rogers' death on the front page and dedicated an entire section to his death and impact. The newspaper also reported that by noon, the internet "was already full of appreciative pieces" by parents, viewers, producers, and writers. Rogers' death was widely lamented. Most U.S. metropolitan newspapers ran his obituary on their front page and some dedicated entire sections to coverage of his death. WQED aired programs about Rogers the evening he died; the Post-Gazette reported that the ratings for their coverage were three times higher than their normal ratings. That same evening, Nightline on ABC broadcast a rerun of a recent interview with Rogers; the program got the highest ratings of the day, beating the February average ratings of Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 4, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring Rogers sponsored by Representative Mike Doyle from Pennsylvania.
On March 1, 2003, a private funeral was held for Rogers in Unity Chapel, which was restored by Rogers' father, at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe. About 80 relatives, co-workers, and close friends attended the service, which "was planned in great secrecy so that those closest to him could grieve in private". Reverend John McCall, pastor of the Rogers family's church, Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill, gave the homily; Reverend William Barker, a retired Presbyterian minister who was a "close friend of Mr. Rogers and the voice of Mr. Platypus on his show", read Rogers' favorite Bible passages. Rogers was interred at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in a mausoleum owned by his mother's family.
On May 3, 2003, a public memorial was held at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. According to the Post-Gazette, 2,700 people attended. Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma (via video), and organist Alan Morrison performed in honor of Rogers. Barker officiated the service; also in attendance were Pittsburgh philanthropist Elsie Hillman, former Good Morning America host David Hartman, The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, and Arthur creator Marc Brown. Businesswoman and philanthropist Teresa Heinz, PBS President Pat Mitchell, and executive director of The Pittsburgh Project Saleem Ghubril gave remarks. Jeff Erlanger, who at age 10 appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1981 to explain his electric wheelchair, also spoke. The memorial was broadcast several times on Pittsburgh television stations and websites throughout the day.
Legacy
Marc Brown, creator of another PBS children's show, Arthur, considered Rogers both a friend and "a terrific role model for how to use television and the media to be helpful to kids and families". Josh Selig, creator of Wonder Pets, credits Rogers with influencing his use of structure and predictability, and his use of music, opera, and originality.
Rogers inspired Angela Santomero, co-creator of the children's television show Blue's Clues, to earn a degree in developmental psychology and go into educational television. She and the other producers of Blue's Clues used many of Rogers's techniques, such as using child developmental and educational research and having the host speak directly to the camera and transition to a make-believe world. In 2006, three years after Rogers's death and the end of production of Blue's Clues, the Fred Rogers Company contacted Santomero to create a show that would promote Rogers's legacy. In 2012, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with characters from and based upon Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, premiered on PBS.
Rogers's style and approach to children's television and early childhood education also "begged to be parodied". Comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on Saturday Night Live during the 1980s. Rogers told interviewer David Letterman in 1982 that he believed parodies like Murphy's were done "with kindness in their hearts".
Video of Rogers's 1969 testimony in defense of public programming has experienced a resurgence since 2012, going viral at least twice. It first resurfaced after then presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested cutting funding for PBS. In 2017, video of the testimony again went viral after President Donald Trump proposed defunding several arts-related government programs including PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.
A roadside Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedicated to Rogers to be installed in Latrobe was approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on March 4, 2014. It was installed on June 11, 2016, with the title "Fred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)".
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, director Morgan Neville's 2018 documentary about Rogers's life, grossed over $22 million and became the top-grossing biographical documentary ever produced, the highest-grossing documentary in five years, and the 12th largest-grossing documentary ever made. The 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood tells the story of Rogers and his television series, with Tom Hanks portraying Rogers.
According to Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post, Rogers became a source for parenting advice; she called him "a timeless oracle against a backdrop of ever-shifting parenting philosophies and cultural trends". Robert Thompson of Syracuse University noted that Rogers "took American childhood—and I think Americans in general—through some very turbulent and trying times", from the Vietnam War and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. According to Asia Simone Burns of National Public Radio, in the years following the end of production on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2001 and his death in 2003, Rogers became "a source of comfort, sometimes in the wake of tragedy". Burns has said Rogers's words of comfort "began circulating on social media" following tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Manchester Arena bombing in Manchester, England, in 2017, and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
Awards and honors
Museum exhibits
Smithsonian Institution permanent collection. In 1984, Rogers donated one of his sweaters to the Smithsonian.
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Exhibit created by Rogers and FCI in 1998. It attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors over ten years. It included, from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, one of his sweaters, a pair of his sneakers, original puppets from the program, and photographs of Rogers. The exhibit traveled to children's museums throughout the country for eight years until it was given to the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans as a permanent exhibit to help them recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2007, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh created a traveling exhibit based on the factory tours featured in episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Heinz History Center permanent collection (2018). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and what would have been Rogers's 90th birthday. Exhibits include the iconic King Friday's blue castle, the Owl's tree and a tricycle ridden by courier Mr. McFeely.
Louisiana Children's Museum. The museum contains an exhibit of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which debuted in 2007. The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh donated the exhibit.
Fred Rogers Exhibit. The Exhibit displays the life, career, and legacy of Rogers and includes photos, artifacts from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and clips of the program and interviews featuring Rogers. It is located at the Fred Rogers Center.
Art pieces
Several pieces of art are dedicated to Rogers throughout Pittsburgh, including a 7,000-pound, 11-foot-high bronze statue of him in the North Shore neighborhood. In the Oakland neighborhood, his portrait is included in the Martin Luther King Jr. and "Interpretations of Oakland" murals. A dinosaur statue titled "Fredasaurus Rex Friday XIII" originally stood in front of the WQED building and, as of 2014, stood in front of the building containing the Fred Rogers Company offices. There is a "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe" in Idlewild Park and a kiosk of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood artifacts at Pittsburgh International Airport. The Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village debuted a miniature recreation of Rogers's house from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2005. In Rogers' hometown of Latrobe, a statue of Rogers on a bench is situated in James H. Rogers Park - a park named for Rogers' father. In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - a 7 foot tall and 3,000 pound bronze statue by Paul Day - was dedicated at Rollins College. The memorial depicts Rogers and Daniel Tiger speaking with a group of children and features lyrics from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's theme on the base.
Honorary degrees
Rogers has received honorary degrees from over 43 colleges and universities. After 1973, two commemorative quilts, created by two of Rogers's friends and archived at the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, were made out of the academic hoods he received during the graduation ceremonies.
Note: Much of the below list is taken from "Honorary Degrees Awarded to Fred Rogers", unless otherwise stated.
Thiel College, 1969. Thiel also awards a yearly scholarship named for Rogers.
Eastern Michigan University, 1973
Saint Vincent College, 1973
Christian Theological Seminary, 1973
Rollins College, 1974
Yale University, 1974
Chatham College, 1975
Carnegie Mellon University, 1976
Lafayette College, 1977
Waynesburg College, 1978
Linfield College, 1982
Slippery Rock State College, 1982
Duquesne University, 1982
Washington & Jefferson College, 1984
University of South Carolina, 1985
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1985
Drury College, 1986
MacMurray College, 1986
Bowling Green State University, 1987
Westminster College (Pennsylvania), 1987
University of Indianapolis, 1988
University of Connecticut, 1991
Boston University, 1992
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1992
Moravian College, 1992
Goucher College, 1993
University of Pittsburgh, 1993
West Virginia University, 1995
North Carolina State University, 1996
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 1998
Marist College, 1999
Westminster Choir College, 1999
Old Dominion University, 2000
Marquette University, 2001
Middlebury College, 2001
Dartmouth College, 2002
Seton Hill University, 2003 (posthumous)
Union College, 2003 (posthumous)
Roanoke College, 2003 (posthumous)
Filmography
Television
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
|-
| 1954–1961
| The Children's Corner
|-
| 1963–1966
| Misterogers
|-
| 1964–1967
| Butternut Square
|-
| 1968–2001
| Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
|-
| 1977–1982
| Christmastime with Mister Rogers
|-
| 1978–1980
| Old Friends... New Friends
|-
| 1981
| Sesame Street
|-
| 1988
| Good Night, Little Ones!
|-
| 1991
| Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
|-
| 1994
|Mr. Dressup's 25th Anniversary|-
| 1994
| Fred Rogers' Heroes|-
| 1996
| Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman|-
| 1997
| Arthur|-
| 1998
| Wheel of Fortune|-
| 2003
| 114th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade|}
Published works
Children's books
Our Small World (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Norb Nathanson), 1954, Reed and Witting,
The Elves, the Shoemaker, & the Shoemaker's Wife (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Small World Enterprises,
The Matter of the Mittens, 1973, Small World Enterprises,
Speedy Delivery (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Hubbard,
Henrietta Meets Someone New (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1974, Golden Press,
Mister Rogers Talks About, 1974, Platt & Munk,
Time to Be Friends, 1974, Hallmark Cards,
Everyone is Special (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1975, Western Publishing,
Tell Me, Mister Rogers, 1975, Platt & Munk,
The Costume Party (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1976, Golden Press,
Planet Purple (illustrated by Dennis Hockerman), 1986, Texas Instruments,
If We Were All the Same (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
A Trolley Visit to Make-Believe (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
Wishes Don't Make Things Come True (illustrated Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
No One Can Ever Take Your Place (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
When Monsters Seem Real (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
You Can Never Go Down the Drain (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
The Giving Box (illustrated by Jennifer Herbert), 2000, Running Press,
Good Weather or Not (with Hedda Bluestone Sharapan, illustrated by James Mellet), 2005, Family Communications,
Josephine the Short Neck-Giraffe, 2006, Family Communications,
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (illustrated by Luke Flowers), 2009, Quirk Books,
First Experiences series illustrated by Jim Judkis
Going to Day Care, 1985, Putnam,
The New Baby, 1985, Putnam,
Going to the Potty, 1986, Putnam,
Going to the Doctor, 1986, Putnam,
Making Friends, 1987, Putnam,
Moving, 1987, Putnam,
Going to the Hospital, 1988, Putnam,
When a Pet Dies, 1988, Putnam,
Going on an Airplane, 1989, Putnam,
Going to the Dentist, 1989, Putnam,
Let's Talk About It series
Going to the Hospital, 1977, Family Communications,
Having an Operation, 1977, Family Communications,
So Many Things To See!, 1977, Family Communications,
Wearing a Cast, 1977, Family Communications,
Adoption, 1993, Putnam,
Divorce, 1994, Putnam,
Extraordinary Friends, 2000, Putnam,
Stepfamilies, 2001, Putnam,
Songbooks
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Mal Wittman), 1960, Vernon Music Corporation,
Mister Rogers' Songbook (with Johnny Costa, illustrated by Steven Kellogg), 1970, Random House,
Books for adults
Mister Rogers Talks to Parents, 1983, Family Communications,
Mister Rogers' Playbook (with Barry Head, illustrated by Jamie Adams), 1986, Berkley Books,
Mister Rogers Talks with Families About Divorce (with Clare O'Brien), 1987, Berkley Books,
Mister Rogers' How Families Grow (with Barry Head and Jim Prokell), 1988, Berkley Books,
You Are Special: Words of Wisdom from America's Most Beloved Neighbor, 1994, Penguin Books,
Dear Mister Rogers, 1996, Penguin Books,
Mister Rogers' Playtime, 2001, Running Press,
The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, 2002, Running Press,
You are special: Neighborly Wisdom from Mister Rogers, 2002, Running Press,
The World According to Mister Rogers, 2003, Hyperion Books,
Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers, 2005, Hyperion Books,
The Mister Rogers Parenting Resource Book, 2005, Courage Books,
Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom For Parents And Children, 2019, Hachette Books,
Discography
Around the Children's Corner (with Josey Carey), 1958, Vernon Music Corporation,
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey), 1959
King Friday XIII Celebrates, 1964
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 1967
Let's Be Together Today, 1968
Josephine the Short-Neck Giraffe, 1969
You Are Special, 1969
A Place of Our Own, 1970
Come On and Wake Up, 1972
Growing, 1992
Bedtime, 1992
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (cassette and book), 1994, Hal Leonard,
Coming and Going, 1997
It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister Rogers, 2019, Omnivore Recordings, posthumous release
See also
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 documentary
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like, 2018 documentary
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 biographical drama film
List of vegetarians
Notes
References
Works cited
Gross, Terry (1984). "Terry Gross and Fred Rogers". Fresh Air. NPR.
King, Maxwell (2018). The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. Abrams Press. .
Tiech, John (2012). Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City''. Charleston, North Carolina: The History Press. .
External links
PBS Kids: Official Site
The Fred M. Rogers Center
The Fred Rogers Company (formerly known as Family Communications)
1984 interview with Fred Rogers.
The Music of Mister Rogers—Pittsburgh Music History
Fred Rogers at Voice Chasers
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Category:Articles containing video clips | [] | [
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C_4afd5375282049259a462c9d271a3e3c_0 | Fred Rogers | Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 - February 27, 2003) was an American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister. Rogers was famous for creating, hosting and composing the theme music for the educational preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001), which featured his kind-hearted grandfatherly personality, and direct connection to his audiences. Originally trained and ordained as a minister, Rogers was displeased with the way television addressed children at the time, and made an effort to change this when he began to write for and perform on local Pittsburgh-area shows dedicated to youth. Rogers developed his own show on WQED in 1968, and it was distributed nationwide by Eastern Educational Television Network. | VCR | During the controversy surrounding the introduction of the household VCR, Rogers was involved in supporting the manufacturers of VCRs in court. His 1979 testimony, in the case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., noted that he did not object to home recordings of his television programs, for instance, by families in order to watch them together at a later time. This testimony contrasted with the views of others in the television industry who objected to home recordings or believed that devices to facilitate it should be taxed or regulated. When the case reached the Supreme Court in 1983, the majority decision considered the testimony of Rogers when it held that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright. The Court stated that his views were a notable piece of evidence "that many [television] producers are willing to allow private time-shifting to continue" and even quoted his testimony in a footnote: Some public stations, as well as commercial stations, program the Neighborhood at hours when some children cannot use it ... I have always felt that with the advent of all of this new technology that allows people to tape the Neighborhood off-the-air, and I'm speaking for the Neighborhood because that's what I produce, that they then become much more active in the programming of their family's television life. Very frankly, I am opposed to people being programmed by others. My whole approach in broadcasting has always been "You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions." Maybe I'm going on too long, but I just feel that anything that allows a person to be more active in the control of his or her life, in a healthy way, is important. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003), better known as Mister Rogers, was an American television host, author, producer, and Presbyterian minister. He was the creator, showrunner, and host of the preschool television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 to 2001.
Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Rogers earned a bachelor's degree in music from Rollins College in 1951. He began his television career at NBC in New York, returning to Pittsburgh in 1953 to work for children's programming at NET (later PBS) television station WQED. He graduated from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary with a bachelor's degree in divinity in 1962 and became a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began his 30-year collaboration with child psychologist Margaret McFarland. He also helped develop the children's shows The Children's Corner (1955) for WQED in Pittsburgh and Misterogers (1963) in Canada for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In 1968, he returned to Pittsburgh and adapted the format of his Canadian series to create Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. It ran for 33 years and was critically acclaimed for focusing on children's emotional and physical concerns, such as death, sibling rivalry, school enrollment, and divorce.
Rogers died of stomach cancer in 2003, aged 74. His work in children's television has been widely lauded, and he received more than 40 honorary degrees and several awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002 and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. Rogers influenced many writers and producers of children's television shows, and his broadcasts provided comfort during tragic events, even after his death.
Early life
Rogers was born on March 20, 1928, at 705 Main Street in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, about outside of Pittsburgh. His father, James Hillis Rogers, was "a very successful businessman" who was president of the McFeely Brick Company, one of Latrobe's most prominent businesses. His mother, Nancy (née McFeely), knitted sweaters for American soldiers from western Pennsylvania who were fighting in Europe and regularly volunteered at the Latrobe Hospital. Initially dreaming of becoming a doctor, she settled for a life of hospital volunteer work. Her father, Fred Brooks McFeely, after whom Rogers was named, was an entrepreneur.
Rogers grew up in a large three-story brick house at 737 Weldon Street in Latrobe. He had a sister, Elaine, whom the Rogerses adopted when he was 11 years old. Rogers spent much of his childhood alone, playing with puppets, and also spent time with his grandfather. He began playing the piano when he was five. Through an ancestor who immigrated from Germany to the U.S., Johannes Meffert (born 1732), Rogers is the sixth cousin of American actor Tom Hanks, who portrays him in the film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019).
Rogers had a difficult childhood. Shy, introverted, and overweight, he was frequently homebound after suffering bouts of asthma. He was bullied as a child for his weight and called "Fat Freddy". According to Morgan Neville, director of the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?, Rogers had a "lonely childhood... I think he made friends with himself as much as he could. He had a ventriloquist dummy, he had [stuffed] animals, and he would create his own worlds in his childhood bedroom".
Rogers attended Latrobe High School, where he overcame his shyness. "It was tough for me at the beginning," Rogers told NPR's Terry Gross in 1984. "And then I made a couple friends who found out that the core of me was okay. And one of them was... the head of the football team". He became president of the student council, a member of the National Honor Society, and editor-in-chief of the school yearbook. He registered for the draft in Greensburg, Pennsylvania in 1948 at age 20, where he was classified 1-A (available for military service). However, his status was changed to unqualified for military service following an Armed Forces physical on October 12, 1950. He attended Dartmouth College for one year before transferring to Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1951 with a Bachelor of Music.
He graduated magna cum laude from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in 1962 with a Bachelor of Divinity, and was ordained a minister by the Pittsburgh Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church in 1963. His mission as an ordained minister, rather than a church pastor, was to minister to children and their families through television. He regularly appeared before church officials to maintain his ordination.
Career
Early work
Rogers wanted to enter seminary after college, but instead chose to go into the nascent medium of television after encountering a TV at his parents' home in 1951 during his senior year at Rollins College. In a CNN interview, he said, "I went into television because I hated it so, and I thought there's some way of using this fabulous instrument to nurture those who would watch and listen". After graduating in 1951, he worked at NBC in New York City as floor director of Your Hit Parade, The Kate Smith Hour, and Gabby Hayes's children's show, and as an assistant producer of The Voice of Firestone.
In 1953, Rogers returned to Pittsburgh to work as a program developer at public television station WQED. Josie Carey worked with him to develop the children's show The Children's Corner, which Carey hosted. Rogers worked off-camera to develop puppets, characters, and music for the show. He used many puppet characters developed during this time, such as Daniel the Striped Tiger (named after WQED's station manager, Dorothy Daniel, who gave Rogers a tiger puppet before the show's premiere), King Friday XIII, Queen Sara Saturday (named after Rogers's wife), X the Owl, Henrietta, and Lady Elaine, in his later work. Children's television entertainer Ernie Coombs was an assistant puppeteer. The Children's Corner won a Sylvania Award for best locally produced children's programming in 1955 and was broadcast nationally on NBC. While working on the show, Rogers attended Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1963. He also attended the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Child Development, where he began working with child psychologist Margaret McFarland—who, according to Rogers's biographer Maxwell King, became his "key advisor and collaborator" and "child-education guru". Much of Rogers's "thinking about and appreciation for children was shaped and informed" by McFarland. She was his consultant for most of Mister Rogers' Neighborhoods scripts and songs for 30 years.
In 1963, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in Toronto contracted Rogers to come to Toronto to develop and host the 15-minute black-and-white children's program Misterogers; it lasted from 1963 to 1967. It was the first time Rogers appeared on camera. CBC's children's programming head Fred Rainsberry insisted on it, telling Rogers, "Fred, I've seen you talk with kids. Let's put you yourself on the air". Coombs joined Rogers in Toronto as an assistant puppeteer. Rogers also worked with Coombs on the children's show Butternut Square from 1964 to 1967. Rogers acquired the rights to Misterogers in 1967 and returned to Pittsburgh with his wife, two young sons, and the sets he developed, despite a potentially promising career with CBC and no job prospects in Pittsburgh. On Rogers' recommendation, Coombs remained in Toronto and became Rogers' Canadian equivalent of an iconic television personality, creating the long-running children's program Mr. Dressup, which ran from 1967 to 1996. Rogers's work for CBC "helped shape and develop the concept and style of his later program for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the U.S."
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (also called the Neighborhood), a half-hour educational children's program starring Rogers, began airing nationally in 1968 and ran for 895 episodes. It was videotaped at WQED in Pittsburgh and broadcast by National Educational Television (NET), which later became the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Its first season had 180 black-and-white episodes. Each subsequent season, filmed in color and funded by PBS, the Sears-Roebuck Foundation, and other charities, consisted of 65 episodes. By the time it ended production in December 2000, its average rating was about 0.7% of television households or 680,000 homes, and it aired on 384 PBS stations. At its peak in 1985–1986, its ratings were 2.1%, or 1.8 million homes. The last original episode aired in 2001, but PBS continued to air reruns, and by 2016 it was the third-longest-running program in PBS history.
Many of the sets and props in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, like the trolley, the sneakers, and the castle, were created for Rogers's show in Toronto by CBC designers and producers. The program also "incorporated most of the highly imaginative elements that later became famous", such as its slow pace and its host's quiet manner. The format of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood "remained virtually unchanged" for the entire run of the program. Every episode begins with a camera's-eye view of a model of a neighborhood, then panning in closer to a representation of a house while a piano instrumental of the theme song, "Won't You be My Neighbor?", performed by music director Johnny Costa and inspired by a Beethoven sonata, is played. The camera zooms in to a model representing Mr. Rogers's house, then cuts to the house's interior and pans across the room to the front door, which Rogers opens as he sings the theme song to greet his visitors while changing his suit jacket to a cardigan (knitted by his mother) and his dress shoes to sneakers, "complete with a shoe tossed from one hand to another". The episode's theme is introduced, and Mr. Rogers leaves his home to visit another location, the camera panning back to the neighborhood model and zooming in to the new location as he enters it. Once this segment ends, Mr. Rogers leaves and returns to his home, indicating that it is time to visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. Mr. Rogers proceeds to the window seat by the trolley track and sets up the action there as the Trolley comes out. The camera follows it down a tunnel in the back wall of the house as it enters the Neighborhood of Make-Believe. The stories and lessons take place over a week's worth of episodes and involve puppets and human characters. The end of the visit occurs when the Trolley returns to the same tunnel from which it emerged, reappearing in Mr. Rogers's home. He then talks to the viewers before concluding the episode. He often feeds his fish, cleans up any props he has used, and returns to the front room, where he sings the closing song while changing back into his dress shoes and jacket. He exits the front door as he ends the song, and the camera zooms out of his home and pans across the neighborhood model as the episode ends.
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood emphasized young children's social and emotional needs, and unlike another PBS show, Sesame Street, which premiered in 1969, did not focus on cognitive learning. Writer Kathy Merlock Jackson said, "While both shows target the same preschool audience and prepare children for kindergarten, Sesame Street concentrates on school-readiness skills while Mister Rogers Neighborhood focuses on the child's developing psyche and feelings and sense of moral and ethical reasoning". The Neighborhood also spent fewer resources on research than Sesame Street, but Rogers used early childhood education concepts taught by his mentor Margaret McFarland, Benjamin Spock, Erik Erikson, and T. Berry Brazelton in his lessons. As the Washington Post noted, Rogers taught young children about civility, tolerance, sharing, and self-worth "in a reassuring tone and leisurely cadence". He tackled difficult topics such as the death of a family pet, sibling rivalry, the addition of a newborn into a family, moving and enrolling in a new school, and divorce. For example, he wrote a special segment that dealt with the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy that aired on June 7, 1968, two days after the assassination occurred.
According to King, the process of putting each episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood together was "painstaking" and Rogers's contribution to the program was "astounding". Rogers wrote and edited all the episodes, played the piano and sang for most of the songs, wrote 200 songs and 13 operas, created all the characters (both puppet and human), played most of the significant puppet roles, hosted every episode, and produced and approved every detail of the program. The puppets created for the Neighborhood of Make-Believe "included an extraordinary variety of personalities". They were simple puppets but "complex, complicated, and utterly honest beings". In 1971, Rogers formed Family Communications, Inc. (FCI, now The Fred Rogers Company), to produce the Neighborhood, other programs, and non-broadcast materials.
In 1975, Rogers stopped producing Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood to focus on adult programming. Reruns of the Neighborhood continued to air on PBS. King reports that the decision caught many of his coworkers and supporters "off guard". Rogers continued to confer with McFarland about child development and early childhood education, however. In 1979, after an almost five-year hiatus, Rogers returned to producing the Neighborhood; King calls the new version "stronger and more sophisticated than ever". King writes that by the program's second run in the 1980s, it was "such a cultural touchstone that it had inspired numerous parodies", most notably Eddie Murphy's parody on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s.
Rogers retired from producing the Neighborhood in 2001 at age 73, although reruns continued to air. He and FCI had been making about two or three weeks of new programs per year for many years, "filling the rest of his time slots from a library of about 300 shows made since 1979". The final original episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood aired on August 31, 2001.
Other work and appearances
In 1969, Rogers testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Communications, which was chaired by Democratic Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson had proposed a $20 million bill for the creation of PBS before he left office, but his successor, Richard Nixon, wanted to cut the funding to $10 million. Even though Rogers was not yet nationally known, he was chosen to testify because of his ability to make persuasive arguments and to connect emotionally with his audience. The clip of Rogers's testimony, which was televised and has since been viewed by millions of people on the internet, helped to secure funding for PBS for many years afterward. According to King, Rogers's testimony was "considered one of the most powerful pieces of testimony ever offered before Congress, and one of the most powerful pieces of video presentation ever filmed". It brought Pastore to tears and also, according to King, has been studied by public relations experts and academics. Congressional funding for PBS increased from $9 million to $22 million. In 1970, Nixon appointed Rogers as chair of the White House Conference on Children and Youth.
In 1978, while on hiatus from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a 30-minute interview program for adults on PBS called Old Friends... New Friends. It lasted 20 episodes. Rogers's guests included Hoagy Carmichael, Helen Hayes, Milton Berle, Lorin Hollander, poet Robert Frost's daughter Lesley, and Willie Stargell.
In September 1987, Rogers visited Moscow to appear as the first guest on the long-running Soviet children's TV show Good Night, Little Ones! with host Tatiana Vedeneyeva. The appearance was broadcast in the Soviet Union on December 7, coinciding with the Washington Summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C. Vedeneyeva visited the set of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in November. Her visit was taped and later aired in March 1988 as part of Rogers's program. In 1994, Rogers wrote, produced, and hosted a special for PBS called Fred Rogers' Heroes, which featured interviews and portraits of four people from across the country who were having a positive impact on children and education. The first time Rogers appeared on television as an actor, and not himself, was in a 1996 episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, playing a preacher.
Rogers gave "scores of interviews". Though reluctant to appear on television talk shows, he would usually "charm the host with his quick wit and ability to ad-lib on a moment's notice". Rogers was "one of the country's most sought-after commencement speakers", making over 150 speeches. His friend and colleague David Newell reported that Rogers would "agonize over a speech", and King reported that Rogers was at his least guarded during his speeches, which were about children, television, education, his view of the world, how to make the world a better place, and his quest for self-knowledge. His tone was quiet and informal but "commanded attention". In many speeches, including the ones he made accepting a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in 1997, for his induction into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, and his final commencement speech at Dartmouth College in 2002, he instructed his audiences to remain silent and think for a moment about someone who had a good influence on them.
Personal life
Rogers met Sara Joanne Byrd (called "Joanne") from Jacksonville, Florida, while attending Rollins College. They were married from 1952 until he died in 2003. They had two sons, James and John. Joanne Rogers (fr) was "an accomplished pianist", who like Fred earned a Bachelor of Music from Rollins, and went on to earn a Master of Music from Florida State University. She performed publicly with her college classmate, Jeannine Morrison, from 1976 to 2008. According to biographer Maxwell King, Rogers's close associates said he was "absolutely faithful to his marriage vows".
Rogers was red-green color-blind. He became a pescatarian in 1970, after the death of his father, and a vegetarian in the early 1980s, saying he "couldn't eat anything that had a mother". He became a co-owner of Vegetarian Times in the mid-1980s and said in one issue, "I love tofu burgers and beets". He told Vegetarian Times that he became a vegetarian for both ethical and health reasons. According to his biographer Maxwell King, Rogers also signed his name to a statement protesting wearing animal furs. Rogers was a registered Republican, but according to Joanne Rogers, he was "very independent in the way he voted", choosing not to talk about politics because he wanted to be impartial. Rogers was a Presbyterian, and many of the messages he expressed in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood were inspired by the core tenets of Christianity. Rogers rarely spoke about his faith on air; he believed that teaching through example was as powerful as preaching. He said, "You don't need to speak overtly about religion in order to get a message across". According to writer Shea Tuttle, Rogers considered his faith a fundamental part of his personality and "called the space between the viewer and the television set 'holy ground'". He also studied Catholic mysticism, Judaism, Buddhism, and other faiths and cultures. King called him "that unique television star with a real spiritual life", emphasizing the values of patience, reflection, and "silence in a noisy world". King reported that despite Rogers's family's wealth, he cared little about making money, and lived frugally, especially as he and his wife grew older. King reported that Rogers's relationship with his young audience was important to him. For example, since hosting Misterogers in Canada, he answered every letter sent to him by hand. After Mister Rogers' Neighborhood began airing in the U.S., the letters increased in volume, and he hired staff member and producer Hedda Sharapan to answer them, but he read, edited, and signed each one. King wrote that Rogers saw responding to his viewers' letters as "a pastoral duty of sorts".
The New York Times called Rogers "a dedicated lap-swimmer", and Tom Junod, author of "Can You Say... Hero?", the 1998 Esquire profile of Rogers, said, "Nearly every morning of his life, Mister Rogers has gone swimming". Rogers began swimming when he was a child at his family's vacation home outside Latrobe, where they owned a pool, and during their winter trips to Florida. King wrote that swimming and playing the piano were "lifelong passions" and that "both gave him a chance to feel capable and in charge of his destiny", and that swimming became "an important part of the strong sense of self-discipline he cultivated". Rogers swam daily at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association, after waking every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 A.M. to pray and to "read the Bible and prepare himself for the day". He did not smoke or drink. According to Junod, he did nothing to change his weight from the he weighed for most of his adult life; by 1998, this also included napping daily, going to bed at 9:30 P.M., and sleeping eight hours per night without interruption. Junod said Rogers saw his weight "as a destiny fulfilled", telling Junod, "the number 143 means 'I love you.' It takes one letter to say 'I' and four letters to say 'love' and three letters to say 'you'".
Death and memorials
After Rogers' retirement in 2001, he remained busy working with FCI, studying religion and spirituality, making public appearances, traveling, and working on a children's media center named after him at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe with Archabbot Douglas Nowicki, chancellor of the college. By the summer of 2002, his chronic stomach pain became severe enough for him to see a doctor about it, and in October 2002, he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He delayed treatment until after he served as Grand Marshal of the 2003 Rose Parade, with Art Linkletter and Bill Cosby, in January. On January 6, Rogers underwent stomach surgery. He died less than two months later, on February 27, 2003, at his home in Pittsburgh, with his wife of 50 years, Joanne, at his side. While comatose shortly before his death, he received the last rites of the Catholic Church from Archabbot Nowicki.
The following day, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covered Rogers' death on the front page and dedicated an entire section to his death and impact. The newspaper also reported that by noon, the internet "was already full of appreciative pieces" by parents, viewers, producers, and writers. Rogers' death was widely lamented. Most U.S. metropolitan newspapers ran his obituary on their front page and some dedicated entire sections to coverage of his death. WQED aired programs about Rogers the evening he died; the Post-Gazette reported that the ratings for their coverage were three times higher than their normal ratings. That same evening, Nightline on ABC broadcast a rerun of a recent interview with Rogers; the program got the highest ratings of the day, beating the February average ratings of Late Show with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. On March 4, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution honoring Rogers sponsored by Representative Mike Doyle from Pennsylvania.
On March 1, 2003, a private funeral was held for Rogers in Unity Chapel, which was restored by Rogers' father, at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe. About 80 relatives, co-workers, and close friends attended the service, which "was planned in great secrecy so that those closest to him could grieve in private". Reverend John McCall, pastor of the Rogers family's church, Sixth Presbyterian Church in Squirrel Hill, gave the homily; Reverend William Barker, a retired Presbyterian minister who was a "close friend of Mr. Rogers and the voice of Mr. Platypus on his show", read Rogers' favorite Bible passages. Rogers was interred at Unity Cemetery in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in a mausoleum owned by his mother's family.
On May 3, 2003, a public memorial was held at Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh. According to the Post-Gazette, 2,700 people attended. Violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma (via video), and organist Alan Morrison performed in honor of Rogers. Barker officiated the service; also in attendance were Pittsburgh philanthropist Elsie Hillman, former Good Morning America host David Hartman, The Very Hungry Caterpillar author Eric Carle, and Arthur creator Marc Brown. Businesswoman and philanthropist Teresa Heinz, PBS President Pat Mitchell, and executive director of The Pittsburgh Project Saleem Ghubril gave remarks. Jeff Erlanger, who at age 10 appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1981 to explain his electric wheelchair, also spoke. The memorial was broadcast several times on Pittsburgh television stations and websites throughout the day.
Legacy
Marc Brown, creator of another PBS children's show, Arthur, considered Rogers both a friend and "a terrific role model for how to use television and the media to be helpful to kids and families". Josh Selig, creator of Wonder Pets, credits Rogers with influencing his use of structure and predictability, and his use of music, opera, and originality.
Rogers inspired Angela Santomero, co-creator of the children's television show Blue's Clues, to earn a degree in developmental psychology and go into educational television. She and the other producers of Blue's Clues used many of Rogers's techniques, such as using child developmental and educational research and having the host speak directly to the camera and transition to a make-believe world. In 2006, three years after Rogers's death and the end of production of Blue's Clues, the Fred Rogers Company contacted Santomero to create a show that would promote Rogers's legacy. In 2012, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, with characters from and based upon Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, premiered on PBS.
Rogers's style and approach to children's television and early childhood education also "begged to be parodied". Comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Mister Rogers' Neighborhood on Saturday Night Live during the 1980s. Rogers told interviewer David Letterman in 1982 that he believed parodies like Murphy's were done "with kindness in their hearts".
Video of Rogers's 1969 testimony in defense of public programming has experienced a resurgence since 2012, going viral at least twice. It first resurfaced after then presidential candidate Mitt Romney suggested cutting funding for PBS. In 2017, video of the testimony again went viral after President Donald Trump proposed defunding several arts-related government programs including PBS and the National Endowment for the Arts.
A roadside Pennsylvania Historical Marker dedicated to Rogers to be installed in Latrobe was approved by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission on March 4, 2014. It was installed on June 11, 2016, with the title "Fred McFeely Rogers (1928–2003)".
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, director Morgan Neville's 2018 documentary about Rogers's life, grossed over $22 million and became the top-grossing biographical documentary ever produced, the highest-grossing documentary in five years, and the 12th largest-grossing documentary ever made. The 2019 drama film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood tells the story of Rogers and his television series, with Tom Hanks portraying Rogers.
According to Caitlin Gibson of The Washington Post, Rogers became a source for parenting advice; she called him "a timeless oracle against a backdrop of ever-shifting parenting philosophies and cultural trends". Robert Thompson of Syracuse University noted that Rogers "took American childhood—and I think Americans in general—through some very turbulent and trying times", from the Vietnam War and the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 to the 9/11 attacks in 2001. According to Asia Simone Burns of National Public Radio, in the years following the end of production on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2001 and his death in 2003, Rogers became "a source of comfort, sometimes in the wake of tragedy". Burns has said Rogers's words of comfort "began circulating on social media" following tragedies such as the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, the Manchester Arena bombing in Manchester, England, in 2017, and the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, in 2018.
Awards and honors
Museum exhibits
Smithsonian Institution permanent collection. In 1984, Rogers donated one of his sweaters to the Smithsonian.
Children's Museum of Pittsburgh. Exhibit created by Rogers and FCI in 1998. It attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors over ten years. It included, from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, one of his sweaters, a pair of his sneakers, original puppets from the program, and photographs of Rogers. The exhibit traveled to children's museums throughout the country for eight years until it was given to the Louisiana Children's Museum in New Orleans as a permanent exhibit to help them recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In 2007, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh created a traveling exhibit based on the factory tours featured in episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.
Heinz History Center permanent collection (2018). In honor of the 50th anniversary of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and what would have been Rogers's 90th birthday. Exhibits include the iconic King Friday's blue castle, the Owl's tree and a tricycle ridden by courier Mr. McFeely.
Louisiana Children's Museum. The museum contains an exhibit of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, which debuted in 2007. The Children's Museum of Pittsburgh donated the exhibit.
Fred Rogers Exhibit. The Exhibit displays the life, career, and legacy of Rogers and includes photos, artifacts from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and clips of the program and interviews featuring Rogers. It is located at the Fred Rogers Center.
Art pieces
Several pieces of art are dedicated to Rogers throughout Pittsburgh, including a 7,000-pound, 11-foot-high bronze statue of him in the North Shore neighborhood. In the Oakland neighborhood, his portrait is included in the Martin Luther King Jr. and "Interpretations of Oakland" murals. A dinosaur statue titled "Fredasaurus Rex Friday XIII" originally stood in front of the WQED building and, as of 2014, stood in front of the building containing the Fred Rogers Company offices. There is a "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe" in Idlewild Park and a kiosk of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood artifacts at Pittsburgh International Airport. The Carnegie Science Center's Miniature Railroad and Village debuted a miniature recreation of Rogers's house from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 2005. In Rogers' hometown of Latrobe, a statue of Rogers on a bench is situated in James H. Rogers Park - a park named for Rogers' father. In 2021, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - a 7 foot tall and 3,000 pound bronze statue by Paul Day - was dedicated at Rollins College. The memorial depicts Rogers and Daniel Tiger speaking with a group of children and features lyrics from Mister Rogers' Neighborhood's theme on the base.
Honorary degrees
Rogers has received honorary degrees from over 43 colleges and universities. After 1973, two commemorative quilts, created by two of Rogers's friends and archived at the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, were made out of the academic hoods he received during the graduation ceremonies.
Note: Much of the below list is taken from "Honorary Degrees Awarded to Fred Rogers", unless otherwise stated.
Thiel College, 1969. Thiel also awards a yearly scholarship named for Rogers.
Eastern Michigan University, 1973
Saint Vincent College, 1973
Christian Theological Seminary, 1973
Rollins College, 1974
Yale University, 1974
Chatham College, 1975
Carnegie Mellon University, 1976
Lafayette College, 1977
Waynesburg College, 1978
Linfield College, 1982
Slippery Rock State College, 1982
Duquesne University, 1982
Washington & Jefferson College, 1984
University of South Carolina, 1985
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, 1985
Drury College, 1986
MacMurray College, 1986
Bowling Green State University, 1987
Westminster College (Pennsylvania), 1987
University of Indianapolis, 1988
University of Connecticut, 1991
Boston University, 1992
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, 1992
Moravian College, 1992
Goucher College, 1993
University of Pittsburgh, 1993
West Virginia University, 1995
North Carolina State University, 1996
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, 1998
Marist College, 1999
Westminster Choir College, 1999
Old Dominion University, 2000
Marquette University, 2001
Middlebury College, 2001
Dartmouth College, 2002
Seton Hill University, 2003 (posthumous)
Union College, 2003 (posthumous)
Roanoke College, 2003 (posthumous)
Filmography
Television
{|class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Year
! Title
|-
| 1954–1961
| The Children's Corner
|-
| 1963–1966
| Misterogers
|-
| 1964–1967
| Butternut Square
|-
| 1968–2001
| Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
|-
| 1977–1982
| Christmastime with Mister Rogers
|-
| 1978–1980
| Old Friends... New Friends
|-
| 1981
| Sesame Street
|-
| 1988
| Good Night, Little Ones!
|-
| 1991
| Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
|-
| 1994
|Mr. Dressup's 25th Anniversary|-
| 1994
| Fred Rogers' Heroes|-
| 1996
| Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman|-
| 1997
| Arthur|-
| 1998
| Wheel of Fortune|-
| 2003
| 114th Annual Tournament of Roses Parade|}
Published works
Children's books
Our Small World (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Norb Nathanson), 1954, Reed and Witting,
The Elves, the Shoemaker, & the Shoemaker's Wife (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Small World Enterprises,
The Matter of the Mittens, 1973, Small World Enterprises,
Speedy Delivery (illustrated by Richard Hefter), 1973, Hubbard,
Henrietta Meets Someone New (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1974, Golden Press,
Mister Rogers Talks About, 1974, Platt & Munk,
Time to Be Friends, 1974, Hallmark Cards,
Everyone is Special (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1975, Western Publishing,
Tell Me, Mister Rogers, 1975, Platt & Munk,
The Costume Party (illustrated by Jason Art Studios), 1976, Golden Press,
Planet Purple (illustrated by Dennis Hockerman), 1986, Texas Instruments,
If We Were All the Same (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
A Trolley Visit to Make-Believe (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
Wishes Don't Make Things Come True (illustrated Pat Sustendal), 1987, Random House,
No One Can Ever Take Your Place (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
When Monsters Seem Real (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
You Can Never Go Down the Drain (illustrated by Pat Sustendal), 1988, Random House,
The Giving Box (illustrated by Jennifer Herbert), 2000, Running Press,
Good Weather or Not (with Hedda Bluestone Sharapan, illustrated by James Mellet), 2005, Family Communications,
Josephine the Short Neck-Giraffe, 2006, Family Communications,
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: The Poetry of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (illustrated by Luke Flowers), 2009, Quirk Books,
First Experiences series illustrated by Jim Judkis
Going to Day Care, 1985, Putnam,
The New Baby, 1985, Putnam,
Going to the Potty, 1986, Putnam,
Going to the Doctor, 1986, Putnam,
Making Friends, 1987, Putnam,
Moving, 1987, Putnam,
Going to the Hospital, 1988, Putnam,
When a Pet Dies, 1988, Putnam,
Going on an Airplane, 1989, Putnam,
Going to the Dentist, 1989, Putnam,
Let's Talk About It series
Going to the Hospital, 1977, Family Communications,
Having an Operation, 1977, Family Communications,
So Many Things To See!, 1977, Family Communications,
Wearing a Cast, 1977, Family Communications,
Adoption, 1993, Putnam,
Divorce, 1994, Putnam,
Extraordinary Friends, 2000, Putnam,
Stepfamilies, 2001, Putnam,
Songbooks
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey, illustrated by Mal Wittman), 1960, Vernon Music Corporation,
Mister Rogers' Songbook (with Johnny Costa, illustrated by Steven Kellogg), 1970, Random House,
Books for adults
Mister Rogers Talks to Parents, 1983, Family Communications,
Mister Rogers' Playbook (with Barry Head, illustrated by Jamie Adams), 1986, Berkley Books,
Mister Rogers Talks with Families About Divorce (with Clare O'Brien), 1987, Berkley Books,
Mister Rogers' How Families Grow (with Barry Head and Jim Prokell), 1988, Berkley Books,
You Are Special: Words of Wisdom from America's Most Beloved Neighbor, 1994, Penguin Books,
Dear Mister Rogers, 1996, Penguin Books,
Mister Rogers' Playtime, 2001, Running Press,
The Mister Rogers Parenting Book, 2002, Running Press,
You are special: Neighborly Wisdom from Mister Rogers, 2002, Running Press,
The World According to Mister Rogers, 2003, Hyperion Books,
Life's Journeys According to Mister Rogers, 2005, Hyperion Books,
The Mister Rogers Parenting Resource Book, 2005, Courage Books,
Many Ways to Say I Love You: Wisdom For Parents And Children, 2019, Hachette Books,
Discography
Around the Children's Corner (with Josey Carey), 1958, Vernon Music Corporation,
Tomorrow on the Children's Corner (with Josie Carey), 1959
King Friday XIII Celebrates, 1964
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 1967
Let's Be Together Today, 1968
Josephine the Short-Neck Giraffe, 1969
You Are Special, 1969
A Place of Our Own, 1970
Come On and Wake Up, 1972
Growing, 1992
Bedtime, 1992
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (cassette and book), 1994, Hal Leonard,
Coming and Going, 1997
It's Such A Good Feeling: The Best Of Mister Rogers, 2019, Omnivore Recordings, posthumous release
See also
Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 documentary
Mister Rogers: It's You I Like, 2018 documentary
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, 2019 biographical drama film
List of vegetarians
Notes
References
Works cited
Gross, Terry (1984). "Terry Gross and Fred Rogers". Fresh Air. NPR.
King, Maxwell (2018). The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. Abrams Press. .
Tiech, John (2012). Pittsburgh Film History: On Set in the Steel City''. Charleston, North Carolina: The History Press. .
External links
PBS Kids: Official Site
The Fred M. Rogers Center
The Fred Rogers Company (formerly known as Family Communications)
1984 interview with Fred Rogers.
The Music of Mister Rogers—Pittsburgh Music History
Fred Rogers at Voice Chasers
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"Rogers's role in supporting the VCR was providing court testimony in the case Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc. He stated that he did not object to home recordings of his television programs and encouraged the use of VCRs for families to watch programs together at a later time. His views were later used by the Supreme Court to hold that the Betamax video recorder did not infringe copyright.",
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C_1d5ce516fe6c4be19df76a7cbfc97b5e_1 | Therapy? | Therapy? are an alternative metal band from Northern Ireland. The band was formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns from Ballyclare and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing from Larne, Northern Ireland. The band initially recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar. To complete the lineup, the band recruited Larne bassist Michael McKeegan. | Early years (1989-1992) | While attending a charity gig at the Jordanstown Polytechnic in early 1989, Andy Cairns noticed Fyfe Ewing playing drums in a punk covers band. The two spoke afterwards and agreed to meet for rehearsal in Fyfe's house in Larne with Andy playing a small practice amp and Fyfe playing his kit with brushes. In the summer they recorded a four track demo tape (Thirty Seconds of Silence) with Andy playing a bass guitar borrowed from Fyfe's classmate Michael McKeegan. Deciding to play live, they recruited McKeegan and played their debut gig at the Belfast Art College supporting Decadence Within on 20 August 1989. They followed this up with another four track demo tape (Meat Abstract). Their sound was becoming highly influenced by artists of the indie rock movement such as The Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and The Membranes as well as new beat disco acts such as Belgian outfit Erotic Dissidents. Therapy? released its first single, called Meat Abstract in July 1990. The single was limited to 1000 copies, and released on the bands' own Multifuckinational Records. During the summer of that year, the band made its first tour through the United Kingdom with The Beyond, catching the attention of influential DJ John Peel along the way. The band's early years followed the familiar pattern of hard graft on the local alternative music scene, with Cairns often putting in a full day at the Michelin tyre factory (where he worked as a quality controller), then speeding across Northern Ireland in order to make it to gigs. The band also took whatever support slot they could, opening for the likes of Loop, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Inspiral Carpets, Tad, Fugazi and Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Therapy? quickly came to the attention of local music fans with their distinctively uncompromising style. Their use of guitar feedback as a "fourth instrument" and unconventional song structures, combined with a darkly original approach to lyrics and imaginative use of samples pulled from cult movies and obscure documentaries, led them to be spotted in 1990 by London-based independent label Wiiija Records. The move was helped by Lesley Rankine of Silverfish, who passed the band's first single on to Gary Walker of Wiiija. The band's first album, July 1991's Babyteeth, and its January 1992 follow up, Pleasure Death, were successful enough to earn the band a major label deal with A&M Records. Both albums were underground successes, hitting number 1 in the UK Indie Charts. The attention led to support slots with both Babes In Toyland and Hole on their respective UK tours. A compilation of the two albums entitled Caucasian Psychosis was prepared for the North American market, and the band embarked on their first U.S. tour in October 1992. Their debut A&M record, Nurse, made its way into UK's Top 40 Album Chart in November 1992, while lead single "Teethgrinder" became the band's first Top 40 single in both the UK and Ireland. The grunge revolution was in full swing, with US outfit Nirvana leading the way. Predictably, the media began to draw comparisons between the two bands. The heavy guitars and inventive drumming that was swiftly becoming Therapy?'s trademark led them more towards the grunge camp than away from it. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Therapy? are a Northern Irish rock band from Larne, formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing. Therapy? recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar. To complete the lineup, the band recruited Larne bassist Michael McKeegan. The band signed with major label A&M Records in 1992, for which they released four albums, most notably Troublegum in 1994 and Infernal Love in 1995. Ewing's departure in early 1996 preceded the arrivals of his replacement Graham Hopkins and Martin McCarrick on cello and guitar. Neil Cooper replaced Hopkins on drums in 2002. Following the departure of McCarrick in 2004, the band have remained a stable three-piece since.
Therapy? are currently signed to UK independent label Marshall Records. The band has released 15 full-length studio albums and has sold over two million albums worldwide.
History
Early years (1989–1992)
While attending a charity gig at the Jordanstown Polytechnic in 1988, Andy Cairns noticed Fyfe Ewing playing drums in a punk covers band. The two spoke afterwards and agreed to meet for rehearsal in Fyfe's house in Larne with Andy playing a small practice amp and Fyfe playing his kit with brushes. In April 1989 they recorded a four track demo tape (Thirty Seconds of Silence) with Andy playing a bass guitar borrowed from Fyfe's classmate Michael McKeegan. Deciding to play live, they recruited McKeegan and played their debut gig at the Belfast Art College supporting Decadence Within on 20 August 1989. They followed this up with another four track demo tape (Meat Abstract). Their sound was becoming highly influenced by artists of the indie rock movement such as The Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and The Membranes as well as new beat disco acts such as Belgian outfit Erotic Dissidents.
Therapy? released its first single, called Meat Abstract in July 1990. The single was limited to 1,000 copies and released on the band's own Multifuckinational Records. During the summer of that year, the band made its first tour through the United Kingdom with The Beyond, catching the attention of influential DJ John Peel along the way. The band's early years followed the familiar pattern of hard graft on the local alternative music scene, with Cairns often putting in a full day at the Michelin tyre factory (where he worked as a quality controller), then speeding across Northern Ireland in order to make it to gigs. The band also took whatever support slot they could, opening for the likes of Loop, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Inspiral Carpets, Tad, Fugazi and Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Therapy? quickly came to the attention of local music fans with their distinctively uncompromising style. Their use of guitar feedback as a "fourth instrument" and unconventional song structures, combined with a darkly original approach to lyrics and imaginative use of samples pulled from cult movies and obscure documentaries, led them to be spotted in 1990 by London-based independent label Wiiija Records. The move was helped by Lesley Rankine of Silverfish, who passed the band's first single on to Gary Walker of Wiiija.
The band's first album, July 1991's Babyteeth, and its January 1992 follow-up, Pleasure Death, were successful enough to earn the band a major label deal with A&M Records. Both albums were underground successes, hitting number 1 in the UK Indie Charts. The attention led to support slots with both Babes in Toyland and Hole on their respective UK tours. A compilation of the two albums titled Caucasian Psychosis was prepared for the North American market, and the band embarked on their first U.S. tour in October 1992.
Their debut A&M record, Nurse, made its way into UK's Top 40 Album Chart in November 1992, while lead single "Teethgrinder" became the band's first Top 40 single in both the UK and Ireland. The grunge revolution was in full swing, with US outfit Nirvana leading the way. Predictably, the media began to draw comparisons between the two bands. The heavy guitars and inventive drumming that was swiftly becoming Therapy?'s trademark led them more towards the grunge camp than away from it.
The success (1993–1995)
If there was one true "breakthrough" year in the band's history, it would almost certainly be 1993. The release of the Shortsharpshock EP catapulted Therapy? into the Top 40, peaking at nine, featuring the lead track Screamager. The single led to the first of several appearances on the venerable UK music show Top of the Pops. Two more UK Top 40 EPs Face the Strange and Opal Mantra followed, as the band toured heavily on the European festival circuit, made two separate jaunts to the United States in support of Kings X initially, and then both Helmet and The Jesus Lizard, and played their debut shows in Japan. Compilations of the three EP's were released in the U.S. and Japan (Hats Off to the Insane), and in Europe (Born in a Crash).
1994 saw the release of the commercially successful Troublegum album in February which earned the band appearances at a string of rock and indie festivals, including Reading (third consecutive appearance), Donington and Phoenix in the UK alone, as well as a clutch of top 40 singles. It achieved a string of nominations in end-of-year polls, including a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and success at the Kerrang! Awards.
With impatience mounting for a new album, Infernal Love was released in June 1995. This time, the press reaction was lukewarm. The band had attempted to create a "cinematic" record with Belfast DJ David Holmes employed to link each track with "insanity", but in the eyes of many, had produced a disjointed piece over-subscribed with ballads. Despite a second consecutive Donington appearance at Metallica's request, and singles Stories and Loose charting in the UK earlier in the year, it was clear that Therapy? had changed direction. Although the string laden single Diane (originally by Hüsker Dü) was a Top 10 hit in 15 European countries later in the year, much of the early momentum had gone.
Ewing quits / Four piece (1996–1998)
Fyfe Ewing left the band in January 1996. The band quickly recruited Graham Hopkins to replace Ewing as well as the permanent addition of guest cellist Martin McCarrick, and steadily toured throughout the US and Canada in 1996.
After the tour wound up in October 1996, Therapy? finally took a long break. They reconvened after a few months and spent most of 1997 writing, rehearsing and recording the follow-up to Infernal Love.
While the Church of Noise single in March 1998 failed commercially, it marked the return of the band following three years out of the spotlight. The Semi-Detached album transcended the trajectory of Troublegum and Infernal Love with their dark, broody atmosphere. However, promotion for the album was scant at best, due to problems at the A&M label, which culminated in the loss of their record deal with the company. Without label support, Cairns and McKeegan needed to finance the band's European tour in late 1998 themselves.
The turn of the millennium (1999–2003)
The band's sentiment towards newer alternative metal bands was expressed in the song Ten Year Plan from the band's uncompromising 1999 Ark21 album Suicide Pact – You First, which was packed full of vitriol, discontent and barely-repressed musical aggression. This album revealed a fuller-sound, yet was noticeably lacking in songs suitable of mainstream-radio airplay.
The following year saw the release of the So Much for the Ten Year Plan: A Retrospective 1990–2000 album which (in title at least) was a self-deprecating poke at the bands' difficulties with corporate rock in recent years. It also allowed the band to fulfill some outstanding obligations to Universal Music.
Therapy? recorded follow-up record Shameless in early 2001 in Seattle. The album, produced by the legendary Jack Endino, was released by Ark21 in September. Graham Hopkins, who was unhappy with his musical limitation within the band, quit in December 2001. Following Hopkins' departure, the band yet again found themselves without a drummer and a record deal.
The band toured Europe in 2002 with ex-3 Colours Red drummer Keith Baxter. Hopkins was permanently replaced in Therapy? by ex-The Beyond/Cable/Gorilla drummer Neil Cooper, while the band signed a new record deal with Spitfire Records.
This line-up lasted one album, the commercially inclined High Anxiety. The bands' first home video release, a DVD titled Scopophobia was released shortly afterwards, consisting of a full concert recorded live at Belfast's Mandella Hall in June 2003, promo videos and other extras. The band completed a UK tour at the end of 2003 as a three piece, due to McCarrick leaving the tour midway through owing to a perforated eardrum.
Back to a three piece (2004–2009)
McCarrick left the band permanently in March 2004, and the band were now slimmed down to a permanent three piece again for the first time since 1995. Never Apologise Never Explain was released in September 2004 to an audience re-acquainted with the three-piece Therapy? and was reminiscent of the claustrophobic sound of their earlier material.
The following album One Cure Fits All was released in April 2006. The album, produced by Pedro Ferreira, was a return to the melodic tendencies of High Anxiety and again divided opinion among the band's fans.
On 19 September 2006, Therapy? performed an exclusive studio show of songs chosen by fans who had voted for their three favourite tracks from a lengthy list on the band's website. These votes were counted and the twelve tracks with the most votes were then performed and recorded (both as audio and video). In early 2007, these tracks became available to buy from the band's official website. The Webgig is no longer available to purchase. In addition to this release, the band received some attention from their old record company Universal Records (who own the rights to the band's material recorded on A&M Records) who released both a DVD of old promo clips (Gold) and a double-CD compilation of BBC sessions (Music Through A Cheap Transistor) in 2007. On the touring front, Therapy? focused on markets they had not usually played, including a slot at the NXNE festival in Canada, festival dates in Europe (one of which was as a late replacement for Helmet at the Nova Rock Festival) and a tour through countries such as Romania, Croatia and Serbia, even playing two gigs on Reunion Island, off the East African coast. The band ended 2007 by supporting New Model Army at their Christmas gig in Cologne.
Therapy? were a last minute replacement for Biffy Clyro on the Jägermeister Rock Liga tour of Germany which lasted five dates in February 2008. These dates were the only gigs played in 2008 as the band focused their energies exclusively on recording the new record. Therapy? began recording the new album in late July at Blast Studios in Newcastle and finished recording by late August. It was produced by Andy Gill. Video of rehearsals surfaced on Therapy?'s website offering previews of the new work, showcasing a more rythmetic jazz-influenced direction (Rehearsal), alongside a rough track typical of newer Therapy? output (Clowns Galore). The album, titled Crooked Timber, was released on 23 March 2009 via Blast Records/Global Music. The band performed the new album in its entirety on selected live dates in May, played various European festivals throughout the summer (including a debut appearance at Oxegen in Ireland and a second outing at England's Download) and toured Europe extensively from October to December.
20th anniversary (2010–2013)
To mark the 20th anniversary of their debut commercial recording release, Therapy? performed for three consecutive nights at London's Monto Water Rats in March which were recorded for the bands' first official live album titled We're Here to the End, released in November. A deluxe gold edition of 2009's Crooked Timber album was released on 19 July. Therapy? also appeared at European festivals in the summer, including at Knebworth Sonisphere on 31 July when the band performed the Troublegum album in its entirety. Later in 2010, the band performed several "Troublegum & more" sets throughout Europe as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations.
In December 2010, the band began recording their thirteenth studio album, titled A Brief Crack of Light, in Newcastle's Blast Studio. The album recording was completed in February 2011 and mixing began in March. In late May 2011, the group announced a change of plan for the new album; another recording session was planned for June in order to record new songs that had emerged. Those songs were mixed in July 2011 and included, along with songs from the first session, for the new album. The album was released in February 2012. A preceding single and video titled Living in the Shadow of the Terrible Thing was released in January 2012.
In May 2013, Cairns embarked on his first ever solo acoustic tour of the UK, as well as some dates in Europe. To especially mark the tour, he released a CD of acoustic material for sale exclusively at the shows, comprising 12 Therapy? songs, 6 original tracks freshly written for the tour and a cover version, all recorded in late April in Newcastle's Blast Studios
The Gemil Box was released on 18 November 2013; a career-spanning box set of rare and unreleased material. Contents included remastered versions of Nurse, Troublegum, Infernal Love and Semi-Detached, three CDs of rare and unreleased tracks, a DVD of the band's 2010 Sonisphere performance of the Troublegum album, official bootlegs of London ULU '91 and London Mean Fiddler '92, a 12" vinyl of their early demo releases and a cassette of a live recording from Dublin 1990.
Deluxe Edition releases of both Troublegum and Infernal Love were released by Universal Music on 31 March 2014. The band promoted these releases with a series of retro video and audio uploads to their official YouTube channel, proceeding a short UK tour in early April. A compilation of singles from 1992 to 1998 followed on 14 April 2014 via Spectrum Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music, titled Stories: The Singles Collection.
Disquiet and acoustic shows (2014–2017)
On 18 February 2014, the band began pre-production on studio album number 14 with producer Tom Dalgety in their now usual surroundings of Blast Studios in Newcastle. The session finished on 28 February with 18 tracks laid down in demo form. Having chosen 11 songs, the band began recording the album proper on 17 April 2014 and it was completed on 30 April 2014. The album, titled Disquiet, was released on the bands' new record label on 23 March 2015. Pre-orders of the album were announced on 23 February 2015 and included an instant download of two album tracks and an exclusive pre-order track called We Kill People. A digital only single called Still Hurts, featuring two more non-album tracks, was released on 9 March 2015.
The band began the first leg of their Disquiet Tour in the UK in March, before taking in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, and returning to the UK throughout April. Their performance in Utrecht was filmed by 'Quantum VR Media' for a future 360 VR release. In early May, Therapy? recorded a session for XFM, their 4th overall following previous sessions in 2001, 2004 and 2012. Deathstimate was released as a download only single on 30 October 2015. The single Tides was released on 15 April 2016, although it was available in early March to purchase on limited edition CD at the bands' UK tour performing the Infernal Love album in its entirety. Summer festivals on the European circuit followed, including a date at the Wacken Open Air in Germany. Therapy? performed a fully acoustic "Wood & Wire" tour through Belgium, Holland, Austria, Germany and the UK from 14 November until 1 December 2016. A newly recorded 11-track acoustic album titled Wood & Wire was available for purchase on CD at these shows. A six date Irish Wood & Wire tour took place in April 2017.
On 21 July 2017, the band announced a double live acoustic album, Communion: Live at the Union Chapel, for release on 21 August 2017. The album was recorded in London on 1 December 2016 during the "Wood & Wire" European tour.
Cleave (2018–2019)
On 15 January 2018 the band began recording their 15th studio album at Blast Recording in Newcastle with Chris Sheldon producing. Recording was completed on 6 February 2018. In March, the band completed a 22-date UK and Ireland tour supporting The Stranglers.
On 10 May 2018, the band announced via their social media that they signed a worldwide record deal with Marshall Records:
"Absolutely delighted to announce we have signed to @marshallrecs for a worldwide deal! The first single, "Callow", from our 15th album "CLEAVE" will be released Fri May 25th 2018"
A second single, "Wreck It Like Beckett", was released as a digital download on 7 September 2018, preceding the release of "Cleave" on 21 September 2018, following an extensive Pledge Music pre-order campaign which featured signed CDs, coloured vinyl, black vinyl and test presses.
"Kakistocracy" was released as a digital only single along with a music video on 24 January 2019.
30th anniversary (2020–2022)
On 16 January 2020, the band announced that they would be releasing a greatest hits compilation, titled Greatest Hits (The Abbey Road Session). The album featured newly re-recorded versions of 12 Top 40 UK singles spanning the albums Nurse, Troublegum, Infernal Love, and Semi-Detached, and was recorded at the venerable Abbey Road Studios in November 2019.
The band was due to embark on a European tour in support of the album beginning in March; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they postponed the tour until October 2020. In June 2020, they rescheduled the tour again for spring 2021. Once more, in March 2021, the tour was rescheduled to begin in January 2022. The over 18 months between the last show of 2019 and the first show of 2021 (a festival date in July which was one of only three gigs in 2021) was the longest the group has ever gone between shows in their existence. Therapy? spent the majority of 2022 touring the UK and Europe to celebrate their 30-year anniversary, since re-dubbed the "So Much for the 32 Year Plan" tour. The band rounded up the 30th anniversary celebrations by doing a special "Love Your Early Stuff" UK tour in November - December 2022, playing cities they rarely visited and a setlist including rarities and less often played songs.
On 2 November 2021, the band announced that their major label debut Nurse would be reissued by Caroline Records on 26 November 2021. The remastered 2CD version contained b-sides and previously unreleased demo tracks. There was also a vinyl release.
Hard Cold Fire (2023–present)
The band's 16th studio album, Hard Cold Fire, was released on 5 May 2023. The album was recorded in November 2021 at Marshall Studios with producer Chris Sheldon. Due to touring commitments in 2022 related to the delayed 30th anniversary tour, the album had been shelved for 18 months. The album was released across three formats, including CD, cassette and six colour vinyl variants.
In February 2023, supergroup JAAW (featuring Cairns on vocals) announced their debut album called Supercluster to be released on 26 May 2023 on Svart Records
Question mark suffix
Much has been made over the years of the unusual question mark suffix to the band's name. In early interviews the band said that the name was "really deep" and intended to raise the question "do you need therapy?", but in a 1992 interview guitarist Andy Cairns admitted that it was a chance design when he was working on the band's first record sleeve. Working with Letraset transfers, Cairns misaligned the band's name, and used the "?" icon to fill the space to the right. "And then we thought, well maybe we can bluff our way through when people start reading into it."
Collaborations and other appearances
Therapy? collaborated with the short-lived rap group Fatal (part of the Soul Assassin camp, not to be confused with the hip hop artist Fatal) on the track "Come and Die" from the soundtrack to the 1993 film Judgment Night. Cairns has contributed vocals and guitar to various recordings with different bands throughout the years – "Jonestown Mind" (1994) and "Waiting For Earthquakes" (2001) by The Almighty, "Rehab" (2000) by UK band Manchild, "Radio" (2001) by UK band Dog Toffee (although this version remains unreleased), "Gleason" (2002) by Northern Irish band Throat, "Get Your Groove On" (2003) by The Wildhearts, "F8" (2005) by This Is Menace, "The Second Triumvirate of Lavonia" (2009) by Italian band Inferno, "Crisis? What Crisis?" and "Ignite" (2014) by UK band Thirty Six Strategies and "Celebrating Sinking" (2015) by Ricky Warwick. Therapy? appear on the 2005 "Welt Turbojugend Tage" DVD, performing three songs live in Hamburg. Therapy?, along with Biohazard and Gunshot, contributed with remixes on Pitchshifter's 1995 album, The Remix War.
Some of their songs were used in movies and video games. "Auto Surgery" and "Teethgrinder" are featured on Electronic Arts' video game Road Rash for the 3DO, Saturn, and PlayStation consoles while "Nowhere" is featured on EA Sports's video game "NCAA Football 2006" for the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 consoles.
"Accelerator" appears in Dominic Sena's 1993 movie Kalifornia while "He's Not That Kind of Girl" and "God Kicks" appear in John Carney's 2001 movie On The Edge, starring Cillian Murphy. "Screamager" and "Nowhere" are heard on the first series of the BBC sitcom Game On. "Speedball" appears in the movie S.F.W.
Influences
Therapy? covered Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", and other songs such The Police's "Invisible Sun", The Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare", The Smiths' "Vicar in a Tutu" and Turbonegro's "Denim Demon". Cairns cited in his other favorite bands, Siouxsie and the Banshees for the album Juju, and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band for the album Trout Mask Replica.
Influences from bands such as Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard, Hüsker Dü, Big Black, Killing Joke and Helmet can also be heard in Therapy?'s music.
The band's songs and artwork often reference the work of Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett.
Band members
Current members
Andy Cairns – guitar, lead vocals (1989–present)
Michael McKeegan – bass, backing vocals (1989–present)
Neil Cooper – drums (2002–present)
Current touring musicians
Stevie Firth – guitar, backing vocals (2010–present)
Former members
Fyfe Ewing – drums, backing and lead vocals (1989–1996)
Graham Hopkins – drums, backing vocals (1996–2001)
Martin McCarrick – guitar, cello, backing vocals (1996–2004; touring 1992, 1994, 1995)
Former touring musicians
Charlie McKeegan – drums (1990, 1999, 2003)
Rosie Wetters – cello (1995)
Keith Baxter – drums (2002, 2003; died 2008)
Adam Sinclair – drums (2012)
Alan Lynn – drums (2012)
Herb Magee – bass, backing vocals (2014)
Jenny Nendick – cello (2016)
Timeline
Discography
Babyteeth (1991)
Pleasure Death (1992)
Nurse (1992)
Troublegum (1994)
Infernal Love (1995)
Semi-Detached (1998)
Suicide Pact – You First (1999)
Shameless (2001)
High Anxiety (2003)
Never Apologise Never Explain (2004)
One Cure Fits All (2006)
Crooked Timber (2009)
A Brief Crack of Light (2012)
Disquiet (2015)
Cleave (2018)
Hard Cold Fire (2023)
References
External links
Official website
Stressed Sumo Records
Interview with Michael McKeegan and Neil Cooper from Hard Rock Hell Festival 2011
Category:British musical trios
Category:British alternative metal musical groups
Category:British alternative rock groups
Category:Noise rock groups from Northern Ireland
Category:Punk rock groups from Northern Ireland
Category:Heavy metal musical groups from Northern Ireland
Category:A&M Records artists | [] | [
"In 1989, Andy Cairns met Fyfe Ewing at a charity gig and after a rehearsal session, they decided to perform live music. They recruited Michael McKeegan for their band and played their debut gig at the Belfast Art College in support to Decadence Within on 20 August 1989. They also recorded a four track demo tape called \"Meat Abstract\". Their music was highly influenced by artists of the indie rock movement and new beat disco acts.",
"The context does not provide specific information on how long it took the band Therapy? to tour.",
"Yes, in July 1991, the band Therapy? released their first album titled \"Babyteeth.\"",
"Yes, in addition to their first album \"Babyteeth\" in July 1991, they also released the album \"Pleasure Death\" in January 1992. Both of these albums were successful enough to earn the band a major label deal with A&M Records. Later, they released their debut A&M record \"Nurse\" in November 1992.",
"Yes, Therapy? went on their first ever tour in the United Kingdom during the summer of 1990 with The Beyond and their first U.S. tour in October 1992.",
"The band's tours are not specifically described as successful in the provided context. However, it is mentioned that during their first UK tour in 1990, they caught the attention of influential DJ John Peel. Also, after the release of their albums \"Babyteeth\" in July 1991 and \"Pleasure Death\" in January 1992, they earned a major label deal with A&M Records, which indicates some level of success.",
"The context does not provide specific details on what DJ John Peel did, but it does mention that Therapy? caught his attention while on their first tour in the United Kingdom during the summer of 1990."
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C_1d5ce516fe6c4be19df76a7cbfc97b5e_0 | Therapy? | Therapy? are an alternative metal band from Northern Ireland. The band was formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns from Ballyclare and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing from Larne, Northern Ireland. The band initially recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar. To complete the lineup, the band recruited Larne bassist Michael McKeegan. | The success (1993-1995) | If there was one true "breakthrough" year in the band's history, it would almost certainly be 1993. The release of the Shortsharpshock EP catapulted Therapy? into the Top 40, peaking at nine, featuring the lead track Screamager. The single led to the first of several appearances on the venerable UK music show Top of the Pops. Two more UK Top 40 EPs Face the Strange and Opal Mantra followed, as the band toured heavily on the European festival circuit, made two separate jaunts to the United States in support of Kings X initially, and then both Helmet and The Jesus Lizard, and played their debut shows in Japan. Compilations of the three EP's were released in the U.S. and Japan (Hats Off to the Insane), and in Europe (Born in a Crash). 1994 saw the release of the commercially successful Troublegum album in February which earned the band appearances at a string of rock and indie festivals, including Reading (third consecutive appearance), Donington and Phoenix in the UK alone, as well as a clutch of Top 40 singles. It achieved a string of nominations in end-of-year polls, including a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and success at the Kerrang! Awards. With impatience mounting for a new album, Infernal Love was released in June 1995. This time, the press reaction was lukewarm. The band had attempted to create a "cinematic" record with Belfast DJ David Holmes employed to link each track with "insanity", but in the eyes of many, had produced a disjointed piece over-subscribed with ballads. Despite a second consecutive Donington appearance at Metallica's request, and singles Stories and Loose charting in the UK earlier in the year, it was clear that Therapy? had changed direction. Although the string laden single Diane was a Top 10 hit in 15 European countries later in the year, much of the early momentum had gone. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Therapy? are a Northern Irish rock band from Larne, formed in 1989 by guitarist-vocalist Andy Cairns and drummer-vocalist Fyfe Ewing. Therapy? recorded their first demo with Cairns filling in on bass guitar. To complete the lineup, the band recruited Larne bassist Michael McKeegan. The band signed with major label A&M Records in 1992, for which they released four albums, most notably Troublegum in 1994 and Infernal Love in 1995. Ewing's departure in early 1996 preceded the arrivals of his replacement Graham Hopkins and Martin McCarrick on cello and guitar. Neil Cooper replaced Hopkins on drums in 2002. Following the departure of McCarrick in 2004, the band have remained a stable three-piece since.
Therapy? are currently signed to UK independent label Marshall Records. The band has released 15 full-length studio albums and has sold over two million albums worldwide.
History
Early years (1989–1992)
While attending a charity gig at the Jordanstown Polytechnic in 1988, Andy Cairns noticed Fyfe Ewing playing drums in a punk covers band. The two spoke afterwards and agreed to meet for rehearsal in Fyfe's house in Larne with Andy playing a small practice amp and Fyfe playing his kit with brushes. In April 1989 they recorded a four track demo tape (Thirty Seconds of Silence) with Andy playing a bass guitar borrowed from Fyfe's classmate Michael McKeegan. Deciding to play live, they recruited McKeegan and played their debut gig at the Belfast Art College supporting Decadence Within on 20 August 1989. They followed this up with another four track demo tape (Meat Abstract). Their sound was becoming highly influenced by artists of the indie rock movement such as The Jesus Lizard, Big Black, and The Membranes as well as new beat disco acts such as Belgian outfit Erotic Dissidents.
Therapy? released its first single, called Meat Abstract in July 1990. The single was limited to 1,000 copies and released on the band's own Multifuckinational Records. During the summer of that year, the band made its first tour through the United Kingdom with The Beyond, catching the attention of influential DJ John Peel along the way. The band's early years followed the familiar pattern of hard graft on the local alternative music scene, with Cairns often putting in a full day at the Michelin tyre factory (where he worked as a quality controller), then speeding across Northern Ireland in order to make it to gigs. The band also took whatever support slot they could, opening for the likes of Loop, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Inspiral Carpets, Tad, Fugazi and Ned's Atomic Dustbin. Therapy? quickly came to the attention of local music fans with their distinctively uncompromising style. Their use of guitar feedback as a "fourth instrument" and unconventional song structures, combined with a darkly original approach to lyrics and imaginative use of samples pulled from cult movies and obscure documentaries, led them to be spotted in 1990 by London-based independent label Wiiija Records. The move was helped by Lesley Rankine of Silverfish, who passed the band's first single on to Gary Walker of Wiiija.
The band's first album, July 1991's Babyteeth, and its January 1992 follow-up, Pleasure Death, were successful enough to earn the band a major label deal with A&M Records. Both albums were underground successes, hitting number 1 in the UK Indie Charts. The attention led to support slots with both Babes in Toyland and Hole on their respective UK tours. A compilation of the two albums titled Caucasian Psychosis was prepared for the North American market, and the band embarked on their first U.S. tour in October 1992.
Their debut A&M record, Nurse, made its way into UK's Top 40 Album Chart in November 1992, while lead single "Teethgrinder" became the band's first Top 40 single in both the UK and Ireland. The grunge revolution was in full swing, with US outfit Nirvana leading the way. Predictably, the media began to draw comparisons between the two bands. The heavy guitars and inventive drumming that was swiftly becoming Therapy?'s trademark led them more towards the grunge camp than away from it.
The success (1993–1995)
If there was one true "breakthrough" year in the band's history, it would almost certainly be 1993. The release of the Shortsharpshock EP catapulted Therapy? into the Top 40, peaking at nine, featuring the lead track Screamager. The single led to the first of several appearances on the venerable UK music show Top of the Pops. Two more UK Top 40 EPs Face the Strange and Opal Mantra followed, as the band toured heavily on the European festival circuit, made two separate jaunts to the United States in support of Kings X initially, and then both Helmet and The Jesus Lizard, and played their debut shows in Japan. Compilations of the three EP's were released in the U.S. and Japan (Hats Off to the Insane), and in Europe (Born in a Crash).
1994 saw the release of the commercially successful Troublegum album in February which earned the band appearances at a string of rock and indie festivals, including Reading (third consecutive appearance), Donington and Phoenix in the UK alone, as well as a clutch of top 40 singles. It achieved a string of nominations in end-of-year polls, including a Mercury Music Prize nomination, and success at the Kerrang! Awards.
With impatience mounting for a new album, Infernal Love was released in June 1995. This time, the press reaction was lukewarm. The band had attempted to create a "cinematic" record with Belfast DJ David Holmes employed to link each track with "insanity", but in the eyes of many, had produced a disjointed piece over-subscribed with ballads. Despite a second consecutive Donington appearance at Metallica's request, and singles Stories and Loose charting in the UK earlier in the year, it was clear that Therapy? had changed direction. Although the string laden single Diane (originally by Hüsker Dü) was a Top 10 hit in 15 European countries later in the year, much of the early momentum had gone.
Ewing quits / Four piece (1996–1998)
Fyfe Ewing left the band in January 1996. The band quickly recruited Graham Hopkins to replace Ewing as well as the permanent addition of guest cellist Martin McCarrick, and steadily toured throughout the US and Canada in 1996.
After the tour wound up in October 1996, Therapy? finally took a long break. They reconvened after a few months and spent most of 1997 writing, rehearsing and recording the follow-up to Infernal Love.
While the Church of Noise single in March 1998 failed commercially, it marked the return of the band following three years out of the spotlight. The Semi-Detached album transcended the trajectory of Troublegum and Infernal Love with their dark, broody atmosphere. However, promotion for the album was scant at best, due to problems at the A&M label, which culminated in the loss of their record deal with the company. Without label support, Cairns and McKeegan needed to finance the band's European tour in late 1998 themselves.
The turn of the millennium (1999–2003)
The band's sentiment towards newer alternative metal bands was expressed in the song Ten Year Plan from the band's uncompromising 1999 Ark21 album Suicide Pact – You First, which was packed full of vitriol, discontent and barely-repressed musical aggression. This album revealed a fuller-sound, yet was noticeably lacking in songs suitable of mainstream-radio airplay.
The following year saw the release of the So Much for the Ten Year Plan: A Retrospective 1990–2000 album which (in title at least) was a self-deprecating poke at the bands' difficulties with corporate rock in recent years. It also allowed the band to fulfill some outstanding obligations to Universal Music.
Therapy? recorded follow-up record Shameless in early 2001 in Seattle. The album, produced by the legendary Jack Endino, was released by Ark21 in September. Graham Hopkins, who was unhappy with his musical limitation within the band, quit in December 2001. Following Hopkins' departure, the band yet again found themselves without a drummer and a record deal.
The band toured Europe in 2002 with ex-3 Colours Red drummer Keith Baxter. Hopkins was permanently replaced in Therapy? by ex-The Beyond/Cable/Gorilla drummer Neil Cooper, while the band signed a new record deal with Spitfire Records.
This line-up lasted one album, the commercially inclined High Anxiety. The bands' first home video release, a DVD titled Scopophobia was released shortly afterwards, consisting of a full concert recorded live at Belfast's Mandella Hall in June 2003, promo videos and other extras. The band completed a UK tour at the end of 2003 as a three piece, due to McCarrick leaving the tour midway through owing to a perforated eardrum.
Back to a three piece (2004–2009)
McCarrick left the band permanently in March 2004, and the band were now slimmed down to a permanent three piece again for the first time since 1995. Never Apologise Never Explain was released in September 2004 to an audience re-acquainted with the three-piece Therapy? and was reminiscent of the claustrophobic sound of their earlier material.
The following album One Cure Fits All was released in April 2006. The album, produced by Pedro Ferreira, was a return to the melodic tendencies of High Anxiety and again divided opinion among the band's fans.
On 19 September 2006, Therapy? performed an exclusive studio show of songs chosen by fans who had voted for their three favourite tracks from a lengthy list on the band's website. These votes were counted and the twelve tracks with the most votes were then performed and recorded (both as audio and video). In early 2007, these tracks became available to buy from the band's official website. The Webgig is no longer available to purchase. In addition to this release, the band received some attention from their old record company Universal Records (who own the rights to the band's material recorded on A&M Records) who released both a DVD of old promo clips (Gold) and a double-CD compilation of BBC sessions (Music Through A Cheap Transistor) in 2007. On the touring front, Therapy? focused on markets they had not usually played, including a slot at the NXNE festival in Canada, festival dates in Europe (one of which was as a late replacement for Helmet at the Nova Rock Festival) and a tour through countries such as Romania, Croatia and Serbia, even playing two gigs on Reunion Island, off the East African coast. The band ended 2007 by supporting New Model Army at their Christmas gig in Cologne.
Therapy? were a last minute replacement for Biffy Clyro on the Jägermeister Rock Liga tour of Germany which lasted five dates in February 2008. These dates were the only gigs played in 2008 as the band focused their energies exclusively on recording the new record. Therapy? began recording the new album in late July at Blast Studios in Newcastle and finished recording by late August. It was produced by Andy Gill. Video of rehearsals surfaced on Therapy?'s website offering previews of the new work, showcasing a more rythmetic jazz-influenced direction (Rehearsal), alongside a rough track typical of newer Therapy? output (Clowns Galore). The album, titled Crooked Timber, was released on 23 March 2009 via Blast Records/Global Music. The band performed the new album in its entirety on selected live dates in May, played various European festivals throughout the summer (including a debut appearance at Oxegen in Ireland and a second outing at England's Download) and toured Europe extensively from October to December.
20th anniversary (2010–2013)
To mark the 20th anniversary of their debut commercial recording release, Therapy? performed for three consecutive nights at London's Monto Water Rats in March which were recorded for the bands' first official live album titled We're Here to the End, released in November. A deluxe gold edition of 2009's Crooked Timber album was released on 19 July. Therapy? also appeared at European festivals in the summer, including at Knebworth Sonisphere on 31 July when the band performed the Troublegum album in its entirety. Later in 2010, the band performed several "Troublegum & more" sets throughout Europe as part of their 20th anniversary celebrations.
In December 2010, the band began recording their thirteenth studio album, titled A Brief Crack of Light, in Newcastle's Blast Studio. The album recording was completed in February 2011 and mixing began in March. In late May 2011, the group announced a change of plan for the new album; another recording session was planned for June in order to record new songs that had emerged. Those songs were mixed in July 2011 and included, along with songs from the first session, for the new album. The album was released in February 2012. A preceding single and video titled Living in the Shadow of the Terrible Thing was released in January 2012.
In May 2013, Cairns embarked on his first ever solo acoustic tour of the UK, as well as some dates in Europe. To especially mark the tour, he released a CD of acoustic material for sale exclusively at the shows, comprising 12 Therapy? songs, 6 original tracks freshly written for the tour and a cover version, all recorded in late April in Newcastle's Blast Studios
The Gemil Box was released on 18 November 2013; a career-spanning box set of rare and unreleased material. Contents included remastered versions of Nurse, Troublegum, Infernal Love and Semi-Detached, three CDs of rare and unreleased tracks, a DVD of the band's 2010 Sonisphere performance of the Troublegum album, official bootlegs of London ULU '91 and London Mean Fiddler '92, a 12" vinyl of their early demo releases and a cassette of a live recording from Dublin 1990.
Deluxe Edition releases of both Troublegum and Infernal Love were released by Universal Music on 31 March 2014. The band promoted these releases with a series of retro video and audio uploads to their official YouTube channel, proceeding a short UK tour in early April. A compilation of singles from 1992 to 1998 followed on 14 April 2014 via Spectrum Records, a subsidiary of Universal Music, titled Stories: The Singles Collection.
Disquiet and acoustic shows (2014–2017)
On 18 February 2014, the band began pre-production on studio album number 14 with producer Tom Dalgety in their now usual surroundings of Blast Studios in Newcastle. The session finished on 28 February with 18 tracks laid down in demo form. Having chosen 11 songs, the band began recording the album proper on 17 April 2014 and it was completed on 30 April 2014. The album, titled Disquiet, was released on the bands' new record label on 23 March 2015. Pre-orders of the album were announced on 23 February 2015 and included an instant download of two album tracks and an exclusive pre-order track called We Kill People. A digital only single called Still Hurts, featuring two more non-album tracks, was released on 9 March 2015.
The band began the first leg of their Disquiet Tour in the UK in March, before taking in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, and returning to the UK throughout April. Their performance in Utrecht was filmed by 'Quantum VR Media' for a future 360 VR release. In early May, Therapy? recorded a session for XFM, their 4th overall following previous sessions in 2001, 2004 and 2012. Deathstimate was released as a download only single on 30 October 2015. The single Tides was released on 15 April 2016, although it was available in early March to purchase on limited edition CD at the bands' UK tour performing the Infernal Love album in its entirety. Summer festivals on the European circuit followed, including a date at the Wacken Open Air in Germany. Therapy? performed a fully acoustic "Wood & Wire" tour through Belgium, Holland, Austria, Germany and the UK from 14 November until 1 December 2016. A newly recorded 11-track acoustic album titled Wood & Wire was available for purchase on CD at these shows. A six date Irish Wood & Wire tour took place in April 2017.
On 21 July 2017, the band announced a double live acoustic album, Communion: Live at the Union Chapel, for release on 21 August 2017. The album was recorded in London on 1 December 2016 during the "Wood & Wire" European tour.
Cleave (2018–2019)
On 15 January 2018 the band began recording their 15th studio album at Blast Recording in Newcastle with Chris Sheldon producing. Recording was completed on 6 February 2018. In March, the band completed a 22-date UK and Ireland tour supporting The Stranglers.
On 10 May 2018, the band announced via their social media that they signed a worldwide record deal with Marshall Records:
"Absolutely delighted to announce we have signed to @marshallrecs for a worldwide deal! The first single, "Callow", from our 15th album "CLEAVE" will be released Fri May 25th 2018"
A second single, "Wreck It Like Beckett", was released as a digital download on 7 September 2018, preceding the release of "Cleave" on 21 September 2018, following an extensive Pledge Music pre-order campaign which featured signed CDs, coloured vinyl, black vinyl and test presses.
"Kakistocracy" was released as a digital only single along with a music video on 24 January 2019.
30th anniversary (2020–2022)
On 16 January 2020, the band announced that they would be releasing a greatest hits compilation, titled Greatest Hits (The Abbey Road Session). The album featured newly re-recorded versions of 12 Top 40 UK singles spanning the albums Nurse, Troublegum, Infernal Love, and Semi-Detached, and was recorded at the venerable Abbey Road Studios in November 2019.
The band was due to embark on a European tour in support of the album beginning in March; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they postponed the tour until October 2020. In June 2020, they rescheduled the tour again for spring 2021. Once more, in March 2021, the tour was rescheduled to begin in January 2022. The over 18 months between the last show of 2019 and the first show of 2021 (a festival date in July which was one of only three gigs in 2021) was the longest the group has ever gone between shows in their existence. Therapy? spent the majority of 2022 touring the UK and Europe to celebrate their 30-year anniversary, since re-dubbed the "So Much for the 32 Year Plan" tour. The band rounded up the 30th anniversary celebrations by doing a special "Love Your Early Stuff" UK tour in November - December 2022, playing cities they rarely visited and a setlist including rarities and less often played songs.
On 2 November 2021, the band announced that their major label debut Nurse would be reissued by Caroline Records on 26 November 2021. The remastered 2CD version contained b-sides and previously unreleased demo tracks. There was also a vinyl release.
Hard Cold Fire (2023–present)
The band's 16th studio album, Hard Cold Fire, was released on 5 May 2023. The album was recorded in November 2021 at Marshall Studios with producer Chris Sheldon. Due to touring commitments in 2022 related to the delayed 30th anniversary tour, the album had been shelved for 18 months. The album was released across three formats, including CD, cassette and six colour vinyl variants.
In February 2023, supergroup JAAW (featuring Cairns on vocals) announced their debut album called Supercluster to be released on 26 May 2023 on Svart Records
Question mark suffix
Much has been made over the years of the unusual question mark suffix to the band's name. In early interviews the band said that the name was "really deep" and intended to raise the question "do you need therapy?", but in a 1992 interview guitarist Andy Cairns admitted that it was a chance design when he was working on the band's first record sleeve. Working with Letraset transfers, Cairns misaligned the band's name, and used the "?" icon to fill the space to the right. "And then we thought, well maybe we can bluff our way through when people start reading into it."
Collaborations and other appearances
Therapy? collaborated with the short-lived rap group Fatal (part of the Soul Assassin camp, not to be confused with the hip hop artist Fatal) on the track "Come and Die" from the soundtrack to the 1993 film Judgment Night. Cairns has contributed vocals and guitar to various recordings with different bands throughout the years – "Jonestown Mind" (1994) and "Waiting For Earthquakes" (2001) by The Almighty, "Rehab" (2000) by UK band Manchild, "Radio" (2001) by UK band Dog Toffee (although this version remains unreleased), "Gleason" (2002) by Northern Irish band Throat, "Get Your Groove On" (2003) by The Wildhearts, "F8" (2005) by This Is Menace, "The Second Triumvirate of Lavonia" (2009) by Italian band Inferno, "Crisis? What Crisis?" and "Ignite" (2014) by UK band Thirty Six Strategies and "Celebrating Sinking" (2015) by Ricky Warwick. Therapy? appear on the 2005 "Welt Turbojugend Tage" DVD, performing three songs live in Hamburg. Therapy?, along with Biohazard and Gunshot, contributed with remixes on Pitchshifter's 1995 album, The Remix War.
Some of their songs were used in movies and video games. "Auto Surgery" and "Teethgrinder" are featured on Electronic Arts' video game Road Rash for the 3DO, Saturn, and PlayStation consoles while "Nowhere" is featured on EA Sports's video game "NCAA Football 2006" for the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 consoles.
"Accelerator" appears in Dominic Sena's 1993 movie Kalifornia while "He's Not That Kind of Girl" and "God Kicks" appear in John Carney's 2001 movie On The Edge, starring Cillian Murphy. "Screamager" and "Nowhere" are heard on the first series of the BBC sitcom Game On. "Speedball" appears in the movie S.F.W.
Influences
Therapy? covered Black Sabbath's "Iron Man", and other songs such The Police's "Invisible Sun", The Misfits' "Where Eagles Dare", The Smiths' "Vicar in a Tutu" and Turbonegro's "Denim Demon". Cairns cited in his other favorite bands, Siouxsie and the Banshees for the album Juju, and Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band for the album Trout Mask Replica.
Influences from bands such as Sonic Youth, The Jesus Lizard, Hüsker Dü, Big Black, Killing Joke and Helmet can also be heard in Therapy?'s music.
The band's songs and artwork often reference the work of Irish novelist and playwright Samuel Beckett.
Band members
Current members
Andy Cairns – guitar, lead vocals (1989–present)
Michael McKeegan – bass, backing vocals (1989–present)
Neil Cooper – drums (2002–present)
Current touring musicians
Stevie Firth – guitar, backing vocals (2010–present)
Former members
Fyfe Ewing – drums, backing and lead vocals (1989–1996)
Graham Hopkins – drums, backing vocals (1996–2001)
Martin McCarrick – guitar, cello, backing vocals (1996–2004; touring 1992, 1994, 1995)
Former touring musicians
Charlie McKeegan – drums (1990, 1999, 2003)
Rosie Wetters – cello (1995)
Keith Baxter – drums (2002, 2003; died 2008)
Adam Sinclair – drums (2012)
Alan Lynn – drums (2012)
Herb Magee – bass, backing vocals (2014)
Jenny Nendick – cello (2016)
Timeline
Discography
Babyteeth (1991)
Pleasure Death (1992)
Nurse (1992)
Troublegum (1994)
Infernal Love (1995)
Semi-Detached (1998)
Suicide Pact – You First (1999)
Shameless (2001)
High Anxiety (2003)
Never Apologise Never Explain (2004)
One Cure Fits All (2006)
Crooked Timber (2009)
A Brief Crack of Light (2012)
Disquiet (2015)
Cleave (2018)
Hard Cold Fire (2023)
References
External links
Official website
Stressed Sumo Records
Interview with Michael McKeegan and Neil Cooper from Hard Rock Hell Festival 2011
Category:British musical trios
Category:British alternative metal musical groups
Category:British alternative rock groups
Category:Noise rock groups from Northern Ireland
Category:Punk rock groups from Northern Ireland
Category:Heavy metal musical groups from Northern Ireland
Category:A&M Records artists | [] | null | null |
C_8c698173e273415a9ad5450fbc5b9341_1 | Ben Carson | Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American neurosurgeon, author and politician serving as the 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2017, under the Trump Administration. Prior to his cabinet position, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016. Born in Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, Carson has authored numerous books on his medical career and political stances. | Early life and education | Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Robert Solomon Carson, Jr. (1914-1992), a World War II U.S. Army veteran, and his wife, Sonya Carson (nee Copeland; 1928-2017). Robert Carson was a Baptist minister, but later a Cadillac automobile plant laborer. Both of his parents came from large families in rural Georgia, and they were living in rural Tennessee when they met and married. Carson's mother was 13 and his father was 28 when they married, and after his father finished his military service, they moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Detroit, where they lived in a large house in the Indian Village neighborhood. Carson's older brother, Curtis, was born in 1949, when his mother was 20. In 1950, Carson's parents purchased a new 733-square foot single-family detached home on Deacon Street in the Boynton neighborhood in southwest Detroit. Carson's Detroit Public Schools education began in 1956 with kindergarten at the Fisher School, and continued through first, second, and the first half of third grade, during which time he was an average student. When Carson was five, his mother learned that his father had a prior family and had not divorced his first wife. In 1959, when Carson was eight, his parents separated and he moved with mother and brother to live for two years with his mother's Seventh-day Adventist older sister and her sister's husband in multi-family dwellings in the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. In Boston, Carson's mother attempted suicide, had several psychiatric hospitalizations for depression, and for the first time began working outside the home as a domestic worker, while Carson and his brother attended a two-classroom school at the Berea Seventh-day Adventist church where two teachers taught eight grades, and the vast majority of time was spent singing songs and playing games. In 1961, when Carson was ten, he moved with his mother and brother back to southwest Detroit, where they lived in a multi-family dwelling in a primarily white neighborhood (Springwells Village) across the railroad tracks from the Delray neighborhood, while renting out their house on Deacon Street which his mother received in a divorce settlement. When they returned to Detroit public schools, Carson and his brother's academic performance initially lagged far behind their new classmates, having essentially lost a year of school by attending a Seventh-day Adventist church school in Boston, but both improved when their mother limited their time watching television and required them to read and write book reports on two library books per week. Carson attended the predominantly white Higgins Elementary School for fifth and sixth grades and the predominantly white Wilson Junior High School for seventh and the first half of eighth grade. In 1965, when Carson was 13, he moved with his mother and brother back to their house on Deacon Street. He attended the predominantly black Hunter Junior High School for the second half of eighth grade. When he was eight, Carson had dreamed of becoming a missionary doctor, but five years later he aspired to the lucrative lifestyles of psychiatrists portrayed on television, and his brother bought him a subscription to Psychology Today for his 13th birthday. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon, academic and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries.
Carson became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in 1984 at age 33, then the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States. In 1987, he gained significant fame after leading a team of surgeons in the first known separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. Although surgically a success, the twins continued to experience neurologic/medical complications. His additional accomplishments include performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb, developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors, and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He wrote over 100 neurosurgical publications. He retired from medicine in 2013; at the time, he was professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Carson gained national fame among political conservatives after delivering a speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast which was perceived as critical of the policies of President Barack Obama. Following widespread speculation of a presidential run, Carson officially announced his campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination for President in May 2015. Carson performed strongly in early polls, leading to his being considered a frontrunner for the nomination during the fall of 2015. He withdrew from the race after Super Tuesday, following a string of disappointing primary results, and endorsed Donald Trump. Following Trump's victory, Trump nominated Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, being confirmed by the United States Senate in a 58–41 vote on March 2, 2017. Carson is one of the most prominent Black conservatives in America.
Carson has received numerous honors for his neurosurgery work, including more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous national merit citations. In 2001, he was named by CNN and Time magazine as one of the nation's 20 foremost physicians and scientists and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 89 "Living Legends" on its 200th anniversary. In 2008, Carson was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Medicine. He was the subject of the 2009 TV film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, wherein he was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. Carson has also written or co-written six bestselling books.
Early life and education
Carson's parents were Robert Solomon Carson Jr. (1914–1992), a World War II U.S. Army veteran, and Sonya Carson (née Copeland, 1928–2017). Robert Carson was a Baptist minister, but he later became a Cadillac automobile plant laborer. Both his parents came from large families in rural Georgia, and they were living in rural Tennessee when they met and married. Carson's mother was 13 and his father was 28 when they married, and after his father finished his military service, they moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Detroit, where they lived in a large house in the Indian Village neighborhood. Carson's older brother, Curtis, was born in 1949, when his mother was 20. In 1950, Carson's parents purchased a new 733-square foot single-family detached home on Deacon Street in the Boynton neighborhood in southwest Detroit. Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951.
Carson's Detroit Public Schools education began in 1956 with kindergarten at the Fisher School and continued through first, second, and the first half of third grade, during which time he was an average student. At the age of five, his mother learned that his father had a prior family and had not divorced his first wife. In 1959, at the age of eight, his parents separated and he moved with his mother and brother to live for two years with his mother's Seventh-day Adventist older sister and her sister's husband in multi-family dwellings in the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. In Boston, Carson's mother attempted suicide, had several psychiatric hospitalizations for depression, and for the first time began working outside the home as a domestic worker, while Carson and his brother attended a two-classroom school at the Berea Seventh-day Adventist church where two teachers taught eight grades, and the vast majority of time was spent singing songs and playing games.
In 1961, at the age of 10, he moved with his mother and brother back to southwest Detroit, where they lived in a multi-family dwelling in a primarily white neighborhood, (Springwells Village), across the railroad tracks from the Delray neighborhood, while renting out their house on Deacon Street, which his mother received in a divorce settlement. When they returned to Detroit public schools, Carson and his brother's academic performance initially lagged far behind their new classmates, having, according to Carson, "essentially lost a year of school" by attending the small Seventh-day Adventist parochial school in Boston, but they both improved when their mother limited their time watching television and required them to read and write book reports on two library books per week. Carson attended the predominantly white Higgins Elementary School for fifth and sixth grades and the predominantly white Wilson Junior High School for seventh and the first half of eighth grade. In 1965, at the age of 13, he moved with his mother and brother back to their house on Deacon Street. He attended the predominantly black Hunter Junior High School for the second half of eighth grade. At the age of eight, Carson dreamt of becoming a missionary doctor, but five years later he aspired to the lucrative lifestyles of psychiatrists portrayed on television, and his brother bought him a subscription to Psychology Today for his 13th birthday.
High school
By grade 9, the family's financial situation had improved, his mother surprising neighbors by paying cash to buy a new Chrysler car, and the only government assistance they still relied on was food stamps. Carson attended the predominantly black Southwestern High School for grades nine through twelve, graduating third in his class academically. In high school, he played the euphonium in band and participated in forensics (public speaking), chess club, and the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program where he reached its highest rank—cadet colonel. Carson served as a laboratory assistant in the high school's biology, chemistry, and physics school laboratories beginning in grades 10, 11, and 12, respectively, and worked as a biology laboratory assistant at Wayne State University the summer between grade 11 and 12.
In his book Gifted Hands, Carson relates that as a youth, he had a violent temper. "As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers", Carson told NBC's Meet the Press in October 2015. He said he once tried to hit his mother on the head with a hammer over a clothing dispute, while in the ninth grade he tried to stab a friend who had changed the radio station. Fortunately, the blade broke in his friend's belt buckle. Carson said the intended victim, whose identity he wants to protect, was a classmate, a friend, or a close relative. After this incident, Carson said he began reading the Book of Proverbs and applying verses on anger. As a result, he states he "never had another problem with temper". In his various books and at campaign events, he repeated these stories and said he once attacked a schoolmate with a combination lock. Nine friends, classmates, and neighbors who grew up with him told CNN in 2015 they did not remember the anger or violence he has described. In response, Carson posted on Facebook a 1997 Parade magazine issue, in which his mother verified the stabbing incident. He then questioned the extent of the effort CNN had exerted in the investigation.
Carson has said that he protected white students in a biology lab after a race riot broke out at his high school in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the riot but could not find anyone who remembered Carson sheltering white students.
College
Carson's SAT college admission test scores ranked him somewhere in the low 90th percentile. He wanted to attend college farther away than his brother who was at the University of Michigan. Carson says he narrowed his college choices to Harvard or Yale but could only afford the $10 application fee to apply for only one of them. He said he decided to apply to Yale after seeing a team from Yale defeat a team from Harvard on the G.E. College Bowl television show. Carson was accepted by Yale and offered a full scholarship covering tuition, room and board. In 1973, Carson graduated with a B.A. degree in psychology from Yale "with a fairly respectable grade point average although far from the top of the class".
Carson does not say in his books whether he received a college student deferment during the Vietnam War. He does say that his older brother, then a student at the University of Michigan, received a low number (26) in the first draft lottery in 1969 and was able to enlist in the Navy for four years instead of being drafted, whereas he received a high number (333) in the second draft lottery in 1970. Carson said he would have readily accepted his responsibility to fight had he been drafted, but he "identified strongly with the anti-war protesters and the revolutionaries" and enthusiastically voted for anti-war Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern in 1972. In his book, America the Beautiful (2012), Carson said: "The Vietnam War was, in retrospect, not a noble conflict. It brought shame to our nation because of both the outcome and the cause."
In the summers following his high school graduation until his second year in medical school, Carson worked at a variety of jobs: as a clerk in the payroll office of Ford Motor Company, supervisor of a six-person crew picking up trash along the highway under a federal jobs program for inner-city students, a clerk in the mailroom of Young & Rubicam Advertising, assembling fender parts and inspecting back window louvers on the assembly line at Chrysler, a crane operator at Sennett Steel, and finally a radiology technician taking X-rays. At Yale, Carson had a part-time job on campus as a student police aide.
In his autobiography, Carson said he had been offered a scholarship to West Point. Politico reported that West Point has no record of his ever seeking admission. The academy does not award scholarships to anyone; cadets receive a free education and room and board in exchange for a commitment to serve in the military for at least five years after graduation. Carson also said the University of Michigan had offered him a scholarship. His staff later said the described scenario was similar to that of West Point, as he never actually applied for entry to the University of Michigan.
In his autobiography, Gifted Hands, Carson recounted that exams for a Yale psychology course he took his junior year, "Perceptions 301", were inexplicably burned, forcing students to retake the exam. Carson said other students walked out in protest when they discovered the retest was significantly harder than the original examination, but that he alone finished the test. On doing so, Carson said he was congratulated by the course instructor, who told him the retest was a hoax intended to find "the most honest student in the class". Carson said the professor awarded him $10 and that a photographer for the Yale Daily News was present to take his picture, which appeared in the student newspaper with a story about the experiment. Doubts were raised about this story in 2015 during Carson's presidential campaign. The Wall Street Journal attempted to verify Carson's account, reporting that Yale undergraduate courses were identified with only two digits in the early 1970s, that Yale had offered no course called "Perceptions 301" at the time, and that Carson's photo had never appeared in the Yale Daily News. Carson, while acknowledging the class number was not correct, said: "You know, when you write a book with a co-writer and you say that there was a class, a lot of [the] time they'll put a number or something just to give it more meat. You know, obviously, decades later, I'm not going to remember the course number."
Medical school
Carson entered the University of Michigan Medical School in 1973, and at first he struggled academically, doing so poorly on his first set of comprehensive exams that his faculty adviser recommended he drop out of medical school or take a reduced academic load and take longer to finish. He continued with a regular academic load, and his grades improved to average in his first year of medical school. By his second year of medical school, Carson began to excel academically by seldom attending lectures and instead studying textbooks and lecture notes from 6a.m. to 11p.m. Carson graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School with an M.D. degree in 1977, and he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Carson was then accepted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurosurgery program, where he served one year as a surgical intern and five years as a neurosurgery resident, completing the final year as chief resident in 1983. He then spent one year (1983–1984) as a Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
Medical career
Upon returning to Johns Hopkins in 1984, Carson was appointed the university's director of pediatric neurosurgery. As a surgeon, he specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia.
While at Johns Hopkins, Carson figured in the revival of the hemispherectomy, a drastic surgical procedure in which part or all of one hemisphere of the brain is removed to control severe pediatric epilepsy. Encouraged by John M. Freeman, he refined the procedure in the 1980s and performed it many times.
In 1987, Carson was the lead neurosurgeon of a 70-member surgical team that separated conjoined twins Patrick and Benjamin Binder, who had been joined at the back of the head (craniopagus twins). The separation surgery held promise in part because the twin boys had separate brains. The Johns Hopkins Children's Center surgical team rehearsed the surgery for weeks, practicing on two dolls secured together by Velcro. Although there were few follow-up stories following the Binder twins' return to Germany seven months after the operation, both twins were reportedly "far from normal" two years after the procedure, with one in a vegetative state. Neither twin was ever able to talk or care for himself, and both eventually became institutionalized wards of the state. Patrick Binder died sometime during the last decade, according to his uncle, who was located by The Washington Post in 2015. The Binder surgery served as a blueprint for similar twin separations, a procedure that was refined in subsequent decades. Carson participated in four subsequent high-risk conjoined-twin separations, including a 1997 operation on craniopagus Zambian twins Joseph and Luka Banda, which resulted in a normal neurological outcome. Two sets of twins died, including Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani. Another separation resulted in the death of one twin and the survival of the other, who is legally blind and struggles to walk.
According to The Washington Post, the Binder surgery "launched the stardom" of Carson, who "walked out of the operating room that day into a spotlight that has never dimmed", beginning with a press conference that was covered worldwide and created name recognition leading to publishing deals and a motivational speaking career. On the condition the film would have its premiere in Baltimore, Carson agreed to a cameo appearance as "head surgeon" in the 2003 Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You, starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who, unhappy after their surgical separation, continue life attached to each other by Velcro.
In March 2013, Carson announced he would retire as a surgeon, saying he would "much rather quit when I'm at the top of my game". His retirement became official on July 1, 2013.
In 2021, Carson joined Galectin Therapeutics to assist with development of the company's galectin-3 inhibitor, belapectin, as a treatment for NASH cirrhosis and in combination with immunotherapy for the treatment of cancers.
Articles, books, business relationships, media posts
Carson has written many articles in peer-reviewed journals and six bestselling books published by Zondervan, an international Christian media and publishing company. The first book was an autobiography published in 1992. Two others are about his personal philosophies of success and what he sees as the stabilizing influence of religion.
According to CNN, Carson had an "extensive relationship" from 2004 to 2014 with Mannatech, a multi-level marketing company that produces dietary supplements made from substances such as aloe vera extract and larch-tree bark. Carson gave four paid speeches at company events. He has denied being paid by Mannatech to do anything else, saying he has been a "prolific speaker" who has addressed many groups. In a 2004 speech, he credited the company's products with the disappearance of his prostate cancer symptoms. The nature of this relationship became an issue in 2015 during Carson's presidential campaign. Carson's relationship with Mannatech continued after the company paid $7 million in 2009 to settle a deceptive-marketing lawsuit in Texas over claims that its products could cure autism and cancer. His most recent paid speech for the company was in 2013, for which he was paid $42,000. His image appeared on the corporation's website in 2014, and in the same year, he praised their "glyconutrient" supplements in a PBS special that was subsequently featured on the site.
Carson delivered the keynote address at a Mannatech distributor convention in 2011, during which he said the company had donated funds to help him obtain a coveted endowed-chair post at Johns Hopkins Medicine: "three years ago I had an endowed chair bestowed upon me and uh, it requires $2.5 million to do an endowed chair, and I'm proud to say that part of that $2.5 million came from Mannatech." In October 2015, Carson's campaign team said that "there was no contribution from Mannatech to Johns Hopkins" and that his statement had been "a legitimate mistake on his part. Confusion. He had been doing some fundraising for the hospital and some other chairs about that time, and he simply got things mixed up."
During the CNBC GOP debate on October 28, 2015, Carson was asked about his relationship with Mannatech. He replied, "That's easy to answer. I didn't have any involvement with Mannatech. Total propaganda. I did a couple speeches for them. I did speeches for other people—they were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say I had any kind of relation with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it is a good product." Politifact rated Carson's denial of any involvement as "false", pointing to his paid speeches for Mannatech and his appearances in promotional videos in which he favorably reviewed its products, despite not being "an official spokesman or sales associate". When the CNBC moderator commented that Carson was on Mannatech's website, Carson replied that he had not given his permission. Earlier, he had said he was unaware of the company's legal history.
On November 3, 2015, Mannatech said on its website that for compliance with federal campaign finance regulations, the company had removed all references to Carson before he announced his bid for the presidency.
In July 2013, Carson was hired by The Washington Times as a weekly opinion columnist. In October 2013, Fox News hired Carson as a contributor to provide analysis and commentary across Fox News Channel's daytime and primetime programming, a relationship that lasted until the end of 2014.
In 2014, some House Republicans (who later formed the House Freedom Caucus) approached Carson about the possibility of his standing for Speaker of the House in the event that the incumbent Speaker, John Boehner, had to step down because of intraparty disunion. Carson declined, citing preparations for his 2016 presidential campaign. Ultimately, Boehner resigned in October 2015, and Paul Ryan was elected as the new Speaker.
In financial disclosure forms, Carson and his wife reported income of between $8.9 million and $27 million from January 2014 to May 3, 2015, when he announced his presidential campaign. Over that period, Carson received over $4 million from 141 paid speeches, between $1.1 million and $6 million in book royalties, between $200,000 and $2 million as a contributor to The Washington Times and Fox News, and between $2 million and $10 million as a member of the boards of Kellogg Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. He resigned from Costco's board in mid-2015, after serving on it for more than 16 years. Carson was chairman of the Baltimore-based biotechnology company Vaccinogen from August 2014 until the announcement of his US presidential bid in May 2015. Carson had previously served on Vaccinogen's Medical Advisory Board.
2016 presidential campaign
Background and increasing political visibility
Carson, who had been registered as a Republican, changed his registration to independent in the 1990s after watching Republicans impeach President Clinton for perjury regarding an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. "I just saw so much hypocrisy in both parties", he said. In February 2013, Carson said he was not a member of any political party.
In his book America the Beautiful (2013), he wrote: "I believe it is a very good idea for physicians, scientists, engineers, and others trained to make decisions based on facts and empirical data to get involved in the political arena."
Carson was the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 7, 2013. The speech garnered Carson considerable attention because the event is normally apolitical in nature, and the speech was critical of the philosophy and policies of President Barack Obama, who was sitting 10 feet away. About the speech, Carson said: "I don't think it was particularly political... You know, I'm a physician." Regarding the policies of President Obama, he said: "There are a number of policies that I don't believe lead to the growth of our nation and don't lead to the elevation of our nation. I don't want to sit here and say all of his policies are bad. What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation."
Carson's sudden popularity among conservatives led to his being invited as a featured speaker at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He tied for seventh place in the Washington Times/CPAC 2013 Straw Poll with 4% of the 3,000 ballots cast. In the 2014 CPAC straw poll, he was in third place with 9% of the vote, behind senators Ted Cruz of Texas (with 11%) and Rand Paul of Kentucky (31%). In the presidential straw poll at the 2013 Values Voter Summit, he and Rick Santorum polled 13%, with winner Ted Cruz polling 42%, and in 2014 he polled 20% to Cruz's winning 25%.
On November 4, 2014, the day of the 2014 midterms, he rejoined the Republican Party, saying it was "truly a pragmatic move" because he was considering running for president in 2016.
In January 2015, The Weekly Standard reported that the Draft Carson Committee had raised $13 million by the end of 2014, shortly after Carson performed well in a CNN/ORC poll of potential candidates in December 2014, coming second in two different versions. He polled 10% to Mitt Romney's 20%, but in the same poll with Romney removed from the list, Carson polled 11% to Jeb Bush's 14%. The Wall Street Journal mentioned that the Draft Carson Committee had chairmen in all of Iowa's 99 counties, and that Carson had recently led two separate Public Policy polls for the state of Pennsylvania.
Announcement of campaign
On May 2, 2015, Carson proclaimed that in two days he was going to make a major announcement on his decision on whether to enter the presidential race. In an interview with Cincinnati station WKRC-TV on May 3, 2015, Carson accidentally confirmed his candidacy for president. The interview was also broadcast live on WPEC. The next day, May 4, 2015, at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in his home town of Detroit, he officially announced his run for the Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The announcement speech was preceded by a choir singing "Lose Yourself" with Carson sitting in the audience. After the song, Carson took the stage and announced his candidacy alongside a speech on his rags to riches life story, at one point stating: "I remember when our favorite drug dealer was killed."
Surge in polls
In October 2015, the Super PAC supporting Carson, The 2016 Committee (formerly the Draft Carson Committee), announced it had received donations in mostly $100 increments from more than 200 small businesses around the country over the course of one week. Fox Business reported that "Carson's outsider status is growing his small business support base." Ben Walters, a fundraiser for The 2016 Committee, expressed optimism about Carson's small business support base: "It's unbelievable the diversity of businesses that we are bringing on. We are seeing everything from doctors' offices and folks in the healthcare profession to motorcycle repair shops and bed and breakfasts."
In October, it was noted that Carson's "improbable" political career had surged in polls and fundraising, while he continued to participate in nationally televised Republican debates.
Decline in polls
The campaign brought considerable attention to Carson's past. CBS News described Carson's narrative of "overcoming impossible odds as a child growing up in an impoverished, single-parent household to reach international prominence as a pediatric neurosurgeon" as "a key part of his presidential campaign". The Wall Street Journal said the narrative came under "the harsh scrutiny of presidential politics, where rivals and media hunt for embellishments and omissions that can hobble a campaign". CNN characterized the core narrative as "acts of violence as an angry young man", followed by a spiritual epiphany that transformed Carson into the "composed figure" he now portrays. Media challenges to a number of Carson's statements included allegations of discrepancies between documented facts and certain assertions in his autobiography Gifted Hands—allegations dismissed by Carson as a media "witch hunt". In November 2015, the Detroit Free Press republished an article from 1988 "to try to bring some clarity to the claims currently being brought into question".
In November 2015, Carson's campaign aired a 60-second TV advertisement in which excerpts from Carson's stump speech were intercut with a rap by an artist named Aspiring Mogul. They spent $150,000 on the ads, which were aired in Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Carson defended the ad, saying "Well, there are people in the campaign who felt that was a good way to do things... I support them in doing that, but I probably would have taken a little different approach." Later, he said the advertisement was done without his knowledge, that "it was done by people who have no concept of the black community and what they were doing", and that he was "horrified" by it.
The New York Times reported in 2015, "Carson has acknowledged being something of a novice on foreign affairs." Regarding the Ukrainian crisis, Carson would send arms to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against pro-Russian rebels. He also believes the Baltic states, current NATO members, should "get involved in NATO".
In a November 2015 Republican debate, Carson declared his intentions to make ISIS "look like losers" as he would "destroy their caliphate". Carson also advocated capturing a "big energy field" outside of Anbar, Iraq, which he said could be accomplished "fairly easily". Regarding the Middle East, he also claimed that "the Chinese are there".
Carson said he is not opposed to a Palestinian state, but he questioned why it needs "to be within the confines of Israeli territory ... Is that necessary, or can you sort of slip that area down into Egypt?"
Withdrawal from campaign
On March 2, following the Super Tuesday 2016 primaries, Carson announced that he did "not see a political path forward" and would not attend the next Republican debate in Detroit. He said, "[T]his grassroots movement on behalf of 'We the People' will continue", indicating that he would give more details later in the week. He suspended his campaign on March4 and announced he would be the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, a group that encourages Christians to exercise their civic duty to vote.
In total, Ben Carson's campaign spent $58 million. However, most of the money went to political consultants and fundraising rather than advertising. Carson questioned whether his campaign was economically sabotaged from within.
Further activities during the 2016 election
On March 11, 2016, a week after Carson ended his presidential campaign, he endorsed Trump, calling him part of "the voice of the people to be heard". Carson's subsequent comments that Americans would have to sustain Trump for only four years if he was not a good president drew criticism, and he admitted that he would have preferred another candidate, though he thought Trump had the best chance of winning the general election.
On the other hand, at the press conference Carson said Trump had a "cerebral" side.
On April 25, Carson expressed opposition to Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill the day after dubbing the replacement "political expediency", though he indicated interest in Tubman having another tribute. In late April, Carson wrote to the Nevada Republican Party, requesting the two delegates he won in Nevada be released and free to support whoever they want.
On May 4, after Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination, he hinted that Carson would be among those who would vet his vice-presidential pick. The same day, in an interview Carson expressed interest in Ted Cruz serving as Attorney General of the United States, a position that Carson said would allow Cruz to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and then as a Supreme Court Justice nominee from the Trump administration. On May 6, Carson said in an interview that Trump would consider a Democrat as his running mate, conflicting with Trump's assertion that he would not. A Carson spokesperson later said Carson expected Trump to select a Republican.
Carson was said by aide Armstrong Williams in a May 10 interview to have withdrawn from the Trump campaign's vetting team, though the campaign confirmed he was still involved. Later that month, Carson revealed a list of potential vice-presidential candidates in an interview with The Washington Post. On May 16, Carson said the media could not keep opinion out of reporting and cited Walter Cronkite as a fair journalist who was, in his words, a "left-wing radical".
During the Republican National Convention, Carson appeared with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in support of the pro-Donald Trump Great America PAC at an event in Cleveland.
Results
In total, Carson received 857,039 votes during the Republican primaries; this total represented 2.75% of the votes cast. The only jurisdiction he carried in the primaries was in the Alaska caucuses in which he won a single state house district, but this did not result in any delegates for his campaign from Alaska since the required threshold of votes statewide was not met. He received the support of seven delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Trump received the Republican nomination and went on to be elected president on November 8, 2016.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Nomination and confirmation
After Donald Trump's win in the 2016 election, Carson joined Trump's transition team as vice chairman. Carson was also offered a cabinet position in the administration. He declined, in part because of his lack of experience, with an aide stating, "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency." Although it was reported that the position was for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Carson's business manager has disputed this, stating, "Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him." He was eventually offered the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, which he accepted.
On December 5, 2016, Trump announced that he would nominate Carson to the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. During the confirmation process, Carson was scrutinized by some housing advocates for what they perceived as his lack of relevant experience.
On January 24, 2017, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted unanimously to approve the nomination. Senate Democrats attempted to defeat Carson's nomination via filibuster, but that vote failed on March 1, 2017, and he was then confirmed by the Senate by a 58–41 vote the next day.
Tenure
In December 2017, The Economist described the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), led by Ben Carson, as "directionless". Most of the top HUD positions were unfilled and Carson's leadership was "inconspicuous and inscrutable". Of the policies HUD was enacting, The Economist wrote, "it is hard not to conclude that the governing principle at HUD is to take whatever the Obama administration was doing, and do the opposite." HUD scaled back the enforcement of fair housing laws, halted several fair housing investigations started by the Obama administration and removed the words "inclusive" and "free from discrimination" from its mission statement. HUD saw an exodus of career officials during Carson's tenure.
On March 6, his first day as secretary, while addressing Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees, Carson saluted the work ethic of immigrants, and during his comments, he likened slaves to involuntary immigrants. A HUD spokesman said that no one present thought Carson "was equating voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude". In the same speech, Carson was criticized by some for saying that the human brain "was incapable of forgetting and could be electrically stimulated into perfect recall".
Under the federal budget proposed by Trump in 2017, HUD's budget for the fiscal year 2018 would be cut by $6.2 billion (13%) and the Community Development Block Grant, a program which Carson praised in a trip to Detroit as HUD secretary, would be eliminated. Carson issued a statement supporting the proposed cuts. Carson suggested that federal funds for housing in Detroit could be part of an expected infrastructure bill.
In April 2017, while speaking in Washington at the National Low Income Housing Coalition conference, Carson said that housing funding would be included in an upcoming infrastructure bill from the Trump administration.
In July 2017, during his keynote address at the LeadingAge Florida annual convention, Carson stated his concern about "seniors who become destitute" and reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had increased public housing programs for the elderly by an unspecified number.
In summer 2017, Carson allowed his son, Baltimore businessman, Ben Carson Jr., to participate in organizing a HUD "listening tour" in Baltimore. Internal documents obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the younger Carson "put people he'd invited in touch with his father's deputies, joined agency staff on official conference calls about the listening tour and copied his wife on related email exchanges". The son's involvement prompted HUD staff to express concern; the department's deputy general counsel for operations wrote in a memorandum "that this gave the appearance that the Secretary may be using his position for his son's private gain". Carson's wife, son, and daughter-in-law also attended official meetings. In February 2018, the HUD inspector general's office confirmed that it was looking into the role Carson's family played at the department.
During congressional testimony in May 2019, while being questioned by U.S. Representative Katie Porter, Carson did not know what the term REO ("Real Estate Owned" refers to housing owned by a bank or lending institution post-foreclosure) stood for and confused it with the cookie, Oreo. In response, Carson went on the Fox Business Network where he accused Democrats of adhering to "Saul Alinsky" tactics.
On March 1, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Carson's addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
On November 9, 2020, Carson tested positive for COVID-19 after attending President Trump's Election Night party. He initially treated himself with a homeopathic oleander extract on the recommendation of Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, Inc., which Carson said caused his symptoms to disappear. Oleander was previously rejected by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for COVID-19 and Carson received criticism for promoting an unscientific homeopathic treatment. He disclosed on November 20 that he subsequently became "extremely sick" and attributed his recovery to Regeneron's experimental antibody therapy. He said that President Trump had given him access to the drug.
Office furnishing scandal
Carson received criticism for spending up to $31,000 on a dining set in his office in late 2017. This expenditure was discovered after Helen Foster, a career HUD official, filed a complaint alleging that she had been demoted from her position because she refused to spend more than the legal $5,000 limit for office redecorations. Carson and his spokesman said that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of the dining set. Later, email communications revealed that Carson and his wife selected the dining set. On March 20, 2018, Carson testified before the United States House Committee on Appropriations that he had "dismissed" himself from the decision to buy the $31,000 dining room set and "left it to my wife, you know, to choose something". On September 12, 2019, HUD's inspector general released a report clearing Carson of misconduct.
Remarks on transgender use of homeless shelters
Carson was accused by members of the Department of Housing and Urban Development of making transphobic remarks at a meeting in San Francisco in September 2019. He warned that "big, hairy men" might infiltrate homeless shelters for women, prompting one woman to walk out. Reps. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia called for his resignation, but Carson said the accusations were a "mischaracterization". A HUD spokesperson responded that Carson "does not use derogatory language to refer to transgendered individuals. Any reporting to the contrary is false."
Carson Scholars Fund
In 1994, Carson and his wife started the Carson Scholars Fund which awards scholarships to students in grades 4–11 for "academic excellence and humanitarian qualities".
Recipients of the Carson Scholars Fund receive a $1,000 scholarship towards their college education. It has awarded 6,700 scholarships. In recognition for his work with the Carson Scholars Fund and other charitable giving throughout his lifetime, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership in 2005.
American Cornerstone Institute
In 2021, Carson founded the American Cornerstone Institute or ACI, a conservative think tank centered around advancing policies that promote "faith, liberty, community, and life".
The ACI's mission statement is "dedicated to promoting and preserving individual and religious liberty, helping our country's most vulnerable find new hope, and developing methods to decrease the federal government's role in society and to improve efficiency to best serve ALL our nation's citizens. Headed by world-renowned neurosurgeon, presidential candidate, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, ACI will be a voice for reason and civility in a nation that is increasingly devoid of common sense."
Personal life
Carson and his wife, fellow Detroit native Lacena "Candy" Rustin, met in 1971 as students at Yale University and married in 1975. They began living in West Friendship, Maryland, in 1988. Together, the couple have three sons (Rhoeyce, Benjamin Jr., and Murray), as well as several grandchildren. Their oldest son, Murray, was born in Perth, Australia, while Carson was undertaking a residency there. In 1981 Carson's wife became pregnant with twins before miscarrying in the fifth month of her pregnancy.
In 2001, Ben and Candy Carson bought a 48-acre property in Upperco, Maryland.
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Carson underwent a two-hour operation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital on August 7, 2002.
In 2013, Carson, his wife, and Carson's mother moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.
Surrounding his confirmation as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Carson bought a $1.22 million home in Vienna, Virginia, in February 2017 and sold his West Palm Beach home for over $900,000 in May 2017.
Religion
Carson and his wife are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Carson was baptized at Burns Seventh-day Adventist Church in Detroit. A few years later, he told the pastor at a church he was attending in Inkster, Michigan, that he had not fully understood his first baptism and wanted to be baptized again. He has served as a local elder and Sabbath School teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and is a member of Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although Carson is an Adventist, the church has officially cautioned church employees to remain politically neutral.
In keeping with his Seventh-day Adventist faith, Carson announced in 2014 his belief "that the United States will play a big role" in the coming apocalypse. He went on to say, "I hope by that time I'm not around anymore."
Carson has stated that he does not believe in hell as understood by some Christians: "You know, I see God as a very loving individual. And why would he torment somebody forever who only had a life of 60 or 70 or 80 years? Even if they were evil. Even if they were only evil for 80 years?" This is fully in line with Adventist teaching, which promotes annihilationism.
Carson endorsed Seventh-day Adventist theology, which includes belief in a literal reading of the first chapters of Genesis. In a 2013 interview with Adventist News Network, Carson said: "You know, I'm proud of the fact that I believe what God has said, and I've said many times that I'll defend it before anyone. If they want to criticize the fact that I believe in a literal, six-day creation, let's have at it because I will poke all kinds of holes in what they believe." Carson's Adventism was raised as an issue by his then-primary rival Donald Trump. Some Adventists have argued that Carson's political positions on gun rights and religious liberty conflict with historic Adventist teachings in favor of nonviolence, pacifism, and the separation of church and state.
In 1998, Carson was invited to give the commencement address at the prominent Andrews University, the flagship institution of the Seventh Day Adventist school system. During his speech, Carson voiced sympathies for the long discredited belief that the pyramids of Giza were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain. When questioned about it again in 2015, Carson stood by this assertion.
Vegetarianism
Consistent with the practice of many Adventists, Carson was at one point a lacto-ovo vegetarian (he ate dishes containing milk, eggs, or cheese, and occasionally, poultry). He has said his main reason for becoming vegetarian was health concerns, including avoiding parasites and heart disease, and he emphasizes the environmental benefits of vegetarianism. His transition was made easier because he had eaten little meat for aesthetic reasons as a child, and he readily adopted his wife's vegetarianism because she does much of the cooking in their household. Speaking in 1990, he said that with the increasing availability of meat substitutes, "It might take 20 years. But eventually there will no longer be a reason for most people to eat meat. And animals will breathe a sigh of relief." To avoid causing others discomfort, he is willing to occasionally eat chicken or turkey, although he finds eating pork highly unpleasant. In August 2015, Carson claimed he does "occasionally enjoy a nice steak or a hamburger" at a town hall meeting in Iowa.
Awards and honors
Carson is a member of the American Academy of Achievement, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.
Carson has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations. Detroit Public Schools opened the Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers. The school is partnering with Detroit Receiving Hospital and Michigan State University.
In 2000, he received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 2001, he was elected by the Library of Congress on the occasion of its 200th anniversary to be one of the 89 who earned the designation Library of Congress Living Legend.
In 2004, he was appointed to serve on The President's Council on Bioethics.
In 2005, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.
In 2006, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, their highest honor for outstanding achievement.
In 2008, the White House awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
In 2008, Ford's Theatre Society awarded Carson the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal, for exemplifying the qualities embodied by President Abraham Lincoln—including courage, integrity, tolerance, equality, and creative expression—through superior achievements.
In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named Carson as one of "America's Best Leaders".
In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
In 2012, Carson was the Influential Marylander Award recipient from The Daily Record, Baltimore's legal and business newspaper.
In 2014, a poll of Americans conducted by Gallup ranked Carson sixth on a list of the most admired persons.
He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Bibliography
(with Cecil Murphey)
(with Gregg Lewis)
(with Candy Carson)
(with Candy Carson), on The New York Times bestsellers list for 20 straight weeks, five of them as number one
(with Candy Carson)
(with Gregg Lewis, Deborah Shaw Lewis)
(with Cecil Murphey)
(with Candy Carson)
See also
List of African-American Republicans
2016 Republican Party presidential candidates
Notes
References
External links
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson
Ben Carson:Dialogue with an Adventist Neurosurgeon College and University Dialogue Retrieved October 12, 2018
Category:1951 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:20th-century Protestants
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Category:African-American members of the Cabinet of the United States
Category:African-American physicians
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Category:African-American writers
Category:American Christian creationists
Category:American neurosurgeons
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Category:Physicians from Detroit
Category:People from Dorchester, Massachusetts
Category:People from Roxbury, Boston
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Category:People from West Palm Beach, Florida
Category:Physicians from Michigan
Category:Politicians from Detroit
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Category:Trump administration cabinet members
Category:United States Secretaries of Housing and Urban Development
Category:University of Michigan Medical School alumni
Category:The Washington Times people
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C_8c698173e273415a9ad5450fbc5b9341_0 | Ben Carson | Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American neurosurgeon, author and politician serving as the 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since 2017, under the Trump Administration. Prior to his cabinet position, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016. Born in Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, Carson has authored numerous books on his medical career and political stances. | High school | By ninth grade, the family's financial situation had improved, his mother surprising neighbors by paying cash to buy a new Chrysler car, and the only government assistance they still relied on was food stamps. Carson attended the predominantly black Southwestern High School for ninth through 12th grades, graduating third in his class academically. In high school he played the baritone horn in the band, and participated in forensics (public speaking), chess club, and the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program where he reached its highest rank--cadet colonel. Carson served as a laboratory assistant in the high school's biology, chemistry, physics school laboratories beginning in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade, respectively, and worked as a biology laboratory assistant at Wayne State University the summer between 11th and 12th grades. In his book Gifted Hands, Carson relates that as a youth he had a violent temper. "As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers," Carson told NBC's Meet the Press in October 2015. He said he once tried to hit his mother on the head with a hammer over a clothing dispute, while in the ninth grade he tried to stab a friend who had changed the radio station. Fortunately, the blade broke in his friend's belt buckle. Carson said that the intended victim, whose identity he wants to protect, was a classmate, a friend, or a close relative. After this incident, Carson said that he began reading the Book of Proverbs and applying verses on anger. As a result, he states he "never had another problem with temper". In his various books and at campaign events, he repeated these stories and said he once attacked a schoolmate with a combination lock. Nine friends, classmates, and neighbors who grew up with him told CNN in 2015 they did not remember the anger or violence he has described. In response, Carson posted on Facebook a 1997 Parade Magazine issue, in which his mother verified the stabbing incident. He then questioned the extent of the effort CNN had exerted in the investigation. He has said that he protected white students in a biology lab after a race riot broke out at his high school in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the riot but could not find anyone who remembered Carson sheltering white students. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. (born September 18, 1951) is an American retired neurosurgeon, academic and politician who served as the 17th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 2017 to 2021. A pioneer in the field of neurosurgery, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the 2016 Republican primaries.
Carson became the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in 1984 at age 33, then the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the United States. In 1987, he gained significant fame after leading a team of surgeons in the first known separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head. Although surgically a success, the twins continued to experience neurologic/medical complications. His additional accomplishments include performing the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb, developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors, and revitalizing hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He wrote over 100 neurosurgical publications. He retired from medicine in 2013; at the time, he was professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Carson gained national fame among political conservatives after delivering a speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast which was perceived as critical of the policies of President Barack Obama. Following widespread speculation of a presidential run, Carson officially announced his campaign for the 2016 Republican nomination for President in May 2015. Carson performed strongly in early polls, leading to his being considered a frontrunner for the nomination during the fall of 2015. He withdrew from the race after Super Tuesday, following a string of disappointing primary results, and endorsed Donald Trump. Following Trump's victory, Trump nominated Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, being confirmed by the United States Senate in a 58–41 vote on March 2, 2017. Carson is one of the most prominent Black conservatives in America.
Carson has received numerous honors for his neurosurgery work, including more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees and numerous national merit citations. In 2001, he was named by CNN and Time magazine as one of the nation's 20 foremost physicians and scientists and was selected by the Library of Congress as one of 89 "Living Legends" on its 200th anniversary. In 2008, Carson was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Medicine. He was the subject of the 2009 TV film Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story, wherein he was portrayed by Cuba Gooding Jr. Carson has also written or co-written six bestselling books.
Early life and education
Carson's parents were Robert Solomon Carson Jr. (1914–1992), a World War II U.S. Army veteran, and Sonya Carson (née Copeland, 1928–2017). Robert Carson was a Baptist minister, but he later became a Cadillac automobile plant laborer. Both his parents came from large families in rural Georgia, and they were living in rural Tennessee when they met and married. Carson's mother was 13 and his father was 28 when they married, and after his father finished his military service, they moved from Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Detroit, where they lived in a large house in the Indian Village neighborhood. Carson's older brother, Curtis, was born in 1949, when his mother was 20. In 1950, Carson's parents purchased a new 733-square foot single-family detached home on Deacon Street in the Boynton neighborhood in southwest Detroit. Carson was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 18, 1951.
Carson's Detroit Public Schools education began in 1956 with kindergarten at the Fisher School and continued through first, second, and the first half of third grade, during which time he was an average student. At the age of five, his mother learned that his father had a prior family and had not divorced his first wife. In 1959, at the age of eight, his parents separated and he moved with his mother and brother to live for two years with his mother's Seventh-day Adventist older sister and her sister's husband in multi-family dwellings in the Dorchester and Roxbury neighborhoods of Boston. In Boston, Carson's mother attempted suicide, had several psychiatric hospitalizations for depression, and for the first time began working outside the home as a domestic worker, while Carson and his brother attended a two-classroom school at the Berea Seventh-day Adventist church where two teachers taught eight grades, and the vast majority of time was spent singing songs and playing games.
In 1961, at the age of 10, he moved with his mother and brother back to southwest Detroit, where they lived in a multi-family dwelling in a primarily white neighborhood, (Springwells Village), across the railroad tracks from the Delray neighborhood, while renting out their house on Deacon Street, which his mother received in a divorce settlement. When they returned to Detroit public schools, Carson and his brother's academic performance initially lagged far behind their new classmates, having, according to Carson, "essentially lost a year of school" by attending the small Seventh-day Adventist parochial school in Boston, but they both improved when their mother limited their time watching television and required them to read and write book reports on two library books per week. Carson attended the predominantly white Higgins Elementary School for fifth and sixth grades and the predominantly white Wilson Junior High School for seventh and the first half of eighth grade. In 1965, at the age of 13, he moved with his mother and brother back to their house on Deacon Street. He attended the predominantly black Hunter Junior High School for the second half of eighth grade. At the age of eight, Carson dreamt of becoming a missionary doctor, but five years later he aspired to the lucrative lifestyles of psychiatrists portrayed on television, and his brother bought him a subscription to Psychology Today for his 13th birthday.
High school
By grade 9, the family's financial situation had improved, his mother surprising neighbors by paying cash to buy a new Chrysler car, and the only government assistance they still relied on was food stamps. Carson attended the predominantly black Southwestern High School for grades nine through twelve, graduating third in his class academically. In high school, he played the euphonium in band and participated in forensics (public speaking), chess club, and the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program where he reached its highest rank—cadet colonel. Carson served as a laboratory assistant in the high school's biology, chemistry, and physics school laboratories beginning in grades 10, 11, and 12, respectively, and worked as a biology laboratory assistant at Wayne State University the summer between grade 11 and 12.
In his book Gifted Hands, Carson relates that as a youth, he had a violent temper. "As a teenager, I would go after people with rocks, and bricks, and baseball bats, and hammers", Carson told NBC's Meet the Press in October 2015. He said he once tried to hit his mother on the head with a hammer over a clothing dispute, while in the ninth grade he tried to stab a friend who had changed the radio station. Fortunately, the blade broke in his friend's belt buckle. Carson said the intended victim, whose identity he wants to protect, was a classmate, a friend, or a close relative. After this incident, Carson said he began reading the Book of Proverbs and applying verses on anger. As a result, he states he "never had another problem with temper". In his various books and at campaign events, he repeated these stories and said he once attacked a schoolmate with a combination lock. Nine friends, classmates, and neighbors who grew up with him told CNN in 2015 they did not remember the anger or violence he has described. In response, Carson posted on Facebook a 1997 Parade magazine issue, in which his mother verified the stabbing incident. He then questioned the extent of the effort CNN had exerted in the investigation.
Carson has said that he protected white students in a biology lab after a race riot broke out at his high school in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The Wall Street Journal confirmed the riot but could not find anyone who remembered Carson sheltering white students.
College
Carson's SAT college admission test scores ranked him somewhere in the low 90th percentile. He wanted to attend college farther away than his brother who was at the University of Michigan. Carson says he narrowed his college choices to Harvard or Yale but could only afford the $10 application fee to apply for only one of them. He said he decided to apply to Yale after seeing a team from Yale defeat a team from Harvard on the G.E. College Bowl television show. Carson was accepted by Yale and offered a full scholarship covering tuition, room and board. In 1973, Carson graduated with a B.A. degree in psychology from Yale "with a fairly respectable grade point average although far from the top of the class".
Carson does not say in his books whether he received a college student deferment during the Vietnam War. He does say that his older brother, then a student at the University of Michigan, received a low number (26) in the first draft lottery in 1969 and was able to enlist in the Navy for four years instead of being drafted, whereas he received a high number (333) in the second draft lottery in 1970. Carson said he would have readily accepted his responsibility to fight had he been drafted, but he "identified strongly with the anti-war protesters and the revolutionaries" and enthusiastically voted for anti-war Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern in 1972. In his book, America the Beautiful (2012), Carson said: "The Vietnam War was, in retrospect, not a noble conflict. It brought shame to our nation because of both the outcome and the cause."
In the summers following his high school graduation until his second year in medical school, Carson worked at a variety of jobs: as a clerk in the payroll office of Ford Motor Company, supervisor of a six-person crew picking up trash along the highway under a federal jobs program for inner-city students, a clerk in the mailroom of Young & Rubicam Advertising, assembling fender parts and inspecting back window louvers on the assembly line at Chrysler, a crane operator at Sennett Steel, and finally a radiology technician taking X-rays. At Yale, Carson had a part-time job on campus as a student police aide.
In his autobiography, Carson said he had been offered a scholarship to West Point. Politico reported that West Point has no record of his ever seeking admission. The academy does not award scholarships to anyone; cadets receive a free education and room and board in exchange for a commitment to serve in the military for at least five years after graduation. Carson also said the University of Michigan had offered him a scholarship. His staff later said the described scenario was similar to that of West Point, as he never actually applied for entry to the University of Michigan.
In his autobiography, Gifted Hands, Carson recounted that exams for a Yale psychology course he took his junior year, "Perceptions 301", were inexplicably burned, forcing students to retake the exam. Carson said other students walked out in protest when they discovered the retest was significantly harder than the original examination, but that he alone finished the test. On doing so, Carson said he was congratulated by the course instructor, who told him the retest was a hoax intended to find "the most honest student in the class". Carson said the professor awarded him $10 and that a photographer for the Yale Daily News was present to take his picture, which appeared in the student newspaper with a story about the experiment. Doubts were raised about this story in 2015 during Carson's presidential campaign. The Wall Street Journal attempted to verify Carson's account, reporting that Yale undergraduate courses were identified with only two digits in the early 1970s, that Yale had offered no course called "Perceptions 301" at the time, and that Carson's photo had never appeared in the Yale Daily News. Carson, while acknowledging the class number was not correct, said: "You know, when you write a book with a co-writer and you say that there was a class, a lot of [the] time they'll put a number or something just to give it more meat. You know, obviously, decades later, I'm not going to remember the course number."
Medical school
Carson entered the University of Michigan Medical School in 1973, and at first he struggled academically, doing so poorly on his first set of comprehensive exams that his faculty adviser recommended he drop out of medical school or take a reduced academic load and take longer to finish. He continued with a regular academic load, and his grades improved to average in his first year of medical school. By his second year of medical school, Carson began to excel academically by seldom attending lectures and instead studying textbooks and lecture notes from 6a.m. to 11p.m. Carson graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School with an M.D. degree in 1977, and he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Carson was then accepted by the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine neurosurgery program, where he served one year as a surgical intern and five years as a neurosurgery resident, completing the final year as chief resident in 1983. He then spent one year (1983–1984) as a Senior Registrar in neurosurgery at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Nedlands, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia.
Medical career
Upon returning to Johns Hopkins in 1984, Carson was appointed the university's director of pediatric neurosurgery. As a surgeon, he specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia.
While at Johns Hopkins, Carson figured in the revival of the hemispherectomy, a drastic surgical procedure in which part or all of one hemisphere of the brain is removed to control severe pediatric epilepsy. Encouraged by John M. Freeman, he refined the procedure in the 1980s and performed it many times.
In 1987, Carson was the lead neurosurgeon of a 70-member surgical team that separated conjoined twins Patrick and Benjamin Binder, who had been joined at the back of the head (craniopagus twins). The separation surgery held promise in part because the twin boys had separate brains. The Johns Hopkins Children's Center surgical team rehearsed the surgery for weeks, practicing on two dolls secured together by Velcro. Although there were few follow-up stories following the Binder twins' return to Germany seven months after the operation, both twins were reportedly "far from normal" two years after the procedure, with one in a vegetative state. Neither twin was ever able to talk or care for himself, and both eventually became institutionalized wards of the state. Patrick Binder died sometime during the last decade, according to his uncle, who was located by The Washington Post in 2015. The Binder surgery served as a blueprint for similar twin separations, a procedure that was refined in subsequent decades. Carson participated in four subsequent high-risk conjoined-twin separations, including a 1997 operation on craniopagus Zambian twins Joseph and Luka Banda, which resulted in a normal neurological outcome. Two sets of twins died, including Iranian twins Ladan and Laleh Bijani. Another separation resulted in the death of one twin and the survival of the other, who is legally blind and struggles to walk.
According to The Washington Post, the Binder surgery "launched the stardom" of Carson, who "walked out of the operating room that day into a spotlight that has never dimmed", beginning with a press conference that was covered worldwide and created name recognition leading to publishing deals and a motivational speaking career. On the condition the film would have its premiere in Baltimore, Carson agreed to a cameo appearance as "head surgeon" in the 2003 Farrelly brothers' comedy Stuck on You, starring Matt Damon and Greg Kinnear as conjoined twins who, unhappy after their surgical separation, continue life attached to each other by Velcro.
In March 2013, Carson announced he would retire as a surgeon, saying he would "much rather quit when I'm at the top of my game". His retirement became official on July 1, 2013.
In 2021, Carson joined Galectin Therapeutics to assist with development of the company's galectin-3 inhibitor, belapectin, as a treatment for NASH cirrhosis and in combination with immunotherapy for the treatment of cancers.
Articles, books, business relationships, media posts
Carson has written many articles in peer-reviewed journals and six bestselling books published by Zondervan, an international Christian media and publishing company. The first book was an autobiography published in 1992. Two others are about his personal philosophies of success and what he sees as the stabilizing influence of religion.
According to CNN, Carson had an "extensive relationship" from 2004 to 2014 with Mannatech, a multi-level marketing company that produces dietary supplements made from substances such as aloe vera extract and larch-tree bark. Carson gave four paid speeches at company events. He has denied being paid by Mannatech to do anything else, saying he has been a "prolific speaker" who has addressed many groups. In a 2004 speech, he credited the company's products with the disappearance of his prostate cancer symptoms. The nature of this relationship became an issue in 2015 during Carson's presidential campaign. Carson's relationship with Mannatech continued after the company paid $7 million in 2009 to settle a deceptive-marketing lawsuit in Texas over claims that its products could cure autism and cancer. His most recent paid speech for the company was in 2013, for which he was paid $42,000. His image appeared on the corporation's website in 2014, and in the same year, he praised their "glyconutrient" supplements in a PBS special that was subsequently featured on the site.
Carson delivered the keynote address at a Mannatech distributor convention in 2011, during which he said the company had donated funds to help him obtain a coveted endowed-chair post at Johns Hopkins Medicine: "three years ago I had an endowed chair bestowed upon me and uh, it requires $2.5 million to do an endowed chair, and I'm proud to say that part of that $2.5 million came from Mannatech." In October 2015, Carson's campaign team said that "there was no contribution from Mannatech to Johns Hopkins" and that his statement had been "a legitimate mistake on his part. Confusion. He had been doing some fundraising for the hospital and some other chairs about that time, and he simply got things mixed up."
During the CNBC GOP debate on October 28, 2015, Carson was asked about his relationship with Mannatech. He replied, "That's easy to answer. I didn't have any involvement with Mannatech. Total propaganda. I did a couple speeches for them. I did speeches for other people—they were paid speeches. It is absolutely absurd to say I had any kind of relation with them. Do I take the product? Yes. I think it is a good product." Politifact rated Carson's denial of any involvement as "false", pointing to his paid speeches for Mannatech and his appearances in promotional videos in which he favorably reviewed its products, despite not being "an official spokesman or sales associate". When the CNBC moderator commented that Carson was on Mannatech's website, Carson replied that he had not given his permission. Earlier, he had said he was unaware of the company's legal history.
On November 3, 2015, Mannatech said on its website that for compliance with federal campaign finance regulations, the company had removed all references to Carson before he announced his bid for the presidency.
In July 2013, Carson was hired by The Washington Times as a weekly opinion columnist. In October 2013, Fox News hired Carson as a contributor to provide analysis and commentary across Fox News Channel's daytime and primetime programming, a relationship that lasted until the end of 2014.
In 2014, some House Republicans (who later formed the House Freedom Caucus) approached Carson about the possibility of his standing for Speaker of the House in the event that the incumbent Speaker, John Boehner, had to step down because of intraparty disunion. Carson declined, citing preparations for his 2016 presidential campaign. Ultimately, Boehner resigned in October 2015, and Paul Ryan was elected as the new Speaker.
In financial disclosure forms, Carson and his wife reported income of between $8.9 million and $27 million from January 2014 to May 3, 2015, when he announced his presidential campaign. Over that period, Carson received over $4 million from 141 paid speeches, between $1.1 million and $6 million in book royalties, between $200,000 and $2 million as a contributor to The Washington Times and Fox News, and between $2 million and $10 million as a member of the boards of Kellogg Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. He resigned from Costco's board in mid-2015, after serving on it for more than 16 years. Carson was chairman of the Baltimore-based biotechnology company Vaccinogen from August 2014 until the announcement of his US presidential bid in May 2015. Carson had previously served on Vaccinogen's Medical Advisory Board.
2016 presidential campaign
Background and increasing political visibility
Carson, who had been registered as a Republican, changed his registration to independent in the 1990s after watching Republicans impeach President Clinton for perjury regarding an extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky. "I just saw so much hypocrisy in both parties", he said. In February 2013, Carson said he was not a member of any political party.
In his book America the Beautiful (2013), he wrote: "I believe it is a very good idea for physicians, scientists, engineers, and others trained to make decisions based on facts and empirical data to get involved in the political arena."
Carson was the keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast on February 7, 2013. The speech garnered Carson considerable attention because the event is normally apolitical in nature, and the speech was critical of the philosophy and policies of President Barack Obama, who was sitting 10 feet away. About the speech, Carson said: "I don't think it was particularly political... You know, I'm a physician." Regarding the policies of President Obama, he said: "There are a number of policies that I don't believe lead to the growth of our nation and don't lead to the elevation of our nation. I don't want to sit here and say all of his policies are bad. What I would like to see more often in this nation is an open and intelligent conversation."
Carson's sudden popularity among conservatives led to his being invited as a featured speaker at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He tied for seventh place in the Washington Times/CPAC 2013 Straw Poll with 4% of the 3,000 ballots cast. In the 2014 CPAC straw poll, he was in third place with 9% of the vote, behind senators Ted Cruz of Texas (with 11%) and Rand Paul of Kentucky (31%). In the presidential straw poll at the 2013 Values Voter Summit, he and Rick Santorum polled 13%, with winner Ted Cruz polling 42%, and in 2014 he polled 20% to Cruz's winning 25%.
On November 4, 2014, the day of the 2014 midterms, he rejoined the Republican Party, saying it was "truly a pragmatic move" because he was considering running for president in 2016.
In January 2015, The Weekly Standard reported that the Draft Carson Committee had raised $13 million by the end of 2014, shortly after Carson performed well in a CNN/ORC poll of potential candidates in December 2014, coming second in two different versions. He polled 10% to Mitt Romney's 20%, but in the same poll with Romney removed from the list, Carson polled 11% to Jeb Bush's 14%. The Wall Street Journal mentioned that the Draft Carson Committee had chairmen in all of Iowa's 99 counties, and that Carson had recently led two separate Public Policy polls for the state of Pennsylvania.
Announcement of campaign
On May 2, 2015, Carson proclaimed that in two days he was going to make a major announcement on his decision on whether to enter the presidential race. In an interview with Cincinnati station WKRC-TV on May 3, 2015, Carson accidentally confirmed his candidacy for president. The interview was also broadcast live on WPEC. The next day, May 4, 2015, at the Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts in his home town of Detroit, he officially announced his run for the Republican nomination in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The announcement speech was preceded by a choir singing "Lose Yourself" with Carson sitting in the audience. After the song, Carson took the stage and announced his candidacy alongside a speech on his rags to riches life story, at one point stating: "I remember when our favorite drug dealer was killed."
Surge in polls
In October 2015, the Super PAC supporting Carson, The 2016 Committee (formerly the Draft Carson Committee), announced it had received donations in mostly $100 increments from more than 200 small businesses around the country over the course of one week. Fox Business reported that "Carson's outsider status is growing his small business support base." Ben Walters, a fundraiser for The 2016 Committee, expressed optimism about Carson's small business support base: "It's unbelievable the diversity of businesses that we are bringing on. We are seeing everything from doctors' offices and folks in the healthcare profession to motorcycle repair shops and bed and breakfasts."
In October, it was noted that Carson's "improbable" political career had surged in polls and fundraising, while he continued to participate in nationally televised Republican debates.
Decline in polls
The campaign brought considerable attention to Carson's past. CBS News described Carson's narrative of "overcoming impossible odds as a child growing up in an impoverished, single-parent household to reach international prominence as a pediatric neurosurgeon" as "a key part of his presidential campaign". The Wall Street Journal said the narrative came under "the harsh scrutiny of presidential politics, where rivals and media hunt for embellishments and omissions that can hobble a campaign". CNN characterized the core narrative as "acts of violence as an angry young man", followed by a spiritual epiphany that transformed Carson into the "composed figure" he now portrays. Media challenges to a number of Carson's statements included allegations of discrepancies between documented facts and certain assertions in his autobiography Gifted Hands—allegations dismissed by Carson as a media "witch hunt". In November 2015, the Detroit Free Press republished an article from 1988 "to try to bring some clarity to the claims currently being brought into question".
In November 2015, Carson's campaign aired a 60-second TV advertisement in which excerpts from Carson's stump speech were intercut with a rap by an artist named Aspiring Mogul. They spent $150,000 on the ads, which were aired in Atlanta, Detroit and Miami. Carson defended the ad, saying "Well, there are people in the campaign who felt that was a good way to do things... I support them in doing that, but I probably would have taken a little different approach." Later, he said the advertisement was done without his knowledge, that "it was done by people who have no concept of the black community and what they were doing", and that he was "horrified" by it.
The New York Times reported in 2015, "Carson has acknowledged being something of a novice on foreign affairs." Regarding the Ukrainian crisis, Carson would send arms to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against pro-Russian rebels. He also believes the Baltic states, current NATO members, should "get involved in NATO".
In a November 2015 Republican debate, Carson declared his intentions to make ISIS "look like losers" as he would "destroy their caliphate". Carson also advocated capturing a "big energy field" outside of Anbar, Iraq, which he said could be accomplished "fairly easily". Regarding the Middle East, he also claimed that "the Chinese are there".
Carson said he is not opposed to a Palestinian state, but he questioned why it needs "to be within the confines of Israeli territory ... Is that necessary, or can you sort of slip that area down into Egypt?"
Withdrawal from campaign
On March 2, following the Super Tuesday 2016 primaries, Carson announced that he did "not see a political path forward" and would not attend the next Republican debate in Detroit. He said, "[T]his grassroots movement on behalf of 'We the People' will continue", indicating that he would give more details later in the week. He suspended his campaign on March4 and announced he would be the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, a group that encourages Christians to exercise their civic duty to vote.
In total, Ben Carson's campaign spent $58 million. However, most of the money went to political consultants and fundraising rather than advertising. Carson questioned whether his campaign was economically sabotaged from within.
Further activities during the 2016 election
On March 11, 2016, a week after Carson ended his presidential campaign, he endorsed Trump, calling him part of "the voice of the people to be heard". Carson's subsequent comments that Americans would have to sustain Trump for only four years if he was not a good president drew criticism, and he admitted that he would have preferred another candidate, though he thought Trump had the best chance of winning the general election.
On the other hand, at the press conference Carson said Trump had a "cerebral" side.
On April 25, Carson expressed opposition to Harriet Tubman replacing Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill the day after dubbing the replacement "political expediency", though he indicated interest in Tubman having another tribute. In late April, Carson wrote to the Nevada Republican Party, requesting the two delegates he won in Nevada be released and free to support whoever they want.
On May 4, after Trump wrapped up the Republican nomination, he hinted that Carson would be among those who would vet his vice-presidential pick. The same day, in an interview Carson expressed interest in Ted Cruz serving as Attorney General of the United States, a position that Carson said would allow Cruz to prosecute Hillary Clinton, and then as a Supreme Court Justice nominee from the Trump administration. On May 6, Carson said in an interview that Trump would consider a Democrat as his running mate, conflicting with Trump's assertion that he would not. A Carson spokesperson later said Carson expected Trump to select a Republican.
Carson was said by aide Armstrong Williams in a May 10 interview to have withdrawn from the Trump campaign's vetting team, though the campaign confirmed he was still involved. Later that month, Carson revealed a list of potential vice-presidential candidates in an interview with The Washington Post. On May 16, Carson said the media could not keep opinion out of reporting and cited Walter Cronkite as a fair journalist who was, in his words, a "left-wing radical".
During the Republican National Convention, Carson appeared with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in support of the pro-Donald Trump Great America PAC at an event in Cleveland.
Results
In total, Carson received 857,039 votes during the Republican primaries; this total represented 2.75% of the votes cast. The only jurisdiction he carried in the primaries was in the Alaska caucuses in which he won a single state house district, but this did not result in any delegates for his campaign from Alaska since the required threshold of votes statewide was not met. He received the support of seven delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Trump received the Republican nomination and went on to be elected president on November 8, 2016.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Nomination and confirmation
After Donald Trump's win in the 2016 election, Carson joined Trump's transition team as vice chairman. Carson was also offered a cabinet position in the administration. He declined, in part because of his lack of experience, with an aide stating, "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency." Although it was reported that the position was for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Carson's business manager has disputed this, stating, "Dr. Carson was never offered a specific position, but everything was open to him." He was eventually offered the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, which he accepted.
On December 5, 2016, Trump announced that he would nominate Carson to the position of Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. During the confirmation process, Carson was scrutinized by some housing advocates for what they perceived as his lack of relevant experience.
On January 24, 2017, the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted unanimously to approve the nomination. Senate Democrats attempted to defeat Carson's nomination via filibuster, but that vote failed on March 1, 2017, and he was then confirmed by the Senate by a 58–41 vote the next day.
Tenure
In December 2017, The Economist described the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), led by Ben Carson, as "directionless". Most of the top HUD positions were unfilled and Carson's leadership was "inconspicuous and inscrutable". Of the policies HUD was enacting, The Economist wrote, "it is hard not to conclude that the governing principle at HUD is to take whatever the Obama administration was doing, and do the opposite." HUD scaled back the enforcement of fair housing laws, halted several fair housing investigations started by the Obama administration and removed the words "inclusive" and "free from discrimination" from its mission statement. HUD saw an exodus of career officials during Carson's tenure.
On March 6, his first day as secretary, while addressing Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees, Carson saluted the work ethic of immigrants, and during his comments, he likened slaves to involuntary immigrants. A HUD spokesman said that no one present thought Carson "was equating voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude". In the same speech, Carson was criticized by some for saying that the human brain "was incapable of forgetting and could be electrically stimulated into perfect recall".
Under the federal budget proposed by Trump in 2017, HUD's budget for the fiscal year 2018 would be cut by $6.2 billion (13%) and the Community Development Block Grant, a program which Carson praised in a trip to Detroit as HUD secretary, would be eliminated. Carson issued a statement supporting the proposed cuts. Carson suggested that federal funds for housing in Detroit could be part of an expected infrastructure bill.
In April 2017, while speaking in Washington at the National Low Income Housing Coalition conference, Carson said that housing funding would be included in an upcoming infrastructure bill from the Trump administration.
In July 2017, during his keynote address at the LeadingAge Florida annual convention, Carson stated his concern about "seniors who become destitute" and reported that the Department of Housing and Urban Development had increased public housing programs for the elderly by an unspecified number.
In summer 2017, Carson allowed his son, Baltimore businessman, Ben Carson Jr., to participate in organizing a HUD "listening tour" in Baltimore. Internal documents obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the younger Carson "put people he'd invited in touch with his father's deputies, joined agency staff on official conference calls about the listening tour and copied his wife on related email exchanges". The son's involvement prompted HUD staff to express concern; the department's deputy general counsel for operations wrote in a memorandum "that this gave the appearance that the Secretary may be using his position for his son's private gain". Carson's wife, son, and daughter-in-law also attended official meetings. In February 2018, the HUD inspector general's office confirmed that it was looking into the role Carson's family played at the department.
During congressional testimony in May 2019, while being questioned by U.S. Representative Katie Porter, Carson did not know what the term REO ("Real Estate Owned" refers to housing owned by a bank or lending institution post-foreclosure) stood for and confused it with the cookie, Oreo. In response, Carson went on the Fox Business Network where he accused Democrats of adhering to "Saul Alinsky" tactics.
On March 1, 2020, the office of Vice President Mike Pence announced Carson's addition to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
On November 9, 2020, Carson tested positive for COVID-19 after attending President Trump's Election Night party. He initially treated himself with a homeopathic oleander extract on the recommendation of Mike Lindell, the founder of My Pillow, Inc., which Carson said caused his symptoms to disappear. Oleander was previously rejected by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for COVID-19 and Carson received criticism for promoting an unscientific homeopathic treatment. He disclosed on November 20 that he subsequently became "extremely sick" and attributed his recovery to Regeneron's experimental antibody therapy. He said that President Trump had given him access to the drug.
Office furnishing scandal
Carson received criticism for spending up to $31,000 on a dining set in his office in late 2017. This expenditure was discovered after Helen Foster, a career HUD official, filed a complaint alleging that she had been demoted from her position because she refused to spend more than the legal $5,000 limit for office redecorations. Carson and his spokesman said that he had little or no involvement in the purchase of the dining set. Later, email communications revealed that Carson and his wife selected the dining set. On March 20, 2018, Carson testified before the United States House Committee on Appropriations that he had "dismissed" himself from the decision to buy the $31,000 dining room set and "left it to my wife, you know, to choose something". On September 12, 2019, HUD's inspector general released a report clearing Carson of misconduct.
Remarks on transgender use of homeless shelters
Carson was accused by members of the Department of Housing and Urban Development of making transphobic remarks at a meeting in San Francisco in September 2019. He warned that "big, hairy men" might infiltrate homeless shelters for women, prompting one woman to walk out. Reps. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts and Jennifer Wexton of Virginia called for his resignation, but Carson said the accusations were a "mischaracterization". A HUD spokesperson responded that Carson "does not use derogatory language to refer to transgendered individuals. Any reporting to the contrary is false."
Carson Scholars Fund
In 1994, Carson and his wife started the Carson Scholars Fund which awards scholarships to students in grades 4–11 for "academic excellence and humanitarian qualities".
Recipients of the Carson Scholars Fund receive a $1,000 scholarship towards their college education. It has awarded 6,700 scholarships. In recognition for his work with the Carson Scholars Fund and other charitable giving throughout his lifetime, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership in 2005.
American Cornerstone Institute
In 2021, Carson founded the American Cornerstone Institute or ACI, a conservative think tank centered around advancing policies that promote "faith, liberty, community, and life".
The ACI's mission statement is "dedicated to promoting and preserving individual and religious liberty, helping our country's most vulnerable find new hope, and developing methods to decrease the federal government's role in society and to improve efficiency to best serve ALL our nation's citizens. Headed by world-renowned neurosurgeon, presidential candidate, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, ACI will be a voice for reason and civility in a nation that is increasingly devoid of common sense."
Personal life
Carson and his wife, fellow Detroit native Lacena "Candy" Rustin, met in 1971 as students at Yale University and married in 1975. They began living in West Friendship, Maryland, in 1988. Together, the couple have three sons (Rhoeyce, Benjamin Jr., and Murray), as well as several grandchildren. Their oldest son, Murray, was born in Perth, Australia, while Carson was undertaking a residency there. In 1981 Carson's wife became pregnant with twins before miscarrying in the fifth month of her pregnancy.
In 2001, Ben and Candy Carson bought a 48-acre property in Upperco, Maryland.
After being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Carson underwent a two-hour operation at the Johns Hopkins Hospital on August 7, 2002.
In 2013, Carson, his wife, and Carson's mother moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.
Surrounding his confirmation as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Carson bought a $1.22 million home in Vienna, Virginia, in February 2017 and sold his West Palm Beach home for over $900,000 in May 2017.
Religion
Carson and his wife are members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Carson was baptized at Burns Seventh-day Adventist Church in Detroit. A few years later, he told the pastor at a church he was attending in Inkster, Michigan, that he had not fully understood his first baptism and wanted to be baptized again. He has served as a local elder and Sabbath School teacher in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and is a member of Spencerville Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although Carson is an Adventist, the church has officially cautioned church employees to remain politically neutral.
In keeping with his Seventh-day Adventist faith, Carson announced in 2014 his belief "that the United States will play a big role" in the coming apocalypse. He went on to say, "I hope by that time I'm not around anymore."
Carson has stated that he does not believe in hell as understood by some Christians: "You know, I see God as a very loving individual. And why would he torment somebody forever who only had a life of 60 or 70 or 80 years? Even if they were evil. Even if they were only evil for 80 years?" This is fully in line with Adventist teaching, which promotes annihilationism.
Carson endorsed Seventh-day Adventist theology, which includes belief in a literal reading of the first chapters of Genesis. In a 2013 interview with Adventist News Network, Carson said: "You know, I'm proud of the fact that I believe what God has said, and I've said many times that I'll defend it before anyone. If they want to criticize the fact that I believe in a literal, six-day creation, let's have at it because I will poke all kinds of holes in what they believe." Carson's Adventism was raised as an issue by his then-primary rival Donald Trump. Some Adventists have argued that Carson's political positions on gun rights and religious liberty conflict with historic Adventist teachings in favor of nonviolence, pacifism, and the separation of church and state.
In 1998, Carson was invited to give the commencement address at the prominent Andrews University, the flagship institution of the Seventh Day Adventist school system. During his speech, Carson voiced sympathies for the long discredited belief that the pyramids of Giza were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain. When questioned about it again in 2015, Carson stood by this assertion.
Vegetarianism
Consistent with the practice of many Adventists, Carson was at one point a lacto-ovo vegetarian (he ate dishes containing milk, eggs, or cheese, and occasionally, poultry). He has said his main reason for becoming vegetarian was health concerns, including avoiding parasites and heart disease, and he emphasizes the environmental benefits of vegetarianism. His transition was made easier because he had eaten little meat for aesthetic reasons as a child, and he readily adopted his wife's vegetarianism because she does much of the cooking in their household. Speaking in 1990, he said that with the increasing availability of meat substitutes, "It might take 20 years. But eventually there will no longer be a reason for most people to eat meat. And animals will breathe a sigh of relief." To avoid causing others discomfort, he is willing to occasionally eat chicken or turkey, although he finds eating pork highly unpleasant. In August 2015, Carson claimed he does "occasionally enjoy a nice steak or a hamburger" at a town hall meeting in Iowa.
Awards and honors
Carson is a member of the American Academy of Achievement, Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans.
Carson has been awarded 38 honorary doctorate degrees and dozens of national merit citations. Detroit Public Schools opened the Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine for students interested in pursuing healthcare careers. The school is partnering with Detroit Receiving Hospital and Michigan State University.
In 2000, he received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.
In 2001, he was elected by the Library of Congress on the occasion of its 200th anniversary to be one of the 89 who earned the designation Library of Congress Living Legend.
In 2004, he was appointed to serve on The President's Council on Bioethics.
In 2005, Carson was awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership.
In 2006, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, their highest honor for outstanding achievement.
In 2008, the White House awarded Carson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
In 2008, Ford's Theatre Society awarded Carson the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal, for exemplifying the qualities embodied by President Abraham Lincoln—including courage, integrity, tolerance, equality, and creative expression—through superior achievements.
In 2008, U.S. News & World Report named Carson as one of "America's Best Leaders".
In 2010, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.
In 2012, Carson was the Influential Marylander Award recipient from The Daily Record, Baltimore's legal and business newspaper.
In 2014, a poll of Americans conducted by Gallup ranked Carson sixth on a list of the most admired persons.
He is an emeritus fellow of the Yale Corporation.
Bibliography
(with Cecil Murphey)
(with Gregg Lewis)
(with Candy Carson)
(with Candy Carson), on The New York Times bestsellers list for 20 straight weeks, five of them as number one
(with Candy Carson)
(with Gregg Lewis, Deborah Shaw Lewis)
(with Cecil Murphey)
(with Candy Carson)
See also
List of African-American Republicans
2016 Republican Party presidential candidates
Notes
References
External links
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson
Ben Carson:Dialogue with an Adventist Neurosurgeon College and University Dialogue Retrieved October 12, 2018
Category:1951 births
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Category:Yale University alumni | [] | [
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"Yes, Carson participated in several extracurricular activities in high school. He played the baritone horn in the band, participated in forensics (public speaking), chess club, and the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program. He also served as a laboratory assistant in the school's biology, chemistry, and physics laboratories.",
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C_94196b0fc8b74ddfbf20468d6ce6a1a5_0 | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (French: Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard [l@ vikot d@ bRaZ@lon u diz_a ply taR]) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas. | Part Two: Louise de la Valliere (Chapters 94-180) | This part mostly concerns romantic events at the court of Louis XIV. Raoul de Bragelonne finds his childhood sweetheart, Louise de La Valliere, is maid of honour to the Princess. Fearing a tarnishing of Louise's reputation by affairs at court, Raoul seeks to marry her. His father, Athos, the Comte de la Fere, disapproves, but eventually, out of love for his son, reluctantly agrees. The king, however, refuses to sanction the marriage because Louise is of inferior social status, and so marriage is delayed. Meanwhile, the struggle for power begins between Fouquet and Colbert. Louis attempts to impoverish Fouquet by asking for money to pay for a grand fete at Fontainebleau. Meanwhile, Aramis meets the governor of the Bastille M. de Baisemeaux, and learns of a secret prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to Louis XIV. Aramis uses this secret to persuade the dying general of the Jesuits to name him his successor. After Buckingham leaves France, the Comte de Guiche grows besotted with Henrietta, as soon does Louis XIV. To avoid her new husband being jealous Henrietta suggests that the king choose a young lady at court to act as a smokescreen for their flirtation. They select Louise de la Valliere for this part, but during the fete, the king overhears Louise confess her attraction for him to friends, and promptly forgets his affection for Henrietta. That same night Henrietta hears de Guiche confess his love for her to Raoul. The two pursue their own love affair. Aware of Louise's attachment, the king sends Raoul to England indefinitely as a diplomatic envoy. Rumours of the king's love affair cause friction with de Wardes, who has inherited from his father a hatred of d'Artagnan and all those associated with him. De Guiche is forced to fight a duel with him and is defeated and seriously wounded. The incident is the last straw for Madame Henrietta who resolves to dismiss Louise from her service as Maid of Honour. The king dissuades Henrietta, but she prevents the king from seeing Louise. The king circumvents Henrietta, and so she contacts her brother King Charles II, imploring him to eject Raoul from England. On his return to France, Raoul is heartbroken to discover Louise in the arms of the king. Athos finds out everything and spits his contempt at Louis XIV. The young King orders Athos's imprisonment, but D'Artagnan convinces him to release him. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later ( ) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is the third and last of The d'Artagnan Romances, following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. It appeared first in serial form between 1847 and 1850.
In the English translations, the 268 chapters of this large volume are usually subdivided into three, but sometimes four or even six individual books. In three-volume English editions the volumes are entitled The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière, and The Man in the Iron Mask. Each volume is roughly the length of the original The Three Musketeers (1844).
In four-volume editions volume names remain except that Louise de la Vallière and The Man in the Iron Mask move from second and third volumes to third and fourth, with Ten Years Later becoming the second volume.
Set in the 1660s and concerned with the early reign of Louis XIV, the novel has been called an "origins" story of the King, "a tale about the education of a young man who went on to rule for over 70 years and become one of France's most beloved monarchs." Naturally, in a novel about Dumas' musketeers, the characters play an important role in Louis' education.
Plot
The principal heroes of the novel are the musketeers. The novel's length finds it frequently broken into smaller parts. The narrative is set between 1660 and 1673 against the background of the transformation of Louis XIV from child monarch to Sun King.
Part One: The Vicomte of Bragelonne (Chapters 1–93)
After 35 years of loyal service, d'Artagnan resigns as captain of the Musketeers as he perceives the young king Louis XIV as weak-willed. He resolves to aid the exiled Charles II to retake the throne of England, unaware that Athos is attempting the same. With their assistance Charles II is restored to the throne and d'Artagnan is rewarded richly.
In France, Cardinal Mazarin has died, leaving Louis to assume power with Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his finance minister. Colbert has an intense hatred for his superior the king's Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, and tries to bring about his fall. He brings to the king's attention that Fouquet is fortifying his fief of Belle Île secretly. Louis persuades d'Artagnan to re-enter his service, and tasks him to investigate Belle Île, promising him a substantial salary and promotion to Captain of the King's Musketeers on his return. Louis, finally growing into a decisive ruler, also accepts an offer relayed by Athos from Charles II to marry Louis' brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans to Charles' sister Henrietta Anne Stuart.
D'Artagnan confirms that Belle Île is being fortified and the architect ostensibly in charge is Porthos, though the drawings show the handwriting of Aramis, who is now the bishop of Vannes. Aramis, suspicious of d'Artagnan, sends Porthos back to Paris to warn Fouquet, whilst tricking d'Artagnan into searching for Porthos around Vannes. Porthos warns Fouquet in the nick of time, and he cedes Belle Île to the king, humiliating Colbert. On returning from the mission, d'Artagnan is made Captain of the King's Musketeers anyway.
Meanwhile, Princess Henrietta arrives in France escorted by the second Duke of Buckingham, to be met by an embassy consisting of Raoul de Bragelonne, the illegitimate son of Athos; his close friend Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche; and the Comte de Wardes, son of the previous Comte de Wardes from The Three Musketeers. The erratic Buckingham is madly in love with the princess and can scarcely conceal it, while Guiche soon finds himself equally smitten. Philippe, though little attracted to women, becomes horribly jealous of Buckingham and has him exiled after the wedding.
Part Two: Louise de la Vallière (Chapters 94–180)
This part mostly concerns romantic events at the court of Louis XIV. Raoul de Bragelonne finds his childhood sweetheart, Louise de La Vallière, is maid of honour to the Princess. Fearing a tarnishing of Louise's reputation by affairs at court, Raoul seeks to marry her. His father, Athos, the Comte de la Fère, disapproves, but eventually, out of love for his son, reluctantly agrees. The king, however, refuses to sanction the marriage because Louise is of inferior social status, and so marriage is delayed.
Meanwhile, the struggle for power begins between Fouquet and Colbert. Louis attempts to impoverish Fouquet by asking for money to pay for a grand fête at Fontainebleau. Meanwhile, Aramis meets the governor of the Bastille M. de Baisemeaux, and learns of a secret prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to Louis XIV. Aramis uses this secret to persuade the dying general of the Jesuits to name him his successor.
After Buckingham leaves France, the Comte de Guiche grows besotted with Henrietta, as soon does Louis XIV. To avoid her new husband being jealous Henrietta suggests that the king choose a young lady at court to act as a smokescreen for their flirtation. They select Louise de la Vallière for this part, but during the fête, the king overhears Louise confess her attraction for him to friends, and promptly forgets his affection for Henrietta. That same night Henrietta hears de Guiche confess his love for her to Raoul. The two pursue their own love affair. Aware of Louise's attachment, the king sends Raoul to England indefinitely as a diplomatic envoy.
Rumours of the king's love affair cause friction with de Wardes, who has inherited from his father a hatred of d'Artagnan and all those associated with him. De Guiche is forced to fight a duel with him and is defeated and seriously wounded. The incident is the last straw for Madame Henrietta who resolves to dismiss Louise from her service as Maid of Honour. The king dissuades Henrietta, but she prevents the king from seeing Louise. The king circumvents Henrietta, and so she contacts her brother King Charles II, imploring him to eject Raoul from England. On his return to France, Raoul is heartbroken to discover Louise in the arms of the king.
Athos finds out everything and spits his contempt at Louis XIV. The young King orders Athos's imprisonment, but D'Artagnan convinces him to release him.
Part Three: The Man in the Iron Mask (Chapters 181–269)
Dumas constructs the plot around the notion that the Man in the Iron Mask is the twin brother of Louis XIV, Philippe, who had been concealed and imprisoned from birth by his father, Louis XIII, and his mother, Anne of Austria, "for the good of France". Only a very few people living at the start of the novel know of Philippe's existence; these include his mother, Anne, and her former confidante, the Duchesse de Chevreuse. Chevreuse has let the secret slip to Aramis when they had an affair.
Aramis plots to replace Louis with Philippe as a puppet ruler for himself and Fouquet, and even intends to become in turn the next Pope.
Through an elaborate subterfuge mounted by Aramis, Philippe replaces a prisoner due for release from the Bastille and escapes to Vaux. Meanwhile, Fouquet is throwing a lavish party for Louis at Vaux. Colbert poisons the king further against Fouquet.
While the king is still visiting Fouquet at Vaux, Aramis initiates the second half of his plan and abducts Louis, imprisoning Louis in the Bastille in Philippe's place. He then substitutes Philippe for the King. Porthos is an uncomprehending accomplice in all this, believing that he is removing an impostor instead of the real king.
Aramis conspiratorially informs Fouquet of his acts, but Fouquet wants no part in such treachery and rushes to the Bastille, rescues Louis, and brings him back to Vaux to confront Philippe. Realising that his plot has unravelled, Aramis flees for Belle Île to escape the king's impending wrath, taking Porthos with him. Louis regains the throne with d'Artagnan's help, ending Philippe's brief reign. Louis banishes Philippe, ordering that "he will cover his face with an iron visor" which he "cannot raise without peril of his life."
Athos and Raoul meet Aramis and Porthos who relate their predicament before receiving horses to aid their journey to Belle Île. They next meet the Duc de Beaufort, on his way to Algiers for an expedition against the Barbary corsairs. Raoul, devastated by the king's love affair with Louise, volunteers to join the Duc in his expedition. Soon Raoul is off to war in North Africa, and Athos is retired.
Despite Fouquet's refusal to go along with Aramis's plot, Louis orders d'Artagnan to arrest him, which he manages following an epic chase. Louis then orders d'Artagnan to arrest Porthos and Aramis. D'Artagnan feigns compliance whilst secretly giving his friends time to escape. However, Colbert discerns d'Artagnan's sympathies and undermines him. D'Artagnan resigns on learning that prisoners are to be executed immediately once arrested.
Attempting an escape from Belle Île, Porthos is killed, while Aramis escapes to sea, remorseful for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, Athos returns to his estates and lapses into decline. On hearing that Raoul has died in action at Gigelli, Athos succumbs to grief and dies. Meanwhile, the detained d'Artagnan is freed by King Louis and reinstated. He learns of Porthos' death and Aramis' escape.
Thanks to the secret power of the Jesuits, which he now commands, Aramis reaches Spain and becomes her ambassador to France. Louise de la Vallière is eventually supplanted in the king's affections by her erstwhile friend Madame de Montespan. Louis grows in power and stature and embarks on a military campaign against the Dutch Republic, with d'Artagnan commanding the offensive. D'Artagnan is wounded in battle at the Siege of Maastricht moments after reading he is to be made Marshal of France. His final words: "Athos, Porthos, au revoir! Aramis, adieu forever!" While these final words are fictional, the historical Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan on whom Dumas' character is based was indeed killed at Maastricht.
First English translation
The Vicomte of Bragelonne (1850) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
Ten Years Later (1845) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
Louise de la Vallière (1849) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1847) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
New English translation by Lawrence Ellsworth
The book is being translated by Lawrence Ellsworth (Lawrence Schick) into modern English for the first time in over a century. The first two volumes were published in book format and the rest of the book is being serially published online on Substack every week. The book is divided into 5 volumes.
Between Two Kings (July 2021) - 50 chapters
Court of Daggers (serialised online from 19 April to 05 November 2022) - 44 chapters (book form: January 2023)
Devil’s Dance (serialised online from 12 November 2022 to 2023 - in progress) - 54 chapters (book form: TBA)
The Shadow of the Bastille (2024) - 57 chapters
The Man in the Iron Mask (2025) - 64 chapters
Analysis
French academic Jean-Yves Tadié has argued that the beginning of King Louis XIV's personal rule is the novel's real subject.
Reception
In his essay "On a Romance of Dumas's", author and critic Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that "it is in the character of D'Artagnan, that we must look for the spirit of morality, which is one of the main joys of its perusal, and sets it high above more popular rivals."
However, Arthur F. Davidson argues in Alexandre Dumas: His Life and Works that The Vicomte is truly the story of Porthos, whose character was informed by Dumas' own experiences and his father's: "The modern reader may draw back aghast at the six volumes of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, but he will have missed the best part of the Musketeer cycle should he fail to read those pages which describe the end of Porthos."
Adaptations
The third section of the novel, The Man in the Iron Mask, has been adapted many times in film, television and other media; see Man in the Iron Mask#In popular culture.
The three-part fantasy novel The Viscount of Adrilankha (2002–2004) by Steven Brust is loosely based on The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
Notes
External links
d'Artagnan Romances (in English translation) at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Category:1847 French novels
Category:Novels by Alexandre Dumas
Category:The Three Musketeers
Category:Man in the Iron Mask
Category:Works about Louis XIV
Category:Fictional viscounts and viscountesses
Category:Novels set in the 1660s
Category:Novels set in the 1670s
Category:French historical novels
Category:Cultural depictions of Molière
Category:Cultural depictions of Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Category:French novels adapted into films
Category:Novels adapted into comics
Category:Novels set in Early Modern France
Category:Novels set in prison
Category:Novels first published in serial form
Category:Sequel novels
Category:Cultural depictions of Charles II of England | [] | [
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C_94196b0fc8b74ddfbf20468d6ce6a1a5_1 | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (French: Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard [l@ vikot d@ bRaZ@lon u diz_a ply taR]) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas. | Part One: The Vicomte of Bragelonne (Chapters 1-93) | After 35 years of loyal service, d'Artagnan resigns as lieutenant of the Musketeers as he perceives the young king Louis XIV as weak-willed. He resolves to aid the exiled Charles II to retake the throne of England, unaware that Athos is attempting the same. With their assistance Charles II is restored to the throne and d'Artagnan is rewarded richly. In France, Cardinal Mazarin has died, leaving Louis to assume power with Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his finance minister. Colbert has an intense hatred for his superior the king's Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, and tries to bring about his fall. He brings to the king's attention that Fouquet is fortifying his fief of Belle Ile secretly. Louis persuades d'Artagnan to re-enter his service, and tasks him to investigate Belle Ile, promising him a substantial salary and promotion to Captain of the King's Musketeers on his return. Louis, finally growing into a decisive ruler, also accepts an offer relayed by Athos from Charles II to marry his brother Philippe I, Duke of Orleans to Charles' sister Henrietta Anne Stuart. D'Artagnan confirms that Belle Ile is being fortified and the architect ostensibly in charge is Porthos, though the blueprints show the handwriting of Aramis, who is now the bishop of Vannes. Aramis, suspicious of d'Artagnan, sends Porthos back to Paris to warn Fouquet, whilst tricking d'Artagnan into searching for Porthos around Vannes. Porthos warns Fouquet in the nick of time, and he cedes Belle Ile to the king, humiliating Colbert. On returning from the mission, d'Artagnan is made Captain of the King's Musketeers anyway. Meanwhile, Princess Henrietta arrives in France escorted by the second Duke of Buckingham, to be met by an embassy consisting of Raoul de Bragelonne, his close friend Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche, and the Comte de Wardes, son of the previous Comte de Wardes from The Three Musketeers. The erratic Buckingham is madly in love with the princess and can scarcely conceal it, while Guiche soon finds himself equally smitten. Philippe, though little attracted to women, becomes horribly jealous of Buckingham and has him exiled after the wedding. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later ( ) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas. It is the third and last of The d'Artagnan Romances, following The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After. It appeared first in serial form between 1847 and 1850.
In the English translations, the 268 chapters of this large volume are usually subdivided into three, but sometimes four or even six individual books. In three-volume English editions the volumes are entitled The Vicomte de Bragelonne, Louise de la Vallière, and The Man in the Iron Mask. Each volume is roughly the length of the original The Three Musketeers (1844).
In four-volume editions volume names remain except that Louise de la Vallière and The Man in the Iron Mask move from second and third volumes to third and fourth, with Ten Years Later becoming the second volume.
Set in the 1660s and concerned with the early reign of Louis XIV, the novel has been called an "origins" story of the King, "a tale about the education of a young man who went on to rule for over 70 years and become one of France's most beloved monarchs." Naturally, in a novel about Dumas' musketeers, the characters play an important role in Louis' education.
Plot
The principal heroes of the novel are the musketeers. The novel's length finds it frequently broken into smaller parts. The narrative is set between 1660 and 1673 against the background of the transformation of Louis XIV from child monarch to Sun King.
Part One: The Vicomte of Bragelonne (Chapters 1–93)
After 35 years of loyal service, d'Artagnan resigns as captain of the Musketeers as he perceives the young king Louis XIV as weak-willed. He resolves to aid the exiled Charles II to retake the throne of England, unaware that Athos is attempting the same. With their assistance Charles II is restored to the throne and d'Artagnan is rewarded richly.
In France, Cardinal Mazarin has died, leaving Louis to assume power with Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his finance minister. Colbert has an intense hatred for his superior the king's Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet, and tries to bring about his fall. He brings to the king's attention that Fouquet is fortifying his fief of Belle Île secretly. Louis persuades d'Artagnan to re-enter his service, and tasks him to investigate Belle Île, promising him a substantial salary and promotion to Captain of the King's Musketeers on his return. Louis, finally growing into a decisive ruler, also accepts an offer relayed by Athos from Charles II to marry Louis' brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans to Charles' sister Henrietta Anne Stuart.
D'Artagnan confirms that Belle Île is being fortified and the architect ostensibly in charge is Porthos, though the drawings show the handwriting of Aramis, who is now the bishop of Vannes. Aramis, suspicious of d'Artagnan, sends Porthos back to Paris to warn Fouquet, whilst tricking d'Artagnan into searching for Porthos around Vannes. Porthos warns Fouquet in the nick of time, and he cedes Belle Île to the king, humiliating Colbert. On returning from the mission, d'Artagnan is made Captain of the King's Musketeers anyway.
Meanwhile, Princess Henrietta arrives in France escorted by the second Duke of Buckingham, to be met by an embassy consisting of Raoul de Bragelonne, the illegitimate son of Athos; his close friend Armand de Gramont, Comte de Guiche; and the Comte de Wardes, son of the previous Comte de Wardes from The Three Musketeers. The erratic Buckingham is madly in love with the princess and can scarcely conceal it, while Guiche soon finds himself equally smitten. Philippe, though little attracted to women, becomes horribly jealous of Buckingham and has him exiled after the wedding.
Part Two: Louise de la Vallière (Chapters 94–180)
This part mostly concerns romantic events at the court of Louis XIV. Raoul de Bragelonne finds his childhood sweetheart, Louise de La Vallière, is maid of honour to the Princess. Fearing a tarnishing of Louise's reputation by affairs at court, Raoul seeks to marry her. His father, Athos, the Comte de la Fère, disapproves, but eventually, out of love for his son, reluctantly agrees. The king, however, refuses to sanction the marriage because Louise is of inferior social status, and so marriage is delayed.
Meanwhile, the struggle for power begins between Fouquet and Colbert. Louis attempts to impoverish Fouquet by asking for money to pay for a grand fête at Fontainebleau. Meanwhile, Aramis meets the governor of the Bastille M. de Baisemeaux, and learns of a secret prisoner who bears a striking resemblance to Louis XIV. Aramis uses this secret to persuade the dying general of the Jesuits to name him his successor.
After Buckingham leaves France, the Comte de Guiche grows besotted with Henrietta, as soon does Louis XIV. To avoid her new husband being jealous Henrietta suggests that the king choose a young lady at court to act as a smokescreen for their flirtation. They select Louise de la Vallière for this part, but during the fête, the king overhears Louise confess her attraction for him to friends, and promptly forgets his affection for Henrietta. That same night Henrietta hears de Guiche confess his love for her to Raoul. The two pursue their own love affair. Aware of Louise's attachment, the king sends Raoul to England indefinitely as a diplomatic envoy.
Rumours of the king's love affair cause friction with de Wardes, who has inherited from his father a hatred of d'Artagnan and all those associated with him. De Guiche is forced to fight a duel with him and is defeated and seriously wounded. The incident is the last straw for Madame Henrietta who resolves to dismiss Louise from her service as Maid of Honour. The king dissuades Henrietta, but she prevents the king from seeing Louise. The king circumvents Henrietta, and so she contacts her brother King Charles II, imploring him to eject Raoul from England. On his return to France, Raoul is heartbroken to discover Louise in the arms of the king.
Athos finds out everything and spits his contempt at Louis XIV. The young King orders Athos's imprisonment, but D'Artagnan convinces him to release him.
Part Three: The Man in the Iron Mask (Chapters 181–269)
Dumas constructs the plot around the notion that the Man in the Iron Mask is the twin brother of Louis XIV, Philippe, who had been concealed and imprisoned from birth by his father, Louis XIII, and his mother, Anne of Austria, "for the good of France". Only a very few people living at the start of the novel know of Philippe's existence; these include his mother, Anne, and her former confidante, the Duchesse de Chevreuse. Chevreuse has let the secret slip to Aramis when they had an affair.
Aramis plots to replace Louis with Philippe as a puppet ruler for himself and Fouquet, and even intends to become in turn the next Pope.
Through an elaborate subterfuge mounted by Aramis, Philippe replaces a prisoner due for release from the Bastille and escapes to Vaux. Meanwhile, Fouquet is throwing a lavish party for Louis at Vaux. Colbert poisons the king further against Fouquet.
While the king is still visiting Fouquet at Vaux, Aramis initiates the second half of his plan and abducts Louis, imprisoning Louis in the Bastille in Philippe's place. He then substitutes Philippe for the King. Porthos is an uncomprehending accomplice in all this, believing that he is removing an impostor instead of the real king.
Aramis conspiratorially informs Fouquet of his acts, but Fouquet wants no part in such treachery and rushes to the Bastille, rescues Louis, and brings him back to Vaux to confront Philippe. Realising that his plot has unravelled, Aramis flees for Belle Île to escape the king's impending wrath, taking Porthos with him. Louis regains the throne with d'Artagnan's help, ending Philippe's brief reign. Louis banishes Philippe, ordering that "he will cover his face with an iron visor" which he "cannot raise without peril of his life."
Athos and Raoul meet Aramis and Porthos who relate their predicament before receiving horses to aid their journey to Belle Île. They next meet the Duc de Beaufort, on his way to Algiers for an expedition against the Barbary corsairs. Raoul, devastated by the king's love affair with Louise, volunteers to join the Duc in his expedition. Soon Raoul is off to war in North Africa, and Athos is retired.
Despite Fouquet's refusal to go along with Aramis's plot, Louis orders d'Artagnan to arrest him, which he manages following an epic chase. Louis then orders d'Artagnan to arrest Porthos and Aramis. D'Artagnan feigns compliance whilst secretly giving his friends time to escape. However, Colbert discerns d'Artagnan's sympathies and undermines him. D'Artagnan resigns on learning that prisoners are to be executed immediately once arrested.
Attempting an escape from Belle Île, Porthos is killed, while Aramis escapes to sea, remorseful for the first time in his life. Meanwhile, Athos returns to his estates and lapses into decline. On hearing that Raoul has died in action at Gigelli, Athos succumbs to grief and dies. Meanwhile, the detained d'Artagnan is freed by King Louis and reinstated. He learns of Porthos' death and Aramis' escape.
Thanks to the secret power of the Jesuits, which he now commands, Aramis reaches Spain and becomes her ambassador to France. Louise de la Vallière is eventually supplanted in the king's affections by her erstwhile friend Madame de Montespan. Louis grows in power and stature and embarks on a military campaign against the Dutch Republic, with d'Artagnan commanding the offensive. D'Artagnan is wounded in battle at the Siege of Maastricht moments after reading he is to be made Marshal of France. His final words: "Athos, Porthos, au revoir! Aramis, adieu forever!" While these final words are fictional, the historical Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan on whom Dumas' character is based was indeed killed at Maastricht.
First English translation
The Vicomte of Bragelonne (1850) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
Ten Years Later (1845) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
Louise de la Vallière (1849) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1847) - Published by George Routledge (1893)
New English translation by Lawrence Ellsworth
The book is being translated by Lawrence Ellsworth (Lawrence Schick) into modern English for the first time in over a century. The first two volumes were published in book format and the rest of the book is being serially published online on Substack every week. The book is divided into 5 volumes.
Between Two Kings (July 2021) - 50 chapters
Court of Daggers (serialised online from 19 April to 05 November 2022) - 44 chapters (book form: January 2023)
Devil’s Dance (serialised online from 12 November 2022 to 2023 - in progress) - 54 chapters (book form: TBA)
The Shadow of the Bastille (2024) - 57 chapters
The Man in the Iron Mask (2025) - 64 chapters
Analysis
French academic Jean-Yves Tadié has argued that the beginning of King Louis XIV's personal rule is the novel's real subject.
Reception
In his essay "On a Romance of Dumas's", author and critic Robert Louis Stevenson wrote that "it is in the character of D'Artagnan, that we must look for the spirit of morality, which is one of the main joys of its perusal, and sets it high above more popular rivals."
However, Arthur F. Davidson argues in Alexandre Dumas: His Life and Works that The Vicomte is truly the story of Porthos, whose character was informed by Dumas' own experiences and his father's: "The modern reader may draw back aghast at the six volumes of Le Vicomte de Bragelonne, but he will have missed the best part of the Musketeer cycle should he fail to read those pages which describe the end of Porthos."
Adaptations
The third section of the novel, The Man in the Iron Mask, has been adapted many times in film, television and other media; see Man in the Iron Mask#In popular culture.
The three-part fantasy novel The Viscount of Adrilankha (2002–2004) by Steven Brust is loosely based on The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
Notes
External links
d'Artagnan Romances (in English translation) at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Category:1847 French novels
Category:Novels by Alexandre Dumas
Category:The Three Musketeers
Category:Man in the Iron Mask
Category:Works about Louis XIV
Category:Fictional viscounts and viscountesses
Category:Novels set in the 1660s
Category:Novels set in the 1670s
Category:French historical novels
Category:Cultural depictions of Molière
Category:Cultural depictions of Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Category:French novels adapted into films
Category:Novels adapted into comics
Category:Novels set in Early Modern France
Category:Novels set in prison
Category:Novels first published in serial form
Category:Sequel novels
Category:Cultural depictions of Charles II of England | [] | [
"This is a historical story set in the era of King Louis XIV of France. The protagonist, d'Artagnan, is the lieutenant of the Musketeers who has recently resigned but is coaxed back into service by the king to investigate the fortification of Belle Ile by Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances. The finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, seeks the downfall of Fouquet which is achieved when d'Artagnan confirms the fortification, leading to Fouquet's humiliation. Also unfolding is the royally arranged marriage between Philippe I, Duke of Orleans and Princess Henrietta of England, who arrives in France and sparks romantic interest from the Duke of Buckingham and Comte de Guiche. However, Philippe becomes jealous and Buckingham is exiled post wedding.",
"D'Artagnan decides to resign from his position as the lieutenant of the Musketeers because he perceives King Louis XIV as weak-willed. This presumably led him to lose faith or confidence in his leadership, prompting the resignation.",
"After d'Artagnan resigned, he helped the exiled Charles II retake the throne of England. After Cardinal Mazarin's death in France, Louis brought d'Artagnan back into his service to investigate Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finance who was secretly fortifying his fief of Belle Ile. D'Artagnan found that Belle Ile was indeed being fortified, thus leading to Fouquet's humiliation and the elevation of Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Despite the trouble, d'Artagnan was promoted to Captain of the King's Musketeers. Louis also accepted a marriage offer for his brother Philippe from Charles II.",
"The text does not provide specific details on how d'Artagnan helped Charles II retake the throne of England. It only mentions that with d'Artagnan's assistance, and potentially the assistance of Athos, Charles II was restored to the throne.",
"After assisting Charles II in reclaiming the throne, d'Artagnan is rewarded richly. Back in France, King Louis XIV persuades him to re-enter his service and tasks him with investigating the fortification of Belle Ile by Nicolas Fouquet. In exchange for this service, Louis promises d'Artagnan a substantial salary and a promotion to Captain of the King's Musketeers. Louis also accepts an offer for his brother Philippe I to marry Charles II's sister, Henrietta Anne Stuart. When d'Artagnan confirms the fortification of Belle Ile and delivers this news to Louis, Fouquet is humiliated while d'Artagnan becomes Captain of the King's Musketeers. Meanwhile, Princess Henrietta arrives in France for her marriage to Philippe and stirs romantic feelings in certain men, leading to the exile of the Duke of Buckingham.",
"The text doesn't provide explicit details about how d'Artagnan did once he was promoted to Captain of the King's Musketeers. However, he was able to successfully complete the mission given to him by King Louis XIV, which was to investigate the fortification of Belle Ile by Nicolas Fouquet, leading to Fouquet's humiliation. This could imply that he was effective in his new position of power.",
"Aside from the political maneuverings and espionage, an interesting aspect in this context is the love and jealousy that unfolds surrounding the marriage of Philippe I, Duke of Orleans, and Princess Henrietta. The Duke of Buckingham and Comte de Guiche find themselves infatuated with the princess, causing turmoil. Despite having little interest in women himself, Philippe becomes jealous of Buckingham and ultimately exiles him after the wedding. This subplot adds drama and intrigue to the overall political narrative.",
"King Louis XIV took over power in France after Cardinal Mazarin's death and appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as his finance minister. He persuaded d'Artagnan to rejoin his service and tasked him with investigating the suspicious actions of Nicolas Fouquet, promising him a significant salary increase and a promotion. He also agreed to a marriage arrangement between his brother Philippe I and Charles II's sister, Princess Henrietta Anne Stuart. Following d'Artagnan's successful mission exposing Fouquet, Louis made him Captain of the King's Musketeers.",
"During his investigation, d'Artagnan confirmed that Belle Ile was being fortified. Furthermore, he discovered that the architect seemingly in charge was Porthos, yet the handwriting on the blueprints belonged to Aramis, a bishop of Vannes. This information led to the downfall of Nicolas Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances who had ordered the fortification in secrecy.",
"Also of note is the involvement of the second Duke of Buckingham who is deeply in love with Princess Henrietta. This love triangle, involving Comte de Guiche and causing the jealousy of Philippe leading to Buckingham's exile post-wedding, adds another layer of drama and intrigue to the narrative. Furthermore, the character of Aramis, who has become the bishop of Vannes and is portayed as cunning, adds to the suspense and complexity of the story."
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C_24fae4c531c0415684cfb97d48eb389f_0 | Nolan Ryan | Ryan was born in Refugio, south of Victoria in south Texas, the youngest of six children, to Lynn Nolan Ryan Sr. (1907-1970), and the former Martha Lee Hancock (1913-1990). The senior Ryan operated a newspaper delivery service for the Houston Post that required him to rise in the early morning hours to prepare 1,500 newspapers for delivery over a 55-mile route. The children were expected to help with the daily tasks. | Later activity | Nolan Ryan's post-retirement business interests include ownership of two minor league teams: the Corpus Christi Hooks, which play in the Class AA Texas League, and the Round Rock Express, a Class AAA team in the Pacific Coast League. Both teams were affiliates of the Houston Astros, for whom Ryan also served as a special assistant to the general manager until selling his interest in the team in the off-season between 2004 and 2005. He became the president of the Texas Rangers in 2008. The Express became the Rangers' AAA affiliate beginning in 2010; the Hooks are still the Astros' AA affiliate and were purchased by the Astros in 2013 when Nolan's son, Reid Ryan, took office as President of the Houston Astros. Ryan threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2005 World Series between the Astros and the White Sox, the first World Series game ever played in Texas. That game went 14 innings, equaling the longest in innings in World Series history (at 5:41, it was the longest in time). ESPN wryly suggested the Astros might have needed to pull the 58-year-old Ryan out of retirement if the game had gone much longer. Ryan has co-written six books: autobiographies Miracle Man (with Jerry Jenkins, 1992), Throwing Heat (with Harvey Frommer, 1988) and The Road to Cooperstown (with Mickey Herskowitz and T.R. Sullivan, 1999); Kings of the Hill (with Mickey Herskowitz, 1992), about contemporary pitchers; and instructional books Pitching and Hitting (with Joe Torre and Joel Cohen, 1977), and Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible (with Tom House, 1991). In addition to his baseball activities, Ryan was majority owner and chairman of Express Bank of Alvin but sold his interest in 2005. He also owned a restaurant in Three Rivers, Texas. He served on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1995 to 2001. He appeared as a TV spokesman for Advil for several years, promoting the pain medication he recommended for his own arm. He also has appeared in various television commercials shown in the Texas market. After retiring from baseball, Ryan teamed up with the federal government to promote physical fitness. His likeness was used in the "Nolan Ryan Fitness Guide", published by The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1994. Ryan suffered a heart attack on April 25, 2000, and had to receive a double coronary bypass. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. (born January 31, 1947), nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanning four decades, Ryan pitched for the New York Mets, California Angels, Houston Astros, and Texas Rangers. After his retirement in 1993, Ryan served as chief executive officer (CEO) of the Texas Rangers and an executive advisor to the Houston Astros. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest MLB pitchers of all time. Ryan was a right-handed pitcher who consistently threw pitches that were clocked above 100 miles per hour (161 km/h). He maintained this velocity throughout his pitching career. Ryan was also known to throw a devastating 12–6 curveball at exceptional velocity for a breaking ball.
Ryan had a lifetime win–loss record of 324–292 (.526) and was an eight-time All-Star. He has 5,714 career strikeouts, an MLB record that is 839 more than runner-up Randy Johnson. Similarly, Ryan's 2,795 bases on balls lead second-place Steve Carlton by 962 – walking over 50% more hitters than any other pitcher in MLB history. Ryan's lifetime batting average against of .204 is also a major league record. Ryan, Pedro Martínez, Randy Johnson, Trevor Hoffman, and Sandy Koufax are the only five pitchers inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame who had more strikeouts than innings pitched. Ryan is one of only three players in history to have his number retired by at least three teams, along with Jackie Robinson (whose number was retired by Major League Baseball) and Frank Robinson.
Ryan is the all-time leader in no-hitters with seven, three more than any other pitcher. He is tied with Bob Feller for the most one-hitters, with 12. Ryan also pitched 18 two-hitters. Despite this, he never pitched a perfect game, nor did he ever win a Cy Young Award; both were largely attributed to his high walk rate. Ryan is one of only 29 players in baseball history to have appeared in MLB games in four different decades.
Early life
Nolan Ryan was born on January 31, 1947, in Refugio, Texas, a small town located just south of Victoria in the southern part of the state. Ryan was the youngest of six children born to Martha Lee (née Hancock; 1913–1990) and Lynn Nolan Ryan Sr. (1907–1970). The senior Ryan operated a newspaper delivery service for the Houston Post that required him to rise in the early morning hours to prepare 1,500 newspapers for delivery over a 55-mile route. The children were expected to help with the daily tasks. Ryan's family lived in nearby Woodsboro, Texas, in Refugio County, until they moved to Alvin, Texas, in Brazoria County, when Nolan was six weeks old. As a young boy, Nolan enjoyed throwing objects at any target. His father thought baseball a better usage for his arm; therefore, he encouraged Nolan to play the game.
Ryan joined Alvin Little League Baseball when he was nine, made the all-star team when he was 11 and 12, and pitched the first no-hitter of his life a few years later. Ryan also played various positions besides pitcher. In junior high school, Ryan could throw a softball over 100 yards. After ninth grade, Ryan quit playing football after a tackle and fumble caused by future NFL running back Norm Bulaich made him decide to focus on baseball.
Ryan played baseball for Coach Jim Watson at Alvin High School for all of his high school career. Ryan held the school's single game strikeout record for 44 years, striking out 21 hitters in a 7-inning game. The record was eventually tied by Alvin High School pitchers Aaron Stewart and Josh Land in the same week in 2009. In 1963, at an Alvin High School game at Clear Creek High School in League City, Texas, Red Murff, a scout for the New York Mets, first noticed sophomore pitcher Ryan. Coach Watson recounted to Murff that some opponents refused to bat against Ryan and how his hard pitches would sometimes break bones in his catchers' hands. In his subsequent report to the Mets, Murff stated that Ryan had "the best arm I've seen in my life." The Mets later drafted Ryan. As a senior in 1965, Ryan had a 19–3 record and led the Alvin Yellow Jackets to the Texas high school state finals. Ryan pitched in 27 games, with 20 starts. He had 12 complete games, with 211 strikeouts and 61 walks.
Professional career
Draft and minor leagues
In 1965, after graduating from Alvin, Ryan was drafted by the New York Mets in the 12th round of the 1965 Major League Baseball draft, with the 295th overall pick. Ryan signed with the Mets and immediately pitched for the Marion Mets in the Appalachian League and for the Mets team in the Florida Instructional League. Overall, he was 6–9 in 1965 with a 4.33 ERA and 150 strikeouts in 120 innings. In 1966, Ryan pitched for the Class A Greenville Mets of the Western Carolinas League, where he went 17–2 with a 2.51 ERA and 272 strikeouts in 183 innings. He was then promoted to the Class AA Williamsport Mets of the Eastern League, where he was 0–2 with a 0.95 ERA, striking out 35 batters in 19 innings. Overall, Ryan had 307 strikeouts in 202 minor league innings in 1966, earning a late-season call-up to the New York Mets. In 1967, Ryan pitched three games in relief for the Class AAA Jacksonville Suns, started one game for the Class A Winter Haven Mets and pitched eight games for the Mets team in the Florida Instructional League. In 34 total innings, Ryan had 54 strikeouts in 1967.
New York Mets (1966, 1968–1971)
When Ryan was called up by the New York Mets in 1966, he was the second-youngest player in the league. Playing in only two games, his first strikeout was Pat Jarvis, and he gave up his first major league home run to Joe Torre.
Ryan missed much of the 1967 season due to illness, an arm injury, and service with the Army Reserve; he pitched only seven innings for the Mets' minor league affiliate in Jacksonville. In the 1968 season, Ryan returned to the major leagues, where he stayed until his retirement in 1993. Ryan was unable to crack the Mets' pitching rotation, led by Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman. Ryan was used more as a reliever and spot starter by the 1969 Mets. To deal with frequent blisters on his throwing hand he often soaked his fingers in pickle brine, although the technique's effectiveness was questioned by Ryan's teammates and coaches.
Ryan pitched well for the Mets in the 1969 postseason. Against the Atlanta Braves in the NLCS, Ryan completed a Mets sweep by throwing seven innings of relief in Game 3, getting his first playoff win (it took him 12 years to get another). Then in the 1969 World Series, Ryan saved Game 3, pitching shutout innings against the Baltimore Orioles. The Game 3 victory gave the Mets a 2–1 lead in the Series, which they went on to win in five games. It was Ryan's only World Series appearance in his career.
On April 18, 1970, Ryan tied a Mets record by striking out 15 batters in one game. Four days later, Ryan's teammate Seaver topped it with a then-MLB record 19 against the San Diego Padres (though Ryan tied this record four years later). Ryan has credited his time with Seaver and the Mets with turning him from just a flamethrower into a pitcher.
Ryan's performance declined sharply in the second half of his final season with the Mets. His earned run average for the first half of the 1971 season was 2.24; in the second half, it was 7.74. , this was the steepest second half increase in ERA for a starting pitcher in MLB history.
Ryan did not want to be traded from the Mets, and when it happened he felt betrayed by the team that drafted him. His views on this calmed only once he started running the Rangers and gained a better understanding of the business side of baseball.
In five seasons with the Mets, 105 games and 74 starts, Ryan had a 29–38 record, with a 3.58 ERA, 1.39 WHIP, with 344 walks and 493 strikeouts in 511 innings.
California Angels (1972–1979)
On December 10, 1971, the 25-year-old Ryan was traded to the California Angels along with pitcher Don Rose, catcher Francisco Estrada, and outfielder Leroy Stanton for shortstop Jim Fregosi (who later managed Ryan in Anaheim). The deal has been cited as one of the worst in Mets history, but was not viewed as unreasonable at the time given Ryan's relatively unremarkable numbers as a Met and Fregosi's good career to that point.
In his first season with the Angels, Ryan was given a chance to pitch regularly as a starter for the first time in his career, mainly because by then he had fulfilled his military obligation and no longer had to commute to Houston every other week. He had a league-leading 329 strikeouts—nearly a third more than the AL runner-up, and the fourth-highest total of the 20th century to that point. Within five seasons, the season was only Ryan's fourth-highest strikeout total. He also set a still-standing Major League record by allowing only 5.26 hits per nine innings, breaking Luis Tiant's 5.30 in 1968, as well as posting a 2.28 earned run average that year, to date the second-lowest in franchise history, trailing only Dean Chance's 1.65 in 1964. Though Ryan's actual winning percentage hovered only slightly over .500, his strikeouts and no-hitters brought him media attention. Meanwhile, Fregosi failed to produce as a Met, making no significant contribution to the Mets' 1973 pennant-winning campaign; he was sold to the Texas Rangers mid-season.
Although the Angels were a sub-.500 team and remained one for much of Ryan's time with them, he managed to post some winning records, notably 19–16 in 1972, 21–16 in 1973, and 22–16 in 1974 (the 22 wins tied what remains the Angels franchise record, set by Clyde Wright in 1970). He finished second in the Cy Young Award balloting (losing to Jim Palmer 88–62) in 1973. It was the closest he ever came to winning the award. Ryan also led the league in losses in 1976 with a 17–18 record (one short of the franchise record for losses). In the early 1970s, many teams used a four-man rotation and expected the starter to complete the game; thus most games Ryan started ended in a decision.
On July 9, 1972, Ryan struck out three batters on nine pitches in the second inning of a 3–0 win over the Boston Red Sox; he became the seventh American League pitcher to accomplish the immaculate inning, and the first pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the feat in both leagues (on April 19, 1968, he had struck out three batters on nine pitches in the second inning of a 2–1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, becoming the eighth National League pitcher and the 14th pitcher in Major League history to accomplish the feat).
In 1973, Ryan set his first major record when he struck out 383 batters in one season, beating Sandy Koufax's old mark by one. Remarking on this feat, Koufax joked, "Yeah, and he also surpassed my total for bases on balls in a single season by 91. I suspect half of those guys he struck out swung rather than get hit." Ryan threw two no-hitters in 1973. In the second one, on July 15 against the Detroit Tigers, he struck out 17 batters – the most in a recorded no-hitter. (This record was later tied by Max Scherzer on October 3, 2015.) Ryan was so dominant in this game, it led to one of baseball's best-remembered pranks. Tigers first baseman and cleanup hitter Norm Cash came to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, having already struck out twice, and was carrying a clubhouse table leg instead of a bat. Plate umpire Ron Luciano ordered Cash to go back and get a regulation bat, to which Cash replied, "Why? I won't hit him anyway!" With a regulation bat in hand, Cash did finally make contact, but popped out to end the game. Cash's teammate Mickey Stanley commented on facing Ryan that day by saying, "Those were the best pitches I ever heard."
Pitching 13 innings against the Boston Red Sox on June 14, 1974, Ryan threw 235 pitches, striking out 19, walking 10 and getting a no-decision.
During a September 7, 1974 game against the Chicago White Sox at Anaheim Stadium, Ryan became the first Major League pitcher to have his pitch speed measured during a game. A primitive radar gun clocked a ninth-inning fastball at when it was in front of home plate. This exceeded an earlier pitch by Bob Feller which was measured at at home plate and previously thought to be the fastest pitch ever recorded.
Ryan added a third no-hitter in 1974 and a fourth in 1975, tying another of Koufax's records. In 1974 he twice struck out 19 batters, tying Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton for the single-game record for a nine-inning game. Roger Clemens became the first pitcher with a 20-strikeout game in 1986.
The Angels finally made the playoffs in Ryan's eighth and final year there in 1979. He started Game 1 of the ALCS against the Baltimore Orioles and threw seven innings against the Orioles' Jim Palmer, but neither man was involved in the decision as Baltimore won in the 10th inning. Ryan was scheduled to pitch Game 5, but the Angels were eliminated in four. The season complete, Ryan became a free agent.
Ryan led the American League in strikeouts seven times during his eight seasons with the Angels, but he also led the league in walks in six of those years, and finished second the other two seasons: 1975 and 1979. Aside from Bob Feller in 1938, Ryan is the only man since 1900 to walk 200 batters in a season, which he did twice: in 1974 and 1977. Emblematic of this, his 1974 no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins included eight walks.
Though Ryan's strikeouts and no-hitters got him considerable media attention, he did not win over Angels general manager Buzzie Bavasi, who dismissed him as a flashy .500 pitcher (Ryan was 26–27 in the last two years he was with the Angels).
In his eight seasons with the Angels, Ryan was 138–121, a 3.07 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, with 1,302 walks and 2,416 strikeouts in 2181 innings over 288 starts and 156 complete games.
Houston Astros (1980–1988)
On November 19, 1979, Nolan Ryan became the first million-dollar player when he signed a four-year free-agent contract with the Houston Astros for $4.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ). The salary quadrupled what he had been making with the California Angels. The normally light-hitting Ryan got his Houston years started with a bang in a nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 12, 1980, when he hit a three-run home run off Don Sutton. It was the first of two homers in Ryan's career and produced half of the six RBIs he got that year. On July 4 of that season, at Riverfront Stadium, Ryan recorded his 3,000th career strikeout, the victim being César Gerónimo of the Cincinnati Reds (Gerónimo had also been Bob Gibson's 3,000th strikeout victim, in 1974). Ryan got his third taste of postseason play in 1980, but the Astros were stopped one game short of the World Series.
In the 1980 NLCS versus the Philadelphia Phillies, Ryan pitched well in Game 2, leaving the game tied 2–2 in the seventh (having contributed to both Astros runs with a run scored following a walk, and a sacrifice bunt leading to a run) but again got a no-decision in a game that went extra innings. In the fifth and final game of the series, Ryan and the Astros held a 5–2 lead entering the 8th inning. But Ryan allowed three consecutive singles before walking in the third run. The Houston bullpen allowed the Phillies to take a 7–5 lead, and only a game-tying Astro rally permitted Ryan to escape the loss.
On September 26, 1981, Ryan threw his fifth no-hitter, breaking Koufax's mark while becoming the third pitcher to throw a no-hitter in each league. That season, his 1.69 ERA won the National League ERA title.
Facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1981 NLDS, Ryan threw a complete game 2-hitter in the opener, outlasting the Dodgers' rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela. It was Ryan's second and last career postseason win. In the fifth and final game of the series, Ryan left trailing 3–0 and took the loss.
By the end of the 1982 season, both Ryan and Steve Carlton were approaching Walter Johnson's all-time strikeout record, sometimes passing one another's career totals in successive starts. On April 27, 1983, Ryan won the race with his 3,509th whiff, against Brad Mills of the Montreal Expos. (Carlton reached the same mark two weeks after Ryan, and Gaylord Perry did so later that season.) On July 11, 1985, Ryan struck out Danny Heep for his 4,000th career strikeout.
In 1986, Ryan's Astros faced the New York Mets in the National League Championship Series. Ryan had a shaky start in Game 2, taking the loss. He returned in Game 5, throwing 9 innings of 2-hit, 1-run, 12-strikeout ball, but one of those hits was a Darryl Strawberry home run which tied the game at 1, as Dwight Gooden matched Ryan pitch for pitch. Ryan got a no-decision as his Astros lost in 12 innings.
In 1987, Ryan led the major leagues in both ERA (2.76) and strikeouts (270) at the age of 40, but finished 8–16 as the result of extremely poor run support; the Astros scored a total of 27 runs in his 16 losses–an average of 1.69 runs per game. Despite his .333 winning percentage, Ryan tied for 5th place in the 1987 Cy Young voting. Ryan hit his second and final career home run in a 12–3 win on May 1, 1987, against the Atlanta Braves.
In nine seasons as a pitcher with the Astros (his longest tenure with any team), Ryan compiled a 106–94 record in 282 starts, a 3.13 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, with 796 walks and 1,866 strikeouts in 1,854 innings.
Texas Rangers (1989–1993)
Ryan left Houston after a contract dispute following the 1988 season and signed with the Texas Rangers at age 42. He became the first player to play for all four MLB original expansion teams: the Mets, Angels, Houston Colt .45s/ Astros and Washington Senators/Texas Rangers. (Ryan was joined in this category by Darren Oliver, who made his major league debut as Ryan's teammate in September 1993. Oliver's father Bob had also been a teammate of Ryan's, with the Angels from 1972 to 1974.) In 1989, he went 16–10 and led the league with 301 strikeouts. Against the Oakland Athletics on August 22, Ryan struck out Rickey Henderson to become the only pitcher to record 5,000 career strikeouts. Following the game, Henderson was quoted as saying, "If he ain't struck you out, then you ain't nobody." His 4,999th and 5,001st strikeouts were against the same man, Athletics catcher Ron Hassey. Two years later, at 44, Ryan finished fifth in the league in ERA (2.91) and third in strikeouts (203).
In 1990, Ryan threw his sixth no-hitter on June 11 against the Athletics, and earned his 300th win on July 31 against the Milwaukee Brewers. On May 1, 1991, at age 44, Ryan extended his record by throwing the seventh no-hitter of his career, striking out Roberto Alomar of the Toronto Blue Jays for the final out. On August 6, 1992, Ryan had the only ejection of his career when he was ejected after engaging in a shouting match with Oakland Athletics outfielder Willie Wilson with two outs in the eighth inning.
Before the 1993 season began, Ryan announced that he would retire as a player at the end of that season. On August 4, just before the end, Ryan had yet another high-profile moment—this time an on-the-mound fight. After Ryan hit Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox with a pitch, Ventura charged the mound in order to fight Ryan, who was 20 years his senior. Ryan secured the 26-year-old Ventura in a headlock with his left arm, while pummeling Ventura's head with his right fist six times before catcher Iván Rodríguez was able to pull Ventura away from Ryan. Ryan stated afterwards it was the same maneuver he used on steers he had to brand on his Texas ranch. Videos of the incident were played that evening throughout the country. While Ventura was ejected, Ryan–who had barely moved from his spot on the mound in the fracas–was allowed to remain in the game. White Sox manager Gene Lamont vehemently argued this, leading to his own ejection. Ryan pitched a hitless ball game the rest of the way. He had been determined to be more aggressive after coming out on the wrong side of an altercation with Dave Winfield in 1980.
Ryan's arm gave out in Seattle on September 22, 1993, when he tore a ligament. The injury ended his career two starts earlier than planned, at age 46. Ryan briefly attempted to pitch past the injury, and he threw one additional pitch after tearing his ligament. With his injured arm, his final pitch was measured at . Ryan's last start was his career-worst; he allowed a single, four walks, and a grand slam in the top of the first without recording an out. It was his record-setting 10th grand slam given up of his career. (Ryan left trailing 5–0, and the fourth walk was completed by a reliever after Ryan's injury, but credited to Ryan.) Greg Myers of the California Angels was the last strikeout victim of Nolan Ryan's career, on September 17, 1993.
Ryan finished his career having played in a major league record 27 seasons. He was the final active player from the 1960s to retire from Major League Baseball, outlasting Carlton Fisk (the final active position player) by three months.
In five seasons with the Rangers, Ryan had a 51–39 record, a 3.43 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, with 353 walks and 939 strikeouts in 840 innings over 129 starts.
Career statistics
Seven no-hitters
Ryan threw a record seven no-hitters during his major league career, three more than any other pitcher. The no-hitters spanned three decades of pitching. In those seven games, Ryan accumulated a total of 94 strikeouts and 26 walks; a ratio of 3.6 strikeouts per walk (his career K:BB was 2.0). Ryan struck out 17 in his no-hitter on July 15, 1973, versus Detroit and walked eight in his subsequent no-hitter against Minnesota, both respective highs for his no-hitters.
MLB records
Ryan holds 51 total MLB records, including:
5,714 career strikeouts (next-most is Randy Johnson with 4,875)
7 career no-hitters (next-most is Sandy Koufax with 4)
Lowest career batting average allowed (minimum 1,500 innings pitched): .204
12 career 1-hitters, tied with Bob Feller
18 career 2-hitters
31 career 3-hitters
15 200-strikeout seasons
6 300-strikeout seasons
4 career 19+ strikeout games
5 career 18+ strikeout games
8 career 17+ strikeout games
16 career 16+ strikeout games
26 career 15+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher
36 career 14+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher
56 career 13+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher
95 career 12+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher
151 career 11+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher
215 career 10+ strikeout games
282 career 9+ strikeout games
358 career 8+ strikeout games
447 career 7+ strikeout games
517 career 6+ strikeout games
596 career 5+ strikeout games
654 career 4+ strikeout games
710 career 3+ strikeout games
752 career 2+ strikeouts games
3 19+ strikeout games, single season (1974)
3 18+ strikeout games, single season (1974)
3 17+ strikeout games, single season (1974)
3 16+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher, single season (1972, 1974)
6 15+ strikeout games, single season (1974 - tied with Pedro Martinez)
15 12+ strikeout games, single season (1973)
18 11+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher, single season (1973)
23 10+ strikeout games, single season (1973 - tied with Randy Johnson)
26 9+ strikeout games, single season (1973)
29 8+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher, single season (1973)
32 7+ strikeout games by a right-handed pitcher, single season (1973)
36 6+ strikeout games, single season (1974 - tied with Sandy Koufax)
6.55 hits per nine innings pitched, career, minimum 1,000 innings (next-fewest is Sandy Koufax at 6.79)
5.26 single-season hits per nine innings (1972)
26 seasons with at least one win
Later activity
Nolan Ryan's post-retirement business interests include principal owner of Ryan Sanders Sports and Entertainment, which is the ownership group for the Round Rock Express, the Triple-A Affiliate of the Texas Rangers, among other businesses.
Ryan threw out the ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the 2005 World Series between the Astros and the White Sox, the first World Series game played in Texas. That game went 14 innings, equaling the longest in innings in World Series history (at 5:41, it was the longest in time). ESPN wryly suggested the Astros might have needed to pull the 58-year-old Ryan out of retirement if the game had gone much longer.
Ryan has co-written six books: autobiographies Miracle Man (with Jerry Jenkins, 1992), Throwing Heat (with Harvey Frommer, 1988) and The Road to Cooperstown (with Mickey Herskowitz and T.R. Sullivan, 1999); Kings of the Hill (with Mickey Herskowitz, 1992), about contemporary pitchers; and instructional books Pitching and Hitting (with Joe Torre and Joel Cohen, 1977), and Nolan Ryan's Pitcher's Bible (with Tom House, 1991).
In addition to his baseball activities, Ryan was majority owner and chairman of Express Bank of Alvin but sold his interest in 2005. He also owned a restaurant in Three Rivers, Texas. He served on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1995 to 2001. He appeared as a TV spokesman for Advil for several years, promoting the pain medication he recommended for his own arm. He also has appeared in various television commercials shown in the Texas market.
After retiring from baseball, Ryan teamed up with the federal government to promote physical fitness. His likeness was used in the "Nolan Ryan Fitness Guide", published by The President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports in 1994. Ryan suffered a heart attack on April 25, 2000, and had to receive a double coronary bypass.
Texas Rangers president and CEO (2008–2013)
In February 2008, the Rangers hired Ryan as team president. After the 2009 season, Ryan and Chuck Greenberg submitted a bid to purchase the Rangers from owner Tom Hicks. At midnight on August 5, 2010, the Ryan/Greenberg group, Rangers Baseball Express, was announced as the winners of the final auction to purchase the Rangers, after final approval from Major League Baseball. The final cash bid to purchase the franchise was $385 million. The opposing high bidder was Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Greenberg became managing general partner and CEO, while Ryan remained as team president.
Greenberg left the group in March 2011, reportedly due to a philosophical clash with Ryan. Ryan was immediately named as CEO while keeping the title of president. Although Texas oil magnates Ray Davis and Bob Simpson served as co-chairmen and held larger stakes, Ryan became the undisputed head of the franchise, with Davis and Simpson serving mostly as senior consultants.
Ryan was named the Dallas–Fort Worth's 2012 CEO of the Year by Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business.
During the baseball owners' meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona, on March 1, 2013, the Rangers announced that general manager Jon Daniels would add president of baseball operations to his title. Rick George was promoted to president of business operations. Ryan's title was changed simply to CEO, but he remained operating head of the franchise; both Daniels and George reported to him. On October 17, 2013, Ryan announced that he was stepping down as Rangers CEO effective October 31, 2013.
Houston Astros special assistant (2014–2019)
On February 11, 2014, Ryan accepted a position as an executive adviser for the Houston Astros under owner Jim Crane. Ryan's son, Reid Ryan, was hired the previous year as president of business operations for the Astros. The Astros won the 2017 World Series and won the 2019 American League pennant. Reid Ryan was demoted by the Astros after the 2019 World Series, and shortly thereafter Nolan Ryan sent a text message to a reporter indicating that he would not return to the Astros front office for the 2020 season.
Legacy
Ryan played in more seasons (27) than any other player in modern (since 1900) major league history (All-time he is tied with Cap Anson for #1). Ryan ranks first all-time in strikeouts (5,714), fewest hits allowed per nine innings (6.56), and no-hitters (7). He is also fifth in innings pitched (5,386), second in games started (773), seventh in shutouts (61), is tied for 14th in wins (324), and is third in losses (292). Opposing hitters hit only .204 against Ryan during his career, although they had a .309 on-base percentage against him. He also limited hitters to a .298 slugging percentage. Ryan had 15 or more strikeouts in a game 26 times, second only to Randy Johnson, who had 28. Ryan's lengthy career spanned generations as he struck out seven pairs of fathers and sons (for example, Bobby Bonds and Barry Bonds), another major league record. Ryan also played during the administrations of seven U.S. Presidents—Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton—equaling a 20th-century record that had been set by Jim Kaat.
Ryan also ranks high on the list for four "negative" records; he ranks first all-time in walks allowed (2,795), first in wild pitches (277), third in losses (292 – most in the post-1920 live-ball era), and ninth in hit batters (158). Ryan was the first pitcher in MLB history to give up ten grand slam home runs, including one to Dann Howitt, the next-to-last batter Ryan faced in his career; he has since been surpassed.
Bill James focuses on this dichotomy between Ryan's positive and negative statistics. While ranking him as the 24th best pitcher of all time, he notes, "Ryan has been retired almost ten years [in 2001], in another ten perhaps we will begin to get a little bit of perspective on him. Ryan's log of spectacular accomplishments is as thick as Bill Clinton's little black book; his list of flaws and failures is lengthy but dry, and will never make for good reading."
Other writers have delved more into the specifics of James' general concerns. ESPN writer Rob Neyer stated in a 2003 column that while Ryan was among the 20 best pitchers since World War II, he "often had trouble throwing strikes, [and] he wasn't any good at fielding his position". In another column, Neyer, while stating that Ryan belonged in the Hall of Fame, pointed to Ryan's record-breaking walks total and noted that his .309 on-base percentage against "wasn't even close to being in the top 100".
Ryan and Frank Robinson are the only two major league players to have their number retired by three teams on which they played. The California Angels retired the number 30 on June 16, 1992; the Texas Rangers retired his number 34 on September 15, 1996; and the Houston Astros retired number 34 on September 29, 1996. His number was the first retired by the Rangers.
Ryan was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 in his first year of eligibility with 98.79% of the vote (491 out of 497 possible), six votes short of a unanimous election and the fifth-highest percentage in history, behind Mariano Rivera (100%, 425 out of 425 possible), Derek Jeter (99.75%, 396 out of 397 possible), Ken Griffey Jr. (99.32%, 437 out of 440 possible), and Tom Seaver (98.84%, 425 out of 430 possible). He chose to wear a Rangers cap for his HOF plaque to reflect his Texas heritage, as well as the fact that his 300th win, 5000th strikeout, and last two no-hitters came as a Ranger. He was the first Hall of Famer inducted as a Ranger. However, the Hall of Fame recognizes the Los Angeles Angels as his primary team. That year, he ranked 41st on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. He was inducted into the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame in 2003, and named the Rangers', and Astros' Hometown Hero in 2006—the only player to be so named by two franchises. In 2011, he was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1992, the United States Mint produced a $1 commemorative coin honoring Olympic baseball depicting a pitcher in a USA Baseball uniform, but in a pose nearly identical to Ryan's photo on his 1991 Fleer baseball card. The numismatic community subsequently referred to the coin as the "Nolan Ryan dollar."
In 1995 the Texas State Legislature declared State Highway 288, which passes near Alvin, as the Nolan Ryan Expressway.
The Alvin Independent School District opened Nolan Ryan Junior High School, located at 11500 Shadow Creek Parkway (FM 2234) in Pearland, Texas, just a few hundred yards away from the Nolan Ryan Expressway.
The Nolan Ryan Foundation is a Texas nonprofit organization that supports youth, education, and community development and is headquartered in Round Rock, Texas.
The Texas Trail of Fame inducted Ryan in 2009.
The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inducted Ryan in 2010.
Personal life
Ryan married his high school sweetheart, the former Ruth Holdorff, on June 25, 1967. Nolan and Ruth attended Alvin High School together. Ruth was a high school state tennis champion. They have three children: Reid, Reese, and Wendy. Reid and Reese were both pitchers for the TCU Horned Frogs. Reid also pitched briefly in the minor leagues. On May 17, 2013, Reid was announced as president of the Houston Astros.
Nolan frequently pitched in the off-seasons, with Ruth often donning catching gear and serving as his catcher. Ruth Ryan also coached their sons' little league teams for a few summers.
Nolan Ryan resides in the Cimarron Hills community in Georgetown, Texas.
Political activity
Ryan wrote in his 1992 autobiography "Miracle Man" that he voted for Jimmy Carter over Gerald R. Ford Jr. in 1976, but since then has generally identified as a Republican, though he does not automatically vote this way and looks at individual candidates, mentioning disgust at one particular election in which the two major parties were forcing a choice between "the racist or the criminal." He also crossed party lines in 2002 to headline a group of Republicans and Independents supporting a Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Texas. He has maintained a decades-long friendship with the Bush family, partially due to George W. Bush being a part-owner of the Rangers while Ryan played there. However, in his 1992 book Ryan expressed some criticisms of the elder Bush's (George H.W. Bush) management of domestic issues and said he wasn't "locked in" to voting for Bush that fall. In 1996 Ryan campaigned on behalf of Ron Paul in the election for Texas's 14th congressional district; his hometown of Alvin was located in the district.
On April 7, 2011, Todd Staples announced that Nolan Ryan would be his statewide chairman for his exploratory committee for lieutenant governor. Ryan is quoted as saying, "Todd Staples is the top prospect for the Texas Republican Party in 2014." Staples, however, lost that race to current Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick of Houston.
See also
300 win club
DHL Hometown Heroes
Houston Astros award winners and league leaders • No-hitters • Team records
List of Major League Baseball annual ERA leaders
List of Major League Baseball career wins leaders
List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
List of Major League Baseball annual strikeout leaders
List of Major League Baseball players who played in four decades
List of Major League Baseball single-game strikeout leaders
List of Texas Rangers Opening Day starting pitchers
List of Major League Baseball career hit batsmen leaders
List of Major League Baseball career strikeout leaders
List of Major League Baseball career bases on balls allowed leaders
Nolan Ryan's Baseball
References
General references
External links
Nolan Ryan at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Nolan Ryan at Baseball Almanac
Nolan Ryan at Baseball Library
Nolan Ryan at Astros Daily
Nolan Ryan at Ultimate Mets Database
The Nolan Ryan Foundation
Category:1947 births
Category:Living people
Category:American League All-Stars
Category:American League strikeout champions
Category:California Angels players
Category:Greenville Mets players
Category:Houston Astros players
Category:Jacksonville Suns players
Category:Major League Baseball executives
Category:Major League Baseball pitchers
Category:Baseball players from Houston
Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Category:Major League Baseball team presidents
Category:Marion Mets players
Category:Minor league baseball executives
Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Category:National League All-Stars
Category:National League ERA champions
Category:National League strikeout champions
Category:New York Mets players
Category:People from Alvin, Texas
Category:People from Georgetown, Texas
Category:Texas Rangers players
Category:Texas Rangers executives
Category:Texas Rangers owners
Category:Texas Republicans
Category:Williamsport Mets players
Category:Winter Haven Mets players
Category:Businesspeople from Texas
Category:Ranchers from Texas
Category:American bankers
Category:American chief executives of professional sports organizations
Category:American non-fiction writers
Category:People from Refugio, Texas
Category:Florida Instructional League Mets players | [] | [
"Nolan Ryan became involved in numerous business interests post-retirement, which included ownership of two minor league teams: the Corpus Christi Hooks and the Round Rock Express. He also served as a special assistant to the general manager for the Houston Astros before selling his interest in the team between 2004 and 2005. In 2008, Ryan became the president of the Texas Rangers. Outside of baseball, he was a majority owner and chairman of Express Bank of Alvin, though he sold his interest in 2005. Additionally, he owned a restaurant in Three Rivers, Texas and served on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1995 to 2001. He appeared in TV commercials in Texas and acted as a spokesman for Advil. He promoted physical fitness alongside the federal government post-retirement and his likeness was used in the \"Nolan Ryan Fitness Guide\". He also co-wrote six books, including autobiographies and instructional books on baseball.",
"The two minor league teams that Nolan Ryan owns are the Corpus Christi Hooks and the Round Rock Express.",
"The text does not provide information on when Nolan Ryan retired from playing baseball.",
"Yes, there are several interesting things Nolan Ryan did after he retired. He wrote several books including autobiographies and instructional books related to baseball. He became very active in his community, serving on the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission from 1995 to 2001. He also used his prominence to do several television commercials in Texas and serve as the TV spokesman for Advil. After his retirement, he teamed up with the federal government to promote physical fitness and his image was published in the \"Nolan Ryan Fitness Guide\". Health was an issue for him as he suffered a heart attack on April 25, 2000, and underwent double coronary bypass surgery."
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C_06717dc55d604bd69728387cee4c14bc_1 | Carroll Baker | Carroll Baker was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a Roman Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (nee Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman. She is of Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski. However, this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Baker's parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. | 1964-1966: Sex symbol roles | Baker portrayed a pacifist Quaker schoolteacher in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as Saint Veronica in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews. The New York Times called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow." The film was the top moneymaker of that year, with domestic box-office receipts of $13,000,000, and marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer, Joseph E. Levine. Based on her Carpetbaggers performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie sex symbol, and she appeared posing in the December 1964 issue of Playboy. She was subsequently cast by Levine in the title roles of two 1965 potboilers-- Sylvia, as an ex-prostitute and con artist, and as Jean Harlow in Harlow. Baker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on their November 2, 1963, issue dressed as Harlow, promoting the film's upcoming production. In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress." Despite much prepublicity, Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics: Variety referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies," which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine over her contract with Paramount Pictures in 1966, and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation). In an interview with Rex Reed in his book People Are Crazy Here (1974), Baker revealed that she had felt pressure in both her working relationship with Levine, and her domestic life with her husband, the latter of whom she said wanted to maintain an expensive lifestyle: "We'd been very poor when we started out at the Actors Studio in New York," she told Reed. "I was under contract to Joe Levine, who was going around giving me diamonds and behaving like he owned me. I never slept with him or anything, but everyone thought I was his mistress." In the spring of 1966, Baker returned to theatre, performing in a production of Anna Christie at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles. The production was directed by Garfein. The production was heralded as the "theatre event of the week" in Los Angeles, though its reception was middling. Cecil Smith of The Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse in Nyack, New York in June 1966. CANNOTANSWER | [
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]
} | Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is a retired American actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve Southern bride earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Baker had other early film roles in Giant (1956) and the romantic comedy But Not for Me (1959). In 1961, she appeared in the controversial independent film Something Wild, directed by her then husband Jack Garfein, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in several critically acclaimed Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s such as The Big Country (1958), How the West Was Won (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in The Carpetbaggers (1964). The film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, cast her in the potboiler Sylvia before giving her the role of Jean Harlow in the biopic Harlow (1965). Despite significant prepublicity, Harlow was a critical failure, and Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 amid a legal dispute over her contract with Paramount and Levine's overseeing of her career. In Europe, she spent the next 10 years starring in hard-edged giallo and horror films, including Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), a series of four films with Umberto Lenzi beginning with Orgasmo (1969) and ending with Knife of Ice (1972), and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973). She re-emerged for American audiences as a character actress in the Andy Warhol-produced dark comedy Bad (1977).
Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the true-crime drama Star 80 (1983) as the mother of murder victim Dorothy Stratten, and the racial drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright. In 1987, she had a supporting part in Ironweed (1987). Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as Murder, She Wrote; L.A. Law, and Roswell. She also had supporting parts in several big-budget films, such as Kindergarten Cop (1990) and the David Fincher-directed thriller The Game (1997). She formally retired from acting in 2003. In addition to acting, Baker is also the author of two autobiographies and a novel.
Early life and education
Baker was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania into a Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (née Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman. Baker is of Irish and Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski, though this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Her parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.
According to Baker, her mother struggled as a single parent, and the family was poor for much of her upbringing.
Baker attended Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where she was a debate team member and active in the marching band and school musicals. At 18, she moved with her family to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she attended St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College). After her first year in college, she began working as a magician's assistant on the vaudeville circuit and joined a dance company, working as a professional dancer. In 1949, Baker won the title of Miss Florida Fruits and Vegetables. In 1951, Baker moved to New York City, where she rented a dirt-floor basement apartment in Queens. She worked as a nightclub dancer and also had stints as a chorus girl in traveling vaudeville shows, which took her to Windsor, Detroit, and New Jersey.
Baker studied acting at HB Studio. In 1952, she enrolled at the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg. There, she was a classmate of Mike Nichols, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, and Marilyn Monroe; she also became a close friend of James Dean for the rest of his life.
Career
1952–1957: Early work and critical success
After appearing in television commercials for Winston cigarettes and Coca-Cola, Baker was featured in an episode of Monodrama Theater performing a monodramatic piece, which was broadcast in 1952 on the DuMont Network. The following year, she made her film debut with a small walk-on part in the musical Easy to Love (1953). This led to her landing roles in two Broadway productions: Roger MacDougall's Escapade in the fall of 1953, and Robert Anderson's All Summer Long, opposite Ed Begley, which ran from September to mid-November 1954. In 1955, she screen tested and auditioned for the lead role in Picnic, but lost the part to Kim Novak. She was also considered for the lead in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) after James Dean recommended her for the part to director Nicholas Ray, which she turned down.
Baker's first major screen role was the supporting part of Luz Benedict II in Giant (1956), opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean, in his final role. According to Baker, she had been offered numerous leading parts in feature films before that point, but chose to debut in a supporting role in Giant because she was "insecure" and "wanted to start out a little less 'profile. Giant was largely filmed in the small town of Marfa, Texas, in 1955; Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming.
Simultaneously, Baker was cast as the title character in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll (1956), a role initially intended for Marilyn Monroe. Tennessee Williams, who had written and developed the screenplay based on two of his one-act plays, wanted Baker to play the part after seeing her perform a scene from his script at the Actors Studio; likewise, Kazan had been impressed by her performance in All Summer Long on Broadway the year prior. Shot in Benoit, Mississippi, directly after Baker had completed Giant, her role in the film as a sexually repressed teenaged bride to a failed middle-aged cotton gin owner brought Baker overnight fame and a level of notoriety even before the film's release. In the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everheart, under contract with Warner Bros., constructed a billboard in Times Square promoting the film, depicting the now-iconic image of a scantily clad Baker lying in a crib sucking her thumb. The controversial advertising campaign for the film caused a pre-emptive backlash from religious groups, and on December 16, 1956, Cardinal Francis Spellman of St. Patrick's Cathedral denounced the film and advised his parish against seeing it. A formal condemnation by the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency ensued, which considered it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency".
In support of Baker, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the film's premiere, working as an usherette to help bolster ticket sales, the proceeds of which were donated to the Actors Studio. Baker received immense critical praise for her performance. Variety said that her performance "captures all the animal charm, the naivete, the vanity, contempt and rising passion of Baby Doll", while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Baker's ability to exhibit "a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits". Baby Doll established Baker as an A-list actress and would remain the film for which she is best remembered. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer, which she shared with Jayne Mansfield and Natalie Wood. The performance also earned her a Film Achievement Award from Look, as well as the title "Woman of the Year" in 1957 from Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club. She appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in June 1956.
1958–1963: Contract disputes and independent films
After the success of Baby Doll, Baker was subsequently offered parts in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and The Devil's Disciple (1959). She refused to make Too Much Too Soon, so Warner Bros. put her on suspension, which prevented her from starring in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) at MGM. Baker was also chosen by MGM for the lead in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and by Twentieth Century Fox for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), but her contract with Warner Bros. again prevented her from accepting the roles. Tensions between Baker and the studio escalated further when she went against their wishes by appearing in Arms and the Man on stage. Baker commented on the effect of the system on her career, saying: "I came in at the end of the big studio system. I still had a slave contract and they were willing to put you in almost anything they had."
After her suspension with Warner Bros. was lifted, Baker appeared in William Wyler's Western epic The Big Country (1958). The film was well received by critics, though the shoot was described as "problematic": Baker was four months pregnant at the time and had to wear restraining garments, and director Wyler reportedly had her on the verge of tears after forcing her to repeat the same take over 60 times, only to use the first one. She followed The Big Country with lead roles in two romances, portraying a nun in The Miracle (1959), co-starring Roger Moore, and in But Not for Me (1959), a comedy with Clark Gable. The New York Times praised Baker's performance in But Not for Me, saying: "Miss Baker, being a young lady who not only has looks, but also can act, makes you understand why Mr. Gable would like to cheat a little bit on Father Time." She disliked The Miracle so much that she bought out her contract with Warner Bros., putting her in considerable debt. But Not for Me was made at Paramount.
Baker went on to make the experimental film Something Wild (1961), directed by her then-husband Jack Garfein. In this independent production, she plays a young college student from the Bronx who is raped one night in St. James Park, and later held captive by a Manhattan mechanic (Ralph Meeker), who witnessed her subsequent suicide attempt. In preparation for her role, Baker lived alone in a boarding house in New York's Lower East Side, and gained employment as a department-store salesgirl; her Method approach to the role was profiled in Life magazine in 1960. Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, though Film Quarterly cited it as "the most interesting American film of its quarter", and the most underrated film of 1961. However, its controversial depiction of rape led to critical backlash and public criticism, and the film has been credited by historians as nearly halting Baker's career. The same year, she portrayed Gwen Harold in Bridge to the Sun (1961), a production by MGM based on the 1957 best-selling autobiography of a Tennessee-born woman who married a Japanese diplomat (portrayed by James Shigeta) and became one of the few Americans to live in Japan during World War II. While only a modest success at the box office, the film was well received by critics and was America's entry at the Venice International Film Festival.
After this, Baker appeared in the independent British-German film Station Six-Sahara (1962) as a woman who provokes tensions at an oil station in the Sahara Desert, as well as the blockbuster Western epic How the West Was Won (1962), opposite James Stewart and Debbie Reynolds and former co-stars Gregory Peck and Karl Malden. In addition to film acting, Baker also found time to appear again on Broadway, starring in the 1962 production of Garson Kanin's Come on Strong in the fall of that year. In 1963, Baker relocated permanently with then-husband Jack Garfein and their two children to Los Angeles, where she based herself for the next several years. She traveled to Kenya to film Mister Moses (1965), where publicized rumors spread that she and co-star Robert Mitchum were having an affair, which they both vehemently denied. Another story, now considered apocryphal, had it that a Maasai chief in Kenya offered 150 cows, 200 goats, sheep, and $750 for her hand in marriage. She subsequently appeared with Maasai warriors on the cover of Lifes July 1964 issue.
1964–1966: Sex symbol roles
Baker portrayed a pacifist Quaker schoolteacher in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as Saint Veronica in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews. The New York Times called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow." The film was the top moneymaker of that year, with domestic box-office receipts of $13,000,000, and marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer, Joseph E. Levine.
Based on her Carpetbaggers performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie sex symbol, and she appeared posing in the December 1964 issue of Playboy. She was subsequently cast by Levine in the title roles of two 1965 potboilers— Sylvia, as an ex-prostitute and con artist, and as Jean Harlow in Harlow. Baker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on their November 2, 1963, issue dressed as Harlow, promoting the film's upcoming production. In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress".
Despite much prepublicity, Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics: Variety referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount Pictures, and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation).
In an interview with Rex Reed in his book People Are Crazy Here (1974), Baker revealed that she had felt pressure in both her working relationship with Levine, and her domestic life with her husband whom she said wanted to maintain an expensive lifestyle: "We'd been very poor when we started out at the Actors Studio in New York", she told Reed. "I was under contract to Joe Levine, who was going around giving me diamonds and behaving like he owned me. I never slept with him or anything, but everyone thought I was his mistress." In the spring of 1966, Baker returned to theatre, performing in a production of Anna Christie at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles. The production was directed by Garfein. The production was heralded as the "theatre event of the week" in Los Angeles, though its reception was middling. Cecil Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse in Nyack, New York in June 1966.
1967–1975: European films
Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood. Eventually settling in Rome, Baker became fluent in Italian and spent the next several years starring in hard-edged Italian thrillers, exploitation, and horror films. In 1966, Baker had been invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she met director Marco Ferreri, who asked her to play the lead role in Her Harem (1967). This was followed with the horror films The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) and The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971). Baker also starred in So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), Orgasmo (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Il coltello di ghiaccio (Knife of Ice) (1972), all giallo films directed by Italian filmmaker Umberto Lenzi.
Many of these films feature her in roles as distressed women, and often showed Baker in nude scenes, which few major Hollywood actors were willing to do at the time. Baker became a favorite of Umberto Lenzi, with her best-known role being in the aforementioned Paranoia, where she played a wealthy widow tormented by two sadistic siblings. In his review of Paranoia, Roger Ebert said: "Carroll Baker, who was a Hollywood sex symbol (for some, it is said) until she sued Joe Levine and got blacklisted, has been around. She may not be an actress, but she can act. In The Carpetbaggers, there was a nice wholesome vulgarity to her performance. She is not intrinsically as bad as she appears in Paranoia. I think maybe she was saying 'the hell with it', and having a good time." As with Paranoia, the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker—who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support— an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films [there] than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world."
She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973) as the titular witch, alongside Isabelle De Funès and George Eastman. TV Guide referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score", and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy Miss Havisham than a sleekly predatory sorceress".
1976–1987: Return to American films; theater
Baker's first American film in over 10 years came in the Andy Warhol–produced black comedy Bad (1977), in which she plays the lead role of a Queens beauty salon owner who provides hitmen with jobs, starring alongside Susan Tyrrell and Perry King. "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique."
She followed Bad with a part in the low-budget surrealist thriller The Sky Is Falling (1979) with Dennis Hopper, playing a washed-up actress living among expatriates in a Spanish village. The 1970s also had a return to the stage for Baker, where she appeared in British theater productions of Bell, Book, and Candle; Rain, an adaptation of a story by W. Somerset Maugham; Lucy Crown, an adaptation of the novel by Irwin Shaw; and Motive. In 1978, while touring England and Ireland in productions of Motive, Baker met stage actor Donald Burton, who became her third husband. She also appeared in American stage productions of Georges Feydeau's 13 Rue de l'Amour, Forty Carats, and Goodbye Charlie.
By the 1980s Baker had largely become a character actress, and was based in London. She starred in a supporting role in the 1980 Walt Disney-produced horror film The Watcher in the Woods, alongside Bette Davis, after having been asked by British director John Hough, a longtime admirer of her work. After an appearance in the British television film Red Monarch (1983), she played the mother of murdered Playboy model Dorothy Stratten (played by Mariel Hemingway) in the biopic Star 80 (1983). She also appeared as the mother of Sigmund Freud in the comedy The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984) with Carol Kane and Klaus Kinski.
Baker featured in Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), a coming-of-age drama set against Nazi Germany, as well as in the drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright, which featured Matt Dillon, Geraldine Page, and a young Oprah Winfrey. In the latter Baker plays a 1930s Chicago housewife, mother of a teenage girl accidentally killed by an African American chauffeur, who attempts to cover up the accident. Critic Roger Ebert praised Baker's performance, noting her "powerful" scene with Winfrey during the film's finale.
Following Native Son, Baker had a critically acclaimed lead role as the wife of a schizophrenic drifter (played by Jack Nicholson) in Ironweed (1987), alongside Meryl Streep. Her performance in the film was praised by Ebert, who said: "Nicholson's homecoming [in the film] is all the more effective because Carroll Baker is so good as his wife ... she finds a whole new range. It may seem surprising to say that Baker holds the screen against Jack Nicholson, and yet she does".
1988–2003: Later roles and retirement
In 1990, Baker played the role of Eleanor Crisp—described by Roger Ebert as "an effective bitch on wheels"—in Ivan Reitman's comedy Kindergarten Cop, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which she filmed in Astoria, Oregon, in the summer of 1990. The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Her film and television work continued throughout the '90s, and she acted in many made-for-television movies, including the true-crime story Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993), Witness Run (1996), and Dalva (1996) with Farrah Fawcett.
In 1997, Baker was cast in a supporting role in David Fincher's thriller The Game, in which she plays a housekeeper to a billionaire San Francisco banker (played by Michael Douglas) who becomes embroiled in a sadistic game by his antagonistic brother, played by Sean Penn. In an interview with The New York Post following the film's release, Baker commented on her role, saying: "It's an important movie and I'm honored to be in it. Of course, I'd like to be the romantic lead, and I'm actually closer to Michael's [Douglas] age than Deborah Kara Unger is, [but] I think it's always worked that way in Hollywood. When I was in my 20s, I played opposite Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Clark Gable, all of whom were old enough to be my father." The Game proved to be a major success among Baker's later films, performing successfully at the box office and garnering widespread critical acclaim.
In addition to her work in big-budget productions, Baker also appeared in small, independent films, such as Just Your Luck (1996) and Nowhere to Go (1997). The 1990s also had Baker more frequently appearing on television series, including episodes of Grand (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1991, opposite Teri Garr in a segment directed by Michael J. Fox), Murder, She Wrote and L.A. Law (both 1993); Chicago Hope (1995), and Roswell (1999). In 2000, she appeared in the Lifetime film Another Woman's Husband. In 2002, Baker appeared in the documentary Cinerama Adventure, and guest-starred in an episode of The Lyon's Den, playing the mother of Rob Lowe's character. Her role in The Lyon's Den was Baker's last screen appearance before she formally retired from acting in 2003. Her acting career spanned 50 years, and more than 80 roles in film, television, and theater.
She has, however, sometimes participated in retrospective documentaries, including an interview for the 2006 DVD release of Baby Doll, which includes a documentary featuring Baker reflecting on the film's impact on her career. Baker has also been featured in documentaries about several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable, Roger Moore, Sal Mineo, and James Dean, including the 1975 James Dean: The First American Teenager, and a 1985 BBC Radio 2 tribute marking the 30th anniversary of the actor's death. Her memories of James Dean at the Actors Studio and later in Giant were recalled on BBC Radio 2 in 1982, when she guested on You're Tearing Me Apart, Terence Pettigrew's documentary which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Dean's death in a car accident in 1955. Also on the program were singer-actor Adam Faith and the screenwriter Ray Connolly.
Writing
In 1983, Baker published an autobiography titled Baby Doll: An Autobiography, which detailed her life and career as an actress and revealed the issues with Paramount and Warner Bros. that had led her to move to Europe in the 1970s and pursue a career in Italian films. Baker said to Regis Philbin, when he interviewed her for Lifetime Television in 1986, that she "didn't want to write an autobiography ... but I wanted to write, and I knew that would be the easiest thing to get published." She further commented to Philbin on her writing, saying: "I think I always wanted to write, but I was a little self-conscious about it. I never had a formal education, and I've always had such a respect for writing. While I could go out and say, even before I started to act, 'Yes, I'm an actress,' I couldn't really say 'I'm a writer.'" In spite of Baker's misgivings, Baby Doll: An Autobiography was well received. She later wrote two other books, To Africa with Love (1986), detailing her time spent in Africa, and a novel titled A Roman Tale (1987).
Personal life
Baker has been married three times. She first married 54 year-old Louie Ritter, owner of the Weylin Hotel, in 1953. The marriage ended within a year, after which she enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York City. Baker alleged that Ritter had raped her when she was still a virgin in the early stages of their relationship. Her second was to director Jack Garfein, a Holocaust survivor she met at the Studio and for whom she converted to Judaism (having been raised a Catholic). They had one daughter, Blanche Baker (born 1956), also an actress, and a son, Herschel Garfein (born 1958), who is a composer and faculty member at the Steinhardt School of Music at New York University. Garfein and Baker divorced in 1969. Baker also has six grandchildren.
Baker married her third husband, British theater actor Donald Burton, on March 10, 1982, and resided in Hampstead, London, in the 1980s. The couple remained together until Burton's death from emphysema at their home in Cathedral City, California, on December 8, 2007.
After leaving Hollywood in the mid-1960s, Baker travelled with Bob Hope's Christmas USO troupe entertaining soldiers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, an experience which she described as reformative: "In the hospitals I held the hands of damaged young men, and I realized that my pain was not exclusive: that in this world there was suffering much more terrible than mine."
Baker resided mainly in New York City and Los Angeles throughout the 1950s and 1960s before relocating to Rome to pursue her career there. Baker was mainly based in Palm Springs, California, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. , she resides in New York City. In February 2014, she served as maid of honor at longtime friend, psychologist, and former actor, Dr Patrick Suraci's wedding to his partner, Tony Perkins, in New York.
Legacy
Baker's role in Baby Doll was one that would come to be career-defining, and her association with both the film and character remained consistent throughout her career. In a 1983 article by People magazine, "Baby Doll" was referred to as Baker's "middle name". The film, adapted originally from Tennessee Williams' one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, has been performed on stage into the 21st century: it had its theatrical debut in 2000, and has been performed numerous times since. Baker's performance of the role was credited in Vanity Fair as marking a significant cultural interest in the ingénue in American cinema.
In 2011, Baker attended the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in celebration of Williams' centenary. There, she participated in a panel with Rex Reed, where she discussed her experiences with Williams and performing in Baby Doll. In 2011 and 2012, she was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hoboken and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festivals.
A 1956 photograph by Diane Arbus depicts Baker onscreen in Baby Doll with a passing silhouette during a New York City theater screening of the film. She was also photographed by Andy Warhol in 1975 as part of his Polaroid portrait series, and is mentioned in his published diaries.
Baker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1725 Vine Street, which was erected on February 8, 1960. In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was also dedicated to her.
Filmography and credits
Select filmography:
Easy to Love (1953)
Giant (1956)
Baby Doll (1956)
The Big Country (1958)
But Not For Me (1959)
The Miracle (1959)
Bridge to the Sun (1961)
Something Wild (1961)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Station Six-Sahara (1963)
The Carpetbaggers (1964)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
Sylvia (1965)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Mister Moses (1965)
Harlow (1965)
Her Harem (1967)
Jack of Diamonds (1967)
The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968)
Orgasmo (1969)
So Sweet...So Perverse (1969)
A Quiet Place to Kill (1970)
Captain Apache (1971)
The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971)
Knife of Ice (1972)
Baba Yaga (1973)
The Flower with the Petals of Steel (1973)
Private Lessons (1975)
Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)
Cyclone (1978)
The World Is Full Of Married Men (1979)
Star 80 (1983)
Native Son (1986)
Ironweed (1987)
Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Blonde Fist (1991)
The Game (1997)
Select television credits:
The Web (1954)
Danger (1955)
Thriller (1976)
Grand (1990)
Tales from the Crypt (1991)
Murder, She Wrote (1993)
L.A. Law (1993)
Chicago Hope (1995)
Roswell (1999)
Select stage credits:' Escapade (1953)
All Summer Long (1954)
Arms and the Man (1958)
Come on Strong (1962)
Anna Christie (1966)
Rain (1977)
Lucy Crown (1979)
Motive (1980)
Publications
Baby Doll: An Autobiography (Arbor House, 1983),
To Africa with Love (Dutton, 1986),
A Roman Tale (Dutton, 1986),
Accolades
Awards
1957: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress
1957: Hasty Pudding Theatricals Award for "Woman of the Year"
1965: Golden Laurel for Dramatic Performance, Female, for The Carpetbaggers (2nd place)
Nominations
1957: Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Baby Doll 1957: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, for Baby Doll 1957: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress (USA), for Baby Doll 1964: Golden Laurel for Top Female Star
1965: Golden Laurel for Female Star
Honors
1996: Golden Boot Award for The Big Country, How the West Was Won, and Cheyenne Autumn''
1997: Lifetime Achievement Award, Breckenridge (Colorado) Film Festival
2009: The National Arts Club's Medal of Honor
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award, Hoboken International Film Festival
2012: Lifetime Achievement Award, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
See also
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars
Notes
References
Works cited
External links
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Actors Studio alumni
Category:Actresses from Florida
Category:Actresses from Los Angeles
Category:Actresses from New York City
Category:Actresses from Pennsylvania
Category:American female dancers
Category:American film actresses
Category:American former Christians
Category:American musical theatre actresses
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American people of Polish descent
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American women novelists
Category:Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism
Category:Dancers from California
Category:Dancers from Florida
Category:Dancers from New York (state)
Category:Dancers from Pennsylvania
Category:Jewish American actresses
Category:New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
Category:Novelists from California
Category:Novelists from New York (state)
Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania
Category:Paramount Pictures contract players
Category:People from Cathedral City, California
Category:People from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Category:St. Petersburg College alumni
Category:Warner Bros. contract players
Category:Western (genre) film actresses
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:1931 births | [] | [
"In 1964, Baker played a role in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn and received critical acclaim for her performance. She also portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers, which received mixed reviews but was the top box office hit of the year. Her performance in this film led to the onset of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, who began to cultivate Baker as a movie sex symbol. In December 1964, she appeared posing in Playboy.",
"After 1964, Baker was cast in two title roles in 1965's potboilers, Sylvia and Harlow. She also appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post promoting the production of Harlow and became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses. Despite much pre-publicity, her portrayal in Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics and her relationship with Levine soured. In 1966, she sued Levine and Paramount Pictures over her contract and was eventually fired. Baker's paychecks from Harlow were frozen amid the legal dispute, leaving her hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. She eventually won $1 million in compensation. She then returned to theatre in the spring of 1966, performing in a production of Anna Christie at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles. The reception was middling and the play was later performed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse in New York.",
"In 1965, Baker was cast by Joseph E. Levine in the title roles of two films, Sylvia and Harlow. She appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post promoting the Harlow film. In the same year, she also became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses. However, despite much prepublicity, Baker's portrayal of Jean Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics. Her relationship with Levine began to degrade, which eventually led to a contract dispute.",
"Baker had some success in 1964 and 1965, including critical acclaim for her role in Cheyenne Autumn and a popular, if not critically acclaimed, role in The Carpetbaggers. She also played the title roles in two films and became a celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses. However, her portrayal of Jean Harlow received lukewarm reviews and her legal battle with Paramount Pictures and Joseph E. Levine over her contract led to her being fired and left her in severe debt. Despite these challenges, she eventually won a $1 million compensation. She then returned to theatre. The level of her success can therefore be seen as a mix of achievements and setbacks.",
"Some of the roles where Baker was presented as a sex symbol include her portrayal as a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers and her roles in Sylvia and Harlow. Her appearance posing in the December 1964 issue of Playboy and her promotion for the film Harlow, including her appearance on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post dressed as Harlow, are also instances where she was portrayed as a sex symbol.",
"The text does not provide information on any other sex symbol roles that Baker may have taken on.",
"The text mentions that Baker's portrayal in The Carpetbaggers brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews. The New York Times noted that Baker's performance brought \"some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow.\" Her appearances in Playboy and on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post promoting Harlow may have contributed to her being developed as a sex symbol. However, Baker herself likened this era of her career to \"being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress,\" indicating she may have experienced some discomfort or dissatisfaction with this aspect of her career.",
"The text does not provide information on any other sex symbols Baker may have been associated with."
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C_06717dc55d604bd69728387cee4c14bc_0 | Carroll Baker | Carroll Baker was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a Roman Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (nee Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman. She is of Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski. However, this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Baker's parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. | 1967-1975: European films | Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood. Eventually settling in Rome, Italy, Baker became fluent in Italian and spent the next several years starring in hard-edged Italian thrillers, exploitation, and horror films. In 1966, Baker had been invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she met director Marco Ferreri, who asked her to play the lead role in Her Harem (1967). This was followed with the horror films The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) and The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971). Baker also starred in So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), Paranoia (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Il coltello di ghiaccio (Knife of Ice) (1972), all horror films directed by Italian filmmaker Umberto Lenzi. Many of these films feature her in roles as distressed women, and often showed Baker in nude scenes, which few major Hollywood actors were willing to do at the time. Baker became a favorite of Umberto Lenzi, with her best-known role being in the aforementioned Paranoia, where she played a wealthy widow tormented by two sadistic siblings. In his review of Paranoia, Roger Ebert said: "Carroll Baker, who was a Hollywood sex symbol (for some, it is said) until she sued Joe Levine and got blacklisted, has been around. She may not be an actress, but she can act. In The Carpetbaggers, there was a nice wholesome vulgarity to her performance. She is not intrinsically as bad as she appears in Paranoia. I think maybe she was saying the hell with it and having a good time." As with Paranoia, the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker--who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support-- an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films [there] than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world." She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973) as the titular witch, alongside Isabelle De Funes and George Eastman. TV Guide referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score," and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy Miss Havisham than a sleekly predatory sorceress". CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Carroll Baker (born May 28, 1931) is a retired American actress. After studying under Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio, Baker began performing on Broadway in 1954. From there, she was recruited by director Elia Kazan to play the lead in the adaptation of two Tennessee Williams plays into the film Baby Doll in 1956. Her role in the film as a coquettish but sexually naïve Southern bride earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Baker had other early film roles in Giant (1956) and the romantic comedy But Not for Me (1959). In 1961, she appeared in the controversial independent film Something Wild, directed by her then husband Jack Garfein, playing a traumatized rape victim. She went on to star in several critically acclaimed Westerns in the 1950s and 1960s such as The Big Country (1958), How the West Was Won (1962), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
In the mid-1960s, as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, Baker became a sex symbol after appearing as a hedonistic widow in The Carpetbaggers (1964). The film's producer, Joseph E. Levine, cast her in the potboiler Sylvia before giving her the role of Jean Harlow in the biopic Harlow (1965). Despite significant prepublicity, Harlow was a critical failure, and Baker relocated to Italy in 1966 amid a legal dispute over her contract with Paramount and Levine's overseeing of her career. In Europe, she spent the next 10 years starring in hard-edged giallo and horror films, including Romolo Guerrieri's The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968), a series of four films with Umberto Lenzi beginning with Orgasmo (1969) and ending with Knife of Ice (1972), and Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973). She re-emerged for American audiences as a character actress in the Andy Warhol-produced dark comedy Bad (1977).
Baker appeared in supporting roles in several acclaimed dramas in the 1980s, including the true-crime drama Star 80 (1983) as the mother of murder victim Dorothy Stratten, and the racial drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright. In 1987, she had a supporting part in Ironweed (1987). Through the 1990s Baker had guest roles in several television series, such as Murder, She Wrote; L.A. Law, and Roswell. She also had supporting parts in several big-budget films, such as Kindergarten Cop (1990) and the David Fincher-directed thriller The Game (1997). She formally retired from acting in 2003. In addition to acting, Baker is also the author of two autobiographies and a novel.
Early life and education
Baker was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania into a Catholic family, the daughter of Edith Gertrude (née Duffy) and William Watson Baker, a traveling salesman. Baker is of Irish and Polish descent, which has given rise to a rumor that her birth name was Karolina Piekarski, though this currently cannot be substantiated by known records. Her parents separated when she was eight years old, and she moved with her mother and younger sister, Virginia, to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania.
According to Baker, her mother struggled as a single parent, and the family was poor for much of her upbringing.
Baker attended Greensburg Salem High School in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, where she was a debate team member and active in the marching band and school musicals. At 18, she moved with her family to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she attended St. Petersburg Junior College (now St. Petersburg College). After her first year in college, she began working as a magician's assistant on the vaudeville circuit and joined a dance company, working as a professional dancer. In 1949, Baker won the title of Miss Florida Fruits and Vegetables. In 1951, Baker moved to New York City, where she rented a dirt-floor basement apartment in Queens. She worked as a nightclub dancer and also had stints as a chorus girl in traveling vaudeville shows, which took her to Windsor, Detroit, and New Jersey.
Baker studied acting at HB Studio. In 1952, she enrolled at the Actors Studio and studied under Lee Strasberg. There, she was a classmate of Mike Nichols, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, and Marilyn Monroe; she also became a close friend of James Dean for the rest of his life.
Career
1952–1957: Early work and critical success
After appearing in television commercials for Winston cigarettes and Coca-Cola, Baker was featured in an episode of Monodrama Theater performing a monodramatic piece, which was broadcast in 1952 on the DuMont Network. The following year, she made her film debut with a small walk-on part in the musical Easy to Love (1953). This led to her landing roles in two Broadway productions: Roger MacDougall's Escapade in the fall of 1953, and Robert Anderson's All Summer Long, opposite Ed Begley, which ran from September to mid-November 1954. In 1955, she screen tested and auditioned for the lead role in Picnic, but lost the part to Kim Novak. She was also considered for the lead in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) after James Dean recommended her for the part to director Nicholas Ray, which she turned down.
Baker's first major screen role was the supporting part of Luz Benedict II in Giant (1956), opposite Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and James Dean, in his final role. According to Baker, she had been offered numerous leading parts in feature films before that point, but chose to debut in a supporting role in Giant because she was "insecure" and "wanted to start out a little less 'profile. Giant was largely filmed in the small town of Marfa, Texas, in 1955; Baker recalled her experience on set, saying that James Dean and she were both enamored of Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor while filming.
Simultaneously, Baker was cast as the title character in Elia Kazan's Baby Doll (1956), a role initially intended for Marilyn Monroe. Tennessee Williams, who had written and developed the screenplay based on two of his one-act plays, wanted Baker to play the part after seeing her perform a scene from his script at the Actors Studio; likewise, Kazan had been impressed by her performance in All Summer Long on Broadway the year prior. Shot in Benoit, Mississippi, directly after Baker had completed Giant, her role in the film as a sexually repressed teenaged bride to a failed middle-aged cotton gin owner brought Baker overnight fame and a level of notoriety even before the film's release. In the fall of 1956, artist Robert Everheart, under contract with Warner Bros., constructed a billboard in Times Square promoting the film, depicting the now-iconic image of a scantily clad Baker lying in a crib sucking her thumb. The controversial advertising campaign for the film caused a pre-emptive backlash from religious groups, and on December 16, 1956, Cardinal Francis Spellman of St. Patrick's Cathedral denounced the film and advised his parish against seeing it. A formal condemnation by the Roman Catholic National Legion of Decency ensued, which considered it "grievously offensive to Christian and traditional standards of morality and decency".
In support of Baker, Marilyn Monroe appeared at the film's premiere, working as an usherette to help bolster ticket sales, the proceeds of which were donated to the Actors Studio. Baker received immense critical praise for her performance. Variety said that her performance "captures all the animal charm, the naivete, the vanity, contempt and rising passion of Baby Doll", while Bosley Crowther of The New York Times praised Baker's ability to exhibit "a piteously flimsy little twist of juvenile greed, inhibitions, physical yearnings, common crudities and conceits". Baby Doll established Baker as an A-list actress and would remain the film for which she is best remembered. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, a Golden Globe for Best Actress, and won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer, which she shared with Jayne Mansfield and Natalie Wood. The performance also earned her a Film Achievement Award from Look, as well as the title "Woman of the Year" in 1957 from Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Club. She appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in June 1956.
1958–1963: Contract disputes and independent films
After the success of Baby Doll, Baker was subsequently offered parts in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Too Much, Too Soon (1958), and The Devil's Disciple (1959). She refused to make Too Much Too Soon, so Warner Bros. put her on suspension, which prevented her from starring in The Brothers Karamazov (1958) at MGM. Baker was also chosen by MGM for the lead in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and by Twentieth Century Fox for The Three Faces of Eve (1957), but her contract with Warner Bros. again prevented her from accepting the roles. Tensions between Baker and the studio escalated further when she went against their wishes by appearing in Arms and the Man on stage. Baker commented on the effect of the system on her career, saying: "I came in at the end of the big studio system. I still had a slave contract and they were willing to put you in almost anything they had."
After her suspension with Warner Bros. was lifted, Baker appeared in William Wyler's Western epic The Big Country (1958). The film was well received by critics, though the shoot was described as "problematic": Baker was four months pregnant at the time and had to wear restraining garments, and director Wyler reportedly had her on the verge of tears after forcing her to repeat the same take over 60 times, only to use the first one. She followed The Big Country with lead roles in two romances, portraying a nun in The Miracle (1959), co-starring Roger Moore, and in But Not for Me (1959), a comedy with Clark Gable. The New York Times praised Baker's performance in But Not for Me, saying: "Miss Baker, being a young lady who not only has looks, but also can act, makes you understand why Mr. Gable would like to cheat a little bit on Father Time." She disliked The Miracle so much that she bought out her contract with Warner Bros., putting her in considerable debt. But Not for Me was made at Paramount.
Baker went on to make the experimental film Something Wild (1961), directed by her then-husband Jack Garfein. In this independent production, she plays a young college student from the Bronx who is raped one night in St. James Park, and later held captive by a Manhattan mechanic (Ralph Meeker), who witnessed her subsequent suicide attempt. In preparation for her role, Baker lived alone in a boarding house in New York's Lower East Side, and gained employment as a department-store salesgirl; her Method approach to the role was profiled in Life magazine in 1960. Critical reaction to the film was largely negative, though Film Quarterly cited it as "the most interesting American film of its quarter", and the most underrated film of 1961. However, its controversial depiction of rape led to critical backlash and public criticism, and the film has been credited by historians as nearly halting Baker's career. The same year, she portrayed Gwen Harold in Bridge to the Sun (1961), a production by MGM based on the 1957 best-selling autobiography of a Tennessee-born woman who married a Japanese diplomat (portrayed by James Shigeta) and became one of the few Americans to live in Japan during World War II. While only a modest success at the box office, the film was well received by critics and was America's entry at the Venice International Film Festival.
After this, Baker appeared in the independent British-German film Station Six-Sahara (1962) as a woman who provokes tensions at an oil station in the Sahara Desert, as well as the blockbuster Western epic How the West Was Won (1962), opposite James Stewart and Debbie Reynolds and former co-stars Gregory Peck and Karl Malden. In addition to film acting, Baker also found time to appear again on Broadway, starring in the 1962 production of Garson Kanin's Come on Strong in the fall of that year. In 1963, Baker relocated permanently with then-husband Jack Garfein and their two children to Los Angeles, where she based herself for the next several years. She traveled to Kenya to film Mister Moses (1965), where publicized rumors spread that she and co-star Robert Mitchum were having an affair, which they both vehemently denied. Another story, now considered apocryphal, had it that a Maasai chief in Kenya offered 150 cows, 200 goats, sheep, and $750 for her hand in marriage. She subsequently appeared with Maasai warriors on the cover of Lifes July 1964 issue.
1964–1966: Sex symbol roles
Baker portrayed a pacifist Quaker schoolteacher in John Ford's Cheyenne Autumn (1964), and received critical acclaim for the role. She then had a supporting role as Saint Veronica in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and portrayed a cynical, alcoholic movie star in The Carpetbaggers (1964), which brought her a second wave of notoriety in spite of the film's lackluster reviews. The New York Times called the film "a sickly sour distillation" of the source novel, but said Baker's performance "brought some color and a sandpaper personality as the sex-loaded widow." The film was the top moneymaker of that year, with domestic box-office receipts of $13,000,000, and marked the beginning of a tumultuous relationship with the film's producer, Joseph E. Levine.
Based on her Carpetbaggers performance, Levine began to develop Baker as a movie sex symbol, and she appeared posing in the December 1964 issue of Playboy. She was subsequently cast by Levine in the title roles of two 1965 potboilers— Sylvia, as an ex-prostitute and con artist, and as Jean Harlow in Harlow. Baker appeared on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post on their November 2, 1963, issue dressed as Harlow, promoting the film's upcoming production. In 1965, she became an official celebrity spokesperson for Foster Grant sunglasses and appeared in advertisements for the company. Baker likened this era of her career to "being a beauty contest winner [as opposed to] an actress".
Despite much prepublicity, Harlow received a lukewarm response from critics: Variety referred to Baker's portrayal of Harlow as "a fairly reasonable facsimile, although she lacks the electric fire of the original." Relations between Baker and Levine soured; in a 1965 interview, Baker sardonically commented: "I'll say this about Joe Levine: I admire his taste in leading ladies", which led the press to suspect a rift between the actress and producer. Baker sued Levine in 1966 over her contract with Paramount Pictures, and was ultimately fired by Paramount and had her paychecks from Harlow frozen amid the contentious legal dispute; this left Baker hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt (however, she was eventually awarded $1 million in compensation).
In an interview with Rex Reed in his book People Are Crazy Here (1974), Baker revealed that she had felt pressure in both her working relationship with Levine, and her domestic life with her husband whom she said wanted to maintain an expensive lifestyle: "We'd been very poor when we started out at the Actors Studio in New York", she told Reed. "I was under contract to Joe Levine, who was going around giving me diamonds and behaving like he owned me. I never slept with him or anything, but everyone thought I was his mistress." In the spring of 1966, Baker returned to theatre, performing in a production of Anna Christie at the Huntington Hartford Theater in Los Angeles. The production was directed by Garfein. The production was heralded as the "theatre event of the week" in Los Angeles, though its reception was middling. Cecil Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the production: "The beautiful Miss Baker's vehicle becomes a hearse." The play was also performed at the Tappan Zee Playhouse in Nyack, New York in June 1966.
1967–1975: European films
Baker separated from her second husband, Jack Garfein, in 1967, and moved to Europe with her two children to pursue a career there after struggling to find work in Hollywood. Eventually settling in Rome, Baker became fluent in Italian and spent the next several years starring in hard-edged Italian thrillers, exploitation, and horror films. In 1966, Baker had been invited to the Venice International Film Festival, where she met director Marco Ferreri, who asked her to play the lead role in Her Harem (1967). This was followed with the horror films The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) and The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971). Baker also starred in So Sweet... So Perverse (1969), Orgasmo (1969), A Quiet Place to Kill (1970), and Il coltello di ghiaccio (Knife of Ice) (1972), all giallo films directed by Italian filmmaker Umberto Lenzi.
Many of these films feature her in roles as distressed women, and often showed Baker in nude scenes, which few major Hollywood actors were willing to do at the time. Baker became a favorite of Umberto Lenzi, with her best-known role being in the aforementioned Paranoia, where she played a wealthy widow tormented by two sadistic siblings. In his review of Paranoia, Roger Ebert said: "Carroll Baker, who was a Hollywood sex symbol (for some, it is said) until she sued Joe Levine and got blacklisted, has been around. She may not be an actress, but she can act. In The Carpetbaggers, there was a nice wholesome vulgarity to her performance. She is not intrinsically as bad as she appears in Paranoia. I think maybe she was saying 'the hell with it', and having a good time." As with Paranoia, the majority of the films she made in Italy received poor critical reception in the United States, though they afforded Baker—who had left Hollywood in debt and with two children to support— an income, as well as fame abroad. In retrospect, Baker commented on her career in Italy and on her exploitation film roles, saying: "I think I made more films [there] than I made in Hollywood, but the mentality is different. What they think is wonderful is not what we might ... it was marvelous for me because it really brought me back to life, and it gave me a whole new outlook. It's wonderful to know about a different world."
She followed her roles in Lenzi's films with a leading role in Corrado Farina's Baba Yaga (1973) as the titular witch, alongside Isabelle De Funès and George Eastman. TV Guide referred to the film as an "exceptionally handsome example of 1970s Italian pop-exploitation filmmaking sweetened by Piero Umilani's lounge-jazz score", and praised Baker's performance, but noted that she was "physically wrong for the role; her elaborate lace-and-beribboned costumes sometimes make her look more like a fleshy Miss Havisham than a sleekly predatory sorceress".
1976–1987: Return to American films; theater
Baker's first American film in over 10 years came in the Andy Warhol–produced black comedy Bad (1977), in which she plays the lead role of a Queens beauty salon owner who provides hitmen with jobs, starring alongside Susan Tyrrell and Perry King. "You can hardly call making an Andy Warhol movie a 'comeback'", said Baker. "It's more like going to the moon! The subject is totally unique."
She followed Bad with a part in the low-budget surrealist thriller The Sky Is Falling (1979) with Dennis Hopper, playing a washed-up actress living among expatriates in a Spanish village. The 1970s also had a return to the stage for Baker, where she appeared in British theater productions of Bell, Book, and Candle; Rain, an adaptation of a story by W. Somerset Maugham; Lucy Crown, an adaptation of the novel by Irwin Shaw; and Motive. In 1978, while touring England and Ireland in productions of Motive, Baker met stage actor Donald Burton, who became her third husband. She also appeared in American stage productions of Georges Feydeau's 13 Rue de l'Amour, Forty Carats, and Goodbye Charlie.
By the 1980s Baker had largely become a character actress, and was based in London. She starred in a supporting role in the 1980 Walt Disney-produced horror film The Watcher in the Woods, alongside Bette Davis, after having been asked by British director John Hough, a longtime admirer of her work. After an appearance in the British television film Red Monarch (1983), she played the mother of murdered Playboy model Dorothy Stratten (played by Mariel Hemingway) in the biopic Star 80 (1983). She also appeared as the mother of Sigmund Freud in the comedy The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984) with Carol Kane and Klaus Kinski.
Baker featured in Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), a coming-of-age drama set against Nazi Germany, as well as in the drama Native Son (1986), based on the novel by Richard Wright, which featured Matt Dillon, Geraldine Page, and a young Oprah Winfrey. In the latter Baker plays a 1930s Chicago housewife, mother of a teenage girl accidentally killed by an African American chauffeur, who attempts to cover up the accident. Critic Roger Ebert praised Baker's performance, noting her "powerful" scene with Winfrey during the film's finale.
Following Native Son, Baker had a critically acclaimed lead role as the wife of a schizophrenic drifter (played by Jack Nicholson) in Ironweed (1987), alongside Meryl Streep. Her performance in the film was praised by Ebert, who said: "Nicholson's homecoming [in the film] is all the more effective because Carroll Baker is so good as his wife ... she finds a whole new range. It may seem surprising to say that Baker holds the screen against Jack Nicholson, and yet she does".
1988–2003: Later roles and retirement
In 1990, Baker played the role of Eleanor Crisp—described by Roger Ebert as "an effective bitch on wheels"—in Ivan Reitman's comedy Kindergarten Cop, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which she filmed in Astoria, Oregon, in the summer of 1990. The film was a huge financial success, grossing over $200 million worldwide. Her film and television work continued throughout the '90s, and she acted in many made-for-television movies, including the true-crime story Judgment Day: The John List Story (1993), Witness Run (1996), and Dalva (1996) with Farrah Fawcett.
In 1997, Baker was cast in a supporting role in David Fincher's thriller The Game, in which she plays a housekeeper to a billionaire San Francisco banker (played by Michael Douglas) who becomes embroiled in a sadistic game by his antagonistic brother, played by Sean Penn. In an interview with The New York Post following the film's release, Baker commented on her role, saying: "It's an important movie and I'm honored to be in it. Of course, I'd like to be the romantic lead, and I'm actually closer to Michael's [Douglas] age than Deborah Kara Unger is, [but] I think it's always worked that way in Hollywood. When I was in my 20s, I played opposite Jimmy Stewart, Robert Mitchum, and Clark Gable, all of whom were old enough to be my father." The Game proved to be a major success among Baker's later films, performing successfully at the box office and garnering widespread critical acclaim.
In addition to her work in big-budget productions, Baker also appeared in small, independent films, such as Just Your Luck (1996) and Nowhere to Go (1997). The 1990s also had Baker more frequently appearing on television series, including episodes of Grand (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1991, opposite Teri Garr in a segment directed by Michael J. Fox), Murder, She Wrote and L.A. Law (both 1993); Chicago Hope (1995), and Roswell (1999). In 2000, she appeared in the Lifetime film Another Woman's Husband. In 2002, Baker appeared in the documentary Cinerama Adventure, and guest-starred in an episode of The Lyon's Den, playing the mother of Rob Lowe's character. Her role in The Lyon's Den was Baker's last screen appearance before she formally retired from acting in 2003. Her acting career spanned 50 years, and more than 80 roles in film, television, and theater.
She has, however, sometimes participated in retrospective documentaries, including an interview for the 2006 DVD release of Baby Doll, which includes a documentary featuring Baker reflecting on the film's impact on her career. Baker has also been featured in documentaries about several of her co-stars, including Clark Gable, Roger Moore, Sal Mineo, and James Dean, including the 1975 James Dean: The First American Teenager, and a 1985 BBC Radio 2 tribute marking the 30th anniversary of the actor's death. Her memories of James Dean at the Actors Studio and later in Giant were recalled on BBC Radio 2 in 1982, when she guested on You're Tearing Me Apart, Terence Pettigrew's documentary which commemorated the 25th anniversary of Dean's death in a car accident in 1955. Also on the program were singer-actor Adam Faith and the screenwriter Ray Connolly.
Writing
In 1983, Baker published an autobiography titled Baby Doll: An Autobiography, which detailed her life and career as an actress and revealed the issues with Paramount and Warner Bros. that had led her to move to Europe in the 1970s and pursue a career in Italian films. Baker said to Regis Philbin, when he interviewed her for Lifetime Television in 1986, that she "didn't want to write an autobiography ... but I wanted to write, and I knew that would be the easiest thing to get published." She further commented to Philbin on her writing, saying: "I think I always wanted to write, but I was a little self-conscious about it. I never had a formal education, and I've always had such a respect for writing. While I could go out and say, even before I started to act, 'Yes, I'm an actress,' I couldn't really say 'I'm a writer.'" In spite of Baker's misgivings, Baby Doll: An Autobiography was well received. She later wrote two other books, To Africa with Love (1986), detailing her time spent in Africa, and a novel titled A Roman Tale (1987).
Personal life
Baker has been married three times. She first married 54 year-old Louie Ritter, owner of the Weylin Hotel, in 1953. The marriage ended within a year, after which she enrolled at the Actors Studio in New York City. Baker alleged that Ritter had raped her when she was still a virgin in the early stages of their relationship. Her second was to director Jack Garfein, a Holocaust survivor she met at the Studio and for whom she converted to Judaism (having been raised a Catholic). They had one daughter, Blanche Baker (born 1956), also an actress, and a son, Herschel Garfein (born 1958), who is a composer and faculty member at the Steinhardt School of Music at New York University. Garfein and Baker divorced in 1969. Baker also has six grandchildren.
Baker married her third husband, British theater actor Donald Burton, on March 10, 1982, and resided in Hampstead, London, in the 1980s. The couple remained together until Burton's death from emphysema at their home in Cathedral City, California, on December 8, 2007.
After leaving Hollywood in the mid-1960s, Baker travelled with Bob Hope's Christmas USO troupe entertaining soldiers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, an experience which she described as reformative: "In the hospitals I held the hands of damaged young men, and I realized that my pain was not exclusive: that in this world there was suffering much more terrible than mine."
Baker resided mainly in New York City and Los Angeles throughout the 1950s and 1960s before relocating to Rome to pursue her career there. Baker was mainly based in Palm Springs, California, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. , she resides in New York City. In February 2014, she served as maid of honor at longtime friend, psychologist, and former actor, Dr Patrick Suraci's wedding to his partner, Tony Perkins, in New York.
Legacy
Baker's role in Baby Doll was one that would come to be career-defining, and her association with both the film and character remained consistent throughout her career. In a 1983 article by People magazine, "Baby Doll" was referred to as Baker's "middle name". The film, adapted originally from Tennessee Williams' one-act play 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, has been performed on stage into the 21st century: it had its theatrical debut in 2000, and has been performed numerous times since. Baker's performance of the role was credited in Vanity Fair as marking a significant cultural interest in the ingénue in American cinema.
In 2011, Baker attended the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in celebration of Williams' centenary. There, she participated in a panel with Rex Reed, where she discussed her experiences with Williams and performing in Baby Doll. In 2011 and 2012, she was awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Hoboken and Fort Lauderdale International Film Festivals.
A 1956 photograph by Diane Arbus depicts Baker onscreen in Baby Doll with a passing silhouette during a New York City theater screening of the film. She was also photographed by Andy Warhol in 1975 as part of his Polaroid portrait series, and is mentioned in his published diaries.
Baker has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1725 Vine Street, which was erected on February 8, 1960. In 2001, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was also dedicated to her.
Filmography and credits
Select filmography:
Easy to Love (1953)
Giant (1956)
Baby Doll (1956)
The Big Country (1958)
But Not For Me (1959)
The Miracle (1959)
Bridge to the Sun (1961)
Something Wild (1961)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Station Six-Sahara (1963)
The Carpetbaggers (1964)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
Sylvia (1965)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
Mister Moses (1965)
Harlow (1965)
Her Harem (1967)
Jack of Diamonds (1967)
The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968)
Orgasmo (1969)
So Sweet...So Perverse (1969)
A Quiet Place to Kill (1970)
Captain Apache (1971)
The Devil Has Seven Faces (1971)
Knife of Ice (1972)
Baba Yaga (1973)
The Flower with the Petals of Steel (1973)
Private Lessons (1975)
Andy Warhol's Bad (1977)
Cyclone (1978)
The World Is Full Of Married Men (1979)
Star 80 (1983)
Native Son (1986)
Ironweed (1987)
Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Blonde Fist (1991)
The Game (1997)
Select television credits:
The Web (1954)
Danger (1955)
Thriller (1976)
Grand (1990)
Tales from the Crypt (1991)
Murder, She Wrote (1993)
L.A. Law (1993)
Chicago Hope (1995)
Roswell (1999)
Select stage credits:' Escapade (1953)
All Summer Long (1954)
Arms and the Man (1958)
Come on Strong (1962)
Anna Christie (1966)
Rain (1977)
Lucy Crown (1979)
Motive (1980)
Publications
Baby Doll: An Autobiography (Arbor House, 1983),
To Africa with Love (Dutton, 1986),
A Roman Tale (Dutton, 1986),
Accolades
Awards
1957: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress
1957: Hasty Pudding Theatricals Award for "Woman of the Year"
1965: Golden Laurel for Dramatic Performance, Female, for The Carpetbaggers (2nd place)
Nominations
1957: Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Baby Doll 1957: Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama, for Baby Doll 1957: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress (USA), for Baby Doll 1964: Golden Laurel for Top Female Star
1965: Golden Laurel for Female Star
Honors
1996: Golden Boot Award for The Big Country, How the West Was Won, and Cheyenne Autumn''
1997: Lifetime Achievement Award, Breckenridge (Colorado) Film Festival
2009: The National Arts Club's Medal of Honor
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award, Hoboken International Film Festival
2012: Lifetime Achievement Award, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival
See also
List of actors with Academy Award nominations
List of actors with Hollywood Walk of Fame motion picture stars
Notes
References
Works cited
External links
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American novelists
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Actors Studio alumni
Category:Actresses from Florida
Category:Actresses from Los Angeles
Category:Actresses from New York City
Category:Actresses from Pennsylvania
Category:American female dancers
Category:American film actresses
Category:American former Christians
Category:American musical theatre actresses
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American people of Polish descent
Category:American stage actresses
Category:American women novelists
Category:Converts to Judaism from Roman Catholicism
Category:Dancers from California
Category:Dancers from Florida
Category:Dancers from New York (state)
Category:Dancers from Pennsylvania
Category:Jewish American actresses
Category:New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
Category:Novelists from California
Category:Novelists from New York (state)
Category:Novelists from Pennsylvania
Category:Paramount Pictures contract players
Category:People from Cathedral City, California
Category:People from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Category:St. Petersburg College alumni
Category:Warner Bros. contract players
Category:Western (genre) film actresses
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:1931 births | [] | null | null |
C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_0 | Spice Girls | The Spice Girls are an English pop girl group formed in 1994. The group originally consisted of Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham, nee Adams ("Posh Spice"). They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number one in 37 countries and established them as a global phenomenon. Their debut album Spice sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. | Girl power | The phrase "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, but the slogan was met with mixed reactions. The phrase was a label for the particular facet of post classical neo-feminist empowerment embraced by the band: that a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. This concept was by no means original in the pop world: both Madonna and Bananarama had employed similar outlooks. The phrase itself had also appeared in a few songs by British girl groups and bands since at least 1987; most notably, it was the name of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single and album, later credited by Halliwell as the inspiration for the Spice Girls' mantra. However, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 with "Wannabe", that the concept of "girl power" exploded onto the common consciousness. The phrase was regularly uttered by all five members--although most closely associated with Halliwell--and was often delivered with a peace sign. The slogan also featured on official Spice Girls merchandise and on some of the outfits the group members wore. The Spice Girls' version was distinctive. Its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women, and it emphasised the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism--popularized as "girl power"--in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. On the other hand, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others took issue with the emphasis on physical appearance, concerned about the potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters. Regardless, the phrase became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary. In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable." The Spice Girls' debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations' Global Goals "#WhatIReallyReallyWant" campaign filmed a global remake of the original music video for "Wannabe" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which was launched on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?" At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017, American actress Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech, and credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The Spice Girls formed through auditions held with the intent to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They quickly left the managers and took creative control over their sound and image. The Spice Girls signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. It produced three more number-one singles: "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1" and "Who Do You Think You Are"/"Mama". Their second album Spiceworld (1997) was another global success, selling more than 14 million copies worldwide. They achieved three number-one singles from the album with: "Spice Up Your Life", "Too Much" and "Viva Forever". Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members.
In 1997 the Spice Girls made their live debut concert tour and released a feature film, Spice World, both to commercial success. In 1998, the group embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, which was attended by an estimated 2.1 million people worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group. Halliwell left the Spice Girls mid-tour in May 1998. Following a number-one single with "Goodbye" (1998) and a successful 1999 concert tour, the Spice Girls released their R&B-influenced third album Forever (2000). It featured their ninth number one single with "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", setting a record for most UK number ones by a girl group of all time. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Since then, they reunited for two concert tours; the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) as a five-piece and Spice World – 2019 tour without Beckham, both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements, making the Spice Girls the top touring all-female group from 1998 to 2020. They also reunited briefly in 2012 for a critically acclaimed live performance at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles. Other measures of the Spice Girls' success include iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, and their nicknames, which were given to them by the British press. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of the most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. According to the Music Week writer Paul Gorman, their media exposure helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
History
1994–1995: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the songs were aimed at a very young audience, and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their name to Spice.
Signing with Virgin Records
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. In January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. During these sessions the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group left Heart Management, feeling Heart was unwilling to listen to their ideas. To ensure they kept control of their work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down the Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to the Absolute production team. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around Spice had grown and major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was changed to the Spice Girls as a rapper was already using the name Spice. The new name was chosen as industry people often referred to them derisively as "the Spice girls". They continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996-1997: Breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video received a trial airing on music channel the Box. It was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, they had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "Just when boys with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before spending the next seven weeks at number one. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the best-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the best-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in Europe. In October, "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five best-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the best-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified ten times platinum, and reached number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the best-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There".
International success
In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. It proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the best-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the best-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book, was launched later that month at Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified thirteen times platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. It reached number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, "Wannabe" won the awards for International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single.
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a gruelling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management.
In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
Spiceworld and feature film
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from their second album, Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes."
In November, the Spice Girls released Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide.
Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. They were criticised for their number of sponsorship deals—more than 20—and their chart positions declined. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the best-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the Spice Girls performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, they fired Fuller and began managing themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the mastermind behind the group, and that the Spice Girls had lost their impetus and direction.
Later in November, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with... Their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the Spice Girls' second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one UK single. That month, the Spice Girls launched a feature-length film, Spice World. The world premiere, at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, London, was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The Spice Girls ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
1998: Spiceworld tour and Halliwell's departure
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, they won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of more than 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in the UK, entering at number two. On 24 February 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, before moving to mainland Europe and North America and returning to the UK for two performances at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls sang on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", their last song with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from a performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, and later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment. Rumours of a power struggle with Brown circulated in the press. Halliwell's departure shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news international headlines. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on.
The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $93.6 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was attended by an estimated 2.1 million people over 97 shows with an estimated gross of $220-$250 million, the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group. It was accompanied by a documentary film, Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever", the last single released from Spiceworld, and became the Spice Girls' seventh UK's number-one. The video was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
While on tour in the United States, the Spice Girls wrote and recorded new material. They released a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. It was seen as a tribute to Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group. It became the Spice Girls' third consecutive Christmas number one, equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That year, Brown and Adams announced they were pregnant. Brown was married to the dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to their daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to her son Brooklyn, whose father was the Manchester United footballer David Beckham. Later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
1999–2000: Forever, solo work and hiatus
From 1998, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers. By 1999, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. They returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break. It was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The sound took on a more mature direction when American producers including Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group.
In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. The eight-show tour was attended by more than 153,000 people, grossing $5.7 million in ticket sales. The first four shows, at Manchester Evening News Arena, grossed $2.6 million; the second portion of the tour saw the group play another four shows at Earls Court Arena, grossing $3.1 million. Earlier in the year, the Spice Girls recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which became the musical Aida. The Spice Girls performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Halliwell attended but did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the Spice Girls released their third and final album, Forever. With an edgier R&B sound, it received lukewarm reviews. In the US, it reached number 39 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, it was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast and the chart battle was widely reported by the media; Westlife reached number one and the Spice Girls number two. The lead single, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became Spice Girls' ninth UK number one. However, it failed to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, instead reaching number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and number 31 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The Spice Girls' only major performance of the single came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the sales of its predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased promotional activities in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour, the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with the Spice Girls performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing 20 songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to the supermarket chain Tesco.
The Spice Girls' comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
The tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010, 2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", with Geri Halliwell and Mel B receiving the award from Samantha Fox on behalf of the group.
That year, the Spice Girls collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where the music video for "Wannabe" had been filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. They also appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. It was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most-tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016, 2018–2019: G.E.M and Spice World tour
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song, "Song for Her", was leaked online in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
In late 2018 the Spice Girls officially
announced their second renunion tour, with tickets going on sale in November 2018. They also revealed they would do it as a four-piece without Beckham, as she declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour.
On 24 May 2019, they began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
2020–present: Spice25 and Spiceworld25
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five.
On 27 September 2022, the Spice Girls announced the tracklisting for Spiceworld25, the 25th anniversary edition of their 1997 album Spiceworld. The new collection features previously unreleased live versions and remixes, plus previously available B-sides "Walk of Life" and "Outer Space Girls" and a megamix. Their 1997 song "Step to Me" was released digitally for the first time ever on the same day as the album announcement. "Step to Me" had originally been released in 1997 as part of a Pepsi promotion, where fans could get the single CD if they collected enough ring pulls. On 13 October 2022, the Spice Girls released an alternative version of the "Spice Up Your Life" video, using previously unused footage, alongside a live version of the song. Spiceworld25 was released on 4 November 2022. The reissue charted at number 46 on the UK Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance in songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy to distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first-ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early Millennials was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, Spain's Bellepop, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, Haim, and Blackpink. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and sisterhood. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture". The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology".
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose the name "Emma" inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously used the name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their second album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001), Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002), and Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain (2021). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the best-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the best-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.
Spice is the 18th-best-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the best-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Band membersCurrent members Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie C (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)Former members'
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
Category:1994 establishments in England
Category:1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Brit Award winners
Category:British pop girl groups
Category:British dance music groups
Category:British pop music groups
Category:Dance-pop groups
Category:Teen pop groups
Category:Feminist musicians
Category:Ivor Novello Award winners
Category:Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Category:MTV Europe Music Award winners
Category:Musical groups established in 1994
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Category:Musical groups from London
Category:Virgin Records artists
Category:World Music Awards winners | [] | [
"\"Girl Power\" was a social phenomenon and slogan coined by the Spice Girls. It represented a facet of neo-feminist empowerment that argued a sensual, feminine appearance and equality between the sexes need not be mutually exclusive. It was a mantra that emphasized the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females and was often delivered with a peace sign. The phrase \"girl power\" became associated with the band's focus on empowering young girls, adolescents, and adult women.",
"The \"girl power\" slogan was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credited the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism through this slogan, serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. However, some critics dismissed it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic, while others were concerned about the emphasis on physical appearance, worried about its potential impact on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters.",
"Yes, some critics disliked the \"girl power\" message; they dismissed it as nothing more than a shallow marketing tactic. Others were concerned about the emphasis on physical appearance, worried about its potential impact on self-conscious and impressionable youngsters.",
"Some critics took issue with the \"girl power\" message because of its emphasis on a sensual, feminine appearance. They were concerned about the potential impact this could have on self-conscious and/or impressionable youngsters, likely fearing it could contribute to unrealistic beauty standards or body image issues.",
"The concept of \"girl power\" exploded onto the common consciousness around 1996 with the emergence of the Spice Girls and their debut single \"Wannabe\".",
"One interesting point in this section is that, despite the mixed reactions, the \"girl power\" slogan became such a cultural phenomenon that it even made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. Another interesting point is that the United Nations' Global Goals \"#WhatIReallyReallyWant\" campaign used a remake of the Spice Girls' \"Wannabe\" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. Moreover, notable figures like actress Blake Lively and Victoria Beckham have made public statements acknowledging the impact of the \"girl power\" concept even decades after its inception.",
"The Spice Girls were unique in their focused and consistent presentation of \"girl power,\" which became the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. Each member was distinctly different, and they promoted both their individuality and unity as women, emphasizing the importance of strong and loyal friendship among females. They also managed to combine a sensual, feminine appearance with a message of equality between the sexes. This messaging of empowerment appealed to a wide audience of young girls, adolescents, and adult women, contributing to their unique enduring influence and popularity.",
"One interesting point in this section is that, despite the mixed reactions, the \"girl power\" slogan became such a cultural phenomenon that it even made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. Another interesting point is that the United Nations' Global Goals \"#WhatIReallyReallyWant\" campaign used a remake of the Spice Girls' \"Wannabe\" to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. Moreover, notable figures like actress Blake Lively and Victoria Beckham have made public statements acknowledging the impact of the \"girl power\" concept even decades after its inception.",
"Victoria Beckham responded to the United Nations' Global Goals \"#WhatIReallyReallyWant\" campaign remake of \"Wannabe\" by saying, \"How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?\" American actress Blake Lively also mentioned the Spice Girls in her acceptance speech at the 43rd People's Choice Awards in January 2017. She dedicated her \"Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress\" award to \"girl power\" and described the Spice Girls as being \"distinctly different\" and said they \"owned who they were,\" adding that they were her first introduction into \"girl power.\"",
"Blake Lively's acceptance speech at the 43rd People's Choice Awards, in which she dedicated her \"Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress\" award to \"girl power,\" took place in January 2017. The reference to Victoria Beckham's reaction to the United Nations' Global Goals \"#WhatIReallyReallyWant\" campaign remake of \"Wannabe\" does not specify when she made her comment, but the campaign was launched in 2016.",
"The context does not provide information on any awards or high reviews received by the Spice Girls."
] | [
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Neutral",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
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C_fe6b19634b6e4d3fa1e9cb3ceb5cbec3_1 | Spice Girls | The Spice Girls are an English pop girl group formed in 1994. The group originally consisted of Melanie Brown ("Scary Spice"), Melanie Chisholm ("Sporty Spice"), Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"), Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"), and Victoria Beckham, nee Adams ("Posh Spice"). They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number one in 37 countries and established them as a global phenomenon. Their debut album Spice sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. | 1998-2000: Forever and hiatus | While on tour in the United-States, the group continued to record new material and released a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. The song was seen as a tribute to Geri Halliwell, and when it topped the UK Singles Chart it became their third consecutive Christmas number-one - equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. Later in 1998, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other band members, and the group won two awards: "Best Pop Act" and "Best Group" for a second time. In late 1998, Brown and Adams announced they were both pregnant; Brown was married to dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period. She gave birth to daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. One month later, Adams gave birth to son Brooklyn, whose father was then Manchester United footballer David Beckham. Later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland. The Spice Girls returned to the studio in August 1999, after an eight-month recording break to start work on their third and last studio album. The album's sound was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The album's sound took a mature direction when American producers like Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on to collaborate with the group. In December 1999 they performed live for a UK-only tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, also showcasing new songs from the third album. During 1999, the group recorded the character Amneris' song "My Strongest Suit" in Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which would later go on to fuel the musical version of Verdi's Aida. The band performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards, where they received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Despite being at the event, Halliwell did not join her former bandmates on stage. In November 2000, the group released Forever. Sporting a new edgier R&B sound, the album received a lukewarm response from critics. In the US, the album peaked at number thirty-nine on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, the album was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast album and the chart battle was widely reported by the media, where Westlife won the battle reaching number one in the UK, leaving the Spice Girls at number two. The lead single from Forever, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became the group's ninth number one single in the UK. However the song failed to break onto the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart stateside, instead peaking at number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles. "Holler" did peak at number thirty-one on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 2000. The only major performance of the lead single came at the MTV Europe Music Awards on 16 November 2000. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the success of its two best-selling predecessors, selling five million copies. In December 2000, the group unofficially announced that they were beginning an indefinite hiatus and would be concentrating on their solo careers in regards to their foreseeable future, although they pointed out that the group was not splitting. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Spice Girls are an English girl group formed in 1994, consisting of Melanie Brown, also known as Mel B ("Scary Spice"); Melanie Chisholm, or Melanie C ("Sporty Spice"); Emma Bunton ("Baby Spice"); Geri Halliwell ("Ginger Spice"); and Victoria Beckham ("Posh Spice"). With their "girl power" mantra, they redefined the girl-group concept by targeting a young female fanbase. They led the teen pop resurgence of the 1990s, were a major part of the Cool Britannia era, and became pop culture icons of the decade.
The Spice Girls formed through auditions held with the intent to create a girl group to compete with the British boy bands popular at the time. They quickly left the managers and took creative control over their sound and image. The Spice Girls signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single "Wannabe" in 1996, which reached number one on the charts of 37 countries. Their debut album, Spice (1996), sold more than 23 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album by a female group in history. It produced three more number-one singles: "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1" and "Who Do You Think You Are"/"Mama". Their second album Spiceworld (1997) was another global success, selling more than 14 million copies worldwide. They achieved three number-one singles from the album with: "Spice Up Your Life", "Too Much" and "Viva Forever". Both albums encapsulated the group's dance-pop style and message of female empowerment, with vocal and songwriting contributions shared equally by the members.
In 1997 the Spice Girls made their live debut concert tour and released a feature film, Spice World, both to commercial success. In 1998, the group embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, which was attended by an estimated 2.1 million people worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group. Halliwell left the Spice Girls mid-tour in May 1998. Following a number-one single with "Goodbye" (1998) and a successful 1999 concert tour, the Spice Girls released their R&B-influenced third album Forever (2000). It featured their ninth number one single with "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", setting a record for most UK number ones by a girl group of all time. At the end of 2000, the Spice Girls entered a hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. Since then, they reunited for two concert tours; the Return of the Spice Girls (2007–2008) as a five-piece and Spice World – 2019 tour without Beckham, both of which won the Billboard Live Music Award for highest-grossing engagements, making the Spice Girls the top touring all-female group from 1998 to 2020. They also reunited briefly in 2012 for a critically acclaimed live performance at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.
The Spice Girls have sold 100 million records worldwide, making them the best-selling girl group of all time, one of the bestselling artists, and the most successful British pop act since the Beatles. They received five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards and one MTV Video Music Award. In 2000, they became the youngest recipients of the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. According to Rolling Stone journalist and biographer David Sinclair, they were the most widely recognised group since the Beatles. Other measures of the Spice Girls' success include iconic symbolism such as Halliwell's Union Jack dress, and their nicknames, which were given to them by the British press. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, their endorsement deals and merchandise made them one of the most successful marketing engines ever, with a global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998. According to the Music Week writer Paul Gorman, their media exposure helped usher in an era of celebrity obsession in pop culture.
History
1994–1995: Formation and early years
In the early 1990s, Bob and Chris Herbert, the father-and-son duo of Heart Management, decided to create a girl group to compete with the boy bands who dominated UK pop music at the time. Together with financier Chic Murphy, they envisioned an act comprising "five strikingly different girls" who would each appeal to a different audience. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in the trade paper The Stage asking for singers to audition for an all-female pop band at London's Danceworks studios. Approximately 400 women attended the audition on 4 March 1994. They were placed in groups of 10 and danced a routine to "Stay" by Eternal, followed by solo auditions in which they performed songs of their choice.
After several weeks of deliberation, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Michelle Stephenson were among a dozen or so women who advanced to a second round of auditions in April. Chisholm missed the second audition after coming down with tonsillitis. Despite missing the first round of auditions, Geri Halliwell persuaded the Herberts to let her attend the second. A week after the second audition, Adams, Brown, Halliwell and Stephenson were asked to attend a recall at Nomis Studios in Shepherd's Bush, performing "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" on their own and as a group. Chisholm was also invited as a last-minute replacement for another finalist. The five women were selected for a band initially named "Touch".
The group moved into a three-bedroom house in Maidenhead, Berkshire, and spent most of 1994 practising songs written for them by Bob Herbert's long-time associates John Thirkell and Erwin Keiles. According to Stephenson, the songs were aimed at a very young audience, and none were later used by the Spice Girls. During these first months, the group worked on demos at South Hill Park Recording Studios in Bracknell with producer and studio owner Michael Sparkes and songwriter and arranger Tim Hawes. They were also tasked with choreographing their own dance routines, which they worked on at Trinity Studios in Knaphill, near Woking, Surrey. A few months into the training, Stephenson was fired for a perceived lack of commitment. Heart Management turned to the group's vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, to find a replacement. After Lemer's first recommendation declined the offer, Lemer recommended her former pupil, Emma Bunton, who auditioned for the Herberts and joined as the fifth member.
As their training continued, the group performed small showcases for a few of Heart Management's associates. On one such performance, the group added a rap section they had written to one of Thirkell and Keiles' songs. Keiles was furious with the changes and insisted they learn to write songs properly. The group began professional songwriting lessons; during one session, they wrote a song called "Sugar and Spice" with Hawes, which inspired them to change their name to Spice.
Signing with Virgin Records
By late 1994, the group felt insecure as they still did not have an official contract with Heart Management, and were frustrated with the management team's direction. They persuaded Herbert to set up a showcase performance in front of industry writers, producers and A&R men in December 1994 at the Nomis Studios, where they received an "overwhelmingly positive" reaction. The Herberts quickly set about creating a binding contract for them. Encouraged by the reaction they had received at the Nomis showcase, all five members refused to sign the contracts on legal advice from, among others, Adams's father. In January, the group began songwriting sessions with Richard Stannard, whom they had impressed at the showcase, and his partner Matt Rowe. During these sessions the songs "Wannabe" and "2 Become 1" were written.
In March 1995, the group left Heart Management, feeling Heart was unwilling to listen to their ideas. To ensure they kept control of their work, they allegedly stole the master recordings of their discography from the management offices. The next day, the group tracked down the Sheffield-based songwriter Eliot Kennedy, who had been present at the Nomis showcase, and persuaded him to work with them. Through contacts they had made at the showcase, they were also introduced to the Absolute production team. With Kennedy and Absolute's help, the group spent the next several weeks writing and recording demos for the majority of the songs that would be released on their debut album, including "Say You'll Be There" and "Who Do You Think You Are". Their demos caught the attention of Simon Fuller of 19 Entertainment, who signed them to his management company in May 1995.
By this point, industry buzz around Spice had grown and major record labels in London and Los Angeles were keen to sign them. After a bidding war, they signed a five-album deal with Virgin Records in July 1995. Fuller took them on an extensive promotional tour in Los Angeles, where they met with studio executives in the hopes of securing film and television opportunities. Their name was changed to the Spice Girls as a rapper was already using the name Spice. The new name was chosen as industry people often referred to them derisively as "the Spice girls". They continued to write and record tracks for their debut album.
1996-1997: Breakthrough
On 7 July 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut single "Wannabe" in the United Kingdom. In the weeks before the release, the music video received a trial airing on music channel the Box. It was an instant hit, and was aired up to seventy times a week at its peak. After the video was released, the Spice Girls had their first live broadcast TV slot on LWT's Surprise Surprise. Earlier in May, they had conducted their first music press interview with Paul Gorman, the contributing editor of trade paper Music Week, at Virgin Records' Paris headquarters. His piece recognised that the Spice Girls were about to institute a change in the charts away from Britpop and towards out-and-out pop. He wrote: "Just when boys with guitars threaten to rule pop life—Damon's all over Smash Hits, Ash are big in Big! and Liam can't move for tabloid frenzy—an all-girl, in-yer-face pop group have arrived with enough sass to burst that rockist bubble." "Wannabe" entered the UK Singles Chart at number three before spending the next seven weeks at number one. The song proved to be a global hit, hitting number one in 37 countries, including four consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, and becoming not only the best-selling debut single by an all-female group but also the best-selling single by an all-female group of all time.
Riding a wave of publicity and hype, the group released their next singles in Europe. In October, "Say You'll Be There" was released topping the charts for two weeks. "2 Become 1" was released in December, becoming their first Christmas number one and selling 462,000 copies in its first week, making it the fastest-selling single of the year. The two tracks continued the group's remarkable sales, giving them three of the top five best-selling songs of 1996 in the UK. In November 1996, the Spice Girls released their debut album Spice in Europe. The success was unprecedented and drew comparisons to Beatlemania, leading the press to dub it "Spicemania" and the group the "Fab Five". In seven weeks Spice had sold 1.8 million copies in Britain alone, making the Spice Girls the fastest-selling British act since the Beatles. In total, the album sold over 3 million copies in Britain, the best-selling album of all time in the UK by a female group, certified ten times platinum, and reached number one for fifteen non-consecutive weeks. In Europe the album became the best-selling album of 1997 and was certified 8× Platinum by the IFPI for sales in excess of 8 million copies.
That same month, the Spice Girls attracted a crowd of 500,000 when they switched on the Christmas lights in Oxford Street, London. At the same time, Fuller started to set up multi-million dollar sponsorship deals for the Spice Girls with Pepsi, Walkers, Impulse, Cadbury and Polaroid. The group ended 1996 winning three trophies at the Smash Hits awards at the London Arena, including best video for "Say You'll Be There".
International success
In January 1997, "Wannabe" was released in the United States. It proved to be a catalyst in helping the Spice Girls break into the US market when it debuted on the Hot 100 Chart at number eleven. At the time, this was the highest-ever debut by a non-American act, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand", and the joint highest entry for a debut act alongside Alanis Morissette's "Ironic". "Wannabe" reached number one in the US for four weeks. In February, Spice was released in the US, and became the best-selling album of 1997 in the US, peaking at number one, and was certified 7× Platinum by the RIAA for sales in excess of 7.4 million copies. The album was also included in the Top 100 Albums of All Time list by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) based on US sales. In total, the album sold over 23 million copies worldwide becoming the best-selling album in pop music history by an all-female group.
Later that month, the Spice Girls performed "Who Do You Think You Are" to open the 1997 Brit Awards, with Geri Halliwell wearing a Union Jack mini-dress that became one of pop history's most famed outfits. At the ceremony, the group won two Brit Awards; Best British Video for "Say You'll Be There" and Best British Single for "Wannabe". In March 1997, a double A-side of "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are" was released in Europe, the last from Spice, which once again saw them at number one, making the Spice Girls the first group since the Jackson 5 to have four consecutive number one hits.
Girl Power!, the Spice Girls' first book, was launched later that month at Virgin Megastore. It sold out its initial print run of 200,000 copies within a day, and was eventually translated into more than 20 languages. In April, One Hour of Girl Power was released; it sold 500,000 copies in the UK between April and June to become the best-selling pop video ever, and was eventually certified thirteen times platinum. In May, Spice World, a film starring the group, was announced by the Spice Girls at the Cannes Film Festival. The group also performed their first live UK show for the Prince's Trust benefit concert. At the show, they breached royal protocol when Brown and then Halliwell planted kisses on Prince Charles' cheeks and pinched his bottom, causing controversy. That same month, Virgin released Spice Girls Present... The Best Girl Power Album... Ever!, a multi-artist compilation album compiled by the group. It reached number two on the UK Compilation Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI. At the Ivor Novello Awards, "Wannabe" won the awards for International Hit of the Year and Best-Selling British Single.
Spice World began filming in June and wrapped in August. The film was to be set to the songs from the group's second studio album, but no songs had been written when filming began. The group thus had to do all the songwriting and recording at the same time as they were filming Spice World, resulting in a gruelling schedule that left them exhausted. Among the songs that were written during this period was "Stop", the lyrics for which cover the group's frustrations with being overworked by their management.
In September, the Spice Girls performed "Say You'll Be There" at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and won Best Dance Video for "Wannabe". The MTV Awards came five days after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, with tributes paid to her throughout the ceremony. Chisholm stated, "We'd like to dedicate this award to Princess Diana, who is a great loss to our country." At the 1997 Billboard Music Awards, the group won four awards for New Artist of the Year, Billboard Hot 100 Singles Group of the Year, Billboard 200 Group of the Year and Billboard 200 Album of the Year for Spice.
Spiceworld and feature film
In October 1997, the Spice Girls released the first single from their second album, Spiceworld, "Spice Up Your Life". It entered the UK Singles Chart at number one, making it the group's fifth consecutive number-one single. That same month, the group performed their first live major concert to 40,000 fans in Istanbul, Turkey. Later, they launched the Royal British Legion's Poppy Appeal, then travelled to South Africa to meet Nelson Mandela, who announced, "These are my heroes."
In November, the Spice Girls released Spiceworld. It set a new record for the fastest-selling album when it shipped seven million copies over the course of two weeks. Gaining favourable reviews, the album went on to sell over 10 million copies in Europe, Canada, and the United States combined, and 14 million copies worldwide.
Criticised in the United States for releasing the album just nine months after their debut there, which gave the group two simultaneous Top 10 albums in the Billboard album charts, and suffering from over-exposure at home, the Spice Girls began to experience a media backlash. They were criticised for their number of sponsorship deals—more than 20—and their chart positions declined. Nevertheless, the Spice Girls remained the best-selling pop group of both 1997 and 1998.
On 7 November 1997, the Spice Girls performed "Spice Up Your Life" at the MTV Europe Music Awards and won the Best Group award. The morning of the performance, they fired Fuller and began managing themselves. To ensure a smooth transition, Halliwell allegedly stole a mobile phone from Fuller's assistant that contained the group's schedule and Fuller's business contacts. The firing was front-page news around the world. Many commentators speculated that Fuller had been the mastermind behind the group, and that the Spice Girls had lost their impetus and direction.
Later in November, the Spice Girls became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with... Their show was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the population. In December 1997, the second single from Spiceworld, "Too Much", was released, becoming the Spice Girls' second Christmas number one and their sixth consecutive number-one UK single. That month, the Spice Girls launched a feature-length film, Spice World. The world premiere, at the Empire Theatre in Leicester Square, London, was attended by celebrities including Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry. The film was a commercial success but received poor reviews. The Spice Girls ended 1997 as the year's most played artist on American radio.
1998: Spiceworld tour and Halliwell's departure
In January 1998, the Spice Girls attended the US premiere of Spice World at the Mann's Chinese Theatre. At the 1998 American Music Awards a few days later, they won the awards for Favorite Album, Favorite New Artist and Favorite Group in the pop/rock category. In February, they won a special award for overseas success at the 1998 Brit Awards, with combined sales of more than 45 million albums and singles worldwide. That night, the group performed their next single, "Stop", their first not to reach number one in the UK, entering at number two. On 24 February 1998, the Spice Girls embarked on the Spiceworld Tour, starting in Dublin, Ireland, before moving to mainland Europe and North America and returning to the UK for two performances at Wembley Stadium. Later that year, the Spice Girls sang on the official England World Cup song "(How Does It Feel to Be) On Top of the World", their last song with Halliwell until 2007.
On 31 May 1998, Halliwell announced her departure from the Spice Girls through her solicitor. The announcement was preceded by days of frenzied press speculation after Halliwell missed two concerts in Norway and was absent from a performance on The National Lottery Draws. Halliwell first cited creative differences, and later said that she was suffering from exhaustion and disillusionment. Rumours of a power struggle with Brown circulated in the press. Halliwell's departure shocked fans and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the year, making news international headlines. The four remaining members were adamant that the group would carry on.
The North American leg of the Spiceworld Tour went on as planned, beginning in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 15 June, and grossing $93.6 million over 40 sold-out performances. The tour was attended by an estimated 2.1 million people over 97 shows with an estimated gross of $220-$250 million, the highest-grossing concert tour by a female group. It was accompanied by a documentary film, Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story. "Viva Forever", the last single released from Spiceworld, and became the Spice Girls' seventh UK's number-one. The video was made before Halliwell's departure and features all five members in stop-motion animated form.
While on tour in the United States, the Spice Girls wrote and recorded new material. They released a new song, "Goodbye", before Christmas in 1998. It was seen as a tribute to Halliwell, although parts of it had originally been written when Halliwell was still a part of the group. It became the Spice Girls' third consecutive Christmas number one, equalling the record previously set by the Beatles. In November, Bunton and Chisholm appeared at the 1998 MTV Europe Music Awards without their other bandmates, accepting two awards on behalf of the Spice Girls for Best Pop Act and Best Group. That year, Brown and Adams announced they were pregnant. Brown was married to the dancer Jimmy Gulzer and became known as Mel G for a brief period; she gave birth to their daughter Phoenix Chi in February 1999. Adams gave birth a month after to her son Brooklyn, whose father was the Manchester United footballer David Beckham. Later that year, she married Beckham in a highly publicised wedding in Ireland.
1999–2000: Forever, solo work and hiatus
From 1998, the Spice Girls began to pursue solo careers. By 1999, Brown, Bunton, Chisholm, and former member Halliwell, had all released music as solo artists. They returned to the studio in August 1999 after an eight-month recording break. It was initially more pop-influenced, similar to their first two albums, and included production from Eliot Kennedy. The sound took on a more mature direction when American producers including Rodney Jerkins, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis came on board to collaborate with the group.
In December 1999, the Spice Girls embarked on a UK tour, Christmas in Spiceworld, in London and Manchester, during which they showcased new songs from the third album. The eight-show tour was attended by more than 153,000 people, grossing $5.7 million in ticket sales. The first four shows, at Manchester Evening News Arena, grossed $2.6 million; the second portion of the tour saw the group play another four shows at Earls Court Arena, grossing $3.1 million. Earlier in the year, the Spice Girls recorded the song "My Strongest Suit" for Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida, a concept album which became the musical Aida. The Spice Girls performed again at the 2000 Brit Awards in March, where they received the Lifetime Achievement award. Halliwell attended but did not join her former bandmates on stage.
In November 2000, the Spice Girls released their third and final album, Forever. With an edgier R&B sound, it received lukewarm reviews. In the US, it reached number 39 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. In the UK, it was released the same week as Westlife's Coast to Coast and the chart battle was widely reported by the media; Westlife reached number one and the Spice Girls number two. The lead single, the double A-side "Holler"/"Let Love Lead the Way", became Spice Girls' ninth UK number one. However, it failed to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, instead reaching number seven on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and number 31 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The Spice Girls' only major performance of the single came at the 2000 MTV Europe Music Awards in November. In total, Forever achieved only a fraction of the sales of its predecessors, selling four million copies. The Spice Girls ceased promotional activities in December 2000, as they began an indefinite hiatus to concentrate on their solo careers. They insisted that the group was not splitting.
2007–2008: Return of the Spice Girls and Greatest Hits
On 28 June 2007, the Spice Girls, including Halliwell, held a press conference at the O2 Arena revealing their intention to reunite for a worldwide concert tour, the Return of the Spice Girls. The plan to re-form had long been speculated by the media, with previous attempts by the organisers of Live 8 and Concert for Diana to reunite the group as a five-piece falling through. Each member of the group was reportedly paid £10 million ($20 million) to do the reunion tour. Giving You Everything, an official documentary film about the reunion, was directed by Bob Smeaton and first aired on Australia's Fox8 on 16 December 2007, followed by BBC One in the UK on 31 December.
Ticket sales for the first London date of the Return of the Spice Girls tour sold out in 38 seconds. It was reported that over one million people signed up in the UK alone and over five million worldwide for the ticket ballot on the band's official website. Sixteen additional dates in London were added, all selling out within one minute. In the United States, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Jose shows also sold out, prompting additional dates to be added. It was announced that the Spice Girls would be playing dates in Chicago and Detroit and Boston, as well as additional dates in New York to keep up with the demand. The tour opened in Vancouver on 2 December 2007, with the Spice Girls performing to an audience of 15,000 people, singing 20 songs and changing outfits a total of eight times. Along with the tour sellout, the Spice Girls licensed their name and image to the supermarket chain Tesco.
The Spice Girls' comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)", was announced as the official Children in Need charity single for 2007 and was released 5 November. The first public appearance on stage by the Spice Girls occurred at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, where they performed two songs, 1998 single "Stop" and the lead single from their greatest hits album, "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The show was filmed by CBS on 15 November 2007 for broadcast on 4 December 2007. They also performed both songs live for the BBC Children in Need telethon on 16 November 2007 from Los Angeles. The release of "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)" peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart, making it the group's lowest-charting British single to date. The album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 February 2008, it was announced that due to personal and family commitments their tour would come to an end in Toronto on 26 February 2008, meaning that tour dates in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires were cancelled.
The tour was the highest-grossing concert act of 2007–2008, measured as the twelve months ending in April 2008. It produced $107.2 million in ticket sales and merchandising, with sponsorship and ad deals bringing the total to $200 million. The tour's 17-night sellout stand at the O2 Arena in London was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, netting £16.5 million (US$33 million) and drawing an audience of 256,647, winning the 2008 Billboard Touring Award for Top Boxscore. The group's comeback also netted them several other awards, including the Capital Music Icon Award, the Glamour Award for Best Band, and the Vodafone Live Music Award for Best Live Return, the last of which saw them beat out acts such as Led Zeppelin and the Sex Pistols.
2010, 2012: Viva Forever! and London Olympics
At the 2010 Brit Awards, the Spice Girls received a special award for "Best Performance of the 30th Year". The award was for their 1997 Brit Awards performance of "Wannabe" and "Who Do You Think You Are", with Geri Halliwell and Mel B receiving the award from Samantha Fox on behalf of the group.
That year, the Spice Girls collaborated with Fuller, Judy Craymer and Jennifer Saunders to develop a stage musical, Viva Forever!. Similar to the ABBA musical Mamma Mia!, Viva Forever! used the group's music to create an original story. In June 2012, to promote the musical, the Spice Girls reunited for a press conference at the St. Pancras Renaissance London Hotel, where the music video for "Wannabe" had been filmed exactly sixteen years earlier. They also appeared in the documentary Spice Girls' Story: Viva Forever!, which aired on 24 December 2012 on ITV1. Viva Forever! premiered at the West End's Piccadilly Theatre in December 2012, with all five Spice Girls in attendance. It was panned by critics and closed after seven months, with a loss of at least £5 million.
In August 2012, the Spice Girls reunited to perform a medley of "Wannabe" and "Spice Up Your Life" at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony. Their performance received acclaim, and became the most-tweeted moment of the Olympics with over 116,000 tweets per minute on Twitter.
2016, 2018–2019: G.E.M and Spice World tour
On 8 July 2016, Brown, Bunton and Halliwell released a video celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Wannabe" and teased news from them as a three-piece. Beckham and Chisholm opted not to take part but gave the project their blessing. A new song, "Song for Her", was leaked online in November. The reunion project was cancelled due to Halliwell's pregnancy.
In late 2018 the Spice Girls officially
announced their second renunion tour, with tickets going on sale in November 2018. They also revealed they would do it as a four-piece without Beckham, as she declined to join due to commitments regarding her fashion business. Each of the four participating members was reportedly paid £12 million for the tour.
On 24 May 2019, they began the Spice World – 2019 Tour of the UK and Ireland at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland. The tour concluded with three concerts at London's Wembley Stadium, with the last taking place on 15 June 2019. Over 13 dates, the tour produced 700,000 spectators and earned $78.2 million in ticket sales. The three-night sellout stand at Wembley Stadium was the highest-grossing engagement of the year, drawing an audience of 221,971 and winning the 2019 Billboard Live Music Award for Top Boxscore. Despite sound problems in the early concerts, Anna Nicholson in The Guardian wrote, "As nostalgia tours go, this could hardly have been bettered."
Alongside the tour, the group teamed up with the children's book franchise Mr. Men to create derivative products such as books, cups, bags and coasters. On 13 June 2019, it was reported that Paramount Animation had greenlit an animated Spice Girls film with old and new songs. The project will be produced by Simon Fuller and written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith. A director has not been announced.
2020–present: Spice25 and Spiceworld25
To mark the 25th anniversary of "Wannabe", an EP was released in July 2021 that included previously unreleased demos. On 29 October, the Spice Girls released Spice25, a deluxe reissue of Spice featuring previously unreleased demos and remixes. The deluxe release saw the album reenter the UK Albums Chart at number five.
On 27 September 2022, the Spice Girls announced the tracklisting for Spiceworld25, the 25th anniversary edition of their 1997 album Spiceworld. The new collection features previously unreleased live versions and remixes, plus previously available B-sides "Walk of Life" and "Outer Space Girls" and a megamix. Their 1997 song "Step to Me" was released digitally for the first time ever on the same day as the album announcement. "Step to Me" had originally been released in 1997 as part of a Pepsi promotion, where fans could get the single CD if they collected enough ring pulls. On 13 October 2022, the Spice Girls released an alternative version of the "Spice Up Your Life" video, using previously unused footage, alongside a live version of the song. Spiceworld25 was released on 4 November 2022. The reissue charted at number 46 on the UK Albums Chart.
Artistry
Musical style
According to Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the Spice Girls "used dance-pop as a musical base, but they infused the music with a fiercely independent, feminist stance that was equal parts Madonna, post-riot grrrl alternative rock feminism, and a co-opting of the good-times-all-the-time stance of England's new lad culture." Their songs incorporated a variety of genres, which Halliwell described as a "melding" of the group members' eclectic musical tastes, but otherwise kept to mainstream pop conventions. Chisholm said: "We all had different artists that we loved. Madonna was a big influence and TLC; we watched a lot of their videos." A regular collaborator on the group's first two albums was the production duo known as Absolute, made up of Paul Wilson and Andy Watkins. Absolute initially found it difficult to work with the group as the duo was heavily into R&B music at the time, while the Spice Girls according to Wilson were "always very poptastic". Wilson said of the group's musical output: "Their sound was actually not getting R&B quite right."
In his biography of the band, Wannabe: How the Spice Girls Reinvented Pop Fame (2004), Rolling Stone journalist David Sinclair said that the "undeniable artistry" of the group's songs had been overlooked. He said the Spice Girls "instinctively had an ear for a catchy tune" without resorting to the "formula balladry and bland modulations" of 90s boy bands Westlife and Boyzone. He praised their "more sophisticated" second album, Spiceworld, saying: "Peppered with personality, and each conveying a distinctive musical flavour and lyrical theme, these are songs which couldn't sound less 'manufactured,' and which, in several cases, transcend the pop genre altogether."
Lyrical themes
The Spice Girls' lyrics promote female empowerment and solidarity. Given the young age of their target audience, Lucy Jones of The Independent said the Spice Girls' songs were subversive for their time: "The lyrics were active rather than passive: taking, grabbing, laying it down – all the things little girls were taught never to do. 'Stop right now, thank you very much'. 'Who do you think you are?' 'I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want'." Musicologist Nicola Dibben cited "Say You'll Be There" as an example of how the Spice Girls inverted traditional gender roles in their lyrics, depicting a man who has fallen in love and displays too much emotion and a woman who remains independent and in control. The Spice Girls emphasised the importance of sisterhood over romance in songs such as "Wannabe", and embraced safe sex in "2 Become 1".
Lauren Bravo, author of What Would the Spice Girls Do?: How the Girl Power Generation Grew Up (2018), found that even when the Spice Girls sang about romance, the message was "cheerfully non-committal", in contrast to the songs about breakups and unrequited love other pop stars were singing at the time. Writing for Bustle, Taylor Ferber praised the female-driven lyrics as ahead of their time, citing the inclusivity and optimism of songs such as "Spice Up Your Life" and the sex-positivity of "Last Time Lover" and "Naked". Ferber concluded: "Between all of their songs about friendship, sex, romance, and living life, a central theme in almost all Spice Girls music was loving yourself first."
Vocal arrangements
Unlike prior pop vocal groups, the Spice Girls shared vocals, rather than having a lead vocalist supported by others. The group did not want any one member to be considered the lead singer, and so each song was divided into one or two lines each, before all five voices harmonised in the chorus. The group faced criticism as this meant that no one voice could stand out, but Sinclair concluded that it "was actually a clever device to ensure that they gained the maximum impact and mileage from their all-in-it-together girl-gang image".
The Spice Girls' former vocal coach, Pepi Lemer, described their individual voices as distinct and easy to distinguish, citing the "lightness" of Bunton's voice and the "soulful sound" of Brown's and Chisholm's. Biographer Sean Smith cited Chisholm as the vocalist the group could not do without. Sinclair noted that while Chisholm's ad libs are a distinctive feature of certain Spice Girls songs, the difference in the amount of time her voice was featured over any other member was negligible.
While vocal time was distributed equally, musicologist Nicola Dibben found that there was an "interesting inequality" in the way that vocal styles were distributed within the group, which she felt conformed to certain stereotypes associated with race and socioeconomic background. According to Dibben, most of the declamatory style of singing in the group's singles were performed by Brown, the only black member, and Chisholm, whom Dibben classified as white working class; this was in contrast to the more lyrical sections allotted to Beckham, whom Dibben classified as white middle class.
Songwriting
The Spice Girls did not play instruments, but co-wrote all of their songs. According to their frequent collaborator Richard Stannard, they had two approaches to songwriting: ballads were written in a traditional way with the group sitting around a piano, while songs such as "Wannabe" were the result of tapping into their "mad" energy. Eliot Kennedy, another regular co-writer, said that songwriting sessions with the Spice Girls were "very quick and short". He described his experience working with them:
What I said to them was, "Look, I've got a chorus—check this out." And I'd sing them the chorus and the melody—no lyrics or anything—and straight away five pads and pencils came out and they were throwing lines at us. Ten minutes later, the song was written. Then you go through and refine it. Then later, as you were recording it you might change a few things here and there. But pretty much it was a real quick process. They were confident in what they were doing, throwing it out there.
Absolute's Paul Wilson recalled an experience whereby he and Watkins were responsible for writing the backing track and the group would then write the lyrics. Watkins added: "I wasn't an 18-year-old girl. They always had this weird ability to come up with phrases that you'd never heard of." He said the members would create dance routines at the same time as writing songs, and that "They knew what they wanted to write about, right from day one. You couldn't force your musical ideas upon them."
From the onset, the Spice Girls established a strict 50–50 split of the publishing royalties between them and their songwriting collaborators. As with their vocal arrangements, they were also adamant on maintaining parity between themselves in the songwriting credits. Sinclair said:
The deal between themselves was a strict five-way split on their share of the songwriting royalties on all songs irrespective of what any one member of the group had (or had not) contributed to any particular song. Apart from ease of administration, this was also a symbolic expression of the unity which was so much part and parcel of the Spice philosophy.
Sinclair identified Halliwell as a major source of ideas for the Spice Girls' songs, including many of the concepts and starting points for the group's songs. Tim Hawes, who worked with the group when they were starting out, said Halliwell's strength was in writing lyrics and pop hooks, and estimated that she was responsible for 60–70% of the lyrics in the songs he worked on. The group's collaborators credit the other members of the group as being more active than Halliwell in constructing the melodies and harmonies of their songs. Matt Rowe, who wrote several songs with the Spice Girls, agreed that Halliwell was particularly good when it came to writing lyrics and credits the lyrics for "Viva Forever" to her. He felt that all five members had contributed equally to the songwriting.
Cultural impact and legacy
Pop music resurgence and girl group boom
The Spice Girls broke onto the music scene at a time when alternative rock, hip-hop and R&B dominated global music charts. In the group's first-ever interview in May 1996, Halliwell told Music Week: "We want to bring some of the glamour back to pop, like Madonna had when we were growing up. Pop is about fantasy and escapism, but there's so much bullshit around at the moment." The modern pop phenomenon that the Spice Girls created by targeting early Millennials was credited with changing the music landscape by reviving the pop music genre, bringing about the global wave of late-1990s and early-2000s teen pop acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and NSYNC.
The Spice Girls have also been credited with paving the way for the girl groups and female pop singers that have come after them. Unlike previous girl groups such as the Andrews Sisters whose target market was male record buyers, the Spice Girls redefined the girl group concept by going after a young female fanbase instead. In the UK, they are further credited for disrupting the then male-dominated pop music scene. Prior to the Spice Girls, girl groups such as Bananarama have had hit singles in the UK but their album sales were generally underwhelming. The accepted wisdom within the British music industry at the time was that an all-girl pop group would not work because both girls and boys would find the concept too threatening. Teen magazines such as Smash Hits and Top of the Pops initially refused to feature the Spice Girls on the assumption that a girl group would not appeal to their female readership. The massive commercial breakthrough of the Spice Girls turned the tide, leading to an unprecedented boom of new girl groups in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
As managers and record labels scrambled to find the next Spice Girls, around 20 new girl groups were launched in the UK in 1999, followed by another 35 the next year. Groups that emerged during this period include All Saints, B*Witched, Atomic Kitten, Girl Thing, Girls@Play, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes, all hoping to emulate the Spice Girls' success. Outside of the UK and Ireland, girl groups such as New Zealand's TrueBliss, Australia's Bardot, Germany's No Angels, Spain's Bellepop, US's Cheetah Girls, as well as South Korea's Baby Vox and f(x) were also modelled after the Spice Girls.
Twenty-first-century girl groups continue to cite the Spice Girls as a major source of influence, including the Pussycat Dolls, 2NE1, Girls' Generation, Little Mix, Fifth Harmony, Haim, and Blackpink. Solo female artists who have been similarly influenced by the group include Jess Glynne, Foxes, Alexandra Burke, Charli XCX, Rita Ora, Billie Eilish, and Beyoncé. During her 2005 "Reflections" concert series, Filipina superstar Regine Velasquez performed a medley of five Spice Girls songs as a tribute to the band she says were a major influence on her music. Danish singer-songwriter MØ decided to pursue music after watching the Spice Girls on TV as a child, saying in a 2014 interview: "I have them and only them to thank—or to blame—for becoming a singer." 15-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Adele credits the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today".
Girl power
"Girl power" was a label for the particular facet of feminist empowerment embraced by the band, emphasising female confidence, individuality and sisterhood. The Spice Girls' particular approach to "girl power" was seen as a boisterous, independent, and sex-positive response to "lad culture". The phrase was regularly espoused by all five members—although most closely associated with Halliwell—and was often delivered with a peace sign. The "girl power" slogan was originally coined by US punk band Bikini Kill in 1991 and subsequently appeared in a few songs in the early and mid-1990s; most notably, it was the title of British pop duo Shampoo's 1996 single which Halliwell later said was her introduction to the phrase. Although the term did not originate with them, it was not until the emergence of the Spice Girls in 1996 that "girl power" exploded onto the mainstream consciousness. According to Chisholm, the band were inspired to champion this cause as a result of the sexism they encountered when they were first starting out in the music business. Industry insiders credit Halliwell as being the author of the group's "girl power" manifesto, while Halliwell herself once spoke of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as being "the pioneer of our ideology".
In all, the focused, consistent presentation of "girl power" formed the centrepiece of their appeal as a band. The Spice Girls' brand of postfeminism was distinctive and its message of empowerment appealed to young girls, adolescents and adult women; by being politically neutral, it did not alienate consumers with different allegiances. Virgin's director of press Robert Sandall explained the novelty of the group: "There had never been a group of girls who were addressing themselves specifically to a female audience before." Similarly, John Harlow of The Sunday Times believed it was this "loyal[ty] to their sex" that set the Spice Girls apart from their predecessors, enabling them to win over young female fans where previous girl groups had struggled. While "girl power" put a name to a social phenomenon, it was met with mixed reactions. Some commentators credit the Spice Girls with reinvigorating mainstream feminism—popularised as "girl power"—in the 1990s, with their mantra serving as a gateway to feminism for their young fans. Conversely, critics dismiss it as no more than a shallow marketing tactic and accuse the group of commercialising the social movement. Regardless, "girl power" became a cultural phenomenon, adopted as the mantra for millions of girls and even making it into the Oxford English Dictionary.
In summation of the concept, author Ryan Dawson said, "The Spice Girls changed British culture enough for Girl Power to now seem completely unremarkable."
In keeping with their "girl power" manifesto, the Spice Girls' songs have been praised for their "genuinely empowering messages about friendship and sisterhood," which set them apart from the typical love songs their pop contemporaries were singing. Billboard magazine said their lyrics "demonstrated real, noncompetitive female friendship," adding that the messages the Spice Girls imparted have held up well compared to the lyrics sung by later girl groups such as the Pussycat Dolls. The group's debut single "Wannabe" has been hailed as an "iconic girl power anthem". In 2016, the United Nations launched their #WhatIReallyReallyWant Global Goals campaign by filming a remake of the "Wannabe" music video to highlight gender inequality issues faced by women across the world. The video, which premiered on YouTube and ran in movie theatres internationally, featured British girl group M.O, Canadian "viral sensation" Taylor Hatala, Nigerian-British singer Seyi Shay and Bollywood actress Jacqueline Fernandez lip-syncing to the song in various locations around the world. In response to the remake, Beckham said, "How fabulous is it that after 20 years the legacy of the Spice Girls' girl power is being used to encourage and empower a whole new generation?"
At the 43rd People's Choice Awards in 2017, Blake Lively dedicated her "Favorite Dramatic Movie Actress" award to "girl power" in her acceptance speech; she credited the Spice Girls, saying: "What was so neat about them was that they're all so distinctly different, and they were women, and they owned who they were, and that was my first introduction into girl power." In 2018, Rolling Stone named the Spice Girls' "girl power" ethos on The Millennial 100, a list of 100 people, music, cultural touchstones and movements that have shaped the Millennial generation. Writing in 2019 about the group's influence on what she called the "Spice Girls Generation", Caity Weaver of The New York Times concluded, "Marketing ploy or not, 'Girl power' had become a self-fulfilling prophecy."
Cool Britannia
The term "Cool Britannia" became prominent in the media in the 1990s and represented the new political and social climate that was emerging with the advances made by New Labour and the new British prime minister Tony Blair. Coming out of a period of 18 years of Conservative government, Tony Blair and New Labour were seen as young, cool and appealing, a driving force in giving Britain a feeling of euphoria and optimism.
Although by no means responsible for the onset of "Cool Britannia", the arrival of the Spice Girls added to the new image and re-branding of Britain, and underlined the growing world popularity of British, rather than American, pop music. This fact was underlined at the 1997 Brit Awards; the group won two awards but it was Halliwell's iconic red, white and blue Union Jack mini-dress that appeared in media coverage around the world, becoming an enduring image of "Cool Britannia". The Spice Girls were identified as part of another British Invasion of the US, and in 2016, Time acknowledged the Spice Girls as "arguably the most recognisable face" of "Cool Britannia".
Image, nicknames and fashion trends
The Spice Girls' image was deliberately aimed at young girls, an audience of formidable size and potential. Instrumental to their range of appeal within this demographic was their five distinct personalities and styles, which encouraged fans to identify with one member or another. This rejection of a homogeneous group identity was a stark departure from previous groups such as the Beatles and the Supremes, and the Spice Girls model has since been used to style other pop groups such as One Direction.
The band's image was inadvertently bolstered by the nicknames bestowed on them by the British press. After a lunch with the Spice Girls in the wake of "Wannabes release, Peter Loraine, the then-editor of Top of the Pops magazine, and his editorial staff decided to devise nicknames for each member of the group based on their personalities. Loraine explained, "In the magazine we used silly language and came up with nicknames all the time so it came naturally to give them names that would be used by the magazine and its readers; it was never meant to be adopted globally." Shortly after using the nicknames in a magazine feature on the group, Loraine received calls from other British media outlets requesting permission to use them, and before long the nicknames were synonymous with the Spice Girls. Jennifer Cawthron, one of the magazine's staff writers, explained how the nicknames were chosen:
Victoria was 'Posh Spice', because she was wearing a Gucci-style mini dress and seemed pouty and reserved. Emma wore pigtails and sucked a lollipop, so obviously she was 'Baby Spice'. Mel C spent the whole time leaping around in her tracksuit, so we called her 'Sporty Spice'. I named Mel B 'Scary Spice' because she was so shouty. And Geri was 'Ginger Spice', simply because of her hair. Not much thought went into that one.
In a 2020 interview, Chisholm explained that the Spice Girls' image came about unintentionally when, after initially trying to coordinate their outfits as was expected of girl groups at the time, the group decided to just dress in their own individual styles. According to Chisholm, they "never thought too much more of it" until after "Wannabe" was released and the press gave them their nicknames. The group embraced the nicknames and grew into caricatures of themselves, which Chisholm said was "like a protection mechanism because it was like putting on this armour of being this, this character, rather than it actually being you."
Each Spice Girl adopted a distinct, over-the-top trademark style that served as an extension of her public persona.
Victoria Beckham (née Adams): As Posh Spice, she was known for her choppy brunette bob cut, reserved attitude, signature pout and form-fitting designer outfits (often a little black dress).
Melanie Brown: As Scary Spice, she was known for her "in-your-face" attitude, "loud" Leeds accent, pierced tongue and bold manner of dress (which often consisted of leopard-print outfits).
Emma Bunton: As Baby Spice, she was the youngest member of the group, wore her long blonde hair in pigtails, wore pastel (particularly pink) babydoll dresses and platform sneakers, had an innocent smile and a girly girl personality.
Melanie Chisholm: As Sporty Spice, she usually wore a tracksuit paired with athletic shoes, wore her long dark hair in a high ponytail, and sported tattoos coupled with a tough-girl attitude. She also showcased her athletic abilities on stage, such as by performing back handsprings and high kicks.
Geri Halliwell: As Ginger Spice, she was known for her bright red hair, feistiness, "glammed-up sex appeal" and flamboyant stage outfits. She was also identified by the media and those who worked with the Spice Girls as the leader of the group.
The Spice Girls are considered style icons of the 1990s; their image and styles becoming inextricably tied to the band's identity. They are credited with setting 1990s fashion trends such as Buffalo platform shoes and double bun hairstyles. Their styles have inspired other celebrities including Katy Perry, Charli XCX, and Bollywood actress Anushka Ranjan. Lady Gaga performed as Emma Bunton (Baby Spice) in high school talent shows and Emma Stone chose the name "Emma" inspired by Emma Bunton after she previously used the name Riley Stone. The group have also been noted for the memorable outfits they have worn, the most iconic being Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress was sold at a charity auction to the Las Vegas Hard Rock Cafe for £41,320, giving Halliwell the Guinness World Record at that time for the most expensive piece of pop star clothing ever sold.
Commercialisation and celebrity culture
At the height of Spicemania, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon. Under the guidance of their mentor and manager Simon Fuller, they advertised for an unprecedented number of brands and became the most merchandised group in music history. The group were also a frequent feature of the global press. As a result, said biographer David Sinclair, "So great was the daily bombardment of Spice images and Spice product that it quickly became oppressive even to people who were well disposed towards the group." This was parodied in the video for their song "Spice Up Your Life", which depicts a futuristic dystopian city covered in billboards and adverts featuring the group. Similarly, the North American leg of their 1998 Spiceworld Tour introduced a whole new concert revenue stream when it became the first time advertising was used in a pop concert. Overall, the Spice Girls' earnings in the 1990s were on par with that of a medium-sized corporation thanks in large part to their marketing endeavours, with their global gross income estimated at $500–800 million by May 1998.
In his analysis of the group's enduring influence on 21st-century popular culture, John Mckie of the BBC observed that while other stars had used brand endorsements in the past, "the Spice brand was the first to propel the success of the band". Christopher Barrett and Ben Cardew of Music Week credited Fuller's "ground-breaking" strategy of marketing the Spice Girls as a brand with revolutionising the pop music industry, "paving the way for everything from The White Stripes cameras to U2 iPods and Girls Aloud phones." Barrett further noted that pop music and brand synergy have become inextricably linked in the modern music industry, which he attributed to the "remarkable" impact of the Spice Girls. The Guardians Sylvia Patterson also wrote of what she called the group's true legacy: "[T]hey were the original pioneers of the band as brand, of pop as a ruthless marketing ruse, of the merchandising and sponsorship deals that have dominated commercial pop ever since."
The mainstream media embraced the Spice Girls at the peak of their success. The group received regular international press coverage and were constantly followed by paparazzi. Paul Gorman of Music Week said of the media interest in the Spice Girls in the late 1990s: "They inaugurated the era of cheesy celebrity obsession which pertains today. There is lineage from them to the Kardashianisation not only of the music industry, but the wider culture." The Irish Independent Tanya Sweeney agreed that "[t]he vapidity of paparazzi culture could probably be traced back to the Spice Girls' naked ambitions", while Mckie predicted that, "[f]or all that modern stars from Katy Perry to Lionel Messi exploit brand endorsements and attract tabloid coverage, the scale of the Spice Girls' breakthrough in 1996 is unlikely to be repeated—at least not by a music act."
1990s and gay icons
The Spice Girls have been labelled the biggest pop phenomenon of the 1990s due to the international record sales, iconic symbolism, global cultural influence and apparent omnipresence they held during the decade. The group appeared on the cover of the July 1997 edition of Rolling Stone accompanied with the headline, "Spice Girls Conquer the World". At the 2000 Brit Awards, the group received the Outstanding Contribution to Music Award in honour of their success in the global music scene in the 1990s. The iconic symbolism of the Spice Girls in the 1990s is partly attributed to their era-defining outfits, the most notable being the Union Jack dress that Halliwell wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The dress has achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most prominent symbols of 1990s pop culture. The status of the Spice Girls as 1990s pop culture icons is also attributed to their vast marketing efforts and willingness to be a part of a media-driven world. Their unprecedented appearances in adverts and the media solidified the group as a phenomenon—an icon of the decade and for British music.
A study conducted by the British Council in 2000 found that the Spice Girls were the second-best-known Britons internationally—only behind then-Prime Minister Tony Blair—and the best-known Britons in Asia. The group were featured in VH1's I Love the '90s and the sequel I Love the '90s: Part Deux; the series covered cultural moments from 1990s with the Spice Girls' rise to fame representing the year 1997, while Halliwell quitting the group represented 1998. In 2006, ten years after the release of their debut single, the Spice Girls were voted the biggest cultural icons of the 1990s with 80 per cent of the votes in a UK poll of 1,000 people carried out for the board game Trivial Pursuit, stating that "Girl Power" defined the decade. The Spice Girls also ranked number ten in the E! TV special, The 101 Reasons the '90s Ruled.
Some sources, especially those in the United Kingdom, regard the Spice Girls as gay icons. In a 2007 UK survey of more than 5,000 gay men and women, Beckham placed 12th and Halliwell placed 43rd in a ranking of the top 50 gay icons. Halliwell was the recipient of the Honorary Gay Award at the 2016 Attitude Awards and Chisholm was given the "Celebrity Ally" award at the 2021 British LGBT Awards. In a 2005 interview, Bunton attributed their large gay following to the group's fun-loving nature, open-mindedness and their love of fashion and dressing up. The LGBTQ magazine Gay Times credits the Spice Girls as having been "ferocious advocates of the community" throughout their whole career. According to Bunton, the LGBTQ community was a big influence on the group's music. A desire to be more inclusive also led the group to change the lyrics in "2 Become 1"; the lyric "Any deal that we endeavour/boys and girls feel good together" appears in their debut album but was changed to "Once again if we endeavour/love will bring us back together" for the single and music video release.
Portrayal in the media
The Spice Girls became media icons in Great Britain and a regular feature of the British press. During the peak of their worldwide fame in 1997, the paparazzi were constantly seen following them everywhere to obtain stories and gossip about the group, such as a supposed affair between Emma Bunton and manager Simon Fuller, or constant split rumours which became fodder for numerous tabloids. Rumours of in-fighting and conflicts within the group also made headlines, with the rumours suggesting that Geri Halliwell and Melanie Brown in particular were fighting to be the leader of the group. Brown, who later admitted that she used to be a "bitch" to Halliwell, said the problems had stayed in the past. The rumours reached their height when the Spice Girls dismissed their manager Simon Fuller during the power struggles, with Fuller reportedly receiving a £10 million severance cheque to keep quiet about the details of his sacking. Months later, in May 1998, Halliwell would leave the band amid rumours of a falling out with Brown; the news of Halliwell's departure was covered as a major news story by media around the world, and became one of the biggest entertainment news stories of the decade.
In February 1997 at the Brit Awards, Halliwell's Union Jack dress from the Spice Girls' live performance made all the front pages the next day. During the ceremony, Halliwell's breasts were exposed twice, causing controversy. In the same year, nude glamour shots of Halliwell taken earlier in her career were released, causing some scandal.
The stories of their encounters with other celebrities also became fodder for the press; for example, in May 1997, at The Prince's Trust 21st-anniversary concert, Brown and Halliwell breached royal protocol when they planted kisses on Prince Charles's cheeks, leaving it covered with lipstick, and later, Halliwell told him "you're very sexy" and also pinched his bottom. In November, the British royal family were considered fans of the Spice Girls, including The Prince of Wales and his sons Prince William and Prince Harry. That month, South African President Nelson Mandela said: "These are my heroes. This is one of the greatest moments in my life" in an encounter organised by Prince Charles, who said, "It is the second greatest moment in my life, the first time I met them was the greatest". Prince Charles would later send Halliwell a personal letter "with lots of love" when he heard that she had quit the Spice Girls. In 1998 the video game magazine Nintendo Power created The More Annoying Than the Spice Girls Award, adding: "What could possibly have been more annoying in 1997 than the Spice Girls, you ask?".
Victoria Adams started dating football player David Beckham in late 1997 after they had met at a charity football match. The couple announced their engagement in 1998 and were dubbed "Posh and Becks" by the media, becoming a cultural phenomenon in their own right.
Other brand ventures
Film
The group made their film debut in Spice World with director Bob Spiers. Meant to accompany their second album, the style and content of the movie was in the same vein as the Beatles' films in the 1960s such as A Hard Day's Night. The light-hearted comedy, intended to capture the spirit of the Spice Girls, featured a plethora of stars including Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Elton John, Richard O'Brien, Bob Hoskins, Jennifer Saunders, Elvis Costello and Meat Loaf.
Spice World was released in December 1997 and proved to be a hit at the box office, taking in over $100 million worldwide. Despite being a commercial success, the film was widely panned by critics; the movie was nominated for seven awards at the 1999 Golden Raspberry Awards where the Spice Girls collectively won the award for "Worst Actress". Considered a cult classic, several critics have reevaluated the film more positively in the years following its initial release. Since 2014, the Spice Bus, which was driven by Meat Loaf in the film, has been on permanent display at the Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England.
Television
The Spice Girls have hosted and starred in various television specials. In November 1997, they became the first pop group to host ITV's An Audience with...; their show featured an all-female audience and was watched by 11.8 million viewers in the UK, one fifth of the country's population. The group hosted the Christmas Day edition of Top of the Pops on BBC One in 1996. The following year, a special Christmas Eve edition of the BBC series was dedicated to them, titled "Spice Girls on Top of the Pops". The group have also starred in numerous MTV television specials, including Spice Girls: Girl Power A–Z and MTV Ultrasound, Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice. Their concerts have also been broadcast in various countries: Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997) was broadcast on ITV, Showtime, and Fox Family Channel; Spiceworld Tour (1998) was broadcast on Sky Box Office; and Christmas in Spiceworld (1999) was broadcast on Sky One and Fox Kids, among others.
The group have starred in television commercials for brands such as Pepsi, Polaroid, Walkers, Impulse and Tesco. They have also released a few official documentary films, including Spice Girls in America: A Tour Story (1999) and Giving You Everything (2007). Making-of documentaries for their film Spice World were broadcast on Channel 5 and MTV. The Spice Girls have been the subject of numerous unofficial documentary films, commissioned and produced by individuals independent of the group, including Raw Spice (2001), Seven Days That Shook the Spice Girls (2002), and Spice Girls: How Girl Power Changed Britain (2021). The group have had episodes dedicated to them in several music biography series, including VH1's Behind the Music, E! True Hollywood Story and MTV's BioRhythm.
Merchandise and sponsorship deals
In the late 1990s, the Spice Girls were involved in a prolific marketing phenomenon that saw them become the most merchandised group in music history. They negotiated lucrative endorsement deals with numerous brands, including Pepsi, Asda, Cadbury and Target, which led to accusations of overexposure and "selling out". The group was estimated to have earned over £300 million ($500 million) from their marketing endeavours in 1997 alone. Their subsequent reunion concert tours saw the Spice Girls launch new sponsorship and advertising campaigns with the likes of Tesco and Victoria's Secret in 2007, and Walkers and Mr. Men in 2019.
Viva Forever!
Viva Forever! is a jukebox musical written by Jennifer Saunders, produced by Judy Craymer and directed by Paul Garrington. Based on the songs of the Spice Girls, the musical ran at the Piccadilly Theatre in the West End from 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013.
Career records and achievements
As a group, the Spice Girls have received a number of notable awards, including five Brit Awards, three American Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Europe Music Awards, one MTV Video Music Award and three World Music Awards. They have also been recognised for their songwriting achievements with two Ivor Novello Awards. In 2000, they received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, making them the youngest recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award whose previous winners include Elton John, the Beatles and Queen.
The Spice Girls are the best-selling British act of the 1990s, having comfortably outsold all of their peers including Oasis and the Prodigy. They are, by some estimates, the best-selling girl group of all time. They have sold 100 million records worldwide, achieving certified sales of 13 million albums in Europe, 14 million records in the US and 2.4 million in Canada. The group achieved the highest-charting debut for a UK group on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five with "Say You'll Be There". They are also the first British band since the Rolling Stones in 1975 to have two top-ten albums in the US Billboard 200 albums chart at the same time (Spice and Spiceworld). In addition to this, the Spice Girls also achieved the highest-ever annual earnings by an all-female group with an income of £29.6 million (approximately US$49 million) in 1998. In 1999, they ranked sixth in Forbes inaugural Celebrity 100 Power Ranking, which made them the highest-ranking musicians.
They produced a total of nine number one singles in the UK—tied with ABBA behind Take That (eleven), The Shadows (twelve), Madonna (thirteen), Westlife (fourteen), Cliff Richard (fourteen), the Beatles (seventeen) and Elvis Presley (twenty-one). The group had three consecutive Christmas number-one singles in the UK ("2 Become 1", 1996; "Too Much", 1997; "Goodbye", 1998); they only share this record with the Beatles and LadBaby. Their first single, "Wannabe", is the most successful song released by an all-female group. Debuting on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at number eleven, it is also the highest-ever-charting debut by a British band in the US, beating the previous record held by the Beatles for "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and the joint highest entry for a debut act, tying with Alanis Morissette.
Spice is the 18th-best-selling album of all time in the UK with over 3 million copies sold, and topped the charts for 15 non-consecutive weeks, the most by a female group in the UK. It is also the best-selling album of all time by a girl group, with sales of over 23 million copies worldwide. Spiceworld shipped 7 million copies in just two weeks, including 1.4 million in Britain alone—the largest-ever shipment of an album over 14 days. They are also the first act (and so far only female act) to have their first six singles ("Wannabe", "Say You'll Be There", "2 Become 1", "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are", "Spice Up Your Life" and "Too Much") make number one on the UK charts. Their run was broken by "Stop", which peaked at number two in March 1998.
The Spice Girls have the highest-grossing concert tours by an all-female group across two decades (2000–2020), grossing nearly $150 million in ticket sales across 58 shows. They are also the most-merchandised group in music history. Their Spice Girls dolls are the best-selling celebrity dolls of all time with sales of over 11 million; the dolls were the second-best-selling toy, behind the Teletubbies, of 1998 in the US according to the trade publication Playthings. Their film, Spice World, broke the record for the highest-ever weekend debut on Super Bowl weekend (25 January 1998) in the US, with box office sales of $10,527,222. Spice World topped the UK video charts on its first week of release, selling over 55,000 copies on its first day in stores and 270,000 copies in the first week."'Spiceworld' To Shake Up U.K. Vid Chart?". Billboard. 28 May 1998. Retrieved 14 March 2006.
In popular culture
In February 1997, the "Sugar Lumps", a satirical version of the Spice Girls played by Kathy Burke, Dawn French, Llewella Gideon, Lulu and Jennifer Saunders, filmed a video for British charity Comic Relief. The video starts with the Sugar Lumps as schoolgirls who really want to become pop stars like the Spice Girls, and ends with them joining the group on stage, while dancing and lip-syncing the song "Who Do You Think You Are". The Sugar Lumps later joined the Spice Girls during their live performance of the song on Comic Relief's telethon Red Nose Day event in March 1997. In January 1998, a fight between animated versions of the Spice Girls and pop band Hanson was the headlining matchup in MTV's claymation parody Celebrity Deathmatch Deathbowl '98 special that aired during the Super Bowl XXXII halftime. The episode became the highest-rated special in the network's history and MTV turned the concept into a full-fledged television series soon after.
In March 2013, the Glee characters Brittany (Heather Morris), Tina (Jenna Ushkowitz), Marley (Melissa Benoist), Kitty (Becca Tobin) and Unique (Alex Newell) dressed up as the Spice Girls and performed the song "Wannabe" on the 17th episode of the fourth season of the show. In April 2016, the Italian variety show Laura & Paola on Rai 1 featured the hosts, Grammy Award-winning singer Laura Pausini and actress Paola Cortellesi, and their guests, Francesca Michielin, Margherita Buy and Claudia Gerini, dressed up as the Spice Girls to perform a medley of Spice Girls songs as part of a 20th-anniversary tribute to the band. In December 2016, the episode "Who Needs Josh When You Have a Girl Group?" of the musical comedy drama series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend featured cast members Rachel Bloom, Gabrielle Ruiz and Vella Lovell performing an original song titled "Friendtopia", a parody of the Spice Girls' songs and "girl power" philosophy. Rapper Aminé's 2017 single "Spice Girl" is a reference to the group, and the song's music video includes an appearance by Brown. Other songs that reference the Spice Girls include "Grigio Girls" by Lady Gaga, "My Name Is" by Eminem, "Polka Power!" (a reference to "Girl Power") by "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Playinwitme" by Kyle and Kehlani, "Kinky" by Kesha, and "Spicy" by Diplo, Herve Pagez and Charli XCX.
In the late 1990s, Spice Girls parodies appeared in various American sketch comedy shows including Saturday Night Live (SNL), Mad TV and All That. A January 1998 episode of SNL featured cast members, including guest host Sarah Michelle Gellar, impersonating the Spice Girls for two "An Important Message About ..." sketches. In September 1998, the show once again featured cast members, including guest host Cameron Diaz, impersonating the Spice Girls for a sketch titled "A Message from the Spice Girls". Nickelodeon's All That had recurring sketches with the fictional boy band "The Spice Boys", featuring cast members Nick Cannon as "Sweaty Spice", Kenan Thompson as "Spice Cube", Danny Tamberelli as "Hairy Spice", Josh Server as "Mumbly Spice", and a skeleton prop as "Dead Spice".
Parodies of the Spice Girls have also appeared in major advertising campaigns. In 1997, Jack in the Box, an American fast-food chain restaurant, sought to capitalise on "Spice mania" in America by launching a national television campaign using a fictional girl group called the Spicy Crispy Chicks (a take off of the Spice Girls) to promote the new Spicy Crispy Sandwich. The Spicy Crispy Chicks concept was used as a model for another successful advertising campaign called the 'Meaty Cheesy Boys'.*
At the 1998 Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) Show, one of the Spicy Crispy Chicks commercials won the top award for humour. In 2001, prints adverts featuring a parody of the Spice Girls, along with other British music icons consisting of the Beatles, Elton John, Freddie Mercury and the Rolling Stones, were used in the Eurostar national advertising campaign in France. The campaign won the award for Best Outdoor Campaign at the French advertising CDA awards. In September 2016, an Apple Music advert premiered during the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards that featured comedian James Corden dressed up as various music icons including all five of the Spice Girls.
Other notable groups of people have been labelled as some variation of a play-on-words on the Spice Girls' name as an allusion to the band. In 1997, the term "Spice Boys" emerged in the British media as a term coined to characterise the "pop star" antics and lifestyles off the pitch of a group of Liverpool F.C. footballers that includes Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and Jason McAteer. The label has stuck with these footballers ever since, with John Scales, one of the so-called Spice Boys, admitting in 2015 that, "We're the Spice Boys and it's something we have to accept because it will never change." In the Philippines, the "Spice Boys" tag was given to a group of young Congressmen of the House of Representatives who initiated the impeachment of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. The Australian/British string quartet Bond were dubbed by the international press as the "Spice Girls of classical music" during their launch in 2000 due to their "sexy" image and classical crossover music that incorporated elements of pop and dance music. A spokeswoman for the quartet said in response to the comparisons, "In fact, they are much better looking than the Spice Girls. But we don't welcome comparisons. The Bond girls are proper musicians; they have paid their dues." The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) doubles team of Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova, two-time Grand Slam and two-time WTA Finals Doubles champions, dubbed themselves the "Spice Girls of tennis" in 1999. Hingis and Kournikova, along with fellow WTA players Venus and Serena Williams, were also labelled the "Spice Girls of tennis", then later the "Spite Girls", by the media in the late 1990s due to their youthfulness, popularity and brashness.
Wax sculptures of the Spice Girls are currently on display at the famed Madame Tussaud's New York wax museum. The sculptures of the Spice Girls (sans Halliwell) were first unveiled in December 1999, making them the first pop band to be modelled as a group since the Beatles in 1964 at the time. A sculpture of Halliwell was later made in 2002, and was eventually displayed with the other Spice Girls' sculptures after Halliwell reunited with the band in 2007. Since 2008, Spiceworld: The Exhibition, a travelling exhibition of around 5,000 Spice Girls memorabilia and merchandise, has been shown in museums across the UK. The Spice Girls Exhibition, a collection of over 1,000 Spice Girls items owned by Alan Smith-Allison, was held at the Trakasol Cultural Centre in Limassol Marina, Cyprus in the summer of 2016. Wannabe 1996–2016: A Spice Girls Art Exhibition, an exhibition of Spice Girls-inspired art, was held at The Ballery in Berlin in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the group's debut single, "Wannabe".
Discography
Spice (1996)
Spiceworld (1997)
Forever (2000)
Concerts
Girl Power! Live in Istanbul (1997)
Spiceworld Tour (1998)
Christmas in Spiceworld Tour (1999)
The Return of the Spice Girls Tour (2007–08)
Spice World – 2019 Tour (2019)
Band membersCurrent members Melanie Brown (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Emma Bunton (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)
Melanie C (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012, 2018–present)
Geri Halliwell (1994–1998, 2007–2008, 2012, 2016, 2018–present)Former members'
Victoria Beckham (1994–2000, 2007–2008, 2012)
Timeline
Publications
Books
Magazines
See also
List of best-selling girl groups
List of awards received by the Spice Girls
Notes
References
Citations
Book references
External links
Category:1994 establishments in England
Category:1994 establishments in the United Kingdom
Category:Brit Award winners
Category:British pop girl groups
Category:British dance music groups
Category:British pop music groups
Category:Dance-pop groups
Category:Teen pop groups
Category:Feminist musicians
Category:Ivor Novello Award winners
Category:Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Category:MTV Europe Music Award winners
Category:Musical groups established in 1994
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2000
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2007
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2008
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2018
Category:Musical groups from London
Category:Virgin Records artists
Category:World Music Awards winners | [] | null | null |
C_78f68e4f6be04edaa87c3e8030b16dec_1 | Claude Auchinleck | Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck (21 June 1884 - 23 March 1981) was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army by early 1941. In July 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East theatre, but after initial successes the war in North Africa turned against the British, and he was relieved of the post in 1942 during the crucial Alamein campaign. In June 1943 he was once more appointed Commander-in-Chief, India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for Slim's Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. | Between the world wars | Auchinleck attended the Staff College, Quetta between 1920 and 1921. He married Jessie Stewart in 1921. Jessie had been born in 1900 in Tacoma, Washington, to Alexander Stewart, head of the Blue Funnel Line that plied the west coast of the United States. When he died about 1919, their mother took her, her twin brother Alan and her younger brother Hepburne back to Bun Rannoch, the family estate at Innerhadden in Perthshire. Holidaying at Grasse on the French Riviera, Auchinleck, who was on leave from India at the time, met Jessie on the tennis courts. She was a high-spirited, blue-eyed beauty. Things moved quickly, and they were married within five months. Sixteen years younger than Auchinleck, Jessie became known as 'the little American girl' in India, but adapted readily to life there. Auchinleck became temporary Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Army Headquarters in February 1923 and then second-in-command of his regiment, which in the 1923 reorganisation of the Indian Army had become the 1st battalion, 1st Punjab Regiment, in September 1925. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1927 and, having been promoted to lieutenant-colonel on 21 January 1929 he was appointed to command his regiment. Promoted to full colonel on 1 February 1930 with seniority from 15 November 1923, he became an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in February 1930 where he remained until April 1933. He was promoted to temporary brigadier on 1 July 1933 and given command of the Peshawar Brigade, which was active in the pacification of the adjacent tribal areas during the Mohmand and Bajaur Operations between July and October 1933: during his period of command he was mentioned in despatches. He led a second punitive expedition during the Second Mohmand Campaign in August 1935 for which he was again mentioned in despatches, promoted to Major-General on 30 November 1935 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India on 8 May 1936. On leaving his brigade command in April 1936 Auchinleck was on the unemployed list (on half pay) until September 1936 when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of Staff Duties in Delhi. He was then appointed to command the Meerut District in India in July 1938. In 1938 Auchinleck was appointed to chair a committee to consider the modernisation, composition and re-equipment of the British Indian Army: the committee's recommendations formed the basis of the 1939 Chatfield Report which outlined the transformation of the Indian Army - it grew from 183,000 in 1939 to over 2,250,000 men by the end of the war. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, (21 June 1884 – 23 March 1981), was a British Indian Army commander who saw active service during the world wars. A career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, he rose to become commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by early 1941 during the Second World War. In July 1941 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theatre, but after initial successes, the war in North Africa turned against the British-led forces under his command, and he was relieved of the post in August 1942 during the North African campaign.
In June 1943, he was once again appointed Commander-in-Chief, India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for General William Slim's Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, until the Partition in 1947, when he assumed the role of Supreme Commander of all British forces in India and Pakistan until late 1948.
Early life and career
Born at 89 Victoria Road in Aldershot, Hampshire, the son of John Claud Alexander Auchinleck and Mary Eleanor (Eyre) Auchinleck. His father, a colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army, was posted to Bangalore in British India, with his family accompanying him, while Claude was very young. It was from here that he developed a love for the country that would last for most of his life. Returning to England after the death of his father in 1892, Auchinleck attended Eagle House School at Crowthorne and then Wellington College on scholarships. From there he went on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as an unattached second lieutenant in the Indian Army on 21 January 1903, and joined the 62nd Punjabis in April 1904. He soon learned several Indian languages, and, able to speak fluently with his soldiers, he absorbed a knowledge of local dialects and customs: this familiarity engendered a lasting mutual respect, enhanced by his own personality.
He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 April 1905, and then spent the next two years in Tibet and Sikkim before moving to Benares in 1907 where he caught diphtheria. After briefly serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Aldershot he returned to Benares in 1909 and became adjutant of the 62nd Punjabis with promotion to captain on 21 January 1912. Auchinleck was an active freemason.
First World War
Auchinleck saw active service in the First World War and was deployed with his regiment to defend the Suez Canal: in February 1915 he was in action against the Turks at Ismaïlia. His regiment moved into Aden to counter the Turkish threat there in July 1915. The 6th Indian Division, of which the 62nd Punjabis were a part, was landed at Basra on 31 December 1915 for the Mesopotamian campaign. In July 1916 Auchinleck was promoted acting major and made second in command of his battalion. He took part in a series of fruitless attacks on the Turks at the Battle of Hanna in January 1916 and was one of the few British officers in his regiment to survive these actions.
He became acting commanding officer of his battalion in February 1917 and led his regiment at the Second Battle of Kut in February 1917 and the Fall of Baghdad in March 1917. Having been mentioned in despatches and having received the Distinguished Service Order in 1917 for his service in Mesopotamia, he was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 January 1918, to temporary lieutenant-colonel on 23 May 1919 and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 15 November 1919 for his "distinguished service in Southern and Central Kurdistan" on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force.
Between the world wars
Auchinleck attended the Staff College, Quetta, between 1920 and 1921. As a lieutenant colonel, he outranked most of his fellow students and even some members of the staff. Despite performing well there – passing the course and being among the top ten students – he was critical of many aspects of the college, which he believed to be too theoretical and with little emphasis being placed on matters such as supply and administration, both of which he thought had been mishandled in the campaign in Mesopotamia. He married Jessie Stewart in 1921. Jessie had been born in 1900 in Tacoma, Washington, to Alexander Stewart, head of the Blue Funnel Line that plied the west coast of the United States. When he died about 1919, their mother took her, her twin brother Alan and her younger brother Hepburne back to Bun Rannoch, the family estate at Innerhadden in Perthshire. Holidaying at Grasse on the French Riviera, Auchinleck, who was on leave from India at the time, met Jessie on the tennis courts. She was a high-spirited, blue-eyed beauty. Things moved quickly, and they were married within five months. Sixteen years younger than Auchinleck, Jessie became known as 'the little American girl' in India, but adapted readily to life there. They had no children.
Auchinleck became temporary Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Army Headquarters in February 1923 and then second-in-command of his regiment, which in the 1923 reorganisation of the Indian Army had become the 1st Punjab Regiment, in September 1925. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1927 and, having been promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant-colonel on 21 January 1929 he was appointed to command his regiment. Promoted to full colonel on 1 February 1930 with seniority from 15 November 1923, he became an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in February 1930 where he remained until April 1933.
He was promoted to temporary brigadier on 1 July 1933 and given command of the Peshawar Brigade, which was active in the pacification of the adjacent tribal areas during the Mohmand and Bajaur Operations between July and October 1933: during his period of command he was mentioned in despatches. He led a second punitive expedition during the Second Mohmand Campaign in August 1935 for which he was again mentioned in despatches, promoted to major-general on 30 November 1935 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India on 8 May 1936.
On leaving his brigade command in April 1936, Auchinleck was on the unemployed list (on half pay) until September 1936 when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of Staff Duties in Delhi. He was then appointed to command the Meerut District in India in July 1938. In 1938 Auchinleck was appointed to chair a committee to consider the modernisation, composition and re-equipment of the British Indian Army: the committee's recommendations formed the basis of the 1939 Chatfield Report which outlined the transformation of the Indian Army – it grew from 183,000 in 1939 to over 2,250,000 men by the end of the war.
Second World War
Norway 1940
On the outbreak of war, Auchinleck was appointed to command the Indian 3rd Infantry Division, but in January 1940 was summoned to the United Kingdom to command IV Corps, the only time in the war that a wholly British corps was commanded by an Indian Army officer. He received promotion to acting Lieutenant-General on 1 February 1940 and to the substantive rank of Lieutenant-General on 16 March 1940. In May 1940 Auchinleck took over command of the Anglo-French ground forces during the Norwegian campaign, a military operation that was doomed to fail.
After the fall of Norway, in June 1940 he briefly commanded V Corps before becoming General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command, in July 1940, where he had an uneasy relationship with his subordinate Bernard Montgomery, the new V Corps commander. Montgomery later wrote: "In the 5th Corps I first served under Auchinleck... I cannot recall that we ever agreed on anything."
India and Iraq January–May 1941
Promoted to full general on 26 December 1940, Auchinleck was recalled to India in January 1941 to become Commander-in-Chief, India, in which position he also was appointed to the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India and appointed ADC General to the King, which ceremonial position he held until after the end of the War.
In April 1941, RAF Habbaniya was threatened by the new pro-Axis regime of Rashid Ali. This large Royal Air Force station was west of Baghdad in Iraq and General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, was reluctant to intervene, despite the urgings of Winston Churchill, because of his pressing commitments in the Western Desert and Greece. Auchinleck, however, acted decisively, sending a battalion of the King's Own Royal Regiment by air to Habbaniya and shipping the Indian 10th Infantry Division by sea to Basra. Wavell was prevailed upon by London to send Habforce, a relief column, from the British Mandate of Palestine but by the time it arrived in Habbaniya on 18 May the Anglo-Iraqi War was virtually over.
North Africa July 1941 – August 1942
Following the see-saw of Allied and Axis successes and reverses in North Africa, Auchinleck was appointed to succeed General Sir Archibald Wavell as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command in July 1941; Wavell took up Auchinleck's post as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, swapping jobs with him.
As Commander-in-Chief Middle East, Auchinleck, based in Cairo, held responsibility not just for North Africa but also for Persia and the Middle East. He launched an offensive in the Western Desert, Operation Crusader, in November 1941: despite some tactical reverses during the fighting which resulted in Auchinleck replacing the Eighth Army commander Alan Cunningham with Neil Ritchie, by the end of December the besieged garrison of Tobruk had been relieved and Rommel obliged to withdraw to El Agheila. Auchinleck appears to have believed that the enemy had been defeated, writing on 12 January 1942 that the Axis forces were "beginning to feel the strain" and were "hard pressed".
In fact the Axis forces had managed to withdraw in good order and a few days after Auchinleck's optimistic appreciation, having reorganised and been reinforced, struck at the dispersed and weakened British forces, driving them back to the Gazala positions near Tobruk. The British Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), General Sir Alan Brooke, wrote in his diary that it was "nothing less than bad generalship on the part of Auchinleck. He has been overconfident and has believed everything his overoptimistic [DMI] Shearer has told him". Brooke commented that Auchinleck "could have been one of the finest of commanders" but lacked the ability to select the men to serve him. Brooke sent him one of his best armoured division commanders Richard McCreery, whose advice was ignored in favour of Dorman-Smith's.
Rommel's attack at the Battle of Gazala of 26 May 1942 resulted in a significant defeat for the British. Auchinleck's appreciation of the situation written to Ritchie on 20 May had suggested that the armoured reserves be concentrated in a position suitable to meet both a flanking attack around the south of the front or a direct attack through the centre (which was the likelihood more favoured by Auchinleck). In the event, Ritchie chose a more dispersed and rearward positioning of his two armoured divisions and when the attack in the centre came, it proved to be a diversion and the main attack, by Rommel's armoured formations, came round the southern flank. Poor initial positioning and subsequent handling and coordination of Allied formations by Ritchie and his corps commanders resulted in their heavy defeat and the Eighth Army retreating into Egypt; Tobruk fell to the Axis on 21 June 1942.
On 24 June Auchinleck stepped in to take direct command of the Eighth Army, having lost confidence in Neil Ritchie's ability to control and direct his forces. Auchinleck discarded Ritchie's plan to stand at Mersa Matruh, deciding to fight only a delaying action there, while withdrawing to the more easily defendable position at El Alamein. Here Auchinleck tailored a defence that took advantage of the terrain and the fresh troops at his disposal, stopping the exhausted German/Italian advance in the First Battle of El Alamein. Enjoying a considerable superiority of material and men over the weak German/Italian forces, Auchinleck organised a series of counter-attacks. Poorly conceived and badly coordinated, these attacks achieved little.
"The Auk", as he was known, appointed a number of senior commanders who proved to be unsuitable for their positions, and command arrangements were often characterised by bitter personality clashes. Auchinleck was an Indian Army officer and was criticised for apparently having little direct experience or understanding of British and Dominion troops. His controversial chief of operations, Major-General Dorman-Smith, was regarded with considerable distrust by many of the senior commanders in Eighth Army. By July 1942 Auchinleck had lost the confidence of Dominion commanders and relations with his British commanders had become strained.
Like his foe Rommel (and his predecessor Wavell and successor Montgomery), Auchinleck was subjected to constant political interference, having to weather a barrage of hectoring telegrams and instructions from Prime Minister Churchill throughout late 1941 and the spring and summer of 1942. Churchill constantly sought an offensive from Auchinleck, and was downcast at the military reverses in Egypt and Cyrenaica. Churchill was desperate for some sort of British victory before the planned Allied landings in North Africa, Operation Torch, scheduled for November 1942. He badgered Auchinleck immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself after the first battle of El Alamein. Churchill and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, flew to Cairo in early August 1942 to meet Auchinleck, where it emerged he had lost the confidence of both men. He was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command by General Sir Harold Alexander (later Field Marshal The Earl Alexander of Tunis).
Joseph M. Horodyski and Maurice Remy both praise Auchinleck as an underrated military leader who contributed the most to the successful defence of El Alamein and consequently the final defeat of Rommel in Africa. The two historians also criticize Churchill for the unreasonable decision to put the blame on Auchinleck and to relieve him.
India 1942–1945
Churchill offered Auchinleck command of the newly created Persia and Iraq Command (this having been separated from Alexander's command), but Auchinleck declined this post, as he believed that separating the area from the Middle East Command was not good policy and the new arrangements would not be workable. He set his reasons out in his letter to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff dated 14 August 1942. Instead he returned to India, where he spent almost a year "unemployed" before in June 1943 being again appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army,
General Wavell meanwhile having been appointed Viceroy, on this appointment it was announced that responsibility for the prosecution of the war with Japan would move from the Commander-in-Chief India to a newly created South East Asia Command. However, the appointment of the new command's Supreme Commander, Acting Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, was not announced until August 1943 and until Mountbatten could set up his headquarters and assume control (in November), Auchinleck retained responsibility for operations in India and Burma while conducting a review and revision of Allied plans based on the decisions taken by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Quadrant Conference, which ended in August.
Following Mountbatten's arrival, Auchinleck's India Command (which had equal status with South East Asia Command in the military hierarchy) was responsible for the internal security of India, the defence of the North West Frontier and the buildup of India as a base, including most importantly the reorganisation of the Indian Army, the training of forces destined for SEAC and the lines of communication carrying men and material to the forward areas and to China. Auchinleck made the supply of Fourteenth Army, with probably the worst lines of communication of the war, his immediate priority; as Sir William Slim, commander of the Fourteenth Army, was later to write:
Divorce
Auchinleck suffered a personal disappointment when his wife Jessie left him for his friend, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse. Peirse and Auchinleck had been students together at the Imperial Defence College, but that was long before. Peirse was now Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South-East Asia, and also based in India. The affair became known to Mountbatten in early 1944, and he passed the information to the Chief of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, hoping that Peirse would be recalled. The affair was common knowledge by September 1944, and Peirse was neglecting his duties. Mountbatten sent Peirse and Lady Auchinleck back to England on 28 November 1944, where they lived together at a Brighton hotel. Peirse had his marriage dissolved, and Auchinleck obtained a divorce in 1946. Auchinleck was reportedly very badly affected. According to his sister, he was never the same after the break-up. He always carried a photograph of Jessie in his wallet even after the divorce.
There is scholarly dispute whether Auchinleck was homosexual. His biographer, Philip Warner, addressed the rumours but dismissed them; however historian Ronald Hyam has alleged that "sexually based moral-revulsion" was the reason for Montgomery's inability to get on with Auchinleck, and further, that Auchinleck was "let off with a high-level warning" over his relationships with Indian boys.
Partition of India and later years
Auchinleck continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army after the end of the war helping, though much against his own convictions, to prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies for the Partition of India: in November 1945 he was forced to commute the more serious judicial sentences awarded against officers of the Indian National Army in face of growing unease and unrest both within the Indian population, and the British Indian Army. On 1 June 1946 he was promoted to field marshal, but he refused to accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought fundamentally dishonourable.
Sending a report to the British Government on 28 September 1947, Field Marshal Auchinleck wrote: "I have no hesitation, whatever, in affirming that the present Indian Cabinet are implacably determined to do all in their power to prevent the establishment of the Dominion of Pakistan on firm basis." He stated in the second, political part of his assessment, "Since 15th August, the situation has steadily deteriorated and the Indian leaders, cabinet ministers, civil officials and others have persistently tried to obstruct the work of partition of the armed forces."
When partition was effected in August 1947, Auchinleck was appointed Supreme Commander of all British forces remaining in India and Pakistan and remained in this role until the winding up and closure of the Supreme H.Q. at the end of November 1947. This marked his effective retirement from the army (although technically field marshals in the British Army never retire, remaining on the active list on half pay). He left India on 1 December.
After a brief period in Italy in connection with an unsuccessful business project, Auchinleck retired to London, where he occupied himself with a number of charitable and business interests and became a respectably skilled watercolour painter. In 1960 he settled in Beccles in the county of Suffolk, remaining there for seven years until, at the age of eighty-four, he decided to emigrate and set up home in Marrakesh, where he died on 23 March 1981.
Memorials
Auchinleck is buried in Ben M'Sik European Cemetery, Casablanca, in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot in the cemetery, next to the grave of Raymond Steed who was the second youngest non-civilian Commonwealth casualty of the Second World War.
A memorial plaque was erected in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. A bronze statue of Auchinleck can be seen on Broad Street adjacent to Auchinleck House, Five Ways, Birmingham.
Awards and decorations
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1 January 1945)
Companion of the Order of the Bath (3 July 1934) Mohmand operations 7 October 1933
Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (20 December 1940)
Companion of the Order of the Star of India (8 May 1936) Mohmand operations 8 October 1935
Distinguished Service Order (3 June 1917)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) (3 June 1919)
Mention in Despatches, twice (World War I and 3 July 1934 – Mohmand operations)
Croix de Guerre with Palm (France, 1918 and 1949)
Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States, 23 July 1948)
Virtuti Militari, 5th class (Poland, 15 May 1942)
Member First Class Order of the Star of Nepal (Nepal)
War Cross (Czechoslovakia, 1944)
Order of the Star of Nepal (Nepal, 1945)
Knight Grand Cross of Order of St Olav (Norway, 19 March 1948)
Publications
.
(Auchinleck's Official Middle East Despatch published after the war in )
.
(Auchinleck's Official Middle East Despatch published after the war in )
.
(Auchinleck's Official Indo-Burma Despatch published after the war in )
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
Auchinleck Papers at John Rylands Library, Manchester
Indian Army Officers 1939−1945
Generals of World War II
Category:1884 births
Category:1981 deaths
Category:Military personnel from Aldershot
Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Category:Indian Army generals of World War II
Category:British Commanders-in-Chief of India
Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I
Category:British field marshals
Category:Academics of the Staff College, Quetta
Category:Indian National Army trials
Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India
Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Chief Commanders of the Legion of Merit
Category:Recipients of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari
Category:Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Star of Nepal
Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour
Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)
Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
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Category:British military personnel of the Second Mohmand Campaign
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Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta
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Category:Burials at Ben M'Sik European Cemetery
Category:British Indian Army generals
Category:People educated at Eagle House School
Category:Members of the Council of the Governor General of India
Category:Pakistan Command and Staff College alumni | [] | [
"Between the world wars, Claude Auchinleck completed a stint at the Staff College in Quetta, met and married Jessie Stewart, and worked as a temporary Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Army Headquarters. He became second-in-command of his regiment and later commanded it. He was promoted several times, eventually reaching the rank of Major-General. He served as an instructor at the Staff College, commanded the Peshawar Brigade, and led two punitive expeditions during the Mohmand and Bajaur Operations. After being placed on the unemployed list, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of Staff Duties in Delhi and later commanded the Meerut District in India. He also chaired a committee examining the modernization and re-equipment of the British Indian Army, with the committee's recommendations forming the basis of the 1939 Chatfield Report.",
"The context does not provide specific information on what Claude Auchinleck went to school for. It mentions him attending the Staff College in Quetta and the Imperial Defence College, which would suggest a focus on military education and training.",
"Yes, there are several interesting aspects in the article. For instance, it mentions Auchinleck's romantic encounter with his future wife, Jessie, on the tennis courts while holidaying in France. Jessie, who was sixteen years younger than Auchinleck, was a high-spirited, blue-eyed beauty from America. The article also details Auchinleck's military career, including his command of the Peshawar Brigade and leading two punitive expeditions during the Mohmand and Bajaur Operations. His work on modernising and re-equipping the British Indian Army, which led to its transformation from 183,000 men in 1939 to over 2.25 million men by the end of WWII, is particularly noteworthy.",
"The context does not provide specific information on who appointed Claude Auchinleck to the various positions he held during his military career."
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C_78f68e4f6be04edaa87c3e8030b16dec_0 | Claude Auchinleck | Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck (21 June 1884 - 23 March 1981) was a British Army commander during the Second World War. He was a career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, where he rose to become Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army by early 1941. In July 1941 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Middle East theatre, but after initial successes the war in North Africa turned against the British, and he was relieved of the post in 1942 during the crucial Alamein campaign. In June 1943 he was once more appointed Commander-in-Chief, India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for Slim's Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. | Partition of India and later years | Auchinleck continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army after the end of the war helping, though much against his own convictions, to prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies for the Partition of India: in November 1945 he was forced to commute the more serious judicial sentences awarded against officers of the Indian National Army in face of growing unease and unrest both within the Indian population, and the British Indian Army. On 1 June 1946 he was promoted to field marshal, but he refused to accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought fundamentally dishonourable. Sending a report to British Government on 28 September 1947 Auchinleck wrote: "I have no hesitation, whatever, in affirming that the present Indian Cabinet are implacably determined to do all in their power to prevent the establishment of the Dominion of Pakistan on firm basis." He stated in the second, political part of his assessment, "Since 15th August, the situation has steadily deteriorated and the Indian leaders, cabinet ministers, civil officials and others have persistently tried to obstruct the work of partition of the armed forces." When partition was effected in August 1947, Auchinleck was appointed Supreme Commander of all British forces remaining in India and Pakistan and remained in this role until the winding up and closure of the Supreme H.Q. at the end of November 1948. This marked his effective retirement from the army (although technically field marshals in the British Army never retire, remaining on the active list on half pay). He left India on 1 December. After a brief period in Italy in connection with an unsuccessful business project, Auchinleck retired to London, where he occupied himself with a number of charitable and business interests and became a respectably skilled watercolour painter. In 1960 he settled in Beccles in the county of Suffolk, remaining there for seven years until, at the age of eighty-four, he decided to emigrate and set up home in Marrakesh, where he died on 23 March 1981. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, (21 June 1884 – 23 March 1981), was a British Indian Army commander who saw active service during the world wars. A career soldier who spent much of his military career in India, he rose to become commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by early 1941 during the Second World War. In July 1941 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Middle East Theatre, but after initial successes, the war in North Africa turned against the British-led forces under his command, and he was relieved of the post in August 1942 during the North African campaign.
In June 1943, he was once again appointed Commander-in-Chief, India, where his support through the organisation of supply, maintenance and training for General William Slim's Fourteenth Army played an important role in its success. He served as Commander-in-Chief, India, until the Partition in 1947, when he assumed the role of Supreme Commander of all British forces in India and Pakistan until late 1948.
Early life and career
Born at 89 Victoria Road in Aldershot, Hampshire, the son of John Claud Alexander Auchinleck and Mary Eleanor (Eyre) Auchinleck. His father, a colonel in the Royal Horse Artillery of the British Army, was posted to Bangalore in British India, with his family accompanying him, while Claude was very young. It was from here that he developed a love for the country that would last for most of his life. Returning to England after the death of his father in 1892, Auchinleck attended Eagle House School at Crowthorne and then Wellington College on scholarships. From there he went on to the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned as an unattached second lieutenant in the Indian Army on 21 January 1903, and joined the 62nd Punjabis in April 1904. He soon learned several Indian languages, and, able to speak fluently with his soldiers, he absorbed a knowledge of local dialects and customs: this familiarity engendered a lasting mutual respect, enhanced by his own personality.
He was promoted to lieutenant on 21 April 1905, and then spent the next two years in Tibet and Sikkim before moving to Benares in 1907 where he caught diphtheria. After briefly serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers at Aldershot he returned to Benares in 1909 and became adjutant of the 62nd Punjabis with promotion to captain on 21 January 1912. Auchinleck was an active freemason.
First World War
Auchinleck saw active service in the First World War and was deployed with his regiment to defend the Suez Canal: in February 1915 he was in action against the Turks at Ismaïlia. His regiment moved into Aden to counter the Turkish threat there in July 1915. The 6th Indian Division, of which the 62nd Punjabis were a part, was landed at Basra on 31 December 1915 for the Mesopotamian campaign. In July 1916 Auchinleck was promoted acting major and made second in command of his battalion. He took part in a series of fruitless attacks on the Turks at the Battle of Hanna in January 1916 and was one of the few British officers in his regiment to survive these actions.
He became acting commanding officer of his battalion in February 1917 and led his regiment at the Second Battle of Kut in February 1917 and the Fall of Baghdad in March 1917. Having been mentioned in despatches and having received the Distinguished Service Order in 1917 for his service in Mesopotamia, he was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 21 January 1918, to temporary lieutenant-colonel on 23 May 1919 and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 15 November 1919 for his "distinguished service in Southern and Central Kurdistan" on the recommendation of the Commander-in-Chief of the Mesopotamia Expeditionary Force.
Between the world wars
Auchinleck attended the Staff College, Quetta, between 1920 and 1921. As a lieutenant colonel, he outranked most of his fellow students and even some members of the staff. Despite performing well there – passing the course and being among the top ten students – he was critical of many aspects of the college, which he believed to be too theoretical and with little emphasis being placed on matters such as supply and administration, both of which he thought had been mishandled in the campaign in Mesopotamia. He married Jessie Stewart in 1921. Jessie had been born in 1900 in Tacoma, Washington, to Alexander Stewart, head of the Blue Funnel Line that plied the west coast of the United States. When he died about 1919, their mother took her, her twin brother Alan and her younger brother Hepburne back to Bun Rannoch, the family estate at Innerhadden in Perthshire. Holidaying at Grasse on the French Riviera, Auchinleck, who was on leave from India at the time, met Jessie on the tennis courts. She was a high-spirited, blue-eyed beauty. Things moved quickly, and they were married within five months. Sixteen years younger than Auchinleck, Jessie became known as 'the little American girl' in India, but adapted readily to life there. They had no children.
Auchinleck became temporary Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at Army Headquarters in February 1923 and then second-in-command of his regiment, which in the 1923 reorganisation of the Indian Army had become the 1st Punjab Regiment, in September 1925. He attended the Imperial Defence College in 1927 and, having been promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant-colonel on 21 January 1929 he was appointed to command his regiment. Promoted to full colonel on 1 February 1930 with seniority from 15 November 1923, he became an instructor at the Staff College, Quetta in February 1930 where he remained until April 1933.
He was promoted to temporary brigadier on 1 July 1933 and given command of the Peshawar Brigade, which was active in the pacification of the adjacent tribal areas during the Mohmand and Bajaur Operations between July and October 1933: during his period of command he was mentioned in despatches. He led a second punitive expedition during the Second Mohmand Campaign in August 1935 for which he was again mentioned in despatches, promoted to major-general on 30 November 1935 and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Star of India on 8 May 1936.
On leaving his brigade command in April 1936, Auchinleck was on the unemployed list (on half pay) until September 1936 when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff and Director of Staff Duties in Delhi. He was then appointed to command the Meerut District in India in July 1938. In 1938 Auchinleck was appointed to chair a committee to consider the modernisation, composition and re-equipment of the British Indian Army: the committee's recommendations formed the basis of the 1939 Chatfield Report which outlined the transformation of the Indian Army – it grew from 183,000 in 1939 to over 2,250,000 men by the end of the war.
Second World War
Norway 1940
On the outbreak of war, Auchinleck was appointed to command the Indian 3rd Infantry Division, but in January 1940 was summoned to the United Kingdom to command IV Corps, the only time in the war that a wholly British corps was commanded by an Indian Army officer. He received promotion to acting Lieutenant-General on 1 February 1940 and to the substantive rank of Lieutenant-General on 16 March 1940. In May 1940 Auchinleck took over command of the Anglo-French ground forces during the Norwegian campaign, a military operation that was doomed to fail.
After the fall of Norway, in June 1940 he briefly commanded V Corps before becoming General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command, in July 1940, where he had an uneasy relationship with his subordinate Bernard Montgomery, the new V Corps commander. Montgomery later wrote: "In the 5th Corps I first served under Auchinleck... I cannot recall that we ever agreed on anything."
India and Iraq January–May 1941
Promoted to full general on 26 December 1940, Auchinleck was recalled to India in January 1941 to become Commander-in-Chief, India, in which position he also was appointed to the Executive Council of the Viceroy of India and appointed ADC General to the King, which ceremonial position he held until after the end of the War.
In April 1941, RAF Habbaniya was threatened by the new pro-Axis regime of Rashid Ali. This large Royal Air Force station was west of Baghdad in Iraq and General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command, was reluctant to intervene, despite the urgings of Winston Churchill, because of his pressing commitments in the Western Desert and Greece. Auchinleck, however, acted decisively, sending a battalion of the King's Own Royal Regiment by air to Habbaniya and shipping the Indian 10th Infantry Division by sea to Basra. Wavell was prevailed upon by London to send Habforce, a relief column, from the British Mandate of Palestine but by the time it arrived in Habbaniya on 18 May the Anglo-Iraqi War was virtually over.
North Africa July 1941 – August 1942
Following the see-saw of Allied and Axis successes and reverses in North Africa, Auchinleck was appointed to succeed General Sir Archibald Wavell as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command in July 1941; Wavell took up Auchinleck's post as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, swapping jobs with him.
As Commander-in-Chief Middle East, Auchinleck, based in Cairo, held responsibility not just for North Africa but also for Persia and the Middle East. He launched an offensive in the Western Desert, Operation Crusader, in November 1941: despite some tactical reverses during the fighting which resulted in Auchinleck replacing the Eighth Army commander Alan Cunningham with Neil Ritchie, by the end of December the besieged garrison of Tobruk had been relieved and Rommel obliged to withdraw to El Agheila. Auchinleck appears to have believed that the enemy had been defeated, writing on 12 January 1942 that the Axis forces were "beginning to feel the strain" and were "hard pressed".
In fact the Axis forces had managed to withdraw in good order and a few days after Auchinleck's optimistic appreciation, having reorganised and been reinforced, struck at the dispersed and weakened British forces, driving them back to the Gazala positions near Tobruk. The British Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), General Sir Alan Brooke, wrote in his diary that it was "nothing less than bad generalship on the part of Auchinleck. He has been overconfident and has believed everything his overoptimistic [DMI] Shearer has told him". Brooke commented that Auchinleck "could have been one of the finest of commanders" but lacked the ability to select the men to serve him. Brooke sent him one of his best armoured division commanders Richard McCreery, whose advice was ignored in favour of Dorman-Smith's.
Rommel's attack at the Battle of Gazala of 26 May 1942 resulted in a significant defeat for the British. Auchinleck's appreciation of the situation written to Ritchie on 20 May had suggested that the armoured reserves be concentrated in a position suitable to meet both a flanking attack around the south of the front or a direct attack through the centre (which was the likelihood more favoured by Auchinleck). In the event, Ritchie chose a more dispersed and rearward positioning of his two armoured divisions and when the attack in the centre came, it proved to be a diversion and the main attack, by Rommel's armoured formations, came round the southern flank. Poor initial positioning and subsequent handling and coordination of Allied formations by Ritchie and his corps commanders resulted in their heavy defeat and the Eighth Army retreating into Egypt; Tobruk fell to the Axis on 21 June 1942.
On 24 June Auchinleck stepped in to take direct command of the Eighth Army, having lost confidence in Neil Ritchie's ability to control and direct his forces. Auchinleck discarded Ritchie's plan to stand at Mersa Matruh, deciding to fight only a delaying action there, while withdrawing to the more easily defendable position at El Alamein. Here Auchinleck tailored a defence that took advantage of the terrain and the fresh troops at his disposal, stopping the exhausted German/Italian advance in the First Battle of El Alamein. Enjoying a considerable superiority of material and men over the weak German/Italian forces, Auchinleck organised a series of counter-attacks. Poorly conceived and badly coordinated, these attacks achieved little.
"The Auk", as he was known, appointed a number of senior commanders who proved to be unsuitable for their positions, and command arrangements were often characterised by bitter personality clashes. Auchinleck was an Indian Army officer and was criticised for apparently having little direct experience or understanding of British and Dominion troops. His controversial chief of operations, Major-General Dorman-Smith, was regarded with considerable distrust by many of the senior commanders in Eighth Army. By July 1942 Auchinleck had lost the confidence of Dominion commanders and relations with his British commanders had become strained.
Like his foe Rommel (and his predecessor Wavell and successor Montgomery), Auchinleck was subjected to constant political interference, having to weather a barrage of hectoring telegrams and instructions from Prime Minister Churchill throughout late 1941 and the spring and summer of 1942. Churchill constantly sought an offensive from Auchinleck, and was downcast at the military reverses in Egypt and Cyrenaica. Churchill was desperate for some sort of British victory before the planned Allied landings in North Africa, Operation Torch, scheduled for November 1942. He badgered Auchinleck immediately after the Eighth Army had all but exhausted itself after the first battle of El Alamein. Churchill and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Sir Alan Brooke, flew to Cairo in early August 1942 to meet Auchinleck, where it emerged he had lost the confidence of both men. He was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Command by General Sir Harold Alexander (later Field Marshal The Earl Alexander of Tunis).
Joseph M. Horodyski and Maurice Remy both praise Auchinleck as an underrated military leader who contributed the most to the successful defence of El Alamein and consequently the final defeat of Rommel in Africa. The two historians also criticize Churchill for the unreasonable decision to put the blame on Auchinleck and to relieve him.
India 1942–1945
Churchill offered Auchinleck command of the newly created Persia and Iraq Command (this having been separated from Alexander's command), but Auchinleck declined this post, as he believed that separating the area from the Middle East Command was not good policy and the new arrangements would not be workable. He set his reasons out in his letter to the Chief of the Imperial General Staff dated 14 August 1942. Instead he returned to India, where he spent almost a year "unemployed" before in June 1943 being again appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army,
General Wavell meanwhile having been appointed Viceroy, on this appointment it was announced that responsibility for the prosecution of the war with Japan would move from the Commander-in-Chief India to a newly created South East Asia Command. However, the appointment of the new command's Supreme Commander, Acting Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, was not announced until August 1943 and until Mountbatten could set up his headquarters and assume control (in November), Auchinleck retained responsibility for operations in India and Burma while conducting a review and revision of Allied plans based on the decisions taken by the Allied Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Quadrant Conference, which ended in August.
Following Mountbatten's arrival, Auchinleck's India Command (which had equal status with South East Asia Command in the military hierarchy) was responsible for the internal security of India, the defence of the North West Frontier and the buildup of India as a base, including most importantly the reorganisation of the Indian Army, the training of forces destined for SEAC and the lines of communication carrying men and material to the forward areas and to China. Auchinleck made the supply of Fourteenth Army, with probably the worst lines of communication of the war, his immediate priority; as Sir William Slim, commander of the Fourteenth Army, was later to write:
Divorce
Auchinleck suffered a personal disappointment when his wife Jessie left him for his friend, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Peirse. Peirse and Auchinleck had been students together at the Imperial Defence College, but that was long before. Peirse was now Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South-East Asia, and also based in India. The affair became known to Mountbatten in early 1944, and he passed the information to the Chief of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal, hoping that Peirse would be recalled. The affair was common knowledge by September 1944, and Peirse was neglecting his duties. Mountbatten sent Peirse and Lady Auchinleck back to England on 28 November 1944, where they lived together at a Brighton hotel. Peirse had his marriage dissolved, and Auchinleck obtained a divorce in 1946. Auchinleck was reportedly very badly affected. According to his sister, he was never the same after the break-up. He always carried a photograph of Jessie in his wallet even after the divorce.
There is scholarly dispute whether Auchinleck was homosexual. His biographer, Philip Warner, addressed the rumours but dismissed them; however historian Ronald Hyam has alleged that "sexually based moral-revulsion" was the reason for Montgomery's inability to get on with Auchinleck, and further, that Auchinleck was "let off with a high-level warning" over his relationships with Indian boys.
Partition of India and later years
Auchinleck continued as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army after the end of the war helping, though much against his own convictions, to prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies for the Partition of India: in November 1945 he was forced to commute the more serious judicial sentences awarded against officers of the Indian National Army in face of growing unease and unrest both within the Indian population, and the British Indian Army. On 1 June 1946 he was promoted to field marshal, but he refused to accept a peerage, lest he be thought associated with a policy (i.e. Partition) that he thought fundamentally dishonourable.
Sending a report to the British Government on 28 September 1947, Field Marshal Auchinleck wrote: "I have no hesitation, whatever, in affirming that the present Indian Cabinet are implacably determined to do all in their power to prevent the establishment of the Dominion of Pakistan on firm basis." He stated in the second, political part of his assessment, "Since 15th August, the situation has steadily deteriorated and the Indian leaders, cabinet ministers, civil officials and others have persistently tried to obstruct the work of partition of the armed forces."
When partition was effected in August 1947, Auchinleck was appointed Supreme Commander of all British forces remaining in India and Pakistan and remained in this role until the winding up and closure of the Supreme H.Q. at the end of November 1947. This marked his effective retirement from the army (although technically field marshals in the British Army never retire, remaining on the active list on half pay). He left India on 1 December.
After a brief period in Italy in connection with an unsuccessful business project, Auchinleck retired to London, where he occupied himself with a number of charitable and business interests and became a respectably skilled watercolour painter. In 1960 he settled in Beccles in the county of Suffolk, remaining there for seven years until, at the age of eighty-four, he decided to emigrate and set up home in Marrakesh, where he died on 23 March 1981.
Memorials
Auchinleck is buried in Ben M'Sik European Cemetery, Casablanca, in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission plot in the cemetery, next to the grave of Raymond Steed who was the second youngest non-civilian Commonwealth casualty of the Second World War.
A memorial plaque was erected in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. A bronze statue of Auchinleck can be seen on Broad Street adjacent to Auchinleck House, Five Ways, Birmingham.
Awards and decorations
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (1 January 1945)
Companion of the Order of the Bath (3 July 1934) Mohmand operations 7 October 1933
Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (20 December 1940)
Companion of the Order of the Star of India (8 May 1936) Mohmand operations 8 October 1935
Distinguished Service Order (3 June 1917)
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division) (3 June 1919)
Mention in Despatches, twice (World War I and 3 July 1934 – Mohmand operations)
Croix de Guerre with Palm (France, 1918 and 1949)
Chief Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States, 23 July 1948)
Virtuti Militari, 5th class (Poland, 15 May 1942)
Member First Class Order of the Star of Nepal (Nepal)
War Cross (Czechoslovakia, 1944)
Order of the Star of Nepal (Nepal, 1945)
Knight Grand Cross of Order of St Olav (Norway, 19 March 1948)
Publications
.
(Auchinleck's Official Middle East Despatch published after the war in )
.
(Auchinleck's Official Middle East Despatch published after the war in )
.
(Auchinleck's Official Indo-Burma Despatch published after the war in )
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
Further reading
External links
Auchinleck Papers at John Rylands Library, Manchester
Indian Army Officers 1939−1945
Generals of World War II
Category:1884 births
Category:1981 deaths
Category:Military personnel from Aldershot
Category:People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
Category:Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst
Category:Indian Army generals of World War II
Category:British Commanders-in-Chief of India
Category:Indian Army personnel of World War I
Category:British field marshals
Category:Academics of the Staff College, Quetta
Category:Indian National Army trials
Category:Companions of the Distinguished Service Order
Category:Companions of the Order of the Star of India
Category:Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Chief Commanders of the Legion of Merit
Category:Recipients of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari
Category:Recipients of the Czechoslovak War Cross
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Star of Nepal
Category:Grand Officers of the Legion of Honour
Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)
Category:Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France)
Category:Ulster Scots people
Category:British military personnel of the Second Mohmand Campaign
Category:Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies
Category:Graduates of the Staff College, Quetta
Category:Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
Category:Burials at Ben M'Sik European Cemetery
Category:British Indian Army generals
Category:People educated at Eagle House School
Category:Members of the Council of the Governor General of India
Category:Pakistan Command and Staff College alumni | [] | [
"Auchinleck occupied himself with a number of charitable and business interests and became a skillful watercolour painter. In 1960, he settled in Beccles in the county of Suffolk, where he lived for seven years. At the age of eighty-four, he decided to emigrate and set up home in Marrakesh, where he lived until his death on 23 March 1981.",
"The text doesn't provide exact durations for each of Auchinleck's activities during his later years. However, it mentions that he settled in Beccles, Suffolk in 1960 and lived there for seven years. At the age of eighty-four, he moved to Marrakesh, where he lived until his death in 1981.",
"Besides his charitable and business interests, and painting, Auchinleck also embarked on a brief stint in Italy related to an unsuccessful business project after retiring from the army and before moving to Beccles.",
"The text only mentions that Auchinleck helped to prepare the future Indian and Pakistani armies for the Partition of India, despite his objections to it. He believed the Indian Cabinet was determined to prevent the establishment of the Dominion of Pakistan. After partition in August 1947, Auchinleck was appointed Supreme Commander of all British forces remaining in India and Pakistan until the end of November 1948. He stated that Indian leaders, cabinet ministers, and civil officials tried to obstruct the work of partition of the armed forces. Specific details about the significance of the Partition of India are not provided in this text."
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C_9b44280b1d3a4ee3b42406a86a21c532_1 | Michael Bennett (theater) | Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 - July 2, 1987) was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven. Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical A Chorus Line. | Early life and career | Bennett was born Michael Bennett DiFiglia in Buffalo, New York, the son of Helen (nee Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker. His father was Roman Catholic and Italian American and his mother was Jewish. He studied dance and choreography in his teens and staged a number of shows in his local high school before dropping out to accept the role of Baby John in the US and European tours of West Side Story. Bennett's career as a Broadway dancer began in the 1961 Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping, after which he appeared in Meredith Willson's Here's Love and the short-lived Bajour. In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBC pop music series Hullabaloo, where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie. Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, and in 1967 followed it with another failure, Henry, Sweet Henry (based on the Peter Sellers film The World of Henry Orient). Success finally arrived in 1968, when he choreographed the hit musical Promises, Promises on Broadway. With a contemporary pop score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a wisecracking book by Neil Simon and Bennett's well-received production numbers, including "Turkey Lurkey Time", the show ran for 1,281 performances. Over the next few years, he earned praise for his work on the straight play Twigs with Sada Thompson and the musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn. These were followed by two Stephen Sondheim productions, Company and Follies co-directed with Hal Prince. In 1973, Bennett was asked by producers Joseph Kipness and Larry Kasha to take over the ailing Cy Coleman-Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw. In replacing the director Ed Sherin and choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute control over the production as director and choreographer and received credit as "having written, directed, and choreographed" the show. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Michael Bennett (April 8, 1943 – July 2, 1987) was an American musical theatre director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven.
Bennett choreographed Promises, Promises, Follies and Company. In 1976, he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical and the Tony Award for Best Choreography for the musical A Chorus Line. Bennett, under the aegis of producer Joseph Papp, created A Chorus Line based on a workshop process which he pioneered. He also directed and co-choreographed Dreamgirls with Michael Peters.
Early life and career
Bennett was born Michael DiFiglia in Buffalo, New York, the son of Helen (née Ternoff), a secretary, and Salvatore Joseph DiFiglia, a factory worker. His father was Italian American and his mother was Jewish. He studied dance and choreography in his teens and staged a number of shows in his local high school - Bennett High School in Buffalo, NY - before dropping out to accept the role of Baby John in the US and European tours of West Side Story. He gave himself a new last name when he pursued this life in the arts, taking inspiration from his high school.
Bennett's career as a Broadway dancer began in the 1961 Betty Comden–Adolph Green–Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping, after which he appeared in Meredith Willson's Here's Love and the short-lived Bajour. In the mid-1960s he was a featured dancer on the NBC pop music series Hullabaloo, where he met fellow dancer Donna McKechnie.
Bennett made his choreographic debut with A Joyful Noise (1966), which lasted only twelve performances, and in 1967 followed it with another failure, Henry, Sweet Henry (based on the Peter Sellers film The World of Henry Orient). Success finally arrived in 1968, when he choreographed the hit musical Promises, Promises on Broadway. With a contemporary pop score by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, a wisecracking book by Neil Simon and Bennett's well-received production numbers, including "Turkey Lurkey Time", the show ran for 1,281 performances. Over the next few years, he earned praise for his work on the straight play Twigs with Sada Thompson and the musical Coco with Katharine Hepburn. These were followed by two Stephen Sondheim productions, Company and Follies, co-directed with Hal Prince.
In 1973, Bennett was asked by producers Joseph Kipness and Larry Kasha to take over the ailing Cy Coleman–Dorothy Fields musical Seesaw. In replacing the director Ed Sherin and choreographer Grover Dale, he asked for absolute control over the production as director and choreographer and received credit as "having written, directed, and choreographed" the show.
A Chorus Line and the 1980s
Bennett's next project was A Chorus Line. The musical was formed out of twenty hours of taped sessions with Broadway dancers. Bennett was invited to the sessions originally as an observer but soon took charge. He co-choreographed and directed the production, which debuted in July 1975 off-Broadway. It won nine Tony Awards and the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. He later claimed that the worldwide success of A Chorus Line became a hindrance, as the many international companies of the musical demanded his full-time attention. Bennett would later become a creative consultant for the 1985 film version of the musical but left due to creative differences. He always sought creative control over his projects, but Hollywood producers were unwilling to give him the influence he demanded.
There are some filmed records which testify to the show's initial power. Television talk-show host Phil Donahue devoted an entire program to the original cast, during which they reminisce and recreate some of the musical numbers. The 2008 feature-length documentary Every Little Step chronicles the casting process of the musical's 2006 revival, with re-created choreography by Bennett's long-time associate Baayork Lee, and, in the course of the film, the saga of the original production is re-told as well, through the use of old film clips and revealing interviews from the original collaborators, including Lee, Bob Avian (who was the show's original co-choreographer with Bennett and the director of the revival), composer Marvin Hamlisch and the original's leading lady, Donna McKechnie.
Bennett's next musical was a project about late-life romance called Ballroom. Although financially unsuccessful, it garnered seven Tony Award nominations, and Bennett won one for Best Choreography. He admitted that any project that followed A Chorus Line was bound to be an anti-climax. Bennett had another hit in 1981 with Dreamgirls, a backstage epic about a girl group like The Supremes and the expropriation of black music by a white recording industry. In the early 1980s, Bennett worked on various projects, one of which was titled The Children's Crusade, based on a legendary story "Children's Crusade", but none of them reached the stage.
In 1978, he purchased 890 Broadway and converted it for use as a rehearsal studios complex for dance and theatre. In 1986, he was forced to sell it for $15 million due to stress-induced angina and the financial losses of the property. Two tenants purchased the building, and it remains a rehearsal facility for American Ballet Theatre, Eliot Feld's Ballet Tech, Gibney Dance Company, and others.
He always collaborated with his assistant Bob Avian, who was a lifelong friend.
In 1985, Bennett abandoned the nearly-completed musical Scandal, by writer Treva Silverman and songwriter Jimmy Webb, which had been developing for nearly five years through a series of workshop productions. The show was sexually daring, but the conservative climate and the growing AIDS panic made it unlikely commercial material. He was then signed to direct the West End production of Chess but had to withdraw in January 1986 due to his failing health, leaving Trevor Nunn to complete the production using Bennett's already commissioned sets.
Analysis
Unlike his more famous contemporary Bob Fosse, Bennett was not known for a particular choreographic style. Instead, Bennett's choreography was motivated by the form of the musical involved, or the distinct characters interpreted.
In act 2 of Company, Bennett defied the usual choreographic expectations by deliberately taking the polish off the standard Broadway production number. The company stumbled through the steps of a hat and cane routine ("Side By Side") and thus revealed to the audience the physical limitations of the characters' singing and dancing. Bennett made the audience aware that this group had been flung together to perform, and that they were in over their heads. He intended the number to be not about the routine, but rather the characters behind it.
The song "One" from A Chorus Line functions in a different way. The various phases of construction/rehearsal of the number are shown, and because the show is about professional dancers, the last performance of the song-and-dance routine has all the gloss and polish expected of Broadway production values. Bennett's choreography also reveals the cost of the number to the people behind it.
Bennett was influenced by the work of Jerome Robbins. "What Michael Bennett perceived early in Robbins' work was totality, all the sums of a given piece adding to a unified whole". In Dreamgirls, Bennett's musical staging was described as a "mesmerizing sense of movement":
The most thrilling breakthrough of the extraordinary show is that whereas in A Chorus Line Michael Bennett choreographed the cast, in Dreamgirls he has choreographed the set. Bennett's use of [the plexiglass towers that dominated the set] was revolutionary. The towers moved to create constantly changing perspectives and space, like an automated ballet. They energized the action, driving it forcefully along. It's why there were no set-piece dance routines in the show: dance and movement were organic to the entire action. But Bennett had made the mechanical set his dancers."
Personal life
Bennett was bisexual.<ref>Baldwin, Dick & Graves, Neil. "New Biography Presents the Soap-Opera Life Story of Michael Bennett", The Buffalo News. February 9, 1990.</ref>In his younger days, Bennett had a relationship with Larry Fuller, a dancer, choreographer and director. He had a long professional and personal relationship with the virtuoso dancer Donna McKechnie, who danced his work in both Promises, Promises and Company and won the 1976 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in the role he had created for her in A Chorus Line. They married on December 4, 1976, but after only a few months they separated and eventually divorced in 1979. In the late 1970s, Sabine Cassel, the then-wife of French actor Jean-Pierre Cassel. left her family in Paris to live with Bennett in Manhattan, but the relationship soured. During his adult life, Bennett "took elaborate pains to ensure that the public never suspected he was gay. When he was diagnosed with AIDS in December 1985, (he) carefully disguised that fact as well".
Bennett's addictions to alcohol and drugs, notably cocaine and quaaludes, severely affected his ability to work and affected many of his professional and personal relationships. His paranoia grew as his dependency did. Worried by his celebrity and his father's Italian background, he began to suspect he might fall victim to a Mafia hit.
Bennett's last lover was Gene Pruit. In 1986 both Pruit and friend Bob Herr lived with Bennett for the last eight months of his life in Tucson, Arizona, where he received care at the University of Arizona Medical Center. Bennett died from AIDS-related lymphoma at the age of 44. He left a portion of his estate to fund research to fight the pandemic. Bennett's memorial service took place at the Shubert Theatre in New York City (the home at that time of A Chorus Line) on September 29, 1987.
Awards and nominations
Other mediaA Class Act—A Musical About Musicals (2001). Bennett and lyricist Ed Kleban are portrayed in this partly fictionalized life story of Kleban, using some of Kleban's unpublished songs. A Chorus Line's number "One" is included in this musical.
Notes
References
Long, Robert Emmet (2001). Broadway, the Golden Years: Jerome Robbins and the Great Choreographer-directors: 1940 to the Present. Continuum International Publishing Group. .
McKechnie, Donna (2006). Time Steps: My Musical Comedy Life. Simon and Schuster. .
Shea, Tom (2004). Broadway's Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Dynamic Divas, Surefire Showstoppers, and Box Office Busts. Brassey's. .
Webb, Jimmy (1999). Tunesmith: Inside the Art of Songwriting. Hyperion. .
Zadan, Craig (1987). Sondheim & Co.. Pavilion Books. .
Further reading
Chapin, Ted (2005). Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies. Applause Books. .
Flinn, Denny Martin (1989). What They Did for Love: The Untold Story Behind the Making of "A Chorus Line". Bantam, .
Hamlisch, Marvin (1992). The Way I Was (1st edition). Scribner's. .
Stevens, Gary (2000). The Longest Line: Broadway's Most Singular Sensation: A Chorus Line. Applause Books. .
Viagas, Robert (1990). On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line'' (2nd edition). Limelight Editions. .
External links
Michael Bennett Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.
Category:1943 births
Category:1987 deaths
Category:AIDS-related deaths in Arizona
Category:American choreographers
Category:American jazz dancers
Category:American male dancers
Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:American musical theatre directors
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:Broadway theatre directors
Category:Bisexual dancers
Category:Drama Desk Award winners
Category:LGBT theatre directors
Category:Bisexual Jews
Category:American LGBT entertainers
Category:LGBT people from New York (state)
Category:Artists from Buffalo, New York
Category:Pulitzer Prize for Drama winners
Category:Tony Award winners
Category:Deaths from lymphoma
Category:Bisexual men
Category:Writers from Buffalo, New York
Category:20th-century American dancers
Category:Deaths from cancer in Arizona
Category:20th-century American LGBT people | [] | [
"Bennett was born in Buffalo, New York.",
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"The play where Bennett's career began was the Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping.",
"Bennett began his career in the 1961 Betty Comden-Adolph Green-Jule Styne musical Subways Are for Sleeping.",
"In the initial plays mentioned, Bennett's role was that of a dancer. However, later in his career he took on roles such as choreographer for Promises, Promises and Twigs. Furthermore, for the musical Seesaw, he had absolute control over the production as director and choreographer and received credit as \"having written, directed, and choreographed\" the show.",
"Yes, Bennett did work as a choreographer. His choreographic debut was with \"A Joyful Noise\" in 1966. He also choreographed the hit musical \"Promises, Promises\" in 1968, among others.",
"Yes, Bennett experienced success with his choreography for the hit musical \"Promises, Promises\" in 1968, which ran for 1,281 performances. Further, his work on the straight play \"Twigs\" with Sada Thompson and the musical \"Coco\" with Katharine Hepburn also earned him praise. He also had successful productions with Stephen Sondheim, including \"Company\" and \"Follies,\" which he co-directed with Hal Prince."
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C_a43944639f0a4695ad0da10c4626415f_1 | Drew Carey | Carey is the youngest of Lewis and Beulah Carey's three sons and raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When Drew was eight years old, his father died from a brain tumor. He played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School, from which he graduated in 1975. He continued on to college at Kent State University (KSU) and was a part of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. | Sports involvement | While still starring in The Drew Carey Show, Carey began hosting the American version of the improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1998. He would announce the improv guests, direct the games, and then would usually involve himself in the final game of the episode. The show ran for a total of 220 episodes until the show's cancellation in 2006. In 1998, the New York Friars' Club made Carey the newest inductee of the group's Comedy Central Roast. His friend Ryan Stiles (who costarred in The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?) served as the roastmaster. Carey's income from Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The Drew Carey Show led to his inclusion on the Forbes list of highest-paid entertainers of 1998, at 24th with $45.5 million. For the WB's 2004-2005 prime time schedule, Carey co-produced and starred in Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, a spin-off of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It was canceled by the WB, but picked up shortly afterward by Comedy Central. The show's premise relied on the use of a green screen for all of the actors' improv interactions. Animation on the screen was inserted during post-production. In April 2011, Carey began hosting a primetime improv show, called Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza. It was filmed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, and first aired on April 11. The show took on the premise of Whose Line? and Drew Carey's Green Screen Show in that it features many of the same performers from both shows and did improv based on audience-provided suggestions. Carey is an outspoken libertarian. He has expressed his political philosophy in the following terms: "I believe the answers to all the problems we face as a society won't come from Washington, it will come from us. So the way we decide to live our lives and our decisions about what we buy or don't buy are much more important than who we vote for." Carey expressed his distaste for the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, specifically on the September 14, 2007, episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He made donations to Ron Paul's presidential campaign for the 2008 election. On the September 26, 2008, episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Carey defined "libertarian" to host Craig Ferguson as "a conservative who still gets high." In 2016, he supported Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson in his run for office, and was made an Honorary Chair of the campaign for California. Carey has spoken about his various political beliefs in several interviews, and in 1998, he led a "smoke-in" in defiance of California's newly passed no-smoking ordinance inside bars and restaurants. Carey has hosted a series of mini-documentaries called The Drew Carey Project on Reason.tv, an online project of Reason Foundation, a libertarian-oriented nonprofit think tank (for which Carey sits as a member of the board of trustees). The first episode, "Gridlock", addresses private highway ownership and was released on October 15, 2007. Other episodes discuss topics such as eminent domain, urban traffic congestion, and medical marijuana. Carey is a devoted fan of the U.S. National Soccer Team, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, and the Columbus Blue Jackets. In 1999, Carey was part of the pregame ceremonies at the first game of the return of the Cleveland Browns, televised on ESPN. Carey attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Carey is a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, who began play in Major League Soccer on March 19, 2009, and won the 2016 MLS Cup. Carey is a fan of FC Barcelona and of the Scottish team Rangers. In 2006, he was a season ticketholder for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Carey has shown his support for the Indians by throwing the first pitch at an August 12, 2006, game against the Kansas City Royals. He was rewarded by the Cleveland Indians for being "the greatest Indians fan alive" with a personal bobblehead doll made in his likeness that was given to fans. Carey responded to his bobblehead likeness by saying "Bobblehead Day, for me, is as big as getting a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame." In 2001, Carey was the first television actor to enter World Wrestling Federation's 30-man "Royal Rumble" match, which he did to promote an improv comedy pay-per-view at the time. He appeared in a few backstage segments before his brief participation in the match. Upon entering the ring, Carey stood unopposed for more than half a minute, but after the next entrant, Kane, refused a monetary bribe, Carey eliminated himself from the match by jumping over the top rope and retreating from ringside. On April 2, 2011, Carey was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Kane. Carey competed against five other celebrities in the first celebrity edition of the 2003 World Poker Tour. He placed fifth, beating out only actor Jack Black. Carey won $2,000 for his charity. On May 15, 2011, Carey completed the "Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon" in 1:57:02; then, on September 4, 2011, he improved to complete the Disneyland Half Marathon in 1:50:46. And on October 30, 2011, he finished the Marine Corps Marathon with a chip time of 4:37:11, placing 10,149th out of 20,940. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey gained stardom in his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and as host of the U.S. version of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both of which aired on ABC. He then appeared in several films, television series, music videos, a made-for-television film, and a computer game. Carey has hosted the game show The Price Is Right since October 15, 2007, on CBS.
Carey is interested in a variety of sports and has worked as a photographer at U.S. National Team soccer games. He is a minority owner of the Major League Soccer team Seattle Sounders FC, which won the MLS Cup, first in 2016 and again in 2019. Carey briefly participated in professional wrestling, entering the 2001 Royal Rumble, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Carey's autobiography, Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, details his early life and television career.
Early life and education
Carey was born on May 23, 1958 to Lewis and Beulah Carey. He is the youngest of three brothers (Neil, 1946–2010 and Roger, born 1952) and was raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When Drew was eight years old, his father died from a heart attack. Drew played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School from which he graduated in 1975.
Carey continued on to college at Kent State University (KSU) and was a part of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He was expelled twice for poor academic performance and left KSU after three years. Upon leaving the university, Carey enlisted into the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1980 and served for six years as a field radio operator in the 25th Marine Regiment in Ohio. He moved to Las Vegas for a few months in 1983 and for a short time worked as a bank teller and a waiter at Denny's.
Career
Stand-up career
In 1985, Carey began his comedy career by following a suggestion by David Lawrence (a disc jockey friend who had been paying Carey to write jokes for Lawrence's radio show in Cleveland) to go to the library and check out books on how to write jokes. The following year, after winning an open mic contest, Carey became Master of Ceremonies at the Cleveland Comedy Club. He performed at comedy clubs over the next few years in Cleveland and Los Angeles. Carey's first national exposure was competing in the 1988 Star Search. Carey was working as a stand-up comedian when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in November 1991. His performance that night impressed Carson, who invited Carey to the couch next to his desk; this was considered a rare honor for any comedian. In that same year, Carey joined the 14th Annual Young Comedians Special on HBO and made his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. In 1994, Carey wrote his own stand-up comedy special, Drew Carey: Human Cartoon, which aired on Showtime and won a CableACE Award for Best Writing.
Acting career
Early roles
Carey's early stand-up career led to supporting roles on television shows during which he developed the character of a hapless middle-class bachelor. In 1993, Carey had a small role in the film Coneheads as a taxi passenger. In 1994, he co-starred with John Caponera in The Good Life, a short-lived sitcom on NBC. After the show was cancelled, Bruce Helford, a writer on the show, hired Carey as a consultant for the television show Someone Like Me.
The Drew Carey Show
After their stint on Someone Like Me, Carey and Helford developed and produced the storyline for The Drew Carey Show. The sitcom revolved around a fictionalized version of Carey, as he took on the stresses of life and work with his group of childhood friends. The show premiered on September 13, 1995, on ABC. In his autobiography, Carey revealed his frustration with having to deal with censors and being unable to employ the off-color humor common in his stand-up routines. Carey initially earned $60,000 per episode in the first seasons, then renegotiated for $300,000. By the final season, he was earning $750,000 per episode. The show had high ratings for its first few seasons, but declining ratings and increasing production costs (around $3 million per episode) precipitated its cancellation. The program had a total of 233 episodes over its nine-year run and Carey was one of four actors to appear in every episode.
Improv television
While still starring in The Drew Carey Show, Carey began hosting the American version of the improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1998. He would announce the improv cast, direct the games, and usually involve himself in the final game of the episode. The show ran for a total of 220 episodes until cancellation in 2006 (it returned with host Aisha Tyler in 2013). In 1998, the New York Friars' Club made Carey the newest inductee of the group's Comedy Central Roast. His friend Ryan Stiles (who costarred in The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?) served as the roastmaster. Carey's income from Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The Drew Carey Show led to his inclusion on the Forbes list of highest-paid entertainers of 1998, at 24th with $45.5 million.
For the WB's 2004–2005 prime time schedule, Carey co-produced and starred in Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, a spin-off of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It was canceled by the WB, but picked up shortly afterward by Comedy Central. The show's premise relied on the use of a green screen for some of the actors' improv interaction with each other. Animation on the screen was visible to the live audience and it was also inserted during post-production for the television audience.
In 2011, Carey began hosting a primetime improv show, called Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza. It was filmed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, and first aired on April 11. The show took on the premise of Whose Line? and Drew Carey's Green Screen Show in that it features many of the same performers from both shows and did improv based on audience-provided suggestions.
Improv All-Stars
Carey was one of the founders of the Improv All-Stars, a group of 11 actors who perform in unscripted skits. The group joined Carey in all three of his improv shows, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, the 90-minute television special Drew Carey's Improv All Stars, and some members had major roles or guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show. The Improv All-Stars travel on comedy tours performing at comedy clubs throughout the United States.
Game show host
Power of 10
Beginning in 2007, Carey began hosting game shows, beginning with his April selection as host of the CBS game show pilot Power of 10. The show ran from August 7, 2007 to January 23, 2008, and aired twice weekly during the late summer and early fall. Each game featured contestants predicting how a cross-section of Americans responded to questions covering a wide variety of topics in polls conducted by CBS.
The Price Is Right
After taping the pilot episode for Power of 10, Carey was contacted by CBS about replacing Bob Barker who had earlier announced his own retirement as host of The Price Is Right. After initially turning down the offer, Carey announced on Late Show with David Letterman that he would succeed Barker as host of the program beginning in the fall of 2007. Carey's first episode of The Price Is Right was taped on August 15, 2007, and his shows began airing on October 15, 2007. In response to replacing Barker as host of the game show, Carey stated, "You can't replace Bob Barker. I don't compare myself to anybody... It's only about what you're doing and supposed to do, and I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this." When Carey began hosting, the set, theme music, and show logo were updated. Carey has retained the application of Barker's closing comment about spaying and neutering pets. In 2022, Carey celebrated his fifteenth anniversary as host of the show.
Other roles and appearances
Carey began appearing in commercials for restaurants in the late 1990s in Canada with The Great Root Bear, but his two-year contract with A&W Food Services of Canada was cut short in November 1998 after an episode of The Drew Carey Show featured McDonald's. As a result of his dismissal, Carey sued A&W for compensation.
Disney's Hollywood Studios (then "Disney-MGM Studios"), part of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, debuted a 12-minute attraction in 1999 titled Sounds Dangerous!. In the show, a camera follows Carey through a day as an undercover detective. When his video camera fails, the audience is left in complete darkness wearing earphones following his adventure through sound cues. The attraction is now closed.
In 2000, Carey was given a cameo appearance in the House Party expansion pack of the computer game The Sims. To make him appear, the characters in the game must throw a successful party, which causes Carey to arrive in a limo and join the festivities. Carey is a fan of The Sims series and during one April Fool's episode of The Drew Carey Show a scene takes place completely within The Sims. Carey made several other cameo appearances in music videos, including "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1999 video for "It's All About the Pentiums" and Fountains of Wayne's 2004 video for "Mexican Wine", giving an introduction to the video as if it were on a stage.
On January 21, 2001, Carey entered as Vince McMahon's guest entrant in the Royal Rumble match.
Although primarily known for his television work, Carey has done limited film work with his first appearance in 1993's Coneheads. His next film was the 2000 television film Geppetto which debuted on The Wonderful World of Disney. The film, an adaptation of Pinocchio, included actor Wayne Brady who had joined Carey on his improv shows. Carey took singing lessons to prepare for the role. In 2005, Carey appeared in three films: the animated film Robots where he provided a voice-over for the character Crank; The Aristocrats where he retold a dirty joke along with other celebrities; and the documentary Fuck where he was interviewed.
Carey provided the entertainment for the 2002 Annual White House correspondents' dinner. Once Carey completed his stand-up routine for the 1,800 guests, President George W. Bush, noting Carey's improv work, made a joke of his own: "Drew? Got any interest in the Middle East?" In 2003, he joined Jamie Kennedy to host the WB's live special Play for a Billion. In September 2003, Carey led a group of comedians, including Blake Clark and The Drew Carey Show's Kathy Kinney, on a comedy tour of Iraq.
On June 8, 2006, Drew Carey's Sporting Adventures debuted on the Travel Channel. In this series, Carey traveled throughout Germany to photograph multiple FIFA World Cup soccer games while he immerses himself in the culture of the towns and states he visits. In early 2008, Carey appeared in Matt Groening's The Simpsons as part of the episode "All About Lisa" as a guest on the Krusty the Clown Show. He also surfaced in the second season of Community playing a well-liked former boss to Jeff Winger.
On March 4, 2014, it was announced on Good Morning America that Carey would compete on the season 18 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with professional dancer Cheryl Burke. They were eliminated during the sixth week of the competition, finishing in 8th place.
Carey has also been a longtime host on SiriusXM channel, Little Steven's Underground Garage (Ch. 21) where for 10 years he hosted a three-hour radio show called "Drew Carey's Friday Night Dance Party" which aired the last Friday of every month. In August 2018, Carey turned his monthly show into a weekly show called "The Friday Night Freak Out" which airs every Friday from 8:00pm to 11:00pm ET on SiriusXM.
In 2018, Carey appeared in an episode of NCIS as a retired Marine. His character was a sergeant, the last rank he held in real life. Real pictures of him in dress blues and everyday garb were on the plasma screen in the squad room.
In 2020, Carey appeared as a contestant on the third season of The Masked Singer as "Llama". He was the second to be eliminated.
In 2021, Carey participated in Celebrity Wheel of Fortune alongside Teri Hatcher and Chrissy Metz. He beat his fellow competitors in the first bonus round, but failed to solve the final bonus round puzzle.
On April 21, 2023, it was announced that Carey would be featured in an upcoming four-episode documentary by ABC News titled The Game Show Show, covering the history of game shows in America over the last eight decades. The four-part documentary is slated to premiere on May 10, 2023.
Writing
Carey has routinely written throughout his career. He wrote his own material in his early stand-up career before writing sitcoms. In 1997, Carey published his autobiography, Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, wherein he shared memories of his early childhood and of his father's death when he was eight. He also revealed that he was once molested, had suffered bouts of depression, and had made two suicide attempts by swallowing a large number of sleeping pills. The book discusses his college fraternity years while attending Kent State University and his professional career up to that time. The book featured large amounts of profanity and, as the title suggests, includes multiple dirty jokes (there is one at the start of each chapter) and references to beer. The book was featured on The New York Times bestseller list for three months.
Photography
Carey can sometimes be seen on the sidelines of U.S. National Team soccer games as a press photographer. His images are sold via wire services under the pseudonym Brooks Parkenridge. He was at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the summer of 2006, for his television show Drew Carey's Sporting Adventures.
Personal life
Carey adopted his crew cut hairstyle while serving in the United States Marine Corps. He underwent refractive surgery to correct his vision and, for a time, did not require glasses, but continued to wear them for purposes of recognition and celebrity identity. On the May 17, 2006, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Carey revealed that when he turned 40, he developed a need for bifocals.
As of 2007, Carey resides in Los Angeles and New York City.
Carey proposed to Nicole Jaracz in 2007 and is a father figure to Connor, her son from a previous relationship. The couple did not wed and called off their engagement in 2012.
In January 2018, Carey announced his engagement to sex therapist Amie Harwick. They ended their engagement that November but remained close. On February 15, 2020, Harwick was found dead in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood and her ex-boyfriend was subsequently arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Carey is a Buddhist.
Health
After suffering chest pains while filming The Drew Carey Show in August 2001, Carey underwent a coronary angioplasty.
Although his weight was a comedic topic throughout his sitcom and improv shows, Carey began a diet and exercise plan in 2010 and lost considerable weight, which he also claimed had cured his Type 2 diabetes. He had cataract surgery in 2020.
Political views
Carey is an outspoken Libertarian. He said:
Carey expressed his distaste for the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, specifically on the September 14, 2007, episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He made donations to Ron Paul's presidential campaign for the 2008 election. On the September 26, 2008, episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Carey defined "libertarian" to host Craig Ferguson as "a conservative who still gets high." In 2016, he supported Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson in his run for office, and was made an Honorary Chair of the campaign for California.
Carey has voiced his political beliefs in several interviews, and in 1998, led a "smoke-in" in defiance of California's newly passed no-smoking ordinance inside bars and restaurants. He has hosted a series of mini-documentaries, The Drew Carey Project, on Reason.tv, an online project of Reason Foundation, a libertarian-oriented nonprofit think tank on whose board of trustees he sits. The first episode, "Gridlock", addresses private highway ownership and was released on October 15, 2007. Other episodes discuss topics such as eminent domain, urban traffic congestion, and medical marijuana.
Carey endorsed and donated money to Joe Biden in the 2020 United States Presidential Election. Earlier in the cycle, he also donated to Tulsi Gabbard and Bill Weld.
Sports involvement
Carey is a devoted fan of the U.S. National Soccer Team, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Guardians, and Columbus Blue Jackets. In 1999, he was part of the pregame ceremonies at the first game of the return of the Browns, televised on ESPN. Carey attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Carey is a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC who began to play in Major League Soccer on March 19, 2009 and won two MLS Cups (2016, 2019). Carey is a fan of FC Barcelona and was a season ticket holder for the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006.
Carey has shown his support for the Cleveland baseball team by throwing the first pitch at an August 12, 2006 game against the Kansas City Royals. He was rewarded by them for being "the greatest Indians fan alive" with a personal bobblehead doll made in his likeness that was given to fans. Carey responded to his bobblehead likeness by saying "Bobblehead Day, for me, is as big as getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame."
In 2001, Carey was the first television actor to enter World Wrestling Federation's 30-man "Royal Rumble" match, which he did to promote an improv comedy pay-per-view at the time. He appeared in a few backstage segments before his brief participation in the match. Upon entering the ring, Carey stood unopposed for more than half a minute, but after the next entrant, Kane, refused a monetary bribe, Carey eliminated himself from the match by jumping over the top rope and retreating from ringside. On April 2, 2011, Carey was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Kane.
Carey competed against five other celebrities in the first celebrity edition of the 2003 World Poker Tour. He placed fifth, beating the only other actor, Jack Black. Carey won $2,000 for his charity.
On May 15, 2011, Carey completed the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in 1:57:02; then, on September 4, 2011, he completed the Disneyland Half Marathon in 1:50:46. On October 30, 2011, Carey finished the Marine Corps Marathon with a chip time of 4:37:11, placing 10,149th out of 20,940.
Philanthropy
Carey is a supporter of libraries crediting them for beginning his successful comedy career. On May 2, 2000, in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Carey selected the Ohio Library Foundation to receive his $500,000 winnings. He later went on to win an additional $32,000 on the second celebrity Millionaire, making him one of the biggest winning contestants on Millionaire who did not win the top prize. Carey also has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cleveland Public Library charity. In June 2007, he offered to donate up to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund if anybody could beat him at the video game FIFA Soccer 07 for the Xbox 360. Carey dared five players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams to compete against him. He ended up donating $100,000, plus $60,000 for losing two games out of the six he played.
In October 2009, Carey made a bid of $25,000 in a charity auction for the @drew Twitter account. He later increased his offer to $100,000 if the number of followers of his account @DrewFromTV reached 100,000 by the end of the auction. In an interview with CBS News, he said he would instead donate $1 million to the charity Livestrong Foundation if his follower count reached one million by December 31, 2009.
In September 2014, Carey promised $10,000 to help find the perpetrators of a faked "ice bucket challenge" involving an autistic 14-year-old Ohio boy who, instead of being doused in ice cubes and water, received a shower of feces, urine, tobacco spit, and cigarette butts. Shortly thereafter, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams matched Carey's offer. Several teens were eventually charged and admitted to the prank, though they denied that there were feces in the bucket or that they knew the victim was diagnosed with autism.
Filmography
Carey has starred in only a few television shows and films but has made numerous guest-star appearances in a variety of sitcoms and comedy shows.
Film
Television
Awards and honors
Entertainment/Media
1994: Cable Ace Award for Best Writing: Drew Carey: Human Cartoon
1995: TV Guide "10 Hottest New Faces of 1995"
1998: Satellite Award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy Series
2000: People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Television Performer
2004: Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time (#84)
2011: Southern California Journalism "Best Advocacy Journalism" Award winner
Sports
Two-time MLS Cup champion (as co-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC - 2016, 2019)
Military
2021: United States Navy Memorial Foundation Lone Sailor Award (presented on the July 2, 2021 episode of The Price is Right)
Halls of Fame
2003: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2011: WWE Hall of Fame
Honorary
2000:DHL from Cleveland State University
References
External links
Drew Carey's blog
Drew Carey's WWE Hall of Fame Profile
Category:1958 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:21st-century Buddhists
Category:American Buddhists
Category:American game show hosts
Category:American libertarians
Category:American male comedians
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male singers
Category:American male television actors
Category:American photographers
Category:American soccer chairmen and investors
Category:American stand-up comedians
Category:Comedians from Ohio
Category:Kent State University alumni
Category:Major League Soccer executives
Category:Major League Soccer owners
Category:Male actors from Cleveland
Category:The Price Is Right
Category:United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers
Category:United States Marine Corps reservists
Category:WWE Hall of Fame inductees | [] | [
"Carey has been involved in soccer as a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC. He has also shown his support for baseball by throwing the first pitch at a Cleveland Indians game. In 2001, he was involved in wrestling when he entered the World Wrestling Federation's 30-man \"Royal Rumble\" match. In 2003, he participated in the first celebrity edition of the World Poker Tour. He also completed the \"Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon\" in 2011.",
"The comedy improv television show Whose Line Is It Anyway is not about sports. The show features performers who play improvisational games based on suggestions from the audience. The show does not have a specific theme or topic and is not sports-oriented.",
"Yes, there is information about Drew Carey's sports involvement in the article. Carey is a fan of several sports teams including the U.S. National Soccer Team, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He also attended the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. Additionally, he is a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC, a team in Major League Soccer. In 2006, he was a season ticketholder for the Los Angeles Galaxy. He has also shown his support for the Cleveland Indians baseball team by throwing the first pitch at a game in 2006. Finally, he has been involved in running, having completed the \"Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon\" as well as the Disneyland Half Marathon and the Marine Corps Marathon in 2011.",
"The text does not provide information about Drew Carey winning any of the sports events or competitions he participated in.",
"Yes, in addition to participating in the World Poker Tour, Drew Carey has been involved in other sports. He is a fan of soccer, American football, baseball, and basketball, supporting various teams such as the U.S. National Soccer Team, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians, and the Columbus Blue Jackets. He is also a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC soccer team. Additionally, he has run in several marathons, including the \"Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon\", the Disneyland Half Marathon, and the Marine Corps Marathon.",
"The text does not provide specific information on how Drew Carey performed in any particular sports match."
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C_a43944639f0a4695ad0da10c4626415f_0 | Drew Carey | Carey is the youngest of Lewis and Beulah Carey's three sons and raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When Drew was eight years old, his father died from a brain tumor. He played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School, from which he graduated in 1975. He continued on to college at Kent State University (KSU) and was a part of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. | Philanthropy | Carey is a supporter of libraries, crediting them for beginning his successful comedy career. On May 2, 2000, in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, he selected the Ohio Library Foundation to receive his $500,000 winnings. He later went on to win an additional $32,000 on the second celebrity Millionaire, making him one of the biggest winning contestants on Millionaire who did not win the top prize. Carey also has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cleveland Public Library charity. In June 2007, Carey offered to donate up to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund if anybody could beat him at the video game FIFA Soccer 07 for the Xbox 360. He dared five players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams to compete against him. Carey ended up donating $100,000, plus $60,000 for losing two games out of the six games he played. In October 2009, Carey made a bid of $25,000 in a charity auction for the @drew Twitter account. He later increased his offer to $100,000 if the number of followers of his account @DrewFromTV reached 100,000 by the end of the auction. In an interview with CBS News, he said he would instead donate $1 million to the charity Livestrong Foundation if his follower count reached one million by December 31, 2009. Another of Carey's offers to contribute in helping others came in September 2014 when he promised $10,000 to help find the perpetrators of a faked "ice bucket challenge" involving an autistic 14-year-old Ohio boy who, instead of being doused in ice cubes and water, received a shower of feces, urine, spit and cigarette butts. Shortly thereafter, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams matched Carey's offer. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Drew Allison Carey (born May 23, 1958) is an American comedian, actor, and game show host. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps and making a name for himself in stand-up comedy, Carey gained stardom in his own sitcom, The Drew Carey Show, and as host of the U.S. version of the improv comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both of which aired on ABC. He then appeared in several films, television series, music videos, a made-for-television film, and a computer game. Carey has hosted the game show The Price Is Right since October 15, 2007, on CBS.
Carey is interested in a variety of sports and has worked as a photographer at U.S. National Team soccer games. He is a minority owner of the Major League Soccer team Seattle Sounders FC, which won the MLS Cup, first in 2016 and again in 2019. Carey briefly participated in professional wrestling, entering the 2001 Royal Rumble, and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011.
Carey's autobiography, Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, details his early life and television career.
Early life and education
Carey was born on May 23, 1958 to Lewis and Beulah Carey. He is the youngest of three brothers (Neil, 1946–2010 and Roger, born 1952) and was raised in the Old Brooklyn neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. When Drew was eight years old, his father died from a heart attack. Drew played the cornet and trumpet in the marching band of James Ford Rhodes High School from which he graduated in 1975.
Carey continued on to college at Kent State University (KSU) and was a part of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity. He was expelled twice for poor academic performance and left KSU after three years. Upon leaving the university, Carey enlisted into the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1980 and served for six years as a field radio operator in the 25th Marine Regiment in Ohio. He moved to Las Vegas for a few months in 1983 and for a short time worked as a bank teller and a waiter at Denny's.
Career
Stand-up career
In 1985, Carey began his comedy career by following a suggestion by David Lawrence (a disc jockey friend who had been paying Carey to write jokes for Lawrence's radio show in Cleveland) to go to the library and check out books on how to write jokes. The following year, after winning an open mic contest, Carey became Master of Ceremonies at the Cleveland Comedy Club. He performed at comedy clubs over the next few years in Cleveland and Los Angeles. Carey's first national exposure was competing in the 1988 Star Search. Carey was working as a stand-up comedian when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in November 1991. His performance that night impressed Carson, who invited Carey to the couch next to his desk; this was considered a rare honor for any comedian. In that same year, Carey joined the 14th Annual Young Comedians Special on HBO and made his first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. In 1994, Carey wrote his own stand-up comedy special, Drew Carey: Human Cartoon, which aired on Showtime and won a CableACE Award for Best Writing.
Acting career
Early roles
Carey's early stand-up career led to supporting roles on television shows during which he developed the character of a hapless middle-class bachelor. In 1993, Carey had a small role in the film Coneheads as a taxi passenger. In 1994, he co-starred with John Caponera in The Good Life, a short-lived sitcom on NBC. After the show was cancelled, Bruce Helford, a writer on the show, hired Carey as a consultant for the television show Someone Like Me.
The Drew Carey Show
After their stint on Someone Like Me, Carey and Helford developed and produced the storyline for The Drew Carey Show. The sitcom revolved around a fictionalized version of Carey, as he took on the stresses of life and work with his group of childhood friends. The show premiered on September 13, 1995, on ABC. In his autobiography, Carey revealed his frustration with having to deal with censors and being unable to employ the off-color humor common in his stand-up routines. Carey initially earned $60,000 per episode in the first seasons, then renegotiated for $300,000. By the final season, he was earning $750,000 per episode. The show had high ratings for its first few seasons, but declining ratings and increasing production costs (around $3 million per episode) precipitated its cancellation. The program had a total of 233 episodes over its nine-year run and Carey was one of four actors to appear in every episode.
Improv television
While still starring in The Drew Carey Show, Carey began hosting the American version of the improvisational comedy show Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1998. He would announce the improv cast, direct the games, and usually involve himself in the final game of the episode. The show ran for a total of 220 episodes until cancellation in 2006 (it returned with host Aisha Tyler in 2013). In 1998, the New York Friars' Club made Carey the newest inductee of the group's Comedy Central Roast. His friend Ryan Stiles (who costarred in The Drew Carey Show and Whose Line Is It Anyway?) served as the roastmaster. Carey's income from Whose Line Is It Anyway? and The Drew Carey Show led to his inclusion on the Forbes list of highest-paid entertainers of 1998, at 24th with $45.5 million.
For the WB's 2004–2005 prime time schedule, Carey co-produced and starred in Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, a spin-off of Whose Line Is It Anyway?. It was canceled by the WB, but picked up shortly afterward by Comedy Central. The show's premise relied on the use of a green screen for some of the actors' improv interaction with each other. Animation on the screen was visible to the live audience and it was also inserted during post-production for the television audience.
In 2011, Carey began hosting a primetime improv show, called Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza. It was filmed at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, and first aired on April 11. The show took on the premise of Whose Line? and Drew Carey's Green Screen Show in that it features many of the same performers from both shows and did improv based on audience-provided suggestions.
Improv All-Stars
Carey was one of the founders of the Improv All-Stars, a group of 11 actors who perform in unscripted skits. The group joined Carey in all three of his improv shows, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza, the 90-minute television special Drew Carey's Improv All Stars, and some members had major roles or guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show. The Improv All-Stars travel on comedy tours performing at comedy clubs throughout the United States.
Game show host
Power of 10
Beginning in 2007, Carey began hosting game shows, beginning with his April selection as host of the CBS game show pilot Power of 10. The show ran from August 7, 2007 to January 23, 2008, and aired twice weekly during the late summer and early fall. Each game featured contestants predicting how a cross-section of Americans responded to questions covering a wide variety of topics in polls conducted by CBS.
The Price Is Right
After taping the pilot episode for Power of 10, Carey was contacted by CBS about replacing Bob Barker who had earlier announced his own retirement as host of The Price Is Right. After initially turning down the offer, Carey announced on Late Show with David Letterman that he would succeed Barker as host of the program beginning in the fall of 2007. Carey's first episode of The Price Is Right was taped on August 15, 2007, and his shows began airing on October 15, 2007. In response to replacing Barker as host of the game show, Carey stated, "You can't replace Bob Barker. I don't compare myself to anybody... It's only about what you're doing and supposed to do, and I feel like I'm supposed to be doing this." When Carey began hosting, the set, theme music, and show logo were updated. Carey has retained the application of Barker's closing comment about spaying and neutering pets. In 2022, Carey celebrated his fifteenth anniversary as host of the show.
Other roles and appearances
Carey began appearing in commercials for restaurants in the late 1990s in Canada with The Great Root Bear, but his two-year contract with A&W Food Services of Canada was cut short in November 1998 after an episode of The Drew Carey Show featured McDonald's. As a result of his dismissal, Carey sued A&W for compensation.
Disney's Hollywood Studios (then "Disney-MGM Studios"), part of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, debuted a 12-minute attraction in 1999 titled Sounds Dangerous!. In the show, a camera follows Carey through a day as an undercover detective. When his video camera fails, the audience is left in complete darkness wearing earphones following his adventure through sound cues. The attraction is now closed.
In 2000, Carey was given a cameo appearance in the House Party expansion pack of the computer game The Sims. To make him appear, the characters in the game must throw a successful party, which causes Carey to arrive in a limo and join the festivities. Carey is a fan of The Sims series and during one April Fool's episode of The Drew Carey Show a scene takes place completely within The Sims. Carey made several other cameo appearances in music videos, including "Weird Al" Yankovic's 1999 video for "It's All About the Pentiums" and Fountains of Wayne's 2004 video for "Mexican Wine", giving an introduction to the video as if it were on a stage.
On January 21, 2001, Carey entered as Vince McMahon's guest entrant in the Royal Rumble match.
Although primarily known for his television work, Carey has done limited film work with his first appearance in 1993's Coneheads. His next film was the 2000 television film Geppetto which debuted on The Wonderful World of Disney. The film, an adaptation of Pinocchio, included actor Wayne Brady who had joined Carey on his improv shows. Carey took singing lessons to prepare for the role. In 2005, Carey appeared in three films: the animated film Robots where he provided a voice-over for the character Crank; The Aristocrats where he retold a dirty joke along with other celebrities; and the documentary Fuck where he was interviewed.
Carey provided the entertainment for the 2002 Annual White House correspondents' dinner. Once Carey completed his stand-up routine for the 1,800 guests, President George W. Bush, noting Carey's improv work, made a joke of his own: "Drew? Got any interest in the Middle East?" In 2003, he joined Jamie Kennedy to host the WB's live special Play for a Billion. In September 2003, Carey led a group of comedians, including Blake Clark and The Drew Carey Show's Kathy Kinney, on a comedy tour of Iraq.
On June 8, 2006, Drew Carey's Sporting Adventures debuted on the Travel Channel. In this series, Carey traveled throughout Germany to photograph multiple FIFA World Cup soccer games while he immerses himself in the culture of the towns and states he visits. In early 2008, Carey appeared in Matt Groening's The Simpsons as part of the episode "All About Lisa" as a guest on the Krusty the Clown Show. He also surfaced in the second season of Community playing a well-liked former boss to Jeff Winger.
On March 4, 2014, it was announced on Good Morning America that Carey would compete on the season 18 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with professional dancer Cheryl Burke. They were eliminated during the sixth week of the competition, finishing in 8th place.
Carey has also been a longtime host on SiriusXM channel, Little Steven's Underground Garage (Ch. 21) where for 10 years he hosted a three-hour radio show called "Drew Carey's Friday Night Dance Party" which aired the last Friday of every month. In August 2018, Carey turned his monthly show into a weekly show called "The Friday Night Freak Out" which airs every Friday from 8:00pm to 11:00pm ET on SiriusXM.
In 2018, Carey appeared in an episode of NCIS as a retired Marine. His character was a sergeant, the last rank he held in real life. Real pictures of him in dress blues and everyday garb were on the plasma screen in the squad room.
In 2020, Carey appeared as a contestant on the third season of The Masked Singer as "Llama". He was the second to be eliminated.
In 2021, Carey participated in Celebrity Wheel of Fortune alongside Teri Hatcher and Chrissy Metz. He beat his fellow competitors in the first bonus round, but failed to solve the final bonus round puzzle.
On April 21, 2023, it was announced that Carey would be featured in an upcoming four-episode documentary by ABC News titled The Game Show Show, covering the history of game shows in America over the last eight decades. The four-part documentary is slated to premiere on May 10, 2023.
Writing
Carey has routinely written throughout his career. He wrote his own material in his early stand-up career before writing sitcoms. In 1997, Carey published his autobiography, Dirty Jokes and Beer: Stories of the Unrefined, wherein he shared memories of his early childhood and of his father's death when he was eight. He also revealed that he was once molested, had suffered bouts of depression, and had made two suicide attempts by swallowing a large number of sleeping pills. The book discusses his college fraternity years while attending Kent State University and his professional career up to that time. The book featured large amounts of profanity and, as the title suggests, includes multiple dirty jokes (there is one at the start of each chapter) and references to beer. The book was featured on The New York Times bestseller list for three months.
Photography
Carey can sometimes be seen on the sidelines of U.S. National Team soccer games as a press photographer. His images are sold via wire services under the pseudonym Brooks Parkenridge. He was at the 2006 FIFA World Cup in the summer of 2006, for his television show Drew Carey's Sporting Adventures.
Personal life
Carey adopted his crew cut hairstyle while serving in the United States Marine Corps. He underwent refractive surgery to correct his vision and, for a time, did not require glasses, but continued to wear them for purposes of recognition and celebrity identity. On the May 17, 2006, episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Carey revealed that when he turned 40, he developed a need for bifocals.
As of 2007, Carey resides in Los Angeles and New York City.
Carey proposed to Nicole Jaracz in 2007 and is a father figure to Connor, her son from a previous relationship. The couple did not wed and called off their engagement in 2012.
In January 2018, Carey announced his engagement to sex therapist Amie Harwick. They ended their engagement that November but remained close. On February 15, 2020, Harwick was found dead in a Hollywood Hills neighborhood and her ex-boyfriend was subsequently arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Carey is a Buddhist.
Health
After suffering chest pains while filming The Drew Carey Show in August 2001, Carey underwent a coronary angioplasty.
Although his weight was a comedic topic throughout his sitcom and improv shows, Carey began a diet and exercise plan in 2010 and lost considerable weight, which he also claimed had cured his Type 2 diabetes. He had cataract surgery in 2020.
Political views
Carey is an outspoken Libertarian. He said:
Carey expressed his distaste for the Bush administration's management of the Iraq War, specifically on the September 14, 2007, episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He made donations to Ron Paul's presidential campaign for the 2008 election. On the September 26, 2008, episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Carey defined "libertarian" to host Craig Ferguson as "a conservative who still gets high." In 2016, he supported Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson in his run for office, and was made an Honorary Chair of the campaign for California.
Carey has voiced his political beliefs in several interviews, and in 1998, led a "smoke-in" in defiance of California's newly passed no-smoking ordinance inside bars and restaurants. He has hosted a series of mini-documentaries, The Drew Carey Project, on Reason.tv, an online project of Reason Foundation, a libertarian-oriented nonprofit think tank on whose board of trustees he sits. The first episode, "Gridlock", addresses private highway ownership and was released on October 15, 2007. Other episodes discuss topics such as eminent domain, urban traffic congestion, and medical marijuana.
Carey endorsed and donated money to Joe Biden in the 2020 United States Presidential Election. Earlier in the cycle, he also donated to Tulsi Gabbard and Bill Weld.
Sports involvement
Carey is a devoted fan of the U.S. National Soccer Team, Cleveland Browns, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Guardians, and Columbus Blue Jackets. In 1999, he was part of the pregame ceremonies at the first game of the return of the Browns, televised on ESPN. Carey attended the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany and the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Carey is a minority owner of the Seattle Sounders FC who began to play in Major League Soccer on March 19, 2009 and won two MLS Cups (2016, 2019). Carey is a fan of FC Barcelona and was a season ticket holder for the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2006.
Carey has shown his support for the Cleveland baseball team by throwing the first pitch at an August 12, 2006 game against the Kansas City Royals. He was rewarded by them for being "the greatest Indians fan alive" with a personal bobblehead doll made in his likeness that was given to fans. Carey responded to his bobblehead likeness by saying "Bobblehead Day, for me, is as big as getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame."
In 2001, Carey was the first television actor to enter World Wrestling Federation's 30-man "Royal Rumble" match, which he did to promote an improv comedy pay-per-view at the time. He appeared in a few backstage segments before his brief participation in the match. Upon entering the ring, Carey stood unopposed for more than half a minute, but after the next entrant, Kane, refused a monetary bribe, Carey eliminated himself from the match by jumping over the top rope and retreating from ringside. On April 2, 2011, Carey was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Kane.
Carey competed against five other celebrities in the first celebrity edition of the 2003 World Poker Tour. He placed fifth, beating the only other actor, Jack Black. Carey won $2,000 for his charity.
On May 15, 2011, Carey completed the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon in 1:57:02; then, on September 4, 2011, he completed the Disneyland Half Marathon in 1:50:46. On October 30, 2011, Carey finished the Marine Corps Marathon with a chip time of 4:37:11, placing 10,149th out of 20,940.
Philanthropy
Carey is a supporter of libraries crediting them for beginning his successful comedy career. On May 2, 2000, in a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Carey selected the Ohio Library Foundation to receive his $500,000 winnings. He later went on to win an additional $32,000 on the second celebrity Millionaire, making him one of the biggest winning contestants on Millionaire who did not win the top prize. Carey also has played on the World Poker Tour in the Hollywood Home games for the Cleveland Public Library charity. In June 2007, he offered to donate up to $100,000 (in $10,000 increments) to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund if anybody could beat him at the video game FIFA Soccer 07 for the Xbox 360. Carey dared five players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams to compete against him. He ended up donating $100,000, plus $60,000 for losing two games out of the six he played.
In October 2009, Carey made a bid of $25,000 in a charity auction for the @drew Twitter account. He later increased his offer to $100,000 if the number of followers of his account @DrewFromTV reached 100,000 by the end of the auction. In an interview with CBS News, he said he would instead donate $1 million to the charity Livestrong Foundation if his follower count reached one million by December 31, 2009.
In September 2014, Carey promised $10,000 to help find the perpetrators of a faked "ice bucket challenge" involving an autistic 14-year-old Ohio boy who, instead of being doused in ice cubes and water, received a shower of feces, urine, tobacco spit, and cigarette butts. Shortly thereafter, celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams matched Carey's offer. Several teens were eventually charged and admitted to the prank, though they denied that there were feces in the bucket or that they knew the victim was diagnosed with autism.
Filmography
Carey has starred in only a few television shows and films but has made numerous guest-star appearances in a variety of sitcoms and comedy shows.
Film
Television
Awards and honors
Entertainment/Media
1994: Cable Ace Award for Best Writing: Drew Carey: Human Cartoon
1995: TV Guide "10 Hottest New Faces of 1995"
1998: Satellite Award for Best Actor – Musical or Comedy Series
2000: People's Choice Award for Favorite Male Television Performer
2004: Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time (#84)
2011: Southern California Journalism "Best Advocacy Journalism" Award winner
Sports
Two-time MLS Cup champion (as co-owner of the Seattle Sounders FC - 2016, 2019)
Military
2021: United States Navy Memorial Foundation Lone Sailor Award (presented on the July 2, 2021 episode of The Price is Right)
Halls of Fame
2003: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2011: WWE Hall of Fame
Honorary
2000:DHL from Cleveland State University
References
External links
Drew Carey's blog
Drew Carey's WWE Hall of Fame Profile
Category:1958 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:21st-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American male actors
Category:21st-century Buddhists
Category:American Buddhists
Category:American game show hosts
Category:American libertarians
Category:American male comedians
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male singers
Category:American male television actors
Category:American photographers
Category:American soccer chairmen and investors
Category:American stand-up comedians
Category:Comedians from Ohio
Category:Kent State University alumni
Category:Major League Soccer executives
Category:Major League Soccer owners
Category:Male actors from Cleveland
Category:The Price Is Right
Category:United States Marine Corps non-commissioned officers
Category:United States Marine Corps reservists
Category:WWE Hall of Fame inductees | [] | [
"Carey has shown a great deal of philanthropy, particularly towards libraries, having credited them for starting his career in comedy. He donates his winnings to different charities, such as the $500,000 he won on a celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire which he donated to the Ohio Library Foundation. He's also played in the World Poker Tour for charity and offered up to $100,000 to the Mooch Myernick Memorial Fund as part of a challenge connected to the video game FIFA Soccer 07. In 2009, Carey made a bid in a charity auction for a Twitter account, pledging to donate up to $1 million to the Livestrong Foundation depending on the number of followers he gained. In 2014, he pledged money to help find the people responsible for a cruel prank involving an autistic child. His offer was matched by celebrities Donnie Wahlberg, Jenny McCarthy and Montel Williams.",
"The text does not provide specific information on when Carey's philanthropy career began.",
"Yes, in addition to his philanthropic efforts, this article highlights that Carey is quite competitive and enjoys incorporating games or challenges into his charitable contributions. These include his participation in game shows like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, as well as a bet involving players from both the U.S. Men's and Women's National Teams in a FIFA Soccer 07 game. He also leveraged his Twitter follower count for charity, promising to donate up to $1 million to the Livestrong Foundation depending on how many followers he was able to gain by the end of 2009.",
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C_68ea0ff2b8e2499891cc35c93ecbdc18_1 | Andrés Galarraga | Andres Jose Padovani Galarraga (Spanish: [an'drez gala'raga]; born June 18, 1961) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Montreal Expos (1985-1991 and 2002), St. Louis Cardinals (1992), Colorado Rockies (1993-1997), Atlanta Braves (1998-2000), Texas Rangers (2001), San Francisco Giants (2001 and 2003) and Anaheim Angels (2004). He batted and threw right-handed. At six-foot-three and 235 pounds (1.91 m, 117 kg), Galarraga began his professional career in Venezuela at the age of 16. | National League batting champion (1993) | By joining the Rockies, he was given new life for his career. In a 1993 season full of remarkable individual achievements, Galarraga showed he was an accomplished hitter, and flirted with the .400 mark for much of the season. His final .370 BA was a 127-point increase over his previous year mark. He led National League batters in batting average, and it was the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio batted .381 in 1939. Despite missing 42 games with assorted injuries, The Big Cat compiled 56 multi-hit games to lead the league. He added 22 homers, 98 RBI, 71 runs, 35 doubles, four triples, a .403 on-base percentage, and his .602 slugging percentage was second in the league. His .370 mark was the first player on an expansion team as well as the first Venezuelan to win a batting title. Tony Gwynn hit .358 to finish as runner-up in the title race. Galarraga's improvement began when Baylor drastically opened up his stance to make him quicker on inside pitches. The new stance also helped Galarraga generate more power to the opposite field. At the same time, facing the pitcher with two eyes gave him a better view at pitches, lowering his strikeout rate and making him much more consistent at the plate with better contact. Galarraga finished 10th in the MVP selection, but won The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award. After the season, and for third time, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. In the strike shortened 1994 season, Galarraga set a new National League record in April by driving in 30 runs in a month. He seemed to be on his way to a terrific year again, but he fractured his right hand on July 28. At the time of his injury, Colorado had climbed to within a half-game of the first place Dodgers. Without him however, the Rockies went 3-10 the rest of the way. Galarraga paced the club with 31 homers (fifth in the league), and batted .319 with 85 RBI. On June 25, 1995, Galarraga hit a home run in three consecutive innings to tie an MLB record. He finished the season hitting .280, with 31 homers and 106 RBI. His numbers were helped by the fact that he stayed healthy for the first time in four years. That season, the Rockies had four players with 30 or more home runs, matching the 1977 Dodgers. On August 29 of the same season, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Galarraga spoiled Paul Wagner's bid for a no-hitter by singling with two out in the ninth, the only hit Wagner would allow in defeating the Rockies 4-0. Over the next few seasons, Galarraga developed into one of the best RBI-men in baseball, driving in a combined 396 runs between 1996 and 1998 (150, 140, 121). In the same period, he batted .279, .303 and .318, with 31, 47, and 41 HRs. Some critics argued that his achievements were possible thanks to the thin-air, mile-high, hitter-friendly Coors Field, but Galarraga belted many homers on the road that traveled over 450 feet (140 m). CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Andrés José Padovani Galarraga (; born June 18, 1961) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball first baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos (– and ), St. Louis Cardinals (), Colorado Rockies (–), Atlanta Braves (–), Texas Rangers (), San Francisco Giants (2001 and ) and Anaheim Angels (). He batted and threw right-handed. During his playing days, Galarraga stood tall, weighing .
Galarraga began his professional career in Venezuela at the age of 16. He was nicknamed The Big Cat (textually translated from English as El Gran Gato, although his nickname in his native Venezuela was El Gato) for his impressively quick reflexes and seamless defensive skills as a first baseman despite his large physical size. Galarraga was a five-time National League (NL) All-Star, won two NL Gold Glove Awards and two NL Silver Slugger Awards, and won two MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award, the second time after his successful return to baseball following cancer treatment.
Career
Venezuelan Winter League
Galarraga was signed by the Leones del Caracas as a catcher and third baseman. He made his debut in the – season. Some of the players Galarraga had as teammates included big-leaguers Tony Armas, Bo Díaz, Manny Trillo, Gonzalo Márquez, and Leo Hernández. Galarraga originally started as a utility player, but three seasons later he became the regular first baseman of the team. At the recommendation of team manager Felipe Alou, he was signed by the Expos in 1979. At the time, some MLB scouts thought the 17-year-old power-hitting prodigy was too overweight to play professionally. Galarraga played with this team until 1993, when he retired from Venezuelan Winter League.
Minor leagues
In Minor League Baseball (MiLB), Galarraga played for the West Palm Beach Expos (, –), Calgary Expos (1979–), Jamestown Expos (), Jacksonville Suns (), and Indianapolis Indians (). Galarraga was named Double-A Southern League Most Valuable Player for Jacksonville in 1984, with a .289 batting average, 27 home runs and 87 runs batted in (RBI). He also led the league in total bases (271), slugging percentage (.508), intentional base on balls (10), hit by pitches (9), and in double plays (130) and total chances (1428) at first base. Prior to his major league promotion, Galarraga hit .269/25/85, in 121 games with Indianapolis, being named as the Triple-A International League (IL) Rookie of the Year.
Montreal Expos (1985–1991)
Galarraga made his debut with Montreal on August 23, 1985. During that season’s last six-plus weeks, he struggled, hitting .187 (14-for-75), with two homers, and four RBI, in 24 games. Galarraga had a promising start in , but it was interrupted, when he suffered a knee injury; at the time, he had already posted eight home runs and was leading all NL rookies with 25 runs batted in. Galarraga underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, on July 10. He was activated one month later, only to be re-injured the following day after pulling muscles in his rib cage. Galarraga returned to action in September, ending with .271, 10 home runs, and 42 RBI, in 105 games.
Overshadowed by some teammates, Galarraga survived a tough rookie year and quietly enjoyed a consistently strong season. He hit .305 with 13 home runs, 90 RBI, and finishing second in the league in doubles (40). Despite his size, Galarraga displayed solid defense, being adept at scooping throws out of the dirt and excellent quickness turning the 3-6-3 double play. Cardinals' manager Whitey Herzog called him "the best-fielding right-handed first baseman I've seen since Gil Hodges."
In , Galarraga emerged from the shadows to become the best player on the Expos. He had an MVP-caliber season with a .302 batting average, 99 runs, 29 home runs, and 92 RBI. Galarraga also led the league in hits (184) and doubles (42), and earned an All-Star berth for the first time in his career. He was named the Montreal Expos Player of the Year at the end of the season.
was a rough season however for the Big Cat. Galarraga became a target of Montreal fans' frustration when he tailed off after the All-Star game. That year, Galarraga led the league in strikeouts (158), dropping his production to .257, 23 home runs, and 85 RBI. He fell five RBI short of becoming the first Expo to string together three straight seasons with 90 or more RBI. Despite the rough season, Galarraga blasted his first grand slam, stole home for the first time in his career, and was rewarded with a Gold Glove Award for his stellar play at first base.
Galarraga's season had Expos mumbling that the team should lower its expectations for the slick-fielding first baseman. For the second consecutive season, the Big Cat failed to repeat the standards he set in his first two full seasons. Galarraga hit .256 with 20 home runs and 87 RBI, almost a mirror image of his previous season. For the third consecutive year, he led the league in strikeouts; pitchers exploited Galarraga’s impatience at the plate and didn't give him good pitches to hit. Even without any improvement with the bat, Galarraga continued to make tremendous contributions on the field, scooping up infielder's errant throws, starting 3-6-3 double plays, and winning his second Gold Glove. That season he also had a six-RBI game, two four-RBI games, and hit his first career inside-the-park home run.
Slowed by injuries, Galarraga struggled through the worst offensive season of his career in . Disabled with a strained left hamstring between May and July, he later had arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to the undersurface of his left kneecap. Montreal missed Galarraga‘s glove as much as his bat, committing 43 infield errors in 53 games without him. That season, Galarraga hit .219, 9 home runs, and 33 RBI, in 107 games. He stole home for the second time in his career and hit his 100th career home run. At the end of the season, Galarraga was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for starting pitcher Ken Hill.
St. Louis Cardinals (1992)
Galarraga had a second chance with the Cardinals; however, a pitch broke his wrist early in the season and he didn't recover until July. Galarraga batted .296 after the All-Star break and hit all ten of his homers after July 1 for a .497 second-half slugging percentage. He finished with a .243 batting average and 39 RBI, but made a good impression on Cardinals batting coach Don Baylor. When Baylor became the first Rockies manager in the off-season, he recommended that Colorado take a chance on Galarraga and sign him as a free agent.
Colorado Rockies (1993–1997)
National League batting champion (1993)
By joining the Rockies, Galarraga was given new life for his career. In a season full of remarkable individual achievements, he solidified his stature as an accomplished hitter, and flirted with the .400 mark for much of the season. Galarraga‘s final .370 batting average was a 127-point increase over his previous year mark. He led National League batters in batting average, and it was the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio batted .381 in .
Despite missing 42 games with assorted injuries, The Big Cat compiled 56 multi-hit games to lead the league. He added 22 homers, 98 RBI, 71 runs, 35 doubles, four triples, a .403 on-base percentage, and his .602 slugging percentage was second in the league. Galarraga‘s .370 mark made him the first player on an expansion team as well as the first Venezuelan to win a batting title. Tony Gwynn hit .358 to finish as runner-up in the title race. Galarraga finished 10th in the MVP selection, but won The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award. After the season, and for third time, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. In the strike-shortened season, Galarraga set a new National League record in April by driving in 30 runs in a month. He seemed to be on his way to a terrific year again, but he fractured his right hand on July 28. At the time of Galarraga‘s injury, Colorado had climbed to within a half-game of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers. Without him however, the Rockies went 3–10 the rest of the way. Galarraga paced the club with 31 homers (fifth in the league), and batted .319 with 85 RBI.
On June 25, 1995, Galarraga hit a home run in three consecutive innings to tie an MLB record. He finished the season hitting .280, with 31 homers, and 106 RBI. Galarraga’s numbers were helped by the fact that he stayed healthy for the first time in four years. That season, the Rockies had four players with 30 or more home runs, matching the Dodgers. On August 29 of the same season, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Galarraga spoiled Paul Wagner's bid for a no-hitter, by singling with two out in the ninth; it was the only hit Wagner would allow in defeating the Rockies 4–0.
Over the next few seasons, Galarraga developed into one of the best RBI-men in baseball, driving in a combined 411 runs between and (150, 140, and 121). In the same period, he batted .304, .318, and .305, with 47, 41, and 44 home runs, respectively. Some critics argued that Galarraga‘s achievements were possible thanks to the thin-air, mile-high, hitter-friendly Coors Field, but he also belted many homers on the road that traveled over .
NL RBI leader (1997)
Perhaps the most famous home run Galarraga hit was a mammoth grand slam off Kevin Brown on May 31, 1997, which landed 20 rows deep into the upper deck at Florida Marlins' Pro Player Stadium. It may also be his most debated home run with a distance initially measured at and then . At the time, it set a record for both the Rockies and the stadium. In 2011, ESPN's Home Run Tracker recalculated the distance to . But in 2017, the Baseball Research Journal published an analysis by Jose L. Lopez PhD, and Oscar A. Lopez PhD--professors of Engineering at the Central University of Venezuela--that concluded that Galarraga's home run travelled between 517.5 and 529.4 feet. This makes Galarraga's May 31, 1997 grandslam one of the few pre-Statcast home runs to be proven to have exceeded 500 feet. Previously, Galarraga smashed two homers in two games that traveled and respectively, totaling , an average of each.
The Rockies released Galarraga at the end of the season to make room at first base for prospect Todd Helton. At the time of his release, Galarraga was the club's all-time leader in home runs (172) and RBI (579). As a free agent, he signed a three-year contract with the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves (1998–2000)
In Galarraga’s first season in Atlanta (1998), he hit .305, with 44 home runs, and 121 RBI. This made him the first player in MLB history to hit 40 or more homers in consecutive seasons for two different teams. During spring training, Galarraga developed a sore back. Treatment from the team's trainers and team doctor included hydrobaths, massages, muscle relaxers, and stretching, but would not stop the nagging soreness. Galarraga was referred to a medical oncologist in Atlanta for a thorough physical exam and an MRI. On the second lumbar vertebra in his lower back, Galarraga had a tumor known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of lymphatic cancer. He missed the entire 1999 season receiving chemotherapy treatments. Rockies third baseman and ex-teammate Vinny Castilla switched briefly from his traditional number 9 to number 14 on his jersey, to honor Galarraga's cancer fight.
In Spring , Galarraga returned to the field after undergoing chemotherapy and a strict workout routine. In his third at-bat of opening day of the 2000 season, Galarraga knocked in the winning run with a home run. In April and May, he was tied for first place in home runs in the National League and he was batting .300. At the end of the season, Galarraga had batted .302, with 28 home runs, and 100 RBI. He was awarded his second National League Comeback Player of the Year Award by The Sporting News. Galarraga asked the Braves’ ownership for a two-year contract, but the most that it would offer was a one-year contract. Hence, he decided to become a free agent, and signed with the Texas Rangers, who were willing to offer Galarraga the contract for two years that he sought.
Rangers, Giants, and Expos (2001–2003)
The change of baseball leagues affected Galarraga badly in . At age 40, he found himself "lost" in a different league, facing different pitchers, and stuck in a back-up position with the star Rafael Palmeiro as the main first baseman for the Texas Rangers. Galarraga was used mainly as a designated hitter (DH), as a pinch-hitter, and occasionally as a starter against left-handed pitchers. After a disappointing .235 batting average, 10 home runs, and 34 RBI, in 72 games, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants, at mid-season.
In , Galarraga signed with the Expos for the full season. He then returned to the Giants in , after signing a minor league contract, prior to the season. As a part-time player with the Giants, Galarraga batted .301, with 12 home runs, and 42 RBI.
Anaheim Angels (2004)
In , Galarraga's cancer recurred and he underwent two three-week periods of chemotherapy and was hospitalized for 23 days for additional treatment. This was the same non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that had sidelined Galarraga in 1999, but he beat it for the second time and began play with the Anaheim Angels' Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake Stingers. When rosters were expanded in September, Galarraga came back to the major leagues. Although he served mostly as a bench player in Anaheim, Galarraga was highly regarded in the clubhouse, especially among younger players such as Vladimir Guerrero, for whom Galarraga became a voice of experience. He saw action in a few games, hitting one home run — the 399th and final home run of Galarraga's storied big league career.
New York Mets (2005)
In , Galarraga again found himself with a new team, the New York Mets, who had invited him to spring training, not knowing if the 43-year-old would be a good fit for their roster. Galarraga showed that he had some gas left in the tank offensively by socking three home runs, but appeared very tentative on the defensive end. Galarraga eventually retired during spring training on March 29, 2005, saying it was "the right time to give a younger guy a chance to play." He finished his career with a .288 batting average, 399 home runs, and 1,425 RBI. Galarraga ranked 36th all-time in career home runs at the time of his retirement.
Highlights
Led National League in Hits (184 in 1988)
Led National League in Total Bases (329 in 1988)
Led National League in Doubles (42 in 1988)
Led National League in Runs Created (113 in 1988)
Led National League in Extra-Base Hits (79 in 1988)
Led National League in Batting average (.370 in 1993)
Led National League in Home Runs (47 in 1996)
Twice led National League in RBIs (150 in 1996 and 140 in 1997)
Ranks 69th on MLB All-Time Total Bases List (4,038)
Ranks 83rd on MLB All-Time Doubles List (444)
Ranks 43rd on MLB All-Time Home Run List (399)
Ranks 57th on MLB All-Time RBI List (1,425)
Ranks 58th on MLB All-Time Extra-Base Hits List (875)
Ranks 95th on MLB All-Time Intentional Walks List (106)
Was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 (first Rockies Baseball Player to be inducted)
Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award 2001 (Atlanta Braves)
The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award winner 1993 (Colorado Rockies) 2001 (Atlanta Braves)
First Rockies player ever represented at All-Star Game (1993)
Rockies Career Leader in At Bats per Home Runs with 15.5.
His 150 RBI season in 1996 is still a single season record for the Rockies.
Won the three Triple Crown categories (BA, HR, RBI) although in different seasons
Set Rockies record for RBI before the All-Star break (84 in 1997)
Became the first player in history to win two NL Comeback Player of the Year Awards
Honored in the docudrama movie Galarraga: puro béisbol (Galarraga: Nothing But Baseball – Venezuela, 2000)
Honored in the book Andrés Galarraga – Real Life Reader Biography, by writer Sue Boulais (2003)
Gained induction into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (2010)
See also
List of athletes on Wheaties boxes
List of Colorado Rockies team records
List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career putouts leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
References
External links
Andrés Galarraga at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Andrés Galarraga at Baseball Almanac
Andrés Galarraga at Baseball Biography
Andrés Galarraga at Stars IQ
Smiles and homers are plenty—the Big Cat is back - Andres Galarraga, baseball player The Sporting News
Category:1961 births
Category:Anaheim Angels players
Category:Atlanta Braves players
Category:Calgary Expos players
Category:Colorado Rockies players
Category:Gold Glove Award winners
Category:Indianapolis Indians players
Category:Jacksonville Suns players
Category:Jamestown Expos players
Category:Leones del Caracas players
Category:Living people
Category:Louisville Redbirds players
Category:Major League Baseball first basemen
Category:Major League Baseball players from Venezuela
Category:Montreal Expos players
Category:National League All-Stars
Category:National League batting champions
Category:National League home run champions
Category:National League RBI champions
Category:Salt Lake Stingers players
Category:San Francisco Giants players
Category:Silver Slugger Award winners
Category:Baseball players from Caracas
Category:Sportspeople from West Palm Beach, Florida
Category:St. Louis Cardinals players
Category:Texas Rangers players
Category:Venezuela national baseball team people
Category:Venezuelan baseball coaches
Category:Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Canada
Category:Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States
Category:West Palm Beach Expos players | [] | [
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"Yes, in the strike shortened 1994 season, Galarraga set a new National League record in April by driving in 30 runs in a month. Also, on June 25, 1995, he hit a home run in three consecutive innings to tie an MLB record.",
"The context mentions that Galarraga missed 42 games in the 1993 season due to assorted injuries, but doesn't specify what those injuries were. In the 1994 season, he fractured his right hand on July 28. He also underwent arthroscopic knee surgery three times but the timing of the surgeries is not specified in the context.",
"The context mentions that he played for the Rockies, but does not specify if he played for any other teams.",
"Yes, there are several interesting aspects about this article. For instance, Galarraga's .370 batting average in the 1993 season was the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio batted .381 in 1939. His stance was drastically adjusted by Baylor to improve his performance, particularly on inside pitches and generating more power on the opposite field. Moreover, despite missing a significant number of games due to injuries, he consistently had a high RBI (Run Batted In) count. He even had a significant role in the Rockies' performance as their results took a hit in his absence due to injury. Also noteworthy is the fact that he won The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award and finished 10th in the MVP selection in the same year. Despite criticism of his achievements being due to the conditions at Coors field, Galarraga demonstrated his skill by hitting many home runs at other fields as well.",
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"After becoming National League champion in 1993, Galarraga continued to have impressive years, although he also suffered some injuries. In the 1994 season, he set a new National League record for driving in 30 runs in a single month, but his season was shortened by a fracture to his right hand. In 1995, he hit a home run in three consecutive innings to tie an MLB record, and despite some health issues, remained a significant asset to the Rockies. He had his first healthy season in four years, finishing with a .280 average, 31 home runs and 106 RBI. Between 1996 and 1998, he drove in a combined 396 runs and batted between .279 and .318 with 31 to 47 home runs each season. For the third time, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery at an unspecified time after the 1993 season."
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C_68ea0ff2b8e2499891cc35c93ecbdc18_0 | Andrés Galarraga | Andres Jose Padovani Galarraga (Spanish: [an'drez gala'raga]; born June 18, 1961) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman for the Montreal Expos (1985-1991 and 2002), St. Louis Cardinals (1992), Colorado Rockies (1993-1997), Atlanta Braves (1998-2000), Texas Rangers (2001), San Francisco Giants (2001 and 2003) and Anaheim Angels (2004). He batted and threw right-handed. At six-foot-three and 235 pounds (1.91 m, 117 kg), Galarraga began his professional career in Venezuela at the age of 16. | Atlanta Braves (1998-2000) | During his first season in Atlanta in 1998, Galarraga silenced his critics. He proved that he could still have great power production at lower altitudes, hitting .305 with 44 home runs and 121 RBI. This made Galarraga the first player in Major League history to hit 40 or more homers in consecutive seasons for two different teams. During 1999 spring training, Galarraga developed a sore back. Treatment from the team's trainers and team doctor included hydrobaths, massages, muscle relaxers, and stretching, but would not stop the nagging soreness. He was referred to a medical oncologist at Atlanta for a thorough physical exam and an MRI. When the diagnosis came in, the famous Galarraga smile disappeared. On his second lumbar vertebra in his lower back he had a tumor known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of lymphatic cancer. He missed the entire 1999 season receiving cancer chemotherapy. Rockies third baseman and ex-teammate Vinny Castilla switched briefly from his traditional number 9 to number 14 on his jersey to honor Galarraga's cancer fight. Galarraga returned to the field in the spring of the year 2000 in high spirits and good shape after undergoing chemotherapy and a strict workout routine. In his third at-bat of opening day of the 2000 season, Galarraga knocked in the winning run with a home run, and he showed his big smile again. In April and May, he was tied for first place in home runs in the National League and he was batting .300. At the end of the season, Galarraga had batted .302 with 28 HRs and 100 RBIs. He was awarded his second National League Comeback Player of the Year Award by The Sporting News. Galarraga asked the Braves ownership for a two-year contract, but the most that it would offer was a one-year contract. Hence, Galarraga decided to become a free agent, and he signed with the Texas Rangers for two years. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Andrés José Padovani Galarraga (; born June 18, 1961) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball first baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Montreal Expos (– and ), St. Louis Cardinals (), Colorado Rockies (–), Atlanta Braves (–), Texas Rangers (), San Francisco Giants (2001 and ) and Anaheim Angels (). He batted and threw right-handed. During his playing days, Galarraga stood tall, weighing .
Galarraga began his professional career in Venezuela at the age of 16. He was nicknamed The Big Cat (textually translated from English as El Gran Gato, although his nickname in his native Venezuela was El Gato) for his impressively quick reflexes and seamless defensive skills as a first baseman despite his large physical size. Galarraga was a five-time National League (NL) All-Star, won two NL Gold Glove Awards and two NL Silver Slugger Awards, and won two MLB Comeback Player of the Year Award, the second time after his successful return to baseball following cancer treatment.
Career
Venezuelan Winter League
Galarraga was signed by the Leones del Caracas as a catcher and third baseman. He made his debut in the – season. Some of the players Galarraga had as teammates included big-leaguers Tony Armas, Bo Díaz, Manny Trillo, Gonzalo Márquez, and Leo Hernández. Galarraga originally started as a utility player, but three seasons later he became the regular first baseman of the team. At the recommendation of team manager Felipe Alou, he was signed by the Expos in 1979. At the time, some MLB scouts thought the 17-year-old power-hitting prodigy was too overweight to play professionally. Galarraga played with this team until 1993, when he retired from Venezuelan Winter League.
Minor leagues
In Minor League Baseball (MiLB), Galarraga played for the West Palm Beach Expos (, –), Calgary Expos (1979–), Jamestown Expos (), Jacksonville Suns (), and Indianapolis Indians (). Galarraga was named Double-A Southern League Most Valuable Player for Jacksonville in 1984, with a .289 batting average, 27 home runs and 87 runs batted in (RBI). He also led the league in total bases (271), slugging percentage (.508), intentional base on balls (10), hit by pitches (9), and in double plays (130) and total chances (1428) at first base. Prior to his major league promotion, Galarraga hit .269/25/85, in 121 games with Indianapolis, being named as the Triple-A International League (IL) Rookie of the Year.
Montreal Expos (1985–1991)
Galarraga made his debut with Montreal on August 23, 1985. During that season’s last six-plus weeks, he struggled, hitting .187 (14-for-75), with two homers, and four RBI, in 24 games. Galarraga had a promising start in , but it was interrupted, when he suffered a knee injury; at the time, he had already posted eight home runs and was leading all NL rookies with 25 runs batted in. Galarraga underwent arthroscopic knee surgery, on July 10. He was activated one month later, only to be re-injured the following day after pulling muscles in his rib cage. Galarraga returned to action in September, ending with .271, 10 home runs, and 42 RBI, in 105 games.
Overshadowed by some teammates, Galarraga survived a tough rookie year and quietly enjoyed a consistently strong season. He hit .305 with 13 home runs, 90 RBI, and finishing second in the league in doubles (40). Despite his size, Galarraga displayed solid defense, being adept at scooping throws out of the dirt and excellent quickness turning the 3-6-3 double play. Cardinals' manager Whitey Herzog called him "the best-fielding right-handed first baseman I've seen since Gil Hodges."
In , Galarraga emerged from the shadows to become the best player on the Expos. He had an MVP-caliber season with a .302 batting average, 99 runs, 29 home runs, and 92 RBI. Galarraga also led the league in hits (184) and doubles (42), and earned an All-Star berth for the first time in his career. He was named the Montreal Expos Player of the Year at the end of the season.
was a rough season however for the Big Cat. Galarraga became a target of Montreal fans' frustration when he tailed off after the All-Star game. That year, Galarraga led the league in strikeouts (158), dropping his production to .257, 23 home runs, and 85 RBI. He fell five RBI short of becoming the first Expo to string together three straight seasons with 90 or more RBI. Despite the rough season, Galarraga blasted his first grand slam, stole home for the first time in his career, and was rewarded with a Gold Glove Award for his stellar play at first base.
Galarraga's season had Expos mumbling that the team should lower its expectations for the slick-fielding first baseman. For the second consecutive season, the Big Cat failed to repeat the standards he set in his first two full seasons. Galarraga hit .256 with 20 home runs and 87 RBI, almost a mirror image of his previous season. For the third consecutive year, he led the league in strikeouts; pitchers exploited Galarraga’s impatience at the plate and didn't give him good pitches to hit. Even without any improvement with the bat, Galarraga continued to make tremendous contributions on the field, scooping up infielder's errant throws, starting 3-6-3 double plays, and winning his second Gold Glove. That season he also had a six-RBI game, two four-RBI games, and hit his first career inside-the-park home run.
Slowed by injuries, Galarraga struggled through the worst offensive season of his career in . Disabled with a strained left hamstring between May and July, he later had arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to the undersurface of his left kneecap. Montreal missed Galarraga‘s glove as much as his bat, committing 43 infield errors in 53 games without him. That season, Galarraga hit .219, 9 home runs, and 33 RBI, in 107 games. He stole home for the second time in his career and hit his 100th career home run. At the end of the season, Galarraga was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for starting pitcher Ken Hill.
St. Louis Cardinals (1992)
Galarraga had a second chance with the Cardinals; however, a pitch broke his wrist early in the season and he didn't recover until July. Galarraga batted .296 after the All-Star break and hit all ten of his homers after July 1 for a .497 second-half slugging percentage. He finished with a .243 batting average and 39 RBI, but made a good impression on Cardinals batting coach Don Baylor. When Baylor became the first Rockies manager in the off-season, he recommended that Colorado take a chance on Galarraga and sign him as a free agent.
Colorado Rockies (1993–1997)
National League batting champion (1993)
By joining the Rockies, Galarraga was given new life for his career. In a season full of remarkable individual achievements, he solidified his stature as an accomplished hitter, and flirted with the .400 mark for much of the season. Galarraga‘s final .370 batting average was a 127-point increase over his previous year mark. He led National League batters in batting average, and it was the highest average by a right-handed hitter since Joe DiMaggio batted .381 in .
Despite missing 42 games with assorted injuries, The Big Cat compiled 56 multi-hit games to lead the league. He added 22 homers, 98 RBI, 71 runs, 35 doubles, four triples, a .403 on-base percentage, and his .602 slugging percentage was second in the league. Galarraga‘s .370 mark made him the first player on an expansion team as well as the first Venezuelan to win a batting title. Tony Gwynn hit .358 to finish as runner-up in the title race. Galarraga finished 10th in the MVP selection, but won The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award. After the season, and for third time, he underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. In the strike-shortened season, Galarraga set a new National League record in April by driving in 30 runs in a month. He seemed to be on his way to a terrific year again, but he fractured his right hand on July 28. At the time of Galarraga‘s injury, Colorado had climbed to within a half-game of the first place Los Angeles Dodgers. Without him however, the Rockies went 3–10 the rest of the way. Galarraga paced the club with 31 homers (fifth in the league), and batted .319 with 85 RBI.
On June 25, 1995, Galarraga hit a home run in three consecutive innings to tie an MLB record. He finished the season hitting .280, with 31 homers, and 106 RBI. Galarraga’s numbers were helped by the fact that he stayed healthy for the first time in four years. That season, the Rockies had four players with 30 or more home runs, matching the Dodgers. On August 29 of the same season, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Galarraga spoiled Paul Wagner's bid for a no-hitter, by singling with two out in the ninth; it was the only hit Wagner would allow in defeating the Rockies 4–0.
Over the next few seasons, Galarraga developed into one of the best RBI-men in baseball, driving in a combined 411 runs between and (150, 140, and 121). In the same period, he batted .304, .318, and .305, with 47, 41, and 44 home runs, respectively. Some critics argued that Galarraga‘s achievements were possible thanks to the thin-air, mile-high, hitter-friendly Coors Field, but he also belted many homers on the road that traveled over .
NL RBI leader (1997)
Perhaps the most famous home run Galarraga hit was a mammoth grand slam off Kevin Brown on May 31, 1997, which landed 20 rows deep into the upper deck at Florida Marlins' Pro Player Stadium. It may also be his most debated home run with a distance initially measured at and then . At the time, it set a record for both the Rockies and the stadium. In 2011, ESPN's Home Run Tracker recalculated the distance to . But in 2017, the Baseball Research Journal published an analysis by Jose L. Lopez PhD, and Oscar A. Lopez PhD--professors of Engineering at the Central University of Venezuela--that concluded that Galarraga's home run travelled between 517.5 and 529.4 feet. This makes Galarraga's May 31, 1997 grandslam one of the few pre-Statcast home runs to be proven to have exceeded 500 feet. Previously, Galarraga smashed two homers in two games that traveled and respectively, totaling , an average of each.
The Rockies released Galarraga at the end of the season to make room at first base for prospect Todd Helton. At the time of his release, Galarraga was the club's all-time leader in home runs (172) and RBI (579). As a free agent, he signed a three-year contract with the Atlanta Braves.
Atlanta Braves (1998–2000)
In Galarraga’s first season in Atlanta (1998), he hit .305, with 44 home runs, and 121 RBI. This made him the first player in MLB history to hit 40 or more homers in consecutive seasons for two different teams. During spring training, Galarraga developed a sore back. Treatment from the team's trainers and team doctor included hydrobaths, massages, muscle relaxers, and stretching, but would not stop the nagging soreness. Galarraga was referred to a medical oncologist in Atlanta for a thorough physical exam and an MRI. On the second lumbar vertebra in his lower back, Galarraga had a tumor known as non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of lymphatic cancer. He missed the entire 1999 season receiving chemotherapy treatments. Rockies third baseman and ex-teammate Vinny Castilla switched briefly from his traditional number 9 to number 14 on his jersey, to honor Galarraga's cancer fight.
In Spring , Galarraga returned to the field after undergoing chemotherapy and a strict workout routine. In his third at-bat of opening day of the 2000 season, Galarraga knocked in the winning run with a home run. In April and May, he was tied for first place in home runs in the National League and he was batting .300. At the end of the season, Galarraga had batted .302, with 28 home runs, and 100 RBI. He was awarded his second National League Comeback Player of the Year Award by The Sporting News. Galarraga asked the Braves’ ownership for a two-year contract, but the most that it would offer was a one-year contract. Hence, he decided to become a free agent, and signed with the Texas Rangers, who were willing to offer Galarraga the contract for two years that he sought.
Rangers, Giants, and Expos (2001–2003)
The change of baseball leagues affected Galarraga badly in . At age 40, he found himself "lost" in a different league, facing different pitchers, and stuck in a back-up position with the star Rafael Palmeiro as the main first baseman for the Texas Rangers. Galarraga was used mainly as a designated hitter (DH), as a pinch-hitter, and occasionally as a starter against left-handed pitchers. After a disappointing .235 batting average, 10 home runs, and 34 RBI, in 72 games, he was traded to the San Francisco Giants, at mid-season.
In , Galarraga signed with the Expos for the full season. He then returned to the Giants in , after signing a minor league contract, prior to the season. As a part-time player with the Giants, Galarraga batted .301, with 12 home runs, and 42 RBI.
Anaheim Angels (2004)
In , Galarraga's cancer recurred and he underwent two three-week periods of chemotherapy and was hospitalized for 23 days for additional treatment. This was the same non-Hodgkin's lymphoma that had sidelined Galarraga in 1999, but he beat it for the second time and began play with the Anaheim Angels' Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake Stingers. When rosters were expanded in September, Galarraga came back to the major leagues. Although he served mostly as a bench player in Anaheim, Galarraga was highly regarded in the clubhouse, especially among younger players such as Vladimir Guerrero, for whom Galarraga became a voice of experience. He saw action in a few games, hitting one home run — the 399th and final home run of Galarraga's storied big league career.
New York Mets (2005)
In , Galarraga again found himself with a new team, the New York Mets, who had invited him to spring training, not knowing if the 43-year-old would be a good fit for their roster. Galarraga showed that he had some gas left in the tank offensively by socking three home runs, but appeared very tentative on the defensive end. Galarraga eventually retired during spring training on March 29, 2005, saying it was "the right time to give a younger guy a chance to play." He finished his career with a .288 batting average, 399 home runs, and 1,425 RBI. Galarraga ranked 36th all-time in career home runs at the time of his retirement.
Highlights
Led National League in Hits (184 in 1988)
Led National League in Total Bases (329 in 1988)
Led National League in Doubles (42 in 1988)
Led National League in Runs Created (113 in 1988)
Led National League in Extra-Base Hits (79 in 1988)
Led National League in Batting average (.370 in 1993)
Led National League in Home Runs (47 in 1996)
Twice led National League in RBIs (150 in 1996 and 140 in 1997)
Ranks 69th on MLB All-Time Total Bases List (4,038)
Ranks 83rd on MLB All-Time Doubles List (444)
Ranks 43rd on MLB All-Time Home Run List (399)
Ranks 57th on MLB All-Time RBI List (1,425)
Ranks 58th on MLB All-Time Extra-Base Hits List (875)
Ranks 95th on MLB All-Time Intentional Walks List (106)
Was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 (first Rockies Baseball Player to be inducted)
Best Comeback Athlete ESPY Award 2001 (Atlanta Braves)
The Sporting News Comeback Player of the Year Award winner 1993 (Colorado Rockies) 2001 (Atlanta Braves)
First Rockies player ever represented at All-Star Game (1993)
Rockies Career Leader in At Bats per Home Runs with 15.5.
His 150 RBI season in 1996 is still a single season record for the Rockies.
Won the three Triple Crown categories (BA, HR, RBI) although in different seasons
Set Rockies record for RBI before the All-Star break (84 in 1997)
Became the first player in history to win two NL Comeback Player of the Year Awards
Honored in the docudrama movie Galarraga: puro béisbol (Galarraga: Nothing But Baseball – Venezuela, 2000)
Honored in the book Andrés Galarraga – Real Life Reader Biography, by writer Sue Boulais (2003)
Gained induction into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (2010)
See also
List of athletes on Wheaties boxes
List of Colorado Rockies team records
List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career putouts leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
References
External links
Andrés Galarraga at SABR (Baseball BioProject)
Andrés Galarraga at Baseball Almanac
Andrés Galarraga at Baseball Biography
Andrés Galarraga at Stars IQ
Smiles and homers are plenty—the Big Cat is back - Andres Galarraga, baseball player The Sporting News
Category:1961 births
Category:Anaheim Angels players
Category:Atlanta Braves players
Category:Calgary Expos players
Category:Colorado Rockies players
Category:Gold Glove Award winners
Category:Indianapolis Indians players
Category:Jacksonville Suns players
Category:Jamestown Expos players
Category:Leones del Caracas players
Category:Living people
Category:Louisville Redbirds players
Category:Major League Baseball first basemen
Category:Major League Baseball players from Venezuela
Category:Montreal Expos players
Category:National League All-Stars
Category:National League batting champions
Category:National League home run champions
Category:National League RBI champions
Category:Salt Lake Stingers players
Category:San Francisco Giants players
Category:Silver Slugger Award winners
Category:Baseball players from Caracas
Category:Sportspeople from West Palm Beach, Florida
Category:St. Louis Cardinals players
Category:Texas Rangers players
Category:Venezuela national baseball team people
Category:Venezuelan baseball coaches
Category:Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in Canada
Category:Venezuelan expatriate baseball players in the United States
Category:West Palm Beach Expos players | [] | [
"The text does not provide information on what position Galarraga played with the Braves.",
"The text does not provide information on what role Galarraga had with the Braves.",
"Galarraga was with the Braves for at least two seasons, 1998 and 2000. The text does not specify if he was with the Braves for any additional seasons.",
"Yes, some interesting aspects of this article include Galarraga's high performance during his first season with the Braves, his diagnosis and battle with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which led him to miss the 1999 season, and his remarkable recovery and return to play in 2000. Another interesting fact is that Galarraga was the first player in Major League history to hit 40 or more home runs in consecutive seasons for two different teams. Additionally, his achievement in being awarded his second National League Comeback Player of the Year Award by The Sporting News is noteworthy.",
"The text suggests that Galarraga did beat his cancer as he returned to the field in high spirits and good shape after undergoing chemotherapy.",
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"Based on the information provided in the context, Galarraga's best RBI season was during his first season with the Braves in 1998 when he achieved 121 RBIs."
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C_9a8de494ac20410197429216336c5831_1 | Neal McCoy | Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to a Filipina American mother and Irish-American father. Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas. McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. | 1990-2000: Atlantic Records | He then signed to Atlantic Records in 1990, changing his surname to McCoy per the label's request, as fans had already begun to refer to him as McCoy. His debut album, At This Moment, was released that year. None of the three singles made the country Top 40, although the lead-off single "If I Built You a Fire" was a Top 20 country hit in Canada. The other two releases were the title track, a cover of Billy Vera and the Beaters' hit song from 1987, and "This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me", which was co-written by Earl Thomas Conley and originally recorded by Conway Twitty. McCoy continued touring and developed a "reputation for exciting, freewheeling live shows." A second album for Atlantic, Where Forever Begins, followed in 1992. This album produced his first American Top 40 country hit in its No. 40-peaking title track, followed by "There Ain't Nothin' I Don't Like About You" at No. 57, and "Now I Pray for Rain" at No. 26. The album was also his first entry on Top Country Albums, at No. 58. Working with producer Barry Beckett for the first time, McCoy released No Doubt About It in 1994. The album produced his only number 1 country hits in its title track and "Wink", both of which also made minor entries on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and gold certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Its final single was "The City Put the Country Back in Me" at No. 5. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. (born July 30, 1958), known professionally as Neal McCoy, is an American country music singer. He has released 10 studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. Although he first charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1988, he did not reach the top 40 for the first time until 1992's "Where Forever Begins", which peaked at number 40. McCoy broke through two years later with the back-to-back number one singles "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It. Although he has not topped the country charts since, his commercial success continued into the mid to late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more top 10 hits. A ninth top 10 hit, the number 10 "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", came in 2005 from his self-released That's Life.
Early life
Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to a Filipino American mother and Irish-American father. Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas. McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. In the early 1980s, he met his wife, Melinda, at the store.
After winning a 1981 talent contest hosted by Janie Fricke, he secured a spot as an opening act for Charley Pride.
Musical career
Crediting himself as Neal McGoy, a phonetic spelling of his surname, he signed to the independent 16th Avenue Records label in 1988. He released the singles "That's How Much I Love You" and "That's American", and although the former reached No. 85 on the country charts, he did not release an album for the label. He continued to tour as an opening act for Pride until 1990, the same year that the 16th Avenue label closed.
1990–2000: Atlantic Records
He then signed to Atlantic Records in 1990, changing his surname to McCoy per the label's request, as fans had already begun to refer to him as McCoy. His debut album, At This Moment, was released that year. None of the three singles made the country Top 40, although the lead-off single "If I Built You a Fire" was a Top 20 country hit in Canada. The other two releases were the title track, a cover of Billy Vera and the Beaters' #1 Hot 100 hit from late 1986-early 1987, and "This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me", which was co-written by Earl Thomas Conley and originally recorded by Conway Twitty. McCoy continued touring and developed a "reputation for exciting, freewheeling live shows."
A second album for Atlantic, Where Forever Begins, followed in 1992. This album produced his first American Top 40 country hit in its No. 40-peaking title track, followed by "There Ain't Nothin' I Don't Like About You" at No. 57, and "Now I Pray for Rain" at No. 26. The album was also his first entry on Top Country Albums, at No. 58.
Working with producer Barry Beckett for the first time, McCoy released his breakthrough album, No Doubt About It, in 1994. The album produced his only number 1 country hits in its title track and "Wink", both of which also made minor entries on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and gold certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Its final single was "The City Put the Country Back in Me" at No. 5.
Mid-Late 1990s
You Gotta Love That, his fourth album, also received a platinum certification and it produced four singles: "For a Change", "They're Playin' Our Song" and the title track (respectively the first, second, and fourth singles) all peaked at No. 3, while "If I Was a Drinkin' Man" reached No. 16.
McCoy's self-titled fifth studio album began a decline in his chart momentum. Although it was certified gold, Neal McCoy accounted for only one Top Ten hit in a cover of The Casinos' 1967 doo-wop single "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye". The next two singles — "Going, Going, Gone" and "That Woman of Mine" — both peaked at No. 35. Also in 1996, he sang guest vocals on the multi-artist charity single "Hope", the proceeds of which went to the T. J. Martell Foundation's cancer research. After "That Woman of Mine", he reached No. 5 with "The Shake", the only new song on his first Greatest Hits package, which reprised nine of his greatest hits to that point and also earned platinum certification.
Be Good at It, his sixth studio release, followed in 1998. This was his first album since Where Forever Begins not to include a Top Ten hit. The title track, "If You Can't Be Good, Be Good at It", was the highest-peaking single release from it at No. 22, followed by "Party On", which became his first single since 1992 to miss Top 40 entirely. After it came the No. 29 "Love Happens Like That." McCoy made a second appearance on a multi-artist charity single that same year, as one of several collaborators on "One Heart at a Time", a song written by Victoria Shaw to benefit cystic fibrosis research.
In 1999, McCoy released his final album for Atlantic, The Life of the Party. It only accounted for two singles: the Phil Vassar co-write "I Was" at No. 37 and "The Girls of Summer" at No. 42. He, Tracy Byrd, and T. Graham Brown also sang guest vocals on "Now That's Awesome", a song featuring snippets of a Bill Engvall comedy sketch, found on Engvall's Now That's Awesome album. This single peaked at No. 59.
2000–04: Warner Bros. Records and SEA Records
Due to the closure of Atlantic Records' Nashville division in mid-2000, McCoy's next album, 24-7-365, was issued via Giant Records. It included the singles "Forever Works for Me (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)", "Every Man for Himself", and "Beatin' It In", at No. 38, No. 37, and No. 41 respectively. In late 2000, he released a Christmas medley consisting of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which reached number 74 based on seasonal airplay. After Giant closed as well, he moved again to Warner Bros. Records, where he recorded The Luckiest Man in the World. Although the title track entered the country charts and peaked at number 46, the album itself was not released, and McCoy exited Warner Bros. by the end of the year. He signed with an independent label called SEA Records in 2004, and was slated to release a single for it in the middle of the year, but he left the label without releasing anything.
2005–07
In 2005, Neal McCoy and his manager Karen Kane founded a label called 903 Music. His first single for his own label was "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", which reached the Top 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2005. The song served as the lead-off to his 2005 album That's Life. Also included on the album were a cover of Charley Pride's "You're My Jamaica," (Charley Pride also appeared on the tune), and a studio version of "Hillbilly Rap", which he had performed in concert since the early 1990s. McCoy's next single release, "The Last of a Dying Breed", a song preceded by a spoken-word intro from United States Army general Tommy Franks, peaked at 36.
Darryl Worley and the Drew Davis Band were signed to 903 as well. Worley released his 2006 album Here and Now on 903, which produced the top 40 hits "Nothin' but a Love Thang" and "I Just Came Back from a War". In May 2007, McCoy announced that the label had filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors.
In Summer of 2007, Neal could be seen showing off his comedic chops on local TV commercials in the Waco, Texas market for Mike Craig Chevrolet Pontiac Buick in Marlin, Texas. The commercials continued for approximately one year. In one of them Neal acts like a puppet in the hands of the branch manager of the Mike Craig dealership in Hillsboro, Texas.
2008–13: The Very Best of Neal McCoy, XII, and Pride
In 2008, Rhino Records issued a compilation album entitled The Very Best of Neal McCoy. This album reprised most of his biggest chart hits to that point, and it included the new recording "Rednecktified", which was released as a single but did not chart. Later that same year, he issued another single, "For the Troops", which also failed to chart. McCoy released a book titled New Mountain to Climb in 2011, which coincided with the release of a single of the same name.
In April 2011, McCoy signed with Blaster Music. He released his twelfth album, XII, for the label on March 6, 2012. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert co-produced the album with Brent Rowan, and sang backing vocals on its lead-off single "A-OK".
A year later, McCoy released Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride via Slate Creek Records, under the production of Garth Fundis. The album features guest appearances from Darius Rucker, Trace Adkins, and Raul Malo of The Mavericks. To promote the album, McCoy and Pride filmed a video for "Kaw-Liga", which was co-written and originally recorded by Hank Williams before Pride covered it in 1969.
Personal life
McCoy has been married to Melinda since 1980. The two met when McCoy was working at a shoe store in a local mall. The couple have two children, a son and a daughter.
McCoy is also the head of a charity called the East Texas Angel Network, which helps provide money for families of seriously ill children.
McCoy resides in Longview, Texas.
Discography
At This Moment (1990)
Where Forever Begins (1992)
No Doubt About It (1994)
You Gotta Love That! (1995)
Neal McCoy (1996)
((The Shake)) (1997)
Be Good at It (1997)
Greatest Hits (1997)
The Life of the Party (1999)
24-7-365 (2000)
That's Life (2005)
XII (2012)
Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride (2013)
You Don't Know Me (2016)
Billboard number-one hits
"No Doubt About It" (2 weeks, 1994)
"Wink" (4 weeks, 1994)
References
External links
Official Website
Category:1958 births
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American musicians of Filipino descent
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:Living people
Category:Singer-songwriters from Texas
Category:Lon Morris College alumni
Category:Atlantic Records artists
Category:Giant Records (Warner) artists
Category:16th Avenue Records artists
Category:Warner Records artists
Category:People from Jacksonville, Texas
Category:Country musicians from Texas | [] | [
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"He changed his surname to McCoy because fans had already begun referring to him as McCoy, and the label, Atlantic Records, requested the change.",
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C_9a8de494ac20410197429216336c5831_0 | Neal McCoy | Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to a Filipina American mother and Irish-American father. Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas. McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. | Mid-Late 1990s | You Gotta Love That, his fourth album, also received a platinum certification and producing four singles: "For a Change", "They're Playin' Our Song" and the title track (respectively the first, second, and fourth singles) all peaked at No. 3, while "If I Was a Drinkin' Man" reached No. 16. McCoy's self-titled fifth studio album began a decline in his chart momentum. Although it was certified gold, Neal McCoy accounted for only one Top Ten hit in a cover of The Casinos' 1967 doo-wop single "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye". The next two singles -- "Going, Going, Gone" and "That Woman of Mine" -- both peaked at No. 35. Also in 1996, he sang guest vocals on the multi-artist charity single "Hope", the proceeds of which went to the T. J. Martell Foundation's cancer research. After "That Woman of Mine", he reached No. 5 with "The Shake", the only new song on his first Greatest Hits package, which reprised nine of his greatest hits to that point and also earned platinum certification. Be Good at It, his sixth studio release, followed in 1998. This was his first album since Where Forever Begins not to include a Top Ten hit. The title track, "If You Can't Be Good, Be Good at It", was the highest-peaking single release from it at No. 22, followed by "Party On", which became his first single since 1992 to miss Top 40 entirely. After it came the No. 29 "Love Happens Like That." McCoy made a second appearance on a multi-artist charity single that same year, as one of several collaborators on "One Heart at a Time", a song written by Victoria Shaw to benefit cystic fibrosis research. In 1999, McCoy released his final album for Atlantic, The Life of the Party. It only accounted for two singles: the Phil Vassar co-write "I Was" at No. 37 and "The Girls of Summer" at No. 42. He, Tracy Byrd, and T. Graham Brown also sang guest vocals on "Now That's Awesome", a song featuring snippets of a Bill Engvall comedy sketch, found on Engvall's Now That's Awesome album. This single peaked at No. 59. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. (born July 30, 1958), known professionally as Neal McCoy, is an American country music singer. He has released 10 studio albums on various labels, and has released 34 singles to country radio. Although he first charted on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in 1988, he did not reach the top 40 for the first time until 1992's "Where Forever Begins", which peaked at number 40. McCoy broke through two years later with the back-to-back number one singles "No Doubt About It" and "Wink" from his platinum-certified album No Doubt About It. Although he has not topped the country charts since, his commercial success continued into the mid to late 1990s with two more platinum albums and a gold album, as well as six more top 10 hits. A ninth top 10 hit, the number 10 "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", came in 2005 from his self-released That's Life.
Early life
Hubert Neal McGaughey Jr. was born on July 30, 1958, in Jacksonville, Texas, to a Filipino American mother and Irish-American father. Inspired by the variety of music that his parents listened to, which included country, rock, disco and R&B, McGaughey first sang in his church choir before founding an R&B band. He later switched his focus to country music, performing in various bars and clubs in Texas. McGaughey, after attending junior college near his hometown, found work selling shoes at a shopping mall. In the early 1980s, he met his wife, Melinda, at the store.
After winning a 1981 talent contest hosted by Janie Fricke, he secured a spot as an opening act for Charley Pride.
Musical career
Crediting himself as Neal McGoy, a phonetic spelling of his surname, he signed to the independent 16th Avenue Records label in 1988. He released the singles "That's How Much I Love You" and "That's American", and although the former reached No. 85 on the country charts, he did not release an album for the label. He continued to tour as an opening act for Pride until 1990, the same year that the 16th Avenue label closed.
1990–2000: Atlantic Records
He then signed to Atlantic Records in 1990, changing his surname to McCoy per the label's request, as fans had already begun to refer to him as McCoy. His debut album, At This Moment, was released that year. None of the three singles made the country Top 40, although the lead-off single "If I Built You a Fire" was a Top 20 country hit in Canada. The other two releases were the title track, a cover of Billy Vera and the Beaters' #1 Hot 100 hit from late 1986-early 1987, and "This Time I've Hurt Her More Than She Loves Me", which was co-written by Earl Thomas Conley and originally recorded by Conway Twitty. McCoy continued touring and developed a "reputation for exciting, freewheeling live shows."
A second album for Atlantic, Where Forever Begins, followed in 1992. This album produced his first American Top 40 country hit in its No. 40-peaking title track, followed by "There Ain't Nothin' I Don't Like About You" at No. 57, and "Now I Pray for Rain" at No. 26. The album was also his first entry on Top Country Albums, at No. 58.
Working with producer Barry Beckett for the first time, McCoy released his breakthrough album, No Doubt About It, in 1994. The album produced his only number 1 country hits in its title track and "Wink", both of which also made minor entries on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also earned a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and gold certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA). Its final single was "The City Put the Country Back in Me" at No. 5.
Mid-Late 1990s
You Gotta Love That, his fourth album, also received a platinum certification and it produced four singles: "For a Change", "They're Playin' Our Song" and the title track (respectively the first, second, and fourth singles) all peaked at No. 3, while "If I Was a Drinkin' Man" reached No. 16.
McCoy's self-titled fifth studio album began a decline in his chart momentum. Although it was certified gold, Neal McCoy accounted for only one Top Ten hit in a cover of The Casinos' 1967 doo-wop single "Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye". The next two singles — "Going, Going, Gone" and "That Woman of Mine" — both peaked at No. 35. Also in 1996, he sang guest vocals on the multi-artist charity single "Hope", the proceeds of which went to the T. J. Martell Foundation's cancer research. After "That Woman of Mine", he reached No. 5 with "The Shake", the only new song on his first Greatest Hits package, which reprised nine of his greatest hits to that point and also earned platinum certification.
Be Good at It, his sixth studio release, followed in 1998. This was his first album since Where Forever Begins not to include a Top Ten hit. The title track, "If You Can't Be Good, Be Good at It", was the highest-peaking single release from it at No. 22, followed by "Party On", which became his first single since 1992 to miss Top 40 entirely. After it came the No. 29 "Love Happens Like That." McCoy made a second appearance on a multi-artist charity single that same year, as one of several collaborators on "One Heart at a Time", a song written by Victoria Shaw to benefit cystic fibrosis research.
In 1999, McCoy released his final album for Atlantic, The Life of the Party. It only accounted for two singles: the Phil Vassar co-write "I Was" at No. 37 and "The Girls of Summer" at No. 42. He, Tracy Byrd, and T. Graham Brown also sang guest vocals on "Now That's Awesome", a song featuring snippets of a Bill Engvall comedy sketch, found on Engvall's Now That's Awesome album. This single peaked at No. 59.
2000–04: Warner Bros. Records and SEA Records
Due to the closure of Atlantic Records' Nashville division in mid-2000, McCoy's next album, 24-7-365, was issued via Giant Records. It included the singles "Forever Works for Me (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday)", "Every Man for Himself", and "Beatin' It In", at No. 38, No. 37, and No. 41 respectively. In late 2000, he released a Christmas medley consisting of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which reached number 74 based on seasonal airplay. After Giant closed as well, he moved again to Warner Bros. Records, where he recorded The Luckiest Man in the World. Although the title track entered the country charts and peaked at number 46, the album itself was not released, and McCoy exited Warner Bros. by the end of the year. He signed with an independent label called SEA Records in 2004, and was slated to release a single for it in the middle of the year, but he left the label without releasing anything.
2005–07
In 2005, Neal McCoy and his manager Karen Kane founded a label called 903 Music. His first single for his own label was "Billy's Got His Beer Goggles On", which reached the Top 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart in 2005. The song served as the lead-off to his 2005 album That's Life. Also included on the album were a cover of Charley Pride's "You're My Jamaica," (Charley Pride also appeared on the tune), and a studio version of "Hillbilly Rap", which he had performed in concert since the early 1990s. McCoy's next single release, "The Last of a Dying Breed", a song preceded by a spoken-word intro from United States Army general Tommy Franks, peaked at 36.
Darryl Worley and the Drew Davis Band were signed to 903 as well. Worley released his 2006 album Here and Now on 903, which produced the top 40 hits "Nothin' but a Love Thang" and "I Just Came Back from a War". In May 2007, McCoy announced that the label had filed for bankruptcy and closed its doors.
In Summer of 2007, Neal could be seen showing off his comedic chops on local TV commercials in the Waco, Texas market for Mike Craig Chevrolet Pontiac Buick in Marlin, Texas. The commercials continued for approximately one year. In one of them Neal acts like a puppet in the hands of the branch manager of the Mike Craig dealership in Hillsboro, Texas.
2008–13: The Very Best of Neal McCoy, XII, and Pride
In 2008, Rhino Records issued a compilation album entitled The Very Best of Neal McCoy. This album reprised most of his biggest chart hits to that point, and it included the new recording "Rednecktified", which was released as a single but did not chart. Later that same year, he issued another single, "For the Troops", which also failed to chart. McCoy released a book titled New Mountain to Climb in 2011, which coincided with the release of a single of the same name.
In April 2011, McCoy signed with Blaster Music. He released his twelfth album, XII, for the label on March 6, 2012. Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert co-produced the album with Brent Rowan, and sang backing vocals on its lead-off single "A-OK".
A year later, McCoy released Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride via Slate Creek Records, under the production of Garth Fundis. The album features guest appearances from Darius Rucker, Trace Adkins, and Raul Malo of The Mavericks. To promote the album, McCoy and Pride filmed a video for "Kaw-Liga", which was co-written and originally recorded by Hank Williams before Pride covered it in 1969.
Personal life
McCoy has been married to Melinda since 1980. The two met when McCoy was working at a shoe store in a local mall. The couple have two children, a son and a daughter.
McCoy is also the head of a charity called the East Texas Angel Network, which helps provide money for families of seriously ill children.
McCoy resides in Longview, Texas.
Discography
At This Moment (1990)
Where Forever Begins (1992)
No Doubt About It (1994)
You Gotta Love That! (1995)
Neal McCoy (1996)
((The Shake)) (1997)
Be Good at It (1997)
Greatest Hits (1997)
The Life of the Party (1999)
24-7-365 (2000)
That's Life (2005)
XII (2012)
Pride: A Tribute to Charley Pride (2013)
You Don't Know Me (2016)
Billboard number-one hits
"No Doubt About It" (2 weeks, 1994)
"Wink" (4 weeks, 1994)
References
External links
Official Website
Category:1958 births
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American musicians of Filipino descent
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:Living people
Category:Singer-songwriters from Texas
Category:Lon Morris College alumni
Category:Atlantic Records artists
Category:Giant Records (Warner) artists
Category:16th Avenue Records artists
Category:Warner Records artists
Category:People from Jacksonville, Texas
Category:Country musicians from Texas | [] | [
"In the mid-1990s, McCoy's chart momentum began to decline with his fifth studio album, which was only certified gold and produced only one Top Ten hit. He sang guest vocals on the multi-artist charity single \"Hope\" in 1996, with proceeds going to cancer research. His first Greatest Hits package earned a platinum certification, and \"The Shake,\" the only new song on that album, reached No. 5.",
"The text does not provide specific reasons for the decline in McCoy's album.",
"The text does not specify whether a better album came out soon after McCoy's fifth studio album. However, it states that McCoy's first Greatest Hits package, which had \"The Shake\" reaching No. 5, had also earned a platinum certification. His sixth studio album, Be Good at It, was released in 1998 but it did not have a Top Ten hit.",
"Yes, there were a few interesting events in McCoy's career in the mid to late 1990s. In addition to the decline in his chart performance, he also sang guest vocals on two charity singles: \"Hope\" in 1996 and \"One Heart at a Time\" in 1998, which benefited cancer and cystic fibrosis research, respectively. Also, his first Greatest Hits package, which included mostly previously released songs but also one new one titled \"The Shake\" that reached No. 5, earned a platinum certification. In 1998, he released his sixth studio album titled Be Good At It, however, this was his first album since \"Where Forever Begins\" not to include a Top Ten hit. In 1999, he released The Life of the Party, his final album for Atlantic.",
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C_fc3ca1ec2e2d42feb528568864e95588_0 | Nikki Gil | Monica Pauline "Nikki" Gil-Albert (born August 23, 1987 in Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino singer, actress, host, model and a former myx VJ. She is known for being part of the afternoon remake of Carlo J. Caparas' Pieta in 2008-2009 as Guia V. Angeles, and also in 2009, she portrayed Princess Punzalan's role in the afternoon drama which ran in 2009 and 2010 as Julie Bernardo in Nagsimula sa Puso. She is also well known for her lead portrayal as Jennifer "Jenny" La Pena in the 2012 remake of the 1990 radio serial of Salvador Royales's Mundo Man ay Magunaw, originally played by Jennifer Sevilla in the film version and was produced by SEIKO Films. | Acting career and TV hosting | In 2005, Gil was given a VJ stint for ABS-CBN's music channel subsidiary, MYX until she left MYX in January 2016. She was also picked to host the now-defunct talk show MRS on ABS-CBN and morning show Breakfast on Studio 23. She later would join the cast of the weekly variety show ASAP Mania. In 2006, she was joined by Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez and Sam Milby as a host for the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy, a singing reality show from Endemol. In 2007, she became part of an anime-inspired fantasy series "Rounin" and as an extended cast for the drama series "Pangarap na Bituin". In 2008, she was again chosen to be the host for the season 2 of Pinoy Dream Academy with Toni Gonzaga and Billy Crawford. In 2009, she appeared in "Pieta", an afternoon teleserye with Ryan Agoncillo, and also appeared in the teleserye "Florinda" with Maricel Soriano. Nikki Gil is one of the mainstay on ABS-CBN with ASAP XV. In 2010, she started hosting E-Live along with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz. She also did a fair share of hosting occasionally on Showtime replacing Anne Curtis. In 2007, Gil did her first movie appearance by doing a cameo role as John Lloyd Cruz's best friend for One More Chance. In 2009, she appeared along with Bea Alonzo, Sam Milby, Derek Ramsay for a Star Cinema movie entitled And I Love You So. In 2010, she was the lead actress in a romance film entitled The Red Shoes produced by Unitel Pictures with Marvin Agustin, which won the Best Picture in the 27th Bogota International Film Festival. In 2012, Gil became part of the TV remake of the Salvador Royales film Mundo Man ay Magunaw as Jennifer la Pena. In 2013, she played a special participation role in Apoy Sa Dagat as young Odessa, and later became a star antagonist in the remake of Maria Mercedes as Misty. The same year, Nikki Gil won as Best Single Performance By An Actress for her role in "MMK" in the recent 2013 PMPC Star Awards For TV. In 2014, she was a member of the cast of Hawak-Kamay, playing Meann. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Monica Pauline "Nikki" Santos Gil-Albert (; born August 23, 1987) is a Filipino singer, actress, host, model, and video jockey. She is known for being part of the afternoon remake of Carlo J. Caparas' Pieta (2008–2009) and, in 2009, for portraying Princess Punzalan in the afternoon drama Nagsimula sa Puso (2009–2010). She is also well known for her lead portrayal as Jennifer "Jenny" La Peña in the 2012 remake of the 1990 radio serial of Salvador Royales' Mundo Man ay Magunaw, originally played by Jennifer Sevilla in the film version produced by SEIKO Films.
Biography
Monica Pauline Gil (aka Nikki Gil) was born in Manila to Dino and Julie Gil. She is of Filipino, Spanish and German descent. Born to a father who plays the piano and a mom who sang in a church choir, Nikki showed early signs of musical talent. At the age of four years, Nikki was already singing and doing voiceovers for commercials. She graduated from Shekinah Christian Training Center in March 2005 as valedictorian. In 2009, she graduated from Ateneo de Manila University, majoring in English literature.
Career
Music
Gil first rose to prominence when she was 17 years old after appearing in a 2005 Coca-Cola commercial. After that, she went on to release her first self-titled album, Nikki Gil, that same year under EMI Philippines with "Sakayan ng Jeep" as the carrier single. In 2006, it was repackaged and rereleased with and additional song, "Glowing Inside". In July 2006, EMI Philippines and Walt Disney Records hired Nikki along with other Asian artists (Vince Chong of Malaysia and Alicia Pan of Singapore) to sing and to star in the music video of "High School Musical", a Disney Channel production. Nikki also sang "Breaking Free" and "Gotta Go My Own Way" in the production's album.
In 2008, Gil released her second music album, Hear My Heart, with "Hear My Heart" as the carrier single. She co-wrote the song with her younger sister, Dani. During the same year, Disney hired her to sing and star in the music video of the pop version of "It's a Small World After All". In addition, she was asked to sing the Tagalog version of the song at the grand opening of "It's a Small World" in Hong Kong Disneyland.
In 2010, Gil released her third music album, Somebody to Love, with "Somebody to Love" as the carrier single, a song written by her younger sister, Dani. Gil played the character of Elle Woods in the Manila production of the musical Legally Blonde which is based on the 2001 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture Legally Blonde and the novel by Amanda Brown.
In 2014, Nikki moved to her new recording company, Universal Records.
Acting career and TV hosting
In 2005, Gil was given a VJ stint for ABS-CBN's music channel subsidiary, MYX until she left MYX in January 2016. She was also picked to host the now-defunct talk show MRS on ABS-CBN and morning show Breakfast on Studio 23. She later would join the cast of the weekly variety show ASAP Mania. In 2006, she was joined by Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez and Sam Milby as a host for the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy, a singing reality show from Endemol. In 2007, she became part of an anime-inspired fantasy series "Rounin" and as an extended cast for the drama series "Pangarap na Bituin". In 2008, she was again chosen to be the host for the season 2 of Pinoy Dream Academy with Toni Gonzaga and Billy Crawford. In 2009, she appeared in "Pieta", an afternoon teleserye with Ryan Agoncillo, and also appeared in the teleserye "Florinda" with Maricel Soriano. Nikki Gil is one of the mainstay on ABS-CBN with ASAP XV. In 2010, she started hosting E-Live along with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz. She also did a fair share of hosting occasionally on Showtime replacing Anne Curtis.
In 2007, Gil did her first movie appearance by doing a cameo role as John Lloyd Cruz's best friend for One More Chance. In 2009, she appeared along with Bea Alonzo, Sam Milby and Derek Ramsay for a Star Cinema movie entitled And I Love You So. In 2010, she was the lead actress in a romance film entitled The Red Shoes produced by Unitel Pictures with Marvin Agustin, which won the Best Picture in the 27th Bogota International Film Festival.
In 2012, Gil became part of the TV remake of the Salvador Royales film Mundo Man ay Magunaw as Jennifer la Pena.
In 2013, she played a special participation role in Apoy Sa Dagat as young Odessa, and later became a star antagonist in the remake of Maria Mercedes as Misty. The same year, Nikki Gil won as Best Single Performance By An Actress for her role in "MMK" in the recent 2013 PMPC Star Awards For TV.
In 2014, she was a member of the cast of Hawak-Kamay, playing Meann.
She is expected to return to showbiz through a musical play from Repertory Philippines entitled 'Carousel'.
Personal life
She has a sister, Dani Gil, who also sings and plays the piano. Dani helped Nikki compose her songs, too. Nikki first performed in front of an audience in church as a worship leader before entering the entertainment business.
In 2008, Gil began dating Billy Crawford, and their relationship ended in 2013. According to Gil, the breakup was caused by Crawford's infidelity while she chose to remain celibate until marriage: "The scary thing, knowing what I know now, is I would have said yes to his insincere offers of marriage!" she said. "I was made to believe I was making up these things in my head—I thought we were just plateau-ing." Gil married BJ Albert (nephew of singer-actress Joey Albert) on November 21, 2015. In November 2017, Gil gave birth to her first child, a boy. She is now retired from showbiz to focus on her family life.
Theater
2007: Seussical the Musical - The Cat
2010: Legally Blonde: The Musical - Elle Woods
2011: Sweet Charity - Charity Hope Valentine
2013: They're Playing Our Song - Sonia Walsk
2014: The Last 5 Years - Cathy Hyatt
Filmography
Movies
Television
Discography
Albums
Singles
Other appearances
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Category:1987 births
Category:Living people
Category:Ateneo de Manila University alumni
Category:21st-century Filipino women singers
Category:Filipino television actresses
Category:Filipino television personalities
Category:Filipino people of German descent
Category:Filipino people of Spanish descent
Category:21st-century Filipino actresses
Category:VJs (media personalities)
Category:Filipino musical theatre actresses
Category:PolyEast Records artists
Category:Universal Records (Philippines) artists | [] | [
"Nikki Gil had several hosting gigs. She was a VJ for MYX from 2005 to 2016. She hosted the now-defunct talk show MRS on ABS-CBN and the morning show Breakfast on Studio 23. She joined the cast of the weekly variety show ASAP Mania. In 2006, she hosted the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy. In 2008, she also hosted season 2 of Pinoy Dream Academy. In 2010, she started hosting E-Live along with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz, and occasionally hosted on Showtime, replacing Anne Curtis.",
"The context does not provide information on when Nikki Gil started working for Disney.",
"In 2013, Nikki Gil won the Best Single Performance By An Actress for her role in \"MMK\" at the PMPC Star Awards For TV.",
"Nikki Gil worked with several people throughout her career. In 2006, she was joined by Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez and Sam Milby as a host for the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy. In 2008, she worked with Toni Gonzaga and Billy Crawford to host season 2 of Pinoy Dream Academy. In 2009, she appeared with Ryan Agoncillo in the teleserye \"Pieta\" and with Maricel Soriano in \"Florinda\". Also in 2009, she appeared with Bea Alonzo, Sam Milby, and Derek Ramsay in the movie \"And I Love You So\". In 2010, she starred in \"The Red Shoes\" with Marvin Agustin. In 2010, she also started hosting E-Live with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz.",
"Nikki Gil and several other people appeared in a number of shows and films. In 2006, she, Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez, and Sam Milby hosted the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy. In 2008, she, Toni Gonzaga, and Billy Crawford hosted the second season of the same show. In 2009, she and Ryan Agoncillo appeared in the teleserye \"Pieta\", and she appeared with Maricel Soriano in \"Florinda\". Also in 2009, she, Bea Alonzo, Sam Milby, and Derek Ramsay appeared in the Star Cinema movie \"And I Love You So\". In 2010, she starred with Marvin Agustin in the film \"The Red Shoes\", and she began hosting E-Live with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz.",
"Beyond her work in television hosting and acting, some other notable aspects from the context include her roles in several film projects. For example, Nikki had her first movie appearance in 2007 with a cameo role in \"One More Chance\". In 2009, she was appeared in the Star Cinema movie \"And I Love You So\" and in 2010, she was the lead actress in \"The Red Shoes\". She received the Best Single Performance By An Actress award in 2013, showing her recognition in the industry. Her career has involved working with a variety of well-known figures in the Philippine entertainment industry like Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez, Sam Milby, and more.",
"The context provided refers to Nikki Gil's appearances on television shows and films, not plays. She appeared in TV shows such as Pinoy Dream Academy, Rounin, Pangarap na Bituin, and Pieta among others. She also had roles in films like One More Chance, And I Love You So and The Red Shoes.",
"The context does not provide information on whether Nikki Gil enjoyed acting or singing more."
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C_37d40faa1c0c4065a1e81a6693d83e16_1 | Maya Angelou | Maya Angelou ( ( listen); born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. | Africa to Caged Bird: 1961-69 | In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks, along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of The Blacks in Geneva and Berlin. In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career, and then moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. She worked as a market researcher in Watts and witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time. Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing. In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but "postpones again", and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate", he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4). Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S." for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969, which brought her international recognition and acclaim. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel.
Early life
Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II, because the general store she owned sold basic and needed commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. She attended the Lafayette County Training School, in Stamps, a Rosenwald School. Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again, challenging her by saying, "You do not love poetry, not until you speak it". Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as Black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.
When Angelou was fourteen and her brother fifteen, she and her brother moved in once again with their mother, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. At the age of 16, she became the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. She wanted the job badly, admiring the uniforms of the operators—so much so that her mother referred to it as her "dream job". Her mother encouraged her to pursue the position, but warned her that she would need to arrive early and work harder than others. In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed "Women Who Move the Nation".
Three weeks after completing school, at the age of seventeen, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).
Career
Adulthood and early career: 1951–61
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful. Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.
After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music. Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages. In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.
Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary" Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective". Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time. She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem New York during United Nations 15th General Assembly on September 19, 1960.
Africa to Caged Bird: 1961–69
In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks (playing the part of the Queen), along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana, so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of The Blacks in Geneva and Berlin.
In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time. Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but postponed again, and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate", he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4). Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and Black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S." for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Later career
Released in 1972, Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first produced screenplay by a Black woman. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie. Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973. Over the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She [Angelou] had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime." Angelou worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack, and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry. She produced plays and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor", and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in Look Away. As a theater director, in 1988 she undertook a revival of Errol John's play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the Almeida Theatre in London.
In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including more than thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world. In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor. In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced.
She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African-American professors. From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes". Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing. The Winston-Salem Journal reported that even though she made many friends on campus, "she never quite lived down all of the criticism from people who thought she was more of a celebrity than an intellect ... [and] an overpaid figurehead". The last course she taught at Wake Forest was in 2011, but she was planning to teach another course in late 2014. Her final speaking engagement at the university was in late 2013. Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album Been Found. The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only Billboard chart appearances. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. She responded to critics who charged her with being too commercial by stating that "the enterprise was perfectly in keeping with her role as 'the people's poet'". More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002.
Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton. In the run-up to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran ads featuring Angelou's endorsement. The ads were part of the campaign's efforts to rally support in the Black community; but Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the Black vote. When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama, who went on to win the presidential election and become the first African-American president of the United States. After Obama's inauguration, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."
In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2011, Angelou served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She spoke out in opposition to a paraphrase of a quotation by King that appeared on the memorial, saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit", and demanded that it be changed. Eventually, the paraphrase was removed.
In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, entitled Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother.
Personal life
Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa. In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa. A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother, Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised."
The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic, Mary Jane Lupton, has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently, but informally, and "with no time chart in front of her." For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous." According to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951, and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou held many jobs, including some in the sex trade working as a prostitute and madam for lesbians, and describes so in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name. In a 1995 interview, Angelou said,
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren, and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family. Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books. In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.
Angelou did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004 and was full of her "growing library" of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. The Guardian writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".
According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food". The Winston-Salem Journal stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town." The New York Times, describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties. She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.
Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang". She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".
In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide.
Death
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, at the age of 86. She was found by her nurse. Although Angelou had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders. During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including President Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton. Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to." The week after Angelou's death, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings rose to number 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her. On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Rev. Cecil Williams, Mayor Ed Lee, and former mayor Willie Brown spoke.
Works
Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life. Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the U.S., and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In her fifth autobiography, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe. She published her seventh autobiography Mom & Me & Mom in 2013, at the age of 85. Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first", with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011 and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers."
Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by U.S. president Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.
Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a Black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998.
Chronology of autobiographies
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Up to 1944 (age 17)
Gather Together in My Name (1974): 1944–48
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976): 1949–55
The Heart of a Woman (1981): 1957–62
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): 1962–65
A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): 1965–68
Mom & Me & Mom (2013): overview
Reception and legacy
Influence
When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African-American women who were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. According to scholar Hilton Als, up to that point, Black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters in the literature they wrote. Linguist John McWhorter agreed, seeing Angelou's works, which he called "tracts", as "apologetic writing". He placed Angelou in the tradition of African-American literature as a defense of Black culture, which he called "a literary manifestation of the imperative that reigned in the black scholarship of the period". Writer Julian Mayfield, who called Caged Bird "a work of art that eludes description", argued that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent for not only other Black women writers, but also African-American autobiography as a whole. Als said that Caged Bird marked one of the first times that a Black autobiographer could, as he put it, "write about blackness from the inside, without apology or defense". Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women. It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer", and "a major autobiographical voice of the time". As writer Gary Younge said, "Probably more than almost any other writer alive, Angelou's life literally is her work."
Als said that Caged Bird helped increase Black feminist writings in the 1970s, less through its originality than "its resonance in the prevailing Zeitgeist", or the time in which it was written, at the end of the American Civil Rights Movement. Als also claimed that Angelou's writings, more interested in self-revelation than in politics or feminism, have freed other female writers to "open themselves up without shame to the eyes of the world". Angelou critic Joanne M. Braxton stated that Caged Bird was "perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing" autobiography written by an African-American woman in its era. Angelou's poetry has influenced the modern hip-hop music community, including artists such as Kanye West, Common, Tupac Shakur, and Nicki Minaj.
Critical reception
Reviewer Elsie B. Washington called Angelou "the black woman's poet laureate". Sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300–600% the week after Angelou's recitation. Random House, which published the poem later that year, had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand. They sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1,200% increase. Angelou famously said, in response to criticism regarding using the details of her life in her work, "I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money'." Younge, speaking after the publication of Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2008), has said, "For the last couple of decades she has merged her various talents into a kind of performance art—issuing a message of personal and social uplift by blending poetry, song and conversation."
Angelou's books, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, have been criticized by many parents, causing their removal from school curricula and library shelves. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, some parents and some schools have objected to Caged Birds depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence. Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent depictions of religion. Caged Bird appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.
Awards and honors
Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums. She served on two presidential committees, and was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1994, the National Medal of Arts in 2000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Angelou was awarded more than fifty honorary degrees. In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Angelou would be among the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter as a part of the American Women quarters series. The coins were released in January 2022. She is the first Black woman to be depicted on a quarter.
Uses in education
Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in teacher education. Jocelyn A. Glazier, a professor at George Washington University, has trained teachers how to "talk about race" in their classrooms with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name. According to Glazier, Angelou's use of understatement, self-mockery, humor, and irony have left readers of Angelou's autobiographies unsure of what she left out and how they should respond to the events she described. Angelou's depictions of her experiences of racism have forced white readers to either explore their feelings about race and their own "privileged status", or to avoid the discussion as a means of keeping their privilege. Glazier found that critics have focused on the way Angelou fits within the genre of African-American autobiography and on her literary techniques, but readers have tended to react to her storytelling with "surprise, particularly when [they] enter the text with certain expectations about the genre of autobiography".
Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book Stories of Resilience in Childhood, analyzed the events in Caged Bird to illustrate resiliency in children. He argued that Angelou's book has provided a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya have faced and how their communities have helped them succeed. Psychologist Chris Boyatzis has reported using Caged Bird to supplement scientific theory and research in the instruction of child development topics such as the development of self-concept and self-esteem, ego resilience, industry versus inferiority, effects of abuse, parenting styles, sibling and friendship relations, gender issues, cognitive development, puberty, and identity formation in adolescence. He found Caged Bird a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.
Poetry
Angelou is best known for her seven autobiographies, but she was also a prolific and successful poet. She was called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with her rape as a young girl, as described in Caged Bird. According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affected Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she became, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry. Although all her books have been bestsellers, her poetry has not been perceived to be as serious as her prose and has been understudied. Her poems were more interesting when she recited and performed them, and many critics emphasized the public aspect of her poetry. Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to both the public nature of many of her poems and to Angelou's popular success, and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one. Zofia Burr has countered Angelou's critics by condemning them for not taking into account Angelou's larger purposes in her writing: "to be representative rather than individual, authoritative rather than confessional".
In the view of Harold Bloom, Professor of Literature (Yale University and New York University) and literary critic:
Style and genre in autobiographies
Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and development of theme, setting, plot, and language has often resulted in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction. Angelou made a deliberate attempt in her books to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Scholar Mary Jane Lupton argues that all of Angelou's autobiographies conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme. Angelou recognizes that there are fictional aspects to her books; Lupton agrees, stating that Angelou tended to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth", which parallels the conventions of much of African-American autobiography written during the abolitionist period of U.S. history, when as both Lupton and African-American scholar Crispin Sartwell put it, the truth was censored out of the need for self-protection. Scholar Lyman B. Hagen places Angelou in the long tradition of African-American autobiography, but claims that Angelou created a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form.
According to African-American literature scholar Pierre A. Walker, the challenge for much of the history of African-American literature was that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before they could accomplish their political goals, which was why Angelou's editor Robert Loomis was able to dare her into writing Caged Bird by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art". Angelou acknowledged that she followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'". Scholar John McWhorter calls Angelou's books "tracts" that defend African-American culture and fight negative stereotypes. According to McWhorter, Angelou structured her books, which to him seem to be written more for children than for adults, to support her defense of Black culture. McWhorter sees Angelou as she depicts herself in her autobiographies "as a kind of stand-in figure for the Black American in Troubled Times". McWhorter views Angelou's works as dated, but recognizes that "she has helped to pave the way for contemporary black writers who are able to enjoy the luxury of being merely individuals, no longer representatives of the race, only themselves". Scholar Lynn Z. Bloom compares Angelou's works to the writings of Frederick Douglass, stating that both fulfilled the same purpose: to describe Black culture and to interpret it for their wider, white audiences.
According to scholar Sondra O'Neale, Angelou's poetry can be placed within the African-American oral tradition, and her prose "follows classic technique in nonpoetic Western forms". O'Neale states that Angelou avoided using a "monolithic Black language", and accomplished, through direct dialogue, what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness". McWhorter finds both the language Angelou used in her autobiographies and the people she depicted unrealistic, resulting in a separation between her and her audience. As McWhorter states, "I have never read autobiographical writing where I had such a hard time summoning a sense of how the subject talks, or a sense of who the subject really is". McWhorter asserts, for example, that key figures in Angelou's books, like herself, her son Guy, and mother Vivian do not speak as one would expect, and that their speech is "cleaned up" for her readers. Guy, for example, represents the young Black male, while Vivian represents the idealized mother figure, and the stiff language they use, as well as the language in Angelou's text, is intended to prove that Blacks can use standard English competently.
McWhorter recognizes that much of the reason for Angelou's style was the "apologetic" nature of her writing. When Angelou wrote Caged Bird at the end of the 1960s, one of the necessary and accepted features of literature at the time was "organic unity", and one of her goals was to create a book that satisfied that criterion. The events in her books were episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but their arrangements did not follow a strict chronology. Instead, they were placed to emphasize the themes of her books, which include racism, identity, family, and travel. English literature scholar Valerie Sayers has asserted that "Angelou's poetry and prose are similar". They both rely on her "direct voice", which alternates steady rhythms with syncopated patterns and uses similes and metaphors (e.g., the caged bird). According to Hagen, Angelou's works were influenced by both conventional literary and the oral traditions of the African-American community. For example, she referenced more than 100 literary characters throughout her books and poetry. In addition, she used the elements of blues music, including the act of testimony when speaking of one's life and struggles, ironic understatement, and the use of natural metaphors, rhythms, and intonations. Angelou, instead of depending upon plot, used personal and historical events to shape her books.
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Works cited
Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House.
Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House.
Angelou, Maya (2008). Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House.
Braxton, Joanne M., ed. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press.
Braxton, Joanne M. "Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou", pp. 3–20
Tate, Claudia. "Maya Angelou: An Interview", pp. 149–158
Burr, Zofia (2002). Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
DeGout, Yasmin Y. (2009). "The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique". In Bloom's Modern Critical Views – Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp. 121–132.
Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long. (2008). Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. New York: Random House.
Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press.
Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. New York: Routledge Press.
Long, Richard (2005). "Maya Angelou". Smithsonian 36, (8): pp. 84–85
Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
McWhorter, John (2002). "Saint Maya." The New Republic 226, (19): pp. 35–41.
O'Neale, Sondra (1984). "Reconstruction of the Composite Self: New Images of Black Women in Maya Angelou's Continuing Autobiography", in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
Toppman, Lawrence (1989). "Maya Angelou: The Serene Spirit of a Survivor", in Conversations with Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot, ed. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press.
Walker, Pierre A. (October 1995). "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". College Literature 22, (3): pp. 91–108.
External links
Maya Angelou papers at New York Public Library
Maya Angelou memorial service at Wake Forest University
Maya Angelou (some acting credits) at Aveleyman.com
Spring, Kelly. "Maya Angelou". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
Maya Angelou's Posthumous Album, 'Caged Bird Songs,' Debuts
Category:1928 births
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Category:African-American poets
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Category:American autobiographers
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Category:American people of Mende descent
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Category:Wake Forest University faculty
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Category:Writers from Arkansas
Category:Writers from North Carolina
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:American poets | [] | [
"The text does not provide information on what Africa is to Caged Bird.",
"The events described in the text took place between 1961 and 1969.",
"Yes, Maya Angelou spent time in Cairo, Egypt and Accra, Ghana in Africa. She lived in Cairo where she worked as an associate editor for The Arab Observer, and later moved to Accra for her son's college education and recovery from an automobile accident. She stayed in Accra until 1965. While there, she worked as an administrator at the University of Ghana and was involved with various local media and the National Theatre.",
"While in Cairo, Egypt, Maya Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. When she moved to Accra, Ghana, Angelou became an administrator at the University of Ghana, an active member of the African-American expatriate community, a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, a broadcaster for Radio Ghana, and she worked and performed for the National Theatre. She also became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit to Accra in the early 1960s.",
"The article explores Maya Angelou's diverse professional life and her engagements with two of the most prominent civil rights activists - Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. It is interesting to note that she played an active role in the civil rights movement, with both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. asking for her help with their organizations. Unfortunately, both of them were assassinated, causing Angelou significant personal distress. During this time, she also returned to her singing career in Hawaii, witnessed the Watts riots in Los Angeles, and worked as a market researcher. In 1968, despite having limited experience, she produced a ten-part series exploring the connection between blues music and black Americans' African heritage. She also wrote her first autobiography, \"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,\" in 1968, which brought her international recognition and acclaim.",
"The text states that Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march in 1968, but it is not clear from the text whether she actually organized it as she \"postponed again\".",
"According to the text, Maya Angelou was devastated by Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, which occurred on her 40th birthday. She fell into a depression but was encouraged out of it by her friend James Baldwin."
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C_37d40faa1c0c4065a1e81a6693d83e16_0 | Maya Angelou | Maya Angelou ( ( listen); born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 - May 28, 2014) was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and was credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. | Death | Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life. Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the U.S., and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. She published her seventh autobiography Mom & Me & Mom in 2013, at the age of 85. Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first", with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011 and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers". Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by President Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993. Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Maya Angelou ( ; born Marguerite Annie Johnson; April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014) was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes including racism, identity, family and travel.
Early life
Marguerite Annie Johnson was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928, the second child of Bailey Johnson, a doorman and navy dietitian, and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson, a nurse and card dealer. Angelou's older brother, Bailey Jr., nicknamed Marguerite "Maya", derived from "My" or "Mya Sister". When Angelou was three and her brother four, their parents' "calamitous marriage" ended, and their father sent them to Stamps, Arkansas, alone by train, to live with their paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson. In "an astonishing exception" to the harsh economics of African Americans of the time, Angelou's grandmother prospered financially during the Great Depression and World War II, because the general store she owned sold basic and needed commodities and because "she made wise and honest investments".
Four years later, when Angelou was seven and her brother eight, the children's father "came to Stamps without warning" and returned them to their mother's care in St. Louis. At the age of eight, while living with her mother, Angelou was sexually abused and raped by her mother's boyfriend, a man named Freeman. She told her brother, who told the rest of their family. Freeman was found guilty but was jailed for only one day. Four days after his release, he was murdered, probably by Angelou's uncles. Angelou became mute for almost five years, believing, as she stated, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone." According to Marcia Ann Gillespie and her colleagues, who wrote a biography about Angelou, it was during this period of silence when Angelou developed her extraordinary memory, her love for books and literature, and her ability to listen and observe the world around her.
Shortly after Freeman's murder, when Angelou was eight and her brother nine, Angelou and her brother were sent back to their grandmother. She attended the Lafayette County Training School, in Stamps, a Rosenwald School. Angelou credits a teacher and friend of her family, Mrs. Bertha Flowers, with helping her speak again, challenging her by saying, "You do not love poetry, not until you speak it". Flowers introduced her to authors such as Charles Dickens, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Georgia Douglas Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, authors who would affect her life and career, as well as Black female artists like Frances Harper, Anne Spencer, and Jessie Fauset.
When Angelou was fourteen and her brother fifteen, she and her brother moved in once again with their mother, who had since moved to Oakland, California. During World War II, Angelou attended the California Labor School. At the age of 16, she became the first Black female streetcar conductor in San Francisco. She wanted the job badly, admiring the uniforms of the operators—so much so that her mother referred to it as her "dream job". Her mother encouraged her to pursue the position, but warned her that she would need to arrive early and work harder than others. In 2014, Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed "Women Who Move the Nation".
Three weeks after completing school, at the age of seventeen, she gave birth to her son, Clyde (who later changed his name to Guy Johnson).
Career
Adulthood and early career: 1951–61
In 1951, Angelou married Tosh Angelos, a Greek electrician, former sailor, and aspiring musician, despite the condemnation of interracial relationships at the time and the disapproval of her mother. She took modern dance classes during this time, and met dancers and choreographers Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford. Ailey and Angelou formed a dance team, calling themselves "Al and Rita", and performed modern dance at fraternal Black organizations throughout San Francisco but never became successful. Angelou, her new husband, and her son moved to New York City so she could study African dance with Trinidadian dancer Pearl Primus, but they returned to San Francisco a year later.
After Angelou's marriage ended in 1954, she danced professionally in clubs around San Francisco, including the nightclub The Purple Onion, where she sang and danced to calypso music. Up to that point, she went by the name of "Marguerite Johnson", or "Rita", but at the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters at The Purple Onion, she changed her professional name to "Maya Angelou" (her nickname and former married surname). It was a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances. During 1954 and 1955, Angelou toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She began her practice of learning the language of every country she visited, and in a few years she gained proficiency in several languages. In 1957, riding on the popularity of calypso, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which was reissued as a CD in 1996. She appeared in an off-Broadway review that inspired the 1957 film Calypso Heat Wave, in which Angelou sang and performed her own compositions.
Angelou met novelist John Oliver Killens in 1959 and, at his urging, moved to New York to concentrate on her writing career. She joined the Harlem Writers Guild, where she met several major African-American authors, including John Henrik Clarke, Rosa Guy, Paule Marshall, and Julian Mayfield, and was published for the first time. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and hearing him speak, she and Killens organized "the legendary" Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. According to scholar Lyman B. Hagen, her contributions to civil rights as a fundraiser and SCLC organizer were successful and "eminently effective". Angelou also began her pro-Castro and anti-apartheid activism during this time. She had joined the crowd cheering for Fidel Castro when he first entered the Hotel Theresa in Harlem New York during United Nations 15th General Assembly on September 19, 1960.
Africa to Caged Bird: 1961–69
In 1961, Angelou performed in Jean Genet's play The Blacks (playing the part of the Queen), along with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett, Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely Tyson. Also in 1961, she met South African freedom fighter Vusumzi Make; they never officially married. She and her son Guy moved with Make to Cairo, where Angelou worked as an associate editor at the weekly English-language newspaper The Arab Observer. In 1962, her relationship with Make ended, and she and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana, so he could attend college, but he was seriously injured in an automobile accident. Angelou remained in Accra for his recovery and ended up staying there until 1965. She became an administrator at the University of Ghana, and was active in the African-American expatriate community. She was a feature editor for The African Review, a freelance writer for the Ghanaian Times, wrote and broadcast for Radio Ghana, and worked and performed for Ghana's National Theatre. She performed in a revival of The Blacks in Geneva and Berlin.
In Accra, she became close friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. Devastated and adrift, she joined her brother in Hawaii, where she resumed her singing career. She moved back to Los Angeles to focus on her writing career. Working as a market researcher in Watts, Angelou witnessed the riots in the summer of 1965. She acted in and wrote plays, and returned to New York in 1967. She met her lifelong friend Rosa Guy and renewed her friendship with James Baldwin, whom she had met in Paris in the 1950s and called "my brother", during this time. Her friend Jerry Purcell provided Angelou with a stipend to support her writing.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. asked Angelou to organize a march. She agreed, but postponed again, and in what Gillespie calls "a macabre twist of fate", he was assassinated on her 40th birthday (April 4). Devastated again, she was encouraged out of her depression by her friend James Baldwin. As Gillespie states, "If 1968 was a year of great pain, loss, and sadness, it was also the year when America first witnessed the breadth and depth of Maya Angelou's spirit and creative genius". Despite having almost no experience, she wrote, produced, and narrated Blacks, Blues, Black!, a ten-part series of documentaries about the connection between blues music and Black Americans' African heritage, and what Angelou called the "Africanisms still current in the U.S." for National Educational Television, the precursor of PBS. Also in 1968, inspired at a dinner party she attended with Baldwin, cartoonist Jules Feiffer, and his wife Judy, and challenged by Random House editor Robert Loomis, she wrote her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. This brought her international recognition and acclaim.
Later career
Released in 1972, Angelou's Georgia, Georgia, produced by a Swedish film company and filmed in Sweden, was the first produced screenplay by a Black woman. She also wrote the film's soundtrack, despite having very little additional input in the filming of the movie. Angelou married Paul du Feu, a Welsh carpenter and ex-husband of writer Germaine Greer, in San Francisco in 1973. Over the next ten years, as Gillespie has stated, "She [Angelou] had accomplished more than many artists hope to achieve in a lifetime." Angelou worked as a composer, writing for singer Roberta Flack, and composing movie scores. She wrote articles, short stories, TV scripts, documentaries, autobiographies, and poetry. She produced plays and was named visiting professor at several colleges and universities. She was "a reluctant actor", and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1973 for her role in Look Away. As a theater director, in 1988 she undertook a revival of Errol John's play Moon on a Rainbow Shawl at the Almeida Theatre in London.
In 1977, Angelou appeared in a supporting role in the television mini-series Roots. She was given a multitude of awards during this period, including more than thirty honorary degrees from colleges and universities from all over the world. In the late 1970s, Angelou met Oprah Winfrey when Winfrey was a TV anchor in Baltimore, Maryland; Angelou would later become Winfrey's close friend and mentor. In 1981, Angelou and du Feu divorced.
She returned to the southern United States in 1981 because she felt she had to come to terms with her past there and, despite having no bachelor's degree, accepted the lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she was one of a few full-time African-American professors. From that point on, she considered herself "a teacher who writes". Angelou taught a variety of subjects that reflected her interests, including philosophy, ethics, theology, science, theater, and writing. The Winston-Salem Journal reported that even though she made many friends on campus, "she never quite lived down all of the criticism from people who thought she was more of a celebrity than an intellect ... [and] an overpaid figurehead". The last course she taught at Wake Forest was in 2011, but she was planning to teach another course in late 2014. Her final speaking engagement at the university was in late 2013. Beginning in the 1990s, Angelou actively participated in the lecture circuit in a customized tour bus, something she continued into her eighties.
In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at the presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton, becoming the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Her recitation resulted in more fame and recognition for her previous works, and broadened her appeal "across racial, economic, and educational boundaries". The recording of the poem won a Grammy Award. In June 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem", entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.
Angelou achieved her goal of directing a feature film in 1996, Down in the Delta, which featured actors such as Alfre Woodard and Wesley Snipes. Also in 1996, she collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their album Been Found. The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only Billboard chart appearances. In 2000, she created a successful collection of products for Hallmark, including greeting cards and decorative household items. She responded to critics who charged her with being too commercial by stating that "the enterprise was perfectly in keeping with her role as 'the people's poet'". More than thirty years after Angelou began writing her life story, she completed her sixth autobiography A Song Flung Up to Heaven, in 2002.
Angelou campaigned for the Democratic Party in the 2008 presidential primaries, giving her public support to Hillary Clinton. In the run-up to the January Democratic primary in South Carolina, the Clinton campaign ran ads featuring Angelou's endorsement. The ads were part of the campaign's efforts to rally support in the Black community; but Barack Obama won the South Carolina primary, finishing 29 points ahead of Clinton and taking 80% of the Black vote. When Clinton's campaign ended, Angelou put her support behind Obama, who went on to win the presidential election and become the first African-American president of the United States. After Obama's inauguration, she stated, "We are growing up beyond the idiocies of racism and sexism."
In late 2010, Angelou donated her personal papers and career memorabilia to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. They consisted of more than 340 boxes of documents that featured her handwritten notes on yellow legal pads for I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a 1982 telegram from Coretta Scott King, fan mail, and personal and professional correspondence from colleagues such as her editor Robert Loomis. In 2011, Angelou served as a consultant for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She spoke out in opposition to a paraphrase of a quotation by King that appeared on the memorial, saying, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit", and demanded that it be changed. Eventually, the paraphrase was removed.
In 2013, at the age of 85, Angelou published the seventh volume of autobiography in her series, entitled Mom & Me & Mom, which focuses on her relationship with her mother.
Personal life
Evidence suggests that Angelou was partially descended from the Mende people of West Africa. In 2008, a DNA test revealed that among all of her African ancestors, 45 percent were from the Congo-Angola region and 55 percent were from West Africa. A 2008 PBS documentary found that Angelou's maternal great-grandmother, Mary Lee, who had been emancipated after the Civil War, became pregnant by her white former owner, John Savin. Savin forced Lee to sign a false statement accusing another man of being the father of her child. After Savin was indicted for forcing Lee to commit perjury, and despite the discovery that Savin was the father, a jury found him not guilty. Lee was sent to the Clinton County poorhouse in Missouri with her daughter, Marguerite Baxter, who became Angelou's grandmother. Angelou described Lee as "that poor little black girl, physically and mentally bruised."
The details of Angelou's life described in her seven autobiographies and in numerous interviews, speeches, and articles tended to be inconsistent. Critic, Mary Jane Lupton, has explained that when Angelou spoke about her life, she did so eloquently, but informally, and "with no time chart in front of her." For example, she was married at least twice, but never clarified the number of times she had been married, "for fear of sounding frivolous." According to her autobiographies and to Gillespie, she married Tosh Angelos in 1951, and Paul du Feu in 1974, and began her relationship with Vusumzi Make in 1961, but never formally married him. Angelou held many jobs, including some in the sex trade working as a prostitute and madam for lesbians, and describes so in her second autobiography, Gather Together in My Name. In a 1995 interview, Angelou said,
Angelou had one son, Guy, whose birth she described in her first autobiography; one grandson, two great-grandchildren, and, according to Gillespie, a large group of friends and extended family. Angelou's mother Vivian Baxter died in 1991 and her brother Bailey Johnson Jr., died in 2000 after a series of strokes; both were important figures in her life and her books. In 1981, the mother of her grandson disappeared with him; finding him took four years.
Angelou did not earn a university degree, but according to Gillespie it was Angelou's preference to be called "Dr. Angelou" by people outside of her family and close friends. She owned two homes in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and a "lordly brownstone" in Harlem, which was purchased in 2004 and was full of her "growing library" of books she collected throughout her life, artwork collected over the span of many decades, and well-stocked kitchens. The Guardian writer Gary Younge reported that in Angelou's Harlem home were several African wall hangings and her collection of paintings, including ones of several jazz trumpeters, a watercolor of Rosa Parks, and a Faith Ringgold work entitled "Maya's Quilt Of Life".
According to Gillespie, she hosted several celebrations per year at her main residence in Winston-Salem; "her skill in the kitchen is the stuff of legend—from haute cuisine to down-home comfort food". The Winston-Salem Journal stated: "Securing an invitation to one of Angelou's Thanksgiving dinners, Christmas tree decorating parties or birthday parties was among the most coveted invitations in town." The New York Times, describing Angelou's residence history in New York City, stated that she regularly hosted elaborate New Year's Day parties. She combined her cooking and writing skills in her 2004 book Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, which featured 73 recipes, many of which she learned from her grandmother and mother, accompanied by 28 vignettes. She followed up in 2010 with her second cookbook, Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart, which focused on weight loss and portion control.
Beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou used the same "writing ritual" for many years. She would wake early in the morning and check into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She would write on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and would leave by the early afternoon. She would average 10–12 pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She went through this process to "enchant" herself, and as she said in a 1989 interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, "relive the agony, the anguish, the Sturm und Drang". She placed herself back in the time she wrote about, even traumatic experiences such as her rape in Caged Bird, in order to "tell the human truth" about her life. Angelou stated that she played cards in order to get to that place of enchantment and in order to access her memories more effectively. She said, "It may take an hour to get into it, but once I'm in it—ha! It's so delicious!" She did not find the process cathartic; rather, she found relief in "telling the truth".
In 2009, the gossip website TMZ erroneously reported that Angelou had been hospitalized in Los Angeles when she was alive and well in St. Louis, which resulted in rumors of her death and, according to Angelou, concern among her friends and family worldwide.
Death
Angelou died on the morning of May 28, 2014, at the age of 86. She was found by her nurse. Although Angelou had reportedly been in poor health and had canceled recent scheduled appearances, she was working on another book, an autobiography about her experiences with national and world leaders. During her memorial service at Wake Forest University, her son Guy Johnson stated that despite being in constant pain due to her dancing career and respiratory failure, she wrote four books during the last ten years of her life. He said, "She left this mortal plane with no loss of acuity and no loss in comprehension."
Tributes to Angelou and condolences were paid by artists, entertainers, and world leaders, including President Obama, whose sister was named after Angelou, and Bill Clinton. Harold Augenbraum, from the National Book Foundation, said that Angelou's "legacy is one that all writers and readers across the world can admire and aspire to." The week after Angelou's death, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings rose to number 1 on Amazon.com's bestseller list.
On May 29, 2014, Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, of which Angelou was a member for 30 years, held a public memorial service to honor her. On June 7, a private memorial service was held at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. The memorial was shown live on local stations in the Winston-Salem/Triad area and streamed live on the university web site with speeches from her son, Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, and Bill Clinton. On June 15, a memorial was held at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, where Angelou was a member for many years. Rev. Cecil Williams, Mayor Ed Lee, and former mayor Willie Brown spoke.
Works
Angelou wrote a total of seven autobiographies. According to scholar Mary Jane Lupton, Angelou's third autobiography Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas marked the first time a well-known African-American autobiographer had written a third volume about her life. Her books "stretch over time and place", from Arkansas to Africa and back to the U.S., and take place from the beginnings of World War II to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In her fifth autobiography, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), Angelou tells about her return to Ghana searching for the past of her tribe. She published her seventh autobiography Mom & Me & Mom in 2013, at the age of 85. Critics have tended to judge Angelou's subsequent autobiographies "in light of the first", with Caged Bird receiving the highest praise. Angelou wrote five collections of essays, which writer Hilton Als called her "wisdom books" and "homilies strung together with autobiographical texts". Angelou used the same editor throughout her writing career, Robert Loomis, an executive editor at Random House; he retired in 2011 and has been called "one of publishing's hall of fame editors." Angelou said regarding Loomis: "We have a relationship that's kind of famous among publishers."
Angelou's long and extensive career also included poetry, plays, screenplays for television and film, directing, acting, and public speaking. She was a prolific writer of poetry; her volume Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971) was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and she was chosen by U.S. president Bill Clinton to recite her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" during his inauguration in 1993.
Angelou's successful acting career included roles in numerous plays, films, and television programs, including her appearance in the television mini-series Roots in 1977. Her screenplay, Georgia, Georgia (1972), was the first original script by a Black woman to be produced, and she was the first African-American woman to direct a major motion picture, Down in the Delta, in 1998.
Chronology of autobiographies
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969): Up to 1944 (age 17)
Gather Together in My Name (1974): 1944–48
Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (1976): 1949–55
The Heart of a Woman (1981): 1957–62
All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986): 1962–65
A Song Flung Up to Heaven (2002): 1965–68
Mom & Me & Mom (2013): overview
Reception and legacy
Influence
When I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings was published in 1969, Angelou was hailed as a new kind of memoirist, one of the first African-American women who were able to publicly discuss their personal lives. According to scholar Hilton Als, up to that point, Black female writers were marginalized to the point that they were unable to present themselves as central characters in the literature they wrote. Linguist John McWhorter agreed, seeing Angelou's works, which he called "tracts", as "apologetic writing". He placed Angelou in the tradition of African-American literature as a defense of Black culture, which he called "a literary manifestation of the imperative that reigned in the black scholarship of the period". Writer Julian Mayfield, who called Caged Bird "a work of art that eludes description", argued that Angelou's autobiographies set a precedent for not only other Black women writers, but also African-American autobiography as a whole. Als said that Caged Bird marked one of the first times that a Black autobiographer could, as he put it, "write about blackness from the inside, without apology or defense". Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for Blacks and women. It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer", and "a major autobiographical voice of the time". As writer Gary Younge said, "Probably more than almost any other writer alive, Angelou's life literally is her work."
Als said that Caged Bird helped increase Black feminist writings in the 1970s, less through its originality than "its resonance in the prevailing Zeitgeist", or the time in which it was written, at the end of the American Civil Rights Movement. Als also claimed that Angelou's writings, more interested in self-revelation than in politics or feminism, have freed other female writers to "open themselves up without shame to the eyes of the world". Angelou critic Joanne M. Braxton stated that Caged Bird was "perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing" autobiography written by an African-American woman in its era. Angelou's poetry has influenced the modern hip-hop music community, including artists such as Kanye West, Common, Tupac Shakur, and Nicki Minaj.
Critical reception
Reviewer Elsie B. Washington called Angelou "the black woman's poet laureate". Sales of the paperback version of her books and poetry rose by 300–600% the week after Angelou's recitation. Random House, which published the poem later that year, had to reprint 400,000 copies of all her books to keep up with the demand. They sold more of her books in January 1993 than they did in all of 1992, accounting for a 1,200% increase. Angelou famously said, in response to criticism regarding using the details of her life in her work, "I agree with Balzac and 19th-century writers, black and white, who say, 'I write for money'." Younge, speaking after the publication of Angelou's third book of essays, Letter to My Daughter (2008), has said, "For the last couple of decades she has merged her various talents into a kind of performance art—issuing a message of personal and social uplift by blending poetry, song and conversation."
Angelou's books, especially I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, have been criticized by many parents, causing their removal from school curricula and library shelves. According to the National Coalition Against Censorship, some parents and some schools have objected to Caged Birds depictions of lesbianism, premarital cohabitation, pornography, and violence. Some have been critical of the book's sexually explicit scenes, use of language, and irreverent depictions of religion. Caged Bird appeared third on the American Library Association (ALA) list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990–2000 and sixth on the ALA's 2000–2009 list.
Awards and honors
Angelou was honored by universities, literary organizations, government agencies, and special interest groups. Her honors included a Pulitzer Prize nomination for her book of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, a Tony Award nomination for her role in the 1973 play Look Away, and three Grammys for her spoken word albums. She served on two presidential committees, and was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1994, the National Medal of Arts in 2000, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. Angelou was awarded more than fifty honorary degrees. In 2021, the United States Mint announced that Angelou would be among the first women depicted on the reverse of the quarter as a part of the American Women quarters series. The coins were released in January 2022. She is the first Black woman to be depicted on a quarter.
Uses in education
Angelou's autobiographies have been used in narrative and multicultural approaches in teacher education. Jocelyn A. Glazier, a professor at George Washington University, has trained teachers how to "talk about race" in their classrooms with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Gather Together in My Name. According to Glazier, Angelou's use of understatement, self-mockery, humor, and irony have left readers of Angelou's autobiographies unsure of what she left out and how they should respond to the events she described. Angelou's depictions of her experiences of racism have forced white readers to either explore their feelings about race and their own "privileged status", or to avoid the discussion as a means of keeping their privilege. Glazier found that critics have focused on the way Angelou fits within the genre of African-American autobiography and on her literary techniques, but readers have tended to react to her storytelling with "surprise, particularly when [they] enter the text with certain expectations about the genre of autobiography".
Educator Daniel Challener, in his 1997 book Stories of Resilience in Childhood, analyzed the events in Caged Bird to illustrate resiliency in children. He argued that Angelou's book has provided a "useful framework" for exploring the obstacles many children like Maya have faced and how their communities have helped them succeed. Psychologist Chris Boyatzis has reported using Caged Bird to supplement scientific theory and research in the instruction of child development topics such as the development of self-concept and self-esteem, ego resilience, industry versus inferiority, effects of abuse, parenting styles, sibling and friendship relations, gender issues, cognitive development, puberty, and identity formation in adolescence. He found Caged Bird a "highly effective" tool for providing real-life examples of these psychological concepts.
Poetry
Angelou is best known for her seven autobiographies, but she was also a prolific and successful poet. She was called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with her rape as a young girl, as described in Caged Bird. According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affected Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she became, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry. Although all her books have been bestsellers, her poetry has not been perceived to be as serious as her prose and has been understudied. Her poems were more interesting when she recited and performed them, and many critics emphasized the public aspect of her poetry. Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to both the public nature of many of her poems and to Angelou's popular success, and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a verbal, performed one. Zofia Burr has countered Angelou's critics by condemning them for not taking into account Angelou's larger purposes in her writing: "to be representative rather than individual, authoritative rather than confessional".
In the view of Harold Bloom, Professor of Literature (Yale University and New York University) and literary critic:
Style and genre in autobiographies
Angelou's use of fiction-writing techniques such as dialogue, characterization, and development of theme, setting, plot, and language has often resulted in the placement of her books into the genre of autobiographical fiction. Angelou made a deliberate attempt in her books to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Scholar Mary Jane Lupton argues that all of Angelou's autobiographies conform to the genre's standard structure: they are written by a single author, they are chronological, and they contain elements of character, technique, and theme. Angelou recognizes that there are fictional aspects to her books; Lupton agrees, stating that Angelou tended to "diverge from the conventional notion of autobiography as truth", which parallels the conventions of much of African-American autobiography written during the abolitionist period of U.S. history, when as both Lupton and African-American scholar Crispin Sartwell put it, the truth was censored out of the need for self-protection. Scholar Lyman B. Hagen places Angelou in the long tradition of African-American autobiography, but claims that Angelou created a unique interpretation of the autobiographical form.
According to African-American literature scholar Pierre A. Walker, the challenge for much of the history of African-American literature was that its authors have had to confirm its status as literature before they could accomplish their political goals, which was why Angelou's editor Robert Loomis was able to dare her into writing Caged Bird by challenging her to write an autobiography that could be considered "high art". Angelou acknowledged that she followed the slave narrative tradition of "speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning 'we'". Scholar John McWhorter calls Angelou's books "tracts" that defend African-American culture and fight negative stereotypes. According to McWhorter, Angelou structured her books, which to him seem to be written more for children than for adults, to support her defense of Black culture. McWhorter sees Angelou as she depicts herself in her autobiographies "as a kind of stand-in figure for the Black American in Troubled Times". McWhorter views Angelou's works as dated, but recognizes that "she has helped to pave the way for contemporary black writers who are able to enjoy the luxury of being merely individuals, no longer representatives of the race, only themselves". Scholar Lynn Z. Bloom compares Angelou's works to the writings of Frederick Douglass, stating that both fulfilled the same purpose: to describe Black culture and to interpret it for their wider, white audiences.
According to scholar Sondra O'Neale, Angelou's poetry can be placed within the African-American oral tradition, and her prose "follows classic technique in nonpoetic Western forms". O'Neale states that Angelou avoided using a "monolithic Black language", and accomplished, through direct dialogue, what O'Neale calls a "more expected ghetto expressiveness". McWhorter finds both the language Angelou used in her autobiographies and the people she depicted unrealistic, resulting in a separation between her and her audience. As McWhorter states, "I have never read autobiographical writing where I had such a hard time summoning a sense of how the subject talks, or a sense of who the subject really is". McWhorter asserts, for example, that key figures in Angelou's books, like herself, her son Guy, and mother Vivian do not speak as one would expect, and that their speech is "cleaned up" for her readers. Guy, for example, represents the young Black male, while Vivian represents the idealized mother figure, and the stiff language they use, as well as the language in Angelou's text, is intended to prove that Blacks can use standard English competently.
McWhorter recognizes that much of the reason for Angelou's style was the "apologetic" nature of her writing. When Angelou wrote Caged Bird at the end of the 1960s, one of the necessary and accepted features of literature at the time was "organic unity", and one of her goals was to create a book that satisfied that criterion. The events in her books were episodic and crafted like a series of short stories, but their arrangements did not follow a strict chronology. Instead, they were placed to emphasize the themes of her books, which include racism, identity, family, and travel. English literature scholar Valerie Sayers has asserted that "Angelou's poetry and prose are similar". They both rely on her "direct voice", which alternates steady rhythms with syncopated patterns and uses similes and metaphors (e.g., the caged bird). According to Hagen, Angelou's works were influenced by both conventional literary and the oral traditions of the African-American community. For example, she referenced more than 100 literary characters throughout her books and poetry. In addition, she used the elements of blues music, including the act of testimony when speaking of one's life and struggles, ironic understatement, and the use of natural metaphors, rhythms, and intonations. Angelou, instead of depending upon plot, used personal and historical events to shape her books.
References
Explanatory notes
Citations
Works cited
Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House.
Angelou, Maya (1993). Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. New York: Random House.
Angelou, Maya (2008). Letter to My Daughter. New York: Random House.
Braxton, Joanne M., ed. (1999). Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: A Casebook. New York: Oxford Press.
Braxton, Joanne M. "Symbolic Geography and Psychic Landscapes: A Conversation with Maya Angelou", pp. 3–20
Tate, Claudia. "Maya Angelou: An Interview", pp. 149–158
Burr, Zofia (2002). Of Women, Poetry, and Power: Strategies of Address in Dickinson, Miles, Brooks, Lorde, and Angelou. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.
DeGout, Yasmin Y. (2009). "The Poetry of Maya Angelou: Liberation Ideology and Technique". In Bloom's Modern Critical Views – Maya Angelou, Harold Bloom, ed. New York: Infobase Publishing, pp. 121–132.
Gillespie, Marcia Ann, Rosa Johnson Butler, and Richard A. Long. (2008). Maya Angelou: A Glorious Celebration. New York: Random House.
Hagen, Lyman B. (1997). Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou. Lanham, Maryland: University Press.
Lauret, Maria (1994). Liberating Literature: Feminist Fiction in America. New York: Routledge Press.
Long, Richard (2005). "Maya Angelou". Smithsonian 36, (8): pp. 84–85
Lupton, Mary Jane (1998). Maya Angelou: A Critical Companion. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
McWhorter, John (2002). "Saint Maya." The New Republic 226, (19): pp. 35–41.
O'Neale, Sondra (1984). "Reconstruction of the Composite Self: New Images of Black Women in Maya Angelou's Continuing Autobiography", in Black Women Writers (1950–1980): A Critical Evaluation, Mari Evans, ed. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday.
Toppman, Lawrence (1989). "Maya Angelou: The Serene Spirit of a Survivor", in Conversations with Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot, ed. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press.
Walker, Pierre A. (October 1995). "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings". College Literature 22, (3): pp. 91–108.
External links
Maya Angelou papers at New York Public Library
Maya Angelou memorial service at Wake Forest University
Maya Angelou (some acting credits) at Aveleyman.com
Spring, Kelly. "Maya Angelou". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
Maya Angelou's Posthumous Album, 'Caged Bird Songs,' Debuts
Category:1928 births
Category:2014 deaths
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:20th-century American dancers
Category:20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
Category:20th-century American non-fiction writers
Category:20th-century American poets
Category:20th-century American short story writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers
Category:21st-century American poets
Category:21st-century American short story writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:Actresses from St. Louis
Category:African-American activists
Category:African-American actresses
Category:African-American dramatists and playwrights
Category:African-American female dancers
Category:African-American memoirists
Category:African-American non-fiction writers
Category:African-American poets
Category:African-American short story writers
Category:African-American women writers
Category:American autobiographers
Category:American humanitarians
Category:American inaugural poets
Category:American memoirists
Category:American people of Mende descent
Category:American television actresses
Category:American women biographers
Category:American women dramatists and playwrights
Category:American women essayists
Category:American women memoirists
Category:American women poets
Category:American women short story writers
Category:Anti-apartheid activists
Category:Baptists from Arkansas
Category:Dancers from Arkansas
Category:Dancers from Missouri
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Modern dancers
Category:People from Stamps, Arkansas
Category:Poets from Arkansas
Category:Poets from Missouri
Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Category:Spingarn Medal winners
Category:Wake Forest University faculty
Category:Women humanitarians
Category:Writers from Arkansas
Category:Writers from North Carolina
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:American poets | [] | [
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C_fc3ca1ec2e2d42feb528568864e95588_1 | Nikki Gil | Monica Pauline "Nikki" Gil-Albert (born August 23, 1987 in Manila, Philippines) is a Filipino singer, actress, host, model and a former myx VJ. She is known for being part of the afternoon remake of Carlo J. Caparas' Pieta in 2008-2009 as Guia V. Angeles, and also in 2009, she portrayed Princess Punzalan's role in the afternoon drama which ran in 2009 and 2010 as Julie Bernardo in Nagsimula sa Puso. She is also well known for her lead portrayal as Jennifer "Jenny" La Pena in the 2012 remake of the 1990 radio serial of Salvador Royales's Mundo Man ay Magunaw, originally played by Jennifer Sevilla in the film version and was produced by SEIKO Films. | Music | Gil first rose to prominence when she was 17 years old after appearing in a 2005 Coca-Cola commercial. After that, she went on to released her first self-titled album, Nikki Gil, that same year under EMI Philippines with "Sakayan ng Jeep" as the carrier single. In 2006, it was repackaged and rereleased with and additional song, "Glowing Inside". In July 2006, EMI Philippines and Walt Disney Records hired Nikki along with other Asian artists (Vince Chong of Malaysia and Alicia Pan of Singapore) to sing and to star in the music video of "High School Musical", a Disney Channel production. Nikki also sang "Breaking Free" and "Gotta Go My Own Way" in the production's album. In 2008, Gil released her second music album, Hear My Heart, with "Hear My Heart" as the carrier single. She co-wrote the song with her younger sister, Dani. During the same year, Disney hired her to sing and star in the music video of the pop version of "It's a Small World After All". In addition, she was asked to sing the Tagalog version of the song at the grand opening of "It's a Small World" in Hong Kong Disney Land. In 2010, Gil released her third music album, Somebody to Love, with "Somebody to Love" as the carrier single, a song written by her younger sister, Dani. Gil played the character of Elle Woods in the Manila production of the musical Legally Blonde which is based on the 2001 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture Legally Blonde and the novel by Amanda Brown. In 2014, Nikki moved to her new recording company Universal Records. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Monica Pauline "Nikki" Santos Gil-Albert (; born August 23, 1987) is a Filipino singer, actress, host, model, and video jockey. She is known for being part of the afternoon remake of Carlo J. Caparas' Pieta (2008–2009) and, in 2009, for portraying Princess Punzalan in the afternoon drama Nagsimula sa Puso (2009–2010). She is also well known for her lead portrayal as Jennifer "Jenny" La Peña in the 2012 remake of the 1990 radio serial of Salvador Royales' Mundo Man ay Magunaw, originally played by Jennifer Sevilla in the film version produced by SEIKO Films.
Biography
Monica Pauline Gil (aka Nikki Gil) was born in Manila to Dino and Julie Gil. She is of Filipino, Spanish and German descent. Born to a father who plays the piano and a mom who sang in a church choir, Nikki showed early signs of musical talent. At the age of four years, Nikki was already singing and doing voiceovers for commercials. She graduated from Shekinah Christian Training Center in March 2005 as valedictorian. In 2009, she graduated from Ateneo de Manila University, majoring in English literature.
Career
Music
Gil first rose to prominence when she was 17 years old after appearing in a 2005 Coca-Cola commercial. After that, she went on to release her first self-titled album, Nikki Gil, that same year under EMI Philippines with "Sakayan ng Jeep" as the carrier single. In 2006, it was repackaged and rereleased with and additional song, "Glowing Inside". In July 2006, EMI Philippines and Walt Disney Records hired Nikki along with other Asian artists (Vince Chong of Malaysia and Alicia Pan of Singapore) to sing and to star in the music video of "High School Musical", a Disney Channel production. Nikki also sang "Breaking Free" and "Gotta Go My Own Way" in the production's album.
In 2008, Gil released her second music album, Hear My Heart, with "Hear My Heart" as the carrier single. She co-wrote the song with her younger sister, Dani. During the same year, Disney hired her to sing and star in the music video of the pop version of "It's a Small World After All". In addition, she was asked to sing the Tagalog version of the song at the grand opening of "It's a Small World" in Hong Kong Disneyland.
In 2010, Gil released her third music album, Somebody to Love, with "Somebody to Love" as the carrier single, a song written by her younger sister, Dani. Gil played the character of Elle Woods in the Manila production of the musical Legally Blonde which is based on the 2001 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture Legally Blonde and the novel by Amanda Brown.
In 2014, Nikki moved to her new recording company, Universal Records.
Acting career and TV hosting
In 2005, Gil was given a VJ stint for ABS-CBN's music channel subsidiary, MYX until she left MYX in January 2016. She was also picked to host the now-defunct talk show MRS on ABS-CBN and morning show Breakfast on Studio 23. She later would join the cast of the weekly variety show ASAP Mania. In 2006, she was joined by Toni Gonzaga, Bianca Gonzalez and Sam Milby as a host for the first season of Pinoy Dream Academy, a singing reality show from Endemol. In 2007, she became part of an anime-inspired fantasy series "Rounin" and as an extended cast for the drama series "Pangarap na Bituin". In 2008, she was again chosen to be the host for the season 2 of Pinoy Dream Academy with Toni Gonzaga and Billy Crawford. In 2009, she appeared in "Pieta", an afternoon teleserye with Ryan Agoncillo, and also appeared in the teleserye "Florinda" with Maricel Soriano. Nikki Gil is one of the mainstay on ABS-CBN with ASAP XV. In 2010, she started hosting E-Live along with Luis Manzano and Ogie Diaz. She also did a fair share of hosting occasionally on Showtime replacing Anne Curtis.
In 2007, Gil did her first movie appearance by doing a cameo role as John Lloyd Cruz's best friend for One More Chance. In 2009, she appeared along with Bea Alonzo, Sam Milby and Derek Ramsay for a Star Cinema movie entitled And I Love You So. In 2010, she was the lead actress in a romance film entitled The Red Shoes produced by Unitel Pictures with Marvin Agustin, which won the Best Picture in the 27th Bogota International Film Festival.
In 2012, Gil became part of the TV remake of the Salvador Royales film Mundo Man ay Magunaw as Jennifer la Pena.
In 2013, she played a special participation role in Apoy Sa Dagat as young Odessa, and later became a star antagonist in the remake of Maria Mercedes as Misty. The same year, Nikki Gil won as Best Single Performance By An Actress for her role in "MMK" in the recent 2013 PMPC Star Awards For TV.
In 2014, she was a member of the cast of Hawak-Kamay, playing Meann.
She is expected to return to showbiz through a musical play from Repertory Philippines entitled 'Carousel'.
Personal life
She has a sister, Dani Gil, who also sings and plays the piano. Dani helped Nikki compose her songs, too. Nikki first performed in front of an audience in church as a worship leader before entering the entertainment business.
In 2008, Gil began dating Billy Crawford, and their relationship ended in 2013. According to Gil, the breakup was caused by Crawford's infidelity while she chose to remain celibate until marriage: "The scary thing, knowing what I know now, is I would have said yes to his insincere offers of marriage!" she said. "I was made to believe I was making up these things in my head—I thought we were just plateau-ing." Gil married BJ Albert (nephew of singer-actress Joey Albert) on November 21, 2015. In November 2017, Gil gave birth to her first child, a boy. She is now retired from showbiz to focus on her family life.
Theater
2007: Seussical the Musical - The Cat
2010: Legally Blonde: The Musical - Elle Woods
2011: Sweet Charity - Charity Hope Valentine
2013: They're Playing Our Song - Sonia Walsk
2014: The Last 5 Years - Cathy Hyatt
Filmography
Movies
Television
Discography
Albums
Singles
Other appearances
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Category:1987 births
Category:Living people
Category:Ateneo de Manila University alumni
Category:21st-century Filipino women singers
Category:Filipino television actresses
Category:Filipino television personalities
Category:Filipino people of German descent
Category:Filipino people of Spanish descent
Category:21st-century Filipino actresses
Category:VJs (media personalities)
Category:Filipino musical theatre actresses
Category:PolyEast Records artists
Category:Universal Records (Philippines) artists | [] | [
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C_188fc41081be4a1cb59db86a2bf39ccb_0 | Jessica Alba | Alba was born in Pomona, California, to Catherine Louisa (nee Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English, and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. | 2000-2008: Breakout | Her big break came when writer/director James Cameron picked Alba from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the Fox sci-fi television series Dark Angel. Co-created by Cameron, the series starred Alba, and ran for two seasons until 2002. Alba earned critical acclaim for her role in the show, receiving a Golden Globe nomination as well as the Teen Choice Award for "Choice Actress" and Saturn Award for Best Actress. Alba's film roles have included playing an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, and an exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City, for which she received an MTV Movie Award for "Sexiest Performance." Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, in Fantastic Four and its sequel. She also starred in Into the Blue (2005), Good Luck Chuck (2007) and Awake (2007). Alba hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III, and The Da Vinci Code. In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba has been represented by Brad Cafarelli. Also in 2008, Alba made her acting transition to the horror-film genre in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original. The film was released on February 1, 2008. Though the film was not well received by critics, Alba's performance itself received mixed reviews. She won a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror/Thriller and a Razzie Award for Worst Actress-nomination. Later in 2008, Alba starred alongside Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake in The Love Guru. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and film appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, to Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled in Claremont, California when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as "very conservative… a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family", and herself as very liberal; she says she identified as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. She became isolated from other children at school because she was hospitalized so often, no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from age five. In 1992, the eleven year old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. She won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed her nine months later. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and was a PADI certified scuba diving skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from over 1000 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier Max Guevara on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons, until 2002, and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max "the archetypal modern feminist hero—a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons. In 2004, Max was ranked #17 in TV Guides list of "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her Dark Angel role led to significant parts in films. She had her big screen breakthrough in 2003 when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Alba earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, where she portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after finding the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a wealthy man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion .
In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
As of April 2022, Alba owned 6.5 percent of the company. She is currently employed as the company's chief creative officer, receiving an annually base salary of $700,000 and restricted stock valued $1,500,000.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. She was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, she was voted the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and appeared in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. She has also been named on FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy magazine's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006, and appeared on its cover that year. She was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contended gave the impression that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". She later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities Alba had supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba #1 on its "99 Most Desirable Women" list. In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. She appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar, which featured photos of her posing; Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of the year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining: "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at age 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds a belief in God.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, they announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying, "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. They were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', which documented her learning about her lineage, which was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:Activists from California
Category:Activists from Mississippi
Category:Activists from Texas
Category:Actresses from Los Angeles
Category:Actresses from Mississippi
Category:Actresses from Texas
Category:American actresses of Mexican descent
Category:American child actresses
Category:American company founders
Category:American feminists
Category:American film actresses
Category:American people of Mexican-Jewish descent
Category:American philanthropists
Category:American retail chief executives
Category:American television actresses
Category:American video game actresses
Category:American voice actresses
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Category:American women company founders
Category:Businesspeople from Los Angeles
Category:Businesspeople from Mississippi
Category:Businesspeople from Texas
Category:Businesspeople in online retailing
Category:Former Roman Catholics
Category:Hispanic and Latino American actresses
Category:Hispanic and Latino American feminists
Category:People from Biloxi, Mississippi
Category:People from Claremont, California
Category:People from Del Rio, Texas
Category:People from Pomona, California
Category:People of Maya descent | [] | [
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"Her big break came when writer/director James Cameron chose her from a pool of 1,200 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier, Max Guevara, on the Fox sci-fi television series Dark Angel.",
"Yes, Jessica Alba was successful in her role as Max Guevara in the Fox sci-fi television series Dark Angel. She earned critical acclaim for her role, receiving a Golden Globe nomination as well as the Teen Choice Award for \"Choice Actress\" and Saturn Award for Best Actress.",
"Besides her role in Dark Angel, Alba has performed in various film roles such as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey, an exotic dancer Nancy Callahan in Sin City - for which she received an MTV Movie Award for \"Sexiest Performance.\" She portrayed the Marvel Comics character Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, in Fantastic Four and its sequel. Moreover, she starred in Into the Blue (2005), Good Luck Chuck (2007), and Awake (2007). She has also hosted awards like the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards in February 2008. Later in 2008, Alba made her acting transition to the horror-film genre in The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, and she also starred alongside Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake in The Love Guru.",
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C_188fc41081be4a1cb59db86a2bf39ccb_1 | Jessica Alba | Alba was born in Pomona, California, to Catherine Louisa (nee Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English, and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were both the children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. | 1992-1999: Career beginnings | Alba expressed an interest in acting from the age of five. In 1992, the 11-year-old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. Alba won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed Alba nine months later. Her first appearance on film was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out. Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and she was a PADI-certified scuba diver, skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia. In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime-drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique in the Drew Barrymore romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and as the female lead in the 1999 comedy-horror film Idle Hands, opposite Devon Sawa. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her television and film appearances at age 13 in Camp Nowhere and The Secret World of Alex Mack (1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as the lead actress of the television series Dark Angel (2000–2002), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.
Her big screen breakthrough came in Honey (2003). She soon established herself as a Hollywood actress, and has starred in numerous box office hits throughout her career, including Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), Good Luck Chuck (2007), The Eye (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Little Fockers (2010), and Mechanic: Resurrection (2016). She is a frequent collaborator of director Robert Rodriguez, having starred in Sin City (2005), Machete (2010), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Machete Kills (2013), and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014). From 2019 to 2020, Alba starred in the Spectrum action crime series L.A.'s Finest.
In 2011, Alba co-founded The Honest Company, a consumer goods company that sells baby, personal and household products. Magazines including Men's Health, Vanity Fair and FHM have included her on their lists of the world's most beautiful women.
Early life
Jessica Marie Alba was born in Pomona, California on April 28, 1981, to Catherine Louisa (née Jensen) and Mark David Alba. Her mother has Danish, Welsh, German, English and French ancestry, while her paternal grandparents, who were born in California, were children of Mexican immigrants. She has a younger brother, Joshua. Her third cousin, once removed, is writer Gustavo Arellano. Her father's Air Force career took the family to Biloxi, Mississippi, and Del Rio, Texas, before they settled in Claremont, California when she was nine years old. Alba has described her family as "very conservative… a traditional, Catholic, Latin American family", and herself as very liberal; she says she identified as a "feminist" as early as age five.
Alba's early life was marked by a multitude of physical maladies. During childhood, she suffered from pneumonia four to five times a year and had partially collapsed lungs twice as well as a ruptured appendix and tonsillar cyst. She has also had asthma since she was a child. She became isolated from other children at school because she was hospitalized so often, no one knew her well enough to befriend her. She has said that her family's frequent moving also contributed to her isolation from her peers. She graduated from Claremont High School at age 16 and subsequently attended the Atlantic Theater Company.
Acting career
1992–1999: Beginnings
Alba expressed an interest in acting from age five. In 1992, the eleven year old Alba persuaded her mother to take her to an acting competition in Beverly Hills, where the grand prize was free acting classes. She won the grand prize, and took her first acting lessons. An agent signed her nine months later. Her first film appearance was a small role in the 1994 feature Camp Nowhere as Gail. She was originally hired for two weeks but her role turned into a two-month job when one of the prominent actresses dropped out.
Alba appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J. C. Penney as a child. She was later featured in several independent films. She branched out into television in 1994 with a recurring role as the vain Jessica in three episodes of the Nickelodeon comedy series The Secret World of Alex Mack. She then performed the role of Maya in the first two seasons of the 1995 television series Flipper. Under the tutelage of her lifeguard mother, Alba learned to swim before she could walk, and was a PADI certified scuba diving skills which were put to use on the show, which was filmed in Australia.
In 1998, she appeared as Melissa Hauer in a first-season episode of the Steven Bochco crime drama Brooklyn South, as Leanne in two episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210, and as Layla in an episode of Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S.. After Alba graduated from high school, she studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. Alba rose to greater prominence in Hollywood in 1999 after appearing as a member of a snobby high school clique tormenting an insecure copy editor in the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, opposite Drew Barrymore, and as the female lead in the little seen comedy horror film Idle Hands, alongside Devon Sawa.
2000–2006: Worldwide recognition
Her big break came when James Cameron picked Alba from over 1000 candidates for the role of the genetically engineered super-soldier Max Guevara on the FOX sci-fi television series Dark Angel. The series ran for two seasons, until 2002, and earned Alba critical acclaim, a Golden Globe nomination, the Teen Choice Award for Choice Actress, and a Saturn Award for Best Actress. Her role has been cited as a feminist character and is considered a symbol of female empowerment. Writing for the University of Melbourne, Bronwen Auty considered Max "the archetypal modern feminist hero—a young woman empowered to use her body actively to achieve goals", citing Max's refusal to use firearms and instead using martial arts and knowledge as weapons. In 2004, Max was ranked #17 in TV Guides list of "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends". Her Dark Angel role led to significant parts in films. She had her big screen breakthrough in 2003 when she starred as an aspiring dancer-choreographer in Honey. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus was: "An attractive Jessica Alba and energetic dance numbers provide some lift to this corny and formulaic movie". Budgeted at US$18 million, the film made US$62.2 million.
Alba next played exotic dancer Nancy Callahan, as part of a long ensemble cast, in the neo-noir crime anthology film Sin City (2005), written, produced, and directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller. It is based on Miller's graphic novel of the same name. She had not heard about the novel prior to her involvement with the film, but was eager to work with Rodriguez. The film was a critical darling and grossed US$158.8 million. She received a MTV Movie Award for Sexiest Performance.
Alba portrayed the Marvel Comics character Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four (also 2005), alongside Ioan Gruffudd, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon. The Guardian, in its review for the film, noted: "Feminists and non-feminists alike must absorb the Fantastic Four'''s most troubling paradox: having been admitted to the story on the grounds of her beauty, [Alba's] superpower is to be invisible". The film was a commercial success despite negative reviews, grossing US$333.5 million worldwide. At the 2006 MTV Movie Awards, Alba earned nominations for Best Hero and Best On-Screen Team. Her last 2005 film was the thriller Into the Blue, where she portrayed, opposite Paul Walker, one half of a couple who find themselves in trouble with a drug lord after finding the illicit cargo of a sunken airplane. The film saw moderate box office returns, with a US$44.4 million worldwide gross. She hosted the 2006 MTV Movie Awards and performed sketches spoofing the movies King Kong, Mission: Impossible III and The Da Vinci Code.
2007–2010: Romantic comedies
Alba reprised her role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in June 2007. According to Alba, Tim Story's direction during an emotional scene almost made her quit acting. "[He told me] 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Cry pretty, Jessica.' He was like, 'Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" According to Alba, this experience filled her with self-doubt: "And then it all got me thinking: Am I not good enough? Are my instincts and my emotions not good enough? Do people hate them so much that they don't want me to be a person? Am I not allowed to be a person in my work? And so I just said, 'Fuck it. I don't care about this business anymore.'" The film grossed globally.
In Good Luck Chuck (also 2007), Alba portrayed the love interest of a womanizer dentist. She posed for one of the Good Luck Chucks theatrical posters parodying the well-known Rolling Stone cover photographed by Annie Leibovitz featuring John Lennon and Yoko Ono in similar poses. While the film was heavily panned by critics, it made almost US$60 million upon its release. Her third starring vehicle in 2007 was the psychological thriller Awake, portraying the girlfriend of a wealthy man who is about to have a heart transplant. Reviews were lukewarm, but Roger Ebert praised her performance, and budgeted at around US$8 million, the film made US$32.7 million.
In February 2008, she hosted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technical Awards. Alba made her acting transition to the horror genre in the film The Eye, a remake of the Hong Kong original, in which she obtained the role of a successful classical violinist who receives an eye transplant that allows her to see into the supernatural world. Though the film was not well received by critics, her performance itself received mixed reviews. She garnered a Teen Choice for Choice Movie Actress: Horror–Thriller and a Razzie Award nomination for Worst Actress (shared with The Love Guru). In 2008, she also played a salesgirl in the independent romantic comedy Meet Bill, alongside Logan Lerman and Elizabeth Banks, and starred in the comedy The Love Guru, as a woman who inherits the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, opposite Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake. Mick LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that she was "prominently" in the film, felt that she "finally seems relaxed on camera". The Love Guru was a critical and commercial flop.
While Alba did not have any film release in 2009, five high-profile films released throughout 2010 featured her in significant roles. Her first role in the year was that of a prostitute in The Killer Inside Me, an adaptation of the book of the same name, opposite Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to polarized reactions from critics. Her next film was the romantic comedy Valentine's Day, in which she played the girlfriend of a florist as part of a long ensemble cast consisting of Jessica Biel, Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner and Julia Roberts, among others. Despite negative reviews, the film was a commercial success, with a worldwide gross of US$216.5 million. In the action film Machete, Alba reunited with director Robert Rodriguez, taking on the role of an immigration officer torn between enforcing the law and doing what is popular in the eyes of her family. Machete made over US$44 million globally.
The drama An Invisible Sign of My Own, which Alba filmed in late 2008, premiered at the Hamptons Film Festival. In it, she portrayed a painfully withdrawn young woman. Her last 2010 film was the comedy Little Fockers, in which she played an extrovert drug representative, reuniting with Robert De Niro, who was also in Machete. Despite negative reviews from critics, the film grossed over US$310 million worldwide. For all her 2010 roles, she received a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress.
2011–present: action and independent media productions
In 2011, Alba worked for the third time with Robert Rodriguez in the film Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, portraying a retired spy who is called back into action. To bond with her new stepchildren, she invites them along. The film paled at the box office in comparison to the previous films in the franchise, but was still a moderate success, taking in US$85 million around the globe. Alba next appeared with Adam Scott, Richard Jenkins, Jane Lynch, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Catherine O'Hara in the comedy A.C.O.D. (2013), portraying what the Washington Post described as a "fellow child of divorce", with whom Scott's character "almost cheats on" her girlfriend. ScreenRant critic Ben Kendrick wrote: "[Winstead] and [Alba] also deliver in their contributions – though both of their characters are mainly designed to be mirrors for Carter to examine his own life and choices." A.C.O.D. received a limited theatrical run in North America. In 2013, Alba also made her voice acting debut in the moderately successful animated film Escape from Planet Earth.
Alba worked once again with director Rodriguez for two film sequels. She reprised her role of an Immigration Officer, in an uncredited cameo appearance, in Machete Kills (2013), which flopped with critics and audiences, and her much larger role of stripper Nancy Callahan, seeking to avenge her late protector, in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, which was released in August 2014, on 2D and 3D. Unlike the first film, A Dame to Kill For was a commercial failure, grossing US$39 million against its US$65 million production budget, and received mixed reviews from film critics. Variety felt it was a "late, limp attempt to turn Alba's character from an exploited figure into an empowered one". She next took on the roles of a cabaret show performer in the dramedy Dear Eleanor (2014), the athletic girlfriend of a successful and well-respected English professor in the romantic comedy Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), a receptionist at a limo company in the thriller Stretch (also 2014), an emotionally vulnerable weapons trafficker in the crime comedy Barely Lethal (2015), and that of a documentary filmmaker in the horror film The Veil (2016); all films were released for limited theatrical runs and VOD.
In the action film Mechanic: Resurrection (2016), alongside Jason Statham, Alba played the girlfriend of a retired hitman. She did Krav Maga to get into shape for the film, and was drawn to the strength her character exhibited, remarking: "I think for these types of movies you don't often get to see the female romantic lead kind of kick butt. I mean, it's usually she's being saved by the guy, and so it's nice that I got to come to the table with a toughness, and a real heart". The film made US$125.7 million worldwide.
She will star in and executive produce a new documentary series for Disney+ called "Parenting Without Borders" (working title) which will focus on families around the world and their beliefs and culture.
Other endeavors
The Honest Company
In January 2012, Alba and business partner Christopher Gavigan launched The Honest Company, selling a collection of household goods, diapers, and body care products. The company was successful, and was valued at US$1 billion .
In early 2013, Alba released her book, The Honest Life, based on her experiences creating a natural, non-toxic life for her family. The book became a New York Times Best Seller. In October 2015, Alba launched a collection of skin care and beauty products called Honest Beauty.
As of April 2022, Alba owned 6.5 percent of the company. She is currently employed as the company's chief creative officer, receiving an annually base salary of $700,000 and restricted stock valued $1,500,000.
Charity and activism
Alba posed for a bondage-themed print advertising campaign by Declare Yourself, a campaign encouraging voter registration among youth for the 2008 United States presidential election. The ads, photographed by Mark Liddell, feature Alba wrapped in and gagged with black tape, and drew national media attention. Alba said of doing the advertisements that "it didn't freak me out at all." Alba also said, "I think it is important for young people to be aware of the need we have in this country to get them more active politically...People respond to things that are shocking."
Alba endorsed and supported Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama during the 2008 primary season. She also endorsed Hillary Clinton's campaign for president.
In June 2009, while filming The Killer Inside Me in Oklahoma City, Alba was involved in a controversy with residents when she pasted posters of sharks around town. Alba said that she was trying to bring attention to the diminishing population of great white sharks. Media outlets speculated that Alba would be pursued and charged with vandalism. On June 16, 2009, Oklahoma City police said that they would not pursue criminal charges against Alba, because none of the property owners wanted to pursue it. Alba apologized in a statement to People magazine and said that she regretted her actions. She later donated an undisclosed amount of money (over US$500) to the United Way, whose billboard she had obscured with one of the shark posters.
In 2011, Alba participated in a two day lobbying effort in Washington D.C. in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Alba returned to Capitol Hill in 2015 to lobby lawmakers as they once again debated a replacement for the 1976 Substances Control Act. She has also been a strong supporter of gay rights and on June 27, 2013, she expressed her delight with the Supreme Court's decision to strike down DOMA on her Twitter account. She tweeted "#equality #love".
Alba's charity work has included participation with Clothes Off Our Back, Habitat for Humanity, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Project HOME, RADD, Revlon Run/Walk for Women, SOS Children's Villages, Soles4Souls, Step Up and Baby2Baby. Alba is an ambassador for the 1Goal movement to provide education to children in Africa. She has also served as a Baby2Baby "angel" ambassador, donating and helping to distribute items such as diapers and clothing to families in Los Angeles.
In 2015, Alba and The Honest Company sponsored a laboratory at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. The lab was announced to be a specialized room designed to keep out dust and particles, where a team of epidemiologists would research links between household chemicals and autism.
Public image
Alba has received attention for her looks over the years and has been included in several publications' lists of the most attractive celebrities of the time. She was included in Maxim Magazine's Hot 100 list multiple times from 2001 to 2014. On this she has said, "I have to go to certain lengths to use sexuality to my advantage, while guiding people to thinking the way I want them to."
In 2002, she was voted the fifth Sexiest Female Star in a Hollywood.com poll. In 2005, she was named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People, and appeared in the magazine's 100 Most Beautiful list in 2007. She has also been named on FHM's Sexiest Women lists.
Alba was named among Playboy magazine's "25 Sexiest Celebrities" in 2006, and appeared on its cover that year. She was involved in litigation against Playboy for its use of her image on this cover (from a promotional shot for Into the Blue) without her consent, which she contended gave the impression that she was featured in the issue in a "nude pictorial". She later dropped the lawsuit after receiving a personal apology from Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, who agreed to make donations to two charities Alba had supported. Also in 2006, readers of AskMen.com voted Alba #1 on its "99 Most Desirable Women" list. In 2007, Alba was ranked No.4 on Empire Magazine's "100 Sexiest Movie Stars". Both GQ and In Style had Alba on their June 2008 covers. She appeared in the 2009 Campari calendar, which featured photos of her posing; Campari printed 9,999 copies of the calendar. In 2011, she was named one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time" by Men's Health, and in 2012 People named her one of the year's "Most Beautiful at Every Age".
In 2010, reports surfaced that a 21-year-old Chinese girl was seeking plastic surgery to resemble Alba in order to win back an ex-boyfriend; the star spoke out against the perceived need to change one's appearance for love.
Alba has commented on her fears of being typecast as a sex kitten based on the bulk of parts offered to her. In an interview, Alba said she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress but believed she needed to do movies that she would otherwise not be interested in to build her career, stating that eventually she hoped to be more selective in her film projects.
Alba has been quoted saying she will not do nudity for a role. She was given the option to appear nude in Sin City by the film's directors, Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, but declined the offer, saying, "I don't do nudity. I just don't. Maybe that makes me a bad actress. Maybe I won't get hired in some things. But I have too much anxiety". She remarked of a GQ shoot in which she was scantily clad, "They didn't want me to wear the granny panties, but I said, 'If I'm gonna be topless I need to wear granny panties."
Personal life
Alba was raised a Catholic throughout her teenage years, but left the church because she felt she was being judged for her appearance, explaining:
Older men would hit on me, and my youth pastor said it was because I was wearing provocative clothing, when I wasn't. It just made me feel like if I was in any way desirable to the opposite sex that it was my fault and it made me ashamed of my body and being a woman.
Alba also had objections to the church's condemnations of premarital sex and homosexuality, and what she saw as a lack of strong female role models in the Bible, explaining: "I thought it was a nice guide, but it certainly wasn't how I was going to live my life." Her "religious devotion [began] to wane" at age 15 when she guest-starred as a teenager with gonorrhea in the throat in a 1996 episode of the television series Chicago Hope. Her friends at church reacted negatively to her role, making her lose faith in the church. However, she has stated that she still holds a belief in God.
While filming Dark Angel in January 2000, Alba began a three-year relationship with her co-star Michael Weatherly. Weatherly proposed to Alba on her 20th birthday, which she accepted. In August 2003, they announced that they had ended their relationship. In July 2007, Alba spoke out about the breakup, saying, "I don't know [why I got engaged]. I was a virgin. He was 12 years older than me. I thought he knew better. My parents weren't happy. They're really religious. They believe God wouldn't allow the Bible to be written if it wasn't what they are supposed to believe. I'm completely different."
Alba met Cash Warren, son of actor Michael Warren, while filming Fantastic Four in 2004. They were married in Los Angeles in May 2008. They have three children: daughters Honor Marie, born in June 2008, and Haven Garner born in August 2011, and a son, Hayes, born in December 2017. The first pictures of her eldest daughter, which appear in the July 2008 issue of OK! magazine, reportedly earned Alba US$1.5 million.
In 2014, Alba appeared in Henry Louis Gates's genealogy series Finding Your Roots'', which documented her learning about her lineage, which was traced back to the ancient Maya civilization. The show's research indicated that her surname was not inherited from a Spanish man, since her father's direct paternal line (Y-DNA) was Haplogroup Q-M3, being Indigenous in origin. Her father's matrilineal line (mtDNA) was Jewish and revealed that lawyer Alan Dershowitz is a genetic relative of hers. Alba's global admixture was 72.7% European, 22.5% East Asian and Native American, 2% Sub-Saharan African, 0.3% Middle Eastern and North African, 0.1% South Asian and 2.4% "No Match".
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
Video games
Awards
References
External links
Category:1981 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American actresses
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Category:People of Maya descent | [] | [
"Alba began her career by winning an acting competition in Beverly Hills, the grand prize of which was free acting classes. After taking her first acting lessons, she was signed by an agent nine months later. Her first on-screen role was a small part in the 1994 film Camp Nowhere. She also appeared in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child. Later, she moved into television with a recurring role in The Secret World of Alex Mack and as Maya in the television series Flipper.",
"The text does not provide specific information on how well Alba did at the beginning of her career.",
"The text does not provide specific information on where Alba took her acting lessons.",
"Yes, after graduating from high school, Alba studied acting with William H. Macy and his wife, Felicity Huffman, at the Atlantic Theater Company, which was developed by Macy and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and film director, David Mamet. ",
"The text does not provide information on how any specific movie featuring Alba performed.",
"Yes, besides her first role in Camp Nowhere, Alba made several other appearances. She was in two national television commercials for Nintendo and J.C. Penney as a child, and was later featured in several independent films. On television, she appeared in The Secret World of Alex Mack, Flipper, Brooklyn South, Beverly Hills, 90210, and Love Boat: The Next Wave. In 1999, she appeared in the Randy Quaid comedy feature P.U.N.K.S., the romantic comedy Never Been Kissed, and the comedy-horror film Idle Hands."
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C_52400cd18faf47529b5fed938a44dfd8_0 | Seth Rogen | Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. His mother, Sandy (nee Belogus), is a social worker, and his father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of the Workmen's Circle Jewish fraternal organization. Since Rogen's father is American, he has American citizenship by birth, though the actor has stated "I definitely associate with being Canadian much more than being American" because he grew up in Canada. He has described his parents, who met on kibbutz Beit Alfa in Israel, as "radical Jewish socialists". | Personal life | Rogen began dating writer/actress Lauren Miller in 2004. The two met while he was working on Da Ali G Show. The couple became engaged on September 29, 2010, and married on October 2, 2011 in Sonoma County, California, where they continue to reside. Miller has had minor on-screen roles in a few of Rogen's films. Rogen has been outspoken about awareness of Alzheimer's disease. No one in his biological family has it but it runs in his wife's side, and has affected her mother for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be." During the interview, he talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011. Rogen testified about the disease and his charity before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services on February 26, 2014. Rogen started the Hilarity for Charity movement, to inspire change and raise awareness of Alzheimer's disease among the Millennial Generation. On February 25, 2016, Rogen and Miller were honored with the unite2gether accolade from unite4:humanity for their work promoting awareness and raising money for Alzheimer's research through Hilarity for Charity. Rogen appeared in a Bud Light commercial celebrating LGBT Pride Month and the Supreme Court of the United States ruling same-sex couples the right to marry. He is a purported muse for the gay community, calling himself a "Bear Icon" in an appearance on Conan. Rogen is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (Lambda Delta chapter) at the University of Vermont. He was initiated in April 2017 after his fourth visit to the campus for his Hilarity for Charity movement. Rogen is also a member of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and an open marijuana user. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Seth Aaron Rogen (; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker. Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and got a part on Apatow's sitcom Undeclared in 2001, which also hired him as a writer. After landing his job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), Apatow guided Rogen toward a film career. As a writer, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
His first movie appearance was a minor role in Donnie Darko (2001), and he had a supporting part in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), which he co-produced. He had leading roles in Apatow's comedies Knocked Up (2007) and Funny People (2009). Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, co-wrote the films Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), The Green Hornet (2011) and This Is the End (2013), and directed This Is the End and The Interview (2014), all of which starred Rogen. He had further comedic roles in Neighbors (2014), its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist (2017), and Long Shot (2019). He has played dramatic roles in 50/50 (2011), Take This Waltz (2011), Steve Jobs (2015) and The Fabelmans (2022). He also starred in the FX on Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022) for which he received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations.
Rogen has co-developed the AMC television series Preacher (2016–2019), on which he also served as writer, executive producer and director. He has also executive produced the Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys from 2019, and Invincible from 2021. Rogen is also known for his voice roles in the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), the Kung Fu Panda trilogy, The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Sausage Party (2016), The Lion King (2019), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
Early life
Seth Aaron Rogen was born on April 15, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to a Jewish family of Ukrainian and Russian origin. His mother, Sandy Belogus, is a social worker, and his American father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of the Workmen's Circle Jewish fraternal organization. Of his dual citizenship, Rogen has stated, "I definitely associate with being Canadian much more than being American" because he grew up in Canada. He has described his parents, who met on kibbutz Beit Alfa in Israel, as "radical Jewish socialists." Rogen has an older sister named Danya. He attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School, incorporating many of his classmates into his writing, and took up kyokushin karate for 10 years. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.
As a child, Rogen did not want to pursue any career other than comedy, stating, "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted." He got his start in show business at age 12 after enrolling in a comedy workshop taught by Mark Pooley. His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents and his camp counsellors. As a teenager, he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties, later shifting to bars. A mohel paid him to write jokes. At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, whom he had met at bar mitzvah classes. Based on their teenage experiences, Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that American Pie (1999) had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but they decided that the film "'managed to totally avoid all honest interaction between characters,' which is what we're going for."
His mother was supportive of his comic endeavours and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuk's. With his deadpan humour, he placed second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old. Also when Rogen was 16, his father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call. Rogen dropped out of high school, began working for Apatow and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.
Career
1999–2006: Early work and friendship with Judd Apatow
Rogen's acting debut was as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak" in Apatow's Freaks and Geeks, an eventual cult hit series first released in 1999. Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999. Although well reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings. Impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills, Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular but nerdy college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading man material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show. Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production.
Following the show's cancellation in 2002, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him, as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer. He would soon be a part of Apatow's "frat pack," a close-knit group that includes Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said, "I'm such a comedy fan that, even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics." Around this time, Apatow would come up with odd requests for Rogen and Goldberg, such as turn an idea of his into a movie in 10 days and come up with 100 one-page ideas for films. Regarding Apatow's professional effect on Rogen, the actor said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career."
Rogen had roles in Donnie Darko (2001) and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004). A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004. Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). Rogen also co-produced it and improvised all his dialogue. "[Rogen] hadn't done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote. The Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right and Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore believed that Rogen had his moments in the film whereas Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times said the actor was "droopily deadpan". He followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree (2006), a critically panned comedy featuring Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson.
2007–2009: Breakthrough as a leading man
His breakthrough came when Universal Studios green-lit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production: Knocked Up (2007), a romantic comedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. Upon completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real-life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production. Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve-racking" and found comfort with the supporting cast since, even though he played a lead, the focus was not all on him. Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial hit, garnering an approval rating of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million. Rogen also received favourable reviews. Later that year, he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he had written with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them. The film and its writing was praised, with critics finding it to be very authentic. It topped the U.S. box office for two weeks in a row. He made a vocal cameo appearance in the animated film Shrek the Third, also released in 2007. Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2007.
Rogen's projects in 2008 included Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, in which Rogen voiced Morton the Mouse, and the fantasy film The Spiderwick Chronicles, in which he voiced a hobgoblin. Rogen additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, also produced by Apatow and starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character. He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes. The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot – a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies – had no focus and was drawn out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor," Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly. He again lent his voice to another animated movie, this time Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie. It did exceptionally well in theatres, making more than $630 million. Rogen made a cameo appearance in the comedy Step Brothers, released in July. Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script. Rogen was chosen to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer that he goes on the run with. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said he wrote what he knew. Pineapple Express was released to theatres in August and made $101 million in ticket sales against its $27 million production budget. Movie critics lauded it, appreciating their performances and its humor.
In April 2008, Empire reported Rogen and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons. He also voiced a character in the episode, titled "Homer the Whopper," which opened the 21st season. Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles of two Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie," but complained, "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that ... but you can't show two people having sex – that's too much." The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office. Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), which did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million. He then starred in the Jody Hill–directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report, in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theatres on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from The Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe... Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless." Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts. Funny People was a commercial failure, coming up short of earning back its $75 million budget. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with a consensus that it had "considerable emotional depth." Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live again in 2009, where the music video for the Lonely Island song "Like a Boss," in which he starred, premiered.
2010–2014: Venture into directing and controversy
After years of development, a feature film adaptation of The Green Hornet was handled by Rogen and Goldberg, with a theatrical release in January 2011. Rogen chose to do a re-imagining of the title character. He was executive producer of the movie and also cast himself as the main character. Rogen later admitted to having been overwhelmed by handling its $120 million budget. "It's insane. But it's not so much the specific amount of money that's stressful, it's all the things that go along with making a movie of that size." The actor also went on a strict weight-loss diet to play the slim crime fighter. The Green Hornet was a critical disappointment; Adam Graham of the Detroit News called it "a big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie," and the Arizona Republics Bill Goodykoontz found its story to have fallen apart. Nonetheless, it still opened at No. 1 at the box office, making $33 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross more than $225 million. In 2011, Rogen and Evan Goldberg founded the production company Point Grey Pictures, named after Point Grey Secondary School, which they both attended.
Rogen provided the voice and motion capture for the titular character, a grey alien, in the science fiction comedy Paul (2011). The film also starred Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as a pair of geeks who help Paul escape from FBI agents. He reprised his voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2, as well as produced and took a supporting role in Jonathan Levine's 50/50. The dramedy about cancer was based on an autobiographical script by screenwriter Will Reiser and was released in September 2011. The drama Take This Waltz, his fourth film of 2011, featured Rogen as a man whose wife (played by Michelle Williams) explores a new relationship with another man. From 2011 to 2015, Rogen played Dirty Randy, a librarian and pornographer, in the sitcom The League, in addition to writing two episodes. Rogen hosted the 27th Independent Spirit Awards in February 2012, and the road movie The Guilt Trip, co-starring Barbra Streisand, was released in cinemas that December. The film was about an inventor (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a road trip, as he attempts to sell his new product while also reuniting her with a lost love.
In 2013, Rogen and his screenwriting collaborator, Evan Goldberg, made their directorial debut with This Is the End, a comedy featuring Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson and Danny McBride playing fictional versions of themselves facing a global apocalypse. The film received positive reviews and was No. 2 at the box office on its opening weekend. Rogen recurred on the revived fourth season of the comedy series Arrested Development in May 2013, playing a young George Bluth Sr. (played by Jeffrey Tambor) in several flashback scenes. He co-wrote the foreword for the 2014 book Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris. and was reported be working on an adaptation with Goldberg.
Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live for a third time in 2014. That May, Rogen starred in Neighbors with Rose Byrne and Zac Efron, which was directed by Nicholas Stoller. In the film, Rogen and Byrne play a couple that comes into conflict with a fraternity, led by Efron's character, living next door. The film became Rogen's highest-grossing non-animated film, having grossed over $270 million globally. Rogen and Evan Goldberg co-directed and co-wrote the story for the action comedy The Interview, starring Rogen and James Franco as a pair of journalists who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un after setting up an interview with him. In June 2014, North Korea threatened a "merciless" retaliation on the United States if it did not ban The Interview, labelling the movie "an act of war" and a "wanton act of terror," and Rogen himself a "gangster filmmaker." In December, Sony Pictures announced that it was cancelling the release of the movie after a cyber attack on the studio, allegedly tied to North Korea and threats made subsequently by Kim Jong-un. As a result of criticism of this decision, Sony subsequently made the film available online and it allowed a theatrical release on December 25, 2014, drawing mixed opinions from film critics. Scott Foundas of Variety found the film to be "about as funny as a communist food shortage, and just as protracted," while The Daily Telegraph critic Robbie Collin opined that it was "a raucous, abrasive, snort-out-loud satire with mischief in its heart and methane in its gut." It grossed $11.3 million in theatres, but had strong online sales and rentals. Also in 2014, Rogen made cameo appearances in the comedy 22 Jump Street as the double of Jonah Hill's character and in James Franco's drama The Sound and the Fury as a telegrapher. During the time, Rogen and Goldberg, through their Point Grey Pictures company, had set up a joint venture with major client Good Universe to set up mainstream comedy films.
2015–present: Continued film and television work
Rogen portrayed Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Wozniak in the Danny Boyle–directed Steve Jobs biopic (2015), based on a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. His performance in the film was widely praised, and he was commended by Wozniak himself for doing an "excellent job." In November 2015, Rogen starred alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie in the Christmas-themed comedy The Night Before as three best friends who annually reunite to celebrate Christmas Eve. In 2016, he reprised his voice role as Master Mantis in Kung Fu Panda 3 and as Mac Radner in the Neighbors sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising. Along with Goldberg and Sam Catlin, Rogen developed the television series Preacher for Sony Pictures Television, which premiered on AMC in May 2016. The show is based on the comic book series of the same name that was created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and follows a small-town preacher named Jesse Custer (played by Dominic Cooper) who possesses a superpower that allows him to command others to do as he says. His last release of 2016 was the animated comedy Sausage Party, which, in addition to voicing the lead character Frank – a sausage that tries to escape his fate in a supermarket – he co-wrote and produced. Sausage Party became the most commercially successful R-rated animated film of all time, overtaking South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999). Associated Press critic Lindsey Bahr wrote of the film: "There is no one out there making comedies quite like Rogen and Goldberg. They are putting their definitive stamp on the modern American comedy one decency-smashing double entendre at a time."
Along with Evan Goldberg, Rogen directed and executive produced the science fiction comedy series Future Man, starring Josh Hutcherson, which premiered on the streaming service Hulu in November 2017. The same year, Rogen and Goldberg also co-directed a short commercial film for Walmart, titled Bananas Town, and Rogen portrayed Sandy Schklair, the script supervisor for The Room director and star Tommy Wiseau (played by James Franco), in the Franco-directed film The Disaster Artist, based on the book of the same name, which chronicles the making of the 2003 film The Room. Rogen, as the founder of Hilarity for Charity, an organization that raises funds for Alzheimer's research and support, hosts an annual fundraising comedy event named after the organization. The sixth event was broadcast through the streaming service Netflix in April 2018. In July 2018, it was announced that Rogen was to voice public service announcements in his native Vancouver's TransLink transit system and Toronto's Toronto Transit Commission. Rogen co-starred alongside Kristen Bell and Kelsey Grammer as the love interest of Bell's character in the 2018 comedy-drama Like Father, directed by Rogen's wife, Lauren Miller. In 2019, Rogen starred opposite Charlize Theron in the romantic comedy Long Shot, as an unemployed journalist who re-connects with his childhood love interest and babysitter (Theron), who has become a major political figure.
Rogen co-starred in the 2019 remake of the animated musical film The Lion King (1994), voicing the warthog Pumbaa, who rescues the film's protagonist Simba with his friend Timon, voiced by Donald Glover and Billy Eichner, respectively. He sang three songs in the film, which were included on the soundtrack release. Rogen said that, "[a]s an actor, I don't think I'm right for every role — there are a lot of roles I don't think I'm right for even in movies I'm making — but Pumbaa was one I knew I could do well." It had a middling reception from critics, and became one of the highest-grossing films of all time with earnings of more than $1.663 billion. Rogen and Eichner received praise for their chemistry. In 2019, Rogen also produced the comedy Good Boys, starring Jacob Tremblay for Universal Pictures, and the television shows The Boys and Black Monday, directing the pilot for the latter show with Goldberg. In 2021, he voiced Allen the Alien in the animated series Invincible, in which he also serves as producer. Rogen filmed scenes for the James Franco film Zeroville in 2014, which was not released until 2019.
Rogen has a guest chapter giving advice in Tim Ferriss' self-help book Tools of Titans.
In 2020, it was announced that Rogen would serve as a producer for the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. In addition to producing, he co-wrote it, and provided the voice of Bebop.
Rogen's first book, Yearbook, was published in May 2021. Yearbook is a memoir that features a collection of essays spanning from Rogen's adolescence to his experiences in Hollywood. In September 2021, Nintendo announced in a Nintendo Direct presentation that Rogen would be voicing Donkey Kong in the 2023 computer-animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie, with a spin-off film focused around the character planned, as well.
Political views and activism
Politically, Rogen describes himself as "left wing."
Rogen has been active in raising awareness of Alzheimer's disease. The disease runs in his wife's family and has affected his mother-in-law for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be." During the interview, he talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011. Rogen testified about the disease and his charity before the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services on February 26, 2014. Rogen started the Hilarity for Charity movement to inspire change and raise awareness of Alzheimer's disease among the Millennial Generation. Rogen and his wife also initiated the Alzheimer's and Dementia Care Grant Program with Home Instead Senior Care to provide free at-home care to senior citizens. On February 25, 2016, Rogen and Miller were honoured with the unite2gether accolade from unite4:humanity for their work promoting awareness and raising money for Alzheimer's research through Hilarity for Charity.
Rogen appeared in a Bud Light commercial celebrating LGBT Pride Month and the Supreme Court of the United States ruling that granted same-sex couples the right to marry. Rogen is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity (Lambda Delta chapter) at the University of Vermont. He was initiated in April 2017 after his fourth visit to the campus for his Hilarity for Charity movement. Rogen is also a member of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and an open marijuana user. Rogen and his longtime friend and collaborator Evan Goldberg launched the cannabis company Houseplant in Canada in 2019.
In June 2018, Rogen was invited by Mitt Romney to speak at a seminar for awareness of Alzheimer's disease hosted by Romney in Park City, Utah. Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, was in attendance, asking Rogen for a photo after Ryan's children engaged Rogen in conversation. Rogen refused, stating in an interview with Stephen Colbert, "I look over and his kids are standing right there expectantly, clearly fans of mine, and I said, 'No way, man!'" and telling Ryan, "Furthermore, I hate what you're doing to the country at this moment, and I'm counting the days until you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have."
On July 3, 2018, Rogen criticized Twitter and its CEO Jack Dorsey, claiming he had a "bizarre need to verify white supremacists." Variety reported that he was "directly in touch" with Dorsey over the issue. Several media outlets, including Fortune, speculated that Rogen was referring to alt-right figure Jason Kessler, and the Proud Boys in particular.
Rogen is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Views on Israel
During his July 2020 promotional tour for his comedy, An American Pickle, Rogen said he was "fed a huge amount of lies about Israel" growing up, commenting: "They never tell you that – 'Oh, by the way, there were people there.' They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the fucking door's open."
Rogen has said he believes antisemitism has remained pervasive and prevalent, but also spoke to the importance of a strong Jewish diaspora: "You don't keep something you're trying to preserve all in one place." Rogen later expanded on his comments, stating in an interview: "I think that it's a tricky conversation to have in jest. And that's something that perhaps I now look at and say, 'Oh, now that we joked about that, perhaps we could clarify some things so people don't run around thinking that I think Israel shouldn't exist anymore.' And I'm sensitive to Jewish people being hurt, as a Jewish person. And I'm sensitive to Jewish people thinking I'm not a proud Jewish person, which I am. Truthfully, I think my pride in being Jewish and how deeply I identify as a Jewish person perhaps made me feel like I was able to say things without as much context as perhaps I should give them – you know what I'm saying? And I am sensitive to Jews thinking that I , and that there are a lot of Jewish people who are alive who wouldn't be without Israel. And my parents met in Israel; I've been to Israel several times."
Personal life
Rogen began dating writer and actress Lauren Miller in 2004. The two met while he was working on Da Ali G Show. The couple became engaged on September 29, 2010, and married on October 2, 2011, in Sonoma County, California. Miller has had minor onscreen roles in a few of Rogen's films. They have stated they do not plan to have children.
Rogen created a cannabis brand in the city of Toronto, Ontario, with his friend Evan Goldberg. After attending pottery classes with his wife in 2017, he began making ceramics. He cites artist Kenneth Price as an inspiration.
In January 2021, Rogen revealed on Twitter that he has mild Tourette syndrome, which runs in his family.
Written works
References
External links
Hilarity for Charity Seth Rogen's Foundation for Alzheimer's
Seth Rogen appearances on C-SPAN
Category:1982 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:20th-century Canadian comedians
Category:20th-century Canadian male actors
Category:21st-century American comedians
Category:21st-century American male actors
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Category:21st-century Canadian comedians
Category:21st-century Canadian male actors
Category:21st-century Canadian male writers
Category:21st-century Canadian screenwriters
Category:Alzheimer's disease activists
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Category:Canadian male comedians
Category:Canadian male film actors
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Category:Jewish comedy writers
Category:Jewish male comedians
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Category:People with acquired American citizenship
Category:People with Tourette syndrome
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C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_1 | New York Dolls | The New York Dolls were an American hard rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums--New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)--became among the most popular cult records in rock. | Formation | Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways. Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia. The original lineup's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time consisted of, vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain, and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today".
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as Kiss, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Damned, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and The Smiths whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Their show at the Beacon Theatre, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine formerly a member of Street Punk. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy." The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans on 23 April 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died on 14 January 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC's Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released "David Johansen," on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just weeks later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano, vocals (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1976)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
Category:1971 establishments in New York City
Category:2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Category:Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Category:American glam rock musical groups
Category:Protopunk groups
Category:Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Category:Musical groups from New York City
Category:Mercury Records artists
Category:Musical groups established in 1971
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Category:Atco Records artists | [] | [
"Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia originally played together in a band called \"the Pox\". After the frontman of that band quit, they started a clothing business and then formed another band in 1970, recruiting Johnny Thunders to join on bass. This band was originally called the Dolls. After Sylvain left for a few months, Thunders and Murcia split up. But eventually, Thunders, recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, suggested that Murcia replace their original drummer. Thunders then started playing lead guitar and singing for the band Actress. When Thunders didn't want to be the front man anymore, David Johansen joined the band. Rick Rivets left and was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain. This group, which now consisted of David Johansen, Johnny Thunders, Sylvain Sylvain, Arthur \"Killer\" Kane, and Billy Murcia, was the original lineup of the New York Dolls. Their first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at the Endicott Hotel.",
"The name \"the New York Dolls\" was inspired by the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop across the street from A Different Drummer, a men's boutique where Sylvain Sylvain worked.",
"Based on the context provided, the original lineup of the New York Dolls included David Johansen as the singer, Johnny Thunders and Sylvain Sylvain as guitarists, Arthur \"Killer\" Kane as the bass guitarist, and Billy Murcia as the drummer. Rick Rivets was an initial guitarist but was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months.",
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"The New York Dolls' big break came when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert."
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C_3bc51535ed1f422e8c4fb50b887db0ed_0 | New York Dolls | The New York Dolls were an American hard rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums--New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)--became among the most popular cult records in rock. | Dissolution: 1975-77 | By 1975 the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan and Kane as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a 5-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play. In March and April McClaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument with Johansen. Blackie Lawless replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up The band reformed in July for an August tour of Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986. After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Their show at the Beacon Theater, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine . The group played its last show December 30, 1976 , CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | New York Dolls were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1971. Along with the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, they were one of the first bands of the early punk rock scenes. Although the band never achieved much commercial success and their original line-up fell apart quickly, the band's first two albums—New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974)—became among the most popular cult records in rock. The line-up at this time consisted of, vocalist David Johansen, guitarist Johnny Thunders, bassist Arthur Kane, guitarist and pianist Sylvain Sylvain, and drummer Jerry Nolan; the latter two had replaced Rick Rivets and Billy Murcia, respectively, in 1972. On stage, they donned an androgynous wardrobe, wearing high heels, eccentric hats, satin, makeup, spandex, and dresses. Nolan described the group in 1974 as "the Dead End Kids of today".
According to the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (1995), the New York Dolls predated the punk and glam metal movements and were "one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years". They influenced rock groups such as Kiss, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Damned, Mötley Crüe, Guns N' Roses and The Smiths whose frontman Morrissey organized a reunion show for the New York Dolls' surviving members in 2004. After reuniting, they recruited new musicians to tour and record. They released three more albums—One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006), Cause I Sez So (2009) and Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011). Following a 2011 British tour with Alice Cooper, the band once again disbanded.
History
Formation
Sylvain Sylvain and Billy Murcia, who went to junior high school and high school together, started playing in a band called "the Pox" in 1967. After the frontman quit, Murcia and Sylvain started a clothing business called Truth and Soul and Sylvain took a job at A Different Drummer, a men's boutique that was across the street from the New York Doll Hospital, a doll repair shop. Sylvain said that the shop inspired the name for their future band. In 1970 they formed a band again and recruited Johnny Thunders to join on bass, though Sylvain ended up teaching him to play guitar. They called themselves the Dolls. When Sylvain left the band to spend a few months in London, Thunders and Murcia went their separate ways.
Thunders was eventually recruited by Kane and Rick Rivets, who had been playing together in the Bronx. At Thunders' suggestion, Murcia replaced the original drummer. Thunders played lead guitar and sang for the band Actress. An October 1971 rehearsal tape recorded by Rivets was released as Dawn of the Dolls. When Thunders decided that he no longer wanted to be the front man, David Johansen joined the band. Initially, the group was composed of singer David Johansen, guitarists Johnny Thunders and Rick Rivets (who was replaced by Sylvain Sylvain after a few months), bass guitarist Arthur "Killer" Kane and drummer Billy Murcia.
The original line-up's first performance was on Christmas Eve 1971 at a homeless shelter, the Endicott Hotel. After getting a manager and attracting some music industry interest, the New York Dolls got a break when Rod Stewart invited them to open for him at a London concert.
In the band's early days, the New York Dolls performed at the Mercer Art Center, where Ruby and the Rednecks opened for and were influenced by them.
Billy Murcia's death
While on a brief tour of England in 1972, Murcia was invited to a party, where he passed out from an overdose. He was put in a bathtub and force-fed coffee in an attempt to revive him. Instead, it resulted in asphyxiation. He was found dead on the morning of November 6, 1972, at the age of 21.
Record deal: 1972–1975
Once back in New York, the Dolls auditioned drummers, including Marc Bell (who was to go on to play with Richard Hell, and with the Ramones under the stage name "Marky Ramone"), Peter Criscuola (better known as Peter Criss, the original and former drummer of Kiss), and Jerry Nolan, a friend of the band. They selected Nolan, and after US Mercury Records' A&R man Paul Nelson signed them, they began sessions for their debut album. In 1972, the band took on Marty Thau as manager.
New York Dolls was produced by singer-songwriter, musician and solo artist Todd Rundgren. In an interview in Creem magazine, Rundgren says he barely touched the recording; everybody was debating how to do the mix. Sales were sluggish, especially in the middle US, and a Stereo Review magazine reviewer in 1973 compared the Dolls' guitar playing to the sound of lawnmowers. America's mass rock audience's reaction to the Dolls was mixed. In a Creem magazine poll, they were elected both best and worst new group of 1973. The Dolls also toured Europe, and, while appearing on UK television, host Bob Harris of the BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test derided the group as "mock rock," comparing them unfavorably to the Rolling Stones.
For their next album, Too Much Too Soon, the quintet hired producer George "Shadow" Morton, whose productions for the Shangri-Las and other girl-groups in the mid-1960s had been among the band's favorites.
Dissolution: 1975–1976
By 1975, the Dolls were playing smaller venues than they had been previously. Drug and alcohol abuse by Thunders, Nolan, and Kane, as well as artistic differences added to the tensions among members. In late February or early March, Malcolm McLaren became their informal manager. He got the band red leather outfits to wear on stage and a communist flag as backdrop. The Dolls did a five-concert tour of New York's five boroughs, supported by Television and Pure Hell. The Little Hippodrome (Manhattan) show was recorded and released by Fan Club records in 1982 as Red Patent Leather. It was originally a bootleg album that was later remixed by Sylvain, with former manager Marty Thau credited as executive producer. Due to Kane being unable to play that night, roadie Peter Jordan played bass, though he was credited as having played "second bass". Jordan filled in for Kane when he was too inebriated to play.
In March and April, McLaren took the band on a tour of South Carolina and Florida. Jordan replaced Kane for most of those shows. Thunders and Nolan left after an argument. Blackie Lawless, who later founded W.A.S.P., replaced Thunders for the remainder of the tour after which the band broke up.
The band reformed in July for an August tour in Japan with Jeff Beck and Felix Pappalardi. Johansen, Sylvain and Jordan were joined by former Elephant's Memory keyboardist Chris Robison and drummer Tony Machine. One of the shows was documented on the album Tokyo Dolls Live (Fan Club/New Rose). The material is similar to that on Red Patent Leather, but notable for a radically re-arranged "Frankenstein" and a cover of Big Joe Turner's "Flip Flop Fly." The album is undated and has no production credit, but was issued circa 1986.
After their return to New York, the Dolls resumed playing shows in the US and Canada. Mercury dropped the Dolls on 7 October 1975, their contract with Mercury having expired on 8 August 1975 - five months after Thunders' and Nolan's departures from the band.
Their show at the Beacon Theatre, on New Year's Eve, 1975 met with great critical acclaim. After a drunken argument with Sylvain, Robison was fired and replaced by pianist/keyboardist Bobbie Blaine formerly a member of Street Punk. The group toured throughout 1976, performing a set including some songs with lyrics by David Johansen that would later appear on David Johansen's solo albums including "Funky But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Wreckless Crazy." The group played its last show December 30, 1976 at Max's Kansas City; on the same bill as Blondie.
Individual endeavors: 1975–2004
Shortly after returning from Florida, Thunders and Nolan formed The Heartbreakers with bassist Richard Hell, who had left Television the same week that they quit the Dolls. Thunders later pursued a solo career. He died in New Orleans on 23 April 1991, allegedly of an overdose of both heroin and methadone. It also came to light that he suffered from t-cell leukemia. Nolan died on 14 January 1992 following a stroke, brought about by bacterial meningitis. In 1976, Kane and Blackie Lawless formed the Killer Kane Band in Los Angeles. Immediately after the New York Dolls' second breakup, Johansen began a solo career. By the late 1980s, he achieved moderate success under the pseudonym, Buster Poindexter. Sylvain formed The Criminals, a popular band at CBGB.
A posthumous New York Dolls album, Lipstick Killers, made up of early demo tapes of the original Dolls (with Billy Murcia on drums), was released in a cassette-only edition on ROIR Records in 1981, and subsequently re-released on CD, and then on vinyl in early 2006. All the tracks from this title – sometimes referred to as The Mercer Street Sessions (though actually recorded at Blue Rock Studio, New York) – are included on the CD Private World, along with other tracks recorded elsewhere, including a previously unreleased Dolls original, "Endless Party." Three more unreleased studio tracks, including another previously unreleased Dolls original, "Lone Star Queen," are included on the Rock 'n' Roll album. The other two are covers: the "Courageous Cat" theme, from the original Courageous Cat cartoon series; and a second attempt at "Don't Mess With Cupid," a song written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd for Otis Redding, and first recorded independently for what was later to become the Mercer Street/Blue Rock Sessions.
Sylvain formed his own band, The Criminals, then cut a solo album for RCA, while also working with Johansen. He later became a taxicab driver in New York.
Johansen, meanwhile, formed the David Johansen Group, and released an eponymous LP in 1978, recorded at the Bottom Line in NYC's Greenwich Village,featuring Sylvain Mizrahi and Johnny Thunders as guest musicians.
In May, 1978, he also released "David Johansen," on Blue Sky Records, a label created by Steve Paul, formerly of The Scene. Johansen continued to tour with his solo project and released four more albums, In Style, 1979; Here Comes the Night, 1981; Live it Up, 1982; and Sweet Revenge, 1984.
During the later 1980's, Johansen, ever-evolving, decided to try to liberate himself from the expectations of his New York Dolls perceived persona, and, on a whim, created the persona Buster Poindexter.
The success of this act led him to be invited to appear in multiple films: Scrooged, Freejack, and Let it Ride, among others.
He also formed a band called David Johansen and the Harry Smiths, named after the eccentric ethnomusicologist, performing jump blues, Delta blues, and some original songs.
During this period, in the early 1990s, Sylvain moved to Los Angeles and recorded one album Sleep Baby Doll, on Fishhead Records. His band, for that record, consisted of Brian Keats on drums, Dave Vanian's Phantom Chords, Speediejohn Carlucci (who had played with the Fuzztones), and Olivier Le Baron on lead guitar. Guest appearances by Frank Infante of Blondie and Derwood Andrews of Generation X were also included on the record. It has been re-released as New York A Go Go,.
Reunion, return to recording, second dissolution: 2004–11, and death of Sylvain
Morrissey, having been a longtime fan of the band and head of their 1970s UK fan club, organized a reunion of the three surviving members of the band's classic line-up (Johansen, Sylvain and Kane) for the Meltdown Festival in London on June 16, 2004. The reunion led to a live LP and DVD on Morrissey's Attack label, as well as a documentary film, New York Doll, on the life of Arthur Kane. However, future plans for the Dolls were affected by Kane's sudden death from leukemia just weeks later on July 13, 2004. Yet the following month the band appeared at Little Steven's Underground Garage Festival on August 14 in New York City before returning to the UK to play several more festivals through the remainder of 2004.
In July 2005, the two surviving members announced a tour and a new album entitled One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This. Released on July 25, 2006, the album featured guitarist Steve Conte, bassist Sami Yaffa (ex-Hanoi Rocks), drummer Brian Delaney and keyboardist Brian Koonin, formerly a member of David Johansen and the Harry Smiths. On July 20, 2006, the New York Dolls appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, followed by a live performance in Philadelphia at the WXPN All About The Music Festival, and on July 22, 2006, a taped appearance on The Henry Rollins Show. On August 18, 2006, the band performed in a free concert at New York's Seaport Music.
In October 2006, the band embarked on a UK tour, with Sylvain taking time while in Glasgow to speak to John Kilbride of STV. The discussion covered the band's history and the current state of their live show and songwriting, with Sylvain commenting that "even if you come to our show thinking 'how can it be like it was before,' we turn that around 'cos we've got such a great live rock 'n roll show". In November 2006, the Dolls began headlining "Little Steven's Underground Garage Presents the Rolling Rock and Roll Show," about 20 live gigs with numerous other bands. In April 2007, the band played in Australia and New Zealand, appearing at the V Festival with Pixies, Pet Shop Boys, Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Jarvis Cocker and Phoenix.
On September 22, 2007, New York Dolls were removed from the current artists section of Roadrunner Records' website, signifying the group's split with the label. The band played the O2 Wireless Festival in Hyde Park, London on July 4, 2008, with Morrissey and Beck and the Lounge On The Farm Festival on July 12, 2008. On November 14, 2008, it was announced that the producer of their first album, Todd Rundgren, would be producing a new album, which would be followed by a world tour. The finishing touches on the album were made in Rundgren's studio on the island of Kauai. The album, Cause I Sez So, was released on May 5, 2009 on Atco Records.
The band played at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2009, and a show at London's 100 Club on May 14, 2009 supported by Spizzenergi.
On March 18, 2010, the band announced another two concert dates at KOKO in Camden, London and the Academy in Dublin on April 20. In December 2010, it was announced the band would release their fifth album which had been recorded in Newcastle upon Tyne. The album, Dancing Backward in High Heels, featuring new guitarist Frank Infante (formerly of Blondie) was released on March 15, 2011.
On March 1, 2011, it was announced the New York Dolls would be the opening act for a summer tour featuring Mötley Crüe and Poison. They announced a new lineup for the tour, featuring guitarist Earl Slick, who held previous stints with David Bowie and John Lennon, bassist Kenny Aaronson, who had toured with Bob Dylan, and drummer Jason Sutter, formerly of Foreigner.
In a 2016 interview, Earl Slick confirmed the band was over. "Oh, yeah, it's long gone. There was no point in doing it anymore and it was kinda spent. You know, David really does enjoy the Buster thing. He's so good at it. I've seen him do it a couple of times this last year, and man! He's got it down, you know."
Sylvain Sylvain died on January 13, 2021, at age 69, leaving David Johansen as the last surviving original member of the band.
Musical style
According to AllMusic editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine, the New York Dolls developed an original style of hard rock that presaged both punk rock and heavy metal music, and drew on elements such as the "dirty rock & roll" of the Rolling Stones, the "anarchic noise" of the Stooges, the glam rock of David Bowie and T. Rex, and girl group pop music. Erlewine credited the band for creating punk rock "before there was a term for it." Ken Tucker, who referred to them as a proto-punk band, wrote that they were strongly influenced by the "New York sensibility" of Lou Reed: "The mean wisecracks and impassioned cynicism that informed the Dolls' songs represented an attitude that Reed's work with the Velvet Underground embodied, as did the Dolls' distinct lack of musicianship."
When they began performing, four of the band's five members wore Spandex and platform boots, while Johansen—the band's lyricist and "conceptmaster"— often preferred high heels and a dress occasionally. Fashion historian Valerie Steele said that, while the majority of the punk scene pursued an understated "street look", the New York Dolls followed an English glam rock "look of androgyny—leather and knee-length boots, chest hair, and bleach". According to James McNair of The Independent, "when they began pedalling their trashy glam-punk around lower Manhattan in 1971, they were more burlesque act than band; a bunch of lipsticked, gutter chic-endorsing cross-dressers". Music journalist Nick Kent argued that the New York Dolls were "quintessential glam rockers" because of their flamboyant fashion, while their technical shortcomings as musicians and Johnny Thunders' "trouble-prone presence" gave them a punk-rock reputation.
By contrast, Robert Christgau preferred for them to not be categorized as a glam rock band, but instead as "the best hard-rock band since the Rolling Stones". Robert Hilburn, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that the band exhibited a strong influence from the Rolling Stones, but had distinguished themselves by Too Much Too Soon (1974) as "a much more independent, original force" because of their "definite touch of the humor and carefreeness of early (ie. mid-1950s) rock". Simon Reynolds felt that, by their 2009 album Cause I Sez So, the band exhibited the sound "not of the sloppy, rambunctious Dolls of punk mythology but of a tight, lean hard-rock band."
Band members
Former members
David Johansen – vocals, harmonica (1971–1976, 2004–2011)
Sylvain Sylvain – guitar, bass, piano, vocals (1971–1976, 2004–2011; died 2021)
Arthur Kane – bass guitar (1971–1975, 2004; died 2004)
Johnny Thunders - guitar, vocals (1971-1975; died 1991)
Billy Murcia – drums (1971–1972; died 1972)
Rick Rivets – guitar (1971; died 2019)
Jerry Nolan – drums (1972–1975; died 1992)
Peter Jordan – bass (1975–1976)
Tony Machine – drums (1975–1976)
Blackie Lawless – guitar (1976)
Chris Robison – keyboards (1975)
Bobby Blaine – keyboards (1976)
Steve Conte – guitar, vocals (2004–2010)
John Conte – bass (2004)
Gary Powell – drums (2004)
Brian Delaney– drums (2005–2011)
Sami Yaffa – bass (2005–2010)
Brian Koonin – keyboards (2005–2006)
Aaron Lee Tasjan - guitar (2008-2009)
Frank Infante – guitar (2010–2011)
Jason Hill – bass (2010–2011)
Jason Sutter – drums (2011)
Kenny Aaronson – bass (2011)
Earl Slick – guitar (2011)
Claton Pitcher – guitar (2011)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Chart placings shown are from the Billboard 200 US Albums chart.
New York Dolls (1973 US:#116)
Too Much Too Soon (1974 US:#167) in UK:#165
One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This (2006 US:#129)
Cause I Sez So (2009 US:#159)
Dancing Backward in High Heels (2011)
Demo albums
Lipstick Killers – The Mercer Street Sessions 1972 (1981)
Seven Day Weekend (1992)
Actress – "Birth of the New York Dolls" (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
Private World - The Complete Early Studio Demos 1972–1973 (2006)
Live albums
Red Patent Leather (1984)
Paris Le Trash (1993)
Live In Concert, Paris 1974 (1998)
The Glamorous Life Live (1999)
From Paris with Love (L.U.V.) (2002)
Morrissey Presents: The Return Of New York Dolls Live From Royal Festival Hall (2004)
Live At the Filmore East (2008)
Viva Le Trash '74 (2009)
French Kiss '74 (2013)
Compilation albums
New York Dolls / Too Much Too Soon (1977)
Very Best of New York Dolls (1977)
Night of the Living Dolls (1985)
The Best of the New York Dolls (1985)
Super Best Collection (1990)
Rock'n Roll (1994)
Hootchie Kootchie Dolls (1998)
The Glam Rock Hits (1999)
Actress: Birth of The New York Dolls (2000)
Endless Party (2000)
New York Tapes 72/73 (2000)
Great Big Kiss (reissue of Seven Day Weekend and Red Patent Leather, 2002)
Looking For A Kiss (2003)
Manhattan Mayhem (2003)
20th Century Masters – the Millennium collection: the best of New York Dolls (2003)
Singles
"Personality Crisis" / "Looking for a Kiss" (1973)
"Trash" / "Personality Crisis" (1973)
"Jet Boy" / "Vietnamese Baby" (1973)
"Stranded in the Jungle" / "Don't Start Me Talkin'" (1974)
"(There's Gonna Be A) Showdown" / "Puss 'n' Boots" (1974)
"Jet Boy" // "Babylon" / "Who Are the Mystery Girls" (1977, UK)
"Bad Girl" / "Subway Train" (1978, Germany)
"Gimme Luv and Turn On the Light" (2006)
"Fool for You Baby" (2011)
"Dolled UP" (2014)
References
External links
"Private World: New York Dolls Manager Marty Thau on His Days with the Band" - Interview in Rocker Magazine 2012
Category:1971 establishments in New York City
Category:2011 disestablishments in New York (state)
Category:Hard rock musical groups from New York (state)
Category:American glam rock musical groups
Category:Protopunk groups
Category:Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Category:Musical groups from New York City
Category:Mercury Records artists
Category:Musical groups established in 1971
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 1976
Category:Musical groups reestablished in 2004
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2011
Category:Atco Records artists | [] | [
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C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_1 | Joe Walsh | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than forty years, he has been a member of five successful rock bands: James Gang, Barnstorm, Eagles, the Party Boys, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In the 1990s, he was also a member of the short-lived supergroup the Best. Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. | Early life and education | Joseph Fidler Walsh was born on November 20, 1947 in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Robert Newton Fidler and grandson of Alden Anderson Fidler and Dora Jay Newton. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry, and Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five after his biological father was killed in a plane crash. In the 1950s, it was common practice for Social Security, school registration, and health records for children to take the name of their stepfather, but Walsh's birth father's last name was Fidler, so he took that as his middle name. Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When Walsh was twelve years old, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey, and he attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group the Nomads in Montclair, beginning his career as a rock musician. After high school, Walsh attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). Walsh majored in English and minored in music; he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of university to pursue his musical career. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. He was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on July 22, 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry.
Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for children to take the name of their stepfather for Social Security, school registration, and health records. Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When he was twelve, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey and attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh acquired his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician.
After high school, Walsh briefly attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland, Ohio, area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). He planned to major in English and minor in music. Walsh has also stated he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express's Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals), were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, they opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left, impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about it, he said, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so Troiano left the band in 1973 and later, in late 1974, joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was in the spring of 1975, shortly after Joe joined Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join the Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for the Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California was the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco: Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In the City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song for Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the breakup of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua, and many other musicians with whom Walsh had never worked.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the split. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former bandmates.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone), and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the chart and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album included a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh, and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company", and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight", and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website and at Walmart and Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by RIAA. Henley told CNN, "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium (now known as America First Field) in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians, including the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar), and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded an MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs and Be Bop Deluxe bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States. Also in 1993, Walsh, Terry Reid, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Rosas, and Phil Jones put together an informal group called The Flew. They played one show at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This was Nicky Hopkins' last public performance before his passing.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for President Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox); they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it."
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters". Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane".
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles bandmember Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and Steve Winwood; and to the Richard Marx hit single "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle, Zachariah., and The Conners
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Sall
On September 3, 2022, Walsh appeared in London, with recently reunited James Gang, at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium which was simulcasted live and worldwide on the web, television and streaming platforms; notably, on streaming service Paramount + which aired a live complete/full version of the 339 minute concert that was uncut without commercials. For their final song, Dave Grohl played with James Gang on 'Funk #49' as a 2nd/backup drummer. Walsh sang lead vocals and played lead guitar (a PRS), including slide guitar, for 3 songs.
Walsh also appeared with the James Gang at the September 27, 2022 Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles As in London, their three song set consisted of "Walk Away," "The Bomber: Closet Queen / Boléro / Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and "Funk #49" with Dave Grohl as the second drummer on the latter.
At the 2022 VetsAid benefit, Joe Walsh did double duty, performing a nine song set with the James Gang then returning for a four song finale backed by Nathan East, Joe Vitale and Tom Bukovac. Walsh was joined by Dave Grohl, who played guitar on "Life's Been Good." On "Rocky Mountain Way," Dave Grohl played drums, the Breeders sang backing vocals and Roy Orbison III, godson of Walsh and grandson of Roy Orbison, played guitar.
Influences
Walsh cites influences from rock and pop bands and guitarists, many of whom he has encountered on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of Willie Nelson's Farm Aid.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. His sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played, North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death, that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life." "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Health issues
Walsh has mentioned having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger syndrome.
Alcohol and drug addiction
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
Amateur radio
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project", which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: on the album Barnstorm, ("Register and Vote"); and on Songs for a Dying Planet, ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and various other models
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar he co-developed
PRS McCarty 594 Singlecut Joe Walsh - Signature model developed by Paul Reed Smith guitars in collaboration with Walsh
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
Solo
So What (1974)
You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind (1976)
But Seriously, Folks... (1978)
There Goes the Neighborhood (1981)
You Bought It – You Name It (1983)
The Confessor (1985)
Got Any Gum? (1987)
Ordinary Average Guy (1991)
Songs for a Dying Planet (1992)
Analog Man (2012)
James Gang
Yer' Album (1969)
James Gang Rides Again (1970)
Thirds (1971)
Barnstorm
Barnstorm (1972)
The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973)
Eagles
Hotel California (1976)
The Long Run (1979)
Long Road out of Eden (2007)
Eagles lead vocals and writing
Lead vocals
Original songs
Note: Other songs in the Eagles catalog that were sung and written by Walsh include "Life's Been Good" and "All Night Long", from Walsh's solo career, which were included on Eagles Live, and "Funk #49", from Walsh's days in the James Gang, was included on the fourth "Millennium Concert" disc of the Eagles box set Selected Works: 1972-1999. The band has also been known to play "Rocky Mountain Way," as seen on the Farewell Tour I DVD. These are not Eagles songs however, since the studio tracks did not originate under the Eagles name.
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Conners, as Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022), "A Judge and A Priest Walk Into A Living Room..." (2022)
Awards
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
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C_040d7718872f46c387a6014808d463a3_0 | Joe Walsh | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. In a career spanning more than forty years, he has been a member of five successful rock bands: James Gang, Barnstorm, Eagles, the Party Boys, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. In the 1990s, he was also a member of the short-lived supergroup the Best. Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. | Public service | Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s. Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!" In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things." In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., Keith Urban to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid - a concert series along the lines of the Farm Aid program spearheaded by country entertainer Willie Nelson. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Joseph Fidler Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has been a member of three successful rock bands: James Gang, Eagles, and Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. He was also part of the New Zealand band Herbs. In the 1990s, he was a member of the short-lived supergroup The Best.
Walsh has also experienced success both as a solo artist and as a prolific session musician, being featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2011, Rolling Stone placed him at the No. 54 spot on its list of "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
In the mid-1960s, after attending Kent State University, Walsh played with several local Ohio-based bands before reaching a national audience as a member of the James Gang, whose hit song "Funk #49" highlighted his skill as both a guitarist and singer. Roger Abramson, a concert producer and artist manager, signed the James Gang to a management agreement with BPI in Cleveland. After leaving the James Gang in 1972, he formed Barnstorm with Joe Vitale, a college friend from Ohio, and Kenny Passarelli, a bassist from Colorado, where Walsh had moved after leaving Ohio. While the band stayed together for three albums over three years, its works were marketed as Walsh solo projects. The last Barnstorm album, 1974's So What contained significant guest contributions from several members of the Eagles, a group that had recently hired Walsh's producer, Bill Szymczyk.
At Szymczyk's suggestion, Walsh joined the Eagles in 1975 as the band's guitarist and keyboardist following the departure of their founding member Bernie Leadon, with Hotel California being his first album with the band. In 1998, a reader's poll conducted by Guitarist magazine selected the guitar solos on the track "Hotel California" by Walsh and Don Felder as the best guitar solos of all time. Guitar World magazine listed it at eighth of the Top 100 Guitar Solos.
Besides his work with his several bands, he has released 12 solo studio albums, six compilation albums, and two live albums. His solo hits include "Rocky Mountain Way", "Life's Been Good", "All Night Long", "A Life of Illusion", and "Ordinary Average Guy".
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001. The Eagles are considered to be one of the most influential bands of the 1970s, and they remain one of the best-selling American bands in the history of popular music. His creative contribution to music has received praise from many of the best rock guitarists, including Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who said, "He has a tremendous feel for the instrument. I've loved his style since the early James Gang." Eric Clapton said that "He's one of the best guitarists to surface in some time. I don't listen to many records, but I listen to his." The Who's guitarist, Pete Townshend, said "Joe Walsh is a fluid and intelligent player. There're not many like that around."
Early life and education
Walsh was born on November 20, 1947, in Wichita, Kansas. His father, Lt. Robert Newton Fidler, was a flight instructor for the Lockheed F-80 Shooting Star in the United States Air Force and died in a plane crash in Okinawa on July 22, 1949. Walsh's mother was a classically trained pianist of Scottish and German ancestry.
Walsh was adopted by his stepfather at the age of five and given his stepfather's surname, but retained Fidler as his middle name. In the 1950s, it was common practice for children to take the name of their stepfather for Social Security, school registration, and health records. Walsh and his family lived in Columbus, Ohio, for a number of years during his youth. When he was twelve, his family moved to New York City. Later, Walsh moved to Montclair, New Jersey and attended Montclair High School, where he played oboe in the school band.
Walsh acquired his first guitar at the age of 10, and upon learning The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run", decided that he wanted to pursue a career as a guitarist. Inspired by the success of the Beatles, he replaced Bruce Hoffman as the bass player in the locally popular group, the Nomads in Madison, New Jersey, beginning his career as a rock musician.
After high school, Walsh briefly attended Kent State University, where he spent time in various bands playing around the Cleveland, Ohio, area, including the Measles. The Measles recorded for Super K Productions' Ohio Express the songs "I Find I Think of You", "And It's True", and "Maybe" (an instrumental version of "And It's True"). He planned to major in English and minor in music. Walsh has also stated he was present during the Kent State massacre in 1970. Walsh commented in 2012: "Being at the shootings really affected me profoundly. I decided that maybe I don't need a degree that bad." After one term, he dropped out of college to pursue his musical career.
Musical career
1965–1967: The Measles (Joe Walsh years)
The Measles, an Ohio garage bar band, were formed in 1965 by four Kent State University students, one of whom was Joe Walsh. Two tracks on the Ohio Express's Beg Borrow and Steal album, "I Find I Think Of You" and "And It's True" (both featuring Joe Walsh vocals), were actually recorded by the Measles, led by Walsh. Additionally, an instrumental version of "And It's True" was recorded by the Measles, re-titled "Maybe" and released as the B-side of the "Beg Borrow and Steal" single.
1968–1971: James Gang
Around Christmas 1967, James Gang guitarist Glenn Schwartz, who turned out to be AWOL from the army and was breaking up with his wife, decided to leave the band to move to California, where he ended up forming the band Pacific Gas & Electric. Days later, Walsh, a friend of Schwartz's, knocked on Jim Fox's door and asked to be given a tryout as Schwartz's replacement. Walsh was accepted and the band continued as a five piece for a short time until Phil Giallombardo, who was still in high school at the time, left. Bill Jeric and Walsh worked together on guitar parts, but Jeric left as well in the spring of 1968. He was replaced by a returning Ronnie Silverman, who had been discharged from the military.
In May 1968, the group played a concert in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom, opening for Cream. At the last minute, Silverman told the others that he would not join them at the show. The band, desperately in need of the money, took to the stage as a trio. They liked their sound as a threesome and decided to remain that way.
In 1968, the band signed with manager Mark Barger, who was handling the career of fellow Ohio outfit the Lemon Pipers, who had just scored a big hit with "Green Tambourine." Barger put the Gang in touch with ABC Records staff producer Bill Szymczyk, who signed them to ABC's new Bluesway Records subsidiary in January 1969.
They released their debut album, Yer' Album, in 1969. In November 1969, bassist Tom Kriss decided he was no longer into the music and left to be replaced by Dale Peters, who was brought in from a group called The Case of E.T. Hooley. The addition of Peters created the most successful incarnation of the James Gang. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. In particular he was known for hot-wiring the pick-ups on his electric guitars to create his trademark "attack" sound. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years. It was during 1969 that Walsh sold his Les Paul Guitar to Jimmy Page. Later in 1969, the group's record producer, Szymczyk, arranged for the band to appear in the "electric Western" film Zachariah, with two James Gang songs, "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever," also being used. For the recording of these two songs, vocalist Kenny Weiss was brought in to allow Walsh to focus on his guitar playing; he was gone by the time the group arrived in Mexico to shoot their movie scenes. "Laguna Salada" and "Country Fever" later reappeared as bonus tracks on the 2000 re-release of The James Gang Greatest Hits.
Shortly before the release of their second album James Gang Rides Again, they opened a show for the Who in Pittsburgh. Their guitarist Pete Townshend met with the James Gang before they left, impressed enough to invite them on the Who's subsequent European tour. When Walsh was asked about it, he said, "Pete's a very melodic player and so am I. He told me that he appreciated my playing. I was flattered beyond belief because I didn't think I was that good."
The James Gang's next two albums, James Gang Rides Again (1970) and Thirds (1971), produced such classics as "Funk #49" and "Walk Away". The album James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall was Walsh's last album with them, as he became dissatisfied with the band's limitations.
The two remaining members, Peters and Fox, carried on with lead vocalist Roy Kenner and guitarist Domenic Troiano (both ex-members of the Canadian band Bush) for two albums, Straight Shooter and Passin' Thru, both released in 1972. But in recent interviews, Fox stated that things did not work out musically with Troiano as hoped, so Troiano left the band in 1973 and later, in late 1974, joined the Guess Who.
1971–1975: Barnstorm
In December 1971, Walsh left the James Gang. Steve Marriott, frontman guitarist of Humble Pie, invited him to move to England and join his band, which Peter Frampton had left, but Walsh declined. Instead he moved to Colorado and formed a band called Barnstorm, with drummer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale, and bassist Kenny Passarelli, although both of their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. They started recording their debut album immediately after forming, but at the time there were only Walsh and Vitale on these sessions. Chuck Rainey did the first bass tracks on the album but these were soon replaced by Passarelli. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut album, the eponymous Barnstorm, in October 1972. After taking a cue from Townshend, Walsh utilized the ARP Odyssey synthesizer to great effect on such songs as "Mother Says" and "Here We Go". Walsh also experimented with acoustic guitar, slide guitar, effects pedals, fuzzbox, talk box, and keyboards as well as running his guitar straight into a Leslie speaker 122 to get swirly, organ-like guitar tones. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate commercial success. The follow-up, The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get, released in June 1973, was marketed under Walsh's name (although officially a Barnstorm album) and was their commercial breakthrough. It peaked at No. 6 on the US Billboard chart. The first and leading single, "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached No. 23 on the US Top 40 chart. It featured new member, keyboardist Rocke Grace, and Walsh shared the vocals and songwriting with the other three members of the band. As a result, a variety of styles are explored on this album. There are elements of blues, jazz, folk, pop, and Caribbean music. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
In late 1974, Walsh played slide guitar on Vitale's debut solo album Roller Coaster Weekend. Walsh was taught the slide technique by Duane Allman, who played on Eric Clapton's Layla of Derek and the Dominos.
Barnstorm's last tour was in the spring of 1975, shortly after Joe joined Eagles.
1975–1980: Eagles
In 1975, Walsh was invited to join the Eagles as founding member Bernie Leadon's replacement. There was some initial concern as to Walsh's ability to fit in with the band, as he was considered far too "wild" for the Eagles, especially by their drummer and co-lead vocalist, Don Henley.
Released on December 8, 1976, Hotel California was the band's fifth studio album and the first to feature Walsh. The album took a year and a half to complete, a process which, along with touring, drained the band.
The second single from the album was the eponymous title track, which topped the charts in May 1977 and became one of the Eagles' signature songs next to "Take It Easy" and "Desperado". It features Henley on lead vocals, with a guitar duet performed by Felder and Walsh.
The hard rock "Life in the Fast Lane", released on May 3, 1977, was based on a riff by Walsh. It reached No. 11 on the charts and helped establish Walsh's position in the band.
Hotel California was the last album to feature founding member Randy Meisner, who abruptly left the band after the 1977 tour. He was replaced by the same musician who had succeeded him in Poco: Timothy B. Schmit.
In 1977, the band, minus Don Felder, performed instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals, including "Short People," which has backing vocals by Frey and Schmit.
The Eagles went into the recording studio in 1977 to begin work on their next album, The Long Run. The album took two years to complete. The Long Run was released on September 24, 1979. Considered a disappointment by some music critics for failing to live up to Hotel California, it proved a huge commercial hit nonetheless; the album topped the charts and sold 7 million copies. In addition, it included three Top 10 singles—"Heartache Tonight", the title track and "I Can't Tell You Why". "In the City" by Walsh also received considerable airplay. The band also recorded two Christmas songs during these sessions, "Funky New Year" and "Please Come Home for Christmas" which was released as a single in 1978 and reached No. 18 on the charts. In 1980, the band broke up.
1973–2012: solo career
Walsh has released twelve solo studio albums.
In December 1974, Walsh released his first solo album that was not considered a Barnstorm project, So What, which contained more introspective material such as "Help Me Through the Night" and "Song for Emma", a tribute to Walsh's daughter who had been killed in a car accident that April. On a few tracks, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner of the Eagles contributed backing vocals.
In March 1976, Walsh released a live album, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind, which also featured the Eagles.
As the Eagles struggled to record their follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the critically well-received album, But Seriously, Folks... in May 1978. It contained the single "Life's Been Good", his comedic depiction of rock stardom, which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains to date his biggest solo hit. Walsh also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack in 1979, a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for the Eagles' studio album, The Long Run.
Following the breakup of the Eagles in July 1980, Walsh continued to release solo albums throughout the 1980s, but sales did not meet the same level of his earlier successes.
There Goes the Neighborhood was Walsh's first album since the demise of the Eagles, and it peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard 200. The album only spawned one single, "A Life of Illusion", which became one of Walsh's most popular songs. The single also topped the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, in 1981.
"A Life of Illusion" was recorded in 1973 with Walsh's first solo band Barnstorm but was not completed. The overdubs and final mixes were completed during the There Goes the Neighborhood sessions and released on the album. The promotional video for the track shows the making of the album's cover. This song also appeared in the opening credits of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and appears as the first song on its soundtrack.
In May 1983, Walsh released You Bought It – You Name It; the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics, while other reviewers noted good points to the album. It was also not as successful as Walsh's previous albums, peaking at No. 48 on the Billboard 200. Walsh found moderate success with the single "Space Age Whiz Kids", about the pinnacle of the 1980s video arcade craze. The album contains hard rock songs such as "I Can Play That Rock & Roll" and a cover of the Dick Haymes track, "Love Letters". It also contains more introspective material such as "Class of '65", and contains a song titled "I.L.B.T.s", an acronym for "I Like Big Tits".
Walsh's new girlfriend Stevie Nicks was involved in his next album, The Confessor. Her old friend Keith Olsen was hired to produce the album and the musicians were prolific LA session musicians including Jim Keltner, Mike Porcaro, Waddy Wachtel, Randy Newman, Alan Pasqua, and many other musicians with whom Walsh had never worked.
In 1987, Walsh released his final solo album of the 1980s, Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning, and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead vocalist Jimi Jamison, but the album was a commercial disappointment.
In 1991, Ordinary Average Guy, his ninth solo studio album, and its title track single, were released on the Epic label. The album features Ringo Starr, Jimi Jamison, and drummer Joe Vitale from Walsh's former band Barnstorm. Vitale also sings the lead vocals on the final track of the album, "School Days".
In 1992, Walsh released what appeared to be his final album (until 2012), Songs for a Dying Planet, his tenth solo studio album. Like its predecessor, it was released on the Epic label. Keen to re-establish himself after receiving some poor reviews for his previous album, Walsh enlisted his former producer Bill Szymczyk. His song "Vote for Me" was a minor success, peaking at No. 10 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Walsh's song "One Day at a Time" was released in 2012 and details his struggles with alcohol and drug abuse earlier in his career. The song appeared on Walsh's album Analog Man, which was released on June 5, 2012. The album was co-produced by Jeff Lynne, with Tommy Lee James co-writing some of the album's tracks.
Eagles reunion
An Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles was released in 1993, thirteen years after the split. Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run-era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy" and they agreed. Following years of public speculation, the band formally reunited the following year. The line-up comprised the five Long Run-era members—Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit—supplemented by Scott Crago (drums), John Corey (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Timothy Drury (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), and Al Garth (saxophone, violin) on stage.
"For the record, we never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the band would get back together "when hell freezes over"), which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart. It included four new studio songs, with "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive" both becoming Top 40 hits. The album proved as successful as the tour, selling 6 million copies in the U.S. The tour was interrupted in September 1994 because of Frey's serious recurrence of diverticulitis, but it resumed in 1995 and continued into 1996. In 1998, the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the induction ceremony, all seven Eagles members (Frey, Henley, Leadon, Meisner, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit) played together for two songs, "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours followed (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.
The Eagles performed at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on December 28 and 29, 1999, followed by a concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on December 31. These concerts marked the last time Felder played with the band and these shows (including a planned video release) later formed part of a lawsuit filed by Felder against his former bandmates.
The concert recordings were released on CD as part of the four-disc Selected Works: 1972–1999 box set in November 2000. Along with the millennium concert, this set included the band's hit singles, album tracks and outtakes from The Long Run sessions. Selected Works received platinum certification from the RIAA in 2002.
The band resumed touring in 2001, with a line-up consisting of Frey, Henley, Walsh and Schmit, along with Steuart Smith (guitars, mandolin, keyboards, backing vocals; essentially taking over Felder's role), Michael Thompson (keyboards, trombone), Will Hollis (keyboards, backing vocals), Scott Crago (drums, percussion), Bill Armstrong (horns), Al Garth (saxophone, violin), Christian Mostert (saxophone), and Greg Smith (saxophone, percussion).
In 2003, the Eagles released a greatest hits album, The Very Best Of. The two-disc compilation was the first that encompassed their entire career, from Eagles to Hell Freezes Over. It debuted at No. 3 on the chart and eventually gained triple platinum status. The album included a new single, the September 11 attacks-themed "Hole in the World". Also in 2003, Warren Zevon, a longtime Eagles friend, began work on his final album, The Wind, with the assistance of Henley, Walsh, and Schmit.
On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Farewell 1 Tour-Live from Melbourne, featuring two new songs: Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Walmart and affiliated stores includes a bonus audio CD with three new songs: a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days", "Fast Company", and "Do Something".
In 2007, the Eagles consisted of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On August 20, 2007, "How Long", written by J. D. Souther, was released as a single to radio with an accompanying online video at Yahoo! Music. It debuted on television on Country Music Television during the Top 20 Countdown on August 23, 2007. The band had performed the song as part of their live sets in the early to mid-1970s, but did not record it at the time because Souther wanted to reserve it for use on his first solo album. Souther had previously worked with the Eagles, co-writing some of their biggest hits, including "Best of My Love", "Victim of Love", "Heartache Tonight", and "New Kid in Town".
On October 30, 2007, the Eagles released Long Road Out of Eden, their first album of all-new material since 1979. For the first year after the album's release, it was available in the U.S. only via the band's website and at Walmart and Sam's Club stores. It was commercially available through traditional retail outlets in other countries. The album debuted at number 1 in the U.S., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Norway. It became their third studio album and seventh release overall to be certified at least seven times platinum by RIAA. Henley told CNN, "This is probably the last Eagles album that we'll ever make." The Eagles made their awards show debut on November 7, 2007, when they performed "How Long" live at the Country Music Association Awards.
On January 28, 2008, the second single of Long Road Out of Eden was released. "Busy Being Fabulous" peaked at No. 28 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and at No. 12 on the Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks chart. The Eagles won their fifth Grammy in 2007, in the category Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "How Long".
On March 20, 2008, the Eagles launched their world tour in support of Long Road Out of Eden at The O2 Arena in London. The Long Road Out of Eden Tour concluded the American portion of the tour at Rio Tinto Stadium (now known as America First Field) in Sandy, Utah on May 9, 2009. It was the first concert ever held in the new soccer stadium. The tour traveled to Europe, with its final concert date on July 22, 2009, in Lisbon. The band spent the summer of 2010 touring North American stadiums with the Dixie Chicks and Keith Urban. The tour expanded to England as the headline act of the Hop Farm Festival on July 1, 2011.
Asked in November 2010 whether the Eagles were planning a follow-up to Long Road Out of Eden, Schmit replied, "My first reaction would be: no way. But I said that before the last one, so you never really know. Bands are a fragile entity and you never know what's going to happen. It took a long time to do that last album, over a span of years, really, and it took a lot out of us. We took a year off at one point. I'm not sure if we're able to do that again. I wouldn't close the door on it, but I don't know." Walsh said in 2010 that there might be one more album before the band "wraps it up".
In February 2013, the Eagles released a career spanning documentary called History of the Eagles and kicked off the supporting tour with 11 arena dates from July 6 to 25. Henley said that the tour, which would continue until 2015, "could very well be our last... we're gonna include at least one former band member in this tour and kinda go back to the roots, and how we created some of these songs. We're gonna break it down to the fundamentals and then take it up to where it is now."
Original Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon also appeared on the tour. Walsh stated, "Bernie's brilliant, I never really got a chance to play with him, but we've been in contact. We see him from time to time, and I'm really glad he's coming because it's going to take the show up a notch, and I'm really looking forward to playing with him, finally." It has been reported that former members Randy Meisner and Don Felder will not appear. Meisner had been invited but could not participate due to health problems, while Felder was reportedly not invited due to ongoing legal disputes with the band.
Other bands
In late 1984, Walsh was contacted by Australian musician Paul Christie, the former bassist for Mondo Rock. Christie invited him to come to Australia to perform with the Party Boys, an all-star band with a floating membership of well-known Australian rock musicians, including the critically acclaimed guitarist Kevin Borich, with whom Walsh became good friends. Walsh accepted and performed with the Party Boys on their late-1984–early-1985 Australian tour and appeared on their live album, You Need Professional Help. He remained in Australia for some time after the tour, putting together the short-lived touring band "Creatures From America", with Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Rick Rosas (bass guitar), and Australian drummer Richard Harvey (Divinyls, the Party Boys) In 1987, Walsh returned to the United States to work on his album Got Any Gum?, which was produced by Terry Manning and features vocal contributions from J. D. Souther and Survivor's lead singer Jimi Jamison. After the album's commercial disappointment, Walsh decided to return to Australia in 1989 to tour with another incarnation of the Party Boys. Walsh also toured with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 1989 and 1992, alternating a handful of his best-known songs with Starr's and tunes by other members of the All-Starr Band. In 1989, Walsh recorded an MTV Unplugged with the R&B musician Dr. John. Also in 1989 Walsh filmed a live concert from the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with Etta James and Albert Collins, called Jazzvisions: Jump the Blues Away.
While producing their Homegrown album in 1989, Walsh briefly joined New Zealand reggae band Herbs. Although he had left by the time of its 1990 release, he still appears as lead singer on two tracks, "Up All Night" and "It's Alright". The album includes the first recording of his "Ordinary Average Guys" (sung by late Herbs and Be Bop Deluxe bassist Charlie Tumahai), which subsequently became a solo hit for Walsh as "Ordinary Average Guy".
In late 1990, Walsh was part of a band called the Best, along with keyboardist Keith Emerson, bassist John Entwistle, guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and drummer Simon Phillips. The band performed several shows in Hawaii and Japan, with a live video resulting.
In 1993, Walsh teamed up with Glenn Frey for the "Party of Two" tour in the United States. Also in 1993, Walsh, Terry Reid, Nicky Hopkins, Rick Rosas, and Phil Jones put together an informal group called The Flew. They played one show at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano. This was Nicky Hopkins' last public performance before his passing.
In 1996, James Gang did a reunion for President Bill Clinton. The band consisted of their "classic" line-up (Walsh, Peters, Fox); they performed at the Cleveland State University Convocation Center on November 4, 1996.
In 1998, ABC wanted to use a classic rock song rock for Monday Night Football that year, so they asked Walsh to rewrite the lyrics to "Rocky Mountain Way" for the quarterback John Elway of the Denver Broncos. "Rocky Mountain Elway" was the new title of the song and Walsh appeared in a video that ABC showed on Monday Night Football.
2000s and 2010s
In June 2004, Walsh performed at Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas, Texas. He was also featured in September 2004 at the Strat Pack, a concert held in London, England, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster guitar. In 2006, Walsh reunited with Jim Fox and Dale Peters of the James Gang for new recordings and a 15-date summer reunion tour. The tour lasted into the fall.
In 2008, Walsh appeared on the Carvin 60th Anniversary Celebration DVD as a celebrity endorser. In the recorded interview, he highly praised Carvin Guitars and claims that the bridge design is "just like the first Les Paul models. I can't even get Gibson to reissue it."
Kent State University awarded Walsh an honorary degree in music in December 2001. In May 2012, the Berklee College of Music awarded Walsh, along with other members of the Eagles, an honorary doctorate for his accomplishments in the field of music.
Notable appearances
In 1974, Walsh produced Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs album and played the guitar, electric guitar, 12 string guitar, ARP bass and provided backing vocals. He also contacted Graham Nash to sing harmony vocals on "Part of the Plan", which helped send the album to No. 17 on the 1975 Billboard album chart.
In 1973 Walsh supplied the slide guitar solo on Michael Stanley's song "Rosewood Bitters". Walsh later lifted part of that solo and used it prominently in the Eagles' hit "Life in the Fast Lane".
In 1981, Walsh and former Barnstorm bandmate, Joe Vitale, went to work on old friend John Entwistle's fifth solo album Too Late the Hero, whenever they were free to work on it. The album turned out to become John Entwistle's best-charting solo album, with hit singles "Talk Dirty" and "Too Late the Hero".
Walsh was a background musician (1st guitar solo) on Eagles bandmember Don Henley's 1982 hit "Dirty Laundry" (listed as such in the liner notes of I Can't Stand Still and Actual Miles: Henley's Greatest Hits). Walsh has also contributed to albums by Ringo Starr; America; REO Speedwagon; Jay Ferguson; Andy Gibb; Wilson Phillips; Emerson, Lake & Palmer; and Steve Winwood; and to the Richard Marx hit single "Don't Mean Nothing".
Walsh was a regular guest DJ on Los Angeles radio station KLOS during the mid-1980s. They had a Saturday evening feature, with celebrity guest-hosts taking over the microphone (Walsh was the guest host far more frequently than any other). He was also a frequent guest and guest-host of Detroit and Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl.
Onscreen, Walsh has appeared in The Blues Brothers, Promised Land, The Drew Carey Show, Duckman, MADtv, Live from Daryl's House, Rock the Cradle, Zachariah., and The Conners
In October 2004, Walsh undertook speaking engagements in New Zealand to warn against the dangers of substance abuse. He said the visit was a "thank you" to people who took him to Otatara Pa when he toured New Zealand with reggae band Herbs while under heavy alcohol and cocaine addictions in 1989, an experience he has cited as the beginning of a long journey back to good health. At Otatara Pa in 2004 Walsh said, "This is a special place, and it is very special to me. It was here on a visit many years ago, up on the hills, that I had a moment of clarity. I don't understand it, but I reconnected with my soul, and I remembered who I used to be. I admitted I had problems and I had to do something about it. It was the beginning of my recovery from my addiction to alcohol and drugs, and when I got back to America it gave me the courage to seek help."
On February 12, 2012, Walsh appeared on stage with Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl, and McCartney's band at the Staples Center in Los Angeles to close out the Grammy Awards. Walsh also appeared on the 60th Episode of Live from Daryl's House with Daryl Hall, which premiered on November 15, 2012.
On February 9, 2014, Walsh was featured in several songs on the CBS special The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to The Beatles.
In 2014, Walsh made a guest appearance on Foo Fighters' eighth studio album Sonic Highways.
On May 24, 2016, Walsh appeared on NBC's The Voice in which he played slide guitar, talk box and performed Rocky Mountain Way with contestant Laith Al-Sall
On September 3, 2022, Walsh appeared in London, with recently reunited James Gang, at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at Wembley Stadium which was simulcasted live and worldwide on the web, television and streaming platforms; notably, on streaming service Paramount + which aired a live complete/full version of the 339 minute concert that was uncut without commercials. For their final song, Dave Grohl played with James Gang on 'Funk #49' as a 2nd/backup drummer. Walsh sang lead vocals and played lead guitar (a PRS), including slide guitar, for 3 songs.
Walsh also appeared with the James Gang at the September 27, 2022 Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, near Los Angeles As in London, their three song set consisted of "Walk Away," "The Bomber: Closet Queen / Boléro / Cast Your Fate to the Wind" and "Funk #49" with Dave Grohl as the second drummer on the latter.
At the 2022 VetsAid benefit, Joe Walsh did double duty, performing a nine song set with the James Gang then returning for a four song finale backed by Nathan East, Joe Vitale and Tom Bukovac. Walsh was joined by Dave Grohl, who played guitar on "Life's Been Good." On "Rocky Mountain Way," Dave Grohl played drums, the Breeders sang backing vocals and Roy Orbison III, godson of Walsh and grandson of Roy Orbison, played guitar.
Influences
Walsh cites influences from rock and pop bands and guitarists, many of whom he has encountered on concert tours: Les Paul, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, Jeff Beck, the Beatles, Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin, Ritchie Blackmore and Deep Purple, Manfred Mann, Duane Allman and The Allman Brothers, Ronnie Wood and The Faces, Pete Townshend and The Who, and The Ventures. In turn, he has influenced Dan Fogelberg, Maroon 5, Kenny Chesney, Jonny Lang, Blitzen Trapper, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and George Thorogood. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers Band taught Walsh how to play the slide guitar.
Public service
Walsh is active in charity work and has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for charitable causes. He has also been a personal contributor to a number of charity causes including halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Walsh funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008.
Walsh's love of Santa Cruz Island grew into a lifelong commitment to conserve the environment there, and he has been active in preserving the island's parks. He is President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation, and has served on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.
Walsh had often joked about running for office, announcing a mock presidential campaign in 1980 and a vice presidential campaign in 1992. Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980, promising to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and ran on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone". Though Walsh was only 32 at the time of the election and thus would not have met the 35-year-old requirement to actually assume office, he said that he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. In 1992 Walsh ran for vice president with Rev. Goat Carson under the slogan "We Want Our Money Back!"
In an interview to promote his album Analog Man in 2012, Walsh revealed he was considering a serious bid for political office. "I think I would run seriously, and I think I would run for Congress," Walsh told WASH in Washington, D.C. "The root of the problem is that Congress is so dysfunctional. We're dead in the water until Congress gets to work and passes some new legislation to change things."
In 2017, Walsh contacted others in the music industry, including the Zac Brown Band, Gary Clark Jr., and Keith Urban, to try to organize and perform what became VetsAid – a concert series along the lines of Willie Nelson's Farm Aid.
Personal life
Walsh has been married five times. He was married briefly to Margie Walsh in the 1960s, to Stefany Rhodes from 1971 to 1978, to Juanita Boyer from 1980 to 1988, and to Denise Driscoll from 1999 to 2006. Walsh married Marjorie Bach (sister of Barbara Bach and sister-in-law of Ringo Starr) in Los Angeles on December 13, 2008. His sister-in-law, Susan Walsh, has been a missing person since 1996.
Walsh's daughter Lucy Walsh is a musician who has worked with Ashlee Simpson and others. She released her debut solo album, Lost in the Lights, in 2007.
Walsh's eldest daughter, Emma Kristen, was born in 1971 and died in 1974 at 3 years of age as a result of injuries suffered in an automobile accident on her way to nursery school. Her story inspired the track "Song for Emma" on Walsh's solo album So What released later that year. In her memory, he had a fountain and memorial plaque placed in a park in which she played, North Boulder Park in Boulder, Colorado. He has said that the album name So What was a result of Emma's death, that nothing else seemed meaningful or important in the months that followed. The strain eventually contributed to Walsh's divorce from his second wife Stefany. While touring with singer Stevie Nicks in 1984, Walsh took Nicks to the park's fountain; Nicks subsequently immortalized this story in her song "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You?" on her 1985 album Rock A Little. Nicks told the UK's The Daily Telegraph in 2007 that Walsh had been "the great love of my life." "Joe and I broke up because of the coke," she elaborated to Q. "He told my friend and singer Sharon [Celani], 'I'm leaving Stevie, because I'm afraid that one of us is going to die. And the other one won't be able to save the other person, because our cocaine habit has become so over the top now that neither of us can live through this. So the only way to save both of us is for me to leave.'"
Health issues
Walsh has mentioned having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and Asperger syndrome.
Alcohol and drug addiction
Walsh admits to struggling with alcohol and drug addictions for most of his early career and has been in recovery since 1993. In 1989, while touring with New Zealand band Herbs, Walsh experienced an "epiphany" during a visit to Otatara Pa, an ancient Māori pā site in the Hawke's Bay region. In 2004, on a return visit to New Zealand, Walsh described the experience and hailed it as the beginning of his recovery from his addiction. Walsh related the story that in 1994, he woke up after blacking out on an airplane to Paris. When he arrived, he had his passport, but did not remember getting on the plane. That was his turning point, and he has been sober ever since.
Amateur radio
While living in New York City, Walsh began a lifelong interest in amateur radio. He holds an Amateur Extra Class Amateur Radio License, and his station callsign is WB6ACU. In 2006, he donated an autographed guitar to the ARRL in Newington, Connecticut, for its charity auction. He has also been involved with the group's "Big Project", which brings amateur radio into schools. Walsh has included Morse Code messages in his albums on two occasions: on the album Barnstorm, ("Register and Vote"); and on Songs for a Dying Planet, ("Register and Vote for Me"). Walsh provides the theme song (which includes Morse code) for the TWiT podcast Ham Nation (debuting in 2011), and he appeared as a guest in the first podcast, as well as episode 400.
Instruments
Jimmy Page's sunburst 1959 Gibson Les Paul, better known as his "Number 1" was originally owned by Walsh and was sold to Page in 1969.
In 1970, Walsh gave a 1959 Gretsch 6120 to the Who's lead guitarist Pete Townshend. Townshend used the Gretsch in the studio to record tracks on albums such as Who's Next and Quadrophenia.
Select other guitars
Carvin DC4, CT6, CT4, CS4, and various other models
Duesenberg Starplayer Alliance - Walsh has an Alliance guitar he co-developed
PRS McCarty 594 Singlecut Joe Walsh - Signature model developed by Paul Reed Smith guitars in collaboration with Walsh
Amplifiers
Marshall 50 watt Plexi
Discography
Solo
So What (1974)
You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind (1976)
But Seriously, Folks... (1978)
There Goes the Neighborhood (1981)
You Bought It – You Name It (1983)
The Confessor (1985)
Got Any Gum? (1987)
Ordinary Average Guy (1991)
Songs for a Dying Planet (1992)
Analog Man (2012)
James Gang
Yer' Album (1969)
James Gang Rides Again (1970)
Thirds (1971)
Barnstorm
Barnstorm (1972)
The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973)
Eagles
Hotel California (1976)
The Long Run (1979)
Long Road out of Eden (2007)
Eagles lead vocals and writing
Lead vocals
Original songs
Note: Other songs in the Eagles catalog that were sung and written by Walsh include "Life's Been Good" and "All Night Long", from Walsh's solo career, which were included on Eagles Live, and "Funk #49", from Walsh's days in the James Gang, was included on the fourth "Millennium Concert" disc of the Eagles box set Selected Works: 1972-1999. The band has also been known to play "Rocky Mountain Way," as seen on the Farewell Tour I DVD. These are not Eagles songs however, since the studio tracks did not originate under the Eagles name.
Filmography
Film
1971: Zachariah Film de George Englund. With Don Johnson: Himself with The James Gang.
1980: The Blues Brothers: A prisoner dancing on a table.
1990: The Best - DVD With Keith Emerson, Jeff Baxter, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Simon Phillips: Himself.
Television
Mad TV, as himself, in Episode 1.2 (1995)
Promised land, as R.J., "The Prodigy" (1996)
Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, voicing himself, "They Craved Duckman's Brain!" (1996) and "Love! Anger! Kvetching!" (1997)
The Drew Carey Show, 7 episodes as Ed ("Drewstock" (1997), "In Ramada Da Vida" (1998), "Golden Boy" (1998), "Drew Between the Rock and a Hard Place" (1998), "Boy Party/Girl Party" (1999), "Steve and Mimi Get Married" (1999), "Drew's in a Coma" (2001))
Drew Carey's Improv All-Stars, guest (2001)
Rock the Cradle (2008), a reality show, the father of contestant Lucy Walsh
Wicked City, as a director, "Running With the Devil" (2015)
Criminal Minds, as himself, "The Sandman" (2016)
Better Things, as himself "Hair of the Dog" (2016)
The Conners, as Jesse, "Patriarchs and Goddesses" (2022), "A Judge and A Priest Walk Into A Living Room..." (2022)
Awards
As a member of the Eagles, Walsh has won five Grammy Awards:
(1977) Record of the Year: "Hotel California" (single)
(1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: "New Kid in Town"
(1979) Best Rock Vocal performance by a Duo or Group: "Heartache Tonight"
(2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: "How Long"
(2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: "I Dreamed There Was No War"
Walsh was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
Walsh was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001
See also
List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart
Further reading
Walsh, Joe (1996). Look What I Did! And Then Some .... Hal Leonard Corporation.
Lemco, Steve (2011). Joe & Me. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
References
External links
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"The text does not specify the names of the charities that Walsh has worked with. It mentions him being involved in various charitable causes such as fundraising concerts, donations to halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas, and funding a scholarship at Kent State University. He has also been involved in conserving the environment of Santa Cruz Island and is the President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation.",
"Walsh is active in preserving the parks on Santa Cruz Island. He also serves as the President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation and has been on the Foundation's board since the 1980s.",
"The text does not provide specific names of other charities that Walsh is involved with. However, it does mention that he has contributed to causes such as halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas, and he initiated a talent-based scholarship at Kent State University. In 2017, he was involved in the organization of VetsAid, a concert series intended to benefit veterans, similar to the Farm Aid program.",
"Walsh has performed in a number of concerts to raise money for various charitable causes. He is also said to have contributed personally to halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas. Additionally, he funded the first talent-based scholarship at Kent State University in 2008. In 2017, he got involved with other artists to organize and perform in VetsAid, a concert series to help veterans.",
"Apart from financial contributions and organizing concerts to raise funds, Walsh has also taken on leadership roles in charity organizations. For instance, he serves as the President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation and has been on the Foundation's board since the 1980s, where he focuses on preserving the island's environment. However, the text does not provide further details on what specific actions he takes in these roles.",
"Walsh has taken on several roles for charitable causes. He has performed in concerts to raise money, made personal contributions, and also taken on leadership roles. For example, he is the President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation and has been on its board since the 1980s, showing his commitment to preserving the environment of Santa Cruz Island. However, the specifics of his day-to-day roles within these charities are not detailed in the text.",
"The text does not specify any other charities that Walsh sponsored aside from initiating a scholarship at Kent State University, his work with conservation efforts through the Santa Cruz Island Foundation and his contributions to halfway houses for displaced adult women in Wichita, Kansas.",
"In 2012, Walsh revealed that he was considering running for Congress.",
"The text does not provide information on whether Walsh ever ran for Congress.",
"The text does not provide information on whether Walsh won a political race."
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} | Andrew James Breitbart (; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist and political commentator who was the founder of Breitbart News and a co-founder of HuffPost.
After helping in the early stages of HuffPost and the Drudge Report, Breitbart created Breitbart News, a far-right news and opinion website, which has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists. He played central roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the firing of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy. Commenters such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with changing how people wrote about politics by "show[ing] how the Internet could be used to route around information bottlenecks imposed by official spokesmen and legacy news outlets".
Early life
Breitbart was born to Irish American parents in Los Angeles on February 1, 1969. According to his birth certificate, his biological father was a folk singer. When he was three weeks old, he was adopted by Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively, and grew up in the affluent neighborhood of Brentwood. His adoptive family was Jewish; his mother had converted to Judaism when marrying his father. Breitbart studied at Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah. Theologically he was an agnostic.
Breitbart attended Brentwood School, one of the country's top private schools, but did not distinguish himself, saying: "My sense of humor saved me". However, he discovered that he loved writing, publishing his first comedic piece in the school newspaper, the Brentwood Eagle, analyzing the inequality in his high school's senior and junior parking lots: "One had Mercedes and BMWs, the other Sciroccos and GTIs."" Breitbart remembers his upbringing as apolitical, except in one instance: when the family's rabbi tried to defend Jesse Jackson against charges of antisemitism after his "Hymietown" comment, his parents left the synagogue in protest.
Breitbart would remain "proudly and playfully Jewish" throughout his life, although not always religiously observant. He would sing Hebrew songs at work while also teasing his Orthodox Jewish colleagues for keeping to a kosher diet. Joel Pollak wrote: "He carried his faith as he carried all his convictions: with a lighthearted touch but a deep commitment." Breitbart later said of his profession: "I'm glad I've become a journalist because I'd like to fight on behalf of the Israeli people... And the Israeli people, I adore and I love."
While in high school, Breitbart worked as a pizza delivery driver; he sometimes delivered to celebrities such as Judge Reinhold. He earned a BA in American studies from Tulane University in 1991, graduating with "no sense of [his] future whatsoever." His early jobs included a stint at cable channel E! Entertainment Television, working for the company's online magazine, and some time in film production. He was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2009.
Previously left-leaning in his politics, Breitbart changed his political views after experiencing "an epiphany" while watching the late 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, due to what he considered unfounded attacks on the part of liberals based on former employee Anita Hill's sexual harassment accusations. Breitbart later described himself as "a Reagan conservative" with libertarian sympathies.
Listening to radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh helped Breitbart refine his political and philosophical positions, igniting an interest in learning that he had suppressed as a result of his distaste for the "nihilistic musings of dead critical theorists" that had dominated his studies at Tulane. In this era, Breitbart also read Camille Paglia's book Sexual Personae (1990), a massive survey of Western art, literature and culture from ancient Egypt to the 20th century, which, he wrote, "made me realize how little I really had learned in college."
Public life
Authorship, research, and reporting
Breitbart has been lauded for his role in the "evolution of pioneering websites" including The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, and later, for Breitbart News. Journalists such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with bringing new voices to debates about politics and culture. Breitbart told Reason in 2004 that, after feeling ignored by existing outlets, "We decided to go out and create our media." Described as "a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects" and "conversation pits", the Breitbart websites have been both criticized and praised for their role in various political issues. Breitbart has been recognized for adopting an inclusive stance with regard to the participation of gay people in the conservative movement. He has also been credited with helping to derail conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship.
In 1995, Breitbart saw The Drudge Report and was so impressed that he e-mailed Matt Drudge. Breitbart said, "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do." Breitbart described himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch" and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later, Drudge introduced him to a then still-Republican Arianna Huffington and Breitbart subsequently assisted in the creation of The Huffington Post.
Breitbart wrote a weekly column for The Washington Times, which also appeared at Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S. celebrity culture. On January 19, 2011, the conservative gay rights group GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council.
In April 2011, Grand Central Publishing released Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, in which he discussed his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.
Breitbart News
Breitbart launched his first website as a news site; it is often linked to by the Drudge Report and other websites. It has wire stories from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, PR Newswire, and U.S. Newswire, as well as direct links to a number of major international newspapers. Its political viewpoint as well as its audience runs to the right within the U.S. political spectrum. In 2007, Breitbart launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv.
In February 2011, Breitbart and one of his editors Larry O'Connor were sued for defamation by Shirley Sherrod, who had been fired after Breitbart posted a video of a speech given by Sherrod. The video had been selectively edited to suggest that she had purposely discriminated against a white farmer, while in reality the unedited video told the story of how she had helped that farmer. Breitbart himself maintained that he stated this in his article about it, and that the purpose of the video was to show the crowd's positive reaction to Sherrod's statements about discriminating against the white farmer. In July 2015, it was reported that Sherrod and Breitbart's estate had reached a tentative settlement. It was reported October 1, 2016, that the lawsuit was settled.
In June 2011, Breitbart's websites broke the story that congressman Anthony Weiner was sending underage females revealing photographs of himself.
Commentaries
In 2009, Breitbart appeared as a commentator on Real Time with Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. In 2004, he was a guest commentator on Fox News Channel's morning show and frequently appeared as a guest panelist on Fox News's late night program, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Breitbart also appeared as a commentator in the 2004 documentary Michael Moore Hates America.
On October 22, 2009, Breitbart appeared on the C-SPAN program Washington Journal. He gave his opinions on the mainstream media, Hollywood, the Obama Administration and his personal political views, having heated debates with several callers.
In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy's death, Breitbart called Kennedy a "villain", a "duplicitous bastard", a "prick" and "a special pile of human excrement," adding, "Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it," referring to Kennedy's actions during the Chappaquiddick incident, the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination, and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.
In February 2010, Breitbart received the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. During his acceptance speech, he responded directly to accusations by The New York Times reporter Kate Zernike that Jason Mattera, a young conservative activist, had been using "racial tones" in his allusions to President Barack Obama, and had spoken in a "Chris Rock voice". From the podium, Breitbart called Zernike "a despicable human being" for having made such allegations about what, according to him, was just Mattera's Brooklyn accent. At the same conference, Breitbart was also filmed saying to journalist Max Blumenthal that he found him to be "a jerk" and "a despicable human being" over a blog entry in which Blumenthal accused Breitbart of employing a racist. Blumenthal was referring to James O'Keefe over his having attended a Georgetown Law Center discussion on race featuring Kevin Martin, John Derbyshire, and Jared Taylor, the last of whom founded American Renaissance, a white supremacist online magazine. Neither O'Keefe nor Breitbart endorsed Taylor's views.
In 2011, Breitbart said that "of course" Donald Trump was not a conservative, adding:
But this is a message to those candidates who are languishing at 2 percent and 3 percent within the Republican Party who are brand names in Washington, but the rest of the country don't know ... celebrity is everything in this country. And if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate.
These comments resurfaced after the controversy of Donald Trump hiring Breitbart News''' executive chairman Steve Bannon to be his White House Chief Strategist.
Activism
Breitbart often appeared as a speaker at Tea Party movement events across the U.S. For example, Breitbart was a speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention at Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville on February 6, 2010. Breitbart later involved himself in a controversy over allegations of homophobic and racial slurs being used at a March 20, 2010, rally at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by asserting that slurs were never used, and that "it was a set-up" by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled," claiming that the several Congressmen made it up. Breitbart insisted Congressman John Lewis and several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement."
In February 2012, a YouTube video showed Breitbart yelling at Occupy D.C. protesters outside a Washington hotel hosting a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The video showed security escorting Breitbart back to the hotel while he told the protesters to "behave yourself", and alluding to reported assaults of women at Occupy encampments, he repeatedly yelled, "Stop raping people", and called the protestors "filthy, filthy, raping, murdering freaks!" David Carr said with the incident Breitbart had caused his last "viral storm on the Web."Sources that describe the confrontation with Occupy protesters at CPAC 2012:
The Web is Talking About Andrew Breitbart's Occupy D.C. Freakout, by Seth Abramovitch, The Atlantic, February 12, 2012
Eighty-Seven Seconds of Andrew Breitbart Yelling, by David Weigel, Slate, February 11, 2012
WATCH: Andrew Breitbart LOSES It On Occupy Wall Street Protesters , by Grace Wyler, Business Insider, March 6, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Dies: Most Controversial Moments (Video), by The Daily Beast, March 1, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43, by Kat Stoeffel and Hunter Walker, The New York Observer, January 3, 2012
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Blogger Andrew Breitbart to Occupiers: 'Stop Raping People!' , by Emily Crockett, Campus Progress, February 10, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Confronts Occupy Crowd At CPAC, Demands They 'Stop Raping People', by Frances Martel, Mediaite, March 1, 2012
Right-Wing Blog Mogul Andrew Breitbart Flips Out at Occupy D.C. Outside CPAC , by Benjamin R. Freed, DCist, February 10, 2012
Occupiers Berated By Breitbart; Times Looks At Movement's Next Moves , by Esther Zuckerman, The Village Voice, February 11, 2012
Breitbart appeared posthumously in Occupy Unmasked, a documentary film by Steve Bannon that contends that the Occupy Wall Street movement of "largely naïve students and legitimately concerned citizens looking for answers" is actually orchestrated by sinister, violent, and organized leaders with the purpose of not just changing, but destroying the American government.
Breitbart Doctrine
The Breitbart Doctrine is the idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture.
Chris Wylie (formerly of Cambridge Analytica) stated in an interview with The Guardian: "The reason why he (Steve Bannon) was interested in this is because he believes in this idea of the ‘Breitbart Doctrine,’ which is that if you want to change politics you first have to change culture because politics flows from culture. If you want to change culture, you have to first understand what the units of culture are, and the people are the units of culture. So, if you want to change politics, you first have to change people to change culture." Breitbart considered this idea an important one and often spoke of it in interview or cited it in print.
Political views
Breitbart described himself as “eighty-five per cent conservative and fifteen per cent libertarian”. Breitbart had previously described himself as a Democrat but shifted towards being conservative after witnessing the Democrats' treatment of Clarence Thomas during his senate confirmation hearing.
He supported legalization of prostitution, gay rights, and drug liberalization. He was an opponent of multiculturalism and political correctness. Breitbart argued for US military intervention in Syria, North Korea, Iran, and China for humanitarian reasons. He was also a supporter of Israel.
Breitbart was a proponent of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, claiming there are academics attempting to undermine western culture.
Personal life and death
Breitbart was married to Susannah Bean, the daughter of actor Orson Bean and fashion designer Carolyn Maxwell, and had four children.
At around 11:30 p.m. PST on February 29, 2012, Breitbart collapsed on a street near his home in Brentwood. He was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead 12:19 a.m. on March 1, 2012. He was 43 years old. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis and died from heart failure, which he had been diagnosed with the year prior. His burial was in the Jewish cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.
Tributes
Rick Santorum, Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, Jonah Goldberg, Joel Pollak, Sarah Palin, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Michael Steele, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich paid tribute to Breitbart. Santorum called Breitbart's death "a huge loss" that strongly affected him. Romney praised Breitbart as a "fearless conservative," while Gingrich remembered him as "the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America". A special episode of Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld'' aired the day after his death as the host and panelists paid their tributes and showed clips from his appearances on the show.
Works
References
External links
Category:1969 births
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Category:American Zionists
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Category:American agnostics
Category:American alternative journalists
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Category:American male non-fiction writers
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Category:Brentwood School (Los Angeles) alumni
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Category:HuffPost
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Category:People from Brentwood, Los Angeles
Category:Tea Party movement activists
Category:The Washington Times people
Category:Tulane University School of Liberal Arts alumni
Category:Writers from Los Angeles | [] | [
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C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_0 | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, poet, and professional wrestling magnate. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois, in 1988, the band quickly gained steam with the addition of bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. | 2001-2005: Zwan and solo career | Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer , Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress." The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally announcing a breakup in September 2003. In 2004 Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish. On September 17, 2003, Billy first presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan. Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, and wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Corgan formed Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 along with guitarist James Iha, followed by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Dale Corgan (1947-2021) and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish and German-Swiss descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, Jesse, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix but offered little other support, so Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet and broke up at the end of the year, playing their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally breaking up in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
On May 15, 2014, Corgan released AEGEA, a new solo record of experimental recordings he made in 2007. Limited to 250 vinyl copies, the album was mostly sold online, with a few copies sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan also released the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
In October 2017, he released a new solo album titled Ogilala.
In July 2018, The Smashing Pumpkins embarked on a reunion tour, the Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. Former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup, reportedly due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. Wretzky has stated that Corgan offered her a contract but later retracted the offer, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
On July 14, 2022, Corgan and his partner, Chloe Mendel announced that they would host a livestream charity show on July 27 to benefit the victims of the July 4 Highland Park, Ill., shooting.
Professional wrestling promoter
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan became the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations. In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back. On November 11, Corgan and Anthem signed a settlement, with Anthem repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
In May 2017, Corgan purchased the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bears, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some elements of Catholicism, Buddhism and Ken Wilber's spiritual ideas. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a young girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1991, Corgan briefly dated musician and actress Courtney Love. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Corgan confessed that he arranged for Love's band to stay in his Chicago apartment in order to meet her, an encounter he had longed for after seeing her photograph on the back of Hole's new single. Their relationship ended on October 12, 1991, when Love found out that Corgan had another relationship.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Love and her daughter Francis Bean. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show. In 2020, Corgan told Los Angeles Times that only a few people really matter to him and that Courtney is one of them, describing their relationship as a family bond.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
On December 19, 2021, Corgan's father, William Dale Corgan, died at age 74.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
In an interview with radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan voiced discontent with "social justice warriors", comparing them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan, and calling their actions a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom
1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata
2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2011: Fancy Space People (by Fancy Space People, Corgan is credited as engineer and playing guitar)
2014: Did You Miss Me (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Blvds of Splendor (by Cherie Currie, Corgan provides guitar, bass and Backing Vocals on "Blvds Of Splendor")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
2021: Bodies (by AFI, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Dulcería")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists
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Category:Zwan members | [] | null | null |
C_f7f748df004544729408cda74b466786_1 | Billy Corgan | William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, poet, and professional wrestling magnate. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois, in 1988, the band quickly gained steam with the addition of bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. | 1967-1987: Childhood and formative years | William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood on March 17, 1967 as the oldest son of William Corgan Sr., a blues/rock guitarist, and Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was soon remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. During this time, Corgan alleges he was subject to much physical and emotional abuse by his stepmother. Corgan also developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys would live alone with the stepmother, with both of Corgan's birth parents living separately within an hour's drive. Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his Marquardt Middle School baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. Corgan, Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but offered little other support, and the younger Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, he moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. Corgan performed with Wayne Static in Static's first band Deep Blue Dream, in 1987/88. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, and wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. He is currently the owner and promoter of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
Corgan formed Smashing Pumpkins in Chicago in 1988 along with guitarist James Iha, followed by bassist D'arcy Wretzky and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Strong album sales and large-scale tours propelled the band's increasing fame in the 1990s until their break-up in 2000. Corgan started a new band called Zwan, and after their demise he released a solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, in 2005 and a collection of poetry, Blinking with Fists, before reforming Smashing Pumpkins. The new version of the band, consisting of Corgan and a revolving lineup, has released and toured new albums extensively since 2007. In October 2017, Corgan released Ogilala, his first solo album in over a decade. His latest album, Cotillions, was released on November 22, 2019.
In 2011, Corgan founded Resistance Pro Wrestling. He later joined Total Nonstop Action Wrestling in 2015, becoming its president in August 2016. After leaving TNA in November 2016, he purchased the NWA in October 2017, transforming it from a brand licensing organization to a singular promotion.
Early life
William Patrick Corgan Jr. was born at Columbus Hospital in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago on March 17, 1967, the oldest son of guitarist William Dale Corgan (1947-2021) and his wife Martha Louise Maes Corgan Lutz. He was raised Catholic and is of Irish and German-Swiss descent. His parents had one more son, Ricky, before divorcing in 1970. His father was remarried to a flight attendant, and Corgan and his brother went to live with them in Glendale Heights, Illinois. Corgan alleges that his stepmother was abusive to him, both physically and emotionally. He developed a protective bond with his younger paternal half-brother, Jesse, who had special needs as a child. When Corgan's father and stepmother separated, all three boys lived alone with their stepmother, and both of his birth parents lived separately within an hour's drive.
Corgan described his father as a "drug dealing, gun-toting, musician [and] mad man". Although this had a huge negative impact on his childhood, in retrospect he respects his father as a great musician.
Corgan, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his baseball team at Marquardt Middle School, he amassed over 10,000 baseball cards and listened to every Chicago Cubs game on the radio. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School, his athletic prowess had greatly diminished. He decided to start playing guitar after seeing a Flying V when he went over to a friend's house. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used Les Paul knock-off. His father encouraged him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix but offered little other support, so Corgan taught himself to play the instrument. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Guts-era John Cale, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Van Halen, Queen, Boston, ELO, Rush, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus and The Cure. He performed in a string of bands in high school and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time.
Music career
1985–1987: Early career
Not finding the Chicago music scene to his liking, Corgan moved to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked (so named for the conspicuous birthmarks of both Corgan and drummer Ron Roesing). Not finding success in St. Petersburg, the band dissolved; Corgan moved back to Chicago to live with his father. From 1987 to 1988, he played guitar in Chicago band Deep Blue Dream, which also featured future Static-X frontman Wayne Static. He left the band to focus on The Smashing Pumpkins.
1988–2000: The Smashing Pumpkins
Upon his return to Chicago, Corgan had already devised his next project – a band that would be called The Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan met guitarist James Iha while working in a record store, and the two began recording demos, which Corgan describes as "gloomy little goth-pop records". He met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played, The Dan Reed Network. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with a drum machine for percussion. To secure a show at the Metro in Chicago, the band recruited drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, and played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.
The addition of Chamberlin drove the band in a heavier direction almost immediately. On the band's debut album, Gish (1991), the band integrated psychedelic rock and heavy metal into their sound. Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, released on Virgin Records in 1993, became a multi-platinum hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" due to rumors that Corgan played all the guitar and bass parts on Siamese Dream (a rumor that Corgan later confirmed as true). Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today", "Cherub Rock", and "Disarm" became hits.
The band's 1995 follow-up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. According to Jon Pareles from The New York Times, Corgan wanted to "lose himself and find himself..." in this album. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year, and would eventually be certified ten times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching No. 1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995, to promote this material (their second appearance on the show overall) was also the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently since.
On July 12, 1996, touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died in a Manhattan hotel room of a heroin overdose after he and Chamberlin used the drug together. Chamberlin was later arrested on a misdemeanor drug possession charge. The Smashing Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and continue as a trio. This shakeup, coupled with Corgan going through a divorce and the death of his mother, influenced the somber mood of the band's next album, 1998's Adore. Featuring a darker, more subdued and heavily electronic sound at a time when alternative rock was declining in mainstream cachet, Adore divided both critics and fans, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the US).
Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999. In 2000, they released Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image. Critics were again divided, and sales were lower than before; Machina is the second lowest-selling commercially released Smashing Pumpkins album to date, with U.S. sales of 583,000 units up to 2005. During the recording for Machina, Wretzky quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000 the band released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music free over the Internet and broke up at the end of the year, playing their last show on December 2, 2000, at the Cabaret Metro.
2001–2005: Zwan and solo career
Following a brief stint touring with New Order in the summer, Corgan reunited with Chamberlin to form the band Zwan with Corgan's old friend Matt Sweeney in late 2001. According to Neil Strauss of New York Times, during his few live performances with the band, Corgan says "is still a work in progress". The lineup was completed with guitarist David Pajo and bassist Paz Lenchantin. The band had two distinct incarnations, the primary approach being an upbeat rock band with a three-guitar-driven sound, the second, a folk and gospel inspired acoustic side with live strings. The quintet performed throughout 2002, and their debut album, Mary Star of the Sea, was released in early 2003 to generally positive reviews. In the midst of their supporting tour for the album, mounting conflict between Corgan and Chamberlin, and the other band members led to the cancellation of the rest of the tour as the band entered an apparent hiatus, formally breaking up in September 2003.
In 2004, Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, blaming Iha for the breakup of the Smashing Pumpkins, calling Wretzky "a mean spirited drug addict," and criticizing his former Zwan bandmates' fixation with "indie cred" and calling them "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish.
On September 17, 2003, Billy presented his poetry at the Art Institute of Chicago's Rubloff Auditorium. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on The New York Times Best Seller list. Around this time, he began posting autobiographical writings online under the title The Confessions of Billy Corgan.
Also in 2004, he began a solo music career, landing on an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace, co-produced and arranged by Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb. Released on June 21, 2005, through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours. Prior to recording TheFutureEmbrace, Corgan had recorded some 72 songs inspired by Chicago history for the largely acoustic ChicagoSongs project, which have yet to be released.
2005–present: The Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to re-form the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Corgan's offer for a reunion.
On April 20, 2006, the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. The re-formed Smashing Pumpkins went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Pooley (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the United States on July 10, 2007, and debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the singles "G.L.O.W." and "Superchrist". Chamberlin left the band in March 2009, and Corgan elected to continue under the name.
In summer 2009, Corgan formed the band Spirits in the Sky to play a tribute concert to the late Sky Saxon of the Seeds. He toured with the band, composed of ex-Catherine member and "Superchrist" producer Kerry Brown, the Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin, Strawberry Alarm Clock keyboardist Mark Weitz, frequent Corgan collaborator Linda Strawberry, flautist Kevin Dippold, "Superchrist" violinist Ysanne Spevack, saxist Justin Norman, new Pumpkins drummer Mike Byrne, and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, playing covers and new Pumpkins material at several clubs in California. At the end of the tour, Corgan, Byrne, Tulin, and Brown headed back to Chicago to begin work on the new Smashing Pumpkins album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The lineup at the time which included new bassist Nicole Fiorentino, toured through much of 2010, then spent 2011 recording the "album-within-an-album" Oceania and mounting tours of the United States and Europe. However, Byrne and Fiorentino would later leave the band in 2014.
On May 15, 2014, Corgan released AEGEA, a new solo record of experimental recordings he made in 2007. Limited to 250 vinyl copies, the album was mostly sold online, with a few copies sold at Madame Zuzu's, a tea house he owns and operates in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago.
On July 25, 2014, Corgan also released the tapes from his "Siddhartha" show from March 2014, much in the vein of AEGEA. The set was expected to contain between 5 and 6 discs.
During the summer 2014, Corgan recorded The Smashing Pumpkins's tenth studio album, Monuments to an Elegy, with Tommy Lee and Jeff Schroeder. The album was released in early December 2014.
In September 2015, Corgan started a blog of vintage photographs that he himself curated, and which he called "People and Their Cars". The website also included an email listing for the blog, titled "The Red Border Club". This list was to be used for information on upcoming People and Their Cars and "Hexestential" books and merchandise, along with access to additional images.
In October 2017, he released a new solo album titled Ogilala.
In July 2018, The Smashing Pumpkins embarked on a reunion tour, the Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, with a focus on performing material from their first five studio albums. The lineup consists of himself, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, and Jeff Schroeder. Former bassist D'arcy Wretzky was not a part of the lineup, reportedly due to unresolved tension between her and Corgan. Wretzky has stated that Corgan offered her a contract but later retracted the offer, saying that "we also have to balance the forces at play... there is no room for error." After Wretzky released text messages between her and Corgan, a feud ensued, with each party attacking each other with biting remarks.
On November 22, 2019, Corgan released his third solo album Cotillions, which he called "a labor of love". He also said, "This is absolutely an album from my heart."
On July 14, 2022, Corgan and his partner, Chloe Mendel announced that they would host a livestream charity show on July 27 to benefit the victims of the July 4 Highland Park, Ill., shooting.
Professional wrestling promoter
Resistance Pro Wrestling (2011–2014)
In 2011 Corgan formed a Chicago-based independent wrestling promotion called Resistance Pro. Two years later, in 2013, he starred in a commercial for Walter E. Smithe Furniture, using the platform to promote his wrestling company.
In March 2014 it was reported that Corgan was in discussions with American television channel AMC to develop an unscripted reality series about Resistance Pro. The premise being a behind-the-scenes look at the promotion as Corgan "takes over creative direction for the independent wrestling company". The show was given the green light by AMC, under the working title of "Untitled Billy Corgan Wrestling Project," the same month.
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2015–2016)
In April 2015 Corgan became the new Senior Producer of Creative and Talent Development for Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where his role was to "develop characters and create story lines", which he has called "a dream come true". In August 2016, Corgan took over as the promotion's new president.
In November 2016 Corgan had left TNA after disputes about not being paid on time, and subsequently, Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp and Impact Ventures, parent company of TNA Impact Wrestling, provided a credit facility to TNA to fund operations. In 2016, he loaned money to Anthem Sports & Entertainment to fund TNA, and they promised to pay him back. On November 11, Corgan and Anthem signed a settlement, with Anthem repaying TNA's loan from Corgan.
Newly appointed TNA/Impact Wrestling President Ed Nordholm credits the invention of and the vision behind the Matt Hardy Broken gimmick to Jeremy Borash, David Lagana and Billy Corgan. While Borash specifically had the most input into the gimmick of the three aside from Matt, the Hardy family deny that Borash was the sole person behind the gimmick.
National Wrestling Alliance (2017–present)
In May 2017, Corgan purchased the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), including its name, rights, trademarks and championship belts. Corgan's ownership took effect on October 1, 2017.
Personal life
Mental health
For much of his life, Corgan has struggled with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, self-harm, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicidal ideation. He attributes these problems to the abuse he endured as a child at the hands of his father and stepmother, as well as other personal issues. He has since become an advocate for abuse support networks.
Involvement with sports
Corgan is a keen supporter of the Chicago Cubs, and an occasional commentator on the team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at many Cubs games, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". He is also a fan of the Chicago Bulls, Chicago Blackhawks and Chicago Bears, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is an avid professional wrestling fan, and appeared at an ECW event wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by ROH for promotional videos. On April 26, 2010, Corgan appeared on the SIRIUS Satellite Radio program Right After Wrestling with Arda Ocal to discuss his love for wrestling and the importance of unique theme songs for characters. On August 26, 2010, he took part in a storyline with AAA during a concert for MTV World Stage. As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and the Three Stooges". In March 2008, he was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England.
Spiritual beliefs
Corgan accepts some elements of Catholicism, Buddhism and Ken Wilber's spiritual ideas. In 2009, he launched Everything From Here to There, an interfaith website that is devoted to "Mind-Body-Soul" integration. He mentions praying each morning and night to be able to see through Jesus Christ's eyes and feel with his heart. An analysis of the symbolism of Corgan's lyrics considered the blend of beliefs he has cited in various interviews, which include ideas about religion, multiple dimensions, and psychic phenomena. In an interview on the Howard Stern Show, Corgan claimed to have once had an encounter with a person who had the ability to shapeshift.
Family and romantic relationships
Corgan's mother Martha died in December 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her memory. In the early 2000s Corgan named his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a young girl sitting on a fake moon at Riverview Park is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.
In 1991, Corgan briefly dated musician and actress Courtney Love. In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Corgan confessed that he arranged for Love's band to stay in his Chicago apartment in order to meet her, an encounter he had longed for after seeing her photograph on the back of Hole's new single. Their relationship ended on October 12, 1991, when Love found out that Corgan had another relationship.
In 1993, Corgan married art conservator and artist Chris Fabian, his longtime on-again, off-again girlfriend. They were married at a small ceremony at his house in Wrigleyville. Corgan and Fabian separated in late 1995. Corgan filed for divorce in December 1996 on grounds of "irreconcilable differences," and the divorce was granted in 1997. Corgan refused to discuss the marriage for years, only allowing that it was "unhappy." In 2005 he described the circumstances of his marriage in depth via his personal blog.
In late 1995, Corgan started dating Ukrainian photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who later contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release TheFutureEmbrace. In 2005, Corgan dated musician Emilie Autumn for a number of months. The pair collaborated on multiple occasions during this time, with Autumn providing vocals and violin on his solo album and costume for a supporting music video.
In early 2006, Corgan moved in with Love and her daughter Francis Bean. According to Love, he had his own wing in her Hollywood Hills mansion. Two years later, Love criticized him publicly over his alleged refusal to attend her daughter's sweet 16 party. After they parted ways, Corgan stated in a March 2010 interview, "I have no interest in supporting [Love] in any way, shape or form. You can't throw enough things down the abyss with a person like that." Shortly after, when her band's album Nobody's Daughter was released, Corgan used Twitter to post anger-filled rants against her in reference to two songs he had written, "Samantha" and "How Dirty Girls Get Clean", which ended up on the album without his permission. Love then wrote an apology to him on her Facebook account, but the feud continued. Corgan took to Twitter to rant against her again. She responded to him on Twitter, saying, "All i am is nice about you so if you wanna be mean be mean i don't feel anything. i have too much to feel dear." In 2008, he blamed his dedication to music for what he called "a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row". The two eventually reconciled, and Love was invited to perform at Smashing Pumpkins 30th Anniversary Show. In 2020, Corgan told Los Angeles Times that only a few people really matter to him and that Courtney is one of them, describing their relationship as a family bond.
In 2009, Corgan was linked with pop star Jessica Simpson. He started dating Australian singer Jessica Origliasso in 2010, and remained in a relationship with her until early June 2012. Origliasso blamed their split on their careers forcing them to spend too much time apart.
He began dating Chloe Mendel in 2013. She gave birth to a son named Augustus Juppiter Corgan on November 16, 2015. Their second child, a daughter named Philomena Clementine Corgan, was born on October 2, 2018.
On December 19, 2021, Corgan's father, William Dale Corgan, died at age 74.
Political beliefs
In 1998, Corgan said he had not participated in an election since 1992, when he voted for Bill Clinton.
Following the election of Barack Obama in 2008, Corgan stated: "I'm very proud of my country right now for doing the right thing." He has since said that he was disappointed with Obama's presidency, and that he lacks faith in both major political parties. In 2009, he posted a transcript of a webcast by political activist Lyndon LaRouche to the official Smashing Pumpkins forum. On March 10, 2009, Corgan testified in front of Congress on behalf of the musicFIRST Coalition. He spoke in favor of H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which gives musicians and artists their share of compensation when their music is played on radio stations.
In an interview with radio host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in 2016, Corgan voiced discontent with "social justice warriors", comparing them to Maoists, cult members, and the Ku Klux Klan, and calling their actions a threat to freedom of speech. In 2018, he called himself a "free-market libertarian capitalist".
Diet
Corgan adopted a pescetarian diet in 2013, and stated in 2017 that he had begun following a vegan and gluten-free diet. In 2012, he opened a tea house in Ravinia, Highland Park called Madame Zuzu's Tea House, which closed in 2018 and reopened in downtown Highland Park in 2020.
Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second No. 1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the recording of the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002) in which he appeared as a doctor.
Corgan appeared at the 1996 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremonies. He inducted one of his biggest musical influences, Pink Floyd. He played acoustic guitar during the ceremony with Pink Floyd, when they performed their song "Wish You Were Here".
In particular, Corgan guided and collaborated with three bands in the 2000s—Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon.
In 2010, Corgan claimed co-writing credit (with ex-girlfriend Courtney Love) on at least two of the songs on Hole's final album Nobody's Daughter and tried to assert a right of approval before the album could be released. Corgan had helped develop the album during its early stages. The album was released without the writing controversy ever being litigated or publicly resolved.
Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album, Life Begins Again, and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut, where Robert Smith from The Cure teamed up with Corgan to do a cover of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody". In 2007, Corgan provided vocals on the Scorpions' song "The Cross", on their album Humanity: Hour I. In 2010 Corgan featured on Ray Davies' album See My Friends on the album's closer, a mash-up of the Kinks songs "All Day and All of the Night" and "Destroyer". He also contributed his guitar work on "Did You Miss Me" by The Veronicas. Corgan has also collaborated with Tony Iommi, Blindside, David Bowie (singing "All the Young Dudes" with Bowie at Bowie's 50th birthday party), New Order and Marianne Faithfull.
Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:
Corgan wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek U.S.A." were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. AllMusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". His solo for "Soma" was No. 24 on Rolling Stone list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in 1996 for Guitar World. Other guitarists Corgan rates highly include Uli Jon Roth, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore, Leslie West, Dimebag Darrell and Robin Trower.
His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by post-punk figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.
Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best". He is also a fan of Pantera and appeared briefly in their home video 3 Watch It Go. Other favorites include Depeche Mode, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rush, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Metallica, Slayer, Queen, Electric Light Orchestra, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized. Corgan stated in 1997 that upon hearing the U2 song "New Year's Day", at 16, "[U2] quickly became the most important band in the world to me." Corgan particularly went out of his way to praise Rush in his interview for Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary on the band, where he criticized mainstream reviewers for consciously marginalizing the band and their influence, and highlighted the fact that many of his musical peers were influenced by Rush.
He has listed his artistic influences as William S. Burroughs, Pablo Picasso, Jimi Hendrix, Jack Kerouac, and Philip K. Dick.
Instruments
Corgan played (during the Gish-Siamese Dream era) a customized '57 Reissue Fender Stratocaster equipped with three Fender Lace Sensor pickups (the Lace Sensor Blue in the neck position, the Lace Sensor Silver in the middle position, and the Lace Sensor Red at the bridge position). It also has a five-position pickup selector switch which he installed himself. This battered Strat became his number one guitar by default. He owned a '74 Strat that was stolen shortly after Gish was completed. Corgan was reunited with this guitar in early 2019.
Corgan also used a wide variety of guitars on Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On "Where Boys Fear to Tread", Corgan used a Les Paul Junior Reissue, and on "Tonight Tonight" he used a '72 Gibson ES-335. He is also known to use a '74 Strat which has since been painted baby blue. That guitar was used on the recordings for "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and also "Muzzle", because the heavier wood gave it the basic Strat sound with a bit more bottom.
During the recording and tour of the album Zeitgeist, Corgan used a Schecter C-1 EX baritone, finished in black with Tony Iommi signature pickups. Corgan also endorsed Reverend Guitars in his Zwan era, most notably playing a Reverend Slingshot.
In 2008 Corgan released to the market his own Fender Stratocaster. This new guitar was made to Corgan's exact specs to create his famous mid-'90s buzzsaw tone; the instrument features three DiMarzio pickups (two custom for this instrument), a string-through hardtail bridge and a satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish. When playing live, he uses both his signature Strats as well as two other Fender Strats, one in red with a white pick guard and one in silver-grey with a black pick guard; a Gibson Tony Iommi signature SG; and his Schecter C-1 (only used on the Zeitgeist song "United States").
A video called 'Stompland' on the official Smashing Pumpkins YouTube channel is informative on Corgan's choice of effects pedals. In the video he reveals an extensive collection of pedals used throughout his career with the Smashing Pumpkins. Corgan's tone is often characterized by his use of fuzz pedals, particularly vintage versions of the Electro-Harmonix Big Muff
In 2016 Reverend Guitars released the BC-1 Billy Corgan signature guitar featuring Railhammer Billy Corgan signature pickups.
The Reverend Billy Corgan Signature Terz was launched at the 2018 NAMM show—an electric version of a 19th-century instrument that is played as if the guitar is capoed at the third fret, and tuned G-g standard. Corgan often uses the capo at the third fret and asked for a higher-register guitar.
Corgan is noted for having used Marshall and Diezel amps. He has also used modular preamps based on many different amps in conjunction with Mesa Boogie poweramps. The preamps were custom built by Salvation Mods.
In August 2017, Corgan sold a large collection of instruments and gear used throughout his career via music gear website Reverb.
In 2020, Billy Corgan collaborated with Brian Carstens of Carstens Amplification to produce Grace, Billy's first and only signature guitar amplifier to date.
Discography
Solo
Albums
Singles
Soundtrack work
1996: Ransom
1997: First Love, Last Rites ("When I Was Born, I Was Bored")
1999: Stigmata
2000: Any Given Sunday (Corgan is credited on "Be A Man" by Hole)
2002: Spun (Corgan wrote original songs for this soundtrack)
2006: "Dance of the Dead" (episode of Masters of Horror)
2007: When a Man Falls in the Forest (three previously unreleased songs)
2011: The Chicago Code (Corgan performs the opening theme, written by Robert Duncan)
2018: Rampage – "The Rage" Performed by Kid Cudi featuring vocals by Corgan (from the Smashing Pumpkins track Bullet with Butterfly Wings)
Albums featured
1991: Sparkle (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1994: Songs About Girls (by Catherine, The song "It's No Lie" is produced by Corgan)
1994: Chante Des Chanson Sur Les Filles (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1994: Sleepy EP (by Catherine, The EP is produced by Corgan)
1996: Guitars That Rule the World, Vol. 2: Smell the Fuzz:The Superstar Guitar Album (by Various Artists, Corgan is credited as writer and performer of "Ascendo")
1997: Starjob (by The Frogs, The EP is produced by Corgan as "Johhny Goat")
1997: Troublizing (by Ric Ocasek, Corgan is credited as writer of "Asia Minor" and playing guitar on "The Next Right Moment", "Crashland Consequence", "Situation", "Fix on You" and "People We Know")
1998: Celebrity Skin (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Celebrity Skin", "Hit So Hard", "Malibu", "Dying" and "Petals")
1998: "I Belong to You" single (by Lenny Kravitz, Corgan remixed the second track "If You Can't Say No (Flunky in the attic Mix)")
1998: Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson, Corgan performed backing vocals on Speed of Pain, although not credited, he is thanked in the album credits.
1999: Paraphernalia (by Enuff Z'Nuff, Corgan is credited as guitarist on the song "Everything Works If You Let It")
2000: Iommi (by Tony Iommi, Corgan is credited as writer of and vocalist on "Black Oblivion")
2001: Get Ready (by New Order, Corgan is contributing voice on "Turn My Way")
2002: Kissin Time (by Marianne Faithfull, Corgan is credited as writer of "Wherever I Go", "I'm on Fire" and contributing on "Something Good")
2003: "Lights Out" single (by Lisa Marie Presley, Corgan is credited as writer of "Savior")
2004: We Are Not Alone (by Breaking Benjamin, Corgan is credited as writer of "Follow", "Forget It" and "Rain")
2004: The Essential Cheap Trick (by Cheap Trick, Corgan is playing guitar on the live recording of the track "Mandocello")
2004: About a Burning Fire (by Blindside, Corgan is playing guitar on "Hooray, It's L.A.")
2005: Life Begins Again (by Jimmy Chamberlin Complex, Corgan is contributing voice on "Loki Cat")
2005: Blue-Sky Research (by Taproot, Corgan wrote the track "Lost in the Woods" and co-wrote the tracks "Violent Seas" and "Promise")
2006: ONXRT:Live From The Archives Volume 9 (A compilation CD from the radio station 93 WXRT in Chicago features the live recording of the track "A100")
2007: Humanity: Hour I (by Scorpions, Corgan is contributing voice on "The Cross")
2010: Nobody's Daughter (by Hole, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Pacific Coast Highway", "Samantha" and "Loser Dust")
2010: See My Friends (by Ray Davies, Corgan is featured in the song "All Day And All of the Night/Destroyer")
2011: Ghost on the Canvas (by Glen Campbell, Corgan is featured in the song ."There's No Me... Without You")
2011: Fancy Space People (by Fancy Space People, Corgan is credited as engineer and playing guitar)
2014: Did You Miss Me (on The Veronicas by The Veronicas, guitar contributions)
2019: The Nothing (by Korn, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "You'll Never Find Me")
2019: Blvds of Splendor (by Cherie Currie, Corgan provides guitar, bass and Backing Vocals on "Blvds Of Splendor")
2019: Screamer (by Third Eye Blind, Corgan described as the "musical consigliere" of the album, and credited as co-writer of "Light It Up")
2020: Ceremony (by Phantogram, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Into Happiness" and "Love Me Now")
2021: Bodies (by AFI, Corgan is credited as co-writer of "Dulcería")
As part of The Smashing Pumpkins
References
External links
The Smashing Pumpkins official website
BillyCorgan.Livejournal.com – An extensive 7-year archive of Billy's journal entries, including The Confessions of Billy Corgan, solo work and the revival of the Pumpkins.
Billy Corgan collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive
Poems by Billy Corgan at alittlepoetry.com Three poems from Blinking With Fists
Category:1967 births
Category:Living people
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:21st-century American guitarists
Category:21st-century American singers
Category:Alternative rock guitarists
Category:Alternative rock singers
Category:American alternative rock musicians
Category:American libertarians
Category:American bloggers
Category:American former Christians
Category:American male bloggers
Category:American male guitarists
Category:American male poets
Category:American male singers
Category:American male songwriters
Category:American music video directors
Category:American people of Irish descent
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American people of Swiss-German descent
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American rock singers
Category:American rock songwriters
Category:Guitarists from Chicago
Category:Impact Wrestling executives
Category:Lead guitarists
Category:People with mood disorders
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Category:Professional wrestling promoters
Category:Singers from Chicago
Category:Songwriters from Illinois
Category:Starchildren members
Category:The Smashing Pumpkins members
Category:American veganism activists
Category:Writers from Chicago
Category:Zwan members | [] | [
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} | Sonny & Cher were an American pop and entertainment duo in the 1960s and 1970s, made up of spouses Sonny Bono and Cher. The couple started their career in the mid-1960s as R&B backing singers for record producer Phil Spector.
The pair first achieved fame with two hit songs in 1965, "Baby Don't Go" and "I Got You Babe". Signing with Atco/Atlantic Records, they released three studio albums in the late 1960s, as well as the soundtrack recordings for two unsuccessful movies, Good Times and Chastity, with Cher contributing vocals to one cut, "Chastity's Song (Band of Thieves)". In 1972, after three years of silence, the couple returned to the studio and released two other albums under the MCA/Kapp Records label.
In the 1970s, they also positioned themselves as media personalities with two top ten TV shows in the US, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour and The Sonny & Cher Show. The couple's career as a duo ended in 1975 following their divorce. In the decade they spent together, Sonny and Cher were nominated for two Grammy Awards and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Rolling Stone ranked them No. 18 on its list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time.
Performing under her first name, Cher went on to a highly successful career as a solo singer and actress, while Sonny Bono was eventually elected to Congress as a Republican U.S. Representative from California. The two performers were inducted to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1998, following Sonny's death in a skiing accident.
Career
1962–1964: The origin
Cherilyn Sarkisian first met Salvatore Bono in a Los Angeles coffee shop in November 1962, when she was sixteen. Eleven years her senior, Bono was working for record producer Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood. The two became best friends, eventual lovers, and were supposedly married in 1964, but Bono says in his autobiography that it was not an official marriage. They were legally wed after their only child, Chaz, was born. Through Bono, Cher started as a session singer, and sang backup on several of Spector's classic recordings, including "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes, "You've Lost That Loving Feeling" by The Righteous Brothers and Darlene Love's "A Fine, Fine Boy". In Darlene Love's recording, the listener can clearly hear Cher and Sonny close to the mic (along with Love, who recorded her own backing vocals).
1965–1966: Career development
With Bono continuing to write, arrange and produce the songs, the couple's first incarnation was as the duo "Caesar and Cleo". They released some singles in 1964, including "The Letter", with Vault Records, and "The Letter", "Do You Wanna Dance" and "Love Is Strange", with Reprise Records.
In September 1964, they released "Baby Don't Go" under the name of Sonny & Cher, which became their first regional hit. The song was later included on the 1965 Reprise compilation Baby Don't Go – Sonny & Cher and Friends, which also included songs from artists such as Bill Medley, The Lettermen and The Blendells.
The duo released their first album Look at Us in the summer of 1965. The album contained the number one single "I Got You Babe". Look at Us peaked at number two on the Billboard chart for eight weeks in the later part of 1965.
Sonny & Cher made their first promotional tour of Britain in the first two weeks of August1965. The tour was organized and overseen by Larry Page, co-manager of the English rock band the Kinks, who met Cher a month earlier while she finished recording her debut album and while the Kinks toured America. Page and the Kinks' publicist Brian Sommerville quickly signed to be Sonny & Cher's European business manager and British publicist, respectively. During their two weeks in Britain, the duo primarily appeared on British television and radio, but they also performed at the 100 Club in central London on August 5.
The couple appeared on many of the top television shows of the era including The Ed Sullivan Show, American Bandstand, Where The Action Is, Hollywood A Go-Go, Hollywood Palace, Hullabaloo, Beat Club, Shindig!, Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops. They also appeared as themselves in the film Wild on the Beach, singing "It's Gonna Rain". On their first album Bono also displayed his political interest long before running for Congress in the lyrics of the song, "The Revolution Kind".
As the followup to the success of Look at Us, they released their second studio album in April 1966, The Wondrous World of Sonny & Chér, which peaked at number 34. The two dressed in animal skins with Bono wearing knee high caveman boots and Cher going barefoot.
During 1965, five of their songs were in US Billboard Top 20, a record passed only by Elvis Presley and behind famous artists like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and others. Periodic solo releases by Cher continued during this period, including major successes with "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", and Burt Bacharach & Hal David's theme from "Alfie" (as heard in the motion picture Alfie, as well as a single release), both in 1966. Because they sided with the young people being harassed on the Sunset Strip during the Sunset Strip curfew riots; they were removed from their promised position of honor in the Tournament of Roses Parade in January 1967.
1967–1969: Career woes
In 1967, Sonny and Cher released their third album, In Case You're In Love. It peaked at number 45 in the U.S. charts. It contained two hit singles, both written by Bono, "The Beat Goes On" ( 6 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Little Man" (No. 21 on the Billboard Hot 100).
In an attempt to capitalize on the duo's initial success, Bono speedily arranged a film project for the duo to star in, but the 1967 feature, Good Times, was a major bomb, despite the efforts of fledgling director William Friedkin and co-star George Sanders. After Good Times flopped in 1968, Columbia Pictures immediately sold rights to their intended follow-up film Speedway to MGM. The couple were replaced by Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra. In 1969, another film, Chastity, starring Cher, written and produced by Sonny, was also a commercial bomb.
Sonny and Cher's career had stalled by 1968 as album sales quickly dried up. Their gentle, easy-listening pop sound and drug-free life had become unpopular in an era increasingly consumed with the psychedelic rock of the evolving landscape of American pop culture during the late 1960s.
Bono decided to forge ahead, carving a new career for the duo in Las Vegas resorts, where they sharpened their public persona with Cher as the wise-cracking, glamorous singer, and Bono as the good-natured recipient of her insults. In reality, Bono controlled every aspect of their act, from the musical arrangements to the joke-writing. While success was slow to come, their luck improved when network TV talent scouts attended a show, noting their potential appeal for a variety series.
Sonny and Cher also welcomed their first child, Chastity (named after Cher's movie), born on March 4, 1969.
1970–1977: TV success and divorce
In 1970, Sonny and Cher starred in their first television special, The Nitty Gritty Hour, a mixture of slapstick comedy, skits, and live music. The appearance was a critical success, which led to numerous guest spots on other television shows. They also appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies as guest stars.
Sonny and Cher caught the eye of CBS head of programming Fred Silverman while guest-hosting The Merv Griffin Show, and Silverman offered the duo their own variety show. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour debuted in 1971 as a summer replacement series. The show returned to prime time later that year and was an immediate hit, quickly reaching the Top 10. The show received 15 Emmy Award nominations during its run, winning one for direction, throughout its initial four seasons on CBS. The duo also revived their recording career, releasing the album All I Ever Need Is You, and charting two more top ten hits: "All I Ever Need Is You", and "A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done" in 1972.
Sonny and Cher's dialogues were patterned after the successful nightclub routines of Louis Prima and Keely Smith: the happy-go-lucky husband squelched by a tart remark from the unamused wife. The show featured a stock company of zany comedians, including Teri Garr, Freeman King, Ted Ziegler, Billy Van and Murray Langston (later The Unknown Comic on The Gong Show). One sketch satirizing CBS's detective show Cannon and its portly star William Conrad was so successful that Sonny and Cher staged several follow-ups, with Tony Curtis as "Detective Fat". Everybody in these sketches wore wide-waisted "fat suits" (similar to hoop skirts), so Detective Fat and his clients and his suspects would spend most of the time bumping each other and bouncing across the crowded room.
By the third season of the Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour (1974), the marriage of Sonny and Cher was falling apart; the duo separated later that year. The show imploded, while still rating in the top 10. What followed was a very public divorce (finalized on June 26, 1975). Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance By an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour in 1974.
Bono launched his own show, The Sonny Comedy Revue, in the fall of 1974, retaining the "Sonny and Cher" troupe of comedians and writers. Cher also announced plans to star in a new variety series of her own. Critics predicted that Bono would be the big winner with a solo comedy vehicle, and held little hope for Cher's more musical showcase. After only six weeks, however, Bono's show was abruptly canceled.
The Cher show debuted as an elaborate, all-star television special on February 16, 1975, featuring Flip Wilson, Bette Midler, and special guest Elton John. Cloris Leachman and Jack Albertson both won Emmy Awards for their appearances as guest-stars a few weeks later, and the series received four additional Emmy nominations that year. The first season ranked in the Top 25 of the year-end ratings.
As a result of the divorce, Sonny and Cher went their separate ways until Cher attended the opening of one of Bono's restaurants in something of a reconciliation. The Sonny & Cher Show returned in 1976, even though they were no longer married (the duo "reunited" with a humorous handshake). After struggling with low ratings through 1977, Sonny and Cher finally parted ways for good. In 1976, Mego Toys also released a line of toys and dolls, in the likeness of Sonny & Cher. The release of these fashion dolls coincided with the popularity of The Sonny & Cher Show.
1978–1999: After Sonny and Cher
Sonny Bono went on to an acting career and later entered politics, eventually becoming a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Cher went on to become a Grammy Award-winning solo singer and an Academy Award-winning actress.
The couple made two surprise impromptu reunion performances: the first on The Mike Douglas Show in the spring of 1979, singing a medley of "United We Stand" and "Without You", and the second on November 13, 1987, on Late Night with David Letterman where they performed their hit song "I Got You Babe"; it turned out to be the last time the two would perform together.
In early 1999, And the Beat Goes On: The Sonny and Cher Story, directed by David Burton Morris and starring Jay Underwood and Renee Faia, was broadcast on ABC. The TV movie was based on the autobiography of Bono, and focuses on the relationship between the couple during the early 1960s to their divorce in the mid 1970s. This movie was also nominated for two Emmy Awards.
Bono's death, music copyright
On January 5, 1998, Bono died of injuries from hitting a tree while skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe. He was 62 years old. Bono's death came just days after Michael Kennedy died in a similar accident. Bono's widow, Mary, was selected to fill the remainder of his congressional term, and was re-elected in her own right, serving until she was defeated for re-election in 2012. She continues to champion many of her late husband's causes, including the ongoing fight as how to best save the Salton Sea.
The funeral, unbeknownst to Cher, was broadcast live on CNN. She gave a tearful eulogy, after which the attendees sang the song "The Beat Goes On". In front of millions, Cher tearfully and effusively praised Bono, calling him "the most unforgettable character I've ever met". His final resting place is Desert Memorial Park in nearby Cathedral City, California, the same cemetery in which Frank Sinatra was laid to rest later that same year. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads: "And The Beat Goes On".
In 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Cher appeared at the event with Mary Bono, who accepted the award on behalf of her late husband. Cher paid tribute to Bono in the CBS special Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers, calling her grief "something I never plan to get over". During the same year, Cher also released her twenty-second album Believe that was highly influenced by Bono's death, and in the booklet Cher wrote "In memory of Son".
When Cher and Bono divorced, they agreed to split revenue from the songs recorded together. When Bono died, one-third of his interest passed to wife Mary Bono, and one-sixth interests were split amongst his children. Cher sued UMG in 2009, claiming she and Bono's heirs were owed $5,000,000 in "hidden" royalties.
Legacy and achievements
Author Joseph Murrells described Sonny & Cher as "part of the leading exponents of the rock-folk-message type of song, a hybrid combining the beat and instrumentation of rock music with folk lyrics and often lyrics of protest."
The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour received numerous Emmy nominations; Director Art Fisher won for Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series in 1972. Cher won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1974.
Sonny and Cher received the following honors:
1966: Grammy nomination for Best New Artist
1972: Grammy nomination for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
1998: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2015: Ranked No. 18 on Rolling Stone's list of the 20 Greatest Duos of All Time
Filmography
Discography
Look at Us (1965)
The Wondrous World of Sonny & Chér (1966)
In Case You're in Love (1967)
All I Ever Need Is You (1972)
Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer, Papa Used to Write All Her Songs (1974)
See also
Cher
Sonny Bono
Supercouple
List of number-one hits (United States)
List of artists who reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100
Notes
References
Books
Sonny And Cher - Thomas Braun (1978).
And The Beat Goes On - Sonny Bono (1991).
The First Time - Cher (1998).
External links
Behind the Making of Sonny & Cher: Complete Discography & Recording History to 1970
The Wondrous World of Sonny & Cher
Information sites
+
Category:American pop rock music groups
Category:American musical duos
Category:American pop music groups
Category:Atco Records artists
Category:Atlantic Records artists
Category:Cher
Category:Married couples
Category:MCA Records artists
Category:Musical groups established in 1964
Category:Rock music duos
Category:Sonny Bono
Category:Male–female musical duos
Category:Reprise Records artists
Category:Warner Records artists | [
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"text": "Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the \"Goddess of Pop\", she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. Cher is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances throughout her six-decade-long career. \n\nCher gained popularity in 1965 as one half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher, after their song \"I Got You Babe\" peaked at number one on the US and UK charts. Together they sold 40 million records worldwide. Her solo career was established during the same time, with the top-ten singles \"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)\" and \"You Better Sit Down Kids\". She became a television personality in the 1970s with her CBS shows ― The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and the namesake Cher. While working on television, Cher released the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles \"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves\", \"Half-Breed\", and \"Dark Lady\", becoming the female solo artist with the most number-one singles in United States history at the time. After her divorce from Sonny Bono in 1975, she released the disco album Take Me Home (1979) and earned $300,000 a week for her 1979–1982 concert residency in Las Vegas.\n\nIn 1982, Cher made her Broadway debut in the play Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and starred in its film adaptation. She subsequently garnered critical acclaim for her performances in films such as Silkwood (1983), Mask (1985), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), and Moonstruck (1987), the last of which won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. She then revived her music career by recording the rock-inflected albums Cher (1987), Heart of Stone (1989), and Love Hurts (1991), all of which yielded successful singles such as \"I Found Someone\", \"If I Could Turn Back Time\", and \"Love and Understanding\". Cher contributed to the soundtrack for her next film, Mermaids (1990), which spawned the UK number-one single \"The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)\". She made her directorial debut with a segment in the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996).\n\nCher reached a new commercial peak in 1998 with the dance-pop album Believe, whose title track topped the Billboard Year-End Hot 100 chart of 1999 and became the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. It features pioneering use of Auto-Tune to distort her vocals, known as the \"Cher effect\". Her 2002–2005 Living Proof: The Farewell Tour became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time, earning $250 million. In 2008, she signed a $60 million deal to headline the Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for three years. During the 2010s, she landed starring roles in the films Burlesque (2010) and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and released studio albums Closer to the Truth (2013) and Dancing Queen (2018), both of which debuted at number three on the Billboard 200.\n\nHaving sold 100 million records, Cher is one of the world's best-selling music artists. Her achievements include a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival award, the Billboard Icon Award, and awards from the Kennedy Center Honors and the Council of Fashion Designers of America. She is the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s. Aside from music and acting, she is noted for her trendsetting, elaborate outfits, plastic surgeries, political views, social media presence, philanthropic endeavors, and social activism, including LGBT rights and HIV/AIDS prevention.\n\nLife and career\n\n1946–1961: Early life \n\nCher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California, on May 20, 1946. Her father, John Sarkisian, was an Armenian-American truck driver with drug and gambling problems; her mother, Georgia Holt (born Jackie Jean Crouch), was a former model and retired actress who claimed Irish, English, German, and Cherokee ancestry. Cher's father was rarely home when she was an infant, and her parents divorced when Cher was ten months old. Her mother later married actor John Southall, with whom she had another daughter, Georganne, Cher's half-sister.\n\nNow living in Los Angeles, Cher's mother began acting while working as a waitress. She changed her name to Georgia Holt and played minor roles in films and on television. Holt also secured acting parts for her daughters as extras on television shows like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Her mother's relationship with Southall ended when Cher was nine years old, but she considers him her father and remembers him as a \"good-natured man who turned belligerent when he drank too much\". Holt remarried and divorced several more times, and she moved her family around the country (including New York, Texas, and California). They often had little money, and Cher recounted having had to use rubber bands to hold her shoes together. At one point, her mother left Cher at an orphanage for several weeks. Although they met every day, both found the experience traumatic.\n\nWhen Cher was in fifth grade, she produced a performance of the musical Oklahoma! for her teacher and class. She organized a group of girls, directing and choreographing their dance routines. Unable to convince boys to participate, she acted the male roles and sang their songs. By age nine, she had developed an unusually low voice. Fascinated by film stars, Cher's role model was Audrey Hepburn, particularly due to her role in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. Cher began to take after the unconventional outfits and behavior of Hepburn's character. She was also inspired by Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, and Katharine Hepburn. She was disappointed by the absence of dark-haired Hollywood actresses whom she could emulate. She had wanted to be famous since childhood but felt unattractive and untalented, later commenting, \"I couldn't think of anything that I could do ... I didn't think I'd be a singer or dancer. I just thought, well, I'll be famous. That was my goal.\"\n\nIn 1961, Holt married bank manager Gilbert LaPiere, who adopted Cher (under the name Cheryl LaPiere) and Georganne, and enrolled them at Montclair College Preparatory School, a private school in Encino, whose students were mostly from affluent families. The school's upper-class environment presented a challenge for Cher; biographer Connie Berman wrote, \"[she] stood out from the others in both her striking appearance and outgoing personality.\" A former classmate commented, \"I'll never forget seeing Cher for the first time. She was so special ... She was like a movie star, right then and there ... She said she was going to be a movie star and we knew she would.\" Despite not being an excellent student, Cher was intelligent and creative, according to Berman. She earned high grades, excelling in French and English classes. As an adult, she discovered that she had dyslexia. Cher's unconventional behavior stood out: she performed songs for students during the lunch hours and surprised peers when she wore a midriff-baring top. She later recalled, \"I was never really in school. I was always thinking about when I was grown up and famous.\"\n\n1962–1965: Solo career breakthrough \n \nAt age 16, Cher dropped out of school, left her mother's house, and moved to Los Angeles with a friend. She took acting classes and worked to support herself, dancing in small clubs along Hollywood's Sunset Strip and introducing herself to performers, managers, and agents. According to Berman, \"[Cher] did not hesitate to approach anyone she thought could help her get a break, make a new contact, or get an audition.\" Cher met performer Sonny Bono in November 1962 when he was working for record producer Phil Spector. Cher's friend moved out, and Cher accepted Sonny's offer to be his housekeeper. Sonny introduced Cher to Spector, who used her as a backup singer on many recordings, including the Ronettes' \"Be My Baby\" and the Righteous Brothers' \"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'\". Spector produced her first single, \"Ringo, I Love You\", which Cher recorded under the name Bonnie Jo Mason. The song was rejected by many radio stations programmers as they thought Cher's deep contralto vocals were a man's vocals; therefore, they believed it was a male homosexual singing a love song dedicated to the Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.\n\nCher and Sonny became close friends, eventual lovers, and performed their own unofficial wedding ceremony in a hotel room in Tijuana, Mexico, on October 27, 1964. Although Sonny had wanted to launch Cher as a solo artist, she encouraged him to perform with her because she suffered from stage fright, and he began joining her onstage, singing the harmonies. Cher disguised her nervousness by looking at Sonny; she later commented that she sang to the people through him. In late 1964, they emerged as a duo called Caesar & Cleo, releasing the poorly received singles \"Do You Wanna Dance?\", \"Love Is Strange\", and \"Let the Good Times Roll\".\n\nCher signed with Liberty Records' Imperial imprint in the end of 1964, and Sonny became her producer. The single \"Dream Baby\", released under the name \"Cherilyn\", received airplay in Los Angeles. Imperial encouraged Cher to work with Sonny on her second solo single for the label, a cover version of Bob Dylan's \"All I Really Want to Do\". It peaked at number 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1965. Meanwhile, the Byrds had released their own version of the same song. When competition on the singles charts started between Cher and the Byrds, the group's record label began to promote the B-side of the Byrds' single. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds commented, \"We loved the Cher version ... We didn't want to hassle. So we just turned our record over.\" Cher's debut album, All I Really Want to Do (1965), reached number 16 on the Billboard 200; it was later described by AllMusic's Tim Sendra as \"one of the stronger folk-pop records of the era\".\n\n1965–1967: Sonny and Cher's rise to pop stardom \n\nIn early 1965, Caesar and Cleo began calling themselves Sonny & Cher. Following the recording of \"I Got You Babe\", they traveled to England in July 1965 at the Rolling Stones' advice; Cher recalled, \"[they] had told us ... that Americans just didn't get us and that if we were going to make it big, we were going to have to go to England.\" According to writer Cintra Wilson, \"English newspaper photographers showed up when S&C were thrown out of the London Hilton [because of their outfits] the night they arrived—literally overnight, they were stars. London went gaga for the heretofore-unseen S&C look, which was neither mod nor rocker.\"\n\n\"I Got You Babe\" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became, according to AllMusic's Bruce Eder, \"one of the biggest-selling and most beloved pop/rock hits of the mid-'60s\"; Rolling Stone listed it among \"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time\" in 2003. As the song knocked the Beatles off the top of the British charts, English teenagers began to emulate Sonny and Cher's fashion style, such as bell-bottoms, striped pants, ruffled shirts, industrial zippers and fur vests. Upon their return to the US, the duo made several appearances on the teen-pop showcases Hullabaloo and Shindig! and completed a tour of some of the largest arenas in the US. Their shows attracted Cher look-alikes—\"girls who were ironing their hair straight and dyeing it black, to go with their vests and bell-bottoms\". Cher expanded her creative range by designing a clothing line.\n\nSonny and Cher's first album, Look at Us (1965), released for the Atco Records division of Atlantic Records, spent eight weeks at number two on the Billboard 200, behind the Beatles' Help!. Their material became popular, and the duo successfully competed with the dominant British Invasion and Motown sounds of the era. Author Joseph Murrells described Sonny and Cher as \"part of the leading exponents of the rock-folk-message type of song, a hybrid combining the best and instrumentation of rock music with folk lyric and often lyrics of protest.\" Sonny and Cher charted ten Billboard top 40 singles between 1965 and 1972, including five top-ten singles: \"I Got You Babe\", \"Baby Don't Go\", \"The Beat Goes On\", \"All I Ever Need Is You\", and \"A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done\". At one point, they had five songs in the top 50 at the same time, a feat equaled only by the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Together they sold 40 million records worldwide and had become, according to Time magazine's Ginia Bellafante, rock's \"it\" couple.\n\nCher's following releases kept her solo career fully competitive with her work with Sonny. The Sonny Side of Chér (1966) features \"Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)\", which reached number two in the US and number three in the UK and became her first million-seller solo single. Chér, also released in 1966, contains the Burt Bacharach and Hal David composition \"Alfie\", which was added to the credits of the American version of the 1966 film of the same name and became the first stateside version of the popular song. With Love, Chér (1967) includes songs described by biographer Mark Bego as \"little soap-opera stories set to rock music\" such as the US top-ten single \"You Better Sit Down Kids\".\n\n1967–1970: Backlash from the younger generation, first marriage \n\nBy the end of the 1960s, Sonny and Cher's music had ceased to chart. According to Berman, \"the heavy, loud sound of groups like Jefferson Airplane and Cream made the folk-rock music of Sonny and Cher seem too bland.\" Cher later said, \"I loved the new sound of Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the electric-guitar oriented bands. Left to myself, I would have changed with the times because the music really turned me on. But [Sonny] didn't like it—and that was that.\" Their monogamous lifestyle during the period of the sexual revolution and the anti-drug position they adopted at the height of the drug culture lost them popularity among American youths. According to Bego, \"in spite of their revolutionary unisex clothes, Sonny and Cher were quite 'square' when it came to sex and drugs.\" In an attempt to recapture their young audience, the duo produced and starred in the film Good Times (1967), which was commercially unsuccessful.\n\nCher's next album, Backstage (1968), in which she explores diverse musical genres including Brazilian jazz and anti-war protest settings, was not a commercial success. In 1969, she was dropped from Imperial Records while Sonny and Cher had been dropped from Atco; however, the label wanted to sign Cher for a solo album. 3614 Jackson Highway (1969) was recorded without the guidance of Sonny and incorporates experiments in rhythm and blues and soul music. AllMusic's Mark Deming proclaimed it \"arguably the finest album of her career\", and still \"a revelation\" decades later. Displeased with the 3614 Jackson Highway album, Sonny prevented Cher from releasing more recordings for Atco.\n\nMeanwhile, Sonny dated others, and by the end of the 1960s their relationship had begun to unravel. According to People magazine, \"[Sonny] tried desperately to win her back, telling her he wanted to marry and start a family.\" They officially married after she gave birth on March 4, 1969, to Chaz Bono.\n\nThe duo spent $500,000 and mortgaged their home to make the film Chastity (1969). Written and produced by Sonny, who did not appear in the movie, it tells the story of a young woman, played by Cher, searching for the meaning of life. The art film failed commercially, putting the couple $190,000 in debt with back taxes. However, some critics noted that Cher showed signs of acting potential; Cue magazine wrote, \"Cher has a marvelous quality that often makes you forget the lines you are hearing.\"\n\nAt the lowest point of their career, the duo put together a nightclub routine that relied on a more adult approach to sound and style. According to writer Cintra Wilson, \"Their lounge act was so depressing, people started heckling them. Then Cher started heckling back. Sonny ... reprimanded her; then she'd heckle Sonny\". The heckling became a highlight of the act and attracted viewers. Television executives took note, and the couple began making guest appearances on prime-time shows, in which they presented a \"new, sophisticated, and mature\" image. Cher adopted alluring, low-cut gowns that became her signature outfits.\n\n1971–1974: Television career breakthrough, first musical comeback \n\nCBS head of programming Fred Silverman offered Sonny and Cher their own television program after he noticed them as guest-hosts on The Merv Griffin Show in 1971. The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour premiered as a summer replacement series on August 1, 1971, and had six episodes. Because it was a ratings success, the couple returned that December with a full-time show.\n\nWatched by more than 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour was praised for the comedic timing, and deadpan Cher mocked Sonny about his looks and short stature. According to Berman, they \"exuded an aura of warmth, playfulness, and caring that only enhanced their appeal. Viewers were further enchanted when a young [Chaz] also appeared on the show. They seemed like a perfect family.\" Cher honed her acting skills in sketch comedy roles such as the brash housewife Laverne, the sardonic waitress Rosa, and historical vamps, including Cleopatra and Miss Sadie Thompson. The Bob Mackie-designed clothing Cher wore was part of the show's attraction, and her style influenced the fashion trends of the 1970s.\n\nIn 1971, Sonny and Cher signed with the Kapp Records division of MCA Records, and Cher released the single \"Classified 1A\", in which she sings from the point of view of a soldier who bleeds to death in Vietnam. Written by Sonny, who felt that her first solo single on the label had to be poignant and topical, the song was rejected by radio station programmers as uncommercial.\n\nSince Sonny's first attempts at reviving their recording career as a duo had also been unsuccessful, Kapp Records recruited Snuff Garrett to work with them. He produced Cher's second US number-one single, \"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves\", which \"proved that ... Garrett knew more about Cher's voice and her persona as a singer than Sonny did\", writes Bego. \"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves\" was the first single by a solo artist to rank number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart at the same time as on the Canadian Singles Chart. Billboard called it \"one of the 20th century's greatest songs\". It was featured on the 1971 album Chér (eventually reissued under the title Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves), which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Its second single, \"The Way of Love\", reached number seven on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and established Cher's more confident image as a recording artist.\n\nIn 1972, Cher released the all-ballad set Foxy Lady, demonstrating the evolution of her vocal abilities, according to Bego. Following the release of the album, Garrett quit as producer after disagreeing with Sonny about the kind of material Cher should record. At Sonny's insistence, in 1973 Cher released an album of standards called Bittersweet White Light, which was commercially unsuccessful. That year, lyricist Mary Dean brought Garrett \"Half-Breed\", a song about the daughter of a Cherokee mother and a white father, that she had written especially for Cher. Although Garrett did not have Cher as a client at the time, he was convinced that \"it's a smash for Cher and for nobody else\", so he held the song for months until he got Cher back. \"Half-Breed\" was featured on the album of the same name and became Cher's third US number-one single. Both the album and the single were certified gold by the RIAA.\n\nIn 1974, Cher released the song \"Dark Lady\" as the lead single from the namesake album. It reached the top position on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Cher's fourth number-one single and making her the female artist with the most number-one singles in United States history at the time. Later that year, she released a Greatest Hits album that, according to Billboard magazine, proved her to be \"one of the most consistent hitmakers of the past five years\", as well as a \"proven superstar who always sells records\".\n\nBetween 1971 and 1973, Sonny and Cher's recording career was revived with four albums released under Kapp Records and MCA Records: Sonny & Cher Live (1971), All I Ever Need Is You (1972), Mama Was a Rock and Roll Singer, Papa Used to Write All Her Songs (1973), and Live in Las Vegas Vol. 2 (1973). Cher later commented on this period: \"I could do a whole album ... in three days ... We were on the road ... and we were doing the Sonny & Cher Show\".\n\n1974–1979: Divorce from Sonny Bono, second marriage, decline in popularity \n\nCher and Sonny had had marital problems since late 1972, but appearances were maintained until 1974. \"The public still thinks we are married,\" Sonny wrote in his diary at the time, \"[and] that's the way it has to be.\" In February 1974, Sonny filed for a separation, citing \"irreconcilable differences\". A week later, Cher countered with a divorce suit and charged Sonny with \"involuntary servitude\", claiming that he withheld money from her and deprived her of her rightful share of their earnings. The couple battled in court over finances and the custody of Chaz, which was eventually granted to Cher. Their divorce was finalized on June 26, 1975.\n\nIn 1974, Cher won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. The same year, Sonny premiered a solo show on ABC, The Sonny Comedy Revue, which carried the creative team behind the Sonny and Cher show. It was canceled after 13 weeks.\n\nDuring the divorce proceedings, Cher had a two-year romantic relationship with record executive David Geffen, who freed her from her business arrangement with Sonny, under which she was required to work exclusively for Cher Enterprises, the company he ran. Geffen secured a $2.5 million deal for Cher with Warner Bros. Records, and she began work on her first album under that label in 1975. According to Bego, \"it was their intention that [this album] was going to make millions of fans around the world take her seriously as a rock star, and not just a pop singer.\"\n\nDespite Cher's efforts to develop her musical range by listening to artists such as Stevie Wonder, Elton John, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan, the resulting album Stars was commercially and critically unsuccessful. Janet Maslin of The Village Voice wrote, \"Cher is just no rock and roller ... Image, not music, is Cher Bono's main ingredient for both records and TV.\" The album has since become a cult classic and is generally considered among her best work.\n\nOn February 16, 1975, Cher returned to television with a solo show on CBS. Called Cher, it began as a highly rated special with guests Flip Wilson, Elton John, and Bette Midler. The show was produced by Geffen and centered on Cher's songs, monologs, comedy performance, and her variation of clothing, which was the largest for a weekly TV show. Early critical reception was favorable; the Los Angeles Times exclaimed that \"Sonny without Cher was a disaster. Cher without Sonny, on the other hand, could be the best thing that's happened to weekly television this season.\" Cher lasted for less than a year, replaced by a new show in which she professionally reunited with ex-husband Sonny; she said, \"doing a show alone was more than I could handle.\" According to The Ringer Lindsay Zoladz, \"[Cher] found the network censors to be more watchful than they were when she was married to Sonny ... When she was single or casually dating, Cher always seemed to pose more of a threat to the status quo than she did when she was Sonny's wife.\"\n\nOn June 30, 1975, four days after finalizing her divorce from Sonny, Cher married rock musician Gregg Allman, co-founder of The Allman Brothers Band. She filed for divorce nine days later because of his heroin and liquor problems, but they reconciled within a month. They had one son, Elijah Blue, on July 10, 1976. Sonny and Cher's TV reunion, The Sonny and Cher Show, debuted on CBS in February 1976—the first show ever to star a divorced couple. Although the show was a ratings success on its premiere, Cher and Sonny's insulting onscreen banter about their divorce, her reportedly extravagant lifestyle, and her troubled relationship with Allman caused a public backlash that eventually contributed to the show's cancellation in August 1977.\n\nIn 1976, Mego Toys released a line of toys and dolls in the likeness of Sonny and Cher, which coincided with the popularity of The Sonny and Cher Show. The miniature version of Cher ended up being the highest selling doll of 1976, surpassing Barbie.\n\nCher's next albums, I'd Rather Believe in You (1976) and Cherished (1977), the latter a return to her pop style at Warner's producers' insistence, were commercially unsuccessful; Orange Coast magazine's Keith Tuber commented, \"A weekly television series ... can spell disaster for a recording artist ... Regular exposure on TV allowed people to see and hear these performers without having to buy their records ... That's what happened to Cher[.]\" In 1977, under the rubric \"Allman and Woman\", she recorded alongside Allman the duet album Two the Hard Way. Their relationship ended following the release of the album, and their divorce was finalized in 1979. Beginning in 1978, she had a two-year live-in relationship with Kiss member Gene Simmons. That year, she legally changed her name from Cherilyn Sarkisian La Piere Bono Allman to Cher, to eliminate the use of four surnames. She returned to prime time television with the ABC specials Cher... Special (1978)—featuring a 15-minute segment in which she performs all of the roles in her version of West Side Story— and Cher... And Other Fantasies (1979).\n\n1979–1982: Second musical comeback, shift from disco music to rock \n\nA single mother with two children, Cher realized that she had to make a choice about the direction of her singing career. Deciding to temporarily abandon her desire to be a rock singer, she signed with Casablanca Records and launched a comeback with the single \"Take Me Home\" and the album of the same name, both of which capitalized on the disco craze. Both the album and the single became instant successes, remained bestsellers for more than half of 1979, and were certified gold by the RIAA. Sales of the album may have been boosted by the image of a scantily clad Cher in a Viking outfit on its cover. Despite her initial lack of enthusiasm for disco music, she changed her mind after the success, commenting, \"I never thought I would want to do disco ... [but] it's terrific! It's great music to dance to. I think that danceable music is what everybody wants.\"\n\nEncouraged by the popularity of Take Me Home, Cher planned to return to rock music in her next album, Prisoner (1979). The album's cover features Cher draped in chains as a \"prisoner of the press\", which caused controversy among feminist groups for her perceived portrayal of a sex slave. She included rock songs, which made the disco release seem unfocused and led to its commercial failure. Prisoner produced the single \"Hell on Wheels\", featured on the soundtrack of the film Roller Boogie. The song exploits the late 1970s roller-skating fad and contributed to its popularity.\n\nIn 1980, alongside Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder, Cher wrote her last Casablanca disco recording, \"Bad Love\", for the film Foxes. She formed the rock band Black Rose that year with her then-lover, guitarist Les Dudek. Although Cher was the lead singer, she did not receive top billing because she wanted to create the impression that all band members were equal. Since she was easily recognized when she performed with the band, she developed a punk look by cutting her trademark long hair. Despite appearances on television, the band failed to earn concert dates. Their album Black Rose received unfavorable reviews; Cher told Rolling Stone, \"The critics panned us, and they didn't attack the record. They attacked me. It was like, 'How dare Cher sing rock & roll?'\"\n\nBlack Rose disbanded in 1981. During Black Rose's active period, Cher was simultaneously doing a residency show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, earning $300,000 a week. Titled Cher in Concert, the three-year performance residency opened in June 1979 and eventually became Cher's first world concert tour as a solo artist (also referred to as the Take Me Home Tour), with additional dates in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. It yielded two television specials: Standing Room Only: Cher in Concert (1981) and Cher... A Celebration at Caesars (1983), the latter of which won Cher the CableACE Award for Best Actress in a Variety Program.\n\nIn 1981, Cher released a duet with musician Meat Loaf called \"Dead Ringer for Love\", which reached number five on the UK Singles Chart and was later described by AllMusic's Donald A. Guarisco as \"one of the more inspired rock duets of the 1980s\". In 1982, Columbia Records released the album I Paralyze, later deemed by Bego as Cher's \"strongest and most consistent solo album in years\" despite its low sales.\n\n1982–1986: Film career breakthrough, musical hiatus \n\nWith decreasing album sales and a lack of commercially successful singles, Cher decided to further develop her acting career. While she had previously aspired to venture into film, she had only the critically and commercially unsuccessful movies Good Times and Chastity to her credit, and the Hollywood establishment did not take her seriously as an actress. Cher later recalled, \"I was making a fortune on the road, but I was dying inside. Everyone kept saying, 'Cher, there are people who would give anything to have standing room only at Caesars Palace. It would be the pinnacle of their careers.' And I kept thinking, 'Yes, I should be satisfied' ... But I wasn't satisfied.\" She moved to New York in 1982 to take acting lessons with Lee Strasberg, founder of the Actors Studio, but never enrolled after her plans changed. She auditioned for and was signed by director Robert Altman for the Broadway stage production Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, playing a member of a James Dean fan club holding a 20-year reunion. That year, Altman cast her again in the film adaptation of the same title.\n\nDirector Mike Nichols, who had seen Cher onstage in Jimmy Dean, offered her the part of Dolly Pelliker, a plant co-worker and Meryl Streep's lesbian roommate in the film Silkwood. When it premiered in 1983, audiences questioned Cher's ability as an actress. She recalls attending a film preview during which the audience laughed when they saw her name in the credits. For her performance, Cher received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture.\n\nIn 1985, Cher formed the film production company Isis. Her next film, Mask (1985), reached number two at the box office and was Cher's first critical and commercial success as a leading actress. For her role as a drug addict biker with a teenage son who has a severe physical deformity, she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. During the making of the film, however, she clashed with director Peter Bogdanovich, and was ultimately omitted from the Oscar nomination list. She attended the 58th Academy Awards in a tarantula-like costume, later deemed by Vanity Fair Esther Zuckerman as Cher's \"Oscar revenge dress\". \"As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress,\" Cher declared before presenting the nominees for Best Supporting Actor. The incident garnered her much publicity.\n\nCher's May 1986 guest appearance on talk show Late Night with David Letterman, during which she called Letterman \"an asshole\", attracted much media coverage; Letterman later recalled, \"It did hurt my feelings. Cher was one of the few people I've really wanted to have on the show ... I felt like a total fool, especially since I say all kinds of things to people.\" She returned to the show in 1987, reuniting with Sonny for the last time before his death to sing an impromptu version of \"I Got You Babe\". According to Rolling Stone Andy Greene, \"they weren't exactly the best of friends at this point, but both of them knew it would make for unforgettable television. Had YouTube existed back then, this would have gone insanely viral the next morning.\" Rolling Stone listed the performance among \"David Letterman's Top 10 Musical Moments\" in 2015.\n\n1987–1992: Film stardom, third musical comeback \n\nCher starred in three films in 1987. In Suspect, she played a public defender who is both helped and romanced by one of the jurors in the homicide case she is handling. Alongside Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer, she starred as one of three divorcees involved with a mysterious and wealthy visitor from hell who comes to a small New England town in the comedy horror The Witches of Eastwick. In Norman Jewison's romantic comedy Moonstruck, she played an Italian widow in love with her fiancé's younger brother. The two last films ranked among the top ten highest-grossing films of 1987, at number ten and five, respectively.\n\nThe New York Times Janet Maslin wrote Moonstruck \"offers further proof that Cher has evolved into the kind of larger-than-life movie star who's worth watching whatever she does.\" For that film, Cher won the Academy Award for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. By 1988, Cher had become one of the most bankable actresses of the decade, commanding $1 million per film. That year, she released the fragrance Uninhibited, which earned about $15 million in its first year sales.\n\nIn 1987, Cher signed with Geffen Records and revived her musical career with what music critics Johnny Danza and Dean Ferguson describe as \"her most impressive string of hits to date\", establishing her as a \"serious rock and roller ... a crown that she'd worked long and hard to capture\". Michael Bolton, Jon Bon Jovi, Desmond Child, and Richie Sambora produced her first Geffen album, Cher. Despite facing strong retail and radio airplay resistance upon its release, the album proved to be a commercial success, certified platinum by the RIAA. Cher features the rock ballad \"I Found Someone\", Cher's first US top-ten single in more than eight years.\n\nBy the end of the 1980s, Cher was also receiving attention for her controversial lifestyle, including her tattoos, plastic surgeries, exhibitionist fashion sense, and affairs with younger men. She had romantic relationships with actors Val Kilmer, Eric Stoltz, and Tom Cruise, hockey player Ron Duguay, film producer Josh Donen, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora, and Rob Camilletti, a bagel baker 18 years her junior whom she dated from 1986 to 1989.\n\nCher's 19th studio album Heart of Stone (1989) was certified triple platinum by the RIAA. The music video for its second single, \"If I Could Turn Back Time\", caused controversy due to Cher's performance on the battleship , straddling a cannon, and wearing a leather thong that revealed her tattooed buttocks. The song topped the Australian charts for seven weeks, reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became one of Cher's most successful singles. Other songs from Heart of Stone to reach the US top ten were \"After All\", a duet with Peter Cetera, and \"Just Like Jesse James\". At the 1989 People's Choice Awards, Cher won the Favorite All-Around Female Star Award. She embarked on the Heart of Stone Tour in 1989. Most critics liked the tour's nostalgic nature and admired Cher's showmanship. Its parent television special Cher at the Mirage (1991) was filmed during a concert in Las Vegas.\n\nIn her first film in three years, Mermaids (1990), Cher paid tribute to her own mother in this story about a woman who moves her two daughters from town to town at the end of a love affair. She clashed with the film's first two directors, Lasse Hallström and Frank Oz, who were replaced by Richard Benjamin. Believing Cher would be the star attraction, the producers allowed her creative control for the film. Mermaids was a box office success and received generally positive reviews. One of the two songs Cher recorded for the film's soundtrack, a cover version of Betty Everett's \"The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)\", topped the UK Singles Chart for five weeks.\n\nCher's final studio album for Geffen Records, Love Hurts (1991), stayed at number one in the UK for six weeks and produced the UK top-ten single \"Love and Understanding\". The album was certified gold by the RIAA. In later years, Cher commented that her Geffen label \"hit years\" had been especially significant to her, \"because I was getting to do songs that I really loved ... songs that really represented me, and they were popular!\" She released the exercise book Forever Fit in 1991, followed by the 1992 fitness videos CherFitness: A New Attitude and CherFitness: Body Confidence. She embarked on the Love Hurts Tour during 1992. That year, the UK-only compilation album Greatest Hits: 1965–1992 peaked at number one in the country for seven weeks. It features three new songs: \"Oh No Not My Baby\", \"Whenever You're Near\", and \"Many Rivers to Cross\".\n\n1992–1997: Health and professional struggles, directorial debut \n\nPartially due to her experiences filming Mermaids, Cher turned down leading roles in such films as The War of the Roses and Thelma & Louise. According to Berman, \"After the success of Moonstruck, she was so worried about her next career move that she was overly cautious.\" In the early 1990s, she contracted the Epstein–Barr virus and developed chronic fatigue syndrome, which left her too exhausted to sustain her music and film careers. Because she needed to earn money and was not healthy enough to work on other projects, she starred in infomercials launching health, beauty, and diet products, which earned her close to $10 million in fees. The skits were parodied on Saturday Night Live and critics considered them a sellout, many suggesting her film career was over. She told Ladies' Home Journal, \"Suddenly I became the Infomercial Queen and it didn't occur to me that people would focus on that and strip me of all my other things.\"\n\nCher made cameo appearances in the Robert Altman films The Player (1992) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994). In 1994, she started a mail-order catalog business, Sanctuary, selling Gothic-themed products, and contributed a rock version of \"I Got You Babe\" to MTV's animated series Beavis and Butt-head. Alongside Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry, and Eric Clapton, she topped the UK Singles Chart in 1995 with the charity single \"Love Can Build a Bridge\". Later that year, she signed with Warner Music UK's label WEA and released the album It's a Man's World (1995), which came out of her idea of covering men's songs from a woman's point of view. In general, critics favored the album and its R&B influences, some saying her voice had improved. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote that \"From an artistic standpoint, this soulful collection of grown-up pop songs ... is the high point of her recording career.\" It's a Man's World reached number 10 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned the UK top-ten single \"One by One\". Tracks were remixed for the American release of the album, abandoning its original rock sound in favor of a style more accessible to US radio. The US release failed commercially, reaching number 64 on the Billboard 200.\n\nIn 1996, Cher played the wife of a businessman who hires a hitman to murder her in the Chazz Palminteri-scripted dark comedy film Faithful. Although the film received negative reviews from critics, Cher was praised for her role; The New York Times Janet Maslin wrote that she \"does her game best to find comic potential in a victim's role.\" Cher refused to promote the film, claiming it was \"horrible\". She made her directorial debut with a segment in the abortion-themed anthology If These Walls Could Talk (1996), in which she starred as a doctor murdered by an anti-abortion fanatic. It drew the highest ratings for an original HBO movie to date, registering an 18.7 rating with a 25 share in HBO homes and attracting 6.9 million viewers. Her music played a large role in the American TV series The X-Files episode \"The Post-Modern Prometheus\", which aired in November 1997. Written for her, it tells the story of a scientist's grotesque creature who adores Cher because of her role in Mask, in which her character cares for her disfigured son.\n\n1998–1999: Death of Sonny Bono, fourth musical comeback \nFollowing Sonny Bono's death in a skiing accident in 1998, Cher delivered a tearful eulogy at his funeral, calling him \"the most unforgettable character\" she had met. She paid tribute to him by hosting the CBS special Sonny & Me: Cher Remembers, which aired on May 20, 1998. That month, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Later that year, Cher published The First Time, a collection of autobiographical essays of \"first-time\" events in her life, which critics praised as down-to-earth and genuine. Although the manuscript was almost finished when Sonny died, she could not decide whether to include his death in the book; she feared being criticized for capitalizing on the event. She told Rolling Stone, \"I couldn't ignore it, could I? I might have if I cared more about what people think than what I know is right for me.\"\n\nCher's 22nd studio album Believe (1998) marked a musical departure for her, as it comprises dance-pop songs, many of which capture the \"disco-era essence\"; Cher said, \"It's not that I think this is a '70s album ... but there's a thread, a consistency running through it that I love.'\" Believe was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA and went on to be certified gold or platinum in 39 countries, selling 10 million copies worldwide. The album's title track reached number one in 23 countries and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. It became the bestselling recording of 1998 and 1999, respectively, in the UK and the US, and Cher's most successful single to date. \"Believe\" topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and became the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK, selling over 1.84 million copies in the country up until October 2018. It also topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks, selling over 1.8 million units in the US up until December 1999. The song earned Cher the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording and the 1999 Billboard Music Award for Hot 100 Single of the Year.\n\nOn January 31, 1999, Cher performed \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" at the Super Bowl XXXIII. Two months later, she sang on the television special VH1 Divas Live 2, which attracted 19.4 million viewers. According to VH1, it was the most popular, and most watched program in the television network's history, as Cher's presence was \"a huge part of making it exactly that.\" The Do You Believe? tour ran from 1999 to 2000 and was sold out in every American city in which it was booked, amassing a global audience of more than 1.5 million. Its companion television special, Cher: Live in Concert – From the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (1999), was the highest rated original HBO program in 1998–99, registering a 9.0 rating among adults 18 to 49 and a 13.0 rating in the HBO universe of about 33 million homes. Capitalizing on the success of \"Believe\", Cher's former record company Geffen Records released in April 1999 the US-only compilation album If I Could Turn Back Time: Cher's Greatest Hits, which features the previously unreleased song \"Don't Come Cryin' to Me\". It was certified gold by the RIAA. Seven months later, Cher released the compilation album The Greatest Hits, which sold three million copies outside of the US up until January 2000.\n\nCher was named the number-one dance artist of 1999 by Billboard. At the 1999 World Music Awards, she received the Legend Award for her \"lifelong contribution to the music industry\". Her next film, Franco Zeffirelli's Tea with Mussolini (1999), received generally positive reviews, and she earned critical acclaim for her performance as a rich, flamboyant American socialite whose visit to Italy is not welcome among the Englishwomen; one reviewer from Film Comment wrote, \"It is only after she appears that you realize how sorely she's been missed from movie screens! For Cher is a star. That is, she manages the movie star trick of being at once a character and at the same time never allowing you to forget: that's Cher.\"\n\n2000–2009: Touring success, retirement, Vegas residency \nNot Commercial (2000) was written mostly by Cher after she had attended a songwriters' conference in 1994; it marked her first attempt at writing most of the tracks for an album. As the album was rejected by her record label for being uncommercial, she chose to sell it only on her website. In the song \"Sisters of Mercy\", she criticized as \"cruel, heartless and wicked\" the nuns who prevented her mother from retrieving her from a Catholic orphanage in Scranton, PA. The Catholic church denounced the song.\n\nCher's highly anticipated dance-oriented follow-up to Believe, Living Proof (2001), entered the Billboard 200 at number nine and was certified gold by the RIAA. The album includes the UK top-ten single \"The Music's No Good Without You\" and \"Song for the Lonely\", the latter song dedicated to \"the courageous people of New York\" following the September 11 attacks. In May 2002, she performed during the benefit concert VH1 Divas Las Vegas. At the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, she won the Dance/Club Play Artist of the Year Award and was presented with the Artist Achievement Award by Steven Tyler for having \"helped redefine popular music with massive success on the Billboard charts\". That year, her wealth was estimated at $600 million.\n\nIn June 2002, Cher embarked on the Living Proof: The Farewell Tour, announced as the final live concert tour of her career, although she vowed to continue making records and films. The show highlighted her successes in music, television, and film, featuring video clips from the 1960s onwards and an elaborate backdrop and stage set-up.\n\nInitially scheduled for 49 shows, the worldwide tour was extended several times. By October 2003, it had become the most successful tour ever by a woman, grossing $145 million from 200 shows and playing to 2.2 million fans. Forbes named Cher the highest-paid female musician of 2003, earning $33.1 million. A collection of live tracks taken from the tour was released in 2003 as the album Live! The Farewell Tour. The NBC special Cher – The Farewell Tour (2003) attracted 17 million viewers. It was the highest rated network-TV concert special of 2003 and earned Cher the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special.\n\nAfter leaving Warner UK in 2002, Cher signed a worldwide deal with the US division of Warner Bros. Records in September 2003. The Very Best of Cher (2003), a greatest-hits collection that surveys her entire career, peaked at number four on the Billboard 200 and was certified double platinum by the RIAA. She played herself in the Farrelly brothers comedy Stuck on You (2003), mocking her public image as she appears in bed with a much younger boyfriend.\n\nCher's 326-date Farewell Tour ended in 2005 as one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time, seen by over 3.5 million people and earning $250 million. After three years of retirement, she began in 2008 a three-year, 200-performance residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, for which she earned a reported $60 million. Titled Cher, the production featured state-of-the-art video and special effects, elaborate set designs, 14 dancers, four aerialists and more than 20 costume changes.\n\n2010–2017: Burlesque, return to music and touring \n\nIn Burlesque (2010), Cher's first musical film since 1967's Good Times, the actress plays a nightclub impresario whom a young Hollywood hopeful is looking to impress. One of the two songs she recorded for the film's soundtrack, the power ballad \"You Haven't Seen the Last of Me\", reached number one on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart in January 2011, making Cher the only artist to date to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s. In November 2010, she received the honor of placing her handprints and footprints in cement in the courtyard in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The next year, she lent her voice to Janet the Lioness in the comedy Zookeeper. Dear Mom, Love Cher, a documentary she produced about her mother Georgia Holt, aired on Lifetime in May 2013.\n\nCloser to the Truth, Cher's 25th studio album and the first since 2001's Living Proof, entered the Billboard 200 at number three in October 2013, her highest position on that chart to date. Michael Andor Brodeur of The Boston Globe commented that \"Cher's 'Goddess of Pop' sash remains in little danger of undue snatching; at 67, she sounds more convincing than J-Lo or Madonna reporting from 'the club'\". Cher premiered the lead single \"Woman's World\" on the season four finale of the talent show The Voice, her first live TV performance in over a decade. She later joined the show's season five as judge Blake Shelton's team adviser.\n\nOn June 30, 2013, Cher headlined the annual Dance on the Pier benefit, celebrating Gay Pride day. It became the event's first sellout in five years. In November 2013, she appeared as a guest performer and judge on the seventeenth season of ABC's Dancing with the Stars, during its eighth week, which was dedicated to her. She embarked on the Dressed to Kill Tour in March 2014, nearly a decade after announcing her \"farewell tour\". She quipped about that fact during the shows, saying this would actually be her last farewell tour while crossing fingers. The tour's first leg, which included 49 sold-out shows in North America, grossed $54.9 million. In November 2014, she canceled all remaining dates due to an infection that affected kidney function.\n\nOn May 7, 2014, Cher confirmed a collaboration with American hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan on their album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Credited as Bonnie Jo Mason, she uses an alias of hers originated in 1964. Only one copy of the album has been produced, and it was sold by online auction in November 2015. It is the most expensive single album ever sold. After appearing as Marc Jacobs' guest at the 2015 Met Gala, Cher posed for his brand's fall/winter advertising campaign. The fashion designer stated, \"This has been a dream of mine for a very, very long time.\"\n\nClassic Cher, a three-year concert residency at both the Park Theater at Monte Carlo Resort and Casino, Las Vegas, and The Theater at MGM National Harbor, Washington, opened in February 2017. At the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, Cher performed \"Believe\" and \"If I Could Turn Back Time\", her first awards show performance in more than 15 years, and was presented with the Billboard Icon Award by Gwen Stefani, who called her \"a role model for showing us how to be strong and true to ourselves [and] the definition of the word Icon.\"\n\n2018–present: Return to film, Dancing Queen, upcoming projects \n\nIn 2018, Cher returned to film for the romantic musical comedy film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. New York magazine's Viviana Olen and Matt Harkins commented that \"it's only at the climax of the movie when its true promise is fulfilled: Cher arrives ... It becomes clear that every single movie—no matter how flawless—would be infinitely better if it included Cher.\" She stars as Ruby Sheridan, who is the grandmother of Sophie, played by Amanda Seyfried, and the mother of Donna, portrayed by Meryl Streep. Cher recorded two ABBA songs for the film's soundtrack: \"Fernando\" and \"Super Trouper\". Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA commented, \"She makes Fernando her own. It's her song now.\"\n\nOn March 4, 2018, Cher headlined the 40th Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Tickets sold out within three hours after she hinted her performance on her Twitter account. In September 2018, Cher embarked on the Here We Go Again Tour.\n\nWhile promoting Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Cher confirmed she was working on an album that would feature cover versions of songs from ABBA. The album, Dancing Queen, was released on September 28, 2018. Brittany Spanos from Rolling Stone commented that \"the 72-year-old makes ABBA songs not only sound like they should've been written for her in the first place but like they firmly belong in 2018\". Marc Snetiker from Entertainment Weekly called it Cher's \"most significant release since 1998's Believe\" and noted that \"the album ender, 'One of Us', is frankly one of Cher's best recordings in years.\" Dancing Queen debuted at number three on the Billboard 200, tying with 2013's Closer to the Truth for Cher's highest-charting solo album in the US. With first-week sales of 153,000 units, it earned the year's biggest sales week for a pop album by a female artist, as well as Cher's largest sales week since 1991. Dancing Queen also topped Billboards Top Album Sales chart, making it Cher's first number-one album on that chart.\n\nThe Cher Show, a jukebox musical based on Cher's life and music, officially premiered at the Oriental Theatre in Chicago, on June 28, 2018, and played through July 15. It began Broadway previews November 1, with its official opening on December 3, 2018. Written by Rick Elice, it features three actresses playing Cher during different stages of her life. The Cher Show is set to launch a UK and Ireland tour in 2022.\n\nOn December 2, 2018, Cher received a Kennedy Center Honors prize, the annual Washington distinction for artists who have made extraordinary contributions to culture. The ceremony featured tribute performances by Cyndi Lauper, Little Big Town and Adam Lambert. During 2018, Cher used Twitter to announce she was working on four new projects for the next two years: a Christmas album; a second album of ABBA covers; an autobiography; and a biographical film about her life.\n\nIn October 2019, Cher launched a new perfume, Cher Eau de Couture, which was four years in the making. Described as \"genderless\", it is Cher's second fragrance after 1987's Uninhibited. On February 4, 2020, Cher was announced as the new face of fashion brand Dsquared2. She starred in the brand's spring/summer advertising campaign, which was directed by photographers Mert and Marcus. In May, Cher released her first Spanish-language song, a cover of ABBA's \"Chiquitita\". Proceeds from the single were donated to UNICEF following the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, Cher spawned a UK top-ten single as part of the charity supergroup BBC Radio 2 Allstars with \"Stop Crying Your Heart Out\", an Oasis cover recorded in support of BBC's Children in Need charity.\n\nCher appeared in a voice-over role as a bobblehead version of herself in the animated feature film Bobbleheads: The Movie (2020). The same year, she was featured on The New York Times Magazines list of \"The Best Actors of 2020\", the first time an actor not in a current-year theatrical release made it on the annual list; film critics Wesley Morris and A. O. Scott commented, \"Cher's radiant performance in Moonstruck warmed us in quarantine.\" In May 2021, Cher guest-starred as God in Pink's music video \"All I Know So Far\". In January 2022, Cher appeared as the star of MAC Cosmetics' \"Challenge Accepted\" campaign alongside rapper Saweetie. In June 2022, Cher partnered with Donatella Versace for an exclusive \"Chersace\" capsule collection in honor of Pride month. A portion of the proceeds was donated to Gender Spectrum, a charity which works with LGBTQIA+ children and young people.\n\nArtistry\n\nMusic and voice \n\nCher has employed various musical styles, including folk rock, pop rock, power ballads, disco, new wave music, rock music, punk rock, arena rock, and hip hop; she said she has done this to \"remain relevant and do work that strikes a chord\". Her music has mainly dealt with themes of heartbreak, independence, and self-empowerment for women; by doing so, she became \"a brokenhearted symbol of a strong but decidedly single woman\", according to Out magazine's Judy Wieder. Goldmine magazine's Phill Marder credited Cher's \"nearly flawless\" song selection as what made her a notorious rock singer; while several of her early songs were penned by or sung with Sonny Bono, most of her solo successes, which outnumbered Sonny and Cher's successes, were composed by independent songwriters, selected by Cher. Not Commercial (2000), Cher's first album mostly written by herself, presents a \"1970s singer-songwriter feel\" that proves \"Cher adept in the role of storyteller\", according to AllMusic's Jose F. Promis.\n\nRobert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times writes, \"There were a lot of great records by female singers in the early days of rock ... None, however, reflected the authority and command that we associate with rock 'n' roll today as much as [Cher's] key early hits\". Some of Cher's early songs discuss subjects rarely addressed in American popular music such as divorce, prostitution, unplanned and underaged pregnancy, and racism. According to AllMusic's Joe Viglione, the 1972 single \"The Way of Love\" is \"either about a woman expressing her love for another woman, or a woman saying au revoir to a gay male she loved\" (\"What will you do/When he sets you free/Just the way that you/Said good-bye to me\"). Her ability to carry both male and female ranges allowed her to sing solo in androgynous and gender-neutral songs.\n\nCher has a contralto singing voice, described by author Nicholas E. Tawa as \"bold, deep, and with a spacious vibrato\". Ann Powers of The New York Times called it \"a quintessential rock voice: impure, quirky, a fine vehicle for projecting personality.\" AllMusic's Bruce Eder wrote that the \"tremendous intensity and passion\" of Cher's vocals coupled with her \"ability to meld that projection with her acting skills\" can provide \"an incredibly powerful experience for the listener.\" The Guardian Laura Snapes described her voice as \"miraculous ... capable of conveying vulnerability, vengeance and pain all at once\". Paul Simpson, in his book The Rough Guide to Cult Pop (2003), posits that \"Cher [is] the possessor of one of the huskiest, most distinctive voices in pop ... which can work wonders with the right material directed by the right producer\". He further addresses the believability of her vocal performances: \"she spits out the words ... with such conviction you'd think she was delivering an eternal truth about the human condition\".\n\nWriting about Cher's musical output during the 1960s, Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times stated that \"Rock was subsequently blessed with the staggering blues exclamations of Janis Joplin in the late '60s and the raw poetic force of Patti Smith in the mid-'70s. Yet no one matched the pure, seductive wallop of Cher\". By contrast, her vocal performances during the 1970s were described by Eder as \"dramatic, highly intense ... [and] almost as much 'acted' as sung\". First heard in the 1980 record Black Rose, Cher employed sharper, more aggressive vocals on her hard rock-oriented albums, establishing her sexually confident image. For the 1995 album It's a Man's World, she restrained her vocals, singing in higher registers and without vibrato.\n\nThe 1998 song \"Believe\" has an electronic vocal effect proposed by Cher, and was the first commercial recording to feature Auto-Tune—an audio processor originally intended to disguise or correct off-key inaccuracies in vocal music recordings—as a deliberate creative effect. According to Rolling Stone Christopher R. Weingarten, the \"producers ... used the pitch correction software not as a way to fix mistakes in Cher's iconic voice, but as an aesthetic tool.\" After the success of the song, the technique became known as the \"Cher effect\" and has since been widely used in popular music. Cher continued to use Auto-Tune on the albums Living Proof (2001), Closer to the Truth (2013), and Dancing Queen (2018).\n\nIn a 2013 interview with the Toronto Sun, Cher reflected on how her voice has evolved throughout her career, becoming stronger and suppler over the years. She said working with vocal coaches had made a significant difference: \"It's so freaky because people my age are having to lose notes and I'm gaining notes, so that's pretty shocking.\"\n\nFilms, videos, and stage \n\nMaclean's magazine's Barbara Wickens wrote, \"Cher has emerged as probably the most fascinating movie star of her generation ... [because] she has managed to be at once boldly shocking and ultimately enigmatic.\" New York Post movie critic David Edelstein attributes Cher's \"top-ranking star quality\" to her ability of projecting \"honesty, rawness and emotionality. She wears her vulnerability on her sleeve.\" Jeff Yarbrough of The Advocate wrote that Cher was \"one of the first superstars to 'play gay' with compassion and without a hint of stereotyping\", as she portrays a lesbian in the 1983 film Silkwood.\n\nAuthor Yvonne Tasker, in her book Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema (2002), notes that Cher's film roles often mirrors her public image as a rebellious, sexually autonomous, and self-made woman. In her films, she recurrently serves as a social intermediary to disenfranchised male characters, such as Eric Stoltz's Craniodiaphyseal dysplasia character in Mask (1985), Liam Neeson's mute homeless veteran in Suspect (1987), and Nicolas Cage's socially isolated baker with a wooden hand in Moonstruck (1987). Film critic Kathleen Rowe wrote of Moonstruck that the depiction of Cher's character as \"a 'woman on top' [is] enhanced by the unruly star persona Cher brings to the part'\".\n\nFor Moonstruck, Cher was ranked 1st on Billboards list of \"The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies\", and her performance was described as \"the standard by which you mentally check all others\". Moonstruck was acknowledged by the American Film Institute as the eighth best romantic comedy film of all time.\n\nCher's public image is also reflected in her music videos and live performances, in which she \"repeatedly comments on her own construction, on her search for perfection and on the performance of the female body\", wrote Tasker. Unlike other acts of that time, who often featured female backers mimicking the singer's performance, Cher uses a male dancer dressed as her in the 1992 concert video Cher at the Mirage; author Diane Negra commented, \"In authorizing her own quotation, Cher acknowledges herself as fictionalized production, and proffers to her audience a pleasurable plurality.\" James Sullivan of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote that \"Cher is well aware that her chameleonic glitz set the stage for the current era of stadium-size razzle-dazzle. She's comfortable enough to see such imitation as flattery, not theft.\" American singer Pink, who is recognized by her acrobatic stage presence, started studying Aerial silks after watching Cher's Living Proof: The Farewell Tour in 2004.\n\nCher was ranked 17th on VH1's list of the \"50 Greatest Women of the Video Era\". The 1980 video for \"Hell on Wheels\" involves cinematic techniques and was one of the first music videos ever. Deemed \"controversial\" for her performance on the battleship , straddling a cannon, and wearing a leather thong that revealed her tattooed buttocks, the 1989 music video for \"If I Could Turn Back Time\" was the first ever to be banned by MTV.\n\nPublic image\n\nFashion\n\nTime magazine's Cady Lang described Cher as a \"cultural phenomenon [who] has forever changed the way we see celebrity fashion.\" Cher emerged as a fashion trendsetter in the 1960s, popularizing \"hippie fashion with bell-bottoms, bandanas, and Cherokee-inspired tunics\". She began working as a model in 1967 for photographer Richard Avedon after then-Vogue magazine editor Diana Vreeland discovered her at a party for Jacqueline Kennedy that year. Avedon took the controversial photo of Cher in a beaded and feathered nude gown designed by Bob Mackie for the cover of Time magazine in 1975; Billboard magazine's Brooke Mazurek described it as \"one of the most recreated and monumental looks of all time.\" Cher first wore the gown to the 1974 Met Gala. According to Vogue magazine's André Leon Talley, \"it was really the first time a Hollywood celebrity attended, and it changed everything. We are still seeing versions of that look on The Met red carpet 40 years later.\" Billboard wrote that Cher has \"transformed fashion and [become] one of the most influential style icons in red carpet history\".\n\nThrough her 1970s television shows, Cher became a sex symbol with her inventive and revealing Mackie-designed outfits, and fought the network censors to bare her navel. Although Cher has been erroneously attributed to being the first woman to expose her navel on television (e.g. Nichelle Nichols, BarBara Luna and Diana Ewing in the 1960s TV series Star Trek), she was the most prominent to do so since the establishment of the American Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters in 1951, which prompted network censors to ban navel exposure on US television. People dubbed Cher the \"pioneer of the belly beautiful\". In 1972, after she was featured on the annual \"Best Dressed Women\" lists, Mackie stated: \"There hasn't been a girl like Cher since Dietrich and Garbo. She's a high-fashion star who appeals to people of all ages.\"\n\nIn May 1999, after the Council of Fashion Designers of America recognized Cher with an award for her influence on fashion, Robin Givhan of the Los Angeles Times called her a \"fashion visionary\" for \"striking just the right note of contemporary wretched excess\". Givhan referenced Tom Ford, Anna Sui and Dolce & Gabbana as \"[i]nfluential designers [who] have evoked her name as a source of inspiration and guidance.\" She concluded that \"Cher's Native American showgirl sexpot persona now seems to epitomize the fashion industry's rush to celebrate ethnicity, adornment and sex appeal.\" Vogue proclaimed Cher \"[their] favorite fashion trendsetter\" and wrote that \"[she] set the grounds for pop stars and celebrities today\", describing her as \"[e]ternally relevant [and] the ruler of outré reinvention\". Alexander Fury of The Independent lauded Cher as \"the ultimate fashion icon\" and traced her influence among female celebrities such as Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, and Kim Kardashian, stating that \"[t]hey all graduated from the Cher school of never sharing the stage, with anyone, or anything ... They're trying to share the spotlight, to have Cher's success.\"\n\nPhysical appearance\n\nCher has attracted media attention for her physical appearance—particularly her youthful looks and her tattoos. Paddy Calistro of the Los Angeles Times observed that during Cher's rise as a movie star in the 1980s, her \"highly articulated bone structure captured audience attention\", which led to an increased number of medical requests for \"surgically inserted 'cheekbones.'\" Journalists have often called Cher the \"poster girl\" of plastic surgery. Author Grant McCracken, in his book Transformations: Identity Construction in Contemporary Culture (2008), draws a parallel between Cher's plastic surgeries and the transformations in her career: \"Her plastic surgery is not merely cosmetic. It is hyperbolic, extreme, over the top ... Cher has engaged in a transformational technology that is dramatic and irreversible.\" Caroline Ramazanoglu, author of Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions Between Foucault and Feminism (1993), wrote that \"Cher's operations have gradually replaced a strong, decidedly 'ethnic' look with a more symmetrical, delicate, 'conventional' ... and ever-youthful version of female beauty ... Her normalised image ... now acts as a standard against which other women will measure, judge, discipline and 'correct' themselves.\"\n\nCher has six tattoos. The Baltimore Sun called her the \"Ms. Original Rose Tattoo\". She got her first tattoo in 1972. According to Sonny Bono, \"Calling her butterfly tattoos nothing was like ignoring a sandstorm in the Mojave. That was exactly the effect Cher wanted to create. She liked to do things for the shock they created. She still does. She'll create some controversy and then tell her critics to stick it.\" In the late 1990s, she began having laser treatments to remove her tattoos. The process was still underway in the 2000s. She commented, \"When I got tattooed, only bad girls did it: me and Janis Joplin and biker chicks. Now it doesn't mean anything. No one's surprised.\"\n\nIn 1992, Madame Tussauds wax museum honored Cher as one of the five \"most beautiful women of history\" by creating a life-size statue. She was ranked 26th on VH1's list of the \"100 Sexiest Artists\" published in 2002.\n\nCher was the inspiration for Mother Gothel, a fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Pictures' animated feature film Tangled (2010). Director Byron Howard explained that Gothel's exotic appearance, whose beauty, dark curly hair and voluptuous figure were deliberately designed to serve as a foil to Rapunzel's, was based on Cher's \"exotic and Gothic looking\" appearance, continuing that the singer \"definitely was one of the people we looked at visually, as far as what gives you a striking character.\"\n\nSocial media\nCher's social media presence has drawn analysis from journalists. Time named her \"Twitter's most outspoken (and beloved) commentator\". The New York Times writer Jenna Wortham commended Cher on her social media usage, stating, \"Most celebrities' social-media feeds feel painfully self-aware and thirsty ... In her own way, Cher is an outlier, perhaps the last unreconstructed high-profile Twitter user to stand at her digital pulpit and yell (somewhat) incomprehensibly, and be rewarded for it. Online, authenticity and originality are often carefully curated myths. Cher thrives on a version of nakedness and honesty that is rarely celebrated in the public eye.\" Monica Heisey of The Guardian described Cher's Twitter account as \"a jewel in the bizarro crown of the internet\", and remarked, \"While many celebrities use Twitter for carefully crafted self-promotion, Cher just lets it all hang out.\"\n\nAs a gay icon\nThe reverence held for Cher by members of the LGBT community has been attributed to her career accomplishments, her sense of style, and her longevity. Cher is considered a gay icon, and has often been imitated by drag queens. According to Salon magazine's Thomas Rogers, \"[d]rag queens imitate women like Judy Garland, Dolly Parton and Cher because they overcame insult and hardship on their path to success, and because their narratives mirror the pain that many gay men suffer on their way out of the closet\". According to Maclean's magazine's Elio Iannacci, Cher was \"one of the first to bring drag to the masses\" as she hired two drag queens to perform with her at her Las Vegas residency in 1979. Cher's role as a lesbian in the film Silkwood, as well as her transition to dance music and social activism, have further contributed to her becoming a gay icon. The NBC sitcom Will & Grace acknowledged Cher's status by making her the idol of gay character Jack McFarland. Cher guest-starred as herself twice on the show, in 2000—making the episode \"Gypsies, Tramps and Weed\" (named after her 1971 song \"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves\") Will & Graces second-highest rating ever— and 2002. As a mother of a trans man, Cher has also served as a role model for parents of transgender children.\n\nOther interests\n\nPhilanthropy \nCher's primary philanthropic endeavors have included support of health research and patients' quality of life, anti-poverty initiatives, veterans rights, and vulnerable children. The Cher Charitable Foundation supports international projects such as the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, Operation Helmet, and the Children's Craniofacial Association.\n\nChildren\nBeginning in 1990, Cher served as a donor and as the National Chairperson and Honorary Spokesperson for the Children's Craniofacial Association, whose mission is to \"empower and give hope to facially disfigured children and their families\". The annual Cher's Family Retreat is held each June to provide craniofacial patients, their siblings and parents an opportunity to interact with others who have endured similar experiences. She supports and promotes Get A-Head Charitable Trust, which aims to improve the quality of life for people with head and neck diseases.\n\nCher is a donor, fundraiser, and international spokesperson for Keep a Child Alive, an organization that seeks to accelerate action to combat the AIDS pandemic, including the provision of antiretroviral medicine to children and their families with HIV/AIDS. In 1996, she hosted the American Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Benefit alongside Elizabeth Taylor at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2015, she received the amfAR Award of Inspiration for \"her willingness and ability to use her fame for the greater good\" and for being \"one of the great champions in the fight against AIDS\".\n\nIn 2007, Cher became the primary supporter of the Peace Village School (PVS) in Ukunda, Kenya, which \"provides nutritious food, medical care, education and extracurricular activities for more than 300 orphans and vulnerable children, ages 2 to 13 years.\" Her support enabled the school to acquire land and build permanent housing and school facilities, and in partnership with Malaria No More and other organizations, she piloted an effort to eliminate malaria mortality and morbidity for the children, their caregivers and the surrounding community.\n\nSoldiers and veterans\nCher has been a vocal supporter of American soldiers and returning veterans. She has contributed resources to Operation Helmet, an organization that provides free helmet upgrade kits to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has contributed to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves military personnel who have been disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those severely injured in other operations. In 1993, she participated in a humanitarian effort in Armenia, taking food and medical supplies to the war-torn region.\n\nPoverty\nCher has engaged in the construction of houses with Habitat for Humanity and served as the Honorary National Chair of a Habitat's elimination of poverty housing initiative \"Raise the Roof\", an effort to engage artists in the organization's work while on tour.\n\nEnvironment\nIn 2016, after the discovery of lead contamination in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, Cher donated more than 180,000 bottles of water to the city as part of a partnership with Icelandic Glacial.\n\nElder rights\nIn 2017, Cher weighed in on the need to protect elder rights as she executive produced Edith+Eddie, a documentary about a nonagenarian interracial couple. It received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject).\n\nCOVID-19\nFollowing the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, Cher launched the CherCares Pandemic Resource and Response Initiative (CCPRRI) alongside Dr. Irwin Redlener, the head of Columbia University's Pandemic Resource and Response Center. The charity's initial plan is to distribute $1 million to \"chronically neglected and forgotten people\" during the pandemic through the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF). Cher told Billboard, \"There are rural areas where people of color and Latinos and Native Americans were getting no services. It's not a lot of money — $1 million goes in the blink of an eyelash! — so now I'm trying to get my friends to make it a lot more so we can do something that will really meet people's needs. A friend once told me, 'When people walk in your path, then you know what you have to do.'\"\n\nAnimal rights\nIn November 2020, Cher joined Four Paws International and traveled to Pakistan to advocate for and work with the country's government to have Kaavan, an elephant who had been confined to a zoo for 35 years, transferred to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia. In April 2021, Paramount+ released the documentary film Cher and the Loneliest Elephant, detailing Cher's quest, alongside animal aid groups and veterinarians, to free Kaavan from confinement.\n\nLGBT rights\nCher's older child, Chaz Bono, first came out as a lesbian at age 17, which reportedly caused Cher to feel \"guilt, fear and pain\". However, she soon came to accept Chaz's sexual orientation, and came to the conclusion that LGBT people \"didn't have the same rights as everyone else, [and she] thought that was unfair\". She was the keynote speaker for the 1997 national Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) convention, and has since become one of the LGBT community's most vocal advocates. In May 1998, she received the GLAAD Vanguard Award for having \"made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for lesbians and gay men\". On June 11, 2009, Chaz came out as a transgender man, and his transition from female to male was legally finalized on May 6, 2010.\n\nPolitics \n\nCher has said that she is not a registered Democrat, but has attended many Democratic conventions and events. Over the years, Cher's political views have attracted media attention, and she has been an outspoken critic of the conservative movement. In an interview with Vanity Fair, she was critical of a variety of political topics, including Republican politicians like Sarah Palin and Jan Brewer. She has commented that she did not understand why anyone would be a Republican because eight years under the administration of George W. Bush \"almost killed [her]\".\n\nDuring the 2000 United States presidential election, ABC News wrote that she was determined to do \"whatever possible to keep him [Bush] out of office\". She told the site, \"If you're black in this country if you're a woman in this country, if you are any minority in this country at all, what could possibly possess you to vote Republican? ... You won't have one fucking right left.\" She added, \"I don't like Bush. I don't trust him. I don't like his record. He's stupid. He's lazy.\"\n\nOn October 27, 2003, Cher anonymously called a C-SPAN phone-in program to recount a visit she made to maimed soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and criticized the lack of media coverage and government attention given to injured servicemen. She remarked that she watches C-SPAN every day. Although she identified herself as an unnamed entertainer, she was recognized by the C-SPAN host, who subsequently questioned her about her 1992 support for independent presidential candidate Ross Perot. She said, \"When I heard him talk right in the beginning, I thought that he would bring some sort of common-sense business approach and also less partisanship, but then ... I was completely disappointed like everyone else when he just kind of cut and run and no one knew exactly why ... Maybe he couldn't have withstood all the investigation that goes on now\".\n\nOn Memorial Day weekend in 2006, Cher called into C-SPAN's Washington Journal endorsing Operation Helmet, a group that provides helmets to help soldiers avoid head injuries while in the war zone. On June 14, 2006, she made a guest appearance on C-SPAN with Dr. Bob Meaders, the founder of Operation Helmet. That year, in an interview with Stars and Stripes, she explained her \"against the war in Iraq but for the troops\" position: \"I don't have to be for this war to support the troops because these men and women do what they think is right. They do what they're told to do. They do it with a really good heart. They do the best they can. They don't ask for anything.\"\n\nCher supported Hillary Clinton in her 2008 presidential campaign. After Obama won the Democratic nomination, she supported his candidacy on radio and TV programs. However, in a 2010 interview with Vanity Fair, she commented that she \"still thinks Hillary would have done a better job\", although she \"accepts the fact that Barack Obama inherited insurmountable problems\". During the 2012 United States presidential election, Cher and comedian Kathy Griffin released a public service announcement titled \"Don't Let Mitt Turn Back Time on Women's Rights\". In the PSA, the pair criticized Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his support of Richard Mourdock, the US Senate candidate who suggested that pregnancies resulting from rape were \"part of God's plan\".\n\nIn September 2013, Cher declined an invitation to perform at the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Russia due to the country's controversial anti-gay legislation that overshadowed preparations for the event. In June 2015, after Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president, she made a series of critical comments on Twitter, stating that \"Donald Trump's punishment is being Donald Trump\". In October 2018, after the victory in Brazil's presidential election of right-wing populist Jair Bolsonaro, Cher called him a \"pig\" and \"a politician from hell\", before declaring that Bolsonaro should be \"locked in prison for the rest of his life\".\n\nIn September 2020, Cher raised nearly $2 million for Joe Biden's presidential campaign at a virtual, LGBTQ-themed fundraiser. In October, she traveled to Nevada and Arizona to campaign on behalf of Biden, and released a cover version of \"Happiness is Just a Thing Called Joe\", a song conceived for the 1943 musical film Cabin in the Sky, with lyrics updated to be about Biden. The same month, Cher posted messages on Twitter in support of Armenia and Artsakh regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh war. She stated, \"We stand with the people of Armenia [and] urge our leaders in Washington to conduct the sustained and rigorous diplomacy necessary to bring peace to the Artsakh region.\"\n\nIn 2022, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she publicly supported Ukraine. In her Twitter account, Cher repeatedly raised the issue of the war in Ukraine, calling for aid to Ukrainians. On March 18, the singer announced that she would shelter Ukrainian refugees in her home. Earlier, on February 23, Cher called Putin a despot who is ready to restore the Soviet Union.\n\nLegacy \nRolling Stone Rob Sheffield stated how \"there are no other careers remotely like hers, [particularly] in the history of pop music\" and referred to Cher as \"the one-woman embodiment of the whole gaudy story of pop music.\" According to Goldmine magazine's Phill Marder, Cher \"has been and remains today one of the Rock Era's most dominant figures\". He described her as the leader of an effort in the 1960s to \"advance feminine rebellion in the rock world [and] the prototype of the female rock star, setting the standard for appearance, from her early hippie days to her later outlandish outfits, and her attitude—the perfect female punk long before punk even was a rock term.\" Billboard Joe Lynch described Cher as \"a woman who pioneered an androgynous musical identity in the mid '60s\", and who by doing so \"teed things up for people like Bowie and Patti Smith\".\n\nBillboard Keith Caulfield wrote that \"there's divas, and then there's Cher.\" The New York Times Matthew Schneier stated, \"[Cher] has earned her mononym. Her star power is such that she has spored an entire industry of imitators, both figurative and literal.\" Dazed magazine's Shon Faye elaborates: \"If Madonna and Lady Gaga and Kylie and Cyndi Lauper were playing football, Cher would be the stadium they played on, and the sun that shone down on them.\" According to Jeff Miers from The Buffalo News, \"Her music has changed with the times over the decades, rather than changing those times through groundbreaking work\"; however, he felt that subsequent female pop singers were heavily inspired by Cher's abilities to combine \"showmanship with deep musicality ... to make valid statements in a wide variety of trend-driven idioms ... to ease effortlessly between pop subgenres [and] to shock without alienating her fans\", as well as by her charismatic stage presence and the strong LGBT support among her fan base.\n\nCher is commonly referred to by the media as the \"Goddess of Pop\". Her work in music, film, television, and fashion has influenced artists including Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Betsy, Beyoncé, Bonnie McKee, Britney Spears, Bruno Mars, Christina Aguilera, Cleo, Cyndi Lauper, Drew Barrymore, Dua Lipa, Gemma Chan, Gwen Stefani, Helena Vondráčková, Jennifer Lopez, Kacey Musgraves, Kanye West, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga,\nLil' Kim, Lizzo, Lucy Dacus, Miley Cyrus, Olivier Rousteing, Paulina Rubio, Pink, Madonna, Marc Jacobs, Ralph, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Rob Halford of Judas Priest, RuPaul, Sarah Paulson, Saweetie, Shania Twain, Shirley Manson of Garbage, \nSofia Carson, Taylor Swift, Tina Turner, Tracy Chapman, Troye Sivan, and Zendaya.\n\nCher has repeatedly reinvented herself through various personas, for which Professor Richard Aquila from Ball State University called her \"the ultimate pop chameleon\". According to Entertainment Weekly\nMarc Snetiker, \"Cher has floated through generation after generation, scooping up new fans, thrilling old ones, reinventing her own myth and glittering splendidly through it all.\" Billboard magazine's Brooke Mazurek credited Cher as having \"revolutionized the idea of what a pop star could visually accomplish, the way they could create multiple personas that live on and off-stage.\" James Reed from The Boston Globe elaborates: \"Along with David Bowie, she is one of the original chameleons in pop music, constantly in flux and challenging our perceptions of her[.]\" The New York Times declared Cher as the \"Queen of the Comeback\". According to author Lucy O'Brien, \"Cher adheres to the American Dream of reinvention of self: 'Getting old does not have to mean getting obsolete.'\"\n\nAuthor Craig Crawford, in his book The Politics of Life: 25 Rules for Survival in a Brutal and Manipulative World (2007), describes Cher as \"a model of flexible career management\", and relates her career successes to a constant reshaping of her image according to the evolving trends of popular culture. He further explains that she billed \"each dramatic turnaround of style as another example of rebellion—an image that allowed her to make calculated changes while appearing to be consistent.\" Author Grant McCracken stated, \"The term 'reinvention' is now often used to talk about the careers of American celebrities. But in Cher's case, it is particularly apt [because she] is inclined to lock on to each new fashion wave [and] is swept violently down the diffusion stream and out of fashion. Only substantial re-creation permits her to return to stardom.\" Her \"integrity\" and \"perseverance\" are highlighted in the Reaching Your Goals book series of illustrated inspirational stories for children, in which her life is detailed emphasizing the importance of self-actualization: \"For years, Cher worked hard to become a successful singer. Then she worked hard to become an actress. Even when she needed money, she turned down movie roles that weren't right for her. Her goal has always been to be a good actress, not just a rich and famous one.\"\n\nCher's \"ability to forge an immensely successful and lengthy career as a woman in a male-dominated entertainment world\" has drawn attention from feminist critics. According to author Diane Negra, Cher was presented in the beginning of her career as a product of male creativity; Cher remembers, \"It was a time when girl singers were patted on the head for being good and told not to think\". However, her image eventually changed due to her \"refusal of dependence on a man and the determination not only to forge a career (as an actor) on her own terms but to refuse the conventional role assigned to women over forty years old in an industry that fetishises youth\", wrote author Yvonne Tasker. She was featured in the 16th-anniversary edition of Ms. magazine as an \"authentic feminist hero\" and a 1980s role model for women: \"Cher, the straightforward, tattooed, dyslexic single mother, the first Oscar winner to have entered into matrimony with a known heroin addict and to have admitted to being a fashion victim by choice, has finally landed in an era that's not afraid to applaud real women.\"\n\nStephanie Brush from The New York Times wrote, following the telecast of Cher's Oscar win in 1988, that she \"performs the function for women moviegoers that Jack Nicholson has always fulfilled for men. Free of the burden of ever having been America's sweetheart, she is the one who represents us [women] in our revenge fantasies, telling all the fatheads ... exactly where they can go. You need to be more than beautiful to get away with this. You need to have been Cher for 40 years.\" Cher's 1996 interview for Dateline NBCs Jane Pauley became a viral video in 2016; in it, Cher tells the story of her mother asking her to \"settle down and marry a rich man,\" to which Cher replies, \"Mom, I am a rich man.\" Cher's \"Mom, I am a rich man\" quote was included in Taylor Swift's 2019 music video \"You Need to Calm Down\". Bustle magazine's Erica Kam commented, \"[Cher's quote] puts a spin on typical gender norms ... It would make sense, then, that Swift would want to follow Cher's example.\"\n\nAlec Mapa of The Advocate elaborates: \"While the rest of us were sleeping, Cher's been out there for the last four decades living out every single one of our childhood fantasies ... Cher embodies an unapologetic freedom and fearlessness that some of us can only aspire to.\" Rolling Stone Jancee Dunn wrote, \"Cher is the coolest woman who ever stood in shoes. Why? Because her motto is, 'I don't give a shit what you think, I'm going to wear this multicolored wig.' There are folks all over America who would, in their heart of hearts, love to date people half their age, get multiple tattoos and wear feathered headdresses. Cher does it for us.\" Alexander Fury of The Independent wrote that Cher \"represents a seemingly immortal, omnipotent, uni-monikered level of fame.\" Bego stated: \"No one in the history of show business has had a career of the magnitude and scope of Cher's. She has been a teenage pop star, a television hostess, a fashion magazine model, a rock star, a pop singer, a Broadway actress, an Academy Award-winning movie star, a disco sensation, and the subject of a mountain of press coverage.\" Lynch wrote that \"the world would certainly be different if she hadn't stayed so irrevocably Cher from the start.\"\n\nAchievements \n\nAs a solo artist, Cher has sold 100 million records worldwide (in addition to 40 million as part of the duo Sonny & Cher), making her one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She is one of the few artists to win three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT—Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), and one of five actor-singers to have had a US number-one single and won an acting Academy Award. Her breakthrough single, Sonny & Cher's \"I Got You Babe\", is a Grammy Hall of Fame inductee and was featured on Rolling Stone \"500 Greatest Songs of All Time\" list compiled in 2003. Her 1971 single \"Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves\" was called \"one of the 20th century's greatest songs\" by Billboard magazine. Her 1998 song \"Believe\" is the biggest-selling single of all time by a female artist in the UK. It was voted the world's eighth favorite song in a poll conducted by BBC in 2003—the only American song to be named on the list. \"Believe\" was placed on the 2021 revised list of Rolling Stone \"500 Greatest Songs of All Time\". In 1988, Cher became the first performer to receive an Academy Award for acting and a RIAA-certified gold album in the same year since the inception of gold awards in 1958.\n\nCher is the only artist to have a number-one single on a Billboard chart in six consecutive decades, from the 1960s to the 2010s. She has held US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles over the longest period of time in history: 33 years, seven months and three weeks between \"I Got You Babe\", which topped the chart for the first time on August 14, 1965, and \"Believe\", whose last week at number one was April 3, 1999. With \"Believe\", she became the oldest female artist to have a US number-one song in the rock era, at the age of 52. Billboard ranked her at number 43 on their \"Greatest Hot 100 Artists of All Time\" list. In 2014, the magazine listed her as the 23rd highest-grossing touring act since 1990, with total earned revenue of $351.6 million and 4.5 million attendance at her shows.\n\nCher has received numerous honorary awards, including the 1985 Woman of the Year Award by the Hasty Pudding Theatricals society at Harvard University, the Vanguard Award at the 1998 GLAAD Media Awards, the Legend Award at the 1999 World Music Awards, a special award for influence on fashion at the 1999 CFDA Fashion Awards, the Lucy Award for Innovation in Television at the 2000 Women in Film Awards, the Artist Achievement Award at the 2002 Billboard Music Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Glamour Awards, the Legend Award at the 2013 Attitude Awards, the Award of Inspiration at the 2015 amfAR Gala, the Icon Award at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards, the 2018 Kennedy Center Honor, the Ambassador for the Arts Award at the 2019 Chita Rivera Awards for Dance and Choreography, and the 2020 Spirit of Katharine Hepburn Award. In 2010, Cher received the honor of placing her handprints and footprints in cement in the courtyard in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Her name is on a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame as part of the duo Sonny & Cher. She had also been selected for the honor as a solo artist in 1983, but forfeited her opportunity by declining to schedule the mandatory personal appearance.\n\nIn 2003, Cher appeared at number 41 on VH1's list of \"The 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons\", which recognizes \"the folks that have significantly inspired and impacted American society\". She was ranked 31st on VH1's list of \"The 100 Greatest Women in Music\" for the period 1992–2012. Esquire magazine placed her at number 44 on their list of \"The 75 Greatest Women of All Time\". She was featured on the \"100 Greatest Movie Stars of our Time\" list compiled by People. In a 2001 poll, Biography magazine ranked her as their third favorite leading actress of all time, behind Audrey Hepburn and Katharine Hepburn.\n\nDiscography\n\nSolo studio albums\n\nCollaborative studio albums\n Two the Hard Way (with Gregg Allman as Allman and Woman) (1977)\n Black Rose (as lead vocalist of Black Rose) (1980)\n\nTours and residencies\n\nHeadlining concerts\n\nCollaborative concerts\n Two the Hard Way Tour (with Gregg Allman as Allman and Woman) (1977)\n The Black Rose Show (as lead vocalist of Black Rose) (1980)\n\nConcert residencies\n Cher in Concert (1979–1982)\n Cher (20082011)\n Classic Cher (2017–2020)\n\nFilmography\n\nFilms\n\nHeadlining television shows and specials\n\nSee also \n\n Culture of the United States\n Honorific nicknames in popular music\n List of artists who reached number one in the United States\n List of bestselling music artists\n List of highest-grossing concert tours\n Forbes list of highest-earning musicians\n\nReferences\n\nSources\n\nExternal links \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \nCategory:1946 births\nCategory:Living people\n\nCategory:Best Actress Academy Award winners\nCategory:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (film) winners\nCategory:Best Musical or Comedy Actress Golden Globe (television) winners\nCategory:Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe (film) winners\nCategory:Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners\nCategory:David di Donatello winners\nCategory:Grammy Award winners\nCategory:Grammy Award winners for dance and electronic music\nCategory:Kennedy Center honorees\nCategory:Primetime Emmy Award winners\nCategory:Echo (music award) winners\n\nCategory:American contraltos\nCategory:American dance musicians\nCategory:American disco musicians\nCategory:American women pop singers\nCategory:American women rock singers\nCategory:American women singer-songwriters\nCategory:American house musicians\nCategory:American pop rock singers\nCategory:Las Vegas shows\nCategory:Record producers from California\nCategory:Sonny & Cher\nCategory:Torch singers\nCategory:Atco Records artists\nCategory:Atlantic Records artists\nCategory:Columbia Records artists\nCategory:Geffen Records artists\nCategory:Imperial Records artists\nCategory:Kapp Records artists\nCategory:MCA Records artists\nCategory:Warner Records artists\n\nCategory:American film actresses\nCategory:American television actresses\nCategory:American voice actresses\nCategory:Ethnic Armenian actresses\n\nCategory:American adoptees\nCategory:American people of Armenian descent\nCategory:American people of English descent\nCategory:American people of French descent\nCategory:American people of German descent\nCategory:American people of Irish descent\nCategory:American people who self-identify as being of Native American descent\nCategory:People from El Centro, California\nCategory:Actresses from Malibu, California\nCategory:American LGBT rights activists\nCategory:Activists from California\nCategory:Actresses from Los Angeles\nCategory:Singers from Los Angeles\nCategory:20th-century American actresses\nCategory:21st-century American actresses\nCategory:20th-century American singers\nCategory:21st-century American singers\nCategory:20th-century American women singers\nCategory:21st-century American women singers\nCategory:American women record producers\nCategory:American women in electronic music\nCategory:Singer-songwriters from California\nCategory:Actors with dyslexia\nCategory:American actors with disabilities\nCategory:Musicians with dyslexia\nCategory:People with chronic fatigue syndrome",
"title": "Cher"
},
{
"text": "Salvatore Phillip \"Sonny\" Bono ( ; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and politician who came to fame in partnership with his second wife Cher as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republican Party, Bono served as the 16th mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and served as the U.S. representative for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.\n\nThe United States Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, which extended the term of copyright by 20 years, was named in honor of Bono when it was passed by Congress nine months after his death. Mary Bono (his widow) had been one of the original sponsors of the legislation, commonly known as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.\n\nEarly life \nBono was born in Detroit, the son of Zena \"Jean\" (née DiMercurio) and Santo Bono. His father was born in Montelepre, Palermo, Italy, and his mother was also of Italian descent. His mother called him \"Sono\" as a term of endearment, which evolved over time into \"Sonny\". Sonny was the youngest of three siblings; he had two sisters, Fran and Betty. The family moved to Inglewood, California, when he was seven, and his parents divorced soon afterwards. Bono decided early in life to become part of the music business, and began writing songs as a teenager. \"Koko Joe\", a song he wrote at age 16, was recorded by Don and Dewey in 1958, and later covered by several other artists including The Righteous Brothers. Bono attended Inglewood High School, but did not graduate, opting to drop out so he could begin to pursue a career as a songwriter and performer. He worked at a variety of jobs while trying to break into the music business, including waiter, truck driver, construction laborer, and butcher's helper.\n\nCareer\n\nEntertainment career \n\nBono began his music career as a songwriter at Specialty Records, where his song \"Things You Do to Me\" was recorded by Sam Cooke, and went on to work for record producer Phil Spector in the early 1960s as a promotion man, percussionist and \"gofer\". One of his earliest songwriting efforts, \"Needles and Pins\" was co-written with Jack Nitzsche, another member of Spector's production team. In 1965, he achieved commercial success with his wife Cher in the singing duo Sonny & Cher. Bono wrote, arranged and produced a number of hit records including the singles \"I Got You Babe\" and \"The Beat Goes On\", although Cher received more attention as a performer. He played a major part in Cher's early solo recording career, writing and producing singles including \"Bang Bang\" and \"You Better Sit Down Kids\".\n\nUnder a pseudonym, Bono co-wrote \"She Said Yeah\", covered by The Rolling Stones on their 1965 LP December's Children. His lone hit single as a solo artist, \"Laugh at Me\", was released in 1965 and peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. In live concerts, Bono introduced the song by saying \"I'd like to sing a medley of my hit\". His only other single as a solo artist, \"The Revolution Kind\", reached No. 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 later that year. His solo album, Inner Views, was released in 1967.\n\nSonny continued to work with Cher through the early and mid-1970s, starring in a popular television variety show, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, which ran on CBS from 1971 to 1974. In 1974, his solo variety show, The Sonny Comedy Revue, ran on ABC for one season. From 1976 to 1977, the duo, since divorced, returned to perform together on The Sonny and Cher Show. Their last appearance together was on Late Night with David Letterman on November 13, 1987, on which they sang \"I Got You Babe\".\n\nIn 2011, Sonny Bono was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.\n\nFilm and television \nBono's acting career included bit parts as a guest performer in such television series as The Man From UNCLE, (appearing with Cher in 'The Hot Number Affair) Fantasy Island, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, The Six Million Dollar Man and CHiPs. In the 1975 TV movie Murder on Flight 502, he played the role of rock star Jack Marshall. He appeared in the 1980 miniseries Top of the Hill. He played the role of mad bomber Joe Selucci in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982) and appeared in the horror film Troll (1986). He also portrayed racist entrepreneur Franklin von Tussle in the John Waters film Hairspray (1988). In Men in Black (1997), Bono is one of several oddball celebrities seen on a wall of video screens that monitor extraterrestrials living among us. He also appeared as the Mayor of Palm Springs (which he actually was at the time) in several episodes of P.S. I Luv U during the 1991–92 TV season, and on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (in season 1, episode 9 \"The Man of Steel Bars\", which aired November 21, 1993), in which he played Mayor Frank Berkowitz. He also made a minor appearance as himself in the comedy film First Kid (1996).\n\nBono guest-starred as himself on The Golden Girls episode \"Mrs. George Devereaux\" (originally broadcast November 17, 1990), in which he vied with Lyle Waggoner for Dorothy's (Bea Arthur) affection in a dream sequence. In Blanche's (Rue McClanahan) dream, her husband is still alive, and Bono uses his power as Mayor of Palm Springs to have Waggoner falsely arrested so he can have Dorothy to himself. Sophia (Estelle Getty) had been hoping for Sonny and Dorothy to get together and actively supported Sonny.\n\n Political career \n\nBono entered politics after experiencing great frustration with local government bureaucracy in trying to open a restaurant in Palm Springs, California. Bono made a successful bid to become the new mayor of Palm Springs. He served four years, from 1988 to 1992. He was instrumental in spearheading the creation of the Palm Springs International Film Festival, which is held each year in Bono's memory.\n\nBono ran for the Republican nomination for United States Senate in 1992, but the nomination went to the more conservative Bruce Herschensohn, and the election to the Democrat Barbara Boxer. Bono and Herschensohn became close friends after the campaign. Bono was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1994 to represent California's 44th congressional district. He was one of twelve co-sponsors of a House bill extending copyright. Although that bill was never voted on in the Senate, a similar Senate bill was passed after his death and named the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act in his memory. It is also known (derisively) as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act.\n\nHe championed the restoration of the Salton Sea, bringing the giant lake's plight to national attention. In 1998, then Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich made a public appearance and speech at the shore of the lake on Bono's behalf.\n\nIn their book Tell Newt to Shut Up, David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf credit Bono with being the first person to recognize Gingrich's public relations problems in 1995. Drawing on his long experience as a celebrity and entertainment producer, Bono (according to Maraniss and Weisskopf) recognized that Gingrich's status had changed from politician to celebrity and that he was not making allowances for that change:\n\nBono remains the only member of Congress to have scored a number-one pop single on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.\n\n Personal life \n Marriages \nBono was married four times. He married his first wife, Donna Rankin, on November 3, 1954. Their daughter Christine (\"Christy\") was born on June 24, 1958. They divorced in 1962.\n\nIn 1964, Bono married Cherilyn Sarkisian, later known as singer and actress Cher. The couple had one child, Chaz, born March 4, 1969. The couple divorced in 1975.\n\nBono married actress-model Susie Coelho on New Year's Eve 1981; they divorced in 1984.\n\nHe wed Mary Whitaker in 1986 and they had two children, son Chesare Elan in 1988 and daughter Chianna Maria in 1991.\n\n Godparent \nBono was named a godparent of Anthony Kiedis, who became a musical artist with his band, Red Hot Chili Peppers. Sonny was a close friend of Kiedis's father, Blackie Dammett, and often took young Kiedis on weekend trips.\n\n Salton Sea \nBono was a champion of the Salton Sea in southeastern California, where a park was named in his honor. The 2005 documentary film Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea (narrated by John Waters) features Bono and documented the lives of the inhabitants of Bombay Beach, Niland and Salton City, as well as the ecological issues associated with the Sea.\n\n Religion \nHe became interested in Scientology and took Scientology courses partly because of the influence of Mimi Rogers, but stated that he was a Roman Catholic on all official documents, campaign materials and websites. His wife Mary also took Scientology courses. However, after his death, Mary Bono stated that \"Sonny did try to break away [from the Church of Scientology] at one point, and they made it very difficult for him.\" The Church of Scientology said there was no estrangement from Bono.\n\n Death \n\nBono died on January 5, 1998, of injuries incurred when he hit a tree while skiing at Heavenly Mountain Resort in South Lake Tahoe, California.\n\nAt Mary's request, Cher gave a eulogy at Sonny's funeral. He was buried at Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads \"AND THE BEAT GOES ON\".\n\nMary Bono was elected to fill the remainder of her husband's congressional term. She was elected in her own right seven subsequent times before being defeated in the election of 2012.\n\n Honors and tributes \n\nSonny Bono has been honored and memorialized with:\n\n A Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars: dedicated to him in 1996.\n Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act: Extended copyright protections effective October 27, 1998.\n Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge: a nature reserve on the Salton Sea was renamed in Bono's honor in 1998.\n Sonny Bono Memorial Park, a small park in Washington, D.C., was named in his honor in 1998.\n Sonny Bono Memorial Interchange: an interchange on California State Route 60 at Nason Street in Moreno Valley, California, was named for Bono in September 2000.\n Sony Bono Memorial Freeway: a 40-mile stretch of Interstate 10 near Palm Springs was dedicated January 10, 2002.\n Sonny Bono Concourse: a concourse at Palm Springs International Airport dedicated October 22, 2002.\n Sonny Bono Memorial Fountain and Statue''': Located in downtown Palm Springs, California, the statue was dedicated in November 2002.\n\n See also \n\n List of actor–politicians\n List of famous skiing deaths\n List of United States Congress members who died in office (1950–99)\n\n References \n\n Further reading \n Sonny Bono: And the Beat Goes On. New York: Pocket Books 1991. \n Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 12th edition. Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2009. .\n Bono vs. Bono: A Battle Royal '', Bobby Soxers, 2013. .\n\nExternal links \n\n \n \n \n \n \n FBI Records: The Vault – Salvatore Phillip \"Sonny\" Bono at vault.fbi.gov\n S.505: Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act\n \n\n \nCategory:1935 births\nCategory:1998 deaths\nCategory:American actor-politicians\nCategory:American male film actors\nCategory:American male singer-songwriters\nCategory:American people of Italian descent\nCategory:Record producers from California\nCategory:American Scientologists\nCategory:American male television actors\nCategory:Burials at Desert Memorial Park\nCategory:Mayors of Palm Springs, California\nCategory:Male actors from Detroit\nCategory:Skiing deaths\nCategory:Specialty Records artists\nCategory:Sports deaths in California\nCategory:Sonny & Cher\nCategory:20th-century American male actors\nCategory:Musicians from Inglewood, California\nCategory:Male actors from Palm Springs, California\nCategory:Atco Records artists\nCategory:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from California\nCategory:20th-century American singers\nCategory:20th-century American politicians\nCategory:The Wrecking Crew (music) members\nCategory:Catholics from California\nCategory:20th-century American male singers\nCategory:Singer-songwriters from California",
"title": "Sonny Bono"
},
{
"text": "A supercouple or super couple (also known as a power couple) is a popular and/or wealthy pairing that intrigues and fascinates the public in an intense or obsessive fashion. The term originated in the United States, and it was coined in the early 1980s when intense public interest in fictional soap opera couple Luke Spencer and Laura Webber, from General Hospital, made the pair a popular culture phenomenon.\n\nThe term supercouple typically refers to fictional couples from television dramas and film, such as Gone with the Winds Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara. With regard to real-life pairings, tabloids and the mainstream media have focused on wealthy or popular celebrity couples, and have titled them supercouples or power couples. Examples are the pairing of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez (which became known by the portmanteau \"Bennifer\"), and the former relationship of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie (\"Brangelina\").\n\nDefinitions\nSupercouples are defined as popular or financially wealthy pairings that are widely admired in an intense or obsessive fashion and influence society's expectations of what a great love story or relationship should be; they may or may not be romantic or high-profile, and interest in the pairings may be due to a combination of chemistry, physical attractiveness, or because they seem fated.\n\nThe term supercouple first appeared in 1981, with the wedding of General Hospitals Luke and Laura. Thirty million viewers tuned into the event, and the widespread media attention it received from prominent newspapers and magazines set the pairing up as the default model for other soap opera supercouples. The model Luke and Laura originally followed consisted of action stories, romance, and obstacles for the couple to overcome. This paradigm subsequently became ideal of fictional soap opera supercouples in America, and extended to other genres. In Queer TV: Framing Sexualities On US Television, Nancy Martin says, \"Actively desiring heterosexual pairs not bent on reproduction became a required advertising device and a narratological mainstay on daytime and primetime.\" In Russian Television Today, David MacFadyen concludes, \"Even the busiest, most rambling soap operas are often neatly and conclusively distilled in the public's mind by a 'supercouple' or tiny, central pair of protagonists.\" Luke and Laura's popularity resulted in fictional supercouples generally being regarded as soulmates. The pairings have typically overcome numerous obstacles or significant strife in order to be together.\n\nThough a successful model, the concept has been criticized for hindering the growth of characters' relationships with other love interests; this has resulted in alternate definitions for the term. In her essay criticism of the term, The Siren Call of the Super Couple (ed. Suzanne Frentz, 1992), Diana Reep describes the love of a supercouple as \"so perfect that they are incapable of having romantic feelings for anyone else under any circumstances. In addition, the two have no personal flaws or idiosyncrasies that could interfere with their perfect love. Only an evil, outside force could disturb their relationship\". While Days of Our Lives former supervising producer Al Rabin credited the supercouple aspect as the secret to the show's success, his then–executive producer Ken Corday stated, \"By definition, supercouple excludes others on the show. Every time they walk into a room, every other character, no matter how important, becomes window dressing, I've never believed in it.\" Corday added, \"Either people are involved in a good story or they're not. They're an interesting couple or they're not.\" \n \nCelebrity couples may also be regarded as supercouples. Interest in the pairings ranges from media and public obsession to calculation of the couples' combined finances.\n\nInternet and media trends\nFans often use portmanteau to refer to their favorite couples on online message boards, a significant aspect of the \"shipping fandom\". The \"shipping fandom\" scene, whose name is derived from the word \"relationship\", is a general term for fans' emotional or intellectual involvement with the ongoing development of romance in a work of fiction. Though technically applicable to any such involvement, it refers chiefly to various related social dynamics observable on the Internet, and is seldom used outside of that context. \"Shipping\" can involve virtually any kind of relationship—from the well-known and established, to the ambiguous or those undergoing development, and even to the highly improbable and the blatantly impossible. People involved in shipping (or shippers) assert that the relationship does exist, will exist, or simply that they would like it to exist.\n\n\"Portmanteaux first came about with Lewis Carroll\" as a way to blend words, stated Jonathan Gabay, author of the Copywriter's Compendium—a reference guide to the English language. Gabay added that people blend words in this fashion because sometimes there are words an individual wants, but those words do not actually exist. \"There's a feeling you are trying to get out\", he said. For fictional pairings, examples showcase themselves as Logan and Veronica (Veronica Mars) becomes \"LoVe\", Josh and Reva (Guiding Light) becomes \"Jeva\", Jack and Kate (Lost) becomes \"Jate\", Michael and Sara (Prison Break) becomes \"MiSa\", and so on. Some couples are given more complex portmanteaux; on How I Met Your Mother, the pairing of Barney and Robin is referred to as \"BROTP\", incorporating their initials, their platonic status as \"bros\", and the popular fandom term OTP (\"One True Pairing\"). Seth Cohen of the show The O.C. parodied name-blending trends when he talked about real couples' overexposure to one another; he wondered whether or not his pairing with Summer Roberts would be called \"Summereth\" or \"Sethummer\".\n\nGabay said portmanteaux \"...giv[e] people an essence of who they are within the same name. In double-barrelled names, the hyphen is almost pushing one name away from the other. Meshing says 'I am you and you are me', which is rather romantic\". Occasionally, even anti-fans come up with names for couples, such as General Hospital's Sonny Corinthos and Emily Quartermaine. The unpopular pairing of the mob boss and his enforcer's sweet younger sister became known as \"Soily\". Similarly, name-blending exists with celebrities' first names. Said to be a sign of commitment and togetherness, meshing is also seen by some as an attempt to banish what might be considered a \"sexist\" tradition of a woman taking her husband's name when she marries.\n\nIn other Internet trends, fans often take part in making fan videos (also referred to as fanvids, a compilation of favorite scenes stylishly intercut as music videos or other various forms of entertainment) and writing fanfiction (alternative endings and stories to the original story's outcome) for their favorite pairings. Sites such as YouTube, Archive of our Own, and Fanfiction.net help to facilitate this.\n\nSoap operas\n\nOrigins\n\nAccording to American soap opera writer and romance novelist Leah Laiman, soap operas are best known and most remembered for romance. The romances in daytime dramas are significantly characterized by bringing couples together, splitting them up, and starting the cycle over again to ensure that viewers remain invested in the pairings, if popular. This is a strategy that often succeeds within the medium. A supercouple storyline is typically detailed by the couple's facing seemingly insurmountable challenges, such as a difference in social class, strong family interference, simple disagreements, marriages to other people, children with other people, etc.\n\nTwo characters comprising a supercouple will usually reunite and marry, while the most significant obstacle for the pairing is the soap opera genre itself; as soap operas typically continue for decades, there is no closure for the pairing unless both characters leave the show together or one of them dies. It is because of this, that after the usual fairytale wedding, if the supercouple remains on the series, writers do not allow the item to live happily ever after as a couple in a fairy tale would but rather subject them to a continual cycle of being separated and reunited. This factor has contributed to two characters of a supercouple normally divorcing and remarrying each other a few or several times. Author Diana Reep argues that the supercouple phenomenon creates \"serious storyline problems\" for producers and writers due to characters' being destined for only one lover:The problem supercouples create for storytellers is that, as characters, therefore, they are unchanging in a narrative form that emphasizes evolving characters and relationships... and as ideals, supercouples bring closure to a relationship in a world that is based in continuing expectations of change.\n\nCreators within the medium generally focus more on the benefits of supercouples rather than the potential problems the pairings can produce. Former One Life to Live co-head writer Josh Griffith said that the key to a show's success is \"passionate, romantic storytelling and pairings, and that's what creates a supercouple\". To him, they embody love and passion.\n\nLegends\nAlthough the term was not coined until the early 1980s, some couples prior to that point have been retrospectively termed supercouples; for example, Jeff Baker and Penny Hughes and Bob and Lisa Hughes, from As the World Turns. Doug Williams and Julie Olson from Days of Our Lives are sometimes considered the first supercouple. From 1970 until 1976, Doug and Julie's relationship wavers between love and hate. The chemistry the portrayers exhibited became evident offscreen; the real-life couple, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth, were married in 1974. This set off a commotion among thousands of fans, who wrote letters to the show asking that the couple also be allowed to marry in the story. Since the actors were already married, they felt this was a valid request. NBC worked the tension and lengthened the anticipation of the wedding but eventually caved into the audience's pressure. Doug and Julie are married in October 1976 within the series. They are the first soap opera characters to appear on the cover of Time.\n\nLuke Spencer and Laura Webber, portrayed by Anthony Geary and Genie Francis from General Hospital, are considered the most famous soap opera supercouple. Their romance enthralled viewers; when they wed on November 16, 1981, American daytime television recorded its highest-ever ratings, with 30 million people tuning in to watch them say \"I do\". Elizabeth Taylor made a cameo appearance during the wedding, and Princess Diana reportedly sent champagne. The couple was featured on the covers of People and Newsweek, and was credited with having brought \"legitimacy to daytime serials\" and its fans by crossing boundaries and becoming celebrities in the mainstream media. As a result, Luke and Laura have become regarded as daytime television's quintessential and most iconic couple. While Guiding Light has the smallest number of supercouples, the series still had prominent pairings, notably Quint and Nola, as well as Josh and Reva, one of the central supercouples from the 1980s onward. In 1982, All My Childrens Jesse and Angie became the first black supercouple.\n\n\"Dirty\" Den and Angie Watts, portrayed by Leslie Grantham and Anita Dobson on the British soap opera EastEnders, generated an audience response similar to Luke and Laura's. Den and Angie are renowned as arguably Britain's most iconic soap opera couple, having broken the record for episode ratings to 30.1 million viewers in 1986 on the episode of their divorce, a record that remains unbeaten by any British soap opera episode today.\n\nGolden Age: 1980s\nThe 1980s is known as the \"Golden Age\" of supercouples. Shows such as All My Children, As the World Turns and along with the aforementioned General Hospital and Days of our Lives were well known for their supercouples. Days of our Lives in particular had a significant number of supercouples — Bo and Hope, Shane and Kimberly, Patch and Kayla, and Jack and Jennifer all going on at roughly the same time. The show soon featured John and Marlena. All My Children was represented by Cliff and Nina, Greg and Jenny, Jesse and Angie, and later by Tad and Dixie.\n\nAs the World Turns had the popular couples Holden and Lily, Craig and Sierra, Tom and Margo, and Steve and Betsy with Betsy Stewart being portrayed by future film star Meg Ryan. Along with Luke and Laura, General Hospital also boasted Alan and Monica and Frisco and Felicia. At the same time, Santa Barbara introduced another supercouple, Cruz and Eden.\n\nThe supercouple phenomenon spread to foreign shores, with Scott and Charlene, portrayed by Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue on the Australian soap opera Neighbours. The success of their romance prompted a fellow Australian daytime drama Home and Away to shelve out their own supercouple, Shane and Angel, and Den and Angie from EastEnders emerged as Britain's most famous soap opera couple.\n\nSheraton Kalouria, NBC's Vice President of Daytime Programming, said he believes in the \"it\" factor regarding fictional couples. \"It's hard to imagine Bo and Hope as a supercouple and divorce that from the magnetic chemistry of Peter Reckell and Kristian Alfonso\", he stated. \"Or Cruz and Eden from Santa Barbara days and A Martinez and Marcy Walker. Or McKenzie Westmore as Sheridan and Galen Gering as Luis, if I might be so bold as to dub them a supercouple. Actors bring a huge excitement to [their pairing].\"\n\nDecline and remolding: 1990s–2000s\n\nPopular, traditional, and altered setups\nPopular couplings on soap operas exist today, but there are few termed supercouples by fans or the soap opera media. Usually, the term is reminiscent of the 1970s and 1980s. As such, supercouples that are still on serials today are mostly from the 1980s, or early 1990s. After the mid-1990s, the supercouple phenomenon slowly faded and the nature of soap operas today allows few couples to define the nature of the show anymore as original supercouples once did.\n \nDays of our Lives executive producer Ken Corday said that while he feels that \"love in the afternoon\" is still important to the genre, the supercouple title \"disappeared from vocabulary when Al Rabin [his supervising producer] left the show\". All My Children and One Life to Live creator Agnes Nixon argued, \"[Supercouples are] still a vital component whenever possible.\" She stressed the importance of creating \"young love [stories], the Romeo and Juliet\" of tomorrow.\n\nShows have attempted to revive the success of supercouples through modern couples. There are instances when a character becomes a part of two popular pairings, where both couples which include the character develop the same or close to the same amount of positive fan reaction from viewers. This causes a certain rivalry between the two couples, with both vying for the title of supercouple. An example of this was especially evident with the mid-1990s storyline of General Hospitals Sonny Corinthos, Brenda Barrett, and Jasper \"Jax\" Jacks, often referred to as \"the hottest love triangle in soap opera history\" by the soap opera media. The couple combinations within the love triangle were equally in demand, and which of the two is a true supercouple remains in dispute. Though debated, both couples are referenced and listed as supercouples by the soap opera medium. The Sonny character eventually acquired second supercouple status in the pairing of Sonny and Carly, becoming a part of two successful on-screen romances.\n\nIn other instances, a character is part of two equally popular couplings, but the storyline does not lend itself to the scenario being referred to as a love triangle. Samantha \"Sami\" Brady of the soap opera Days of our Lives is romantically desired by the two men, Lucas Roberts and EJ Wells. However, she was not considered to be actively involved in a love triangle, and both couples (Lucas and Sami and EJ and Sami) resonate with fans and appear to be at least equal in comparison and popularity.\n\nIn today's soap opera medium, there are couples which come close to gaining supercouple status in terms of popularity. Although these pairings have perceived chemistry and potential, the couple's story is cut short, often due to the actors leaving to pursue jobs outside of soap operas or due to the writers changing direction in a storyline. These couples do not last long enough onscreen to garner the long history of what is often considered a genuine supercouple. Such couples include Leo and Greenlee (All My Children), Ryan and Gillian (All My Children), Dusty and Lucy (As the World Turns), Simon and Katie (As the World Turns), Paul and Meg (As the World Turns), Robin and Stone (General Hospital), Jonathan and Tammy (Guiding Light), and Todd and Téa (One Life to Live).\n\nSoap opera columnist Carolyn Aspenson stated that the \"supercouple formula\" should be redefined. She argued that tragic couples such as Leo and Greenlee are a better love story than if they had stayed together with a \"boring\" everyday life. \"A super couple shouldn’t be designed to be a couple that beats the odds and sticks it out no matter what,\" she said. \"We’re left with nothing on those terms. Instead, try redefining a super couple by the intensity of their love, their loss and their ability to move on without their other half. It leaves us frustrated, heartbroken and yearning for more. To me, that is the definition of a super couple.\"\n\nGay and lesbian\nSoap operas traditionally featured only heterosexual romance. For American soap opera, this began to change with characters Bianca Montgomery, Lena Kundera, and Maggie Stone from All My Children. Bianca's unveiling as a lesbian was unique for daytime television. By being a core character and the daughter of legendary diva Erica Kane, \"the show initiated an innovative discourse about the possibility, location, and representation of lesbian and gay characters in a television genre historically predicated on the celebration of heterosexual courtship, romance, and family life\".\n\nIn 2003, Bianca's relationship with Lena resulted in American daytime's first lesbian kiss. The two became American daytime's first lesbian couple, and received significant press. Though Lena and Bianca's romance was well-received, popular, and the couple became responsible for several historic moments within daytime television, it was Bianca's relationship with close confidante Maggie that thoroughly captivated viewers. The romance was considered unique and especially significant due to the show's insistence that Maggie was not gay; the show's insistence did not deter viewers from wanting the two romantically paired, and they often wrote in to the network (ABC) demanding that Bianca and Maggie become an official item. Eventually, hints that Maggie might not be heterosexual started to appear throughout the series, complicated by Maggie insisting that she is not gay but is rather \"into guys\" and only guys. Yet fan mail for the Bianca and Maggie pairing was prominent. The couple's popularity grew beyond soap opera press, as newspapers and television magazines became fascinated by the love story as well. TV Guide, The Advocate, and Daily News were among the media taking interest. The pairing eventually became the most popular gay couple in soap opera history, which surprised industry insiders who had not believed that a gay pairing could be as significantly in demand as heterosexual pairings. Though Bianca and Maggie's romance was not made official until both were offscreen, it made clear to writers and executives who had been conflicted about including gay and lesbian love stories that the daytime audience was interested. Bianca and Maggie subsequently became American soap opera's first same-sex supercouple.\n\nSoap opera analyst C. Lee Harrington stated, \"While the past decade has witnessed a growing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters in primetime dramas and situation comedies, daytime soap operas offer unique challenges (and possibilities) regarding the inclusion and 'normalization' of varied sexualities in entertainment television.\" Daytime television has been ahead of primetime for some time in exploring diverse or controversial storylines and characters, with the one glaring exception being homosexuality. Gay and lesbian issues or characters were invisible in 1950s and early 1960s TV. When it came to the mainstream shows, audiences were built up as \"replications of the idealized, middle-class nuclear family, defined as monogamous heterosexual couples with children\" (Buxton, 1997, p. 1477). Because of this perception of what was ideal, networks geared programming toward it, feeling that viewers were exactly like these images on their television screens.\n\nIn contrast to primetime, daytime dramas have different obstacles to developing innovative programming, with their advertising sponsors being more conservative, their audience smaller and \"genre restrictions that emphasize continuity and respect for history over innovation\". Soap opera tried its first chance at including a gay character back in 1983 on All My Children. Actress Donna Pescow portrayed Dr. Lynn Carson, who \"comes out\" as a lesbian to patient and confidante Devon Shepherd McFadden (Tricia Pursley). The two women admit to having romantic feelings for each other, and that is as far as the relationship goes.\n\nA prominent obstacle for gay and lesbian characters on daytime television is interference from television network executives who fear a decline in their ratings. The characters are often denied fulfilling and lasting romances with others of the same sex. \"Before Bianca's gay character was written into All My Children, the purpose of gay characters was to make a point or explain homosexuality for the audience—a task handled within the course of a few episodes,\" said Zach Hudson of Washington Blade. \"The distraught parents or angry bullies who caused the early gay characters so much turmoil would suddenly see the light. Then the story—and the character—would simply vanish.\" It was not until Bianca that prominent gay characters and couples seemed possible within American daytime. Since then, American soap operas have tried to replicate the success of the Bianca character with the introduction of their own gay and lesbian characters. One soap opera in particular, As the World Turns, has been successful in launching the first popular romance between two men on an American daytime drama, Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer. In late 2007, the two make television history by carrying out the first kiss between two male lovers on an American soap opera. The popularity of the pairing borders on the same fascination level that centered around Bianca and Maggie's lesbian romance. Not even months into the romantic aspect of their relationship, TV Guide named the male duo a top power couple.\n\nNoah Mayer became one of the latest soap opera characters to come out as gay, and joined Bianca and others as visible gay characters in daytime. One year before Luke and Noah, the British soap opera Hollyoaks had already embarked on issuing their own gay male supercouple, between characters John Paul McQueen and Craig Dean; the storyline became one of the show's most successful, gaining \"legions\" of fans. The budding same-sex romance on Guiding Light between Olivia Spencer and Natalia Rivera Aitoro became popular with fans in 2009. That same year, One Life to Live introduced its own male gay supercouple with Oliver Fish and Kyle Lewis. On international television, the German soap opera Verbotene Liebe gained international popularity, with the storylines involving Carla and Stella, and later with the couple of Christian and Oliver.\n\nBeginning in 2011, Days of our Lives broke new ground when it decided to have the character Will Horton come out as gay. The soap chronicled Will's struggle to accept his sexuality. The show also highlighted many obstacles the LGBT community face, such as bullying, hate crimes and gay slurs. The show cast actor, Freddie Smith in the role of Jackson \"Sonny\" Kiriakis, the second openly gay contracted character in a daytime soap opera. Sonny would eventually become Will's ongoing love interest. To the surprise of the actors and writers, Will and Sonny were greeted with fan support, and were eventually titled a supercouple and \"power couple\". The show pushed the envelope even further when it decided to air Will's first same-sex sexual encounter on-screen (which would become the first of many). Chandler Massey went on receive the 2012 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series, becoming the first actor ever to receive a Daytime Emmy Award for playing a gay character. He won his second consecutive Emmy for the role in the same category in 2013. Smith received his first Daytime Emmy nomination for his role in 2013 pitting him against Massey for the same award. In his acceptance speech, Massey thanked Smith. The show won the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Daily Drama in 2013. In August 2013, it was announced that Massey had filmed his final episode as Will Horton, and that a recast had already been made. Days had initially planned not to recast the role, but changed its mind due to fear of advertiser and fan backlash.\n\nIn either aspect, fictional gay and lesbian romances have been argued as making an impact. \"These stories have the ability to reach the many different generations of viewers who watch daytime and share with them stories of our lives,\" stated Damon Romine, media entertainment director for the GLAAD organization. \"What viewers are seeing is that more and more of their own neighbors and friends are dealing with these issues, and the soaps are merely reflecting the reality of the world we live in.\"\n\nPrimetime television\n\nA paradigm used for primetime couples is the love-hate relationship plotline. In the television series Dynasty, characters Krystle and Blake (Linda Evans and John Forsythe) are seen fighting for years, through ex-lovers and a host of other interferences. Krystle winds up in a coma and Blake spends years in jail, but their love eventually wins out over their problems. This resulted in the couple subsequently becoming one of television's classic supercouples. Other early primetime power couplings include Ricky and Lucy (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball) from I Love Lucy, Pam and Bobby (Victoria Principal and Patrick Duffy) from Dallas, and Cliff and Clair Huxtable (Bill Cosby and Phylicia Rashād) from The Cosby Show, among others.\n\nTelevision shows also produce tragic love stories, such as Buffy and Angel from the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The pairing's persistent fight to be together is considered to have cemented their place in supercouple history. Voted #2 on IGN's list of Top 10 Favorite TV Couples, and #5 on AOL's list of Greatest TV Couples of All Time, the sites categorized the pairing as \"the ultimate\" star-crossed couple. The pairing's main predicament—unable to experience sexual intimacy without Angel losing his humanity—has been summarized by IGN: \n\nCreator of the series Joss Whedon said, Becoming', Parts 1 and 2 ... really sort of charted the main points of the Buffy–Angel relationship in all its difficulty and romance.\" Buffy's portrayer, Sarah Michelle Gellar, said, \"I think deep down Buffy will always love Angel and she will never love anyone the way in which she loves him. I think they found a wonderful supercouple in Buffy and Angel.\"\n\nCertain shows may not be adequately suited for a tragic-love storyline. For comedies, the approach of pairing mismatched couples is also often applied, and for dramas, there tends to be a \"will-they-won't-they\" setup. Website Cinemablend states that there are two general formulas for a \"will-they-wont-they\" setup. \"The first one is when one person pursues the other, then finally gives up and dates someone else,\" the site stated, \"and the other scenario is when the two characters are so different and often do not get along with one another, they fight and argue constantly, but then one thing or a series of 'things' happen and they are forced to put up with each other.\" Examples of popular couples cited for having displayed this formula are Buffy and Spike (of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ross and Rachel (of the show Friends), Logan and Veronica (of the show Veronica Mars), among others.\n\nThere are numerous shows that tend to pair up two unexpected characters with other. For instance, Pacey Witter and Joey Potter from the drama Dawsons Creek. Pacey and Joey did not like each other at all first, and Joey was in love with her soulmate Dawson Leery, but they eventually fell in love and became a supercouple of the show. Kurt Hummel and Blaine Anderson and Santana Lopez and Brittany Pierce from Glee and are regularly quoted as TV's first LGBTQ powercouples.\n\nA well-known \"will-they-won't-they\" setups is the relationship of supercouple Agent Fox Mulder and Agent Dana Scully from the science fiction/thriller series The X-Files. Mulder and Scully, two FBI agents investigating cases that involve the paranormal, are showcased as having a relationship which borders on subtle hints of romance throughout the series without the two being heavily romantically involved. Though anticipation for Mulder and Scully to romantically commit to each other had existed for years among the show's fanbase, the pairing's romantic intimacy was not written as soon as fans would have hoped for; when the two are finally shown sharing a kiss in 1999 after seven seasons of buildup, some viewers felt the show waited too long to script the event. Critics state that in such cases, if a series extends sexual tension for \"too long\" before finally acting on romantic intimacy between the characters, it can result in viewers feeling that the best part of the pairing's buildup was their \"will-they-won't-they\" status.\n\nWith some fictional supercouples from soap opera or primetime, the couple may have started out as an unexpected pairing and with or without a paradigm. Due to viewers becoming excited over the prospect of chemistry between the two, the show's producers and writers later decide to pair them.\n\nFilm\n\nGiven that films inherently have a shorter amount of time to develop characters and carry out storylines, the task of convincing the audience that the film's couple are adequately suited for each other can be challenging. This is especially evident in cases where there is not enough plot focusing on the buildup of the characters' interaction, which can make the love story seem contrived. A memorable line or catchphrase spoken between the characters has been suggested as a remedy to this, since it can elevate a pairing's popularity.\n\nFilms may resort to the notion that romance is a solution to life's problems or is unchangeable, tapping into a \"love conquers all\" appeal; for example, in \"doomed\" romances where the underlying message is that the love the couple shared endured even though their time together was cut short. A film supercouple can be a couple appearing with the same actors over the course of few or several films, making the actors the supercouples rather than the characters.\n\nCelebrity\n\nThe media often focuses on celebrity pairings. Celebrity couples who are viewed as fascinating or create a power coupling due to finances are singled out as supercouples. Since the term was coined, classic Hollywood couples have been regarded as supercouples, including Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. People magazine stated that Gable and Lombard were \"more than just Golden Age window dressing. The love they shared for six years was that Hollywood rarity: the real thing.\" They were titled \"The King of Hollywood and the Queen of Screwball Comedy\", respectively, and eloped during a break in production on Gable's Gone with the Wind in 1939. Lombard died three years later in a plane crash on her way home from a war bond rally. Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball were the stars and producers of I Love Lucy, and have since been credited as an onscreen and offscreen supercouple. They divorced in 1960 after 20 years of marriage. People described Gable and Lombard, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, were couples recognized as \"the greatest love stories of the century\".\n\nThe supercouple title has been similarly prolific with modern celebrity pairings. In 1997, rapper/actor Will Smith married actress Jada Pinkett. The couple were titled a supercouple due to their combined film star allure and perceived physical attractiveness. In 2003 and 2008, People magazine categorized them as a supercouple due to their long marriage and widespread celebrity status. Smith spoke of the power of love as a connective force to Essence magazine. \"The truth about life is that we're all alone,\" he said. \"But when somebody loves you, that experience is shared. Love is the only real connective tissue that allows you to not live and die by yourself.\" Additionally, in 1997, Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche began dating and were described as \"the world's first gay supercouple\". Their relationship lasted three years. In 1998, Brad Pitt met Friends actress Jennifer Aniston, and married her in a private wedding ceremony in Malibu on July 29, 2000. They were titled a supercouple, regarded as one of the film industry's most powerful, and their marriage was considered a rare Hollywood success. In January 2005, Pitt and Aniston announced they decided to formally separate after seven years together. Two months later, Aniston filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. In November 2000, Michael Douglas married Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones, and the pairing, 25 years apart in age, were considered a supercouple.\n\nPairing Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez incited unprecedented media attention for an American modern-day supercouple during their 2002-2004 relationship. The two were referred to as the first superstar couple of the Internet age, and the pairing's popularity resulted in their being known by the portmanteau \"Bennifer\" (for Ben and Jennifer) to the media, as well as to fans using the name combination. The term Bennifer itself became popular and started the trend of other celebrity couples being referred to by the combination of each other's first names. The pairing eventually succumbed to overexposure, which caused public interest in their romance to result in less admiration and negatively affected their careers. In 2007, Affleck stated:\n\n[The romance] was probably bad for my career. What happens is this sort of bleed-over from the tabloids across your movie work. You go to a movie, you only go once. But the tabloids and Internet are everywhere. You can really subsume the public image of somebody. I ended up in an unfortunate crosshair position where I was in a relationship and [the media] mostly lied and inflated a bunch of salacious stuff for the sake of selling magazines. And I paid a certain price for that. Then, in concert with some movies that didn't work...\n\nA celebrity supercouple to emerge after Bennifer was \"TomKat\" (the coupling of celebrity stars Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), and other countries had already adopted the supercouple term. The United Kingdom had Hugh Grant and Elizabeth Hurley (Grant 'n' Hurley) and Posh and Becks (Victoria and David Beckham). Japan had Tomonori Jinnai and Norika Fujiwara; Jinnai established himself as a television regular and a \"pin-geinin\" or solo comedian while Fujiwara, a former Miss Japan, became known as a successful actress and \"one of the business's biggest earners with a string of commercial contracts, regular TV and stage roles, and also active in charitable causes\". They were titled \"one of the 'super couples' of Japanese showbiz\" and \"held their elaborate traditional wedding on February 17, 2007 at the Ikutajinja shrine in Fujiwara's hometown of Kobe, with hundreds of reporters and thousands of fans craning for a glimpse outside\" and \"invited 600 guests to the Hotel Okura the following April for a wedding reception that cost over ¥500 million. The event was broadcast live on TV and had a high audience rating of 40% in the Kansai region\".\n\nAnother American couple regularly titled a supercouple are rapper Jay-Z and R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. Their marriage in New York City in early 2008, was reported by People. Knowles and Jay-Z were listed as the most powerful couple for Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2006. In January 2009, Forbes ranked them as Hollywood's top-earning couple, with a combined total of $162 million. They also made it to the top of the list the following year, with a combined total of $122 million between June 2008 and June 2009.\n\nThe spotlight and attention given to American celebrity supercouples reached its height in 2006, when the celebrity phenomenon dubbed \"Brangelina\" triggered media obsession surrounding screen stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. The two emerged as a prominent supercouple, and the mania that followed was described as having \"reached the point of insanity, far overshadowing the hoopla that attended such couples as 'Bennifer' and 'TomKat. The obsessive media attention surrounding Pitt and Jolie's union was initially the result of rumors regarding Pitt's involvement with Jolie during the shooting of their 2005 film Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Speculation that Pitt had been romantically involved with Jolie while still married to Jennifer Aniston was daily gossip and thought to be the reason for Pitt and Aniston's divorce. Jolie, however, stated that there was no romance between her and Pitt during filming and that she would never be intimate with a married man.\n\nAn official item soon following Pitt's divorce from Aniston, Pitt and Jolie became more of a media fascination for their social activism and ever-growing family, with the couple adopting from foreign countries. The anticipated birth of Pitt and Jolie's first biological child together, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, was cited as the most influential celebrity baby, as the public pondered what the combined physical features of two people commonly cited as the world's most beautiful celebrities would produce in a child. The first baby pictures for Shiloh set a world record. People paid more than $4.1 million for the North American rights, while British magazine Hello! obtained the international rights for roughly $3.5 million; the total rights sale earned up to $10 million worldwide, and was the most expensive celebrity image of all time. All profits were donated to an undisclosed charity by Jolie and Pitt. On July 26, 2006, Madame Tussauds in New York unveiled a wax figure of two-month-old Shiloh; it was the first infant re-created in wax by Madame Tussauds. In 2008, the Shiloh Hello! image was eventually \"topped\" by images of her siblings, twins Knox Léon Jolie-Pitt (a boy) and Vivienne Marcheline Jolie-Pitt (a girl). The rights for the first images of Knox and Vivienne were jointly sold to People and Hello! for $14 million, making the images the most expensive celebrity pictures ever taken. The money went to the Jolie/Pitt Foundation.\n\nRobert Thompson, director of the Centre for the Study of Popular Television, said the coupling of A-list stars like Pitt and Jolie, or in years gone by Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, was \"a paparazzi's dream come true\". He added that \"as silly as it sounds, this new tendency to make up single names for two people, like 'Bennifer' (Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez) and 'TomKat' (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes), is an insightful idea'. 'Brangelina' has more cultural equity than their two star parts.\"\n\nIn India, cricketer Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma started dating in 2013, and tied the knot in December 2017, forming one of contemporary India's most famous and talked-about supercouple. They have been referred to as 'Virushka', in line with Hollywood pairings such as 'Brangelina'. Similarly, actors John Abraham and Bipasha Basu are a former supercouple. Other Indian power couples, usually associated with the Hindi film industry, include: Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan; Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai; Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (cricketer) and Sharmila Tagore; Dharmendra and Hema Malini; Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.\n\nPolly Vernon of the British newspaper The Guardian summed up her analysis of what makes a celebrity supercouple in her May 25, 2000 article:\n\nThe basic appeal of the accomplished supercouple can be reduced to this: by hooking up with another, carefully selected celeb, you can eliminate your bad points, compensate for your own shortcomings, and hint at a softer, more vulnerable side. Attach yourself to someone smarter, prettier, more fashionable, hipper, funnier than you are, and you will automatically acquire these missing qualities by osmosis. They, equally, will benefit from your particular brand of star quality. Your public perception will become more complete, more exciting. Together, you are quite literally, the ultimate individual.\n\nVideo games\n\nVideo game creators have realized the asset of incorporating supercouple romances within their products by stringing together epic stories of love and intrigue. While writing epic romances into video games is not a new phenomenon, the idea of capturing a video game player through emotionally charged moments via the death of a hero's lover in order to produce feelings of attachment to the fictional environment has expanded, especially within action-adventure/role-playing games (RPGs). The goal is to make the gamer actually become emotionally invested in the characters and their actions, ultimately resulting in heightened gaming experience. Video game designer Peter Molyneux, when speaking of the main component he wanted in his game Fable 2, spoke of more than just the romantic aspect, stating, \"We want you to feel loved. You can have sex and you can have a baby. That baby will grow up and will kind of look like you.\"\n\nIn the early days of gaming, the idea of love and romance was used as little more than a plot point to urge the hero to complete the set of tasks put before him. Mario, hero of the Super Mario series of games, has Princess Peach to rescue from the main villain. Link and Princess Zelda from The Legend of Zelda series made gamers wonder why the two were not romantically together while rooting for the couple. Double Dragon features the protagonist Billy Lee, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend (Maria) from his evil twin brother (Jimmy), leader of a sinister street gang. This era of game-playing was not well known for equal opportunity in gender roles.\n\nEventually, video games grew to become a respectable and rich source of storytelling. \"Larger disk space, greater production staffs, and more impressive budgets allowed more fleshed out characters, more elaborate plot points, and greater instances of interaction between characters.\" The genre that benefited from this the most is the role-playing medium. The medium made romantic themes a prominent element of its story-telling, which became one of its staples. This subplot is featured through the exploits of supercouples, the primary pair of lovers.\n\n\"Usually, the 'supercouple' turns out to be the main hero and heroine of the game, though this is not always the case.\" The Lunar series, for example, has become famous for creating several romantic pairings from the hero's party in addition to the hero and heroine. In a role-playing plot, often the romantic feelings the characters feel for one another somehow becomes entwined with the main plot itself. In Grandia, Justin, the main character, is compelled to fight against seemingly insurmountable odds in order to rescue the girl that he is in love with. In Tales of Legendia, the romantic feelings Shirley has for main character and brother in law Senel is a focus of the game, even though the latter seems oblivious of the former's true feelings even after they are accidentally engaged in the ending of the primary story mode. \"When the love between the supercouple somehow becomes threatened by the machinations of the antagonist, the heroes fight back with everything they have and usually prove, once and for all, that 'love conquers all'.\"\n\nThe Compilation of Final Fantasy VII has several notable couples, such as Cloud Strife and his relationships with childhood friend Tifa Lockhart and flower girl Aerith Gainsborough. Cloud Strife and Aerith Gainsborough have been called video games' greatest, as well as its most tragic, star-crossed love story. The couple is also one of the most well-known video game couples in the history of video gaming. In 2005, Electronic Gaming Monthly stated that without the game, \"Aeris wouldn’t have died, and gamers wouldn’t have learned how to cry\".\n\nOther popular couples from the Final Fantasy games include Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly (from Final Fantasy VIII), Zidane Tribal and Princess Garnet til Alexandros (from Final Fantasy IX), Tidus and Yuna (from Final Fantasy X), Vincent Valentine and his lost love Lucrecia Crescent, Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough in the prequel Final Fantasy VII game Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Snow Villiers and Serah Farron from Final Fantasy XIII, and Cecil Harvey and Rosa Farrell from Final Fantasy IV.\n\nLove stories such as Solid Snake and Meryl Silverburgh (from Metal Gear Solid), which takes on more of a subtle approach, and couples defined more by their conflicts than their happiness, have also impacted the gaming industry. Video game insiders state that the need for these love stories within the gaming realm is valid and is a great addition to the gaming experience in most cases.\n\nLiterature and toys\nRomantic and tragic themes found in modern supercouple stories have often been borrowed from classic literary couples. Romeo and Juliet, due to their enduring legacy and popularity, are considered an ideal supercouple outline for aspects of forbidden or tragic love, and the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra has been described as fitting the power-couple trope.\n\nIn the genres of toys and comic books, toys were given their first prominent supercouple with the creation of Ken and Barbie by Mattel, in 1961, and comic book supercouples such as Superman and Lois Lane (created in 1938), and Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson (created in 1966) are still popular today.\n\nThe kinds of characters being described as supercouples is broadening. For example, Marvel Comics listed two non-household name superheroes (Rictor and Shatterstar) in a gay relationship as one of their superhero supercouples of 2010, alongside several of their more traditional pairings.\n\nSee also\n Bennifer\n Love team\n Sonny & Cher\n Ike & Tina Turner\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n O'Rourke, Michael (June 3, 2006). San Antonio Express-News, S.A. LIFE; Pg. 1E. \"Supercouple must have supername\". An analysis concluding that \"Bennifer, Tomkat and Brangelina. To be considered a supercouple, it isn't enough to be compatible, loving and gorgeous anymore. Your names have to fit together to form a headline-pleasing moniker. You have to be a portmanteau.\"\n\nCategory:Soap opera terminology\n+",
"title": "Supercouple"
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"Bono died on January 5, 1998.",
"Bono died of injuries from hitting a tree while skiing at Heavenly Ski Resort in Lake Tahoe.",
"After Bono's death, his widow, Mary, was selected to fill the remainder of his congressional term, and was re-elected in her own right, serving until 2013. His funeral was broadcast live on CNN, where Cher gave a tearful eulogy. Later in 1998, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Cher paid tribute to Bono in a CBS special and released an album influenced by his death. Bono's interest in the revenue from the songs he recorded with Cher was split amongst his wife and children, leading Cher to sue UMG in 2009 for owed royalties.",
"Yes, there were music copyright issues after Bono's death. When Bono died, one-third of his interest in the revenue from the songs he recorded with Cher passed to his wife Mary Bono-Mack, and one-sixth interests were split amongst his children. This led to Cher suing UMG in 2009, claiming she and Bono's heirs were owed $5,000,000 in \"hidden\" royalties.",
"The text does not provide information on whether Cher won the lawsuit against UMG over \"hidden\" royalties.",
"Yes, there were several notable events after Bono's death. His funeral was broadcast live on CNN, which was unknown to Cher at the time. Cher also gave a tearful eulogy in his memory and attendees sang the song \"The Beat Goes On\". He was buried in Desert Memorial Park in Cathedral City, California, the same cemetery where Frank Sinatra would be laid to rest later that year. The epitaph on Bono's headstone reads \"And The Beat Goes On\". The same year of his death, Sonny and Cher received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television. Cher also paid tribute to Bono in the CBS special Sonny and Me: Cher Remembers, and released an album heavily influenced by his death.",
"Yes, Cher released her twenty-second album titled \"Believe\" in 1998. This album was highly influenced by Bono's death and she dedicated it to his memory by writing \"In memory of Son\" in the booklet.",
"The text does not provide information on the success of Cher's album \"Believe\".",
"The text does not provide information on whether Cher went on tour after the release of the album \"Believe\"."
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C_008ff753407048469595dfcfca02e9c3_1 | Bill James | James was born in Holton, Kansas; his mother, died in 1954 when he was five. His father was a janitor and a handyman. After four years at the University of Kansas residing at Stephenson Scholarship hall, James joined the Army in 1971. He was the last person in Kansas to be sent to fight in the Vietnam War, although he never saw action there. | The Bill James Baseball Abstracts | An aspiring writer and obsessive fan, James began writing baseball articles after leaving the United States Army in his mid-twenties. Many of his first baseball writings came while he was doing night shifts as a security guard at the Stokely-Van Camp's pork and beans cannery. Unlike most writers, his pieces did not recount games in epic terms or offer insights gleaned from interviews with players. A typical James piece posed a question (e.g., "Which pitchers and catchers allow runners to steal the most bases?"), and then presented data and analysis written in a lively, insightful, and witty style that offered an answer. Editors considered James's pieces so unusual that few believed them suitable for their readers. In an effort to reach a wider audience, James began self-publishing an annual book titled The Bill James Baseball Abstract beginning in 1977. The first edition, titled 1977 Baseball Abstract: Featuring 18 categories of statistical information that you just can't find anywhere else, presented 68 pages of in-depth statistics compiled from James's study of box scores from the preceding season and was offered for sale through a small advertisement in The Sporting News. Seventy-five people purchased the booklet. The 1978 edition, subtitled The 2nd annual edition of baseball's most informative and imaginative review, sold 250 copies. Beginning in 1979, James wrote an annual preview of the baseball season for Esquire, and continued to do so through 1984. The first three editions of the Baseball Abstract garnered respect for James's work, including a very favorable review by Daniel Okrent in Sports Illustrated. New annual editions added essays on teams and players. By 1982 sales had increased tenfold, and a media conglomerate agreed to publish and distribute future editions. While writers had published books about baseball statistics before (most notably Earnshaw Cook's Percentage Baseball, in the 1960s), few had ever reached a mass audience. Attempts to imitate James's work spawned a flood of books and articles that continues to this day. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. His approach, which he termed sabermetrics in reference to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), scientifically analyzes and studies baseball, often through the use of statistical data, in an attempt to determine why teams win and lose.
In 2006, Time named him in the Time 100 as one of the most influential people in the world. In 2003, James was hired as senior advisor on Baseball Operations for the Boston Red Sox and worked for the team for 17 years during which they won four World Series championships.
Early life
James was born in Holton, Kansas; his mother died in 1954 when he was five. His father was a janitor and a handyman. After four years at the University of Kansas (KU) residing at Stephenson Scholarship Hall, James joined the Army in 1971. He was the last person in Kansas to be sent to fight in the Vietnam War, although he never saw action there. Instead, he spent two years stationed in South Korea, during which time he wrote to KU about taking his final class. He was told he actually had met all his graduation requirements, so he returned to Lawrence in 1973 with degrees in English and economics. He also finished an education degree in 1975, also from the University of Kansas.
Career
The Bill James Baseball Abstracts
An aspiring writer and obsessive fan, James began writing baseball articles after leaving the United States Army in his mid-twenties. Many of his first baseball writings came while he was doing night shifts as a security guard at the Stokely-Van Camp's pork and beans cannery. Unlike most writers, his pieces did not recount games in epic terms or offer insights gleaned from interviews with players. A typical James piece posed a question (e.g., "Which pitchers and catchers allow runners to steal the most bases?"), and then presented data and analysis that offered an answer.
Editors considered James's pieces so unusual that few believed them suitable for their readers. In an effort to reach a wider audience, James began self-publishing an annual book titled The Bill James Baseball Abstract, beginning in 1977. The first edition, titled 1977 Baseball Abstract: Featuring 18 categories of statistical information that you just can't find anywhere else, presented 68 pages of in-depth statistics compiled from James's study of box scores from the preceding season and was offered for sale through a small advertisement in The Sporting News. Seventy-five people purchased the booklet. The 1978 edition, subtitled The 2nd annual edition of baseball's most informative and imaginative review, sold 250 copies. Beginning in 1979, James wrote an annual preview of the baseball season for Esquire, and continued to do so through 1984.
The first three editions of the Baseball Abstract garnered respect for James's work, including a very favorable review by Daniel Okrent in Sports Illustrated. New annual editions added essays on teams and players. By 1982 sales had increased tenfold, and a media conglomerate agreed to publish and distribute future editions.
While writers had published books about baseball statistics before (most notably Earnshaw Cook's Percentage Baseball, in the 1960s), few had ever reached a mass audience. Attempts to imitate James's work spawned a flood of books and articles that continues to this day.
Post-Abstracts work
In 1988, James ceased writing the Abstract, citing workload-related burnout and concern about the volume of statistics on the market. He has continued to publish hardcover books about baseball history, which have sold well and received admiring reviews. These books include three editions of The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (1985, 1988, 2001, the last entitled The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract).
James has also written several series of new annuals:
The Baseball Book (1990–1992) was a loosely organized collection of commentary, profiles, historical articles, and occasional pieces of research. James's assistant Rob Neyer was responsible for much of the research, and wrote several short pieces. Neyer went on to become a featured baseball columnist at ESPN and SB Nation.
The Player Ratings Book (1993–95) offered statistics and 50-word profiles aimed at the fantasy baseball enthusiast.
The Bill James Handbook (2003–present) provides past-season statistics and next-season projections for Major League players and teams, and career data for all current Major League players. Results for the Fielding Bible Awards, an alternative to the Gold Glove Awards voted on by a 10-person panel that includes James, are also included.
The Bill James Gold Mine (2008–2010) was a collection of new essays and never-before-seen statistics, as well as profiles of players and teams.
Playing off the name of the earlier series, Solid Fool's Gold: Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom (2011) was a mixed collection of both baseball-related and miscellaneous pieces, culled from the Bill James Online archives (see below).
In 2008, James launched Bill James Online. Subscribers can read James's new, original writing and interact with one another—as well as with James—in a question-and-answer format. The web site also offers new "profiles" of teams and players full of facts and statistics that hope to one day map what James has termed "the lost island of baseball statistics."
STATS, Inc.
In an essay published in the 1984 Abstract, James vented his frustration about Major League Baseball's refusal to publish play-by-play accounts of every game. James proposed the creation of Project Scoresheet, a network of fans that would work together to collect and distribute this information.
While the resulting non-profit organization never functioned smoothly, it worked well enough to collect accounts of every game from 1984 through 1991. James's publisher agreed to distribute two annuals of essays and data—the 1987 and 1988 editions of Bill James Presents The Great American Baseball Statbook (though only the first of these featured writing by James).
The organization was eventually disbanded, but many of its members went on to form for-profit companies with similar goals and structure. STATS, Inc., the company James joined, provided data and analysis to every major media outlet before being acquired by Fox Sports in 2001.
Innovations
Among the statistical innovations attributable to James are:
Runs created. A statistic intended to quantify a player's contribution to runs scored, as well as a team's expected number of runs scored. Runs created is calculated from other offensive statistics. James's first version of it was: Applied to an entire team or league, the statistic correlates closely (usually within 5%) to that team's or league's actual runs scored. Since James first created the statistic, sabermetricians have refined it to make it more accurate, and it is now used in many different variations.
Range factor. A statistic that quantifies the defensive contribution of a player, calculated in its simplest form as (A is an assist, PO is a putout): The statistic is premised on the notion that the total number of outs that a player participates in is more relevant in evaluating his defensive play than the percentage of cleanly handled chances as calculated by the conventional statistic fielding percentage.
Defensive Efficiency Rating. A statistic that shows the percentage of balls in play a defense turns into an out. It is used to help determine a team's defensive ability. The formula is:
Win shares. A unifying statistic intended to allow the comparison of players at different positions, as well as players of different eras. Win Shares incorporates a variety of pitching, hitting and fielding statistics. One drawback of Win Shares is the difficulty of computing it.
Pythagorean Winning Percentage. A statistic explaining the relationship of wins and losses to runs scored and runs allowed. The statistic correlates closely to a team's actual winning percentage. Its simplest formula is:
Game score is a metric to determine the strength of a pitcher in any particular baseball game. It has since been improved by Tom Tango.
Major League Equivalency. A metric that uses minor league statistics to predict how a player is likely to perform at the major league level.
The Brock2 System. A system for projecting a player's performance over the remainder of his career based on past performance and the aging process.
Similarity scores. Scoring a player's statistical similarity to other players, providing a frame of reference for players of the distant past. Examples: Lou Gehrig comparable to Don Mattingly; Joe Jackson to Tony Oliva.
Secondary average. A statistic that attempts to measure a player's contribution to an offense in ways not reflected in batting average. Secondary averages tend to be similar to batting averages, but can vary wildly, from less than .100 to more than .500 in extreme cases. The formula is (ISO is isolated power):
Power/Speed Number. A statistic that attempts to consolidate the various "clubs" of players with impressive numbers of both home runs and stolen bases (e.g., the 30–30 club (Bobby Bonds was well known for being a member), the 40–40 club (Jose Canseco was the first to perform this feat), and even the 25–65 club (Joe Morgan in the '70s)). The formula is:
Approximate Value. A system of cutoffs designed to estimate the value a player contributed to various category groups (including his team) to study broad questions such as "how do players age over time".
"Temperature gauge" to determine how "hot" a player is, based on recent performance. The gauge has been used in NESN Red Sox telecasts and has provoked mixed reactions from critics.
Although James may be best known as an inventor of statistical tools, he has often written on the limitations of statistics and urged humility concerning their place amid other kinds of information about baseball. To James, context is paramount: he was among the first to emphasize the importance of adjusting traditional statistics for park factors and to stress the role of luck in a pitcher's win–loss record. Many of his statistical innovations are arguably less important than the underlying ideas. When he introduced the notion of secondary average, it was as a vehicle for the then-counterintuitive concept that batting average represents only a fraction of a player's offensive contribution. (The runs-created statistic plays a similar role vis-à-vis the traditional RBI.) Some of his contributions to the language of baseball, like the idea of the "defensive spectrum", border on being entirely non-statistical.
Acceptance and employment in mainstream baseball
Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane began applying sabermetric principles to running his low-budget team in the early 2000s, to notable effect, as chronicled in Michael Lewis' book Moneyball.
In 2003, James was hired by a former reader, John Henry, the new owner of the Boston Red Sox.
One point of controversy was in handling the relief pitching of the Red Sox. James had previously published analysis of the use of the closer in baseball, and had concluded that the traditional use of the closer both overrated the abilities of that individual and used him in suboptimal circumstances. He wrote that it is "far better to use your relief ace when the score is tied, even if that is the seventh inning, than in the ninth inning with a lead of two or more runs." The Red Sox in 2003 staffed their bullpen with several marginally talented relievers. Red Sox manager Grady Little was never fully comfortable with the setup, and designated unofficial closers and reshuffled roles after a bad outing. When Boston lost a number of games due to bullpen failures, Little reverted to a traditional closer approach and moved Byung-hyun Kim from being a starting pitcher to a closer. The Red Sox did not follow James's idea of a bullpen with no closer, but with consistent overall talent that would allow the responsibilities to be shared. Red Sox reliever Alan Embree thought the plan could have worked if the bullpen had not suffered injuries. During the 2004 regular season Keith Foulke was used primarily as a closer in the conventional model; however, Foulke's usage in the 2004 postseason was along the lines of a relief ace with multiple inning appearances at pivotal times of the game. Houston Astros manager Phil Garner also employed a relief ace model with his use of Brad Lidge in the 2004 postseason.
During his tenure with the Red Sox, James published several new sabermetric books (see #Bibliography below). Indeed, although James was typically tight-lipped about his activities on behalf of the Red Sox, he is credited with advocating some of the moves that led to the team's first World Series championship in 86 years, including the signing of non-tendered free agent David Ortiz, the trade for Mark Bellhorn, and the team's increased emphasis on on-base percentage.
After the Red Sox suffered through a disastrous 2012 season, Henry stated that James had fallen "out of favor [in the front office] over the last few years for reasons I really don't understand. We've gotten him more involved recently in the central process and that will help greatly."
On October 24, 2019, James announced his retirement from the Red Sox, saying that he had "fallen out of step with the organization" and added that he hadn't earned his paycheck with the Red Sox for the last couple of years. During his time with the team, Bill James received four World Series rings for the team's 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018 World Series titles.
In culture
Michael Lewis, in his 2003 book Moneyball, dedicates a chapter to James's career and sabermetrics as background for his portrayal of Billy Beane and the Oakland Athletics' unlikely success.
James was inducted into the Baseball Reliquary's Shrine of the Eternals in 2007.
James was profiled on 60 Minutes on March 30, 2008, in his role as a sabermetric pioneer and Red Sox advisor. In 2010, he was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.
James made a guest appearance on The Simpsons 2010 episode "MoneyBART". He claimed "I've made baseball as fun as doing your taxes."
Steven Soderbergh's planned film adaptation of Moneyball would have featured an animated version of James as a "host". This script was discarded when director Bennett Miller and writer Aaron Sorkin succeeded Soderbergh on the project. Ultimately, the 2011 film mentions James several times. His bio is briefly recapped, and Billy Beane is depicted telling John Henry that Henry's hiring of James is the reason Beane is interested in the Red Sox general manager job.
Controversies
Dowd Report controversy
In his Baseball Book 1990, James heavily criticized the methodology of the Dowd Report, which was an investigation (commissioned by baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti) on the gambling activities of Pete Rose. James reproached commissioner Giamatti and his successor, Fay Vincent, for their acceptance of the Dowd Report as the final word on Rose's gambling. (James's attitude on the matter surprised many fans, especially after the writer had been deeply critical of Rose in the past, especially what James considered to be Rose's selfish pursuit of Ty Cobb's all-time record for base hits.)
James expanded his defense of Rose in his 2001 book The New Historical Baseball Abstract, with a detailed explanation of why he found the case against Rose flimsy. James wrote "I would characterize the evidence that Rose bet on baseball as...well, not quite non-existent. It is extremely weak." This countered the popular opinion that the case against Rose was a slam dunk, and several critics claimed that James misstated some of the evidence in his defense of Rose. Derek Zumsteg of Baseball Prospectus wrote an exhaustive review of the case James made and concluded: "James' defense of Rose is filled with oversights, errors in judgment, failures in research, and is a great disservice to the many people who have looked to him for a balanced and fair take on this complicated and important issue."
In 2004, Rose admitted publicly that he had bet on baseball and confirmed the Dowd Report was correct. James remained steadfast, continuing to insist that the evidence available to Dowd at the time was insufficient to reach the conclusion that it did.
Paterno controversy
On November 4, 2011, Jerry Sandusky was indicted for committing sex crimes against young boys, which brought the Penn State child sex abuse scandal to national attention. On December 11, 2011, James published an article called "The Trial of Penn State", depicting an imaginary trial in which Penn State defended itself against charges of "acting rashly and irresponsibly in the matter of Joe Paterno, in such a manner that [they] defamed, libeled and slandered Paterno, unfairly demolishing his reputation."
On July 12, 2012, the Freeh report was released, charging Paterno and three other University officials with covering up reports of sexual assaults and enabling the attacker to prey on other children for more than a decade, often in Penn State facilities. Soon afterwards, during an interview on ESPN radio, James claimed that the Freeh report's characterizations of Paterno as a powerful figure were wrong, and that it was not Paterno's responsibility to report allegations of child molestation to the police. "[Paterno] had very few allies. He was isolated and he was not nearly as powerful as people imagine him to have been." When asked if he knew anyone who had showered with a boy they were not related to, James said it was a common practice when he was growing up. "That was actually quite common in the town I grew up in. That was quite common in America 40 years ago."
The July 2012 interview comments were widely criticized. Rob Neyer wrote in defense of James. James's employer, the Boston Red Sox, issued a statement disavowing the comments James made and saying that he had been asked not to make further public comments on the matter.
Personal life
James is a fan of the University of Kansas men's basketball team and has written about basketball. He has created a formula for what he calls a "safe lead" in the sport.
James has written two true crime books, Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence (2011) and - together with his daughter Rachel McCarthy James - The Man from the Train (2017). The latter is an attempt to link scores of murders of entire families in the early 20th century United States to a single perpetrator. Those murders include the Villisca axe murders. The Jameses propose a solution to the murders based on the signature elements these killings share in common with each other.
Bibliography
Bill James Baseball Abstract (annual editions published 1977–1988)
The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (1985; revised edition 1988)
This Time Let's Not Eat the Bones (1989) (selection of comments from Abstracts and articles)
The Bill James Baseball Book (annual editions published 1990–1992)
The Politics of Glory (1994) (revised as Whatever Happened to the Hall of Fame?),
The Bill James Player Ratings Book (annual editions published 1993–1996)
The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers (1997)
Bill James Present STATS All-Time Major League Handbook (1998; 2nd ed. 2000)
Bill James Present STATS All-Time Major League Sourcebook (1998)
The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (2001)
Win Shares (2002)
Win Shares Digital Update (2002) (PDF form only)
The Bill James Handbook (annual editions published 2003–present)
The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers (2004, with co-author Rob Neyer)
The Bill James Gold Mine (annual editions published 2008–2010, , )
Popular Crime – Reflections on the Celebration of Violence (, published 2011)
Solid Fool's Gold (2011), (articles from Bill James Online website)
Fools Rush Inn (2014), (more articles from Bill James Online website)
The Man From the Train (2017),
Books about James
The Mind of Bill James (2006) ISBN
How Bill James Changed Our View of Baseball: by Colleagues, Critics, Competitors and Just Plain Fans (2007)
See also
Baseball Prospectus
Defensive spectrum
Keltner list
Similarity score
Win shares
Notes
References
Further reading
External links
Bill James Online –interactions with James through statistics, articles, conversations and more
Works of Bill James
Audio interview by Jesse Thorn, public radio program The Sound of Young America (April 29, 2008)
Chronister, Levi (April 25, 2004). "Grassroots Guru". Lawrence Journal-World (Lawrence, KS).
Interview at Baseball Digest Daily – Part I, Baseball Digest
Interview at Baseball Digest Daily – Part II
Interview at Baseball Digest Daily – Part III
McGrath, Ben (July 14, 2003). "The Professor of Baseball". The New Yorker
Wall Street Journal profile
– contrary to James
Schwarz, Alan (July 18, 2006). "25 For 25: Don Fehr, Peter Gammons, Pat Gillick, Bo Jackson, Bill James". 25 for 25: Stars in the Baseball America Universe. Baseball America.
Henry, John (May 8, 2006). "Scientists & Thinkers: Bill James". The 2006 Time 100. Time.
Surowiecki, James (June 10, 2003). "Moneyball Redux: Slate talks to the man who revolutionized baseball.". Slate.
Lederer, Bill (February 28, 2005). "Breakfast with Bill James". Baseball Analysts (baseballanalysts.com).
Category:1949 births
Category:Living people
Category:American sportswriters
Category:American statisticians
Category:Baseball statisticians
Category:Baseball writers
Category:People from Holton, Kansas
Category:United States Army soldiers
Category:20th-century American writers
Category:21st-century American non-fiction writers | [] | [
"The Baseball Abstracts were annual books self-published by James, beginning in 1977. They offered in-depth statistics compiled from James's study of box scores from the preceding season. The books included essays on teams and players. They were presented in a lively, insightful, and witty style and posed and answered questions using data and analysis.",
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C_dba61bc2beff4e35b7ff07b9149e7b8e_0 | Murray Rothbard | Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 - January 7, 1995) was an American heterodox economist of the Austrian School, a historian, and a political theorist whose writings and personal influence played a seminal role in the development of modern right-libertarianism. Rothbard was the founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism, a staunch advocate of historical revisionism, and a central figure in the twentieth-century American libertarian movement. | Marriage, employment, and activism | In 1953, in New York City, he married JoAnn Schumacher (1928-1999), whom he called Joey. JoAnn was his editor and a close adviser, as well as hostess of his "Rothbard Salon". They enjoyed a loving marriage, and Rothbard often called her "the indispensable framework" behind his life and achievements. According to Joey, patronage from the Volker Fund allowed Rothbard to work from home as a freelance theorist and pundit for the first fifteen years of their marriage. The Fund collapsed in 1962, leading Rothbard to seek employment from various New York academic institutions. He was offered a part-time position teaching economics to the engineering students of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1966, at age 40. This institution had no economics department or economics majors, and Rothbard derided its social science department as "Marxist." However, Justin Raimondo writes that Rothbard liked his role with Brooklyn Polytechnic because working only two days a week gave him freedom to contribute to developments in libertarian politics. Rothbard continued in this role for twenty years, until 1986. Then 60 years old, Rothbard left Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for the Lee Business School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he held the title of S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, an endowed chair paid for by a libertarian businessman. According to Rothbard's friend, colleague and fellow Misesian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Rothbard led a "fringe existence" in academia, but was able to attract a large number of "students and disciples" through his writings, thereby becoming "the creator and one of the principal agents of the contemporary libertarian movement." Rothbard maintained his position at UNLV from 1986 until his death. Rothbard founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in 1976 and the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1977. In 1982, he co-founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, and was vice president of academic affairs until 1995. The Institute's Review of Austrian Economics, a heterodox economics journal later renamed the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, was also founded by Rothbard in 1987. After Rothbard's death, Joey reflected on Rothbard's happiness and bright spirit. "...he managed to make a living for 40 years without having to get up before noon. This was important to him." She recalled how Rothbard would begin every day with a phone conversation with his colleague Llewellyn Rockwell. "Gales of laughter would shake the house or apartment, as they checked in with each other. Murray thought it was the best possible way to start a day." Rothbard was irreligious and agnostic toward the existence of God, describing himself as a "mixture of an agnostic and a Reform Jew." Despite identifying as an agnostic and an atheist, Rothbard was critical of the "left-libertarian hostility to religion". In Rothbard's later years, many of his friends anticipated that he would convert to Catholicism, but he never did. The New York Times obituary called Rothbard "an economist and social philosopher who fiercely defended individual freedom against government intervention." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement and a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.
Rothbard argued that all services provided by the "monopoly system of the corporate state" could be provided more efficiently by the private sector and wrote that the state is "the organization of robbery systematized and writ large". He called fractional-reserve banking a form of fraud and opposed central banking. He categorically opposed all military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations. According to his protégé Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "[t]here would be no anarcho-capitalist movement to speak of without Rothbard".
Hoppe described Rothbard as leading a "fringe existence" in academia. He taught economics at a Wall Street division of New York University, later at Brooklyn Polytechnic, and after 1986 in an endowed position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Rothbard rejected mainstream economic methodologies and instead embraced the praxeology of his most important intellectual precursor, Ludwig von Mises. Partnering with the oil billionaire Charles Koch, Rothbard was a founder of the Cato Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies in the 1970s. He broke with Koch and joined Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert in 1982 to establish the Mises Institute in Alabama.
Rothbard opposed egalitarianism and the civil rights movement, and blamed women's voting and activism for the growth of the welfare state. Later in his career Rothbard advocated a libertarian alliance with paleoconservatism (which he called paleolibertarianism), favoring right-wing populism and defending David Duke. In the 2010s he received renewed attention from critics who saw him as an influence on the alt right.
Life and work
Education
Rothbard's parents were David and Rae Rothbard, Jewish immigrants to the United States from Poland and Russia, respectively. David was a chemist. Murray attended Birch Wathen Lenox School, a private school in New York City. He later said he much preferred Birch Wathen to the "debasing and egalitarian public school system" he had attended in the Bronx.
Rothbard wrote of having grown up as a "right-winger" (adherent of the "Old Right") among friends and neighbors who were "communists or fellow-travelers". He was a member of The New York Young Republican Club in his youth. Rothbard described his father as an individualist who embraced minimal government, free enterprise, private property and "a determination to rise by one's own merits… "[A]ll socialism seemed to me monstrously coercive and abhorrent". In 1952, his father was trapped during a labor strike at the Tide Water Oil Refinery in New Jersey, which he managed, confirming their dislike of organized labor.
Rothbard attended Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1945 and a PhD in economics in 1956. His first political activism came in 1948, on behalf of the segregationist South Carolinian Strom Thurmond's presidential campaign. In the 1948 presidential election, Rothbard, "as a Jewish student at Columbia, horrified his peers by organizing a Students for Strom Thurmond chapter, so staunchly did he believe in states' rights", according to The American Conservative. The delay in receiving his PhD was due in part to conflict with his advisor, Joseph Dorfman, and in part to Arthur Burns's rejecting his dissertation. Burns was a longtime friend of the Rothbards and their neighbor at their Manhattan apartment building. It was only after Burns went on leave from the Columbia faculty to head President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers that Rothbard's thesis was accepted and he received his doctorate. Rothbard later said that all his fellow students were extreme leftists and that he was one of only two Republicans at Columbia at the time.
Marriage, Volker Fund, and academia
During the 1940s, Rothbard vetted articles for Leonard Read at the Foundation for Economic Education think tank, became acquainted with Frank Chodorov, and read widely in libertarian-oriented works by Albert Jay Nock, Garet Garrett, Isabel Paterson, H. L. Mencken, and Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. In the early 1950s, when Mises was teaching in the Wall Street division of the New York University Stern School of Business, Rothbard attended his unofficial seminar. Rothbard was greatly influenced by Mises's book Human Action. Rothbard wanted to promote libertarian activism; by the mid-1950s he helped form the Circle Bastiat, a libertarian and anarchist social group in New York City.
Rothbard attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, a group that provided financial backing to promote right-wing ideologies in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Volker Fund paid Rothbard to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a form that could be used to introduce college undergraduates to Mises's views; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises's approval. For ten years, the Volker Fund paid him a retainer as a "senior analyst". As Rothbard continued his work, he enlarged the project. The result was his book Man, Economy, and State, published in 1962. Upon its publication, Mises praised Rothbard's work effusively.
In 1953, Rothbard married JoAnn Beatrice Schumacher (September 17, 1928 – October 29, 1999), whom he called Joey, in New York City. She was a historian, Rothbard's personal editor and a close adviser as well as hostess of his Rothbard Salon. They enjoyed a loving marriage and Rothbard often called her "the indispensable framework" of his life and achievements. According to her, the Volker Fund's patronage allowed Rothbard to work from home as a freelance theorist and pundit for the first 15 years of their marriage.
The Volker Fund collapsed in 1962, leading Rothbard to seek employment from various New York academic institutions. He was offered a part-time position teaching economics to engineering students at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1966 at age 40. The institution had no economics department or economics majors and Rothbard derided its social science department as "Marxist", but his biographer Justin Raimondo writes that Rothbard liked teaching at Brooklyn Polytechnic because working only two days a week gave him freedom to contribute to developments in libertarian politics. Rothbard continued in this role until 1986. Then 60 years old, Rothbard left Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for the Lee Business School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he held the title of S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, a chair endowed by a libertarian businessman. According to Rothbard's friend, colleague and fellow Misesian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Rothbard led a "fringe existence" in academia, but he was able to attract a large number of "students and disciples" through his writings, thereby becoming "the creator and one of the principal agents of the contemporary libertarian movement". Libertarian economist Jeffrey Herbener, who called Rothbard his friend and "intellectual mentor", said in a memoriam that Rothbard received "only ostracism" from mainstream academia. Rothbard kept his position at UNLV from 1986 until his death.
Old Right
Throughout his life, Rothbard engaged in a number of different political movements to promote Old Right and libertarian political principles.
George Hawley writes that "unfortunately for Rothbard, the Old Right was ending as an intellectual and political force just as he was maturing as an intellectual", with the militantly anticommunist conservative movement exemplified by William F. Buckley Jr. supplanting the Old Right's isolationism.
Rothbard was an admirer of Sen. Joseph McCarthy—not for McCarthy's Cold War views, but his demagoguery, which Rothbard credited for disrupting the establishment consensus of what Rothbard called "corporate liberalism". Rothbard contributed many articles to Buckley's National Review, but his relations with Buckley and the magazine soured as he criticized the conservative movement for militarism.
Conflict with Ayn Rand
In 1954, Rothbard, along with several other attendees of Mises's seminar, joined the circle of novelist Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism. He soon parted from her, writing among other things that her ideas were not as original as she proclaimed, but similar to those of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Herbert Spencer. In 1958, after the publication of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, Rothbard wrote her a "fan letter", calling the book "an infinite treasure house" and "not merely the greatest novel ever written, [but] one of the very greatest books ever written, fiction or nonfiction". He also wrote: "[Y]ou introduced me to the whole field of natural rights and natural law philosophy", prompting him to learn "the glorious natural rights tradition". Rothbard rejoined Rand's circle for a few months, but soon broke with Rand again over various differences, including his defense of his interpretation of anarchism.
Rothbard later satirized Rand's acolytes in his unpublished one-act farce Mozart Was a Red and his essay "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult". He characterized Rand's circle as a "dogmatic, personality cult". His play parodies Rand (through the character Carson Sand) and her friends and is set during a visit from Keith Hackley, a fan of Sand's novel The Brow of Zeus (a play on Atlas Shrugged).
New Left alliance
By the late 1960s, according to The American Conservative, Rothbard's "long and winding yet somehow consistent road had taken him from anti-New Deal and anti-interventionist Robert A. Taft supporter into friendship with the quasi-pacifist Nebraska Republican Congressman Howard Buffett (father of Warren Buffett) then over to the League of (Adlai) Stevensonian Democrats and, by 1968, into tentative comradeship with the anarchist factions of the New Left". He advocated an alliance with the New Left anti-war movement on the grounds that the conservative movement had been completely subsumed by the statist establishment. Rothbard joined the Peace and Freedom Party and contributed writing to the New Left journal Ramparts. However, Rothbard later criticized the New Left for supporting a "People's Republic" style draft. It was during this phase that he associated with Karl Hess (a former Barry Goldwater speechwriter who had rejected conservatism) and founded Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought with Leonard Liggio and George Resch, which existed from 1965 to 1968. Raimondo described Rothbard during this time as "a man of the Old Culture: he believed that it was possible to be a revolutionary, an anarchist, and lead a bourgeois life", and wrote that the "respectably dressed, if a bit rumpled" Rothbard was "immune to the blandishments of sixties youth culture". In the 1970s, he became more anti-egalitarian, describing equality as an evil concept.
Libertarianism and Cato Institute
From 1969 to 1984, he edited The Libertarian Forum, also initially with Hess (although Hess's involvement ended in 1971). Despite its small readership, it engaged conservatives associated with the National Review in nationwide debate. Rothbard rejected the view that Ronald Reagan's 1980 election as president was a victory for libertarian principles and he attacked Reagan's economic program in a series of Libertarian Forum articles. In 1982, Rothbard called Reagan's claims of spending cuts a "fraud" and a "hoax" and accused Reaganites of doctoring the economic statistics to give the false impression that their policies were successfully reducing inflation and unemployment. He further criticized the "myths of Reaganomics" in 1987.
Rothbard criticized the "frenzied nihilism" of left-wing libertarians, but also criticized right-wing libertarians who were content to rely only on education to bring down the state; he believed that libertarians should adopt any moral tactic available to them to bring about liberty. Imbibing Randolph Bourne's idea that "war is the health of the state", Rothbard opposed all wars in his lifetime and engaged in anti-war activism.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Rothbard was active in the Libertarian Party. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics. Rothbard founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in 1976 and the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1977.
He was one of the founders of the Cato Institute in 1977 (whose funding by Charles Koch was a major infusion of money for libertarianism) and "came up with the idea of naming this libertarian think tank after Cato's Letters, a powerful series of British newspaper essays by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon which played a decisive influence upon America's Founding Fathers in fomenting the Revolution". From 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, allying himself with Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris and Williamson Evers.
He opposed the "low-tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark and Cato Institute president Edward H Crane III. According to Charles Burris, "Rothbard and Crane became bitter rivals after disputes emerging from the 1980 LP presidential campaign of Ed Clark carried over to strategic direction and management of Cato".
Mises Institute
In 1982, following his split with the Cato Institute, Rothbard co-founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, (with Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert) and was vice president of academic affairs until 1995. Rothbard also founded the institute's Review of Austrian Economics, a heterodox economics journal later renamed the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, in 1987. Rothbard "worked closely with Lew Rockwell (joined later by his long-time friend Blumert) in nurturing the Mises Institute, and the publication, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report; which after Rothbard's 1995 death evolved into the website, LewRockwell.com", according to the website. Rothbard and other Mises Institute scholars criticized libertarian groups funded by the Koch brothers, referring to them as the "Kochtopus".
Rothbard split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention over cultural issues and aligned himself with what he called the "right-wing populist" wing of the party, notably Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul, who ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988.
Paleolibertarianism
In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-Cold War anti-interventionist right, calling himself a paleolibertarian, a conservative reaction against the cultural liberalism of mainstream libertarianism. Paleolibertarianism sought to appeal to disaffected working class whites through a synthesis of cultural conservatism and libertarian economics. According to Reason, Rothbard advocated right-wing populism in part because he was frustrated that mainstream thinkers were not adopting the libertarian view and suggested that former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy were models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks" effort that could be used by a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition. Working together, the coalition would expose the "unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass". Rothbard blamed this "Underclass" for "looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America". Regarding the political program of the former Grand Wizard David Duke, Rothbard asserted that there was "nothing" in it that "could not also be embraced by paleoconservatives or paleolibertarians; lower taxes, dismantling the bureaucracy, slashing the welfare system, attacking affirmative action and racial set-asides, calling for equal rights for all Americans, including whites". He also praised the "racialist science" in Charles Murray's controversial book The Bell Curve.
Rothbard co-founded and became a key figure in the John Randolph Club, which was an alliance between the Mises Institute and the paleoconservative Rockford Institute. He supported the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan in 1992, writing that "with Pat Buchanan as our leader, we shall break the clock of social democracy". When Buchanan dropped out of the Republican primary race, Rothbard then shifted his interest and support to Ross Perot, who Rothbard wrote had "brought an excitement, a verve, a sense of dynamics and of open possibilities to what had threatened to be a dreary race". However, Rothbard eventually withdrew his support from Perot, and endorsed George H. W. Bush in the 1992 election.
Like Buchanan, Rothbard opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, he had become disillusioned with Buchanan by 1995, believing that the latter's "commitment to protectionism was mutating into an all-round faith in economic planning and the nation state".
Personal life
Joey Rothbard said in a memoriam that her husband had a happy and bright spirit, and that Rothbard, a night owl, managed to make a living for 40 years without having to get up before noon. This was important to him." She said Rothbard would begin every day with a phone conversation with his colleague Lew Rockwell: "Gales of laughter would shake the house or apartment, as they checked in with each other. Murray thought it was the best possible way to start a day".
Rothbard was irreligious and agnostic about God, describing himself as a "mixture of an agnostic and a Reform Jew". Despite identifying as an agnostic and an atheist, he was critical of the "left-libertarian hostility to religion". In Rothbard's later years, many of his friends anticipated that he would convert to Catholicism, but he never did.
Death
Rothbard died of a heart attack on January 7, 1995, in St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, at the age of 68. The New York Times obituary called Rothbard "an economist and social philosopher who fiercely defended individual freedom against government intervention". Lew Rockwell, president of the Mises Institute, told The New York Times that Rothbard was "the founder of right-wing anarchism".
William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a critical obituary in the National Review, criticizing Rothbard's "defective judgment" and views on the Cold War. Hoppe, Rockwell, and Rothbard's other colleagues at the Mises Institute took a different view, arguing that he was one of the most important philosophers in history.
Views
Austrian economics
Rothbard was an advocate and practitioner of the Austrian School tradition of his teacher Ludwig von Mises. Like Mises, Rothbard rejected the application of the scientific method to economics and dismissed econometrics, empirical and statistical analysis and other tools of mainstream social science as outside the field (economic history might use those tools, but not Economics proper). He instead embraced praxeology, the strictly a priori methodology of Mises. Praxeology conceives of economic laws as akin to geometric or mathematical axioms: fixed, unchanging, objective and discernible through logical reasoning.
According to Misesian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, eschewing the scientific method and empiricism distinguishes the Misesian approach "from all other current economic schools", which dismiss the Misesian approach as "dogmatic and unscientific." Mark Skousen of Chapman University and the Foundation for Economic Education, a critic of mainstream economics, praises Rothbard as brilliant, his writing style persuasive, his economic arguments nuanced and logically rigorous and his Misesian methodology sound. But Skousen concedes that Rothbard was effectively "outside the discipline" of mainstream economics and that his work "fell on deaf ears" outside his ideological circles.
Rothbard wrote extensively on Austrian business cycle theory and as part of this approach strongly opposed central banking, fiat money and fractional-reserve banking, advocating a gold standard and a 100% reserve requirement for banks.
Polemics against mainstream economics
Rothbard wrote a series of polemics in which he deprecated a number of leading modern economists. He vilified Adam Smith, calling him a "shameless plagiarist" who set economics off track, ultimately leading to the rise of Marxism. Rothbard praised Smith's contemporaries, including Richard Cantillon, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, for developing the subjective theory of value. In response to Rothbard's charge that Smith's The Wealth of Nations was largely plagiarized, David D. Friedman castigated Rothbard's scholarship and character, saying that he "was [either] deliberately dishonest or never really read the book he was criticizing". Tony Endres called Rothbard's treatment of Smith a "travesty".
Rothbard was equally scathing in his criticism of John Maynard Keynes, calling him weak on economic theory and a shallow political opportunist. Rothbard also wrote more generally that Keynesian-style governmental regulation of money and credit created a "dismal monetary and banking situation". He called John Stuart Mill a "wooly man of mush" and speculated that Mill's "soft" personality led his economic thought astray.
Rothbard was critical of monetarist economist Milton Friedman. In his polemic "Milton Friedman Unraveled", he called Friedman a "statist", a "favorite of the establishment", a friend of and "apologist" for Richard Nixon and a "pernicious influence" on public policy. Rothbard said that libertarians should scorn rather than celebrate Friedman's academic prestige and political influence. Noting that Rothbard has "been nasty to me and my work", Friedman responded to Rothbard's criticism by calling him a "cult builder and a dogmatist".
In a memorial volume published by the Mises Institute, Rothbard's protégé and libertarian theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe wrote that Man, Economy, and State "presented a blistering refutation of all variants of mathematical economics" and included it among Rothbard's "almost mind-boggling achievements". Hoppe lamented that, like Mises, Rothbard died without winning the Nobel Prize and, while acknowledging that Rothbard and his work were largely ignored by academia, called him an "intellectual giant" comparable to Aristotle, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant.
Disputes with other Austrian economists
Although he self-identified as an Austrian economist, Rothbard's methodology was at odds with that of many other Austrians. In 1956, Rothbard deprecated the views of Austrian economist Fritz Machlup, stating that Machlup was no praxeologist and calling him instead a "positivist" who failed to represent the views of Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard stated that in fact Machlup shared the opposing positivist view associated with economist Milton Friedman. Mises and Machlup had been colleagues in 1920s Vienna before each relocated to the United States and Mises later urged his American protege Israel Kirzner to pursue his PhD studies with Machlup at Johns Hopkins University.
According to libertarian economists Tyler Cowen and Richard Fink, Rothbard wrote that the term evenly rotating economy (ERE) can be used to analyze complexity in a world of change. The words ERE had been introduced by Mises as an alternative nomenclature for the mainstream economic method of static equilibrium and general equilibrium analysis. Cowen and Fink found "serious inconsistencies in both the nature of the ERE and its suggested uses". With the sole exception of Rothbard, no other economist adopted Mises' term and the concept continued to be called "equilibrium analysis".
In a 2011 article critical of Rothbard's "reflexive opposition" to inflation, The Economist noted that his views were increasingly gaining influence among politicians and laypeople on the right. The article contrasted Rothbard's categorical rejection of inflationary policies with the monetary views of "sophisticated Austrian-school monetary economists such as George Selgin and Larry White", [who] follow Hayek in treating stability of nominal spending as a monetary ideal—a position "not all that different from Mr [Scott] Sumner's".
According to economist Peter Boettke, Rothbard is better described as a property rights economist than as an Austrian economist. In 1988, Boettke noted that Rothbard "vehemently attacked all of the books of the younger Austrians".
Ethics
Although Rothbard adopted Ludwig von Mises' deductive methodology for his social theory and economics, he parted with Mises on the question of ethics. Specifically, he rejected Mises' conviction that ethical values remain subjective and opposed utilitarianism in favor of principle-based, natural law reasoning. In defense of his free market views, Mises employed utilitarian economic arguments aimed at demonstrating that interventionist policies made all of society worse off. Rothbard countered that interventionist policies do in fact benefit some people, including certain government employees and beneficiaries of social programs. Therefore, unlike Mises, Rothbard argued for an objective, natural-law basis for the free market. He called this principle "self-ownership", loosely basing the idea on the writings of John Locke and also borrowing concepts from classical liberalism and the anti-imperialism of the Old Right.
Rothbard accepted the labor theory of property, but rejected the Lockean proviso, arguing that if an individual mixes his labor with unowned land then he becomes the proper owner eternally and that after that time it is private property which may change hands only by trade or gift.
Rothbard was a strong critic of egalitarianism. The title essay of Rothbard's 1974 book Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays held: "Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences". In it, Rothbard wrote: "At the heart of the egalitarian left is the pathological belief that there is no structure of reality; that all the world is a tabula rasa that can be changed at any moment in any desired direction by the mere exercise of human will".
Noam Chomsky critiqued Rothbard's ideal society as "a world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it... First of all, it couldn't function for a second—and if it could, all you'd want to do is get out, or commit suicide or something."
Anarcho-capitalism
According to anarcho-capitalists, various theorists have espoused legal philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism. However, Rothbard was the first person to use the term as in the mid-20th century he synthesized elements from the Austrian School of economics, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists. Lew Rockwell in a memoriam called Rothbard the "conscience" of all the various strains of what he described as "libertarian anarchism", and said their advocates had often been personally inspired by his example.
During his years at graduate school in the late 1940s, Rothbard considered whether a strict adherence to libertarian and laissez-faire principles required the abolition of the state altogether. He visited Baldy Harper, a founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, who doubted the need for any government whatsoever. Rothbard said that during this period, he was influenced by 19th-century American individualist anarchists like Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker and the Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari who wrote about how such a system could work. Thus, he "combined the laissez-faire economics of Mises with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state" from individualist anarchists.
Rothbard began to consider himself a "private property anarchist" in 1950 and later began to use "anarcho-capitalist" to describe his political ideology. In his anarcho-capitalist model, the system of private property is upheld by private firms, such as hypothesized protection agencies, which compete in a free market and are voluntarily supported by consumers who choose to use their protective and judicial services. Anarcho-capitalists describe this as "the end of the state monopoly on force". In this way Rothbard differed from Mises, who favored a state to uphold markets. He later came to terms that anarchists identified mostly with socialism, and in an unpublished article wrote that individualist anarchism is different from anarcho-capitalism and other capitalist theories due to the individualist anarchists retaining the labor theory of value and socialist doctrines, suggesting a new term to identify himself: nonarchist. In an unpublished article, Rothbard concludes his position not only by affirming that he is not [an] anarchist, but that those who "call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground, and are being completely unhistorical", while also arguing that anarchism "in practice" leads to something that "is not really anarchism at all. It is either Communism or chaos."
In Man, Economy, and State, Rothbard divides the various kinds of state intervention in three categories: "autistic intervention" (interference with private non-economic activities); "binary intervention", (exchange between individuals and the state); and "triangular intervention" (state-mandated exchange between individuals). Sanford Ikeda wrote that Rothbard's typology "eliminates the gaps and inconsistencies that appear in Mises's original formulation". Rothbard writes in Power and Market that the role of the economist in a free market is limited, but it is much larger in a government that solicits economic policy recommendations. Rothbard argues that self-interest therefore prejudices the views of many economists in favor of increased government intervention.
Race, gender, and civil rights
Michael O'Malley, associate professor of history at George Mason University, describes Rothbard's tone toward the civil rights movement and the women's suffrage movement as "contemptuous and hostile". Rothbard criticized women's rights activists, attributing the growth of the welfare state to politically active spinsters "whose busybody inclinations were not fettered by the responsibilities of health and heart". Rothbard argued that the progressive movement, which he regarded as a noxious influence on the United States, was spearheaded by a coalition of Yankee Protestants (people from the six New England states and upstate New York who were Protestants of English descent), Jewish women and "lesbian spinsters".
Rothbard called for the elimination of "the entire 'civil rights' structure", which he said "tramples on the property rights of every American". He consistently favored repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including Title VII regarding employment discrimination, and called for overturning the Brown v. Board of Education decision on the grounds that state-mandated integration of schools violated libertarian principles. In an essay called "Right-wing Populism", Rothbard proposed a set of measures to "reach out" to the "middle and working classes", which included urging the police to crack down on "street criminals", writing that "cops must be unleashed" and "allowed to administer instant punishment, subject of course to liability when they are in error". He also advocated that the police "clear the streets of bums and vagrants."
Rothbard held strong opinions about many leaders of the civil rights movement. He considered black separatist Malcolm X to be a "great black leader" and integrationist Martin Luther King Jr. to be favored by whites because he "was the major restraining force on the developing Negro revolution". Jacob Jensen writes that Rothbard's commentary from the 1960s, approving of both "black power" and "white power" in separated communities, amounted to support for racial segregation. In 1993, Rothbard rejected the vision of a "separate black nation", asking "does anyone really believe that ... New Africa would be content to strike out on its own, with no massive "foreign aid" from the U.S.A.?". Rothbard also suggested that opposition to Martin Luther King Jr., whom he demeaned as a "coercive integrationist", should be a litmus test for members of his "paleolibertarian" political movement.
Rothbard is described by the historian John P. Jackson Jr. as espousing antisemitism despite Rothbard's own background as a secular Jew. One former student described Rothbard as privately using the anti-Jewish slur "kikes" repeatedly. Rothbard also befriended the Holocaust deniers Willis Carto and Harry Elmer Barnes.
Opposition to war
Like Randolph Bourne, Rothbard believed that "war is the health of the state". According to David Gordon, this was the reason for Rothbard's opposition to aggressive foreign policy. Rothbard believed that stopping new wars was necessary and that knowledge of how government had led citizens into earlier wars was important. Two essays expanded on these views "War, Peace, and the State" and "Anatomy of the State". Rothbard used insights of Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca and Robert Michels to build a model of state personnel, goals and ideology. In an obituary for his friend, the Holocaust denier Harry Elmer Barnes, Rothbard wrote:
Rothbard's colleague Joseph Stromberg notes that Rothbard made two exceptions to his general condemnation of war: "the American Revolution and the War for Southern Independence, as viewed from the Confederate side". Rothbard condemned the "Northern war against slavery", saying it was inspired by "fanatical" religious faith and characterized by "a cheerful willingness to uproot institutions, to commit mayhem and mass murder, to plunder and loot and destroy, all in the name of high moral principle". He celebrated Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederates as heroes while denouncing Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and other Union leaders, who he said had "opened the Pandora's Box of genocide and the extermination of civilians" in the American Civil War.
Middle East conflict
Rothbard's The Libertarian Forum blamed the Middle East conflict on Israeli aggression "fueled by American arms and money". Rothbard warned that the Middle East conflict would draw the United States into a world war. He was anti-Zionist and opposed United States involvement in the Middle East. Rothbard criticized the Camp David Accords for having betrayed Palestinian aspirations and opposed Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In his essay, "War Guilt in the Middle East", Rothbard states that Israel refused "to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them". He took negative views of the two state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, saying:
Historical revisionism
Rothbard embraced "historical revisionism" as an antidote to what he perceived to be the dominant influence exerted by corrupt "court intellectuals" over mainstream historical narratives. Rothbard wrote that these mainstream intellectuals distorted the historical record in favor of "the state" in exchange for "wealth, power, and prestige" from the state. Rothbard characterized the revisionist task as "penetrating the fog of lies and deception of the State and its Court Intellectuals, and to present to the public the true history". He was influenced by and called a champion of the historian and Holocaust denier Harry Elmer Barnes. Rothbard endorsed Barnes's revisionism on World War II, favorably citing his view that "the murder of Germans and Japanese was the overriding aim of World War II". In addition to broadly supporting his historical views, Rothbard promoted Barnes as an influence for future revisionists.
Rothbard's endorsing of World War II revisionism and his association with Barnes and other Holocaust deniers have drawn criticism. Kevin D. Williamson wrote an opinion piece published by National Review which condemned Rothbard for "making common cause with the 'revisionist' historians of the Third Reich", a term he used to describe American Holocaust deniers associated with Rothbard, such as James J. Martin of the Institute for Historical Review. The piece also characterized "Rothbard and his faction" as being "culpably indulgent" of Holocaust denial, the view which "specifically denies that the Holocaust actually happened or holds that it was in some way exaggerated".
In an article for Rothbard's 50th birthday, Rothbard's friend and Buffalo State College historian Ralph Raico stated that Rothbard "is the main reason that revisionism has become a crucial part of the whole libertarian position".
Children's rights and parental obligations
In the Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard explores issues regarding children's rights in terms of self-ownership and contract. These include support for a woman's right to abortion, condemnation of parents showing aggression towards children and opposition to the state forcing parents to care for children. He also holds children have the right to run away from parents and seek new guardians as soon as they are able to choose to do so. He argued that parents have the right to put a child out for adoption or sell the rights to the child in a voluntary contract in what Rothbard suggests will be a "flourishing free market in children". He believes that selling children as consumer goods in accord with market forces—while "superficially monstrous"—will benefit "everyone" involved in the market: "the natural parents, the children, and the foster parents purchasing".
In Rothbard's view of parenthood, "the parent should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children, since such obligations would entail positive acts coerced upon the parent and depriving the parent of his rights". Thus, Rothbard stated that parents should have the legal right to let any infant die by starvation and should be free to engage in other forms of child neglect. However, according to Rothbard, "the purely free society will have a flourishing free market in children". In a fully libertarian society, he wrote, "the existence of a free baby market will bring such 'neglect' down to a minimum".
Economist Gene Callahan of Cardiff University, formerly a scholar at the Rothbard-affiliated Mises Institute, wrote that Rothbard allowed "the logical elegance of his legal theory" to "trump any arguments based on the moral reprehensibility of a parent idly watching her six-month-old child slowly starve to death in its crib".
Retributive theory of criminal justice
In The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard advocates for a "frankly retributive theory of punishment" or a system of "a tooth (or two teeth) for a tooth". Rothbard emphasizes that all punishment must be proportional, stating that "the criminal, or invader, loses his rights to the extent that he deprived another man of his". Applying his retributive theory, Rothbard states that a thief "must pay double the extent of theft". Rothbard gives the example of a thief who stole $15,000 and says he not only would have to return the stolen money, but also provide the victim an additional $15,000, money to which the thief has forfeited his right. The thief would be "put in a [temporary] state of enslavement to his victim" if he is unable to pay him immediately. Rothbard also applies his theory to justify beating and torturing violent criminals, although the beatings are required to be proportional to the crimes for which they are being punished.
Torture of criminal suspects
In chapter twelve of Ethics, Rothbard turns his attention to suspects arrested by the police. He argues that police should be able to torture certain types of criminal suspects, including accused murderers, for information related to their alleged crime. Writes Rothbard: "Suppose ... police beat and torture a suspected murderer to find information (not to wring a confession, since obviously a coerced confession could never be considered valid). If the suspect turns out to be guilty, then the police should be exonerated, for then they have only ladled out to the murderer a parcel of what he deserves in return; his rights had already been forfeited by more than that extent. But if the suspect is not convicted, then that means that the police have beaten and tortured an innocent man, and that they in turn must be put into the dock for criminal assault". Gene Callahan examines this position and concludes that Rothbard rejects the widely held belief that torture is inherently wrong, no matter who the victim. Callahan goes on to state that Rothbard's scheme gives the police a strong motive to frame the suspect after having tortured him or her.
Science and scientism
In an essay condemning "scientism in the study of man", Rothbard rejected the application of causal determinism to human beings, arguing that the actions of human beings—as opposed to those of everything else in nature—are not determined by prior causes, but by "free will". He argued that "determinism as applied to man, is a self-contradictory thesis, since the man who employs it relies implicitly on the existence of free will". Rothbard opposed what he considered the overspecialization of the academy and sought to fuse the disciplines of economics, history, ethics and political science to create a "science of liberty". Rothbard described the moral basis for his anarcho-capitalist position in two of his books: For a New Liberty, published in 1973; and The Ethics of Liberty, published in 1982. In his Power and Market (1970), Rothbard describes how a stateless economy might function.
Works
Articles
The Individualist (Apr., Jul.–Aug. 1971); Revised and republished by the Center for Independent Education (1979). .
"Soviet Foreign Policy: A Revisionist Perspective." Libertarian Review (Apr. 1978), pp. 23–27.
"His Only Crime Was Against the Old Guard: Milken." Los Angeles Times (Mar. 3, 1992).
"Anti-Buchanania: A Mini-Encyclopedia." Rothbard-Rockwell Report (May 1992), pp. 1–13.
"Saint Hillary and the Religious Left." (Dec. 1994).
"The Other Side of the Coin: Free Banking in Chile." Austrian Economics Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 2.
Books
Man, Economy, and State. D. Van Nostrand (1962). full text.
Second edition (Scholar's Edition) published in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). . Full text.
The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies. New York: Columbia University Press (1962). Full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). .
America's Great Depression. D. Van Nostrand (1973). Full text.
Fifth edition published in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2005). .
Power and Market: Government and the Economy. Sheed Andrews and McMeel (1970). full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). .
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. Collier Books (1973). Full text; audiobook. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute. .
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays. Libertarian Review Press (1974). Full text.
Second edition, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2000). .
Conceived in Liberty (4 vol.). New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House (1975–1979). Full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2012). .
The Logic of Action (2 vol.). Edward Elgar Publications (1997). . Full text.
Reprinted as Economic Controversies. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2011).
The Ethics of Liberty. Humanities Press (1982). New York University Press (1998). Full text; audiobook. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute. .
The Mystery of Banking. Richardson and Snyder, Dutton (1983). Full text.
Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). .
The Case Against the Fed. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (1994). Full text.
Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). .
America's Great Depression [5th ed.]. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (June 15, 2000).
An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 vol.). Edward Elgar Publishers (1995). .
Vol. 1: Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2009).
Vol. 2: Classical Economics. Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2009).
Making Economic Sense. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). . Full text.
The Betrayal of the American Right. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). . Full text and audiobook, narrated by Ian Temple.
Despite posthumous publication in 2007, it appears in print virtually unchanged from the manuscript untouched since the 1970s.
Book contributions
Introduction to Capital, Interest, and Rent: Essays in the Theory of Distribution, by Frank A. Fetter. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel (1977).
Foreword to The Theory of Money and Credit, by Ludwig von Mises. Liberty Fund (1981). Full text .
"Bramble Minibook" (1973). In: The Essential von Mises. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (1988). Full text.
Monographs
Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy. World Market Perspective (1984); Center for Libertarian Studies (1995); Ludwig von Mises Institute (2005). Spanish translation.
Interviews
"Interview with Murray Rothbard on Man, Economy, and State, Mises, and the Future of the Austrian School" (Summer 1990). Austrian Economics Newsletter.
See also
American philosophy
Alt-right#Influences
Anarcho-capitalism
Criticism of the Federal Reserve
Libertarianism in the United States
List of American philosophers
List of peace activists
Notes
Further reading
Doherty, Brian (2007). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. PublicAffairs.
External links
Murray Rothbard full bibliography at Mises.org
Category:1926 births
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C_dba61bc2beff4e35b7ff07b9149e7b8e_1 | Murray Rothbard | Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 - January 7, 1995) was an American heterodox economist of the Austrian School, a historian, and a political theorist whose writings and personal influence played a seminal role in the development of modern right-libertarianism. Rothbard was the founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism, a staunch advocate of historical revisionism, and a central figure in the twentieth-century American libertarian movement. | Education | Murray Rothbard's parents were David and Rae Rothbard, Jewish immigrants to the U.S. from Poland and Russia, respectively. David Rothbard was a chemist. Murray attended Birch Wathen, a private school in New York City. Rothbard later stated that he much preferred Birch Wathen to the "debasing and egalitarian public school system" he had previously attended in the Bronx. Rothbard wrote of having grown up as a "right-winger" (adherent of the "Old Right") among friends and neighbors who were "communists or fellow-travelers." Rothbard characterized his immigrant father as an individualist who embraced the American values of minimal government, free enterprise, private property, and "a determination to rise by one's own merits". "[A]ll socialism seemed to me monstrously coercive and abhorrent." He attended Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1945 and, eleven years later, his PhD in economics in 1956. The delay in receiving his PhD was due in part to conflict with his advisor, Joseph Dorfman, and in part to Arthur Burns rejecting his doctoral dissertation. Burns was a longtime friend of the Rothbard family and their neighbor at their Manhattan apartment building. It was only after Burns went on leave from the Columbia faculty to head President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisors that Rothbard's thesis was accepted and he received his doctorate. Rothbard later stated that all of his fellow students there were extreme leftists and that he was one of only two Republicans on the Columbia campus at the time. During the 1940s Rothbard became acquainted with Frank Chodorov and read widely in libertarian-oriented works by Albert Jay Nock, Garet Garrett, Isabel Paterson, H. L. Mencken and others, as well as Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. In the early 1950s, when Mises was teaching at the Wall Street division of New York University Business School, Rothbard attended Mises' unofficial seminar. Rothbard was greatly influenced by Mises' book, Human Action. Rothbard attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, a group that provided financial backing to promote various "right-wing" ideologies in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Volker Fund paid Rothbard to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a form which could be used to introduce college undergraduates to Mises' views; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises's approval. For ten years, Rothbard was paid a retainer by the Volker Fund, which designated him a "senior analyst." As Rothbard continued his work, he enlarged the project. The result was Rothbard's book Man, Economy, and State, published in 1962. Upon its publication, Mises praised Rothbard's work effusively. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian movement and a founder and leading theoretician of anarcho-capitalism. He wrote over twenty books on political theory, history, economics, and other subjects.
Rothbard argued that all services provided by the "monopoly system of the corporate state" could be provided more efficiently by the private sector and wrote that the state is "the organization of robbery systematized and writ large". He called fractional-reserve banking a form of fraud and opposed central banking. He categorically opposed all military, political, and economic interventionism in the affairs of other nations. According to his protégé Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "[t]here would be no anarcho-capitalist movement to speak of without Rothbard".
Hoppe described Rothbard as leading a "fringe existence" in academia. He taught economics at a Wall Street division of New York University, later at Brooklyn Polytechnic, and after 1986 in an endowed position at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Rothbard rejected mainstream economic methodologies and instead embraced the praxeology of his most important intellectual precursor, Ludwig von Mises. Partnering with the oil billionaire Charles Koch, Rothbard was a founder of the Cato Institute and the Center for Libertarian Studies in the 1970s. He broke with Koch and joined Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert in 1982 to establish the Mises Institute in Alabama.
Rothbard opposed egalitarianism and the civil rights movement, and blamed women's voting and activism for the growth of the welfare state. Later in his career Rothbard advocated a libertarian alliance with paleoconservatism (which he called paleolibertarianism), favoring right-wing populism and defending David Duke. In the 2010s he received renewed attention from critics who saw him as an influence on the alt right.
Life and work
Education
Rothbard's parents were David and Rae Rothbard, Jewish immigrants to the United States from Poland and Russia, respectively. David was a chemist. Murray attended Birch Wathen Lenox School, a private school in New York City. He later said he much preferred Birch Wathen to the "debasing and egalitarian public school system" he had attended in the Bronx.
Rothbard wrote of having grown up as a "right-winger" (adherent of the "Old Right") among friends and neighbors who were "communists or fellow-travelers". He was a member of The New York Young Republican Club in his youth. Rothbard described his father as an individualist who embraced minimal government, free enterprise, private property and "a determination to rise by one's own merits… "[A]ll socialism seemed to me monstrously coercive and abhorrent". In 1952, his father was trapped during a labor strike at the Tide Water Oil Refinery in New Jersey, which he managed, confirming their dislike of organized labor.
Rothbard attended Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics in 1945 and a PhD in economics in 1956. His first political activism came in 1948, on behalf of the segregationist South Carolinian Strom Thurmond's presidential campaign. In the 1948 presidential election, Rothbard, "as a Jewish student at Columbia, horrified his peers by organizing a Students for Strom Thurmond chapter, so staunchly did he believe in states' rights", according to The American Conservative. The delay in receiving his PhD was due in part to conflict with his advisor, Joseph Dorfman, and in part to Arthur Burns's rejecting his dissertation. Burns was a longtime friend of the Rothbards and their neighbor at their Manhattan apartment building. It was only after Burns went on leave from the Columbia faculty to head President Eisenhower's Council of Economic Advisers that Rothbard's thesis was accepted and he received his doctorate. Rothbard later said that all his fellow students were extreme leftists and that he was one of only two Republicans at Columbia at the time.
Marriage, Volker Fund, and academia
During the 1940s, Rothbard vetted articles for Leonard Read at the Foundation for Economic Education think tank, became acquainted with Frank Chodorov, and read widely in libertarian-oriented works by Albert Jay Nock, Garet Garrett, Isabel Paterson, H. L. Mencken, and Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises. In the early 1950s, when Mises was teaching in the Wall Street division of the New York University Stern School of Business, Rothbard attended his unofficial seminar. Rothbard was greatly influenced by Mises's book Human Action. Rothbard wanted to promote libertarian activism; by the mid-1950s he helped form the Circle Bastiat, a libertarian and anarchist social group in New York City.
Rothbard attracted the attention of the William Volker Fund, a group that provided financial backing to promote right-wing ideologies in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Volker Fund paid Rothbard to write a textbook to explain Human Action in a form that could be used to introduce college undergraduates to Mises's views; a sample chapter he wrote on money and credit won Mises's approval. For ten years, the Volker Fund paid him a retainer as a "senior analyst". As Rothbard continued his work, he enlarged the project. The result was his book Man, Economy, and State, published in 1962. Upon its publication, Mises praised Rothbard's work effusively.
In 1953, Rothbard married JoAnn Beatrice Schumacher (September 17, 1928 – October 29, 1999), whom he called Joey, in New York City. She was a historian, Rothbard's personal editor and a close adviser as well as hostess of his Rothbard Salon. They enjoyed a loving marriage and Rothbard often called her "the indispensable framework" of his life and achievements. According to her, the Volker Fund's patronage allowed Rothbard to work from home as a freelance theorist and pundit for the first 15 years of their marriage.
The Volker Fund collapsed in 1962, leading Rothbard to seek employment from various New York academic institutions. He was offered a part-time position teaching economics to engineering students at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute in 1966 at age 40. The institution had no economics department or economics majors and Rothbard derided its social science department as "Marxist", but his biographer Justin Raimondo writes that Rothbard liked teaching at Brooklyn Polytechnic because working only two days a week gave him freedom to contribute to developments in libertarian politics. Rothbard continued in this role until 1986. Then 60 years old, Rothbard left Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute for the Lee Business School at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where he held the title of S.J. Hall Distinguished Professor of Economics, a chair endowed by a libertarian businessman. According to Rothbard's friend, colleague and fellow Misesian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Rothbard led a "fringe existence" in academia, but he was able to attract a large number of "students and disciples" through his writings, thereby becoming "the creator and one of the principal agents of the contemporary libertarian movement". Libertarian economist Jeffrey Herbener, who called Rothbard his friend and "intellectual mentor", said in a memoriam that Rothbard received "only ostracism" from mainstream academia. Rothbard kept his position at UNLV from 1986 until his death.
Old Right
Throughout his life, Rothbard engaged in a number of different political movements to promote Old Right and libertarian political principles.
George Hawley writes that "unfortunately for Rothbard, the Old Right was ending as an intellectual and political force just as he was maturing as an intellectual", with the militantly anticommunist conservative movement exemplified by William F. Buckley Jr. supplanting the Old Right's isolationism.
Rothbard was an admirer of Sen. Joseph McCarthy—not for McCarthy's Cold War views, but his demagoguery, which Rothbard credited for disrupting the establishment consensus of what Rothbard called "corporate liberalism". Rothbard contributed many articles to Buckley's National Review, but his relations with Buckley and the magazine soured as he criticized the conservative movement for militarism.
Conflict with Ayn Rand
In 1954, Rothbard, along with several other attendees of Mises's seminar, joined the circle of novelist Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism. He soon parted from her, writing among other things that her ideas were not as original as she proclaimed, but similar to those of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Herbert Spencer. In 1958, after the publication of Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, Rothbard wrote her a "fan letter", calling the book "an infinite treasure house" and "not merely the greatest novel ever written, [but] one of the very greatest books ever written, fiction or nonfiction". He also wrote: "[Y]ou introduced me to the whole field of natural rights and natural law philosophy", prompting him to learn "the glorious natural rights tradition". Rothbard rejoined Rand's circle for a few months, but soon broke with Rand again over various differences, including his defense of his interpretation of anarchism.
Rothbard later satirized Rand's acolytes in his unpublished one-act farce Mozart Was a Red and his essay "The Sociology of the Ayn Rand Cult". He characterized Rand's circle as a "dogmatic, personality cult". His play parodies Rand (through the character Carson Sand) and her friends and is set during a visit from Keith Hackley, a fan of Sand's novel The Brow of Zeus (a play on Atlas Shrugged).
New Left alliance
By the late 1960s, according to The American Conservative, Rothbard's "long and winding yet somehow consistent road had taken him from anti-New Deal and anti-interventionist Robert A. Taft supporter into friendship with the quasi-pacifist Nebraska Republican Congressman Howard Buffett (father of Warren Buffett) then over to the League of (Adlai) Stevensonian Democrats and, by 1968, into tentative comradeship with the anarchist factions of the New Left". He advocated an alliance with the New Left anti-war movement on the grounds that the conservative movement had been completely subsumed by the statist establishment. Rothbard joined the Peace and Freedom Party and contributed writing to the New Left journal Ramparts. However, Rothbard later criticized the New Left for supporting a "People's Republic" style draft. It was during this phase that he associated with Karl Hess (a former Barry Goldwater speechwriter who had rejected conservatism) and founded Left and Right: A Journal of Libertarian Thought with Leonard Liggio and George Resch, which existed from 1965 to 1968. Raimondo described Rothbard during this time as "a man of the Old Culture: he believed that it was possible to be a revolutionary, an anarchist, and lead a bourgeois life", and wrote that the "respectably dressed, if a bit rumpled" Rothbard was "immune to the blandishments of sixties youth culture". In the 1970s, he became more anti-egalitarian, describing equality as an evil concept.
Libertarianism and Cato Institute
From 1969 to 1984, he edited The Libertarian Forum, also initially with Hess (although Hess's involvement ended in 1971). Despite its small readership, it engaged conservatives associated with the National Review in nationwide debate. Rothbard rejected the view that Ronald Reagan's 1980 election as president was a victory for libertarian principles and he attacked Reagan's economic program in a series of Libertarian Forum articles. In 1982, Rothbard called Reagan's claims of spending cuts a "fraud" and a "hoax" and accused Reaganites of doctoring the economic statistics to give the false impression that their policies were successfully reducing inflation and unemployment. He further criticized the "myths of Reaganomics" in 1987.
Rothbard criticized the "frenzied nihilism" of left-wing libertarians, but also criticized right-wing libertarians who were content to rely only on education to bring down the state; he believed that libertarians should adopt any moral tactic available to them to bring about liberty. Imbibing Randolph Bourne's idea that "war is the health of the state", Rothbard opposed all wars in his lifetime and engaged in anti-war activism.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Rothbard was active in the Libertarian Party. He was frequently involved in the party's internal politics. Rothbard founded the Center for Libertarian Studies in 1976 and the Journal of Libertarian Studies in 1977.
He was one of the founders of the Cato Institute in 1977 (whose funding by Charles Koch was a major infusion of money for libertarianism) and "came up with the idea of naming this libertarian think tank after Cato's Letters, a powerful series of British newspaper essays by John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon which played a decisive influence upon America's Founding Fathers in fomenting the Revolution". From 1978 to 1983, he was associated with the Libertarian Party Radical Caucus, allying himself with Justin Raimondo, Eric Garris and Williamson Evers.
He opposed the "low-tax liberalism" espoused by 1980 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark and Cato Institute president Edward H Crane III. According to Charles Burris, "Rothbard and Crane became bitter rivals after disputes emerging from the 1980 LP presidential campaign of Ed Clark carried over to strategic direction and management of Cato".
Mises Institute
In 1982, following his split with the Cato Institute, Rothbard co-founded the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, (with Lew Rockwell and Burton Blumert) and was vice president of academic affairs until 1995. Rothbard also founded the institute's Review of Austrian Economics, a heterodox economics journal later renamed the Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, in 1987. Rothbard "worked closely with Lew Rockwell (joined later by his long-time friend Blumert) in nurturing the Mises Institute, and the publication, The Rothbard-Rockwell Report; which after Rothbard's 1995 death evolved into the website, LewRockwell.com", according to the website. Rothbard and other Mises Institute scholars criticized libertarian groups funded by the Koch brothers, referring to them as the "Kochtopus".
Rothbard split with the Radical Caucus at the 1983 national convention over cultural issues and aligned himself with what he called the "right-wing populist" wing of the party, notably Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul, who ran for president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988.
Paleolibertarianism
In 1989, Rothbard left the Libertarian Party and began building bridges to the post-Cold War anti-interventionist right, calling himself a paleolibertarian, a conservative reaction against the cultural liberalism of mainstream libertarianism. Paleolibertarianism sought to appeal to disaffected working class whites through a synthesis of cultural conservatism and libertarian economics. According to Reason, Rothbard advocated right-wing populism in part because he was frustrated that mainstream thinkers were not adopting the libertarian view and suggested that former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy were models for an "Outreach to the Rednecks" effort that could be used by a broad libertarian/paleoconservative coalition. Working together, the coalition would expose the "unholy alliance of 'corporate liberal' Big Business and media elites, who, through big government, have privileged and caused to rise up a parasitic Underclass". Rothbard blamed this "Underclass" for "looting and oppressing the bulk of the middle and working classes in America". Regarding the political program of the former Grand Wizard David Duke, Rothbard asserted that there was "nothing" in it that "could not also be embraced by paleoconservatives or paleolibertarians; lower taxes, dismantling the bureaucracy, slashing the welfare system, attacking affirmative action and racial set-asides, calling for equal rights for all Americans, including whites". He also praised the "racialist science" in Charles Murray's controversial book The Bell Curve.
Rothbard co-founded and became a key figure in the John Randolph Club, which was an alliance between the Mises Institute and the paleoconservative Rockford Institute. He supported the presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan in 1992, writing that "with Pat Buchanan as our leader, we shall break the clock of social democracy". When Buchanan dropped out of the Republican primary race, Rothbard then shifted his interest and support to Ross Perot, who Rothbard wrote had "brought an excitement, a verve, a sense of dynamics and of open possibilities to what had threatened to be a dreary race". However, Rothbard eventually withdrew his support from Perot, and endorsed George H. W. Bush in the 1992 election.
Like Buchanan, Rothbard opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, he had become disillusioned with Buchanan by 1995, believing that the latter's "commitment to protectionism was mutating into an all-round faith in economic planning and the nation state".
Personal life
Joey Rothbard said in a memoriam that her husband had a happy and bright spirit, and that Rothbard, a night owl, managed to make a living for 40 years without having to get up before noon. This was important to him." She said Rothbard would begin every day with a phone conversation with his colleague Lew Rockwell: "Gales of laughter would shake the house or apartment, as they checked in with each other. Murray thought it was the best possible way to start a day".
Rothbard was irreligious and agnostic about God, describing himself as a "mixture of an agnostic and a Reform Jew". Despite identifying as an agnostic and an atheist, he was critical of the "left-libertarian hostility to religion". In Rothbard's later years, many of his friends anticipated that he would convert to Catholicism, but he never did.
Death
Rothbard died of a heart attack on January 7, 1995, in St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, at the age of 68. The New York Times obituary called Rothbard "an economist and social philosopher who fiercely defended individual freedom against government intervention". Lew Rockwell, president of the Mises Institute, told The New York Times that Rothbard was "the founder of right-wing anarchism".
William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a critical obituary in the National Review, criticizing Rothbard's "defective judgment" and views on the Cold War. Hoppe, Rockwell, and Rothbard's other colleagues at the Mises Institute took a different view, arguing that he was one of the most important philosophers in history.
Views
Austrian economics
Rothbard was an advocate and practitioner of the Austrian School tradition of his teacher Ludwig von Mises. Like Mises, Rothbard rejected the application of the scientific method to economics and dismissed econometrics, empirical and statistical analysis and other tools of mainstream social science as outside the field (economic history might use those tools, but not Economics proper). He instead embraced praxeology, the strictly a priori methodology of Mises. Praxeology conceives of economic laws as akin to geometric or mathematical axioms: fixed, unchanging, objective and discernible through logical reasoning.
According to Misesian economist Hans-Hermann Hoppe, eschewing the scientific method and empiricism distinguishes the Misesian approach "from all other current economic schools", which dismiss the Misesian approach as "dogmatic and unscientific." Mark Skousen of Chapman University and the Foundation for Economic Education, a critic of mainstream economics, praises Rothbard as brilliant, his writing style persuasive, his economic arguments nuanced and logically rigorous and his Misesian methodology sound. But Skousen concedes that Rothbard was effectively "outside the discipline" of mainstream economics and that his work "fell on deaf ears" outside his ideological circles.
Rothbard wrote extensively on Austrian business cycle theory and as part of this approach strongly opposed central banking, fiat money and fractional-reserve banking, advocating a gold standard and a 100% reserve requirement for banks.
Polemics against mainstream economics
Rothbard wrote a series of polemics in which he deprecated a number of leading modern economists. He vilified Adam Smith, calling him a "shameless plagiarist" who set economics off track, ultimately leading to the rise of Marxism. Rothbard praised Smith's contemporaries, including Richard Cantillon, Anne Robert Jacques Turgot and Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, for developing the subjective theory of value. In response to Rothbard's charge that Smith's The Wealth of Nations was largely plagiarized, David D. Friedman castigated Rothbard's scholarship and character, saying that he "was [either] deliberately dishonest or never really read the book he was criticizing". Tony Endres called Rothbard's treatment of Smith a "travesty".
Rothbard was equally scathing in his criticism of John Maynard Keynes, calling him weak on economic theory and a shallow political opportunist. Rothbard also wrote more generally that Keynesian-style governmental regulation of money and credit created a "dismal monetary and banking situation". He called John Stuart Mill a "wooly man of mush" and speculated that Mill's "soft" personality led his economic thought astray.
Rothbard was critical of monetarist economist Milton Friedman. In his polemic "Milton Friedman Unraveled", he called Friedman a "statist", a "favorite of the establishment", a friend of and "apologist" for Richard Nixon and a "pernicious influence" on public policy. Rothbard said that libertarians should scorn rather than celebrate Friedman's academic prestige and political influence. Noting that Rothbard has "been nasty to me and my work", Friedman responded to Rothbard's criticism by calling him a "cult builder and a dogmatist".
In a memorial volume published by the Mises Institute, Rothbard's protégé and libertarian theorist Hans-Hermann Hoppe wrote that Man, Economy, and State "presented a blistering refutation of all variants of mathematical economics" and included it among Rothbard's "almost mind-boggling achievements". Hoppe lamented that, like Mises, Rothbard died without winning the Nobel Prize and, while acknowledging that Rothbard and his work were largely ignored by academia, called him an "intellectual giant" comparable to Aristotle, John Locke, and Immanuel Kant.
Disputes with other Austrian economists
Although he self-identified as an Austrian economist, Rothbard's methodology was at odds with that of many other Austrians. In 1956, Rothbard deprecated the views of Austrian economist Fritz Machlup, stating that Machlup was no praxeologist and calling him instead a "positivist" who failed to represent the views of Ludwig von Mises. Rothbard stated that in fact Machlup shared the opposing positivist view associated with economist Milton Friedman. Mises and Machlup had been colleagues in 1920s Vienna before each relocated to the United States and Mises later urged his American protege Israel Kirzner to pursue his PhD studies with Machlup at Johns Hopkins University.
According to libertarian economists Tyler Cowen and Richard Fink, Rothbard wrote that the term evenly rotating economy (ERE) can be used to analyze complexity in a world of change. The words ERE had been introduced by Mises as an alternative nomenclature for the mainstream economic method of static equilibrium and general equilibrium analysis. Cowen and Fink found "serious inconsistencies in both the nature of the ERE and its suggested uses". With the sole exception of Rothbard, no other economist adopted Mises' term and the concept continued to be called "equilibrium analysis".
In a 2011 article critical of Rothbard's "reflexive opposition" to inflation, The Economist noted that his views were increasingly gaining influence among politicians and laypeople on the right. The article contrasted Rothbard's categorical rejection of inflationary policies with the monetary views of "sophisticated Austrian-school monetary economists such as George Selgin and Larry White", [who] follow Hayek in treating stability of nominal spending as a monetary ideal—a position "not all that different from Mr [Scott] Sumner's".
According to economist Peter Boettke, Rothbard is better described as a property rights economist than as an Austrian economist. In 1988, Boettke noted that Rothbard "vehemently attacked all of the books of the younger Austrians".
Ethics
Although Rothbard adopted Ludwig von Mises' deductive methodology for his social theory and economics, he parted with Mises on the question of ethics. Specifically, he rejected Mises' conviction that ethical values remain subjective and opposed utilitarianism in favor of principle-based, natural law reasoning. In defense of his free market views, Mises employed utilitarian economic arguments aimed at demonstrating that interventionist policies made all of society worse off. Rothbard countered that interventionist policies do in fact benefit some people, including certain government employees and beneficiaries of social programs. Therefore, unlike Mises, Rothbard argued for an objective, natural-law basis for the free market. He called this principle "self-ownership", loosely basing the idea on the writings of John Locke and also borrowing concepts from classical liberalism and the anti-imperialism of the Old Right.
Rothbard accepted the labor theory of property, but rejected the Lockean proviso, arguing that if an individual mixes his labor with unowned land then he becomes the proper owner eternally and that after that time it is private property which may change hands only by trade or gift.
Rothbard was a strong critic of egalitarianism. The title essay of Rothbard's 1974 book Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays held: "Equality is not in the natural order of things, and the crusade to make everyone equal in every respect (except before the law) is certain to have disastrous consequences". In it, Rothbard wrote: "At the heart of the egalitarian left is the pathological belief that there is no structure of reality; that all the world is a tabula rasa that can be changed at any moment in any desired direction by the mere exercise of human will".
Noam Chomsky critiqued Rothbard's ideal society as "a world so full of hate that no human being would want to live in it... First of all, it couldn't function for a second—and if it could, all you'd want to do is get out, or commit suicide or something."
Anarcho-capitalism
According to anarcho-capitalists, various theorists have espoused legal philosophies similar to anarcho-capitalism. However, Rothbard was the first person to use the term as in the mid-20th century he synthesized elements from the Austrian School of economics, classical liberalism and 19th-century American individualist anarchists. Lew Rockwell in a memoriam called Rothbard the "conscience" of all the various strains of what he described as "libertarian anarchism", and said their advocates had often been personally inspired by his example.
During his years at graduate school in the late 1940s, Rothbard considered whether a strict adherence to libertarian and laissez-faire principles required the abolition of the state altogether. He visited Baldy Harper, a founder of the Foundation for Economic Education, who doubted the need for any government whatsoever. Rothbard said that during this period, he was influenced by 19th-century American individualist anarchists like Lysander Spooner and Benjamin Tucker and the Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari who wrote about how such a system could work. Thus, he "combined the laissez-faire economics of Mises with the absolutist views of human rights and rejection of the state" from individualist anarchists.
Rothbard began to consider himself a "private property anarchist" in 1950 and later began to use "anarcho-capitalist" to describe his political ideology. In his anarcho-capitalist model, the system of private property is upheld by private firms, such as hypothesized protection agencies, which compete in a free market and are voluntarily supported by consumers who choose to use their protective and judicial services. Anarcho-capitalists describe this as "the end of the state monopoly on force". In this way Rothbard differed from Mises, who favored a state to uphold markets. He later came to terms that anarchists identified mostly with socialism, and in an unpublished article wrote that individualist anarchism is different from anarcho-capitalism and other capitalist theories due to the individualist anarchists retaining the labor theory of value and socialist doctrines, suggesting a new term to identify himself: nonarchist. In an unpublished article, Rothbard concludes his position not only by affirming that he is not [an] anarchist, but that those who "call us anarchists are not on firm etymological ground, and are being completely unhistorical", while also arguing that anarchism "in practice" leads to something that "is not really anarchism at all. It is either Communism or chaos."
In Man, Economy, and State, Rothbard divides the various kinds of state intervention in three categories: "autistic intervention" (interference with private non-economic activities); "binary intervention", (exchange between individuals and the state); and "triangular intervention" (state-mandated exchange between individuals). Sanford Ikeda wrote that Rothbard's typology "eliminates the gaps and inconsistencies that appear in Mises's original formulation". Rothbard writes in Power and Market that the role of the economist in a free market is limited, but it is much larger in a government that solicits economic policy recommendations. Rothbard argues that self-interest therefore prejudices the views of many economists in favor of increased government intervention.
Race, gender, and civil rights
Michael O'Malley, associate professor of history at George Mason University, describes Rothbard's tone toward the civil rights movement and the women's suffrage movement as "contemptuous and hostile". Rothbard criticized women's rights activists, attributing the growth of the welfare state to politically active spinsters "whose busybody inclinations were not fettered by the responsibilities of health and heart". Rothbard argued that the progressive movement, which he regarded as a noxious influence on the United States, was spearheaded by a coalition of Yankee Protestants (people from the six New England states and upstate New York who were Protestants of English descent), Jewish women and "lesbian spinsters".
Rothbard called for the elimination of "the entire 'civil rights' structure", which he said "tramples on the property rights of every American". He consistently favored repeal of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, including Title VII regarding employment discrimination, and called for overturning the Brown v. Board of Education decision on the grounds that state-mandated integration of schools violated libertarian principles. In an essay called "Right-wing Populism", Rothbard proposed a set of measures to "reach out" to the "middle and working classes", which included urging the police to crack down on "street criminals", writing that "cops must be unleashed" and "allowed to administer instant punishment, subject of course to liability when they are in error". He also advocated that the police "clear the streets of bums and vagrants."
Rothbard held strong opinions about many leaders of the civil rights movement. He considered black separatist Malcolm X to be a "great black leader" and integrationist Martin Luther King Jr. to be favored by whites because he "was the major restraining force on the developing Negro revolution". Jacob Jensen writes that Rothbard's commentary from the 1960s, approving of both "black power" and "white power" in separated communities, amounted to support for racial segregation. In 1993, Rothbard rejected the vision of a "separate black nation", asking "does anyone really believe that ... New Africa would be content to strike out on its own, with no massive "foreign aid" from the U.S.A.?". Rothbard also suggested that opposition to Martin Luther King Jr., whom he demeaned as a "coercive integrationist", should be a litmus test for members of his "paleolibertarian" political movement.
Rothbard is described by the historian John P. Jackson Jr. as espousing antisemitism despite Rothbard's own background as a secular Jew. One former student described Rothbard as privately using the anti-Jewish slur "kikes" repeatedly. Rothbard also befriended the Holocaust deniers Willis Carto and Harry Elmer Barnes.
Opposition to war
Like Randolph Bourne, Rothbard believed that "war is the health of the state". According to David Gordon, this was the reason for Rothbard's opposition to aggressive foreign policy. Rothbard believed that stopping new wars was necessary and that knowledge of how government had led citizens into earlier wars was important. Two essays expanded on these views "War, Peace, and the State" and "Anatomy of the State". Rothbard used insights of Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca and Robert Michels to build a model of state personnel, goals and ideology. In an obituary for his friend, the Holocaust denier Harry Elmer Barnes, Rothbard wrote:
Rothbard's colleague Joseph Stromberg notes that Rothbard made two exceptions to his general condemnation of war: "the American Revolution and the War for Southern Independence, as viewed from the Confederate side". Rothbard condemned the "Northern war against slavery", saying it was inspired by "fanatical" religious faith and characterized by "a cheerful willingness to uproot institutions, to commit mayhem and mass murder, to plunder and loot and destroy, all in the name of high moral principle". He celebrated Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and other prominent Confederates as heroes while denouncing Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and other Union leaders, who he said had "opened the Pandora's Box of genocide and the extermination of civilians" in the American Civil War.
Middle East conflict
Rothbard's The Libertarian Forum blamed the Middle East conflict on Israeli aggression "fueled by American arms and money". Rothbard warned that the Middle East conflict would draw the United States into a world war. He was anti-Zionist and opposed United States involvement in the Middle East. Rothbard criticized the Camp David Accords for having betrayed Palestinian aspirations and opposed Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon. In his essay, "War Guilt in the Middle East", Rothbard states that Israel refused "to let these refugees return and reclaim the property taken from them". He took negative views of the two state solution for the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, saying:
Historical revisionism
Rothbard embraced "historical revisionism" as an antidote to what he perceived to be the dominant influence exerted by corrupt "court intellectuals" over mainstream historical narratives. Rothbard wrote that these mainstream intellectuals distorted the historical record in favor of "the state" in exchange for "wealth, power, and prestige" from the state. Rothbard characterized the revisionist task as "penetrating the fog of lies and deception of the State and its Court Intellectuals, and to present to the public the true history". He was influenced by and called a champion of the historian and Holocaust denier Harry Elmer Barnes. Rothbard endorsed Barnes's revisionism on World War II, favorably citing his view that "the murder of Germans and Japanese was the overriding aim of World War II". In addition to broadly supporting his historical views, Rothbard promoted Barnes as an influence for future revisionists.
Rothbard's endorsing of World War II revisionism and his association with Barnes and other Holocaust deniers have drawn criticism. Kevin D. Williamson wrote an opinion piece published by National Review which condemned Rothbard for "making common cause with the 'revisionist' historians of the Third Reich", a term he used to describe American Holocaust deniers associated with Rothbard, such as James J. Martin of the Institute for Historical Review. The piece also characterized "Rothbard and his faction" as being "culpably indulgent" of Holocaust denial, the view which "specifically denies that the Holocaust actually happened or holds that it was in some way exaggerated".
In an article for Rothbard's 50th birthday, Rothbard's friend and Buffalo State College historian Ralph Raico stated that Rothbard "is the main reason that revisionism has become a crucial part of the whole libertarian position".
Children's rights and parental obligations
In the Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard explores issues regarding children's rights in terms of self-ownership and contract. These include support for a woman's right to abortion, condemnation of parents showing aggression towards children and opposition to the state forcing parents to care for children. He also holds children have the right to run away from parents and seek new guardians as soon as they are able to choose to do so. He argued that parents have the right to put a child out for adoption or sell the rights to the child in a voluntary contract in what Rothbard suggests will be a "flourishing free market in children". He believes that selling children as consumer goods in accord with market forces—while "superficially monstrous"—will benefit "everyone" involved in the market: "the natural parents, the children, and the foster parents purchasing".
In Rothbard's view of parenthood, "the parent should not have a legal obligation to feed, clothe, or educate his children, since such obligations would entail positive acts coerced upon the parent and depriving the parent of his rights". Thus, Rothbard stated that parents should have the legal right to let any infant die by starvation and should be free to engage in other forms of child neglect. However, according to Rothbard, "the purely free society will have a flourishing free market in children". In a fully libertarian society, he wrote, "the existence of a free baby market will bring such 'neglect' down to a minimum".
Economist Gene Callahan of Cardiff University, formerly a scholar at the Rothbard-affiliated Mises Institute, wrote that Rothbard allowed "the logical elegance of his legal theory" to "trump any arguments based on the moral reprehensibility of a parent idly watching her six-month-old child slowly starve to death in its crib".
Retributive theory of criminal justice
In The Ethics of Liberty, Rothbard advocates for a "frankly retributive theory of punishment" or a system of "a tooth (or two teeth) for a tooth". Rothbard emphasizes that all punishment must be proportional, stating that "the criminal, or invader, loses his rights to the extent that he deprived another man of his". Applying his retributive theory, Rothbard states that a thief "must pay double the extent of theft". Rothbard gives the example of a thief who stole $15,000 and says he not only would have to return the stolen money, but also provide the victim an additional $15,000, money to which the thief has forfeited his right. The thief would be "put in a [temporary] state of enslavement to his victim" if he is unable to pay him immediately. Rothbard also applies his theory to justify beating and torturing violent criminals, although the beatings are required to be proportional to the crimes for which they are being punished.
Torture of criminal suspects
In chapter twelve of Ethics, Rothbard turns his attention to suspects arrested by the police. He argues that police should be able to torture certain types of criminal suspects, including accused murderers, for information related to their alleged crime. Writes Rothbard: "Suppose ... police beat and torture a suspected murderer to find information (not to wring a confession, since obviously a coerced confession could never be considered valid). If the suspect turns out to be guilty, then the police should be exonerated, for then they have only ladled out to the murderer a parcel of what he deserves in return; his rights had already been forfeited by more than that extent. But if the suspect is not convicted, then that means that the police have beaten and tortured an innocent man, and that they in turn must be put into the dock for criminal assault". Gene Callahan examines this position and concludes that Rothbard rejects the widely held belief that torture is inherently wrong, no matter who the victim. Callahan goes on to state that Rothbard's scheme gives the police a strong motive to frame the suspect after having tortured him or her.
Science and scientism
In an essay condemning "scientism in the study of man", Rothbard rejected the application of causal determinism to human beings, arguing that the actions of human beings—as opposed to those of everything else in nature—are not determined by prior causes, but by "free will". He argued that "determinism as applied to man, is a self-contradictory thesis, since the man who employs it relies implicitly on the existence of free will". Rothbard opposed what he considered the overspecialization of the academy and sought to fuse the disciplines of economics, history, ethics and political science to create a "science of liberty". Rothbard described the moral basis for his anarcho-capitalist position in two of his books: For a New Liberty, published in 1973; and The Ethics of Liberty, published in 1982. In his Power and Market (1970), Rothbard describes how a stateless economy might function.
Works
Articles
The Individualist (Apr., Jul.–Aug. 1971); Revised and republished by the Center for Independent Education (1979). .
"Soviet Foreign Policy: A Revisionist Perspective." Libertarian Review (Apr. 1978), pp. 23–27.
"His Only Crime Was Against the Old Guard: Milken." Los Angeles Times (Mar. 3, 1992).
"Anti-Buchanania: A Mini-Encyclopedia." Rothbard-Rockwell Report (May 1992), pp. 1–13.
"Saint Hillary and the Religious Left." (Dec. 1994).
"The Other Side of the Coin: Free Banking in Chile." Austrian Economics Newsletter, vol. 10, no. 2.
Books
Man, Economy, and State. D. Van Nostrand (1962). full text.
Second edition (Scholar's Edition) published in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). . Full text.
The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies. New York: Columbia University Press (1962). Full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). .
America's Great Depression. D. Van Nostrand (1973). Full text.
Fifth edition published in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2005). .
Power and Market: Government and the Economy. Sheed Andrews and McMeel (1970). full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2004). .
For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto. Collier Books (1973). Full text; audiobook. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute. .
Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays. Libertarian Review Press (1974). Full text.
Second edition, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2000). .
Conceived in Liberty (4 vol.). New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House (1975–1979). Full text.
Republished, Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2012). .
The Logic of Action (2 vol.). Edward Elgar Publications (1997). . Full text.
Reprinted as Economic Controversies. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2011).
The Ethics of Liberty. Humanities Press (1982). New York University Press (1998). Full text; audiobook. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute. .
The Mystery of Banking. Richardson and Snyder, Dutton (1983). Full text.
Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). .
The Case Against the Fed. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (1994). Full text.
Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). .
America's Great Depression [5th ed.]. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (June 15, 2000).
An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought (2 vol.). Edward Elgar Publishers (1995). .
Vol. 1: Economic Thought Before Adam Smith. Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2009).
Vol. 2: Classical Economics. Republished in Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2009).
Making Economic Sense. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). . Full text.
The Betrayal of the American Right. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (2007). . Full text and audiobook, narrated by Ian Temple.
Despite posthumous publication in 2007, it appears in print virtually unchanged from the manuscript untouched since the 1970s.
Book contributions
Introduction to Capital, Interest, and Rent: Essays in the Theory of Distribution, by Frank A. Fetter. Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel (1977).
Foreword to The Theory of Money and Credit, by Ludwig von Mises. Liberty Fund (1981). Full text .
"Bramble Minibook" (1973). In: The Essential von Mises. Auburn, Alab: Ludwig von Mises Institute (1988). Full text.
Monographs
Wall Street, Banks, and American Foreign Policy. World Market Perspective (1984); Center for Libertarian Studies (1995); Ludwig von Mises Institute (2005). Spanish translation.
Interviews
"Interview with Murray Rothbard on Man, Economy, and State, Mises, and the Future of the Austrian School" (Summer 1990). Austrian Economics Newsletter.
See also
American philosophy
Alt-right#Influences
Anarcho-capitalism
Criticism of the Federal Reserve
Libertarianism in the United States
List of American philosophers
List of peace activists
Notes
Further reading
Doherty, Brian (2007). Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement. PublicAffairs.
External links
Murray Rothbard full bibliography at Mises.org
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C_c0689d83751147af8219f7465176608b_1 | Andrew Breitbart | Breitbart was born in Los Angeles, California, on February 1, 1969. He was the adopted son of Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively, and grew up in the affluent neighborhood of Brentwood, Los Angeles. He was adopted at three weeks old and raised Jewish. His biological parents had been Irish American. | Authorship, research, and reporting | Breitbart has been lauded for his role in the "evolution of pioneering websites" including The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, and more recently his "Big" sites. Journalists such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with bringing new voices to debates about politics and culture. Breitbart told Reason in 2004 that after feeling ignored by existing outlets, "We decided to go out and create our media." Described as "a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects" and "conversation pits", the Breitbart.com websites have been both criticized and praised for their role in various political issues. Breitbart has been recognized for adopting an inclusive stance with regard to LGBT participation in the conservative movement. He has also been credited with helping to derail conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship. In 1995, Breitbart saw The Drudge Report and was so impressed that he e-mailed Matt Drudge. Breitbart said, "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do." Breitbart described himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch" and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later, Drudge introduced him to Arianna Huffington (when she was still a Republican) and Breitbart subsequently assisted in the creation of The Huffington Post. Breitbart wrote a weekly column for The Washington Times, which also appeared at Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S. celebrity culture. On January 19, 2011, the conservative gay rights group GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council. In April 2011, Grand Central Publishing released Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, in which he discussed his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post. In June 2011, Breitbart's websites broke the story that congressman Anthony Weiner was sending women revealing photographs of himself. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Andrew James Breitbart (; February 1, 1969 – March 1, 2012) was an American conservative journalist and political commentator who was the founder of Breitbart News and a co-founder of HuffPost.
After helping in the early stages of HuffPost and the Drudge Report, Breitbart created Breitbart News, a far-right news and opinion website, which has been described as misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist by academics and journalists. He played central roles in the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, the firing of Shirley Sherrod, and the ACORN 2009 undercover videos controversy. Commenters such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with changing how people wrote about politics by "show[ing] how the Internet could be used to route around information bottlenecks imposed by official spokesmen and legacy news outlets".
Early life
Breitbart was born to Irish American parents in Los Angeles on February 1, 1969. According to his birth certificate, his biological father was a folk singer. When he was three weeks old, he was adopted by Gerald and Arlene Breitbart, a restaurant owner and banker respectively, and grew up in the affluent neighborhood of Brentwood. His adoptive family was Jewish; his mother had converted to Judaism when marrying his father. Breitbart studied at Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah. Theologically he was an agnostic.
Breitbart attended Brentwood School, one of the country's top private schools, but did not distinguish himself, saying: "My sense of humor saved me". However, he discovered that he loved writing, publishing his first comedic piece in the school newspaper, the Brentwood Eagle, analyzing the inequality in his high school's senior and junior parking lots: "One had Mercedes and BMWs, the other Sciroccos and GTIs."" Breitbart remembers his upbringing as apolitical, except in one instance: when the family's rabbi tried to defend Jesse Jackson against charges of antisemitism after his "Hymietown" comment, his parents left the synagogue in protest.
Breitbart would remain "proudly and playfully Jewish" throughout his life, although not always religiously observant. He would sing Hebrew songs at work while also teasing his Orthodox Jewish colleagues for keeping to a kosher diet. Joel Pollak wrote: "He carried his faith as he carried all his convictions: with a lighthearted touch but a deep commitment." Breitbart later said of his profession: "I'm glad I've become a journalist because I'd like to fight on behalf of the Israeli people... And the Israeli people, I adore and I love."
While in high school, Breitbart worked as a pizza delivery driver; he sometimes delivered to celebrities such as Judge Reinhold. He earned a BA in American studies from Tulane University in 1991, graduating with "no sense of [his] future whatsoever." His early jobs included a stint at cable channel E! Entertainment Television, working for the company's online magazine, and some time in film production. He was a Lincoln Fellow at the Claremont Institute in 2009.
Previously left-leaning in his politics, Breitbart changed his political views after experiencing "an epiphany" while watching the late 1991 confirmation hearings for Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, due to what he considered unfounded attacks on the part of liberals based on former employee Anita Hill's sexual harassment accusations. Breitbart later described himself as "a Reagan conservative" with libertarian sympathies.
Listening to radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh helped Breitbart refine his political and philosophical positions, igniting an interest in learning that he had suppressed as a result of his distaste for the "nihilistic musings of dead critical theorists" that had dominated his studies at Tulane. In this era, Breitbart also read Camille Paglia's book Sexual Personae (1990), a massive survey of Western art, literature and culture from ancient Egypt to the 20th century, which, he wrote, "made me realize how little I really had learned in college."
Public life
Authorship, research, and reporting
Breitbart has been lauded for his role in the "evolution of pioneering websites" including The Huffington Post and The Drudge Report, and later, for Breitbart News. Journalists such as Nick Gillespie and Conor Friedersdorf have credited Breitbart with bringing new voices to debates about politics and culture. Breitbart told Reason in 2004 that, after feeling ignored by existing outlets, "We decided to go out and create our media." Described as "a series of do-it-yourself demonstration projects" and "conversation pits", the Breitbart websites have been both criticized and praised for their role in various political issues. Breitbart has been recognized for adopting an inclusive stance with regard to the participation of gay people in the conservative movement. He has also been credited with helping to derail conspiracy theories about Barack Obama's citizenship.
In 1995, Breitbart saw The Drudge Report and was so impressed that he e-mailed Matt Drudge. Breitbart said, "I thought what he was doing was by far the coolest thing on the Internet. And I still do." Breitbart described himself as "Matt Drudge's bitch" and selected and posted links to other news wire sources. Later, Drudge introduced him to a then still-Republican Arianna Huffington and Breitbart subsequently assisted in the creation of The Huffington Post.
Breitbart wrote a weekly column for The Washington Times, which also appeared at Real Clear Politics. Breitbart also co-wrote the book Hollywood, Interrupted: Insanity Chic in Babylon with Mark Ebner, a book that is highly critical of U.S. celebrity culture. On January 19, 2011, the conservative gay rights group GOProud announced Breitbart had joined its Advisory Council.
In April 2011, Grand Central Publishing released Breitbart's book Righteous Indignation: Excuse Me While I Save the World, in which he discussed his own political evolution and the part he took in the rise of new media, most notably at the Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.
Breitbart News
Breitbart launched his first website as a news site; it is often linked to by the Drudge Report and other websites. It has wire stories from the Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Fox News, PR Newswire, and U.S. Newswire, as well as direct links to a number of major international newspapers. Its political viewpoint as well as its audience runs to the right within the U.S. political spectrum. In 2007, Breitbart launched a video blog, Breitbart.tv.
In February 2011, Breitbart and one of his editors Larry O'Connor were sued for defamation by Shirley Sherrod, who had been fired after Breitbart posted a video of a speech given by Sherrod. The video had been selectively edited to suggest that she had purposely discriminated against a white farmer, while in reality the unedited video told the story of how she had helped that farmer. Breitbart himself maintained that he stated this in his article about it, and that the purpose of the video was to show the crowd's positive reaction to Sherrod's statements about discriminating against the white farmer. In July 2015, it was reported that Sherrod and Breitbart's estate had reached a tentative settlement. It was reported October 1, 2016, that the lawsuit was settled.
In June 2011, Breitbart's websites broke the story that congressman Anthony Weiner was sending underage females revealing photographs of himself.
Commentaries
In 2009, Breitbart appeared as a commentator on Real Time with Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. In 2004, he was a guest commentator on Fox News Channel's morning show and frequently appeared as a guest panelist on Fox News's late night program, Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld. Breitbart also appeared as a commentator in the 2004 documentary Michael Moore Hates America.
On October 22, 2009, Breitbart appeared on the C-SPAN program Washington Journal. He gave his opinions on the mainstream media, Hollywood, the Obama Administration and his personal political views, having heated debates with several callers.
In the hours immediately following Senator Ted Kennedy's death, Breitbart called Kennedy a "villain", a "duplicitous bastard", a "prick" and "a special pile of human excrement," adding, "Sorry, he destroyed lives. And he knew it," referring to Kennedy's actions during the Chappaquiddick incident, the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination, and the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court nomination.
In February 2010, Breitbart received the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award during the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. During his acceptance speech, he responded directly to accusations by The New York Times reporter Kate Zernike that Jason Mattera, a young conservative activist, had been using "racial tones" in his allusions to President Barack Obama, and had spoken in a "Chris Rock voice". From the podium, Breitbart called Zernike "a despicable human being" for having made such allegations about what, according to him, was just Mattera's Brooklyn accent. At the same conference, Breitbart was also filmed saying to journalist Max Blumenthal that he found him to be "a jerk" and "a despicable human being" over a blog entry in which Blumenthal accused Breitbart of employing a racist. Blumenthal was referring to James O'Keefe over his having attended a Georgetown Law Center discussion on race featuring Kevin Martin, John Derbyshire, and Jared Taylor, the last of whom founded American Renaissance, a white supremacist online magazine. Neither O'Keefe nor Breitbart endorsed Taylor's views.
In 2011, Breitbart said that "of course" Donald Trump was not a conservative, adding:
But this is a message to those candidates who are languishing at 2 percent and 3 percent within the Republican Party who are brand names in Washington, but the rest of the country don't know ... celebrity is everything in this country. And if these guys don't learn how to play the media the way that Barack Obama played the media last election cycle and the way that Donald Trump is playing the election cycle, we're going to probably get a celebrity candidate.
These comments resurfaced after the controversy of Donald Trump hiring Breitbart News''' executive chairman Steve Bannon to be his White House Chief Strategist.
Activism
Breitbart often appeared as a speaker at Tea Party movement events across the U.S. For example, Breitbart was a speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention at Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville on February 6, 2010. Breitbart later involved himself in a controversy over allegations of homophobic and racial slurs being used at a March 20, 2010, rally at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., by asserting that slurs were never used, and that "it was a set-up" by Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund "for any audio/video footage of the N-word being hurled," claiming that the several Congressmen made it up. Breitbart insisted Congressman John Lewis and several other witnesses were forced to lie, concluding that "Nancy Pelosi did a great disservice to a great civil rights icon by thrusting him out there to perform this mischievous task. His reputation is now on the line as a result of her desperation to take down the Tea Party movement."
In February 2012, a YouTube video showed Breitbart yelling at Occupy D.C. protesters outside a Washington hotel hosting a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The video showed security escorting Breitbart back to the hotel while he told the protesters to "behave yourself", and alluding to reported assaults of women at Occupy encampments, he repeatedly yelled, "Stop raping people", and called the protestors "filthy, filthy, raping, murdering freaks!" David Carr said with the incident Breitbart had caused his last "viral storm on the Web."Sources that describe the confrontation with Occupy protesters at CPAC 2012:
The Web is Talking About Andrew Breitbart's Occupy D.C. Freakout, by Seth Abramovitch, The Atlantic, February 12, 2012
Eighty-Seven Seconds of Andrew Breitbart Yelling, by David Weigel, Slate, February 11, 2012
WATCH: Andrew Breitbart LOSES It On Occupy Wall Street Protesters , by Grace Wyler, Business Insider, March 6, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Dies: Most Controversial Moments (Video), by The Daily Beast, March 1, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43, by Kat Stoeffel and Hunter Walker, The New York Observer, January 3, 2012
EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Blogger Andrew Breitbart to Occupiers: 'Stop Raping People!' , by Emily Crockett, Campus Progress, February 10, 2012
Andrew Breitbart Confronts Occupy Crowd At CPAC, Demands They 'Stop Raping People', by Frances Martel, Mediaite, March 1, 2012
Right-Wing Blog Mogul Andrew Breitbart Flips Out at Occupy D.C. Outside CPAC , by Benjamin R. Freed, DCist, February 10, 2012
Occupiers Berated By Breitbart; Times Looks At Movement's Next Moves , by Esther Zuckerman, The Village Voice, February 11, 2012
Breitbart appeared posthumously in Occupy Unmasked, a documentary film by Steve Bannon that contends that the Occupy Wall Street movement of "largely naïve students and legitimately concerned citizens looking for answers" is actually orchestrated by sinister, violent, and organized leaders with the purpose of not just changing, but destroying the American government.
Breitbart Doctrine
The Breitbart Doctrine is the idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture.
Chris Wylie (formerly of Cambridge Analytica) stated in an interview with The Guardian: "The reason why he (Steve Bannon) was interested in this is because he believes in this idea of the ‘Breitbart Doctrine,’ which is that if you want to change politics you first have to change culture because politics flows from culture. If you want to change culture, you have to first understand what the units of culture are, and the people are the units of culture. So, if you want to change politics, you first have to change people to change culture." Breitbart considered this idea an important one and often spoke of it in interview or cited it in print.
Political views
Breitbart described himself as “eighty-five per cent conservative and fifteen per cent libertarian”. Breitbart had previously described himself as a Democrat but shifted towards being conservative after witnessing the Democrats' treatment of Clarence Thomas during his senate confirmation hearing.
He supported legalization of prostitution, gay rights, and drug liberalization. He was an opponent of multiculturalism and political correctness. Breitbart argued for US military intervention in Syria, North Korea, Iran, and China for humanitarian reasons. He was also a supporter of Israel.
Breitbart was a proponent of the Cultural Marxism conspiracy theory, claiming there are academics attempting to undermine western culture.
Personal life and death
Breitbart was married to Susannah Bean, the daughter of actor Orson Bean and fashion designer Carolyn Maxwell, and had four children.
At around 11:30 p.m. PST on February 29, 2012, Breitbart collapsed on a street near his home in Brentwood. He was rushed to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead 12:19 a.m. on March 1, 2012. He was 43 years old. An autopsy by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office showed that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy with focal coronary atherosclerosis and died from heart failure, which he had been diagnosed with the year prior. His burial was in the Jewish cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.
Tributes
Rick Santorum, Reince Priebus, Mitt Romney, Jonah Goldberg, Joel Pollak, Sarah Palin, Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, Michael Steele, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich paid tribute to Breitbart. Santorum called Breitbart's death "a huge loss" that strongly affected him. Romney praised Breitbart as a "fearless conservative," while Gingrich remembered him as "the most innovative pioneer in conservative activist social media in America". A special episode of Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld'' aired the day after his death as the host and panelists paid their tributes and showed clips from his appearances on the show.
Works
References
External links
Category:1969 births
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Category:Activists from California
Category:American Zionists
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Category:American agnostics
Category:American alternative journalists
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Category:American male non-fiction writers
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C_677f536a929d4c0e8e4687bf55cb8857_1 | Daniel Barenboim | Daniel Barenboim (born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor who is a citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain. He is the general music director of the Berlin State Opera, and the Staatskapelle Berlin; he previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Legion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Grosses Bundesverdienstkreuz and Willy Brandt Award. | Biography | Daniel Barenboim was born in 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Argentinian-Jewish parents Aida (nee Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert in his hometown, Buenos Aires. In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwangler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwangler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a child of Jewish parents to be performing in Berlin. In 1955 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pre were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, Du Pre having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'," Mehta recalled. Du Pre retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pre's death in 1987. In the early 1980s, Barenboim began an affair with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, with whom he had two sons born in Paris before du Pre's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pre, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and Michael Barenboim is a classical violinist. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Daniel Barenboim (; in , born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. From 1992 until January 2023, Barenboim was the General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeister" of its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin.
The former music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan. Barenboim is known for his work with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including seven Grammy awards, an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern und Schulterband. In 2002, along with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. Barenboim is multilingual, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German. A self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.
Biography
Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida (née Schuster) and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists. He started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. On 19 August 1950, at the age of seven, he gave his first formal concert, in Buenos Aires.
In 1952, Barenboim's family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents took him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler, who has remained a central musical influence and ideal for Barenboim. Furtwängler called the young Barenboim a "phenomenon" and invited him to perform the Beethoven First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic, but Barenboim's father considered it too soon after the Second World War for a Jewish boy to go to Germany. In 1955, Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
On 15 June 1967, Barenboim and British cellist Jacqueline du Pré were married in Jerusalem at a Western Wall ceremony, du Pré having converted to Judaism. Acting as one of the witnesses was the conductor Zubin Mehta, a long-time friend of Barenboim. Since "I was not Jewish I had to temporarily be renamed Moshe Cohen, which made me a 'kosher witness'", Mehta recalled. Du Pré retired from music in 1973, after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). The marriage lasted until du Pré's death in 1987.
In the early 1980s, Barenboim and Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova started a relationship. Together they had two sons, both born in Paris before du Pré's death: David Arthur, born 1983, and Michael, born 1985. Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pré, and believed he had succeeded. He and Bashkirova married in 1988. Both sons are part of the music world: David is a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, and is a classical violinist.
Citizenship
Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously. He lives in Berlin.
Career
After performing in Buenos Aires, Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955, he performed in Paris, in 1956, in London, and in 1957 in New York under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.
In June 1967, Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the 1969 film by Christopher Nupen of their performance of the Schubert "Trout" Quintet.
Following his debut as a conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra in Abbey Road Studios, London, in 1966, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.
Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999. In 1988, he was appointed artistic and musical director of the Opéra Bastille in Paris, scheduled to open in 1990, but was fired in January 1989 by the opera's chairman Pierre Bergé. Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006. He expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.
Since 1992, Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. He has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style. In autumn 2000 he was made conductor for life of the Staatskapelle Berlin.
On 15 May 2006, Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.
In 2006, Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound. The lectures on music were recorded in a range of cities, including London, Chicago, Berlin, and two in Jerusalem. In the autumn of 2006, Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk Sound and Thought.
In November 2006, Lorin Maazel submitted Barenboim's name as his nominee to succeed him as the New York Philharmonic's music director. Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position. Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
In 2009, Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. He returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and also conducted the 2022 Concert.
In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim–Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin. It opened its doors on 8 December 2016. In 2017, the Pierre Boulez Saal opened as the public face of the academy. The elliptical shaped concert hall was designed by Frank Gehry. Acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota created the hall’s sound profile.
In 2015, Barenboim unveiled a new concert grand piano. Designed by Chris Maene with support from Steinway & Sons, the piano features straight parallel strings instead of the conventional diagonally-crossed strings of a modern Steinway.
In 2018, Barenboim was the subject of the French animated series Max & Maestro.
In 2020, Barenboim curated the digital festival of new music “Distance / Intimacy” with flautist Emmanuel Pahud in the Pierre Boulez Saal. At their invitation ten contemporary composers, among them Jörg Widmann, Olga Neuwirth and Matthias Pintscher, contributed new works engaging artistically with the COVID-19 pandemic. All participating composers and musicians waived their fees, inviting listeners to financially support arts and culture.
In October 2022, Barenboim announced on social media that he would be reducing his conducting and other engagements for health reasons. On 6 January 2023, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden announced Barenboim's resignation as its Generalmusikdirektor, effective 31 January 2023, because of health reasons.
Musical style
Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Bärenreiter's new edition (edited by Jonathan Del Mar).
Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks. He argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm. He has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices. He has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.
In his recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Barenboim makes frequent use of the right-foot sustaining pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time (although the harpsichord was highly resonant), producing a sonority very different from the "dry" and often staccato sound favoured by Glenn Gould. Moreover, in the fugues, he often plays one voice considerably louder than the others, a practice impossible on a harpsichord. According to some scholarship, this practice began in Beethoven's time (see, for example, Matthew Dirst's book Engaging Bach). When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance in Bach's time:
The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent! ... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time ...
Recordings
In the beginning of his career, Barenboim concentrated on music of the classical era, as well as some romantic composers. He made his first recording in 1954. Notable classical recordings include the complete cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert's piano sonatas, Beethoven's piano concertos (with the New Philharmonia Orchestra and Otto Klemperer), and Mozart's piano concertos (conducting the English Chamber Orchestra from the piano). Romantic recordings include Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Chopin's Nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pré, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted performances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman, previously in the studio with Zukerman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pré), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pré and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pré, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).
Notable recordings as a conductor include the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Schubert, and Schumann; the Da Ponte operas of Mozart; numerous operas by Wagner, including the complete Ring Cycle; and various concertos. Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde. He has also performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.
By the late 1990s, Barenboim had widened his concert repertoire, performing works by baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: J. S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier (which he has played since childhood) and Goldberg Variations, Albeniz's Iberia, and Debussy's Préludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as jazz, and the folk music of his birthplace, Argentina. He conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.
Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led. Some examples include the Quartet for the End of Time by Messiaen with members of the Orchestre de Paris during his tenure there, Richard Strauss with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Mozart's Clarinet Trio with members of the Berlin Staatskapelle.
To mark Barenboim's 75th birthday, Deutsche Grammophon released a box set of 39 CDs of his solo recordings, and Sony Classical issued a box set of Barenboim's orchestral recordings on 43 CDs and three DVDs in 2017, Daniel Barenboim – A Retrospective.
Conducting Wagner in Israel
The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (then Palestine Orchestra) had performed Richard Wagner's music in Mandatory Palestine even during the early days of the Nazi era. But after the Kristallnacht, Jewish musicians avoided playing Wagner's music in Israel because of the use Nazi Germany made of the composer and because of Wagner's own anti-Semitic writings, initiating an unofficial boycott.
This informal ban continued when Israel was founded in 1948, but from time to time unsuccessful efforts were made to end it. In 1974 and again in 1981 Zubin Mehta planned to (but did not) lead the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in works of Wagner. During the latter occasion, fist fights broke out in the audience.
Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban. In that year, he had the Israel Philharmonic "rehearse" two of Wagner's works. In a conversation with Edward Said, Barenboim said that "Wagner, the person, is absolutely appalling, despicable, and, in a way, very difficult to put together with the music he wrote, which so often has exactly the opposite kind of feelings ... noble, generous, etc." He called Wagner's anti-Semitism obviously "monstrous", and feels it must be faced, but argues that "Wagner did not cause the Holocaust."
In 1990, Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works. "Although Wagner died in 1883, he is not played [in Israel] because his music is too inextricably linked with Nazism, and so is too painful for those who suffered", Barenboim told a reporter. "Why play what hurts people?" Not long afterwards, it was announced that Barenboim would lead the Israel Philharmonic in two Wagner overtures, which took place on 27 December "before a carefully screened audience".
In 2000, the Israel Supreme Court upheld the right of the Rishon LeZion Orchestra to perform Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However, strong protests by some Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program. (The Israel Festival's Public Advisory board, which included some Holocaust survivors, had originally approved the program.) The controversy appeared to end in May, after the Israel Festival announced that a selection by Wagner would not be included at the 7 July concert. Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Schumann and Stravinsky.
However, at the end of the concert with the Berlin Staatskapelle, Barenboim announced that he would like to play Wagner as a second encore and invited those who objected to leave, saying, "Despite what the Israel Festival believes, there are people sitting in the audience for whom Wagner does not spark Nazi associations. I respect those for whom these associations are oppressive. It will be democratic to play a Wagner encore for those who wish to hear it. I am turning to you now and asking whether I can play Wagner." A half-hour debate ensued, with some audience members calling Barenboim a "fascist". In the end, a small number of attendees walked out and the overwhelming majority remained, applauding loudly after the performance of the Tristan und Isolde Prelude.
In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.
Barenboim regarded the performance of Wagner at the 7 July concert as a political statement. He said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries". "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.
A Knesset committee subsequently called for Barenboim to be declared a persona non-grata in Israel until he apologized for conducting Wagner's music. The move was condemned by the musical director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Zubin Mehta and members of Knesset. Prior to receiving the $100,000 Wolf Prize, awarded annually in Israel, Barenboim said, "If people were really hurt, of course I regret this, because I don't want to harm anyone".
In 2005, Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine". In the speech, according to the Financial Times, Barenboim "called on Israel to accept the Palestinian 'narrative even though they may not agree with it'", and said, "The state of Israel was supposed to provide the instrument for the end of anti-Semitism ... This inability to accept a new narrative has led to a new anti-Semitism that is very different from the European anti-Semitism of the 19th century." According to The New York Times, Barenboim said it was the "fear, this conviction of being yet again the victim, that does not allow the Israeli public to accept Wagner's anti-Semitism ... It is the same cell in the collective brain that does not allow them to make progress in their understanding of the needs of the Palestinian people", and also said that suicide bombings in Israel "had to be seen in the context of the historical development at which we have arrived". The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but also justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".
In March 2007, Barenboim said: "The whole subject of Wagner in Israel has been politicized and is a symptom of a malaise that goes very deep in Israeli society..."
In 2010, before conducting Wagner's Die Walküre for the gala premiere of La Scala's season in Milan, he said that the perception of Wagner was unjustly influenced by the fact that he was Hitler's favourite composer: "I think a bit of the problem with Wagner isn't what we all know in Israel, anti-Semitism, etc ... It is how the Nazis and Hitler saw Wagner as his own prophet ... This perception of Hitler colors for many people the perception of Wagner ... We need one day to liberate Wagner of all this weight".
In a 2012 interview with Der Spiegel, Barenboim said, "It saddens me that official Israel so doggedly refuses to allow Wagner to be performed – as was the case, once again, at the University of Tel Aviv two weeks ago – because I see it as a symptom of a disease. The words I'm about to use are harsh, but I choose them deliberately: There is a politicization of the remembrance of the Holocaust in Israel, and that's terrible." He also argued that after the trial of Adolf Eichmann and the Six-Day War, "a misunderstanding also arose ... namely that the Holocaust, from which the Jews' ultimate claim to Israel was derived, and the Palestinian problem had something to do with each other."
He also said, that
since the Six-Day War, Israeli politicians have repeatedly established a connection between European anti-Semitism and the fact that the Palestinians don't accept the founding of the State of Israel. But that's absurd! The Palestinians weren't primarily anti-Semitic. They just didn't accept their expulsion. But European anti-Semitism goes much further back than to the partition of Palestine and the establishment of Israel in 1948.
In response to a question from the interviewer, he said he conducted Wagner with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra because, "The musicians wanted it. I said: Sure, but we have to talk about it. It's a tricky decision." When the interviewer asked if the initiative came from Arab musicians in the orchestra, he replied, "On the contrary. It was the Israelis. The Israeli brass players."
Over the years, observers of the Wagner battle have weighed in on both sides of the issue.
Political views
Barenboim is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner that was "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong" and "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel". In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.
Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians. In a November 2014 opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel ... is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."
West–Eastern Divan
In 1999, Barenboim and Palestinian-American intellectual Edward Said jointly founded the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra. This initiative brings together, every summer, a group of young classical musicians from Israel, the Palestine and Arab countries to study, perform and to promote mutual reflection and understanding. Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations". Together they wrote the book Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.
In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion. In response, Israeli Education Minister Limor Livnat of the Likud party called him "a real Jew hater" and "a real anti-Semite".
After being invited for the fourth time to the Doha Festival for Music and Dialogue in Qatar with the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in 2012, Barenboim's invitation was cancelled by the authorities because of "sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world". There had been a campaign against him in the Arab media, accusing him of "being a Zionist".
In July 2012, Barenboim and the orchestra played a pivotal role at the BBC Proms, performing a cycle of Beethoven's nine symphonies, with the Ninth timed to coincide with the opening of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In addition, he was an Olympic flag carrier at the opening ceremony of the Games.
Wolf Prize
In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel. Barenboim called Livnat's demand "politically motivated", adding "I don't see what I need to apologize about. If I ever hurt a person privately or in public, I am sorry, because I have no intention of hurting people...", which was good enough for Livnat. The ceremony was boycotted by Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, also a member of the Likud party. In his acceptance speech, Barenboim expressed his opinion on the political situation, referring to the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948:
I am asking today with deep sorrow: Can we, despite all our achievements, ignore the intolerable gap between what the Declaration of Independence promised and what was fulfilled, the gap between the idea and the realities of Israel? Does the condition of occupation and domination over another people fit the Declaration of Independence? Is there any sense in the independence of one at the expense of the fundamental rights of the other? Can the Jewish people whose history is a record of continued suffering and relentless persecution, allow themselves to be indifferent to the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the State of Israel allow itself an unrealistic dream of an ideological end to the conflict instead of pursuing a pragmatic, humanitarian one based on social justice?
Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Education Minister Livnat criticized Barenboim for his speech. Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.
Performing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.
In December 2007, Barenboim and 20 musicians from Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and one Palestinian were scheduled to play a baroque music concert in Gaza. Although they had received authorization from Israeli authorities, the Palestinian was stopped at the Israel–Gaza border and told that he needed individual permission to enter. The group waited seven hours at the border, and then canceled the concert in solidarity. Barenboim commented: "A baroque music concert in a Roman Catholic church in Gaza – as we all know – has nothing to do with security and would bring so much joy to people who live there in great difficulty."
In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status. Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace. Some Israelis criticized Barenboim's decision to accept Palestinian citizenship. The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".
In January 2009, Barenboim cancelled two concerts of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra in Qatar and Cairo "due to the escalating violence in Gaza and the resulting concerns for the musicians' safety".
In May 2011, Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House. The concert, held in Gaza City, was co-ordinated in secret with the United Nations. The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing. The musicians were escorted by a convoy of United Nations vehicles. The concert, the first performance by an international classical ensemble in the Strip, was attended by an invited audience of several hundred schoolchildren and NGO workers, who greeted Barenboim with applause. The orchestra played Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik and Symphony No. 40, also familiar to an Arab audience as the basis of one of the songs of the famous Arab singer Fairuz. In his speech, Barenboim said: "Everyone has to understand that the Palestinian cause is a just cause therefore it can be only given justice if it is achieved without violence. Violence can only weaken the righteousness of the Palestinian cause".
Awards and recognition
Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 2002
Prince of Asturias Awards, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said)
Toleranzpreis der Evangelischen Akademie Tutzing, 2002
Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin)
Buber-Rosenzweig-Medal, 2004
Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 (According to the documentary "Knowledge Is the Beginning", Barenboim donated all the proceeds to music education for Israeli and Palestinian youth)
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2005;
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, 2006
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 2007
Commander of the Legion of Honour, 2007
Goethe Medal, 2007
Praemium Imperiale, 2007
Nominated "Honorary Guide" by UFO religion Raëlian Movement, 2008
International Service Award for the Global Defence of Human Rights, 2008
Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, 2008
Istanbul International Music Festival Lifetime Achievement Award, 2009;
In 2009 Konex Foundation from Argentina granted him the Diamond Konex Award for Classical Music as the most important musician in the last decade in his country.
Léonie Sonning Music Prize, 2009
Westphalian Peace Prize (Westfälischer Friedenspreis), in 2010, for his striving for dialog in the Near East
Otto Hahn Peace Medal (Otto-Hahn-Friedensmedaille) of the United Nations Association of Germany (DGVN), Berlin-Brandenburg, for his efforts in promoting peace, humanity and international understanding, 2010;
Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur, 2011
Edison Award for Lifetime Achievement 2011, the most prestigious music award of The Netherlands
Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE), 2011
Dresden Peace Prize, 2011
International Willy-Brandt Prize, 2011
In 2012, he was voted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame.
Honorary Member of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts, 2015
Elgar Medal, 2015
Honorary citizen of Berlin, 2023
Minor planet 7163 Barenboim is named after him.
Honorary degrees
Doctor of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2003
Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, 2007
Doctor of Music, SOAS, University of London, 2008
Doctor of Music, Royal Academy of Music, 2010
Doctor of Philosophy, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2013
University of Florence, 2020
Grammy Awards
Barenboim received 7 Grammy Awards.
Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:
Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)
Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:
Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995)
Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)
Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:
Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Corigliano: Symphony No. 1 (1992)
Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):
Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim (conductor / piano), Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Richard Strauss Wind Concertos (Horn Concerto; Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Itzhak Perlman & the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for Elgar: Violin Concerto in B Minor (1983)
Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Arthur Rubinstein & the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven: The Five Piano Concertos (1977) (also awarded Grammy Award for Best Classical Album)
Straight-strung piano
In 2017, Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument. He was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings. Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality (or color) his new instrument gives. This piano was developed with the help of Chris Maene at Maene Piano, who also built it. In 2019, Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.
See also
19th century piano concertos
References
External links
Barenboim Revealed on CNN.com
Parallels and Paradoxes, NPR interview with Barenboim and Edward Said, 28 December 2002
"In harmony", The Guardian feature on Barenboim and Said, 5 April 2003
In the Beginning was Sound, 2006 BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures.
BBC Radio 3 interviews, November 1991
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, opus 85 Jacqueline Du Pré with Daniel Barenboim and The New Philharmonia Orchestra on YouTube
Review: Fidelio played by Daniel Barenboim and the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra
Westphalian Peace Prize
Barenboim's outstanding Beethoven, on the symphony cycle at classicstoday.com
Daniel Barenboim and Arab Anti-Israel Sentiment: A Classic Example of Political Naivety
Mutual Appreciation Is Essential Interview with Daniel Barenboim
Two interviews with Daniel Barenboim by Bruce Duffie, 2 November 1985 & 11 September 1993
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Category:Naturalized citizens of the State of Palestine | [] | [
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C_bdda5598a0b8495fa8fed7044678e8e1_1 | Elizabeth of York | Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 - 11 February 1503) was queen consort of England from 1486 until her death. As the wife of Henry VII, she was the first Tudor queen. She was the daughter of Edward IV and niece of Richard III, and she married the king following Henry's victory at the Battle of Bosworth which started the last phase of the Wars of the Roses. She was the mother of King Henry VIII. | Niece of the king | Elizabeth's mother made an alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII, who had the closest claim to the throne of those in the Lancastrian party. Although Henry Tudor was descended from King Edward III, his claim to the throne was weak, due to an act of parliament passed during the reign of Richard II in the 1390s, that barred accession to the throne to any heirs of the legitimised offspring of Henry's great-great-grandparents, John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. Despite this, his mother and Elizabeth Woodville agreed Henry should move to claim the throne and, once he had taken it, marry Elizabeth of York to unite the two rival houses. In December 1483, in the cathedral in Rennes, Henry Tudor swore an oath promising to marry her and began planning an invasion. In 1484, Elizabeth of York and her sisters left Westminster Abbey and returned to court when Elizabeth Woodville was reconciled with Richard III, which may suggest that Elizabeth Woodville believed Richard III to be innocent of any possible role in the murder of her two sons (although this is unlikely owing to her involvement in Henry Tudor's failed invasion of October 1483). It was rumoured that Richard III intended to marry Elizabeth of York because his wife, Anne Neville, was dying and they had no surviving children. The Crowland Chronicle claimed that Richard III was forced to deny this unsavoury rumour. Soon after Anne Neville's death, Richard III sent Elizabeth away from court to the castle of Sheriff Hutton and opened negotiations with King John II of Portugal to marry his sister, Joan, Princess of Portugal, and to have Elizabeth marry their cousin, the future King Manuel I of Portugal. On 7 August 1485, Henry Tudor and his army landed in Wales and began marching inland. On 22 August 1485, Henry Tudor and Richard III fought the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III, despite having the larger army, was betrayed by one of his most powerful retainers, William Stanley, and died in battle. Henry Tudor took the crown by right of conquest as Henry VII. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. A daughter of King Edward IV, Elizabeth married Henry after his victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field, which marked the end of the Wars of the Roses. They had seven children together.
Elizabeth's younger brothers, the "Princes in the Tower", mysteriously disappeared shortly after the death of her father. Although the 1484 act of Parliament Titulus Regius declared the marriage of her parents, Edward and Elizabeth Woodville, as invalid, she and her sisters were welcomed back to court by Edward's brother, King Richard III. The final victory of the Lancastrian faction in the Wars of the Roses may have seemed a further disaster for the Yorkist princess. However, Henry Tudor knew the importance of Yorkist support for his invasion and promised to marry Elizabeth before he arrived in England. This may well have contributed to the haemorrhaging of Yorkist support for Richard.
Elizabeth seems to have played little part in politics. Her marriage appears to have been a successful and happy one, although her eldest son Arthur, Prince of Wales, died at age 15 in 1502, and three other children died young. Her second and only surviving son became King Henry VIII of England, while her daughters Margaret and Mary became queens of Scotland and of France, respectively.
Ancestry and early life
Birth
Elizabeth of York was born at the Palace of Westminster as the eldest child of King Edward IV and his wife, Elizabeth Woodville. Her christening was celebrated at Westminster Abbey, sponsored by her grandmothers, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, Duchess of Bedford, and Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. Her third sponsor was her cousin, Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick.
In 1469, aged three, she was briefly betrothed to George Neville, who was created the Duke of Bedford in anticipation of the marriage. His father, John later supported George's uncle, the Earl of Warwick, in a rebellion against King Edward IV, and the betrothal was called off. In 1475, Louis XI agreed to the marriage of nine-year-old Elizabeth of York to his son Charles, the Dauphin of France. In 1482, however, Louis XI reneged on his promise. She was named a Lady of the Garter in 1477, at age eleven, along with her mother and her paternal aunt Elizabeth of York, Duchess of Suffolk.
Sister of King Edward V
On 9 April 1483, Elizabeth's father, King Edward IV, unexpectedly died and her younger brother, Edward V, ascended to the throne; her uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was appointed regent and protector of his nephews. Gloucester took steps to isolate his nephews from their Woodville relations, including their own mother.
He intercepted Edward V while the latter was travelling from Ludlow, where he had been living as Prince of Wales, to London to be crowned king. Edward V was placed in the royal residence of the Tower of London, ostensibly for his protection, while his uncle Anthony Woodville, and half-brother Richard Grey, who had both been escorting him, were arrested and sent to Pontefract Castle. Elizabeth Woodville fled with her younger son Richard and her daughters, taking sanctuary in Westminster Abbey. Gloucester asked Archbishop Bourchier to take Richard with him, so that the boy could reside in the Tower and keep his brother Edward company. Elizabeth Woodville, under duress, eventually agreed.
Two months later, on 22 June 1483, Edward IV's marriage was declared invalid. It was claimed that Edward IV had, at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, already been betrothed to Lady Eleanor Butler. Parliament issued a bill, Titulus Regius ("Royal Title"), in support of this position. This measure legally bastardised the children of Edward IV, made them ineligible for the succession, and declared Gloucester the rightful king, with the right of succession reverting to children of George, 1st Duke of Clarence, another late brother of Gloucester, who had been attainted in 1478. Elizabeth's uncle Anthony Woodville, and her half-brother Richard Grey, were executed on Gloucester's orders on 25 June. Gloucester ascended to the throne as Richard III on 6 July 1483, and Edward and Richard disappeared soon afterwards. Rumours began to spread that they had been murdered, and these appear to have been increasingly widely credited, even though some undoubtedly emanated from overseas.
Niece of King Richard III
According to only a single much later Tudor source, Polydore Vergil, Elizabeth's mother made an alliance with Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry Tudor, later King Henry VII, who presented himself as the closest claimant to the throne among the Lancastrian party. Although Henry Tudor was descended from King Edward III, his claim to the throne was weak, owing to an Act of Parliament of the reign of Richard II in the 1390s, which barred accession to the throne to any heirs of the legitimised offspring of Henry's great-great-grandparents, John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford. Whether such an unprecedented Act had force of law is disputed. Furthermore, there were legitimate Lancastrian lines into the Royal Houses of Portugal and Castile. Whatever the merits of Henry's claim, according to Vergil, his mother and Elizabeth Woodville agreed he should move to claim the throne and, once he had taken it, marry Elizabeth of York to boost his feeble claim. In December 1483, in the cathedral of Rennes, Henry Tudor swore an oath promising to marry her and began planning an invasion.
In 1484, Elizabeth of York and her sisters left Westminster Abbey and returned to court when Elizabeth Woodville was apparently reconciled with Richard III. This may or may not suggest that Elizabeth Woodville believed Richard III to be innocent of any possible role in the murder of her two sons. It was rumoured that Richard III intended to marry Elizabeth of York because his wife, Anne Neville, was dying and they had no surviving children. The Crowland Chronicle claimed that Richard III was forced to deny this unsavoury rumour. Soon after Anne Neville's death, Richard III sent Elizabeth away from court to the castle of Sheriff Hutton and opened negotiations with King John II of Portugal to marry his sister, Joan, Princess of Portugal, and to have Elizabeth marry their cousin, the future King Manuel I of Portugal.
Henry Tudor and his army landed in Wales on 7 August 1485 and marched inland. On 22 August, Henry Tudor and Richard III fought the Battle of Bosworth Field. Richard III had the larger army, but was betrayed by one of his most powerful retainers, William Stanley, and died in battle. Henry Tudor took the crown by right of conquest as Henry VII.
Queen of England
Marriage to Henry VII
Though initially slow to keep his promise, Henry VII acknowledged the necessity of marrying Elizabeth of York to ensure the stability of his rule and weaken the claims of other surviving members of the House of York. It seems Henry wished to be seen as ruling in his own right, having claimed the throne by right of conquest and not by his marriage to the de facto heiress of the House of York. He had no intention of sharing power.
Henry VII had the Act of Titulus Regius repealed, thereby legitimising anew the children of Edward IV, and acknowledging Edward V as his predecessor. Though Richard III was regarded as a usurper, his reign was not ignored. Henry and Elizabeth required a papal dispensation to wed because of Canon Law frowning upon "affinity": Henry and Elizabeth were descended from, respectively, John of Gaunt and his younger brother Edmund in the 4th degree, an issue that had caused much dispute and bloodshed as to which claim was superior. Two applications were sent, the first more locally, and the second one was slow in reaching Rome and slow to return with the response of the Pope. Ultimately, however, the marriage was approved by papal bull of Pope Innocent VIII dated March 1486 (one month after the wedding) stating that the Pope and his advisors "Approveth confirmyth and stablishyth the matrimonye and coniuncion made betwene our sou[er]ayn lord King Henre the seuenth of the house of Lancastre of that one party And the noble Princesse Elyzabeth of the house of Yorke."
Because the journey to Rome and back took many months, and because Henry as king wanted to be certain that nobody could claim that his wedding to Elizabeth was unlawful or sinful, the more local application was obeyed first—it was sent to the papal legate for England and Scotland, which returned in January 1486. Cardinal Bourchier, Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated at the wedding of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York on 18 January 1486. Their first son, Arthur, was born on 20 September 1486, eight months after their marriage. Elizabeth of York was crowned queen on 25 November 1487. She gave birth to several more children, but only four survived infancy: Arthur, Margaret, Henry and Mary.
Relationship with Henry Tudor
Despite their marriage being a political arrangement, records indicate both partners appear to have slowly fallen in love with each other. Thomas Penn, in his biography of Henry VII writes that "[t]hough founded on pragmatism, Henry and Elizabeth's marriage had nevertheless blossomed throughout the uncertainty and upheaval of the previous eighteen years. This was a marriage of 'faithful love', of mutual attraction, affection and respect, from which the king seems to have drawn great strength."
Henry understood the importance of pageantry to the establishment of a new dynasty. To distinguish himself as more secure in his reign than his predecessors, he valued demonstrating his wealth to foreign ambassadors of France and Spain. Elizabeth, who had been living and learning at her father's court until his death, contributed her knowledge of royal court etiquette. Elizabeth and her mother-in-law would shape the court's outward appearance, as Henry had not seen England since he was fourteen years old.
In order to maintain stability and peace after ending a civil war that had lasted 32 years, the new Tudor dynasty needed to put an end to the quarrelling Yorkist and Lancastrian families. Elizabeth's sisters, Cecily and Anne of York, and her cousin, Margaret Pole, were married to Lancastrian men who were loyal to Henry. Similar strategies had been used before by Richard III of England, though in that case the Titulus Regius had marred the status of Elizabeth and all of her sisters as illegitimate, and Richard had no intention of making it difficult for the two sides of the conflict to return to factionalism when two were married into one – his actions showed he was more interested in loyalty and eliminating rival claims by wedding them off to the inconsequential. Richard did this directly to Elizabeth's sister, Cecily, by wedding her to Richard Scrope. Elizabeth, therefore, had a motive to see to the successful welfare of her female relatives, but by no means could she foresee whether it would guarantee peace at last.
Further complicating things is that the public image of Henry Tudor, handed down through time only accords with the last years of his reign. Where, when, and how he spent his money is traceable by surviving documents, some written by the king himself and many more having his signature "Henry R" to indicate his oversight of entries, both his personal and the realm's finances, documented in careful detail. Surviving in the British National Archives are letters written by Elizabeth of York and also a records of her privy purse, supplying evidence that the rumour regarding Henry's mistreatment of his wife could be false. Elizabeth was a very pious woman and one of her life passions was charity, one of the three theological virtues of the Catholic Church. She gave away money and alms in very large quantities, to the point she indebted herself on many occasions. She also gave generously to monks and religious orders. Much of the criticism regarding the reign of Elizabeth's husband derives from the sneers of the nobility of the age, who were bitter about the recentralisation of power with the king in London, and the later viciously critical views of Francis Bacon, but evidence from the British National Archives along with more recent work in archaeology present a much different portrait where Elizabeth had a much more generous, kind, and doting husband in Henry Tudor behind the public perception. Behind the scenes, the evidence reveals a man who opened the purse strings for his children, mother, and wife and had a penchant for music, merrymaking, and dance on specific special occasions and in spite of many enemies made at the climax of the Wars of the Roses, there were still staunch supporters and friends of Henry, and that Elizabeth had won their trust.
The records state that Elsyng Palace was one of two nurseries for Henry and Elizabeth's children and they are both places where Elizabeth spent much of her time when not at court. Within a year of the Battle of Bosworth, a friend of Henry Tudor, Thomas Lovell, began expanding and improving upon the Elsyng property to make it fit for Elizabeth, her husband, and her children-to-be, completed by the time of the birth of Prince Henry with inner and outer courts and ample places to play for the royal children. This was largely done as a gift, but it was completed in the newer Renaissance style and in time was suitable enough for Henry and Elizabeth's grandchildren and proves it was a much loved refuge for the king and his wife.
Elizabeth received a grand coronation where she was carried on a royal barge down the Thames. More recent evidence suggests that Henry VII was as much a builder as his son and granddaughter and that his wife shared that interest: it is known now that Elizabeth had a hand in designing the former Greenwich Palace and that the Palace itself was well appointed for large scale entertaining. Records are very clear that Christmas was a raucous and special time for the royal family on the whole, evidenced by many surviving documents depicting a particularly lively court having a marvelous time, with copious amounts of imported wine, great amounts of money spent upon roasted meats, and entertainers. Henry also frequently bought gifts for Elizabeth and their children. The account books, kept by Henry, demonstrates that he spent a great deal of gold on expensive cloth for himself, his wife and his children.
Elizabeth of York did not exercise much political influence as queen due to her strong-minded mother-in-law Lady Margaret Beaufort, but she was reported to be gentle, kind and generous to her relations, servants and benefactors. One report does state that Henry VII chose to appoint Elizabeth's choice for a vacant Bishopric over his mother's choice, showing Henry's affection for, and willingness to listen to, Elizabeth. She seems to have had a love of books, patronising the English printer William Caxton. Elizabeth of York enjoyed music, dancing, and gambling; the last of these was a pastime she shared with her husband. She also kept greyhounds.
As queen, Elizabeth made arrangements for the education of her younger children, including the future Henry VIII. She also accompanied her husband on his diplomatic visit to Calais in 1500 to meet with Philip I of Castile, and she corresponded with Queen Isabella I of Castile before their children's marriage.
On 14 November 1501, Elizabeth of York's 15-year-old son Arthur married Catherine of Aragon, daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. The pair were sent to Ludlow Castle, the traditional residence of the Prince of Wales. Arthur died in April 1502. The news of Arthur's death caused Henry VII to break down in grief, as much in fear for his dynasty as in mourning for his son. Elizabeth comforted him, telling him that he was the only child of his mother but had survived to become king, that God had left him with a son and two daughters, and that they were both young enough to have more children. When she returned to her own chambers, however, Elizabeth herself broke down with grief. Her attendants sent for Henry who, in turn, comforted her.
Death and aftermath
In 1502, Elizabeth of York became pregnant once more and spent her confinement period in the Tower of London. Her embroiderer Robynet made her a new rich bed with curtains decorated with clouds and roses. On 2 February 1503, she gave birth to a daughter, Katherine, who died a few days later. Succumbing to a postpartum infection, Elizabeth of York died on 11 February, her 37th birthday. Her family seems to have been devastated by her death and mourned her deeply. According to one biographer, the death of Elizabeth "broke the heart" of her husband and "shattered him." Another account says that Henry Tudor "privily departed to a solitary place and would no man should resort unto him." This is notable considering that, shortly after Elizabeth's death, records show he became deathly ill himself and would not allow any except his mother Margaret Beaufort near him, including doctors. For Henry Tudor to show his emotions, let alone any sign of infirmity, was highly unusual and alarming to members of his court. Within a little over two years, King Henry VII had lost his oldest son, his wife, his baby daughter, and found himself having to honour the Treaty of Perpetual Peace.
In 2012, the Vaux Passional, an illuminated manuscript that was once the property of Henry VII, was rediscovered in the National Library of Wales. It depicts the aftermath of Elizabeth's death vividly. Henry VII is shown receiving the book containing the manuscript in mourning robes with a doleful expression on his face. In the background, behind their father, are the late queen's daughters, Mary and Margaret, in black veils. The red head of 11-year-old Prince Henry is shown weeping into the sheets of his mother's empty bed.
Henry VII entertained thoughts of remarriage to renew the alliance with Spain—Joanna, Dowager Queen of Naples (daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples), Joanna, Queen of Castile (daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella), and Margaret, Dowager Duchess of Savoy (sister-in-law of Joanna of Castile), were all considered —but he died a widower in 1509. The specifications that Henry gave to his ambassadors outlining what he wanted in a second wife described Elizabeth. On each anniversary of her death, he decreed that a requiem mass be sung, the bells be tolled, and 100 candles be lit in her honour. Henry also continued to employ her minstrels each New Year.
The Tower of London was abandoned as a royal residence, as evidenced by the lack of records of its being used by the royal family after 1503. Royal births in the reign of Elizabeth's son, Henry VIII, took place in various other palaces.
Henry VII's reputation for miserliness became worse after Elizabeth's death.
He was buried with Elizabeth of York under their effigies in his Westminster Abbey chapel. Her tomb was opened in the 19th century and the wood casing of her lead coffin was found to have been removed to create space for the interment of her great-great-grandson James VI and I.
Children
Arthur, Prince of Wales (20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502)
Margaret, Queen of Scotland (28 November 1489 – 18 October 1541)
Henry VIII, King of England (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547)
Elizabeth (2 July 1492 – 14 September 1495), buried in St Edward's Chapel, Westminster Abbey
Mary, Queen of France (18 March 1496 – 25 June 1533)
Edmund (21 February 1499 – 19 June 1500), buried in Westminster Abbey
Katherine (2 February 1503 – 10 or 18 February 1503), buried in Westminster Abbey
Appearance and legacy
According to folklore, the "queen ... in the parlour" in the children's nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence" is Elizabeth of York, while her husband is the king counting his money. The symbol of the Tudor dynasty is the Tudor rose, which became a royal symbol for England upon Elizabeth's marriage to Henry VII in 1486. Her White Rose of York is most commonly proper to her husband's Red Rose of Lancaster and today, uncrowned, is still the floral emblem of England.
Elizabeth of York was renowned as a great beauty for her time, with regular features, tall, and a fair complexion, inheriting many traits from her father and her mother Elizabeth Woodville, who was considered at one point the most beautiful woman in the British Isles. She inherited her father's propensity towards height as most women of her generation were considerably smaller than . All other Tudor monarchs inherited her reddish gold hair and the trait became synonymous with the dynasty.
Depiction in media
Film
Richard III (1995), played by Kate Steavenson-Payne
Television
The White Queen (2013), played by Freya Mavor
The White Princess (2017), played by Jodie Comer
The Spanish Princess (2019), played by Alexandra Moen
Ancestry
References
Sources
External links
Category:1466 births
Category:1503 deaths
Category:15th-century English women
Category:16th-century English women
Category:15th-century English people
Category:Burials at Westminster Abbey
Category:Deaths in childbirth
Category:English princesses
Category:English royal consorts
Category:Henry VII of England
Category:House of Tudor
Category:House of York
Category:Irish royal consorts
Category:Ladies of the Garter
Category:People from Westminster
Category:English Roman Catholics
Category:Children of Edward IV of England
Category:Daughters of kings | [] | [
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C_01f3533cd85340bea9088c00b28ea0e0_0 | Propagandhi | Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitarist Sulynn Hago. While their earlier work was aligned with the punk rock and skate punk tradition, in later years Propagandhi records have moved towards a heavier and more technical heavy metal-influenced sound. Both in their lyrics and hands-on activism, the band's members champion various left wing and anarchist causes and veganism, and have taken a vocal stance against human rights violations, sexism, racism, nationalism, homophobia, imperialism, capitalism and organized religion. | Potemkin City Limits, expansion to four-piece (2005-2008) | Propagandhi released the album Potemkin City Limits on October 18, 2005. Like its predecessor, the album features multimedia content, with a number of PDF files on topics such as participatory economics and veganism, and links to websites of organizations that Propagandhi support. The album's opening track, "A Speculative Fiction", won the 2006 SOCAN Songwriting Prize by online vote. Propagandhi pledged to use the $5000 prize to make donations to the Haiti Action Network and The Welcome Place, an organization in Winnipeg for which they'd previously done volunteer work which helps refugees start new lives in Manitoba. Hannah briefly adopted the pseudonym Glen Lambert in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the release of Potemkin City Limits, causing confusion among some fans, reviewers, and commentators; the band concluded the prank by announcing on 14 August 2006 that Glen Lambert had been dismissed and would be replaced by "former" member Chris Hannah. This coincided with the addition of second guitarist David Guillas, marking the band's first four-piece lineup in their then-twenty year career. Guillas, nicknamed "The Beaver", was a former member of two Winnipeg-based rock outfits, Giant Sons and Rough Music. Hannah had previously stated that he had been a fan of, and influenced by, Guillas' work in Giant Sons. In 2007, the band released a DVD entitled Live from Occupied Territory, which features a recording of their set at The Zoo in Winnipeg on July 19, 2003. Proceeds of the DVD benefit the Grassy Narrows blockade and the Middle East Children's Alliance. Included on the DVD are two full-length documentaries: Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, and As Long as the Rivers Flow. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitarist Sulynn Hago.
While their earlier work was aligned with the punk rock and skate punk tradition, in later years Propagandhi records have moved towards a heavier and more technical heavy metal-influenced sound. Both in their lyrics and hands-on activism, the band's members champion various left wing and anarchist causes and veganism, and have taken a vocal stance against human rights violations, sexism, racism, nationalism, homophobia, imperialism, capitalism and organized religion.
History
Formation, first two records (1986–1997)
In 1986, Samolesky and Hannah recruited original bassist Scott Hopper via a "progressive thrash band looking for bass player" flyer posted in a local record shop. Hopper was replaced three years later by Mike Braumeister, which completed the first lineup to perform live. After the band established itself through several demos and larger shows, including one with Fugazi, Braumeister moved to Vancouver, and John K. Samson became the band's third bassist.
In 1992, Propagandhi played a show with California punk rock band NOFX and included in their set a cover version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Impressed by their performance, NOFX front man Fat Mike signed them to his independent record label Fat Wreck Chords. The band later accompanied him to Los Angeles, where they recorded their debut album, How to Clean Everything, released in 1993. The band spent the next three years touring and issuing several smaller releases, including the How to Clean a Couple o' Things single on Fat Wreck Chords, a split 10-inch record with I Spy, a split 7-inch with F.Y.P, and the double 7-inch Where Quality is Job #1, the latter three on Recess Records.
In 1996, they recorded and released their second album, Less Talk, More Rock, via Fat Wreck Chords. The title was ironic, as they had become well known for lengthy song explanations and speeches during live performances. The album was more politicized than its predecessor, with such song titles as "Apparently, I'm a 'P.C. Fascist' (Because I Care About Both Human and Non-Human Animals)", "Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder", and "... And We Thought Nation-States Were a Bad Idea". Ramsey Kanaan, founder of the anarchist publishing company AK Press, appears on "A Public Dis-Service Announcement from Shell" as the voice of the petroleum multinational. Partial proceeds of the album were donated to AK and other activist groups. Less Talk, More Rock caused some controversy at the time of its release due to the band's pro feminism and "gay positive" stance which, according to Hannah, clashed with the sexist and homophobic culture of the West Coast punk rock scene with which the band had become associated.
Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (1997–2005)
After Less Talk, More Rocks release, Samson departed and formed The Weakerthans. Hannah's then-roommate Todd Kowalski, formerly of Propagandhi's touring mates I Spy and the political grindcore band Swallowing Shit, replaced him. Hannah and Samolesky also founded the record label G7 Welcoming Committee Records, which also released The Weakerthans' first album. The label structured itself around the participatory economic proposals of Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert. The band issued Where Quantity Is Job #1, a collection of EP and compilation tracks, demos, and live songs.
In 2001, Propagandhi released their third album, Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. The album was considered by some to be a major departure from their previous works. The song titles and lyrics of Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes furthered the sphere of their political views, bolstered by the addition of Kowalski's aggressive songwriting and an increased density of guitar lines. The album includes enhanced content, with political videos and essays concerning such topics as COINTELPRO and the Black Panther Party.
Potemkin City Limits, expansion to four-piece (2005–2008)
Propagandhi released the album Potemkin City Limits on October 18, 2005. Like its predecessor, the album features multimedia content, with a number of PDF files on topics such as participatory economics and veganism, and links to websites of organizations that Propagandhi support. The album's opening track, "A Speculative Fiction", won the 2006 SOCAN Songwriting Prize by online vote. Propagandhi pledged to use the $5000 prize to make donations to the Haiti Action Network and The Welcome Place, an organization in Winnipeg for which they'd previously done volunteer work which helps refugees start new lives in Manitoba.
Hannah briefly adopted the pseudonym Glen Lambert in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the release of Potemkin City Limits, causing confusion among some fans, reviewers, and commentators; the band concluded the prank by announcing on 14 August 2006 that Glen Lambert had been dismissed and would be replaced by "former" member Chris Hannah. This coincided with the addition of second guitarist David Guillas, marking the band's first four-piece lineup in their then-twenty year career. Guillas, nicknamed "The Beaver", was a former member of two Winnipeg-based rock outfits, Giant Sons and Rough Music. Hannah had previously stated that he had been a fan of, and influenced by, Guillas' work in Giant Sons.
In 2007, the band released a DVD entitled Live from Occupied Territory, which features a recording of their set at The Zoo in Winnipeg on July 19, 2003. Proceeds of the DVD benefit the Grassy Narrows road blockade and the Middle East Children's Alliance. Included on the DVD are two full-length documentaries: Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, and As Long as the Rivers Flow.
Supporting Caste, Failed States (2008–2015)
The band spent the following years working on their fifth record, Supporting Caste. During the recording sessions, Hannah stated that to his ears the record "resemble[d] a nuclear-powered space-age composite of Potemkin City Limits, Less Talk More Rock, Giant Son's Anthology and a carefully measured dose of Today's Empires Tomorrow's Ashes". The band created a web page giving fans an option to receive two high-quality songs from the album before its release by donating $1 to $10 to one of three activist organizations which they supported. The page also linked to various pre-orders of the album. It was officially released on 10 March 2009.
The digital Recovered EP followed on 6 April 2010. It featured old recordings from the How To Clean Everything and Less Talk, More Rock eras, remastered and with new parts recorded by Hannah. A split 7-inch with Sacrifice followed that December, featuring Propagandhi covering Corrosion of Conformity. In collaboration with their friends and fellow musicians from Sheet Happens Publishing and Protest the Hero, Propagandhi also released a tablature transcription of Supporting Caste for guitar and bass in early 2012.
The group began plans for a new record shortly after completing Supporting Caste. After several years' work and pre-release snippets offered through various Internet outlets, Failed States, their sixth studio album, was released on 4 September 2012 through Epitaph Records. Early reviews were generally positive: Revolver praised the record's musical and lyrical accomplishment, while Exclaim! identified its improvements upon the standards set by the band's recent work. In October 2012, the release of the Failed States tab book was announced.
Victory Lap (2015–present)
David Guillas has not been part of the touring lineup as of September 2015, and the band soon after recruited Floridian musician, Sulynn Hago, as their new touring guitarist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://propagandhi.com/2015/09/the-double-axe-stack-attack-is-back-jack-so-dont-gimme-no-flak-you-domesticated-bovid-himalayan-yak/|title=The Double Axe Stack Attack Is Back Jack so don't gimme no flak you domesticated bovid Himalayan yak|publisher=Propagandhi.com|date=September 30, 2015|access-date=September 30, 2015}}</ref> On May 10, 2017, the band announced on their Facebook page that a new studio album has been recorded, ready for release in or after Summer 2017. On July 17, 2017, Propagandhi announced that their new album, Victory Lap, would be released on September 29 through Epitaph Records. The announcement was followed by the release of the title track. In that album, Sulynn Hago was credited as a band member and David Guillas a "Propagandhi alumnus" who had contributed additional guitar parts.
Members
Current members
Chris Hannah – lead and backing vocals, guitar (1986–present)
Jord Samolesky – drums, backing vocals (1986–present)
Todd Kowalski – bass, backing and lead vocals (1997–present)
Sulynn Hago – guitar, backing vocals (2015–present)
Former members
Scott Hopper – bass, backing vocals (1986–1989)
Mike Braumeister – bass (1989–1991)
John K. Samson – bass, backing and lead vocals (1991–1997)
David Guillas – guitar (2006–2015)
Timeline
Discography
How to Clean Everything (1993)
Less Talk, More Rock (1996)
Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (2001)
Potemkin City Limits (2005)
Supporting Caste (2009)
Failed States (2012)
Victory Lap'' (2017)
See also
Animal rights and punk subculture
References
External links
Propagandhi official website
Official MySpace page
G7 Welcoming Committee official website
Category:Musical groups established in 1986
Category:Fat Wreck Chords artists
Category:G7 Welcoming Committee Records artists
Category:Musical groups from Winnipeg
Category:Anarcho-punk groups
Category:1986 establishments in Manitoba
Category:Recess Records artists
Category:Canadian punk rock groups
Category:Grand Hotel van Cleef Records artists
Category:Epitaph Records artists | [
{
"text": "Animal rights are closely associated with two ideologies of the punk subculture: anarcho-punk and straight edge. This association dates back to the 1980s and has been expressed in areas that include song lyrics, benefit concerts for animal rights organisations, and militant actions of activists influenced by punk music. Among the latter, Rod Coronado, Peter Daniel Young and members of SHAC are notable. This issue spread into various punk rock and hardcore subgenres, e.g. crust punk, metalcore and grindcore, eventually becoming a distinctive feature of punk culture.\n\nThe inculcation of some concepts and practices related to animal rights in the collective consciousness has been substantially pioneered and influenced by the punk movement. This association continues on into the 21st century, as evinced by the prominence of international vegan punk events such as Ieperfest in Belgium, Fluff Fest in Czech Republic, and Verdurada in Brazil.\n\nOverview and analysis \n\nThe relationship between punk and animal rights is highlighted in the imagery and lyrics of these bands, the content of zines, benefit concerts and albums for animal activist causes, and the convergence between punk and veganism in cafés, social centres, Food Not Bombs chapters, organisations such as the Animal Defense League and ABC No Rio (United States), and hunt saboteur groups (United Kingdom). Veganism has become the social norm in some communities of the anarcho-punk (current within punk rock that promotes anarchism) and straight edge (hardcore punk subculture based on abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs) subcultures. For their part, the devotees of the Hare Krishna tradition, present in the krishnacore subgenre, are required to be vegetarians.\n\nA 2014 study indicates that vegan punks are more likely to remain politically active through their diets and lifestyles than those who do not belong to this subculture. The majority of those incarcerated for illicit animal activism in the late 1990s and early 2000s were involved in hardcore punk music. In the anglosphere, although women are probably the greatest part of animal rights and environmental advocacy, young white men constitute the majority of both eco-animal rights criminality and the \"hypermasculine\" vegan straight edge milieu, coinciding with the propaganda success of organisations such as the Earth Liberation Front. Despite these correlations, the sociologists Will Boisseau and Jim Donaghey state that not all punks are vegans or are even interested in animal rights, while sociologist Ross Haenfler writes that tolerant straight edgers have always outnumbered their militant counterparts, who, nevertheless, \"overshadowed much of the scene\" for their violent actions.\n\nPolitics and religion \n\nResearcher Kirsty Lohman points out that punk's concern for animal welfare is placed in broader politics of environmental awareness and anti-consumerism, suggesting a form of continuity with previous countercultures such as the hippies and avant-gardes. One of the main characteristics of punk is its anti-authoritarian nature that includes a belief in liberation, concept which quickly extended into compassion for animals. In line with this, author Craig O'Hara said that \"politically minded punks have viewed our treatment of animals as another of the many existing forms of oppression.\" Furthermore, due to the substantial affiliation between meat eating and masculinity, many punks consider their vegetarian lifestyles as, at least partly, a feminist practice. For these reasons, Boisseau and Donaghey suggest that the relationship between punk culture and animal rights and veganism is best understood within the framework of anarchism and intersectionality.\n\nUnlike anarcho-punk, straight edge is not inherently political. For many straight edgers, as stated by Haenfler, \"the personal is the political\", choosing to live out their lifestyle (e.g. by adopting vegetarian diets) rather than engaging in traditional political protest. There have also been left-wing, conservative, radical, anarchist and religious interpretations of straight edge. Some straight edge people became Hare Krishnas because the latter provides a transcendental and philosophical framework wherein lay the commitments of non-drug use, vegetarianism and avoidance of illicit sex. Francis Stewart of the University of Stirling explained that there is still an anarchist influence on hardcore punk and straight edge, even if it were subtle, especially in regards to veganism and animal liberation and in the position of these within larger patterns of oppression. In 2017, she observed that straight edge has had an increasing hybridisation with anarchism.\n\nSome radical political circles and authors have criticised some straight edge branches, in particular its 1990s American form, for their \"self-righteous militancy\", \"reductionist focus on animal rights and environmental issues,\" and a religious leaning \"that, in its worst forms, resembled reactionary Christian doctrines\", according to anarchist writer Gabriel Kuhn. By the same token, other authors, such as music theorist Jonathan Pieslak, as well as straight edge activists argue that left-wing socio-political and politically correct agendas are detrimental to the movement because the scope of supporters is actually narrowed in broadening its causes since not everyone agrees on all of them. Instead, they propose the initial biocentrism which allowed highly divergent perspectives so long as the animals and earth were first.\n\nDespite their differences, sociologist Erik Hannerz highlights that anarcho-punk and straight edge not only coincide with animal rights, but both also emphasise a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic and downplay a conspicuous style in favour of calling to action, linking their lifestyles to political action. Elsewhere, Boisseau and Donaghey write that many people exposed to animal rights and veganism continue their activism after ending their involvement in punk scenes, indicating the politicising role of these subcultures.\n\nInfluence on participants \nPoliticisation through punk typically involves an awareness of animal liberation through song lyrics and albums that include information and images of animal cruelty. Zines also played a fundamental part by discussing animal rights, factory farming, and the health and environmental effects of diets, often drawing on academic authors. For many listeners, punk rock scenes provided their first encounter with the horrors of slaughterhouses or laboratories, as noted by the comparative religion scholar Sarah M. Pike and vocalist Markus Meißner, especially \"before the Internet made documentaries available to everyone.\" Regarding vegan straight edge activists, Pieslak writes that the \"movement had an intense impact on listeners, with the music playing a transformative role\". Pike said that it generated an \"internal revolution\" in them through \"the intensity of hardcore music and [its illustrative] lyrics\"; the music working on them together with documentaries that reported the harshness of seal hunting or fur farms; or simply the aural experiences \"affirmed at a visceral level\" the activists' desire for animal liberation.\n\nReception from the animal rights movement \nThe reception of punk's activism has varied through the broader animal rights movement, which reflects the \"much more diverse\" ideological and tactical differences existent within both movements \"than they might at first appear.\" Sociologist and animal rights advocate Donna Maurer positively exemplified vegan straight edge as a movement that includes ethical veganism as part of their collective identity, therefore furthering the cause, but warned that teens who adopt it only to be part of the group can contribute to the free-rider problem. Strategies such as arson and property damage have often been attributed to the youthfulness and punk subcultural affiliation of A.L.F. activists and other related organisations. The more mainstream advocates tend to condemn these tactics and sometimes their relationship with punk. Others have supported them because, in their opinion, they seem to produce more quick changes. Another trouble spot has been the anti-abortion stance of some of the most religiously committed activists which, in the case of hardcore punk, were influenced by the sanctity of life belief of Krishna Consciousness and hardline.\n\nAnarcho-punk\n\nBackground \nThe association of anarcho-punk and animal rights and environmentalism dates from the 1980s in the United Kingdom. This relationship (and subgenre) arises in the context of political upheaval, with a conservative government that waged war against Argentina (1982) and would eventually deploy nuclear missiles in the country. Anarcho-punk tried to restore punk rock's original objective of a subversive change in the world, countering the \"disappointment, self-destruction, and commercial corruption\" that permeated its key first-wave bands, and instead abiding by a devoted do-it-yourself ethic and philosophical anarchism. Anarcho-punk bands, which at first were widely pacifists, called to live consciously and to engage in activism; while some like Discharge and Crass emphasised their anti-war positions, others focused on animal rights such as Flux of Pink Indians and Conflict.\n\nJournalist Nora Kusche states that anarcho-punk was the first music genre that made animal rights activism one of its main characteristics. Some punks, most remarkably Joe Strummer of the Clash, were already vegetarians before the establishment of this movement.\n\nResearcher Aragorn Eloff notes that throughout the history of anarchism there had been some strands that criticised speciesism and embraced plant-based diets, but none had done so with such militancy as anarcho-punk in the 1980s. This was particularly true in its British political tradition.\n\nCharacteristics \nIn the anarchist DIY scenes, one of the most notable demonstrations of the punk lifestyle is a vegetarian or vegan diet. The anarchist philosophy of punk, which favoured action rather than a formal political organisation, was expressed in punks mobilising as hunt saboteurs (whose size was \"swelled\" by them), raising funds for activist groups and circulating British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection's propaganda. Images of animal testing were commonly exhibited in album covers, stickers, patches and buttons. An already well-established animal rights counterculture inspired some of these strategies, including leafleting at gigs. Kusche highlights that hunting was traditionally linked to the British aristocracy who then were disrupted by the \"scruffy, antisocial\" punks.\n\nDuring this period there was also a proliferation of punk zines that discussed animal rights and ecological practices of consumption. The scholars Russ Bestley and Rebecca Binns argue that the early establishment of animal rights in anarcho-punk led to a form of \"two-way dialogue\" between bands and participants instead of a \"top-down\" ideological imposition, which became more the case with other developments.\n\nMany traditional British anarchists differed in several ways from anarcho-punk, considering their interest in the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), the counterculture of the punk underground and other concerns as \"at best secondary and at worst irrelevant.\" Likewise, punks found many of the intellectual debates around anarchist politics and, initially, the violence supported by revolutionary traditionalists equally alienating. Although the separation was not unbridgeable, the tensions remained unresolved.\n\nEstablishment \n\nAn antecedent of this association is the 1979 song \"Time Out\" by the band Crass, initiators of anarcho-punk, in which they compare the human and animal fleshes. The band Flux of Pink Indians pioneered this trend with their 1981 EP Neu Smell. During their career, Flux gave out thousands of leaflets on vivisection and other subjects at their gigs. In the following years, numerous anarcho-punk bands composed songs promoting animal rights and sometimes made it the principal topic, encompassing vegetarianism, anti-vivisection and opposition to hunting. Furthermore, they would often include information and images of animal cruelty within in their records. The most important advocates of vegetarianism and animal rights were the group Conflict, who aligned themselves with the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) This band made a \"call to arms\" against different institutions, including slaughterhouses, and projected video footage of these while they played. The title of their 1983 song \"Meat Means Murder\" turned into a slogan which quickly propagated through the punk scene; articles on the topic appeared on fanzines, even on American (Flipside and Maximumrocknroll) and Australian ones. Their follow-up single To a Nation of Animal Lovers (1983) featured Steve Ignorant of Crass as co-vocalist and included illustrated vivisection essays in addition to addresses of scientists, food producers and fur farms.\n\nEarly anarcho-punk bands such as Amebix, Antisect, Dirt, Exit-Stance, Liberty, Lost Cherrees, Poison Girls, Rudimentary Peni, and Subhumans all wrote songs dealing with animal rights issues as well, as did non-political bands such as the Business. Other remarkable works dedicated to the cause were the compilation albums of bands The Animals Packet (1983), organised by Chumbawamba, and This is the A.L.F. (1989), organised by Conflict and which was described in a retrospective review as \"one of the most crucial anarcho-punk compilations of the '80s (and beyond)\". American political bands of the early 1980s such as MDC and Crucifix, both from California and influenced by Crass, also promoted vegetarianism.\n\nSociologist Peter Webb ascribed the growth of vegan and vegetarian cafés, organic food suppliers, and A.L.F. and Hunt Saboteurs Association increasing recruitment in Bristol through the first half of the 1980s to its anarcho-punk scene. Several members of political and anarcho-punk bands engaged in direct action activism, for example one member of Polemic Attack from Surrey was imprisoned for raiding an animal laboratory and two members of Anti-System from Bradford for destroying butcher shops and breaking into an abattoir, while the members of Wartoys (Manchester), Virus (Dorset), Polemic Attack, Disorder (Bristol), and Icons of Filth (Wales) all reported to have been hunt saboteurs, the last of whom also made songs against the meat industry and whose vocalist, Stig Sewell, staunchly supported the A.L.F.\n\nIn the mid- to late 1980s, the stripped-down and coarse style of anarcho-punk mixed with different subgenres of heavy metal and brought forth crust punk and grindcore, which shared its emphasis on political and animal rights issues. Early grindcore bands such as Napalm Death, Agathocles and Carcass made animal rights one of their primary lyrical themes. Early crust punk bands including Nausea, Electro Hippies and Extreme Noise Terror also advocated vegetarian lifestyles.\n\nIn Spain, the anarchist ska punk band Ska-P, formed in 1994, have written several songs criticising animal abuse and endorsed animal rights organisations.\n\nIn 2018, Gerfried Ambrosch of the University of Graz called the Canadian anarcho-punk band Propagandhi \"the most renowned contemporary vegan punk band\".\n\nImpact \nSome authors credit the anarcho-punk scene originated by Crass as the introduction of diverse concepts and counter-cultural practices in popular culture, including those related to animal rights. Eloff stated that the sudden growth of animal liberation theory and practice within anarchism since the 1980s, which also developed into philosophies such as veganarchism, was most probably caused by the anarcho-punk subculture. According to author John King, the animal stance of anarcho-punk spread through all areas of punk, especially the traveller, hardcore, straight edge, and folk-punk scenes. Despite this, writer and musician Andy Martin of the influential band the Apostles was not as enthusiastic, stating in 2014 that \"Dave Morris and Helen Steel, for example, have achieved more for the campaign against McDonald's than every punk band there has ever been. This is not to unduly berate punk bands, but they must be regarded in the correct perspective...\"\n\nSeveral animal rights activists such as Rod Coronado, Craig Rosebraugh, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and David J. Wolfson were initially inspired by anarcho-punk bands.\n\nStraight edge and hardcore punk\n\nCharacteristics \n\nBeyond the basic tenets of straight edge (complete abstention from alcohol, tobacco and any recreational drug), its participants can lead their lifestyles freely, but an investigation by Ross Haenfler of the University of Mississippi revealed some underlying values across the movement: healthy living, improving one's and others' lives, commitment to straight edge, refraining from casual sex, and involvement in progressive causes. Among the last, two of the most adopted are animal rights and vegetarian lifestyles, which many see as a logical extension of living a positive, non-exploitative lifestyle and equate the harm and immorality of drugs with animal products. Many straight edge activists credit their empathy towards animal suffering and their actions to stop it to the permanent state of consciousness that their sober lifestyle gives them.\n\nStraight edge, as most subcultures, is not inherently political but its participants seek to \"remoralise\" dominant culture through their individual acts of resistance. However, it often serves as a bridge to further political involvement, especially in social justice and progressive causes. The scholar Simon J. Bronner observes the lack of political homogeneity within the ideology, noting that there have been radical, religious, anarchist, and conservative straight edge bands, sometimes-tensely-coexisting in local scenes. For example, Earth Crisis, Vegan Reich and Chokehold all advocate veganism and sobriety, but disagree on other issues. Sociologist William Tsitsos pointed out that some of the most influential American straight edge bands that espoused animal rights focused only on personal morality, even when referring to corporations, while some of their European counterparts saw these lifestyles as part of a larger left-wing challenge against capitalism. He argues that, to a large extent, this was the result of the neoliberal and welfare politics that respectively dominated these territories.\n\nThe most controversial offshoot that advocated animal rights was hardline, a biocentric militant ideology that combines veganism, revolutionary politics and an Abrahamic view of the natural order, thus abjuring homosexuality and abortion. Hardline was largely marginalised and remained a fringe phenomenon. The sacredness of life belief introduced by hardline and Krishna Consciousness did not only embrace animals, but also unborn children. This influenced the anti-abortion stance of some of the most religiously committed animal rights activists and created a rift with those who supported it.\n\nInfluences and first contacts \nIn the mid- to late 1980s, American hardcore punk music and particularly its subculture straight edge began to get involved in animal rights and environmentalism. Journalist Brian Peterson attributes diverse influences on this relationship beyond anarcho-punk: the post-hardcore band Beefeater, the 1985 album Meat Is Murder by British post-punk band the Smiths, the Hare Krishna tradition, and the vegetarian rapper KRS-One. On the other hand, Pike notes two origins for the activists that would later emerge from the scene: the political one, which started with the arrival of the Animal Liberation Front from England, and the religious one, influenced by the Hare Krishna faith. Pioneering this trend were the 1986 songs \"Do Unto Others\" by Cro-Mags, a band with Hare Krishna members, and \"Free At Last\" by Youth of Today, straight edgers, both criticising slaughterhouses in a verse.\n\nEstablishment \nAfter those first contacts, works such as Diet for a New America (1987) by John Robbins and Animal Liberation (1975) by Peter Singer increasingly began to circulate between the members of the scene, influencing bands and zines. By this time Youth of Today had become the most popular straight edge group, propagating the youth crew subculture, and included the pro-vegetarian song \"No More\" and a recommendation of vegetarian literature in their 1988 album We're Not in This Alone. Several straight edge bands followed this trend, including Insted and Gorilla Biscuits. In the early 1990s, the straight edge offshoot krishnacore was developed, which among its principles includes vegetarianism, centred on the bands Shelter (formed by two ex members of Youth of Today) and 108. Haenfler estimates that at this time three out of four straight edgers in Denver, Colorado were vegetarians and that among them were many vegans. However, it did not take long before the new vocal vegetarians received a backlash from punks who considered these issues private.\n\nAnalogously, in the late 1980s, the hardcore punk subgenre powerviolence was established in California, featuring politically militant lyrics that also address animal rights. One of its most notable bands are Dropdead, who took cues from anarcho-punk and a strong animal activist stance.\n\nPropagation and militance \n\nThe American band Vegan Reich, formed in the anarcho-punk community, released their self-titled EP in 1990 along with a manifesto that ushered in hardline, a biocentric, militant, vegan, anti-drugs, and sexually conservative ideology. Vegan Reich frontman Sean Muttaqi stated he started the band to \"spread a militant animal liberation message,\" but ended up disillusioned with hardliners as they were \"all-consumed with minute details or inward shit\" by the end of his band in 1993. The hardline scene was small, had few associated acts (including Raid and Statement), and its principles on sexuality and abortion marginalised them to a large extent, but its stances on animal rights were innovative and helped to push veganism, direct action and increase awareness on animal liberation in hardcore punk. Vegan Reich also infused a more metal sound into straight edge.\n\nThe debates arising from the new moral tendencies in hardcore prompted animal rights to become predominant in the 1990s. Animal groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began to set up stalls at shows, distributing free literature. These organisations paid for advertisement in zines, some of which devoted their entire content to discuss these causes. Consequently, the association between straight edge and vegetarianism or veganism soon permeated the whole scene and gave rise to a predominantly militant branch centred on veganism: vegan straight edge. One of its pioneering bands was Chokehold from Ontario, Canada, but the ideology was largely popularised and radicalised by Earth Crisis from Syracuse, New York, whose lyrics from their 1995 debut album Destroy the Machines \"read like passages from Earth First!, Animal Liberation Front, and Earth Liberation Front direct-action essays.\" Other notable American vegan straight edge bands during the 1990s were Birthright (Indiana), Culture (Florida), Day of Suffering (North Carolina), Green Rage (New York), Morning Again (Florida), and Warcry (Indiana). By and large, their style was a blend of hardcore punk and extreme metal known as metalcore. The vegan straight edge record label Catalyst Records was founded in Indiana in the early 1990s as well.\n\nVegan straight edge soon influenced bands from many countries, including Sweden (Refused and Abhinanda), Portugal (New Winds), and Brazil (Point of No Return). In Belgium, straight edge bands such as ManLiftingBanner also advocated vegetarian diets and the Ieperfest vegan hardcore festival was founded in 1993, which would also influence the creation of the Czech vegan Fluff Fest in 2000. In Umeå, the city of Refused and Abhinanda, the number of 15-year-old vegetarians increased to 16% in 1996. Since the mid-1990s, the hardcore scene of São Paulo, Brazil has been highly organised, politicised and involved in animal rights by a collective that incorporated straight edge, anarchism, and the Hare Krishna tradition. One of its branches established the Verdurada drug and meat free festival in 1996, in which a vegan dinner is served at the end to the attendees. A portion of the Israeli hardcore scene intertwined straight edge, animal rights and anarchism at this period as well.\n\nInspired by these developments, some young people joined radical groups for animal rights and environmentalism such as the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), Animal Defense League (A.D.L.), Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth First! An increase in Animal Liberation Front activism in North America corresponds with the rise of vegan straight edge and hardline bands through the 1990s. The majority of animal rights activists imprisoned in the late 1990s and early 2000s were involved in hardcore punk. Despite the preponderance of this association, some people in the scene felt that militancy was taken to the extreme and they often responded reactionarily. Direct action methods were especially debated for the aggression and sometimes criminality they meant.\n\nIn the late 1990s, several vegan straight edge bands had split up and soon the ideology took a back seat in the American hardcore subculture, but its impact on the scene has lasted and become \"almost inextricably linked\" to it.\n\nImpact \nJournalist Will Potter affirms that the hardcore subculture \"was even more influential\" for activists than its British predecessor, with both having \"had a formative, lasting impact on\" the radical animal rights and environmental movements. Peterson states that the impact of animal rights on hardcore is felt not only in the scene, but also in the collective consciousness and many activists who developed there. Dylan Clark of the University of Toronto wrote that straight edge's advocacy of veganism ultimately fed it into the entire punk spectrum. Several animal rights activists such as Peter Daniel Young, several members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty 7 (SHAC 7), and Walter Bond were initially inspired by straight edge bands.\n\nOther manifestations \nIn Germany, the punk zine Ox-Fanzine was founded in 1989 and began publishing vegan cookbooks. In later years, there has been an influx of punk-themed cookbooks published by large publishing houses, including How It All Vegan (1999) by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard, and Vegan with a Vengeance (2005) by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Several punks have set up vegetarian restaurants across the United States after noticing the lack of catering towards them. Cosmetic and clothing companies also began to serve to their new punk-vegan niche market, including lines by Manic Panic (company started by former members of Blondie) and Kat Von D.\n\nSince 2001, Vans Warped Tour has been affiliated with PETA, including food vendors that distribute animal rights information. Other large punk festivals such as Rebellion in 2011 have turned their backstage caterings entirely vegetarian.\n\nThe ska-punk band Goldfinger, formed in 1994, started as a \"fun\" project but since their fourth album, Open Your Eyes (2002), their frontman and producer John Feldmann became a member of PETA and put animal rights at the forefront of their music.\n\nIn Spain and some Latin American countries, several punk bands have written songs against bullfighting.\n\nSee also \n List of songs about animal rights\n Anarchism and animal rights\n List of animal rights advocates\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nFurther reading \n\nCategory:Animal rights movement\nCategory:Punk\nCategory:Straight edge\nCategory:Anarcho-punk\nCategory:Animal Liberation Front\nCategory:Green anarchism",
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C_01f3533cd85340bea9088c00b28ea0e0_1 | Propagandhi | Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitarist Sulynn Hago. While their earlier work was aligned with the punk rock and skate punk tradition, in later years Propagandhi records have moved towards a heavier and more technical heavy metal-influenced sound. Both in their lyrics and hands-on activism, the band's members champion various left wing and anarchist causes and veganism, and have taken a vocal stance against human rights violations, sexism, racism, nationalism, homophobia, imperialism, capitalism and organized religion. | Formation, first two records (1986-1997) | In 1986, Samolesky and Hannah recruited original bassist Scott Hopper via a "progressive thrash band looking for bass player" flyer posted in a local record shop. Hopper was replaced three years later by Mike Braumeister, which completed the first lineup to perform live. After the band established itself through several demos and larger shows, including one with Fugazi, Braumeister moved to Vancouver, and John K. Samson became the band's third bassist. In 1992, Propagandhi played a show with California punk rock band NOFX and included in their set a cover version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Impressed by their performance, NOFX front man Fat Mike signed them to his independent record label Fat Wreck Chords. The band later accompanied him to Los Angeles, where they recorded their debut album, How to Clean Everything, released in 1993. The band spent the next three years touring and issuing several smaller releases, including the How to Clean a Couple o' Things single on Fat Wreck Chords, a split 10" record with I Spy, a split 7" with F.Y.P, and the double 7" Where Quality is Job No. 1, the latter three on Recess Records. In 1996, they recorded and released their second album, Less Talk, More Rock, via Fat Wreck Chords. The title was ironic, as they had become well known for lengthy song explanations and speeches during live performances. The album was more politicized than its predecessor, with such song titles as "Apparently, I'm a 'P.C. Fascist' (Because I Care About Both Human and Non-Human Animals)", "Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder", and "... And We Thought Nation-States Were a Bad Idea". Ramsey Kanaan, founder of the anarchist publishing company AK Press, appears on "A Public Dis-Service Announcement from Shell" as the voice of the petroleum multinational. Partial proceeds of the album were donated to AK and other activist groups. Less Talk, More Rock caused some controversy at the time of its release due to the band's pro feminism and "gay positive" stance which, according to Hannah, clashed with the sexist and homophobic culture of the West Coast punk rock scene that the band had become associated with . CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Propagandhi is a Canadian punk rock band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by guitarist Chris Hannah and drummer Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba and completed by bassist Todd Kowalski and guitarist Sulynn Hago.
While their earlier work was aligned with the punk rock and skate punk tradition, in later years Propagandhi records have moved towards a heavier and more technical heavy metal-influenced sound. Both in their lyrics and hands-on activism, the band's members champion various left wing and anarchist causes and veganism, and have taken a vocal stance against human rights violations, sexism, racism, nationalism, homophobia, imperialism, capitalism and organized religion.
History
Formation, first two records (1986–1997)
In 1986, Samolesky and Hannah recruited original bassist Scott Hopper via a "progressive thrash band looking for bass player" flyer posted in a local record shop. Hopper was replaced three years later by Mike Braumeister, which completed the first lineup to perform live. After the band established itself through several demos and larger shows, including one with Fugazi, Braumeister moved to Vancouver, and John K. Samson became the band's third bassist.
In 1992, Propagandhi played a show with California punk rock band NOFX and included in their set a cover version of Cheap Trick's "I Want You to Want Me". Impressed by their performance, NOFX front man Fat Mike signed them to his independent record label Fat Wreck Chords. The band later accompanied him to Los Angeles, where they recorded their debut album, How to Clean Everything, released in 1993. The band spent the next three years touring and issuing several smaller releases, including the How to Clean a Couple o' Things single on Fat Wreck Chords, a split 10-inch record with I Spy, a split 7-inch with F.Y.P, and the double 7-inch Where Quality is Job #1, the latter three on Recess Records.
In 1996, they recorded and released their second album, Less Talk, More Rock, via Fat Wreck Chords. The title was ironic, as they had become well known for lengthy song explanations and speeches during live performances. The album was more politicized than its predecessor, with such song titles as "Apparently, I'm a 'P.C. Fascist' (Because I Care About Both Human and Non-Human Animals)", "Nailing Descartes to the Wall/(Liquid) Meat Is Still Murder", and "... And We Thought Nation-States Were a Bad Idea". Ramsey Kanaan, founder of the anarchist publishing company AK Press, appears on "A Public Dis-Service Announcement from Shell" as the voice of the petroleum multinational. Partial proceeds of the album were donated to AK and other activist groups. Less Talk, More Rock caused some controversy at the time of its release due to the band's pro feminism and "gay positive" stance which, according to Hannah, clashed with the sexist and homophobic culture of the West Coast punk rock scene with which the band had become associated.
Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (1997–2005)
After Less Talk, More Rocks release, Samson departed and formed The Weakerthans. Hannah's then-roommate Todd Kowalski, formerly of Propagandhi's touring mates I Spy and the political grindcore band Swallowing Shit, replaced him. Hannah and Samolesky also founded the record label G7 Welcoming Committee Records, which also released The Weakerthans' first album. The label structured itself around the participatory economic proposals of Robin Hahnel and Michael Albert. The band issued Where Quantity Is Job #1, a collection of EP and compilation tracks, demos, and live songs.
In 2001, Propagandhi released their third album, Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes. The album was considered by some to be a major departure from their previous works. The song titles and lyrics of Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes furthered the sphere of their political views, bolstered by the addition of Kowalski's aggressive songwriting and an increased density of guitar lines. The album includes enhanced content, with political videos and essays concerning such topics as COINTELPRO and the Black Panther Party.
Potemkin City Limits, expansion to four-piece (2005–2008)
Propagandhi released the album Potemkin City Limits on October 18, 2005. Like its predecessor, the album features multimedia content, with a number of PDF files on topics such as participatory economics and veganism, and links to websites of organizations that Propagandhi support. The album's opening track, "A Speculative Fiction", won the 2006 SOCAN Songwriting Prize by online vote. Propagandhi pledged to use the $5000 prize to make donations to the Haiti Action Network and The Welcome Place, an organization in Winnipeg for which they'd previously done volunteer work which helps refugees start new lives in Manitoba.
Hannah briefly adopted the pseudonym Glen Lambert in the run-up to and immediate aftermath of the release of Potemkin City Limits, causing confusion among some fans, reviewers, and commentators; the band concluded the prank by announcing on 14 August 2006 that Glen Lambert had been dismissed and would be replaced by "former" member Chris Hannah. This coincided with the addition of second guitarist David Guillas, marking the band's first four-piece lineup in their then-twenty year career. Guillas, nicknamed "The Beaver", was a former member of two Winnipeg-based rock outfits, Giant Sons and Rough Music. Hannah had previously stated that he had been a fan of, and influenced by, Guillas' work in Giant Sons.
In 2007, the band released a DVD entitled Live from Occupied Territory, which features a recording of their set at The Zoo in Winnipeg on July 19, 2003. Proceeds of the DVD benefit the Grassy Narrows road blockade and the Middle East Children's Alliance. Included on the DVD are two full-length documentaries: Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land, and As Long as the Rivers Flow.
Supporting Caste, Failed States (2008–2015)
The band spent the following years working on their fifth record, Supporting Caste. During the recording sessions, Hannah stated that to his ears the record "resemble[d] a nuclear-powered space-age composite of Potemkin City Limits, Less Talk More Rock, Giant Son's Anthology and a carefully measured dose of Today's Empires Tomorrow's Ashes". The band created a web page giving fans an option to receive two high-quality songs from the album before its release by donating $1 to $10 to one of three activist organizations which they supported. The page also linked to various pre-orders of the album. It was officially released on 10 March 2009.
The digital Recovered EP followed on 6 April 2010. It featured old recordings from the How To Clean Everything and Less Talk, More Rock eras, remastered and with new parts recorded by Hannah. A split 7-inch with Sacrifice followed that December, featuring Propagandhi covering Corrosion of Conformity. In collaboration with their friends and fellow musicians from Sheet Happens Publishing and Protest the Hero, Propagandhi also released a tablature transcription of Supporting Caste for guitar and bass in early 2012.
The group began plans for a new record shortly after completing Supporting Caste. After several years' work and pre-release snippets offered through various Internet outlets, Failed States, their sixth studio album, was released on 4 September 2012 through Epitaph Records. Early reviews were generally positive: Revolver praised the record's musical and lyrical accomplishment, while Exclaim! identified its improvements upon the standards set by the band's recent work. In October 2012, the release of the Failed States tab book was announced.
Victory Lap (2015–present)
David Guillas has not been part of the touring lineup as of September 2015, and the band soon after recruited Floridian musician, Sulynn Hago, as their new touring guitarist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://propagandhi.com/2015/09/the-double-axe-stack-attack-is-back-jack-so-dont-gimme-no-flak-you-domesticated-bovid-himalayan-yak/|title=The Double Axe Stack Attack Is Back Jack so don't gimme no flak you domesticated bovid Himalayan yak|publisher=Propagandhi.com|date=September 30, 2015|access-date=September 30, 2015}}</ref> On May 10, 2017, the band announced on their Facebook page that a new studio album has been recorded, ready for release in or after Summer 2017. On July 17, 2017, Propagandhi announced that their new album, Victory Lap, would be released on September 29 through Epitaph Records. The announcement was followed by the release of the title track. In that album, Sulynn Hago was credited as a band member and David Guillas a "Propagandhi alumnus" who had contributed additional guitar parts.
Members
Current members
Chris Hannah – lead and backing vocals, guitar (1986–present)
Jord Samolesky – drums, backing vocals (1986–present)
Todd Kowalski – bass, backing and lead vocals (1997–present)
Sulynn Hago – guitar, backing vocals (2015–present)
Former members
Scott Hopper – bass, backing vocals (1986–1989)
Mike Braumeister – bass (1989–1991)
John K. Samson – bass, backing and lead vocals (1991–1997)
David Guillas – guitar (2006–2015)
Timeline
Discography
How to Clean Everything (1993)
Less Talk, More Rock (1996)
Today's Empires, Tomorrow's Ashes (2001)
Potemkin City Limits (2005)
Supporting Caste (2009)
Failed States (2012)
Victory Lap'' (2017)
See also
Animal rights and punk subculture
References
External links
Propagandhi official website
Official MySpace page
G7 Welcoming Committee official website
Category:Musical groups established in 1986
Category:Fat Wreck Chords artists
Category:G7 Welcoming Committee Records artists
Category:Musical groups from Winnipeg
Category:Anarcho-punk groups
Category:1986 establishments in Manitoba
Category:Recess Records artists
Category:Canadian punk rock groups
Category:Grand Hotel van Cleef Records artists
Category:Epitaph Records artists | [
{
"text": "Animal rights are closely associated with two ideologies of the punk subculture: anarcho-punk and straight edge. This association dates back to the 1980s and has been expressed in areas that include song lyrics, benefit concerts for animal rights organisations, and militant actions of activists influenced by punk music. Among the latter, Rod Coronado, Peter Daniel Young and members of SHAC are notable. This issue spread into various punk rock and hardcore subgenres, e.g. crust punk, metalcore and grindcore, eventually becoming a distinctive feature of punk culture.\n\nThe inculcation of some concepts and practices related to animal rights in the collective consciousness has been substantially pioneered and influenced by the punk movement. This association continues on into the 21st century, as evinced by the prominence of international vegan punk events such as Ieperfest in Belgium, Fluff Fest in Czech Republic, and Verdurada in Brazil.\n\nOverview and analysis \n\nThe relationship between punk and animal rights is highlighted in the imagery and lyrics of these bands, the content of zines, benefit concerts and albums for animal activist causes, and the convergence between punk and veganism in cafés, social centres, Food Not Bombs chapters, organisations such as the Animal Defense League and ABC No Rio (United States), and hunt saboteur groups (United Kingdom). Veganism has become the social norm in some communities of the anarcho-punk (current within punk rock that promotes anarchism) and straight edge (hardcore punk subculture based on abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and other recreational drugs) subcultures. For their part, the devotees of the Hare Krishna tradition, present in the krishnacore subgenre, are required to be vegetarians.\n\nA 2014 study indicates that vegan punks are more likely to remain politically active through their diets and lifestyles than those who do not belong to this subculture. The majority of those incarcerated for illicit animal activism in the late 1990s and early 2000s were involved in hardcore punk music. In the anglosphere, although women are probably the greatest part of animal rights and environmental advocacy, young white men constitute the majority of both eco-animal rights criminality and the \"hypermasculine\" vegan straight edge milieu, coinciding with the propaganda success of organisations such as the Earth Liberation Front. Despite these correlations, the sociologists Will Boisseau and Jim Donaghey state that not all punks are vegans or are even interested in animal rights, while sociologist Ross Haenfler writes that tolerant straight edgers have always outnumbered their militant counterparts, who, nevertheless, \"overshadowed much of the scene\" for their violent actions.\n\nPolitics and religion \n\nResearcher Kirsty Lohman points out that punk's concern for animal welfare is placed in broader politics of environmental awareness and anti-consumerism, suggesting a form of continuity with previous countercultures such as the hippies and avant-gardes. One of the main characteristics of punk is its anti-authoritarian nature that includes a belief in liberation, concept which quickly extended into compassion for animals. In line with this, author Craig O'Hara said that \"politically minded punks have viewed our treatment of animals as another of the many existing forms of oppression.\" Furthermore, due to the substantial affiliation between meat eating and masculinity, many punks consider their vegetarian lifestyles as, at least partly, a feminist practice. For these reasons, Boisseau and Donaghey suggest that the relationship between punk culture and animal rights and veganism is best understood within the framework of anarchism and intersectionality.\n\nUnlike anarcho-punk, straight edge is not inherently political. For many straight edgers, as stated by Haenfler, \"the personal is the political\", choosing to live out their lifestyle (e.g. by adopting vegetarian diets) rather than engaging in traditional political protest. There have also been left-wing, conservative, radical, anarchist and religious interpretations of straight edge. Some straight edge people became Hare Krishnas because the latter provides a transcendental and philosophical framework wherein lay the commitments of non-drug use, vegetarianism and avoidance of illicit sex. Francis Stewart of the University of Stirling explained that there is still an anarchist influence on hardcore punk and straight edge, even if it were subtle, especially in regards to veganism and animal liberation and in the position of these within larger patterns of oppression. In 2017, she observed that straight edge has had an increasing hybridisation with anarchism.\n\nSome radical political circles and authors have criticised some straight edge branches, in particular its 1990s American form, for their \"self-righteous militancy\", \"reductionist focus on animal rights and environmental issues,\" and a religious leaning \"that, in its worst forms, resembled reactionary Christian doctrines\", according to anarchist writer Gabriel Kuhn. By the same token, other authors, such as music theorist Jonathan Pieslak, as well as straight edge activists argue that left-wing socio-political and politically correct agendas are detrimental to the movement because the scope of supporters is actually narrowed in broadening its causes since not everyone agrees on all of them. Instead, they propose the initial biocentrism which allowed highly divergent perspectives so long as the animals and earth were first.\n\nDespite their differences, sociologist Erik Hannerz highlights that anarcho-punk and straight edge not only coincide with animal rights, but both also emphasise a do-it-yourself (DIY) ethic and downplay a conspicuous style in favour of calling to action, linking their lifestyles to political action. Elsewhere, Boisseau and Donaghey write that many people exposed to animal rights and veganism continue their activism after ending their involvement in punk scenes, indicating the politicising role of these subcultures.\n\nInfluence on participants \nPoliticisation through punk typically involves an awareness of animal liberation through song lyrics and albums that include information and images of animal cruelty. Zines also played a fundamental part by discussing animal rights, factory farming, and the health and environmental effects of diets, often drawing on academic authors. For many listeners, punk rock scenes provided their first encounter with the horrors of slaughterhouses or laboratories, as noted by the comparative religion scholar Sarah M. Pike and vocalist Markus Meißner, especially \"before the Internet made documentaries available to everyone.\" Regarding vegan straight edge activists, Pieslak writes that the \"movement had an intense impact on listeners, with the music playing a transformative role\". Pike said that it generated an \"internal revolution\" in them through \"the intensity of hardcore music and [its illustrative] lyrics\"; the music working on them together with documentaries that reported the harshness of seal hunting or fur farms; or simply the aural experiences \"affirmed at a visceral level\" the activists' desire for animal liberation.\n\nReception from the animal rights movement \nThe reception of punk's activism has varied through the broader animal rights movement, which reflects the \"much more diverse\" ideological and tactical differences existent within both movements \"than they might at first appear.\" Sociologist and animal rights advocate Donna Maurer positively exemplified vegan straight edge as a movement that includes ethical veganism as part of their collective identity, therefore furthering the cause, but warned that teens who adopt it only to be part of the group can contribute to the free-rider problem. Strategies such as arson and property damage have often been attributed to the youthfulness and punk subcultural affiliation of A.L.F. activists and other related organisations. The more mainstream advocates tend to condemn these tactics and sometimes their relationship with punk. Others have supported them because, in their opinion, they seem to produce more quick changes. Another trouble spot has been the anti-abortion stance of some of the most religiously committed activists which, in the case of hardcore punk, were influenced by the sanctity of life belief of Krishna Consciousness and hardline.\n\nAnarcho-punk\n\nBackground \nThe association of anarcho-punk and animal rights and environmentalism dates from the 1980s in the United Kingdom. This relationship (and subgenre) arises in the context of political upheaval, with a conservative government that waged war against Argentina (1982) and would eventually deploy nuclear missiles in the country. Anarcho-punk tried to restore punk rock's original objective of a subversive change in the world, countering the \"disappointment, self-destruction, and commercial corruption\" that permeated its key first-wave bands, and instead abiding by a devoted do-it-yourself ethic and philosophical anarchism. Anarcho-punk bands, which at first were widely pacifists, called to live consciously and to engage in activism; while some like Discharge and Crass emphasised their anti-war positions, others focused on animal rights such as Flux of Pink Indians and Conflict.\n\nJournalist Nora Kusche states that anarcho-punk was the first music genre that made animal rights activism one of its main characteristics. Some punks, most remarkably Joe Strummer of the Clash, were already vegetarians before the establishment of this movement.\n\nResearcher Aragorn Eloff notes that throughout the history of anarchism there had been some strands that criticised speciesism and embraced plant-based diets, but none had done so with such militancy as anarcho-punk in the 1980s. This was particularly true in its British political tradition.\n\nCharacteristics \nIn the anarchist DIY scenes, one of the most notable demonstrations of the punk lifestyle is a vegetarian or vegan diet. The anarchist philosophy of punk, which favoured action rather than a formal political organisation, was expressed in punks mobilising as hunt saboteurs (whose size was \"swelled\" by them), raising funds for activist groups and circulating British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection's propaganda. Images of animal testing were commonly exhibited in album covers, stickers, patches and buttons. An already well-established animal rights counterculture inspired some of these strategies, including leafleting at gigs. Kusche highlights that hunting was traditionally linked to the British aristocracy who then were disrupted by the \"scruffy, antisocial\" punks.\n\nDuring this period there was also a proliferation of punk zines that discussed animal rights and ecological practices of consumption. The scholars Russ Bestley and Rebecca Binns argue that the early establishment of animal rights in anarcho-punk led to a form of \"two-way dialogue\" between bands and participants instead of a \"top-down\" ideological imposition, which became more the case with other developments.\n\nMany traditional British anarchists differed in several ways from anarcho-punk, considering their interest in the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), the counterculture of the punk underground and other concerns as \"at best secondary and at worst irrelevant.\" Likewise, punks found many of the intellectual debates around anarchist politics and, initially, the violence supported by revolutionary traditionalists equally alienating. Although the separation was not unbridgeable, the tensions remained unresolved.\n\nEstablishment \n\nAn antecedent of this association is the 1979 song \"Time Out\" by the band Crass, initiators of anarcho-punk, in which they compare the human and animal fleshes. The band Flux of Pink Indians pioneered this trend with their 1981 EP Neu Smell. During their career, Flux gave out thousands of leaflets on vivisection and other subjects at their gigs. In the following years, numerous anarcho-punk bands composed songs promoting animal rights and sometimes made it the principal topic, encompassing vegetarianism, anti-vivisection and opposition to hunting. Furthermore, they would often include information and images of animal cruelty within in their records. The most important advocates of vegetarianism and animal rights were the group Conflict, who aligned themselves with the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.) This band made a \"call to arms\" against different institutions, including slaughterhouses, and projected video footage of these while they played. The title of their 1983 song \"Meat Means Murder\" turned into a slogan which quickly propagated through the punk scene; articles on the topic appeared on fanzines, even on American (Flipside and Maximumrocknroll) and Australian ones. Their follow-up single To a Nation of Animal Lovers (1983) featured Steve Ignorant of Crass as co-vocalist and included illustrated vivisection essays in addition to addresses of scientists, food producers and fur farms.\n\nEarly anarcho-punk bands such as Amebix, Antisect, Dirt, Exit-Stance, Liberty, Lost Cherrees, Poison Girls, Rudimentary Peni, and Subhumans all wrote songs dealing with animal rights issues as well, as did non-political bands such as the Business. Other remarkable works dedicated to the cause were the compilation albums of bands The Animals Packet (1983), organised by Chumbawamba, and This is the A.L.F. (1989), organised by Conflict and which was described in a retrospective review as \"one of the most crucial anarcho-punk compilations of the '80s (and beyond)\". American political bands of the early 1980s such as MDC and Crucifix, both from California and influenced by Crass, also promoted vegetarianism.\n\nSociologist Peter Webb ascribed the growth of vegan and vegetarian cafés, organic food suppliers, and A.L.F. and Hunt Saboteurs Association increasing recruitment in Bristol through the first half of the 1980s to its anarcho-punk scene. Several members of political and anarcho-punk bands engaged in direct action activism, for example one member of Polemic Attack from Surrey was imprisoned for raiding an animal laboratory and two members of Anti-System from Bradford for destroying butcher shops and breaking into an abattoir, while the members of Wartoys (Manchester), Virus (Dorset), Polemic Attack, Disorder (Bristol), and Icons of Filth (Wales) all reported to have been hunt saboteurs, the last of whom also made songs against the meat industry and whose vocalist, Stig Sewell, staunchly supported the A.L.F.\n\nIn the mid- to late 1980s, the stripped-down and coarse style of anarcho-punk mixed with different subgenres of heavy metal and brought forth crust punk and grindcore, which shared its emphasis on political and animal rights issues. Early grindcore bands such as Napalm Death, Agathocles and Carcass made animal rights one of their primary lyrical themes. Early crust punk bands including Nausea, Electro Hippies and Extreme Noise Terror also advocated vegetarian lifestyles.\n\nIn Spain, the anarchist ska punk band Ska-P, formed in 1994, have written several songs criticising animal abuse and endorsed animal rights organisations.\n\nIn 2018, Gerfried Ambrosch of the University of Graz called the Canadian anarcho-punk band Propagandhi \"the most renowned contemporary vegan punk band\".\n\nImpact \nSome authors credit the anarcho-punk scene originated by Crass as the introduction of diverse concepts and counter-cultural practices in popular culture, including those related to animal rights. Eloff stated that the sudden growth of animal liberation theory and practice within anarchism since the 1980s, which also developed into philosophies such as veganarchism, was most probably caused by the anarcho-punk subculture. According to author John King, the animal stance of anarcho-punk spread through all areas of punk, especially the traveller, hardcore, straight edge, and folk-punk scenes. Despite this, writer and musician Andy Martin of the influential band the Apostles was not as enthusiastic, stating in 2014 that \"Dave Morris and Helen Steel, for example, have achieved more for the campaign against McDonald's than every punk band there has ever been. This is not to unduly berate punk bands, but they must be regarded in the correct perspective...\"\n\nSeveral animal rights activists such as Rod Coronado, Craig Rosebraugh, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and David J. Wolfson were initially inspired by anarcho-punk bands.\n\nStraight edge and hardcore punk\n\nCharacteristics \n\nBeyond the basic tenets of straight edge (complete abstention from alcohol, tobacco and any recreational drug), its participants can lead their lifestyles freely, but an investigation by Ross Haenfler of the University of Mississippi revealed some underlying values across the movement: healthy living, improving one's and others' lives, commitment to straight edge, refraining from casual sex, and involvement in progressive causes. Among the last, two of the most adopted are animal rights and vegetarian lifestyles, which many see as a logical extension of living a positive, non-exploitative lifestyle and equate the harm and immorality of drugs with animal products. Many straight edge activists credit their empathy towards animal suffering and their actions to stop it to the permanent state of consciousness that their sober lifestyle gives them.\n\nStraight edge, as most subcultures, is not inherently political but its participants seek to \"remoralise\" dominant culture through their individual acts of resistance. However, it often serves as a bridge to further political involvement, especially in social justice and progressive causes. The scholar Simon J. Bronner observes the lack of political homogeneity within the ideology, noting that there have been radical, religious, anarchist, and conservative straight edge bands, sometimes-tensely-coexisting in local scenes. For example, Earth Crisis, Vegan Reich and Chokehold all advocate veganism and sobriety, but disagree on other issues. Sociologist William Tsitsos pointed out that some of the most influential American straight edge bands that espoused animal rights focused only on personal morality, even when referring to corporations, while some of their European counterparts saw these lifestyles as part of a larger left-wing challenge against capitalism. He argues that, to a large extent, this was the result of the neoliberal and welfare politics that respectively dominated these territories.\n\nThe most controversial offshoot that advocated animal rights was hardline, a biocentric militant ideology that combines veganism, revolutionary politics and an Abrahamic view of the natural order, thus abjuring homosexuality and abortion. Hardline was largely marginalised and remained a fringe phenomenon. The sacredness of life belief introduced by hardline and Krishna Consciousness did not only embrace animals, but also unborn children. This influenced the anti-abortion stance of some of the most religiously committed animal rights activists and created a rift with those who supported it.\n\nInfluences and first contacts \nIn the mid- to late 1980s, American hardcore punk music and particularly its subculture straight edge began to get involved in animal rights and environmentalism. Journalist Brian Peterson attributes diverse influences on this relationship beyond anarcho-punk: the post-hardcore band Beefeater, the 1985 album Meat Is Murder by British post-punk band the Smiths, the Hare Krishna tradition, and the vegetarian rapper KRS-One. On the other hand, Pike notes two origins for the activists that would later emerge from the scene: the political one, which started with the arrival of the Animal Liberation Front from England, and the religious one, influenced by the Hare Krishna faith. Pioneering this trend were the 1986 songs \"Do Unto Others\" by Cro-Mags, a band with Hare Krishna members, and \"Free At Last\" by Youth of Today, straight edgers, both criticising slaughterhouses in a verse.\n\nEstablishment \nAfter those first contacts, works such as Diet for a New America (1987) by John Robbins and Animal Liberation (1975) by Peter Singer increasingly began to circulate between the members of the scene, influencing bands and zines. By this time Youth of Today had become the most popular straight edge group, propagating the youth crew subculture, and included the pro-vegetarian song \"No More\" and a recommendation of vegetarian literature in their 1988 album We're Not in This Alone. Several straight edge bands followed this trend, including Insted and Gorilla Biscuits. In the early 1990s, the straight edge offshoot krishnacore was developed, which among its principles includes vegetarianism, centred on the bands Shelter (formed by two ex members of Youth of Today) and 108. Haenfler estimates that at this time three out of four straight edgers in Denver, Colorado were vegetarians and that among them were many vegans. However, it did not take long before the new vocal vegetarians received a backlash from punks who considered these issues private.\n\nAnalogously, in the late 1980s, the hardcore punk subgenre powerviolence was established in California, featuring politically militant lyrics that also address animal rights. One of its most notable bands are Dropdead, who took cues from anarcho-punk and a strong animal activist stance.\n\nPropagation and militance \n\nThe American band Vegan Reich, formed in the anarcho-punk community, released their self-titled EP in 1990 along with a manifesto that ushered in hardline, a biocentric, militant, vegan, anti-drugs, and sexually conservative ideology. Vegan Reich frontman Sean Muttaqi stated he started the band to \"spread a militant animal liberation message,\" but ended up disillusioned with hardliners as they were \"all-consumed with minute details or inward shit\" by the end of his band in 1993. The hardline scene was small, had few associated acts (including Raid and Statement), and its principles on sexuality and abortion marginalised them to a large extent, but its stances on animal rights were innovative and helped to push veganism, direct action and increase awareness on animal liberation in hardcore punk. Vegan Reich also infused a more metal sound into straight edge.\n\nThe debates arising from the new moral tendencies in hardcore prompted animal rights to become predominant in the 1990s. Animal groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began to set up stalls at shows, distributing free literature. These organisations paid for advertisement in zines, some of which devoted their entire content to discuss these causes. Consequently, the association between straight edge and vegetarianism or veganism soon permeated the whole scene and gave rise to a predominantly militant branch centred on veganism: vegan straight edge. One of its pioneering bands was Chokehold from Ontario, Canada, but the ideology was largely popularised and radicalised by Earth Crisis from Syracuse, New York, whose lyrics from their 1995 debut album Destroy the Machines \"read like passages from Earth First!, Animal Liberation Front, and Earth Liberation Front direct-action essays.\" Other notable American vegan straight edge bands during the 1990s were Birthright (Indiana), Culture (Florida), Day of Suffering (North Carolina), Green Rage (New York), Morning Again (Florida), and Warcry (Indiana). By and large, their style was a blend of hardcore punk and extreme metal known as metalcore. The vegan straight edge record label Catalyst Records was founded in Indiana in the early 1990s as well.\n\nVegan straight edge soon influenced bands from many countries, including Sweden (Refused and Abhinanda), Portugal (New Winds), and Brazil (Point of No Return). In Belgium, straight edge bands such as ManLiftingBanner also advocated vegetarian diets and the Ieperfest vegan hardcore festival was founded in 1993, which would also influence the creation of the Czech vegan Fluff Fest in 2000. In Umeå, the city of Refused and Abhinanda, the number of 15-year-old vegetarians increased to 16% in 1996. Since the mid-1990s, the hardcore scene of São Paulo, Brazil has been highly organised, politicised and involved in animal rights by a collective that incorporated straight edge, anarchism, and the Hare Krishna tradition. One of its branches established the Verdurada drug and meat free festival in 1996, in which a vegan dinner is served at the end to the attendees. A portion of the Israeli hardcore scene intertwined straight edge, animal rights and anarchism at this period as well.\n\nInspired by these developments, some young people joined radical groups for animal rights and environmentalism such as the Animal Liberation Front (A.L.F.), Animal Defense League (A.D.L.), Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Earth First! An increase in Animal Liberation Front activism in North America corresponds with the rise of vegan straight edge and hardline bands through the 1990s. The majority of animal rights activists imprisoned in the late 1990s and early 2000s were involved in hardcore punk. Despite the preponderance of this association, some people in the scene felt that militancy was taken to the extreme and they often responded reactionarily. Direct action methods were especially debated for the aggression and sometimes criminality they meant.\n\nIn the late 1990s, several vegan straight edge bands had split up and soon the ideology took a back seat in the American hardcore subculture, but its impact on the scene has lasted and become \"almost inextricably linked\" to it.\n\nImpact \nJournalist Will Potter affirms that the hardcore subculture \"was even more influential\" for activists than its British predecessor, with both having \"had a formative, lasting impact on\" the radical animal rights and environmental movements. Peterson states that the impact of animal rights on hardcore is felt not only in the scene, but also in the collective consciousness and many activists who developed there. Dylan Clark of the University of Toronto wrote that straight edge's advocacy of veganism ultimately fed it into the entire punk spectrum. Several animal rights activists such as Peter Daniel Young, several members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty 7 (SHAC 7), and Walter Bond were initially inspired by straight edge bands.\n\nOther manifestations \nIn Germany, the punk zine Ox-Fanzine was founded in 1989 and began publishing vegan cookbooks. In later years, there has been an influx of punk-themed cookbooks published by large publishing houses, including How It All Vegan (1999) by Sarah Kramer and Tanya Barnard, and Vegan with a Vengeance (2005) by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. Several punks have set up vegetarian restaurants across the United States after noticing the lack of catering towards them. Cosmetic and clothing companies also began to serve to their new punk-vegan niche market, including lines by Manic Panic (company started by former members of Blondie) and Kat Von D.\n\nSince 2001, Vans Warped Tour has been affiliated with PETA, including food vendors that distribute animal rights information. Other large punk festivals such as Rebellion in 2011 have turned their backstage caterings entirely vegetarian.\n\nThe ska-punk band Goldfinger, formed in 1994, started as a \"fun\" project but since their fourth album, Open Your Eyes (2002), their frontman and producer John Feldmann became a member of PETA and put animal rights at the forefront of their music.\n\nIn Spain and some Latin American countries, several punk bands have written songs against bullfighting.\n\nSee also \n List of songs about animal rights\n Anarchism and animal rights\n List of animal rights advocates\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nFurther reading \n\nCategory:Animal rights movement\nCategory:Punk\nCategory:Straight edge\nCategory:Anarcho-punk\nCategory:Animal Liberation Front\nCategory:Green anarchism",
"title": "Animal rights and punk subculture"
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"The text does not provide information on where the band was formed.",
"The original members of the band were Samolesky and Hannah. They later recruited bassist Scott Hopper.",
"The band first recorded their debut album, \"How to Clean Everything.\"",
"The text does not provide information on whether their debut album \"How to Clean Everything\" won any awards.",
"The band's second album was \"Less Talk, More Rock.\"",
"The text does not provide information on how the second album \"Less Talk, More Rock\" was received.",
"Some interesting aspects from the article include:\n\n- The band's change of bassists, with Scott Hopper being replaced by Mike Braumeister, and then John K. Samson becoming the third bassist. \n- Their performance with punk rock band NOFX led to them being signed to Fat Mike's independent record label, Fat Wreck Chords. \n- They became known for lengthy song explanations and speeches during live performances. \n- Their second album was more politicized with song titles addressing issues about human and non-human animals, meat consumption, and nation-states.\n- They faced controversy due to their pro-feminism and \"gay positive\" stance which clashed with the perceived sexist and homophobic culture of the West Coast punk rock scene.",
"According to the context given, the band's pro-feminism and \"gay positive\" stance clashed with what band member Hannah described as a sexist and homophobic culture within the West Coast punk rock scene that the band was associated with. The specific details of these clashes are not provided in the text."
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C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_0 | Kurt Gödel | Kurt Friedrich Godel (UK: , US: ; German: ['kUat 'go:dl] ( listen); April 28, 1906 - January 14, 1978) was an Austrian, and later American, logician, mathematician, and philosopher. | Studying in Vienna | At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel's discoveries in the foundations of mathematics led to the proof of his completeness theorem in 1929 as part of his dissertation to earn a doctorate at the University of Vienna, and the publication of Gödel's incompleteness theorems two years later, in 1931. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example, Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn (now Brno), Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic), into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorems
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's Program, to find a non-relatively consistent axiomatization sufficient for number theory (that was to serve as the foundation for other fields of mathematics).
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, titled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978. He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
In 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Stephen Budiansky's book about Gödel's life, Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel (W. W. Norton & Company, New York City, NY, ), was a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021.
Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: .
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Gödel's ontological proof
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
.
.
Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
.
.
.
.
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2020. "Kurt Gödel: 1906-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2020. Volume III. (). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein. Basic Books. . (Reviewed by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' (54 (7), pp. 861–68).
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel (transcript)
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery. (archived)
Kurt Gödel MacTutor History of Mathematics archive page
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
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C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_1 | Kurt Gödel | Kurt Friedrich Godel (UK: , US: ; German: ['kUat 'go:dl] ( listen); April 28, 1906 - January 14, 1978) was an Austrian, and later American, logician, mathematician, and philosopher. | Childhood | Godel was born April 28, 1906, in Brunn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the ethnic German family of Rudolf Godel (1874-1929), the manager of a textile factory, and Marianne Godel (nee Handschuh, 1879-1966). Throughout his life, Godel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Godel were often active in Brunn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Godel was a famous singer of that time and for some years a member of the "Brunner Mannergesangverein". Godel automatically became a Czechoslovak citizen at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire broke up at the end of World War I. According to his classmate Klepetar, like many residents of the predominantly German Sudetenlander, "Godel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". He chose to become an Austrian citizen at age 23. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Godel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. After World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen. In his family, young Kurt was known as Herr Warum ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Godel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health," which would continue for his entire life. Godel attended the Evangelische Volksschule, a Lutheran school in Brunn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the Deutsches Staats-Realgymnasium from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Kurt had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna to go to medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Kurt studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel's discoveries in the foundations of mathematics led to the proof of his completeness theorem in 1929 as part of his dissertation to earn a doctorate at the University of Vienna, and the publication of Gödel's incompleteness theorems two years later, in 1931. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example, Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn (now Brno), Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic), into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorems
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's Program, to find a non-relatively consistent axiomatization sufficient for number theory (that was to serve as the foundation for other fields of mathematics).
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, titled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978. He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
In 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Stephen Budiansky's book about Gödel's life, Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel (W. W. Norton & Company, New York City, NY, ), was a New York Times Critics' Top Book of 2021.
Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: .
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Gödel's ontological proof
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
.
.
Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
.
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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2020. "Kurt Gödel: 1906-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2020. Volume III. (). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein. Basic Books. . (Reviewed by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society'' (54 (7), pp. 861–68).
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel (transcript)
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery. (archived)
Kurt Gödel MacTutor History of Mathematics archive page
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
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C_a8047e6bfb6844fcbbebe765db7bd8b7_1 | Phil Mickelson | Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer. He has won 43 events on the PGA Tour, including five major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), a PGA Championship (2005), and an Open Championship (2013). Mickelson is one of 16 players in the history of golf to win at least three of the four majors. He has won every major except the U.S. Open, where he has finished runner-up a record six times. | College golf | Mickelson attended Arizona State University in Tempe on a golf scholarship and became the face of amateur golf in the United States, capturing three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. With three individual NCAA championships, he shares the record for most individual NCAA championships alongside Ben Crenshaw. Mickelson also led the Sun Devils to the NCAA team title in 1990. Over the course of his collegiate career, he won 16 tournaments. Mickelson was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years. In 1990, he also became the first with a left-handed swing to win the U.S. Amateur title. Mickelson secured perhaps his greatest achievement as an amateur in January 1991, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telecom Open, in Tucson. At age 20, he was only the sixth amateur to win a tour event and the first in over five years after Scott Verplank at the Western Open in August 1985. Other players to accomplish this feat include Doug Sanders (1956 Canadian Open) and Gene Littler (1954 San Diego Open). With five holes remaining, Mickelson led by a stroke, but made a triple-bogey and was then three behind. The leaders ahead of him then stumbled, and he birdied 16 and 18 to win by a stroke. To date, it is the most recent win by an amateur at a PGA Tour event. That April, Mickelson was the low amateur at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. With his two-year PGA Tour exemption from the Tucson win, he played in several tour events in 1992 while an amateur but failed to make a cut. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) is an American professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf League. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), two PGA Championships (2005, 2021), and one Open Championship (2013). With his win at the 2021 PGA Championship, Mickelson became the oldest major championship winner in history at the age of 50 years, 11 months, and 7 days. He is nicknamed Lefty, as he plays left-handed.
Mickelson is one of 17 players in the history of golf to win at least three of the four majors. He has won every major except the U.S. Open, in which he has finished runner-up a record six times. In 2022, Mickelson became the only golfer who has won 3 (or more) of the 4 majors to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, leaving his PGA Tour membership of 30 years.
Mickelson has spent more than 25 consecutive years in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He has spent over 700 weeks in the top 10, has reached a career-high world ranking of No. 2 several times and is a life member of the PGA Tour. Although naturally right-handed, he is known for his left-handed swing, having learned it by mirroring his right-handed father's swing. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.
Early life
Philip Alfred Mickelson was born on June 16, 1970, in San Diego, California, to parents Philip Mickelson Sr., an airline pilot and former naval aviator, and Mary Santos. He was raised there and in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mickelson has Portuguese, Swedish, and Sicilian ancestry. His maternal grandfather, Alfred Santos (also Mickelson's middle name) was a caddie at Pebble Beach Golf Links and took Phil to play golf as a child.
Although otherwise right-handed, he played golf left-handed since he learned by watching his right-handed father swing, mirroring his style. Mickelson began golf under his father's instruction before starting school. Phil Sr.'s work schedule as a commercial pilot allowed them to play together several times a week and young Phil honed his creative short game on an extensive practice area in their San Diego backyard. Mickelson graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988.
Amateur career
Mickelson attended Arizona State University in Tempe on a golf scholarship and became the face of amateur golf in the United States; he captured three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. With three individual NCAA championships, he shares the record for most individual NCAA championships alongside Ben Crenshaw. Mickelson also led the Sun Devils to the NCAA team title in 1990. Over the course of his collegiate career, he won 16 tournaments.
Mickelson was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years. In 1990, he also became the first with a left-handed swing to win the U.S. Amateur title, defeating high school teammate Manny Zerman 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final at Cherry Hills, south of Denver. Mickelson secured perhaps his greatest achievement as an amateur in January 1991, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telecom Open, in Tucson, making him one of the few golfers to win a PGA Tour event as an amateur in the history of the PGA Tour. At age 20, he was only the sixth amateur to win a tour event and the first in over five years after Scott Verplank at the Western Open in August 1985. Other players to accomplish this feat include Doug Sanders (1956 Canadian Open) and Gene Littler (1954 San Diego Open). With five holes remaining, Mickelson led by a stroke, but made a triple-bogey and was then three strokes behind. The leaders ahead of him then stumbled, and he birdied 16 and 18 to win by a stroke. To date, it is the most recent win by an amateur at a PGA Tour event.
That April, Mickelson was the low amateur at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. With his two-year PGA Tour exemption from the Tucson win, he played in several tour events in 1992 while an amateur but failed to make a cut.
Professional career
1992–2003: Trying for first major win
Mickelson graduated from ASU in June 1992 and quickly turned professional. He bypassed the tour's qualifying process (Q-School) because of his 1991 win in Tucson, which earned him a two-year exemption. In 1992, Mickelson hired Jim "Bones" Mackay as his caddy. He won many PGA Tour tournaments during this period, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial National Invitation in 2000, and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002.
He appeared as himself in a non-speaking role in the 1996 film Tin Cup, starring Kevin Costner. His 2000 Buick Invitational win ended Tiger Woods's streak of six consecutive victories on the PGA Tour. After the win, Mickelson said, "I didn't want to be the bad guy. I wasn't trying to end the streak per se. I was just trying to win the golf tournament." Although he had performed very well in the majors up to the end of the 2003 season (17 top-ten finishes, and six second- or third-place finishes between 1999 and 2003), Mickelson's inability to win any of them led to him frequently being described as the "best player never to win a major".
2004–2006: First three major wins
Mickelson's first major championship win came in his thirteenth year on the PGA Tour in 2004, when he secured victory in the Masters with an birdie putt on the final hole. Ernie Els was the runner-up at a stroke back; the two played in different pairs in the final round and had traded birdies and eagles on the back nine. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, Mickelson was now only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major; the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles, who won The Open Championship in 1963, and Canadian Mike Weir, who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.) A fourth left-handed winner is natural southpaw Bubba Watson, the Masters champion in 2012 and 2014.
Prior to the Ryder Cup in 2004, Mickelson was dropped from his long-standing contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf after an incident when he left a voicemail message for a Callaway Golf executive. In it, he praised their driver and golf ball and thanked them for their help in getting some equipment for his brother. This message was played to all of their salesmen, and eventually found its way back to Titleist. He was then let out of his multi-year deal with Titleist 16 months early and signed on with Callaway Golf. He endured a great deal of ridicule and scrutiny from the press and fellow Ryder Cup members for his equipment change so close to the Ryder Cup matches. He faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup with a record but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment or his practice methods for his performance.
In November 2004, Mickelson tallied his career-low for an 18-hole round: a 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii. The following year, Mickelson captured his second major at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in a Monday final-round conclusion due to inclement weather the previous day. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within of the cup and made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjørn. Mickelson captured his third major title the following spring at the Masters. He won his second green jacket after shooting a 3-under-par final round, winning by two strokes over runner-up Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking (his career best), behind Woods, and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.
2006: Collapse on final hole at the U.S. Open
After winning two majors in a row heading into the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Mickelson was bidding to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players to win three consecutive majors (not necessarily in the same calendar year). Mickelson was the joint leader going into the final round, but he was part of a wild finish to the tournament, in which he made major mistakes on the final hole and ended up in a tie for second place at +6 (286), one shot behind Geoff Ogilvy.
Mickelson bogeyed the 16th hole. On the 17th hole, with the lead at +4, he missed the fairway to the left, and his drive finished inside a garbage can, from which he was granted a free drop; he parred the hole. He had a one-shot lead and was in the last group going into the final hole.
Needing a par on the 18th hole for a one-shot victory, Mickelson continued with his aggressive style of play and chose to hit a driver off the tee; he hit his shot well left of the fairway (he had hit only two of thirteen fairways previously in the round). The ball bounced off a corporate hospitality tent and settled in an area of trampled-down grass that was enclosed with trees. He decided to go for the green with his second shot, rather than play it safe and pitch out into the fairway. His ball then hit a tree and did not advance more than . His next shot plugged into the left greenside bunker. He was unable to get up and down from there, resulting in a double bogey and costing him a chance of winning the championship outright or getting into an 18-hole playoff with Ogilvy.
After his disappointing finish, Mickelson said: "I'm still in shock. I still can't believe I did that. This one hurts more than any tournament because I had it won. Congratulations to Geoff Ogilvy on some great play. I want to thank all the people that supported me. The only thing I can say is I'm sorry." He was even more candid when he said: "I just can't believe I did that. I'm such an idiot."
2006–2008
During the third round of the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave a spectator $200 after his wayward tee shot at the par-5 10th broke the man's watch. Mickelson also has shown other signs of appreciation. In 2007 after hearing the story of retired NFL player, Conrad Dobler, and his family on ESPN explaining their struggles to pay medical bills, Mickelson volunteered to pay tuition for Holli Dobler, Conrad Dobler's daughter, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Frustrated with his driving accuracy, Mickelson made the decision in April 2007 to leave longtime swing coach, Rick Smith. He then began working with Butch Harmon, a former coach of Tiger Woods and Greg Norman. On May 13, Mickelson came from a stroke back on the final round to shoot a three-under 69 to win The Players Championship with an 11-under-par 277.
In the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June, Mickelson missed the cut (by a stroke) for the first time in 31 majors after shooting 11 over par for 36 holes. He had been hampered by a wrist injury that was incurred while practicing in the thick rough at Oakmont a few weeks before the tournament.
On September 3, 2007, Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank Championship, which is the second FedEx Cup playoff event. On the final day, he was paired with Tiger Woods, who ended up finishing two strokes behind Mickelson in a tie for second. It was the first time that Mickelson was able to beat Woods while the two stars were paired together on the final day of a tournament. The next day Mickelson announced that he would not be competing in the third FedEx Cup playoff event. The day before his withdrawal, Mickelson said during a television interview that PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem, had not responded to advice he had given him on undisclosed issues.
In 2008, Mickelson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial with a −14, one shot ahead of Tim Clark and Rod Pampling. Mickelson shot a first-round 65 to start off the tournament at −5. He ended the day tied with Brett Wetterich, two shots behind leader, Johnson Wagner. Mickelson shot a second-round 68, and the third round 65, overall, being −12 for the first three rounds. On the final hole, after an absolutely horrendous tee shot, he was in thick rough with trees in his way. Many players would have punched out and taken their chances at making par from the fairway with a good wedge shot. Instead, Mickelson pulled out a high-lofted wedge and hit his approach shot over a tree, landing on the green where he one-putted for the win.
In a Men's Vogue article, Mickelson recounted his effort to lose with the help of trainer Sean Cochran. "Once the younger players started to come on tour, he realized that he had to start working out to maintain longevity in his career," Cochran said. Mickelson's regimen consisted of increasing flexibility and power, eating five smaller meals a day, aerobic training, and carrying his own golf bag.
Mickelson was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
2009
Mickelson won his first 2009 tour event when he defended his title at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. The victory was Mickelson's 35th on tour; he surpassed Vijay Singh for second place on the current PGA Tour wins list. A month later, he won his 36th, and his first World Golf Championship, at the WGC-CA Championship with a one-stroke win over Nick Watney.
On May 20, it was announced that his wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Mickelson announced that he would suspend his PGA Tour schedule indefinitely. She would begin treatment with major surgery as early as the following two weeks. Mickelson was scheduled to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship May 21–24, and to defend his title May 28–31 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, but withdrew from both events. During the final round of the 2009 BMW PGA Championship, fellow golfer and family friend John Daly wore bright pink trousers in support of Mickelson's wife. Also, the next Saturday, at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, a "Pink Out" event was hosted, and the PGA Tour players all wore pink that day, to support the Mickelson family.
On May 31, Mickelson announced that he would return to play on the PGA Tour in June at the St. Jude Classic and the U.S. Open, since he had heard from the doctors treating his wife that her cancer had been detected in an early stage. Mickelson shot a final round 70 at the 2009 U.S. Open and recorded his fifth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. He shared the lead after an eagle at the 13th hole, but fell back with bogeys on 15 and 17; Lucas Glover captured the championship.
On July 6, it was announced that his mother Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer and would have surgery at the same hospital where his wife was treated. After hearing the news that his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, Mickelson took another leave of absence from the tour, missing The Open Championship at Turnberry. On July 28, Mickelson announced he would return in August at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the week before the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
In September, Mickelson won The Tour Championship for the second time in his career. He entered the final round four strokes off the lead, but shot a final round 65 to win the event by three strokes over Tiger Woods. With the win, Mickelson finished the season second behind Woods in the 2009 FedEx Cup standings.
On November 8, Mickelson won the WGC-HSBC Champions by one shot over Ernie Els in Shanghai.
2010: Third Masters win
In 2010, Mickelson won the Masters Tournament on April 11 with a 16-under-par performance, giving him a three-stroke win over Lee Westwood. The win marked the third Masters victory for Mickelson and his fourth major championship overall. Critical to Mickelson's win was a dramatic run in the third round on Saturday in which Mickelson, trailing leader Westwood by five strokes as he prepared his approach shot to the 13th green, proceeded to make eagle, then to hole-out for eagle from 141 yards at the next hole, the par-4 14th, then on the next, the par-5 15th, to miss eagle from 81 yards by mere inches. After tapping in for birdie at 15, Mickelson, at −12, led Westwood, at −11, who had bogeyed the 12th hole and failed to capitalize on the par-5 13th, settling for par.
Westwood recaptured a one-stroke lead by the end of the round, but the momentum carried forward for Mickelson into round 4, where he posted a bogey-free 67 to Westwood's 71. No other pursuer was able to keep pace to the end, though K. J. Choi and Anthony Kim made notable charges. For good measure, Mickelson birdied the final hole and memorably greeted his waiting wife, Amy, with a prolonged hug and kiss.
For many fans, Mickelson's finish in the tournament was especially poignant, given that Amy had been suffering from breast cancer during the preceding year. Mary Mickelson, Phil's mother, was also dealing with cancer. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz's call of the final birdie putt, "That's a win for the family," was seen by many as capturing the moment well.
Tiger Woods had a dramatic return to competitive play after a scandal-ridden 20-week absence; he was in close contention throughout for the lead and finished tied with Choi for 4th at −11. Mickelson and others showed exciting play over the weekend, and the 2010 Masters had strong television ratings in the United States, ranking third all-time to Woods's historic wins in 1997 and 2001. Mickelson's win left him second only to Woods in major championships among his competitive contemporaries, moving him ahead of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, and Pádraig Harrington, with three major championships each.
Remainder of 2010
Mickelson, one of the favorites for the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, shot 75 and 66 on Thursday and Friday to sit two shots off the lead. However, two weekend scores of 73 gave him a T4 finish. During the remainder of the 2010 season, Mickelson had multiple opportunities to become the number one player in the world rankings following the travails of Tiger Woods. However, a string of disappointing finishes by Mickelson saw the number one spot eventually go to Englishman Lee Westwood.
In the days leading up to the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Mickelson announced he had been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. He added that he had started medical treatment and had become a vegetarian in hopes of aiding his recovery. He maintained that both his short- and long-term prognosis were good, that the condition should have no long-term effect on his golfing career, and that he felt well. He also stated that the arthritis may go into permanent remission after one year of medical treatment. He went on to finish the championship T12, five shots behind winner Martin Kaymer.
2011
Mickelson started his 2011 season at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. He shot and was tied for the 54 hole lead with Bill Haas. Mickelson needed to hole out on the 18th hole for eagle from 74 yards to force a playoff with Bubba Watson. He hit it to 4 feet and Watson won the tournament.
On April 3, Mickelson won the Shell Houston Open with a 20-under-par, three-stroke win over Scott Verplank. Mickelson rose to No. 3 in the world ranking, while Tiger Woods fell to No. 7. Mickelson had not been ranked above Woods since the week prior to the 1997 Masters Tournament.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson recorded just his second top-ten finish in 18 tournaments by tying for second with Dustin Johnson. His front nine 30 put him briefly in a tie for the lead with eventual champion Darren Clarke. However, putting problems caused him to fade from contention toward the end, to finish in a tie for second place.
2012: 40th career PGA Tour win
Mickelson made his 2012 debut at the Humana Challenge and finished tied for 49th. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open after shooting rounds of 77 and 68. In the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson rallied from six shots back, winning the tournament by two strokes with a final-round score of 8-under 64 and a four-round total of 269. The win marked his 40th career victory on the PGA Tour. The following week at Riviera Country Club, Mickelson lost the Northern Trust Open in a three-way playoff. He had held the lead or a share of it from day one until the back nine on Sunday when Bill Haas posted the clubhouse lead at seven under par. Mickelson holed a 27-foot birdie putt on the final regulation hole to force a playoff alongside Haas and Keegan Bradley. Haas however won the playoff with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole. The second-place finish moved Mickelson back into the world's top 10.
Mickelson finished tied for third at the Masters. After opening the tournament with a two-over-par 74, he shot 68–66 in the next two rounds and ended up one stroke behind leader Peter Hanson by Saturday night. Mickelson had a poor start to his fourth round, scoring a triple-bogey when he hit his ball far to the left of the green on the par-3 4th hole, hitting the stand and landing in a bamboo plant. This ended up being Mickelson's only score over par in the whole round, and he ended with a score of eight-under overall. Earlier in the tournament, he received widespread praise for being present to watch Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player hit the ceremonial opening tee-shots, nearly seven hours before Mickelson's own tee time.
Mickelson made a charge during the final round at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, but bogeyed the 17th and 18th, finishing T-7th. He then withdrew from the Memorial Tournament, citing mental fatigue, after a first-round 79. Mickelson was paired with Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson at the U.S. Open. He fought to make the cut and finished T-65th. After taking a couple of weeks off, he played in the Greenbrier Classic. Putting problems meant a second straight missed cut at the Greenbrier and a third missed cut at 2012 Open Championship, shooting 73-78 (11 over par). He finished T-43rd at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He then finished T-36th at the PGA Championship.
To start the 2012 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Mickelson finished T38 at The Barclays, +1 for the tournament. He tied with Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, and five other players. In this tournament, he started using the claw putting grip on the greens. At the next event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, he finished the tournament with a −14, tied for 4th with Dustin Johnson. At the BMW Championship, Mickelson posted a −16 for the first three rounds, one of those rounds being a −8, 64. On the final day, Mickelson shot a −2, 70, to finish tied for 2nd, with Lee Westwood, two shots behind leader, and back-to-back winner, Rory McIlroy. At the Tour Championship, he ended up finishing tied for 15th. He went on to have a 3–1 record at the Ryder Cup; however, the USA team lost the event.
2013
Mickelson began the 2013 season in January by playing in the Humana Challenge, where he finished T37 at −17. His next event was the following week in his home event near San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open. Mickelson endured a disappointing tournament, finishing T51, shooting all four rounds in the 70s.
In the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Mickelson tied his career-low round of 60. He made seven birdies in his first nine holes and needed a birdie on the 18th hole to equal the PGA Tour record of 59. However, his 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole lipped out, resulting in him missing out by a single shot on making only the sixth round of 59 in PGA Tour history. Mickelson led the tournament wire-to-wire and completed a four-shot win over Brandt Snedeker for his 41st PGA Tour victory and 3rd Phoenix Open title. Mickelson's score of 28-under-par tied Mark Calcavecchia's tournament scoring record. He also moved back inside the world's top 10 after falling down as far as number 22.
Sixth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open
At the U.S. Open at Merion, Mickelson entered the final round leading by one stroke after rounds of over the first three days, but he started the final round by three-putting the 3rd and 5th holes for double-bogeys to fall out of the lead. He regained the lead at the par-4 10th when he holed his second shot from the rough for an eagle. However, a misjudgment at the short par-3 13th saw him fly the green and make a bogey to slip one behind leader Justin Rose. Another bogey followed at the 15th, before narrowly missing a birdie putt on the 16th that would have tied Rose. Mickelson could not make a birdie at the 17th and after a blocked drive on the 18th, he could not hole his pitch from short of the green, which led to a final bogey.
Mickelson ended up finishing tied for second with Jason Day, two strokes behind Justin Rose. It was the sixth runner-up finish of Mickelson's career at the U.S. Open, an event record and only behind Jack Nicklaus's seven runner-up finishes at The Open Championship. After the event, Mickelson called the loss heartbreaking and said "this is tough to swallow after coming so close... I felt like this was as good an opportunity I could ask for and to not get it... it hurts." It was also Father's Day, which happened to be his birthday.
Fifth major title at the Open Championship
The week before The Open Championship, Mickelson warmed up for the event by winning his first tournament on British soil at the Scottish Open on July 14, after a sudden-death playoff against Branden Grace. After this victory, Mickelson spoke of his confidence ahead of his participation in the following week's major championship. Mickelson said: "I've never felt more excited going into The Open. I don't think there's a better way to get ready for a major than playing well the week before and getting into contention. Coming out on top just gives me more confidence."
The following week, Mickelson won his fifth major title on July 21 at the Open Championship (often referred to as the British Open) Muirfield Golf Links in Scotland; the Open Championship is the oldest of the four major tournaments in professional golf. This was the first time in history that anyone had won both the Scottish Open and The Open Championship in the same year. Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes in a brilliant final round of 66 to win the title by three strokes. He shed tears on the 18th green after completing his round. Mickelson later said: "I played arguably the best round of my career, and shot the round of my life. The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible after losing the U.S. Open. But you have to be resilient in this game." In an interview before the 2015 Open, Mickelson said, "Two years removed from that win, I still can't believe how much it means to me."
2014 and 2015: Inconsistent form and close calls in majors
Mickelson missed the cut at the Masters for the first time since 1997. He failed to contend at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in his first bid to complete the career grand slam. Mickelson's lone top-10 of the PGA Tour season came at the year's final major, the PGA Championship at Valhalla. Mickelson shot rounds of 69-67-67-66 to finish solo second, one shot behind world number one Rory McIlroy.
Prior to the 2015 Masters, Mickelson's best finish in 2015 was a tie for 17th. At the Masters, Mickelson shot rounds of to finish tied for second with Justin Rose, four shots behind champion Jordan Spieth. The second-place finish was Mickelson's tenth such finish in a major, placing him second all-time only to Jack Nicklaus in that regard.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson shot rounds of and was eight shots behind, outside the top forty. In the final round, Mickelson birdied the 15th hole to move to 10 under and within two of the lead. After a missed birdie putt on 16, Mickelson hit his drive on the infamous Road Hole (17th) at the famed Old Course at St Andrews onto a second-floor balcony of the Old Course Hotel. The out-of-bounds drive lead to a triple-bogey 7 that sent Mickelson tumbling out of contention.
Later in the year, it was announced that Mickelson would leave longtime swing coach Butch Harmon, feeling as though he needed to hear a new perspective on things.
2016: New swing coach
After leaving Butch Harmon, Mickelson hired Andrew Getson of Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, to serve as his new swing coach. The two worked together heavily in the 2015 offseason to get Mickelson's swing back.
Under Getson's guidance, Mickelson made his 2016 debut at the CareerBuilder Challenge. He shot rounds of to finish in a tie for third place at 21-under-par. It was only Mickelson's fifth top-five finish since his win at the 2013 Open Championship. The third-place finish was Mickelson's highest finish in his first worldwide start of a calendar year since he won the same event to begin the 2004 season.
At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Mickelson shot rounds of to finish in solo second place, a shot behind Vaughn Taylor. Mickelson lipped out a five-foot birdie putt to force a playoff on the 72nd hole. He entered the final round with a two-stroke lead, his first 54-hole lead since the 2013 U.S. Open and was seeking to end a winless drought dating back 52 worldwide events to the 2013 Open Championship.
Mickelson shot a 63 in the opening round of The Open Championship at Royal Troon. The round set a new course record and matched the previous major championship record for lowest round. Mickelson had a birdie putt that narrowly missed on the final hole to set a new major championship scoring record of 62. He followed this up with a 69 in the second round for a 10 under par total and a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson going into the weekend. In the third round, Mickelson shot a one-under 70 for a total of 11 under par to enter the final round one shot back of Stenson. Despite Mickelson's bogey-free 65 in the final round, Stenson shot 63 to win by three shots. Mickelson finished 11 strokes clear of 3rd place, a major championship record for a runner-up. Mickelson's 267 total set a record score for a runner-up in the British Open, and only trails Mickelson's 266 at the 2001 PGA Championship as the lowest total by a runner-up in major championship history.
2017: Recovery from surgeries
In the fall of 2016, Mickelson had two sports hernia surgeries. Those in the golf community expected him to miss much time recovering, however his unexpected return at the CareerBuilder Challenge was a triumphant one, leading to a T-21 finish. The next week, in San Diego, he narrowly missed an eagle putt on the 18th hole on Sunday that would have got him to 8-under par instead posting −7 to finish T14 at the Farmers Insurance Open. The following week, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which he has won three times, he surged into contention following a Saturday 65. He played his first nine holes in 4-under 32 and sending his name to the top of the leaderboard. However, his charge faltered with bogeys at 11, 12, 14, 15, and a double bogey at the driveable 17th hole. He stumbled with a final round 71, still earning a T-16 finish, for his sixth straight top-25 finish on tour.
Mickelson came close to winning again at the FedEx St. Jude Classic where he had finished in second place the previous year to Daniel Berger. He started the final round four strokes behind leaders but he quickly played himself into contention. Following a birdie at the 10th hole he vaulted to the top of leaderboard but found trouble on the 12th hole. His tee shot carried out of bounds and his fourth shot hit the water, so he had to make a long putt to salvage triple-bogey. He managed to get one shot back, but he finished three shots behind winner Berger, in ninth place, for the second straight year.
Two weeks later he withdrew from the U.S. Open to attend his daughter's high school graduation. A week later, his longtime caddie Jim (Bones) Mackay left Mickelson in a mutual agreement. Mickelson then missed the cut at both The Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
On September 6, days after posting his best finish of the season of T6 at the Dell Technologies Championship, Mickelson was named as a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup. This maintained a streak of 23 consecutive USA teams in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, dating back to 1994.
2018–2019: Winless streak ends
On March 4, 2018, Mickelson ended a winless drought that dated back to 2013, by capturing his third WGC championship at the WGC-Mexico Championship, with a final-round score of 66 and a total score of −16. Mickelson birdied two of his last four holes and had a lengthy putt to win outright on the 72nd hole, but tied with Justin Thomas. He defeated Thomas on the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff with a par. After Thomas had flown the green, Mickelson had a birdie to win the playoff which lipped out. Thomas however could not get up and down for par, meaning Mickelson claimed the championship. The win was Mickelson's 43rd on the PGA Tour and his first since winning the 2013 Open Championship. He also became the oldest winner of a WGC event, at age 47.
In the third round of the 2018 U.S. Open, Mickelson incurred a two-stroke penalty in a controversial incident on the 13th hole when he hit his ball with intent while it was still moving. He ended up shooting 81 (+11). His former coach Butch Harmon thought Mickelson should have been disqualified.
Mickelson was a captain's pick for Team USA at the 2018 Ryder Cup, held in Paris between September 28 and 30. Paired with Bryson DeChambeau in the Friday afternoon foursomes, they lost 5 and 4 to Europe's Sergio García and Alex Norén. In the Sunday singles match, Mickelson lost 4 and 2 to Francesco Molinari, as Team USA slumped to a 17.5 to 10.5 defeat.
On November 23, 2018, Mickelson won the pay-per-view event, Capital One's The Match. This was a $9,000,000 winner-takes-all match against Tiger Woods at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. Mickelson needed four extra holes to beat Woods, which he did by holing a four-foot putt after Woods missed a seven-foot putt on the 22nd hole.
In his third start of the 2019 calendar year, Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, shooting a bogey-free final round 65 to defeat Paul Casey by three strokes. The win was Mickelson's 44th career title on the PGA Tour, and his fifth at Pebble Beach, tying Mark O'Meara for most victories in the event. At 48 years of age, he also became the oldest winner of that event.
2020: PGA Tour season and PGA Tour Champions debut
In December 2019, Mickelson announced via Twitter that "after turning down opportunities to go to the Middle East for many years" he would play in the 2020 Saudi International tournament on the European Tour and would miss Waste Management Phoenix Open for the first time since 1989. However, his decision to visit and play in Saudi Arabia was criticized for getting lured by millions of dollars and ignoring the continuous human rights abuses in the nation. Mickelson went on to finish the February 2020 event tied for third.
Mickelson finished 3rd at the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tied for 2nd in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Mickelson was the first player over 50 to finish in the top five of a World Golf Championship event. He was ultimately eliminated from the FedEx Cup Playoffs following The Northern Trust at TPC Boston in August 2020. One week later, Mickelson made his debut on the PGA Tour Champions. He won the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National in his first tournament after becoming eligible for PGA Tour Champions on his 50th birthday on June 16, 2020. He was the 20th player to win their debut tournament on tour. Mickelson's 191 stroke total tied the PGA Tour Champions all-time record for a three-day event.
In October 2020, Mickelson won the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Virginia. It was his second win in as many starts on the PGA Tour Champions.
2021: The oldest major champion
In February 2021, Mickelson was attempting to become the first player in PGA Tour Champions history to win his first three tournaments on tour. However, he fell short in the Cologuard Classic, finishing in a T-20 position with a score of 4 under par.
In May 2021, Mickelson held the 54-hole lead at the PGA Championship at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, leading Brooks Koepka by one shot with one day to play. He shot a final-round 73 to capture the tournament, defeating Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen by two strokes, becoming the oldest major champion; at 50. As Mickelson walked down the fairway following an excellent second shot from the left rough on the 18th hole, thousands of fans engulfed him, with him walking towards the hole constantly tipping his hat and giving the thumbs up to the crowd as they cheered. However, the massive tumult of people meant playing partner Brooks Koepka was stranded in the sea of people, and with difficulties, he managed to reach the green to finish the hole. Mickelson eventually emerged from the crowd and two-putted for par, finishing the tournament at 6-under, besting the field by two strokes.
In October 2021, Mickelson won for the third time in four career starts on the PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson shot a final round 4-under-par 68 to win the inaugural Constellation Furyk & Friends over Miguel Ángel Jiménez in Jacksonville, Florida.
In November 2021, Mickelson won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, Arizona, with a final round six-under par 65. This victory was Mickelson's fourth win in six career starts on PGA Tour Champions.
2022: LIV Golf
Mickelson told a journalist that despite Saudi Arabians being "scary motherfuckers" who had murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi and executed gay people, he supported the Saudi-backed LIV Golf because it offered an opportunity to reshape the PGA Tour. In response to these comments, Mickelson lost sponsors Amstel Light and KPMG. Mickelson announced he would be stepping away from golf to spend time with his family and would miss the 2022 Masters Tournament. In May, he also decided to withdraw from the PGA Championship which he won in 2021. On June 6, 2022, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman announced that Mickelson will play in the first event on the LIV Golf Invitational Series beginning on June 9, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the first day of the LIV Golf Invitational London, the PGA Tour suspended Mickelson and 16 other current and former tour members for participating in a conflicting event without permission from the tour.
2023
At the 2023 Masters Tournament, Mickelson made what many viewed as the performance of the tournament, beginning the final day ten shots off of the lead, and finishing in tied second. Shooting a 65, Mickelson equaled his lowest score at Augusta almost 27 years ago. In the last seven holes, he scored five birdies and two pars.
Playing style
As a competitor, Mickelson's playing style is described by many as "aggressive" and highly social. His strategy toward difficult shots (bad lies, obstructions) would tend to be considered risky.
Mickelson has also been characterized by his powerful and sometimes inaccurate driver, but his excellent short game draws the most positive reviews, most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for a short distance.
In his prime, Mickelson was usually in the top 10 in scoring, and he led the PGA Tour in birdie average as recently as 2013.
Earnings and endorsements
Although ranked second on the PGA Tour's all-time money list of tournament prize money won, Mickelson earns far more from endorsements than from prize money. According to one estimate of 2011 earnings (comprising salary, winnings, bonuses, endorsements, and appearances), Mickelson was then the second-highest paid athlete in the United States, earning an income of over $62 million, $53 million of which came from endorsements. In 2015, Forbes estimated Mickelson's annual income was $51 million. Major companies which Mickelson currently endorses are ExxonMobil (Mickelson and wife Amy started a teacher sponsorship fund with the company), Rolex, and Mizzen+Main. Mickelson's sponsorship with Callaway Golf is currently "paused" and will be re-evaluated at a later date. After being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2010, Mickelson was treated with Enbrel and began endorsing the drug. He has been previously sponsored by Titleist, KPMG, Workday, Bearing Point, Barclays, Amstel Light and Ford.
In 2022, Mickelson lost a significant number of sponsors including KPMG, Amstel Light, and Workday after comments he made about the Saudi-backed golf league, LIV Golf. In an interview, he stated that Saudis are "scary motherfuckers to get involved with... We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates."
Business
As a businessman, Mickelson is the co-founder of For Wellness with Dave Phillips, who is Jon Rahm's coach and also co-founder of the Titleist Performance Institute. The company sells functional food and beverage products, including the supplement that Mickelson adds to his coffee
Insider trading settlement
On May 30, 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were investigating Mickelson and associates of his for insider trading in Clorox and Dean Foods stock. Mickelson denied any wrongdoing. The initial investigation concluded without any charges related to Clorox. However, Mickelson was still under investigation for trades in Dean Foods that produced nearly $1 million. On May 19, 2016, Mickelson was named as a relief defendant in a SEC complaint alleging insider trading but avoided criminal charges in a parallel case brought in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. The action results from trades in Dean Foods in 2012 in conjunction with confidential information provided by Thomas Davis, a former director of Dean Foods Company, who tipped his friend and "professional sports bettor" Billy Walters.
The SEC alleged that Walters told Mickelson material, nonpublic information about Dean Foods, and the SEC fined Mickelson the equivalent of the $931,000 profit he made from trading Dean Foods stock as well as interest of $105,000. In 2017, Walters was convicted of making $40 million on Davis's private information from 2008 to 2014 by a federal jury. At that time, it was also noted that Mickelson had "once owed nearly $2 million in gambling debts to" Walters.
Amateur wins
1980 Junior World Golf Championships (Boys 9–10)
1989 NCAA Division I Championship
1990 Pac-10 Championship, NCAA Division I Championship, U.S. Amateur, Porter Cup
1991 Western Amateur
1992 NCAA Division I Championship
Professional wins (57)
PGA Tour wins (45)
*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather.
PGA Tour playoff record (8–4)
European Tour wins (11)
1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia
European Tour playoff record (3–1)
Challenge Tour wins (1)
Other wins (4)
Other playoff record (1–1)
PGA Tour Champions wins (4)
Major championships
Wins (6)
Results timeline
Results not in chronological order in 2020.
LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Most consecutive cuts made – 30 (1999 PGA – 2007 Masters)
Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (2004 Masters – 2005 Masters)
The Players Championship
Wins (1)
Results timeline
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic
World Golf Championships
Wins (3)
Results timeline
Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.
1Cancelled due to 9/11
2Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
NT = No Tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.
PGA Tour career summary
* As of 2021 season.
† Mickelson won as an amateur in 1991 and therefore did not receive any prize money.
U.S. national team appearances
Amateur
Walker Cup: 1989, 1991 (winners)
Eisenhower Trophy: 1990
Professional
Presidents Cup: 1994 (winners), 1996 (winners), 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011 (winners), 2013 (winners), 2015 (winners), 2017 (winners)
Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (winners), 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 (winners), 2018
Alfred Dunhill Cup: 1996 (winners)
Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (representing PGA Tour): 1997 (winners), 2000 (winners)
World Cup: 2002
See also
List of golfers with most European Tour wins
List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
List of men's major championships winning golfers
Monday Night Golf
Notes
References
External links
On Course With Phil
Category:American male golfers
Category:PGA Tour golfers
Category:PGA Tour Champions golfers
Category:LIV Golf players
Category:Ryder Cup competitors for the United States
Category:Sports controversies
Category:Winners of men's major golf championships
Category:Arizona State Sun Devils men's golfers
Category:Left-handed golfers
Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Golfers from Scottsdale, Arizona
Category:Golfers from San Diego
Category:University of San Diego High School alumni
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American people of Portuguese descent
Category:American people of Swedish descent
Category:1970 births
Category:Living people | [] | [
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C_a8047e6bfb6844fcbbebe765db7bd8b7_0 | Phil Mickelson | Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970), nicknamed Lefty, is an American professional golfer. He has won 43 events on the PGA Tour, including five major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), a PGA Championship (2005), and an Open Championship (2013). Mickelson is one of 16 players in the history of golf to win at least three of the four majors. He has won every major except the U.S. Open, where he has finished runner-up a record six times. | 2004-2006: First three major wins | Mickelson's first major championship win came in his thirteenth year on the PGA Tour in 2004, when he secured victory in the Masters with an 18-foot (5.5 m) birdie putt on the final hole. Ernie Els was the runner-up at a stroke back; the two played in different pairs in the final round and had traded birdies and eagles on the back nine. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, Mickelson was now only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major, the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles, who won The Open Championship in 1963, and Canadian Mike Weir, who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.) A fourth left-handed winner is natural southpaw Bubba Watson, the Masters champion in 2012 and 2014. Just prior to the Ryder Cup in 2004, Mickelson was dropped from his long-standing contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf, when he took heat for a voicemail message he left for a Callaway Golf executive. In it he praised their driver and golf ball, and thanked them for their help in getting some equipment for his brother. This memo was played to all of their salesmen, and eventually found its way back to Titleist. He was then let out of his multi-year deal with Titleist 16 months early, and signed on with Callaway Golf, his current equipment sponsor. He endured a great deal of ridicule and scrutiny from the press and fellow Ryder Cup members for his equipment change so close to the Ryder Cup matches. He faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup with a 1-3-0 record, but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment or his practice methods for his performance. In November 2004, Mickelson tallied his career-low for an 18-hole round: a 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii. The following year, Mickelson captured his second major at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, in a Monday final-round conclusion that had been forced by inclement weather the previous day. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within a 18 inches (460 mm) of the cup, and made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjorn. Mickelson captured his third major title the following spring at the Masters. He won his second green jacket after shooting a 3-under-par final round, winning by two strokes over runner-up Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking (his career best), behind Woods, and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Philip Alfred Mickelson (born June 16, 1970) is an American professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf League. He has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six major championships: three Masters titles (2004, 2006, 2010), two PGA Championships (2005, 2021), and one Open Championship (2013). With his win at the 2021 PGA Championship, Mickelson became the oldest major championship winner in history at the age of 50 years, 11 months, and 7 days. He is nicknamed Lefty, as he plays left-handed.
Mickelson is one of 17 players in the history of golf to win at least three of the four majors. He has won every major except the U.S. Open, in which he has finished runner-up a record six times. In 2022, Mickelson became the only golfer who has won 3 (or more) of the 4 majors to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, leaving his PGA Tour membership of 30 years.
Mickelson has spent more than 25 consecutive years in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking. He has spent over 700 weeks in the top 10, has reached a career-high world ranking of No. 2 several times and is a life member of the PGA Tour. Although naturally right-handed, he is known for his left-handed swing, having learned it by mirroring his right-handed father's swing. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2012.
Early life
Philip Alfred Mickelson was born on June 16, 1970, in San Diego, California, to parents Philip Mickelson Sr., an airline pilot and former naval aviator, and Mary Santos. He was raised there and in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mickelson has Portuguese, Swedish, and Sicilian ancestry. His maternal grandfather, Alfred Santos (also Mickelson's middle name) was a caddie at Pebble Beach Golf Links and took Phil to play golf as a child.
Although otherwise right-handed, he played golf left-handed since he learned by watching his right-handed father swing, mirroring his style. Mickelson began golf under his father's instruction before starting school. Phil Sr.'s work schedule as a commercial pilot allowed them to play together several times a week and young Phil honed his creative short game on an extensive practice area in their San Diego backyard. Mickelson graduated from the University of San Diego High School in 1988.
Amateur career
Mickelson attended Arizona State University in Tempe on a golf scholarship and became the face of amateur golf in the United States; he captured three NCAA individual championships and three Haskins Awards (1990, 1991, 1992) as the outstanding collegiate golfer. With three individual NCAA championships, he shares the record for most individual NCAA championships alongside Ben Crenshaw. Mickelson also led the Sun Devils to the NCAA team title in 1990. Over the course of his collegiate career, he won 16 tournaments.
Mickelson was the second collegiate golfer to earn first-team All-American honors all four years. In 1990, he also became the first with a left-handed swing to win the U.S. Amateur title, defeating high school teammate Manny Zerman 5 and 4 in the 36-hole final at Cherry Hills, south of Denver. Mickelson secured perhaps his greatest achievement as an amateur in January 1991, winning his first PGA Tour event, the Northern Telecom Open, in Tucson, making him one of the few golfers to win a PGA Tour event as an amateur in the history of the PGA Tour. At age 20, he was only the sixth amateur to win a tour event and the first in over five years after Scott Verplank at the Western Open in August 1985. Other players to accomplish this feat include Doug Sanders (1956 Canadian Open) and Gene Littler (1954 San Diego Open). With five holes remaining, Mickelson led by a stroke, but made a triple-bogey and was then three strokes behind. The leaders ahead of him then stumbled, and he birdied 16 and 18 to win by a stroke. To date, it is the most recent win by an amateur at a PGA Tour event.
That April, Mickelson was the low amateur at the Masters Tournament in Augusta, Georgia. With his two-year PGA Tour exemption from the Tucson win, he played in several tour events in 1992 while an amateur but failed to make a cut.
Professional career
1992–2003: Trying for first major win
Mickelson graduated from ASU in June 1992 and quickly turned professional. He bypassed the tour's qualifying process (Q-School) because of his 1991 win in Tucson, which earned him a two-year exemption. In 1992, Mickelson hired Jim "Bones" Mackay as his caddy. He won many PGA Tour tournaments during this period, including the Byron Nelson Golf Classic and the World Series of Golf in 1996, the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in 1998, the Colonial National Invitation in 2000, and the Greater Hartford Open in 2001 and again in 2002.
He appeared as himself in a non-speaking role in the 1996 film Tin Cup, starring Kevin Costner. His 2000 Buick Invitational win ended Tiger Woods's streak of six consecutive victories on the PGA Tour. After the win, Mickelson said, "I didn't want to be the bad guy. I wasn't trying to end the streak per se. I was just trying to win the golf tournament." Although he had performed very well in the majors up to the end of the 2003 season (17 top-ten finishes, and six second- or third-place finishes between 1999 and 2003), Mickelson's inability to win any of them led to him frequently being described as the "best player never to win a major".
2004–2006: First three major wins
Mickelson's first major championship win came in his thirteenth year on the PGA Tour in 2004, when he secured victory in the Masters with an birdie putt on the final hole. Ernie Els was the runner-up at a stroke back; the two played in different pairs in the final round and had traded birdies and eagles on the back nine. In addition to getting the "majors monkey" off his back, Mickelson was now only the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major; the others being New Zealander Sir Bob Charles, who won The Open Championship in 1963, and Canadian Mike Weir, who won The Masters in 2003. (Like Mickelson, Weir is a right-hander who plays left-handed.) A fourth left-handed winner is natural southpaw Bubba Watson, the Masters champion in 2012 and 2014.
Prior to the Ryder Cup in 2004, Mickelson was dropped from his long-standing contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf after an incident when he left a voicemail message for a Callaway Golf executive. In it, he praised their driver and golf ball and thanked them for their help in getting some equipment for his brother. This message was played to all of their salesmen, and eventually found its way back to Titleist. He was then let out of his multi-year deal with Titleist 16 months early and signed on with Callaway Golf. He endured a great deal of ridicule and scrutiny from the press and fellow Ryder Cup members for his equipment change so close to the Ryder Cup matches. He faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup with a record but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment or his practice methods for his performance.
In November 2004, Mickelson tallied his career-low for an 18-hole round: a 59 at the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Poipu Bay Golf Course in Hawaii. The following year, Mickelson captured his second major at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol in a Monday final-round conclusion due to inclement weather the previous day. On the 18th hole, Mickelson hit one of his trademark soft pitches from deep greenside rough to within of the cup and made his birdie to finish at a 4-under-par total of 276, one shot ahead of Steve Elkington and Thomas Bjørn. Mickelson captured his third major title the following spring at the Masters. He won his second green jacket after shooting a 3-under-par final round, winning by two strokes over runner-up Tim Clark. This win propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking (his career best), behind Woods, and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.
2006: Collapse on final hole at the U.S. Open
After winning two majors in a row heading into the U.S. Open at Winged Foot, Mickelson was bidding to join Ben Hogan and Tiger Woods as the only players to win three consecutive majors (not necessarily in the same calendar year). Mickelson was the joint leader going into the final round, but he was part of a wild finish to the tournament, in which he made major mistakes on the final hole and ended up in a tie for second place at +6 (286), one shot behind Geoff Ogilvy.
Mickelson bogeyed the 16th hole. On the 17th hole, with the lead at +4, he missed the fairway to the left, and his drive finished inside a garbage can, from which he was granted a free drop; he parred the hole. He had a one-shot lead and was in the last group going into the final hole.
Needing a par on the 18th hole for a one-shot victory, Mickelson continued with his aggressive style of play and chose to hit a driver off the tee; he hit his shot well left of the fairway (he had hit only two of thirteen fairways previously in the round). The ball bounced off a corporate hospitality tent and settled in an area of trampled-down grass that was enclosed with trees. He decided to go for the green with his second shot, rather than play it safe and pitch out into the fairway. His ball then hit a tree and did not advance more than . His next shot plugged into the left greenside bunker. He was unable to get up and down from there, resulting in a double bogey and costing him a chance of winning the championship outright or getting into an 18-hole playoff with Ogilvy.
After his disappointing finish, Mickelson said: "I'm still in shock. I still can't believe I did that. This one hurts more than any tournament because I had it won. Congratulations to Geoff Ogilvy on some great play. I want to thank all the people that supported me. The only thing I can say is I'm sorry." He was even more candid when he said: "I just can't believe I did that. I'm such an idiot."
2006–2008
During the third round of the 2006 Ford Championship at Doral, Mickelson gave a spectator $200 after his wayward tee shot at the par-5 10th broke the man's watch. Mickelson also has shown other signs of appreciation. In 2007 after hearing the story of retired NFL player, Conrad Dobler, and his family on ESPN explaining their struggles to pay medical bills, Mickelson volunteered to pay tuition for Holli Dobler, Conrad Dobler's daughter, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
Frustrated with his driving accuracy, Mickelson made the decision in April 2007 to leave longtime swing coach, Rick Smith. He then began working with Butch Harmon, a former coach of Tiger Woods and Greg Norman. On May 13, Mickelson came from a stroke back on the final round to shoot a three-under 69 to win The Players Championship with an 11-under-par 277.
In the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June, Mickelson missed the cut (by a stroke) for the first time in 31 majors after shooting 11 over par for 36 holes. He had been hampered by a wrist injury that was incurred while practicing in the thick rough at Oakmont a few weeks before the tournament.
On September 3, 2007, Mickelson won the Deutsche Bank Championship, which is the second FedEx Cup playoff event. On the final day, he was paired with Tiger Woods, who ended up finishing two strokes behind Mickelson in a tie for second. It was the first time that Mickelson was able to beat Woods while the two stars were paired together on the final day of a tournament. The next day Mickelson announced that he would not be competing in the third FedEx Cup playoff event. The day before his withdrawal, Mickelson said during a television interview that PGA Tour Commissioner, Tim Finchem, had not responded to advice he had given him on undisclosed issues.
In 2008, Mickelson won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial with a −14, one shot ahead of Tim Clark and Rod Pampling. Mickelson shot a first-round 65 to start off the tournament at −5. He ended the day tied with Brett Wetterich, two shots behind leader, Johnson Wagner. Mickelson shot a second-round 68, and the third round 65, overall, being −12 for the first three rounds. On the final hole, after an absolutely horrendous tee shot, he was in thick rough with trees in his way. Many players would have punched out and taken their chances at making par from the fairway with a good wedge shot. Instead, Mickelson pulled out a high-lofted wedge and hit his approach shot over a tree, landing on the green where he one-putted for the win.
In a Men's Vogue article, Mickelson recounted his effort to lose with the help of trainer Sean Cochran. "Once the younger players started to come on tour, he realized that he had to start working out to maintain longevity in his career," Cochran said. Mickelson's regimen consisted of increasing flexibility and power, eating five smaller meals a day, aerobic training, and carrying his own golf bag.
Mickelson was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
2009
Mickelson won his first 2009 tour event when he defended his title at the Northern Trust Open at Riviera, one stroke ahead of Steve Stricker. The victory was Mickelson's 35th on tour; he surpassed Vijay Singh for second place on the current PGA Tour wins list. A month later, he won his 36th, and his first World Golf Championship, at the WGC-CA Championship with a one-stroke win over Nick Watney.
On May 20, it was announced that his wife Amy was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Mickelson announced that he would suspend his PGA Tour schedule indefinitely. She would begin treatment with major surgery as early as the following two weeks. Mickelson was scheduled to play the HP Byron Nelson Championship May 21–24, and to defend his title May 28–31 at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, but withdrew from both events. During the final round of the 2009 BMW PGA Championship, fellow golfer and family friend John Daly wore bright pink trousers in support of Mickelson's wife. Also, the next Saturday, at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, a "Pink Out" event was hosted, and the PGA Tour players all wore pink that day, to support the Mickelson family.
On May 31, Mickelson announced that he would return to play on the PGA Tour in June at the St. Jude Classic and the U.S. Open, since he had heard from the doctors treating his wife that her cancer had been detected in an early stage. Mickelson shot a final round 70 at the 2009 U.S. Open and recorded his fifth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open. He shared the lead after an eagle at the 13th hole, but fell back with bogeys on 15 and 17; Lucas Glover captured the championship.
On July 6, it was announced that his mother Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer and would have surgery at the same hospital where his wife was treated. After hearing the news that his mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer, Mickelson took another leave of absence from the tour, missing The Open Championship at Turnberry. On July 28, Mickelson announced he would return in August at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, the week before the PGA Championship at Hazeltine National Golf Club.
In September, Mickelson won The Tour Championship for the second time in his career. He entered the final round four strokes off the lead, but shot a final round 65 to win the event by three strokes over Tiger Woods. With the win, Mickelson finished the season second behind Woods in the 2009 FedEx Cup standings.
On November 8, Mickelson won the WGC-HSBC Champions by one shot over Ernie Els in Shanghai.
2010: Third Masters win
In 2010, Mickelson won the Masters Tournament on April 11 with a 16-under-par performance, giving him a three-stroke win over Lee Westwood. The win marked the third Masters victory for Mickelson and his fourth major championship overall. Critical to Mickelson's win was a dramatic run in the third round on Saturday in which Mickelson, trailing leader Westwood by five strokes as he prepared his approach shot to the 13th green, proceeded to make eagle, then to hole-out for eagle from 141 yards at the next hole, the par-4 14th, then on the next, the par-5 15th, to miss eagle from 81 yards by mere inches. After tapping in for birdie at 15, Mickelson, at −12, led Westwood, at −11, who had bogeyed the 12th hole and failed to capitalize on the par-5 13th, settling for par.
Westwood recaptured a one-stroke lead by the end of the round, but the momentum carried forward for Mickelson into round 4, where he posted a bogey-free 67 to Westwood's 71. No other pursuer was able to keep pace to the end, though K. J. Choi and Anthony Kim made notable charges. For good measure, Mickelson birdied the final hole and memorably greeted his waiting wife, Amy, with a prolonged hug and kiss.
For many fans, Mickelson's finish in the tournament was especially poignant, given that Amy had been suffering from breast cancer during the preceding year. Mary Mickelson, Phil's mother, was also dealing with cancer. CBS Sports announcer Jim Nantz's call of the final birdie putt, "That's a win for the family," was seen by many as capturing the moment well.
Tiger Woods had a dramatic return to competitive play after a scandal-ridden 20-week absence; he was in close contention throughout for the lead and finished tied with Choi for 4th at −11. Mickelson and others showed exciting play over the weekend, and the 2010 Masters had strong television ratings in the United States, ranking third all-time to Woods's historic wins in 1997 and 2001. Mickelson's win left him second only to Woods in major championships among his competitive contemporaries, moving him ahead of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, and Pádraig Harrington, with three major championships each.
Remainder of 2010
Mickelson, one of the favorites for the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, shot 75 and 66 on Thursday and Friday to sit two shots off the lead. However, two weekend scores of 73 gave him a T4 finish. During the remainder of the 2010 season, Mickelson had multiple opportunities to become the number one player in the world rankings following the travails of Tiger Woods. However, a string of disappointing finishes by Mickelson saw the number one spot eventually go to Englishman Lee Westwood.
In the days leading up to the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits, Mickelson announced he had been diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. He added that he had started medical treatment and had become a vegetarian in hopes of aiding his recovery. He maintained that both his short- and long-term prognosis were good, that the condition should have no long-term effect on his golfing career, and that he felt well. He also stated that the arthritis may go into permanent remission after one year of medical treatment. He went on to finish the championship T12, five shots behind winner Martin Kaymer.
2011
Mickelson started his 2011 season at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course. He shot and was tied for the 54 hole lead with Bill Haas. Mickelson needed to hole out on the 18th hole for eagle from 74 yards to force a playoff with Bubba Watson. He hit it to 4 feet and Watson won the tournament.
On April 3, Mickelson won the Shell Houston Open with a 20-under-par, three-stroke win over Scott Verplank. Mickelson rose to No. 3 in the world ranking, while Tiger Woods fell to No. 7. Mickelson had not been ranked above Woods since the week prior to the 1997 Masters Tournament.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson recorded just his second top-ten finish in 18 tournaments by tying for second with Dustin Johnson. His front nine 30 put him briefly in a tie for the lead with eventual champion Darren Clarke. However, putting problems caused him to fade from contention toward the end, to finish in a tie for second place.
2012: 40th career PGA Tour win
Mickelson made his 2012 debut at the Humana Challenge and finished tied for 49th. He missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open after shooting rounds of 77 and 68. In the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Mickelson rallied from six shots back, winning the tournament by two strokes with a final-round score of 8-under 64 and a four-round total of 269. The win marked his 40th career victory on the PGA Tour. The following week at Riviera Country Club, Mickelson lost the Northern Trust Open in a three-way playoff. He had held the lead or a share of it from day one until the back nine on Sunday when Bill Haas posted the clubhouse lead at seven under par. Mickelson holed a 27-foot birdie putt on the final regulation hole to force a playoff alongside Haas and Keegan Bradley. Haas however won the playoff with a 40-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole. The second-place finish moved Mickelson back into the world's top 10.
Mickelson finished tied for third at the Masters. After opening the tournament with a two-over-par 74, he shot 68–66 in the next two rounds and ended up one stroke behind leader Peter Hanson by Saturday night. Mickelson had a poor start to his fourth round, scoring a triple-bogey when he hit his ball far to the left of the green on the par-3 4th hole, hitting the stand and landing in a bamboo plant. This ended up being Mickelson's only score over par in the whole round, and he ended with a score of eight-under overall. Earlier in the tournament, he received widespread praise for being present to watch Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, and Gary Player hit the ceremonial opening tee-shots, nearly seven hours before Mickelson's own tee time.
Mickelson made a charge during the final round at the HP Byron Nelson Championship, but bogeyed the 17th and 18th, finishing T-7th. He then withdrew from the Memorial Tournament, citing mental fatigue, after a first-round 79. Mickelson was paired with Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson at the U.S. Open. He fought to make the cut and finished T-65th. After taking a couple of weeks off, he played in the Greenbrier Classic. Putting problems meant a second straight missed cut at the Greenbrier and a third missed cut at 2012 Open Championship, shooting 73-78 (11 over par). He finished T-43rd at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. He then finished T-36th at the PGA Championship.
To start the 2012 FedEx Cup Playoffs, Mickelson finished T38 at The Barclays, +1 for the tournament. He tied with Tiger Woods, Zach Johnson, and five other players. In this tournament, he started using the claw putting grip on the greens. At the next event, the Deutsche Bank Championship, he finished the tournament with a −14, tied for 4th with Dustin Johnson. At the BMW Championship, Mickelson posted a −16 for the first three rounds, one of those rounds being a −8, 64. On the final day, Mickelson shot a −2, 70, to finish tied for 2nd, with Lee Westwood, two shots behind leader, and back-to-back winner, Rory McIlroy. At the Tour Championship, he ended up finishing tied for 15th. He went on to have a 3–1 record at the Ryder Cup; however, the USA team lost the event.
2013
Mickelson began the 2013 season in January by playing in the Humana Challenge, where he finished T37 at −17. His next event was the following week in his home event near San Diego at the Farmers Insurance Open. Mickelson endured a disappointing tournament, finishing T51, shooting all four rounds in the 70s.
In the first round of the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Mickelson tied his career-low round of 60. He made seven birdies in his first nine holes and needed a birdie on the 18th hole to equal the PGA Tour record of 59. However, his 25-foot birdie putt on the final hole lipped out, resulting in him missing out by a single shot on making only the sixth round of 59 in PGA Tour history. Mickelson led the tournament wire-to-wire and completed a four-shot win over Brandt Snedeker for his 41st PGA Tour victory and 3rd Phoenix Open title. Mickelson's score of 28-under-par tied Mark Calcavecchia's tournament scoring record. He also moved back inside the world's top 10 after falling down as far as number 22.
Sixth runner-up finish at the U.S. Open
At the U.S. Open at Merion, Mickelson entered the final round leading by one stroke after rounds of over the first three days, but he started the final round by three-putting the 3rd and 5th holes for double-bogeys to fall out of the lead. He regained the lead at the par-4 10th when he holed his second shot from the rough for an eagle. However, a misjudgment at the short par-3 13th saw him fly the green and make a bogey to slip one behind leader Justin Rose. Another bogey followed at the 15th, before narrowly missing a birdie putt on the 16th that would have tied Rose. Mickelson could not make a birdie at the 17th and after a blocked drive on the 18th, he could not hole his pitch from short of the green, which led to a final bogey.
Mickelson ended up finishing tied for second with Jason Day, two strokes behind Justin Rose. It was the sixth runner-up finish of Mickelson's career at the U.S. Open, an event record and only behind Jack Nicklaus's seven runner-up finishes at The Open Championship. After the event, Mickelson called the loss heartbreaking and said "this is tough to swallow after coming so close... I felt like this was as good an opportunity I could ask for and to not get it... it hurts." It was also Father's Day, which happened to be his birthday.
Fifth major title at the Open Championship
The week before The Open Championship, Mickelson warmed up for the event by winning his first tournament on British soil at the Scottish Open on July 14, after a sudden-death playoff against Branden Grace. After this victory, Mickelson spoke of his confidence ahead of his participation in the following week's major championship. Mickelson said: "I've never felt more excited going into The Open. I don't think there's a better way to get ready for a major than playing well the week before and getting into contention. Coming out on top just gives me more confidence."
The following week, Mickelson won his fifth major title on July 21 at the Open Championship (often referred to as the British Open) Muirfield Golf Links in Scotland; the Open Championship is the oldest of the four major tournaments in professional golf. This was the first time in history that anyone had won both the Scottish Open and The Open Championship in the same year. Mickelson birdied four of the last six holes in a brilliant final round of 66 to win the title by three strokes. He shed tears on the 18th green after completing his round. Mickelson later said: "I played arguably the best round of my career, and shot the round of my life. The range of emotions I feel are as far apart as possible after losing the U.S. Open. But you have to be resilient in this game." In an interview before the 2015 Open, Mickelson said, "Two years removed from that win, I still can't believe how much it means to me."
2014 and 2015: Inconsistent form and close calls in majors
Mickelson missed the cut at the Masters for the first time since 1997. He failed to contend at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in his first bid to complete the career grand slam. Mickelson's lone top-10 of the PGA Tour season came at the year's final major, the PGA Championship at Valhalla. Mickelson shot rounds of 69-67-67-66 to finish solo second, one shot behind world number one Rory McIlroy.
Prior to the 2015 Masters, Mickelson's best finish in 2015 was a tie for 17th. At the Masters, Mickelson shot rounds of to finish tied for second with Justin Rose, four shots behind champion Jordan Spieth. The second-place finish was Mickelson's tenth such finish in a major, placing him second all-time only to Jack Nicklaus in that regard.
At The Open Championship, Mickelson shot rounds of and was eight shots behind, outside the top forty. In the final round, Mickelson birdied the 15th hole to move to 10 under and within two of the lead. After a missed birdie putt on 16, Mickelson hit his drive on the infamous Road Hole (17th) at the famed Old Course at St Andrews onto a second-floor balcony of the Old Course Hotel. The out-of-bounds drive lead to a triple-bogey 7 that sent Mickelson tumbling out of contention.
Later in the year, it was announced that Mickelson would leave longtime swing coach Butch Harmon, feeling as though he needed to hear a new perspective on things.
2016: New swing coach
After leaving Butch Harmon, Mickelson hired Andrew Getson of Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, to serve as his new swing coach. The two worked together heavily in the 2015 offseason to get Mickelson's swing back.
Under Getson's guidance, Mickelson made his 2016 debut at the CareerBuilder Challenge. He shot rounds of to finish in a tie for third place at 21-under-par. It was only Mickelson's fifth top-five finish since his win at the 2013 Open Championship. The third-place finish was Mickelson's highest finish in his first worldwide start of a calendar year since he won the same event to begin the 2004 season.
At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Mickelson shot rounds of to finish in solo second place, a shot behind Vaughn Taylor. Mickelson lipped out a five-foot birdie putt to force a playoff on the 72nd hole. He entered the final round with a two-stroke lead, his first 54-hole lead since the 2013 U.S. Open and was seeking to end a winless drought dating back 52 worldwide events to the 2013 Open Championship.
Mickelson shot a 63 in the opening round of The Open Championship at Royal Troon. The round set a new course record and matched the previous major championship record for lowest round. Mickelson had a birdie putt that narrowly missed on the final hole to set a new major championship scoring record of 62. He followed this up with a 69 in the second round for a 10 under par total and a one-shot lead over Henrik Stenson going into the weekend. In the third round, Mickelson shot a one-under 70 for a total of 11 under par to enter the final round one shot back of Stenson. Despite Mickelson's bogey-free 65 in the final round, Stenson shot 63 to win by three shots. Mickelson finished 11 strokes clear of 3rd place, a major championship record for a runner-up. Mickelson's 267 total set a record score for a runner-up in the British Open, and only trails Mickelson's 266 at the 2001 PGA Championship as the lowest total by a runner-up in major championship history.
2017: Recovery from surgeries
In the fall of 2016, Mickelson had two sports hernia surgeries. Those in the golf community expected him to miss much time recovering, however his unexpected return at the CareerBuilder Challenge was a triumphant one, leading to a T-21 finish. The next week, in San Diego, he narrowly missed an eagle putt on the 18th hole on Sunday that would have got him to 8-under par instead posting −7 to finish T14 at the Farmers Insurance Open. The following week, at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, which he has won three times, he surged into contention following a Saturday 65. He played his first nine holes in 4-under 32 and sending his name to the top of the leaderboard. However, his charge faltered with bogeys at 11, 12, 14, 15, and a double bogey at the driveable 17th hole. He stumbled with a final round 71, still earning a T-16 finish, for his sixth straight top-25 finish on tour.
Mickelson came close to winning again at the FedEx St. Jude Classic where he had finished in second place the previous year to Daniel Berger. He started the final round four strokes behind leaders but he quickly played himself into contention. Following a birdie at the 10th hole he vaulted to the top of leaderboard but found trouble on the 12th hole. His tee shot carried out of bounds and his fourth shot hit the water, so he had to make a long putt to salvage triple-bogey. He managed to get one shot back, but he finished three shots behind winner Berger, in ninth place, for the second straight year.
Two weeks later he withdrew from the U.S. Open to attend his daughter's high school graduation. A week later, his longtime caddie Jim (Bones) Mackay left Mickelson in a mutual agreement. Mickelson then missed the cut at both The Open Championship and the PGA Championship.
On September 6, days after posting his best finish of the season of T6 at the Dell Technologies Championship, Mickelson was named as a captain's pick for the Presidents Cup. This maintained a streak of 23 consecutive USA teams in the Presidents Cup and Ryder Cup, dating back to 1994.
2018–2019: Winless streak ends
On March 4, 2018, Mickelson ended a winless drought that dated back to 2013, by capturing his third WGC championship at the WGC-Mexico Championship, with a final-round score of 66 and a total score of −16. Mickelson birdied two of his last four holes and had a lengthy putt to win outright on the 72nd hole, but tied with Justin Thomas. He defeated Thomas on the first extra hole of a sudden-death playoff with a par. After Thomas had flown the green, Mickelson had a birdie to win the playoff which lipped out. Thomas however could not get up and down for par, meaning Mickelson claimed the championship. The win was Mickelson's 43rd on the PGA Tour and his first since winning the 2013 Open Championship. He also became the oldest winner of a WGC event, at age 47.
In the third round of the 2018 U.S. Open, Mickelson incurred a two-stroke penalty in a controversial incident on the 13th hole when he hit his ball with intent while it was still moving. He ended up shooting 81 (+11). His former coach Butch Harmon thought Mickelson should have been disqualified.
Mickelson was a captain's pick for Team USA at the 2018 Ryder Cup, held in Paris between September 28 and 30. Paired with Bryson DeChambeau in the Friday afternoon foursomes, they lost 5 and 4 to Europe's Sergio García and Alex Norén. In the Sunday singles match, Mickelson lost 4 and 2 to Francesco Molinari, as Team USA slumped to a 17.5 to 10.5 defeat.
On November 23, 2018, Mickelson won the pay-per-view event, Capital One's The Match. This was a $9,000,000 winner-takes-all match against Tiger Woods at Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. Mickelson needed four extra holes to beat Woods, which he did by holing a four-foot putt after Woods missed a seven-foot putt on the 22nd hole.
In his third start of the 2019 calendar year, Mickelson won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, shooting a bogey-free final round 65 to defeat Paul Casey by three strokes. The win was Mickelson's 44th career title on the PGA Tour, and his fifth at Pebble Beach, tying Mark O'Meara for most victories in the event. At 48 years of age, he also became the oldest winner of that event.
2020: PGA Tour season and PGA Tour Champions debut
In December 2019, Mickelson announced via Twitter that "after turning down opportunities to go to the Middle East for many years" he would play in the 2020 Saudi International tournament on the European Tour and would miss Waste Management Phoenix Open for the first time since 1989. However, his decision to visit and play in Saudi Arabia was criticized for getting lured by millions of dollars and ignoring the continuous human rights abuses in the nation. Mickelson went on to finish the February 2020 event tied for third.
Mickelson finished 3rd at the 2020 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and tied for 2nd in the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational. Mickelson was the first player over 50 to finish in the top five of a World Golf Championship event. He was ultimately eliminated from the FedEx Cup Playoffs following The Northern Trust at TPC Boston in August 2020. One week later, Mickelson made his debut on the PGA Tour Champions. He won the Charles Schwab Series at Ozarks National in his first tournament after becoming eligible for PGA Tour Champions on his 50th birthday on June 16, 2020. He was the 20th player to win their debut tournament on tour. Mickelson's 191 stroke total tied the PGA Tour Champions all-time record for a three-day event.
In October 2020, Mickelson won the Dominion Energy Charity Classic in Virginia. It was his second win in as many starts on the PGA Tour Champions.
2021: The oldest major champion
In February 2021, Mickelson was attempting to become the first player in PGA Tour Champions history to win his first three tournaments on tour. However, he fell short in the Cologuard Classic, finishing in a T-20 position with a score of 4 under par.
In May 2021, Mickelson held the 54-hole lead at the PGA Championship at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, leading Brooks Koepka by one shot with one day to play. He shot a final-round 73 to capture the tournament, defeating Koepka and Louis Oosthuizen by two strokes, becoming the oldest major champion; at 50. As Mickelson walked down the fairway following an excellent second shot from the left rough on the 18th hole, thousands of fans engulfed him, with him walking towards the hole constantly tipping his hat and giving the thumbs up to the crowd as they cheered. However, the massive tumult of people meant playing partner Brooks Koepka was stranded in the sea of people, and with difficulties, he managed to reach the green to finish the hole. Mickelson eventually emerged from the crowd and two-putted for par, finishing the tournament at 6-under, besting the field by two strokes.
In October 2021, Mickelson won for the third time in four career starts on the PGA Tour Champions. Mickelson shot a final round 4-under-par 68 to win the inaugural Constellation Furyk & Friends over Miguel Ángel Jiménez in Jacksonville, Florida.
In November 2021, Mickelson won the season-ending Charles Schwab Cup Championship in Phoenix, Arizona, with a final round six-under par 65. This victory was Mickelson's fourth win in six career starts on PGA Tour Champions.
2022: LIV Golf
Mickelson told a journalist that despite Saudi Arabians being "scary motherfuckers" who had murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi and executed gay people, he supported the Saudi-backed LIV Golf because it offered an opportunity to reshape the PGA Tour. In response to these comments, Mickelson lost sponsors Amstel Light and KPMG. Mickelson announced he would be stepping away from golf to spend time with his family and would miss the 2022 Masters Tournament. In May, he also decided to withdraw from the PGA Championship which he won in 2021. On June 6, 2022, LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman announced that Mickelson will play in the first event on the LIV Golf Invitational Series beginning on June 9, 2022. On June 9, 2022, the first day of the LIV Golf Invitational London, the PGA Tour suspended Mickelson and 16 other current and former tour members for participating in a conflicting event without permission from the tour.
2023
At the 2023 Masters Tournament, Mickelson made what many viewed as the performance of the tournament, beginning the final day ten shots off of the lead, and finishing in tied second. Shooting a 65, Mickelson equaled his lowest score at Augusta almost 27 years ago. In the last seven holes, he scored five birdies and two pars.
Playing style
As a competitor, Mickelson's playing style is described by many as "aggressive" and highly social. His strategy toward difficult shots (bad lies, obstructions) would tend to be considered risky.
Mickelson has also been characterized by his powerful and sometimes inaccurate driver, but his excellent short game draws the most positive reviews, most of all his daring "Phil flop" shot in which a big swing with a high-lofted wedge against a tight lie flies a ball high into the air for a short distance.
In his prime, Mickelson was usually in the top 10 in scoring, and he led the PGA Tour in birdie average as recently as 2013.
Earnings and endorsements
Although ranked second on the PGA Tour's all-time money list of tournament prize money won, Mickelson earns far more from endorsements than from prize money. According to one estimate of 2011 earnings (comprising salary, winnings, bonuses, endorsements, and appearances), Mickelson was then the second-highest paid athlete in the United States, earning an income of over $62 million, $53 million of which came from endorsements. In 2015, Forbes estimated Mickelson's annual income was $51 million. Major companies which Mickelson currently endorses are ExxonMobil (Mickelson and wife Amy started a teacher sponsorship fund with the company), Rolex, and Mizzen+Main. Mickelson's sponsorship with Callaway Golf is currently "paused" and will be re-evaluated at a later date. After being diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis in 2010, Mickelson was treated with Enbrel and began endorsing the drug. He has been previously sponsored by Titleist, KPMG, Workday, Bearing Point, Barclays, Amstel Light and Ford.
In 2022, Mickelson lost a significant number of sponsors including KPMG, Amstel Light, and Workday after comments he made about the Saudi-backed golf league, LIV Golf. In an interview, he stated that Saudis are "scary motherfuckers to get involved with... We know they killed [Washington Post reporter and U.S. resident Jamal] Khashoggi and have a horrible record on human rights. They execute people over there for being gay. Knowing all of this, why would I even consider it? Because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reshape how the PGA Tour operates."
Business
As a businessman, Mickelson is the co-founder of For Wellness with Dave Phillips, who is Jon Rahm's coach and also co-founder of the Titleist Performance Institute. The company sells functional food and beverage products, including the supplement that Mickelson adds to his coffee
Insider trading settlement
On May 30, 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that the FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) were investigating Mickelson and associates of his for insider trading in Clorox and Dean Foods stock. Mickelson denied any wrongdoing. The initial investigation concluded without any charges related to Clorox. However, Mickelson was still under investigation for trades in Dean Foods that produced nearly $1 million. On May 19, 2016, Mickelson was named as a relief defendant in a SEC complaint alleging insider trading but avoided criminal charges in a parallel case brought in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. The action results from trades in Dean Foods in 2012 in conjunction with confidential information provided by Thomas Davis, a former director of Dean Foods Company, who tipped his friend and "professional sports bettor" Billy Walters.
The SEC alleged that Walters told Mickelson material, nonpublic information about Dean Foods, and the SEC fined Mickelson the equivalent of the $931,000 profit he made from trading Dean Foods stock as well as interest of $105,000. In 2017, Walters was convicted of making $40 million on Davis's private information from 2008 to 2014 by a federal jury. At that time, it was also noted that Mickelson had "once owed nearly $2 million in gambling debts to" Walters.
Amateur wins
1980 Junior World Golf Championships (Boys 9–10)
1989 NCAA Division I Championship
1990 Pac-10 Championship, NCAA Division I Championship, U.S. Amateur, Porter Cup
1991 Western Amateur
1992 NCAA Division I Championship
Professional wins (57)
PGA Tour wins (45)
*Note: Tournament shortened to 54 holes due to weather.
PGA Tour playoff record (8–4)
European Tour wins (11)
1Co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour and PGA Tour of Australasia
European Tour playoff record (3–1)
Challenge Tour wins (1)
Other wins (4)
Other playoff record (1–1)
PGA Tour Champions wins (4)
Major championships
Wins (6)
Results timeline
Results not in chronological order in 2020.
LA = Low amateur
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" = tied
NT = No tournament due to COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
Most consecutive cuts made – 30 (1999 PGA – 2007 Masters)
Longest streak of top-10s – 5 (2004 Masters – 2005 Masters)
The Players Championship
Wins (1)
Results timeline
CUT = missed the halfway cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
C = Canceled after the first round due to the COVID-19 pandemic
World Golf Championships
Wins (3)
Results timeline
Results not in chronological order prior to 2015.
1Cancelled due to 9/11
2Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
QF, R16, R32, R64 = Round in which player lost in match play
"T" = tied
NT = No Tournament
Note that the HSBC Champions did not become a WGC event until 2009.
PGA Tour career summary
* As of 2021 season.
† Mickelson won as an amateur in 1991 and therefore did not receive any prize money.
U.S. national team appearances
Amateur
Walker Cup: 1989, 1991 (winners)
Eisenhower Trophy: 1990
Professional
Presidents Cup: 1994 (winners), 1996 (winners), 1998, 2000 (winners), 2003 (tie), 2005 (winners), 2007 (winners), 2009 (winners), 2011 (winners), 2013 (winners), 2015 (winners), 2017 (winners)
Ryder Cup: 1995, 1997, 1999 (winners), 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 (winners), 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016 (winners), 2018
Alfred Dunhill Cup: 1996 (winners)
Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge (representing PGA Tour): 1997 (winners), 2000 (winners)
World Cup: 2002
See also
List of golfers with most European Tour wins
List of golfers with most PGA Tour wins
List of men's major championships winning golfers
Monday Night Golf
Notes
References
External links
On Course With Phil
Category:American male golfers
Category:PGA Tour golfers
Category:PGA Tour Champions golfers
Category:LIV Golf players
Category:Ryder Cup competitors for the United States
Category:Sports controversies
Category:Winners of men's major golf championships
Category:Arizona State Sun Devils men's golfers
Category:Left-handed golfers
Category:World Golf Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Golfers from Scottsdale, Arizona
Category:Golfers from San Diego
Category:University of San Diego High School alumni
Category:American people of Italian descent
Category:American people of Portuguese descent
Category:American people of Swedish descent
Category:1970 births
Category:Living people | [] | [
"Mickelson won his first major championship in 2004.",
"During his first major championship win in 2004, Mickelson secured victory in the Masters with an 18-foot (5.5 m) birdie putt on the final hole. He and Ernie Els, the runner-up, played in different pairs in the final round and had traded birdies and eagles on the back nine. This win also made Mickelson the third golfer with a left-handed swing to win a major.",
"After his first major championship win in 2004, Mickelson was involved in a controversy just prior to the Ryder Cup. He was dropped from his contract with Titleist/Acushnet Golf after he praised Callaway Golf's driver and golf ball in a voicemail message for one of their executives. This led to him signing with Callaway Golf. He was scrutinized for this sudden equipment change close to the Ryder Cup matches. He later scored a career-low for an 18-hole round in November 2004. The following year, he captured his second major at the PGA Championship at Baltusrol, and his third major title the following spring at the Masters.",
"Mickelson played well and demonstrated resilience in his career. He won his first major championship in the Masters at his thirteenth year on the PGA Tour in 2004 after making an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole. However, he faltered at the 2004 Ryder Cup with a 1-3-0 record, but refused to blame the sudden change in equipment for his performance. He also showcased exceptional skill in his second major win at the PGA Championship where he made a birdie after a soft pitch from a deep greenside rough. He continued his success in the next spring at the Masters, winning his third major title. Despite some criticism and challenges, his performances helped him climb to the 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking.",
"Mickelson captured his third major title the following spring after his win at the PGA Championship. This third win occurred at the Masters.",
"Mickelson captured his third major title at the Masters, which is played at Augusta National Golf Club. The text does not specify which course he played on for his first and second major championship wins.",
"With his last win mentioned in the text, which was his third major title at the Masters, Mickelson shot a final round of 3-under-par, winning by two strokes over the runner-up Tim Clark. This win propelled him to second place in the Official World Golf Ranking, behind Tiger Woods and ahead of Vijay Singh and Retief Goosen.",
"Yes, Mickelson's third major title at the Masters was an important win for his career. It not only added another major title to his record, but also propelled him to 2nd place in the Official World Golf Ranking, which was his career best."
] | [
"Yes",
"No",
"No",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"No",
"Yes",
"Yes"
] |
C_72deee15912a467cb5562fdf5b1b06d7_1 | Bob Hayes | Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes (December 20, 1942 - September 18, 2002) was an Olympic sprinter turned American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. An American track and field athlete, he was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and football at Florida A&M University. He has one of the top 100 meter times by NFL players. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. | College career | Hayes was a highly recruited athlete, and accepted a football scholarship from Florida A&M University a historically black college, where he excelled in track & field. He never lost a race in the 100 yard or 100 meter competitions, but mainstream schools of the area still did not invite him to their sanctioned meets. In 1962 the University of Miami invited him to a meet on their campus, where he tied the world record of 9.2 seconds in the 100-yard dash, which had been set by Frank Budd of Villanova University the previous year. He also was the first person to break six seconds in the 60 yard dash with his indoor world record of 5.9 seconds. In 1963, although he never used a traditional sprinter form, he broke the 100-yard dash record with a time of 9.1, a mark that would not be broken for eleven years (until Ivory Crockett ran a 9.0 in 1974). That same year, Hayes set the world best for 200 meters (20.5 seconds, although the time was never ratified) and ran the 220 yard dash in a time of 20.6 seconds (while running into an eight mph wind). He was selected to represent the United States in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. His football coach Jake Gaither was not very high on giving Hayes time to train, which caused then president Lyndon B. Johnson to call him in order to allow Hayes time off and to keep him healthy. He was the AAU 100 yard dash champion three years running, from 1962-1964, and in 1964 was the NCAA champion in the 200 meter dash. He missed part of his senior year because of his Olympic bid for the Gold medal. In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was inducted into the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. In 2011, he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Robert Lee Hayes (December 20, 1942 – September 18, 2002), nicknamed "Bullet Bob", was an American sprinter and professional football player. After winning gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics, he played as a split end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys (for 11 seasons). Hayes is the only athlete to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and field and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe. He once held the world record for the 70-yard dash (with a time of 6.9 seconds). He also is tied for the world's second-fastest time in the 60-yard dash.
He was once considered the "world's fastest human" by virtue of his multiple world records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and Olympic 100-meter dashes. He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
Early years
Hayes attended Matthew Gilbert High School in Jacksonville, where he was a backup halfback on the football team. The 1958 Gilbert High Panthers finished 12–0, winning the Florida High School Athletic Association black school state championship with a 14–7 victory over Dillard High School of Fort Lauderdale before more than 11,000 spectators. In times of racial segregation laws, their achievement went basically unnoticed, until 50 years later they were recognized as one of the best teams in Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) history.
College career
Hayes was a highly recruited athlete, and accepted a football scholarship from Florida A&M University, a historically black college, where he excelled in track and field.
He never lost a race in the 100-yard or 100-meter competitions, but mainstream schools of the area still did not invite him to their sanctioned meets. In 1962 the University of Miami invited him to a meet on their campus, where he tied the world record of 9.2 seconds in the 100-yard dash, which had been set by Frank Budd of Villanova University the previous year. He also was the first person to break six seconds in the 60-yard dash with his indoor world record of 5.9 seconds.
In 1963, although he never used a traditional sprinter form, he broke the 100-yard dash record with a time of 9.1, a mark that would not be broken for eleven years (until Ivory Crockett ran a 9.0 in 1974). That same year, Hayes set the world best for 200 meters (20.5 seconds, although the time was never ratified) and ran the 220-yard dash in a time of 20.6 seconds (while running into an eight mph wind). He was selected to represent the United States in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. His football coach Jake Gaither was not very high on giving Hayes time to train, which caused then president Lyndon B. Johnson to call him and insist he allow Hayes time off and to keep him healthy.
He was the AAU 100-yard dash champion three years running, from 1962–1964, and in 1964 was the NCAA champion in the 200-meter dash. He missed part of his senior year because of his Olympic bid for the gold medal.
In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was inducted into the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. In 2011, he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Olympics
At the 1964 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, Hayes had his finest hour as a sprinter. First, he won the 100m and in doing so tied the then world record in the 100 m with a time of 10.06 seconds, even though he was running in lane 1 which had, the day before, been used for the 20 km racewalk and this badly chewed up the cinder track. He also was running in borrowed spikes because one of his shoes had been kicked under the bed when he was playing with some friends and he didn't realize until he got there. This was followed by a second gold medal in the 4×100 meter relay, which also produced a new World Record (39.06 seconds).
His come-from-behind win for the US team in the relay was one of the most memorable Olympic moments. Hand-timed between 8.5 and 8.9 seconds, his relay leg is the fastest in history. Jocelyn Delecour, France's anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final that, "You can't win, all you have is Bob Hayes." Drayton was able to reply afterwards, "That's all we need." The race was also Hayes' last as a track and field athlete, as he permanently switched to football after it, aged only 21.
In some of the first meets to be timed with experimental fully automatic timing, Hayes was the first man to break ten seconds for the 100 meters, albeit with a 5.3 m/s wind assistance in the semi-finals of the 1964 Olympics. His time was recorded at 9.91 seconds. Jim Hines officially broke 10 seconds at the high altitude of Mexico City, Mexico in 1968 (and on a synthetic track) with a wind-legal 9.95 which stood as the world record for almost 15 years. The next to surpass Hayes at a low altitude Olympics was Carl Lewis in 1984 when he won in 9.99, some 20 years later (though Hasely Crawford equaled the time in 1976).
Until the Tokyo Olympics, world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds, despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds, and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968.
Professional football career
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys selected Hayes in the seventh round (88th overall) of the 1964 NFL Draft with a future draft pick, which allowed the team to draft him before his college eligibility was over, taking a chance that the Olympic sprinter with unrefined football skills could excel as a wide receiver. He was also selected by the Denver Broncos in the 14th round (105th overall) of the 1964 AFL Draft, with a future selection. The bet paid off, due to his amazing feats in cleats. Hayes has been credited by many with forcing the NFL to develop a zone defense and the bump and run to attempt to contain him.
Hayes' first two seasons were most successful, during which he led the NFL both times in receiving touchdowns with 12 and 13 touchdowns, respectively. In 1966 Hayes caught six passes for 195 yards against the New York Giants at the Cotton Bowl. Later, in the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins match-up, Hayes caught nine passes for 246 yards (a franchise record until Miles Austin broke it with a 250-yard performance on October 11, 2009, against the Kansas City Chiefs). Hayes' speed forced other teams to go to a zone since no single player could keep up with him. Spreading the defense out in hopes of containing Hayes allowed the Cowboys' talented running game to flourish, rushers Don Perkins, Calvin Hill, Walt Garrison and Duane Thomas taking advantage of the diminished coverage at the line of scrimmage. In the 1967 season, Hayes led the NFL in punt return yards, and went on to set an NFL playoff record with 141 punt return yards in Dallas' 52-14 win over the Cleveland Browns. Hayes also caught 5 passes for 145 yards in that game, including an 86-yard touchdown catch.
Hayes is also infamous for two events, both involving the NFL championship games in 1966 and 1967, both against the Packers. In the 1966 game, on the last meaningful play of the game, Hayes missed an assignment of blocking linebacker Dave Robinson, which resulted in Don Meredith nearly being sacked by Robinson and as a result throwing a desperation pass into the end zone that was intercepted by Tom Brown. In the 1967 NFL championship, the "Ice Bowl" played on New Year's Eve, 1967, Hayes was alleged to have inadvertently disclosed whether the upcoming play was a pass or run because on running plays he kept his hands inside his pants to keep them warm and the Green Bay defense knew they didn't need to cover him.
On July 17, 1975, he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a third round draft choice (#73-Duke Fergerson).
Hayes wore No. 22 with the Cowboys, which would later be worn by running back Emmitt Smith.
San Francisco 49ers
In 1975 with the San Francisco 49ers, Hayes teamed up with Gene Washington in the starting lineup. On October 23, he was waived after not playing up to expectations, in order to make room for wide receiver Terry Beasley.
Multiple offensive threat
In addition to receiving, Hayes returned punts for the Cowboys and was the NFL's leading punt returner in 1968 with a 20.8 yards per return average and two touchdowns, including a 90 yarder against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was named to the Pro Bowl three times and First-team All-Pro twice and Second-team All-Pro twice. He helped Dallas win five Eastern Conference titles, two NFC titles, played in two Super Bowls, and was instrumental in Dallas' first-ever Super Bowl victory after the 1971 season, making Hayes the only person to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. Later in his career, as defenses improved playing zone and the bump and run was refined, Hayes' value was as a decoy rather than a deep threat.
Cowboy records
Hayes was the second player (after Franklin Clarke) in the history of the Dallas Cowboys franchise to surpass 1,000 yards (ground or air) in a single season, and he did that in his rookie year by finishing with 1,003 yards. Also during his rookie year, he led the team with 46 receptions and set franchise records for total touchdowns (13) and total receiving touchdowns (12). He finished his 11-year career with 371 receptions for 7,414 yards and 71 touchdowns, giving him an impressive 20 yards per catch average (his yards per catch average remains a franchise record, while his touchdown reception record stood until 2017, when it was broken by Dez Bryant.) He also rushed for 68 yards and two touchdowns, gained 581 yards on 23 kickoff returns, and returned 104 punts for 1,158 yards and three touchdowns.
In 1965 he also started a streak (1965–1966) of seven consecutive games with at least a touchdown catch, which still stands as a Cowboys record shared with Franklin Clarke (1961–1962), Terrell Owens (2007) and Dez Bryant (2012).
His 7,295 receiving yards are the sixth-most in Dallas Cowboys history. To this day, Hayes holds ten regular-season receiving records, four punt return records and 22 overall franchise marks, making him one of the greatest receivers to ever play for the Cowboys.
In 2004, he was named to the Professional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in the association's second HOVG class
Death
On September 18, 2002, Hayes died in his hometown Jacksonville of kidney failure, after battling prostate cancer and liver ailments.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
2004 controversy
Hayes was close to being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004, but was denied the opportunity in the final round of decision making. The decision was marred by controversy, with many claiming that the Hall of Fame Senior Selection Committee had a bias against members of the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams. Others believe Hayes' legal and drug use issues marred his chances. Shortly after the announcement of the new 2004 Hall of Fame members, long-time Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman resigned from the Selection Committee in protest of the decision to leave Hayes out of the Hall. Zimmerman eventually returned as a Hall of Fame voter.
2009 induction
On August 27, 2008, Hayes was named as one of two senior candidates for the 2009 Hall of Fame election. On Saturday, January 31, 2009, he was selected as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2009.
The next day Lucille Hester, who claimed to be Hayes's sister, released a letter she said he had drafted three years before he died, on October 29, 1999, in case he did not live to see his induction. Its full text read:
You know I am not sure I am going to be around if I get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame so you must read this for me, I am not sure, I guess I am feeling sorry for myself at this time but you must remember everything I want you to do and say. Mother said you would do what I want because you always did. So read this for me.
I would like to thank everyone who supported me to get into the NFL Hall of Fame, the Dallas Cowboys organization, all of my team mates and everyone who played for the Cowboys, (thank the San Francisco 49rs too). Thank the fans all around the country and the world, thank the committee who voted for me and also the ones who may did not vote for me, thank Mother and my family, thank Roger Stauback and tell all my teammates I love them dearly.
Thank the Pro Football Hall of Fame, all the NFL teams and players, Florida A&M University, thank everyone who went to Mathew Gilbert High School, thank everyone in Jacksonville and Florida and everyone especially on the East Side of Jacksonville. Thank everyone in the City of Dallas and in Texas and just thank everyone in the whole world.
I love you all.
Delivered by Hester in front of hundreds and a national cable television audience, the moment was described as "... one of the most compelling and touching scenes the Hall of Fame has seen." Shortly after, it was discovered that the supposedly signed letter was printed in the Calibri font, which was not released to the public until five years after Hayes' death. Some family members disputed Lucille Hester's claim to be related to Bob, and took steps to ensure she was not part of the Hall of Fame ceremony.
On August 8, 2009, Hayes was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Roger Staubach, Hayes' Dallas Cowboy teammate, along with Hayes' son Bob Hayes Jr., unveiled the bust, which was sculpted by Scott Myers. On hand were six members of Bob's Gilbert High School championship team. He was later inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.
References
Further reading
Wallechinsky, David (2004). The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, Toronto: Sport Classic Books.
External links
Category:1942 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:African-American players of American football
Category:American football wide receivers
Category:American male sprinters
Category:World record setters in athletics (track and field)
Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Category:Dallas Cowboys players
Category:San Francisco 49ers players
Category:Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players
Category:Florida A&M Rattlers football players
Category:Florida A&M Rattlers track and field athletes
Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
Category:Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Category:Players of American football from Jacksonville, Florida
Category:Deaths from prostate cancer
Category:Deaths from cancer in Florida
Category:Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Track and field athletes from Florida
Category:Track and field athletes in the National Football League
Category:USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
Category:USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
Category:20th-century African-American sportspeople
Category:21st-century African-American people | [] | null | null |
C_72deee15912a467cb5562fdf5b1b06d7_0 | Bob Hayes | Robert Lee "Bullet Bob" Hayes (December 20, 1942 - September 18, 2002) was an Olympic sprinter turned American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. An American track and field athlete, he was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and football at Florida A&M University. He has one of the top 100 meter times by NFL players. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. | Olympics | At the 1964 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, Hayes had his finest hour as a sprinter. First, he won the 100m and in doing so tied the then world record in the 100 m with a time of 10.06 seconds, even though he was running in lane 1 which had, the day before, been used for the 20 km racewalk and this badly chewed up the cinder track. He also was running in borrowed spikes because one of his shoes had been kicked under the bed when he was playing with some friends and he didn't realize until he got there. This was followed by a second gold medal in the 4x100 meter relay, which also produced a new World Record (39.06 seconds). His come-from-behind win for the US team in the relay was one of the most memorable Olympic moments. Hand-timed between 8.5 and 8.9 seconds, his relay leg is the fastest in history. Jocelyn Delecour, France's anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final that, "You can't win, all you have is Bob Hayes." Drayton was able to reply afterwards, "That's all we need." The race was also Hayes' last as a track and field athlete, as he permanently switched to football after it, aged only 21. In some of the first meets to be timed with experimental fully automatic timing, Hayes was the first man to break ten seconds for the 100 meters, albeit with a 5.3 m/s wind assistance in the semi-finals of the 1964 Olympics. His time was recorded at 9.91 seconds. Jim Hines officially broke 10 seconds at the high altitude of Mexico City, Mexico in 1968 (and on a synthetic track) with a wind legal 9.95 which stood as the world record for almost 15 years. The next to surpass Hayes at a low altitude Olympics was Carl Lewis in 1984 when he won in 9.99, some 20 years later (though Hasely Crawford equaled the time in 1976). Until the Tokyo Olympics, world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds, despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds, and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Robert Lee Hayes (December 20, 1942 – September 18, 2002), nicknamed "Bullet Bob", was an American sprinter and professional football player. After winning gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics, he played as a split end in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys (for 11 seasons). Hayes is the only athlete to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. He was a two-sport stand-out in college in both track and field and football at Florida A&M University. Hayes was enshrined in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor in 2001 and was selected for induction in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in January 2009. Hayes is the second Olympic gold medalist to be inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, after Jim Thorpe. He once held the world record for the 70-yard dash (with a time of 6.9 seconds). He also is tied for the world's second-fastest time in the 60-yard dash.
He was once considered the "world's fastest human" by virtue of his multiple world records in the 60-yard, 100-yard, 220-yard, and Olympic 100-meter dashes. He was inducted into the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.
Early years
Hayes attended Matthew Gilbert High School in Jacksonville, where he was a backup halfback on the football team. The 1958 Gilbert High Panthers finished 12–0, winning the Florida High School Athletic Association black school state championship with a 14–7 victory over Dillard High School of Fort Lauderdale before more than 11,000 spectators. In times of racial segregation laws, their achievement went basically unnoticed, until 50 years later they were recognized as one of the best teams in Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) history.
College career
Hayes was a highly recruited athlete, and accepted a football scholarship from Florida A&M University, a historically black college, where he excelled in track and field.
He never lost a race in the 100-yard or 100-meter competitions, but mainstream schools of the area still did not invite him to their sanctioned meets. In 1962 the University of Miami invited him to a meet on their campus, where he tied the world record of 9.2 seconds in the 100-yard dash, which had been set by Frank Budd of Villanova University the previous year. He also was the first person to break six seconds in the 60-yard dash with his indoor world record of 5.9 seconds.
In 1963, although he never used a traditional sprinter form, he broke the 100-yard dash record with a time of 9.1, a mark that would not be broken for eleven years (until Ivory Crockett ran a 9.0 in 1974). That same year, Hayes set the world best for 200 meters (20.5 seconds, although the time was never ratified) and ran the 220-yard dash in a time of 20.6 seconds (while running into an eight mph wind). He was selected to represent the United States in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. His football coach Jake Gaither was not very high on giving Hayes time to train, which caused then president Lyndon B. Johnson to call him and insist he allow Hayes time off and to keep him healthy.
He was the AAU 100-yard dash champion three years running, from 1962–1964, and in 1964 was the NCAA champion in the 200-meter dash. He missed part of his senior year because of his Olympic bid for the gold medal.
In 1976, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Florida A&M University Sports Hall of Fame. In 1996, he was inducted into the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Hall of Fame. In 2011, he was inducted into the Black College Football Hall of Fame.
Olympics
At the 1964 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, Hayes had his finest hour as a sprinter. First, he won the 100m and in doing so tied the then world record in the 100 m with a time of 10.06 seconds, even though he was running in lane 1 which had, the day before, been used for the 20 km racewalk and this badly chewed up the cinder track. He also was running in borrowed spikes because one of his shoes had been kicked under the bed when he was playing with some friends and he didn't realize until he got there. This was followed by a second gold medal in the 4×100 meter relay, which also produced a new World Record (39.06 seconds).
His come-from-behind win for the US team in the relay was one of the most memorable Olympic moments. Hand-timed between 8.5 and 8.9 seconds, his relay leg is the fastest in history. Jocelyn Delecour, France's anchor leg runner, famously said to Paul Drayton before the relay final that, "You can't win, all you have is Bob Hayes." Drayton was able to reply afterwards, "That's all we need." The race was also Hayes' last as a track and field athlete, as he permanently switched to football after it, aged only 21.
In some of the first meets to be timed with experimental fully automatic timing, Hayes was the first man to break ten seconds for the 100 meters, albeit with a 5.3 m/s wind assistance in the semi-finals of the 1964 Olympics. His time was recorded at 9.91 seconds. Jim Hines officially broke 10 seconds at the high altitude of Mexico City, Mexico in 1968 (and on a synthetic track) with a wind-legal 9.95 which stood as the world record for almost 15 years. The next to surpass Hayes at a low altitude Olympics was Carl Lewis in 1984 when he won in 9.99, some 20 years later (though Hasely Crawford equaled the time in 1976).
Until the Tokyo Olympics, world records were measured by officials with stopwatches, measured to the nearest tenth of a second. Although fully automatic timing was used in Tokyo, the times were given the appearance of manual timing. This was done by subtracting 0.05 seconds from the automatic time and rounding to the nearest tenth of a second, making Hayes' time of 10.06 seconds convert to 10.0 seconds, despite the fact that the officials with stopwatches had measured Hayes' time to be 9.9 seconds, and the average difference between manual and automatic times was typically 0.15 to 0.20 seconds. This unique method of determining the official time therefore denied Hayes the record of being the first to officially record 9.9 seconds for the 100 meters. The first official times of 9.9 seconds were recorded at the "Night of Speed" in 1968.
Professional football career
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys selected Hayes in the seventh round (88th overall) of the 1964 NFL Draft with a future draft pick, which allowed the team to draft him before his college eligibility was over, taking a chance that the Olympic sprinter with unrefined football skills could excel as a wide receiver. He was also selected by the Denver Broncos in the 14th round (105th overall) of the 1964 AFL Draft, with a future selection. The bet paid off, due to his amazing feats in cleats. Hayes has been credited by many with forcing the NFL to develop a zone defense and the bump and run to attempt to contain him.
Hayes' first two seasons were most successful, during which he led the NFL both times in receiving touchdowns with 12 and 13 touchdowns, respectively. In 1966 Hayes caught six passes for 195 yards against the New York Giants at the Cotton Bowl. Later, in the Dallas Cowboys-Washington Redskins match-up, Hayes caught nine passes for 246 yards (a franchise record until Miles Austin broke it with a 250-yard performance on October 11, 2009, against the Kansas City Chiefs). Hayes' speed forced other teams to go to a zone since no single player could keep up with him. Spreading the defense out in hopes of containing Hayes allowed the Cowboys' talented running game to flourish, rushers Don Perkins, Calvin Hill, Walt Garrison and Duane Thomas taking advantage of the diminished coverage at the line of scrimmage. In the 1967 season, Hayes led the NFL in punt return yards, and went on to set an NFL playoff record with 141 punt return yards in Dallas' 52-14 win over the Cleveland Browns. Hayes also caught 5 passes for 145 yards in that game, including an 86-yard touchdown catch.
Hayes is also infamous for two events, both involving the NFL championship games in 1966 and 1967, both against the Packers. In the 1966 game, on the last meaningful play of the game, Hayes missed an assignment of blocking linebacker Dave Robinson, which resulted in Don Meredith nearly being sacked by Robinson and as a result throwing a desperation pass into the end zone that was intercepted by Tom Brown. In the 1967 NFL championship, the "Ice Bowl" played on New Year's Eve, 1967, Hayes was alleged to have inadvertently disclosed whether the upcoming play was a pass or run because on running plays he kept his hands inside his pants to keep them warm and the Green Bay defense knew they didn't need to cover him.
On July 17, 1975, he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for a third round draft choice (#73-Duke Fergerson).
Hayes wore No. 22 with the Cowboys, which would later be worn by running back Emmitt Smith.
San Francisco 49ers
In 1975 with the San Francisco 49ers, Hayes teamed up with Gene Washington in the starting lineup. On October 23, he was waived after not playing up to expectations, in order to make room for wide receiver Terry Beasley.
Multiple offensive threat
In addition to receiving, Hayes returned punts for the Cowboys and was the NFL's leading punt returner in 1968 with a 20.8 yards per return average and two touchdowns, including a 90 yarder against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was named to the Pro Bowl three times and First-team All-Pro twice and Second-team All-Pro twice. He helped Dallas win five Eastern Conference titles, two NFC titles, played in two Super Bowls, and was instrumental in Dallas' first-ever Super Bowl victory after the 1971 season, making Hayes the only person to win both an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring. Later in his career, as defenses improved playing zone and the bump and run was refined, Hayes' value was as a decoy rather than a deep threat.
Cowboy records
Hayes was the second player (after Franklin Clarke) in the history of the Dallas Cowboys franchise to surpass 1,000 yards (ground or air) in a single season, and he did that in his rookie year by finishing with 1,003 yards. Also during his rookie year, he led the team with 46 receptions and set franchise records for total touchdowns (13) and total receiving touchdowns (12). He finished his 11-year career with 371 receptions for 7,414 yards and 71 touchdowns, giving him an impressive 20 yards per catch average (his yards per catch average remains a franchise record, while his touchdown reception record stood until 2017, when it was broken by Dez Bryant.) He also rushed for 68 yards and two touchdowns, gained 581 yards on 23 kickoff returns, and returned 104 punts for 1,158 yards and three touchdowns.
In 1965 he also started a streak (1965–1966) of seven consecutive games with at least a touchdown catch, which still stands as a Cowboys record shared with Franklin Clarke (1961–1962), Terrell Owens (2007) and Dez Bryant (2012).
His 7,295 receiving yards are the sixth-most in Dallas Cowboys history. To this day, Hayes holds ten regular-season receiving records, four punt return records and 22 overall franchise marks, making him one of the greatest receivers to ever play for the Cowboys.
In 2004, he was named to the Professional Football Researchers Association Hall of Very Good in the association's second HOVG class
Death
On September 18, 2002, Hayes died in his hometown Jacksonville of kidney failure, after battling prostate cancer and liver ailments.
Pro Football Hall of Fame
2004 controversy
Hayes was close to being inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2004, but was denied the opportunity in the final round of decision making. The decision was marred by controversy, with many claiming that the Hall of Fame Senior Selection Committee had a bias against members of the Dallas Cowboys and other NFL teams. Others believe Hayes' legal and drug use issues marred his chances. Shortly after the announcement of the new 2004 Hall of Fame members, long-time Sports Illustrated writer Paul Zimmerman resigned from the Selection Committee in protest of the decision to leave Hayes out of the Hall. Zimmerman eventually returned as a Hall of Fame voter.
2009 induction
On August 27, 2008, Hayes was named as one of two senior candidates for the 2009 Hall of Fame election. On Saturday, January 31, 2009, he was selected as a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame's Class of 2009.
The next day Lucille Hester, who claimed to be Hayes's sister, released a letter she said he had drafted three years before he died, on October 29, 1999, in case he did not live to see his induction. Its full text read:
You know I am not sure I am going to be around if I get into the Pro Football Hall of Fame so you must read this for me, I am not sure, I guess I am feeling sorry for myself at this time but you must remember everything I want you to do and say. Mother said you would do what I want because you always did. So read this for me.
I would like to thank everyone who supported me to get into the NFL Hall of Fame, the Dallas Cowboys organization, all of my team mates and everyone who played for the Cowboys, (thank the San Francisco 49rs too). Thank the fans all around the country and the world, thank the committee who voted for me and also the ones who may did not vote for me, thank Mother and my family, thank Roger Stauback and tell all my teammates I love them dearly.
Thank the Pro Football Hall of Fame, all the NFL teams and players, Florida A&M University, thank everyone who went to Mathew Gilbert High School, thank everyone in Jacksonville and Florida and everyone especially on the East Side of Jacksonville. Thank everyone in the City of Dallas and in Texas and just thank everyone in the whole world.
I love you all.
Delivered by Hester in front of hundreds and a national cable television audience, the moment was described as "... one of the most compelling and touching scenes the Hall of Fame has seen." Shortly after, it was discovered that the supposedly signed letter was printed in the Calibri font, which was not released to the public until five years after Hayes' death. Some family members disputed Lucille Hester's claim to be related to Bob, and took steps to ensure she was not part of the Hall of Fame ceremony.
On August 8, 2009, Hayes was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Roger Staubach, Hayes' Dallas Cowboy teammate, along with Hayes' son Bob Hayes Jr., unveiled the bust, which was sculpted by Scott Myers. On hand were six members of Bob's Gilbert High School championship team. He was later inducted into the Texas Track and Field Coaches Hall of Fame, Class of 2017.
References
Further reading
Wallechinsky, David (2004). The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, Toronto: Sport Classic Books.
External links
Category:1942 births
Category:2002 deaths
Category:African-American players of American football
Category:American football wide receivers
Category:American male sprinters
Category:World record setters in athletics (track and field)
Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Category:Dallas Cowboys players
Category:San Francisco 49ers players
Category:Eastern Conference Pro Bowl players
Category:Florida A&M Rattlers football players
Category:Florida A&M Rattlers track and field athletes
Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States in track and field
Category:Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
Category:Players of American football from Jacksonville, Florida
Category:Deaths from prostate cancer
Category:Deaths from cancer in Florida
Category:Pro Football Hall of Fame inductees
Category:Track and field athletes from Florida
Category:Track and field athletes in the National Football League
Category:USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships winners
Category:USA Indoor Track and Field Championships winners
Category:20th-century African-American sportspeople
Category:21st-century African-American people | [] | null | null |
C_c8de7f26914c474aa01e63b8a6c5df7c_1 | Les Paul | Les Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (Stutz) Polsfuss. His family was of German ancestry. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. | Radio and television programs | Paul had hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC Radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil", and "Tiger Rag". Over ten of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today. The show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) with "Vaya Con Dios" as the theme song. Sponsored by Warner-Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was aired on NBC television during 1954-1955, and then syndicated until 1960. The show aired five times a day, five days a week for only five minutes (one or two songs) long, and therefore was used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards until his death. During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "Les Paulverizer" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, such as a guitar sound or a voice. It was Paul's way of explaining how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster. Later, Paul created a real Les Paulverizer that he attached to his guitar. The invention allowed Paul to access pre-recorded layers of songs during live performances so he could replicate his recorded sound on stage. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Lester William Polsfuss (June 9, 1915 – August 12, 2009), known as Les Paul, was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul. Paul taught himself how to play guitar, and while he is mainly known for jazz and popular music, he had an early career in country music. In the 1950s, he and his wife, singer and guitarist Mary Ford, recorded numerous records, selling millions of copies.
Paul is credited with many recording innovations. His early experiments with overdubbing (also known as sound on sound), delay effects such as tape delay, phasing, and multitrack recording were among the first to attract widespread attention. His licks, trills, chording sequences, fretting techniques, and timing set him apart from his contemporaries and inspired many guitarists of the present day.
Among his many honors, Paul is one of a handful of artists with a permanent exhibit in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He is prominently named by the music museum on its website as an "architect" and a "key inductee" with Sam Phillips and Alan Freed. Paul is the only inductee in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Early life
Paul was born Lester William Polsfuss in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to George and Evelyn (Stutz) Polsfuss, both of German ancestry. His only sibling, Ralph, was seven years older. Paul's mother was related to the founders of Milwaukee's Valentin Blatz Brewing Company and the makers of the Stutz automobile. His parents divorced when he was a child. His mother simplified their Prussian family name first to Polfuss, then to Polfus, although Les Paul never legally changed his name. Before taking the stage name Les Paul, he performed as Red Hot Red and Rhubarb Red.
At the age of eight, Paul began playing the harmonica. After learning the piano, he switched to the guitar. During this time he invented a neck-worn harmonica holder, which allowed him to play both sides of the harmonica hands-free while accompanying himself on the guitar. It is still manufactured using his basic design. By age thirteen, Paul was performing semi-professionally as a country-music singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. While playing at Waukesha area drive-ins and roadhouses, Paul began his first experiment with sound. Wanting to make his acoustic guitar heard by more people at the local venues, he wired a phonograph needle to his guitar and connected it to a radio speaker. As a teen Paul experimented with sustain by using a 2-foot piece of rail from a nearby train line. At age seventeen, Paul played with Rube Tronson's Texas Cowboys, and soon after he dropped out of high school to team up with Sunny Joe Wolverton's Radio Band in St. Louis, Missouri, on KMOX.
Career
Early career
Paul and Wolverton moved to Chicago in 1934, where they continued to perform country music on radio station WBBM and at the 1934 Chicago World's Fair. While in Chicago, Paul learned jazz from the great performers on Chicago's Southside. During the day, he played country music as Rhubarb Red on the radio. At night, he was Les Paul, playing jazz. He met pianist Art Tatum, whose playing influenced him to continue with the guitar rather than play jazz on the piano. His first two records were released in 1936, credited to "Rhubarb Red", Paul's hillbilly alter ego. He also served as an accompanist for other bands signed to Decca. During this time, he began adding different sounds and adopted his stage name of Les Paul.
Paul's guitar style was strongly influenced by the music of Django Reinhardt, whom he greatly admired. Following World War II, Paul sought out and made friends with Reinhardt. When Reinhardt died in 1953, Paul paid for part of the funeral's cost. One of Paul's prized possessions was a Selmer acoustic guitar given to him by Reinhardt's widow.
Paul formed a trio in 1937 with rhythm guitarist Jim Atkins (older half-brother of guitarist Chet Atkins) and bassist/percussionist Ernie "Darius" Newton. They left Chicago for New York in 1938, landing a featured spot with Fred Waring's radio show. Chet Atkins later wrote that his brother, home on a family visit, presented him with an expensive Gibson archtop guitar that Les Paul had given to Jim. Chet recalled that it was the first professional-quality instrument he ever owned.
While jamming in his apartment basement in 1941, Paul nearly succumbed to electrocution. During two years of recuperation, he moved to Chicago where he was the music director for radio stations WJJD and WIND. In 1943, he moved to Hollywood where he performed on radio and formed a new trio.
He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943, where he served in the Armed Forces Radio Network, backing such artists as Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters, and performing in his own right.
As a last-minute replacement for Oscar Moore, Paul played with Nat King Cole and other artists in the inaugural Jazz at the Philharmonic concert in Los Angeles, California, on July 2, 1944. His solo on "Body and Soul" is a demonstration of his admiration for and emulation of Django Reinhardt, as well as his development of original lines.
Also that year, Paul's trio appeared on Bing Crosby's radio show. Crosby sponsored Paul's recordings. They recorded together several times, including "It's Been a Long, Long Time", which was a No. 1 hit in 1945. Paul recorded several albums for Decca in the 1940s. The Andrews Sisters hired his trio to open for them during a tour in 1946. Their manager, Lou Levy, said watching Paul's fingers while he played guitar was like watching a train go by. Their conductor, Vic Schoen, said his playing was always original. Maxine Andrews said, "He'd tune into the passages we were singing and lightly play the melody, sometimes in harmony. We'd sing these fancy licks and he'd keep up with us note for note in exactly the same rhythm... almost contributing a fourth voice. But he never once took the attention away from what we were doing. He did everything he could to make us sound better." In the 1950s, when he recorded Mary Ford's vocals on multiple tracks, he created music that sounded like the Andrews Sisters.
In January 1948, Paul shattered his right arm and elbow among multiple injuries in a near-fatal automobile accident on an icy Route 66 west of Davenport, Oklahoma. Mary Ford was driving the Buick convertible, which plunged off the side of a railroad overpass and dropped twenty feet into a ravine. They were returning from Wisconsin to Los Angeles after visiting family. Doctors at Oklahoma City's Wesley Hospital told Paul that they could not rebuild his elbow. Their other option was amputation. Paul was flown to Los Angeles, where his arm was set at an angle—just under 90 degrees—that allowed him to cradle and pick the guitar. It took him nearly a year and a half to recover.
Guitar builder
In 1940, Les Paul revisited his experiments with the train rail. This time he created a similar prototype instrument, a one-off solid-body electric guitar known as "The Log", which was a length of a 4x4 piece of lumber with a bridge, neck, strings, and hand-wound pickup. The Log was built after-hours by Paul at the Epiphone guitar factory, and is one of the first solid-body electric guitars. For the sake of appearance, he attached the body of an Epiphone hollow-body guitar sawn lengthwise with The Log in the middle. This solved his two main problems: feedback, as the acoustic body no longer resonated with the amplified sound, and sustain, as the energy of the strings was not dissipated in generating sound through the guitar body. These instruments were constantly being improved and modified over the years, and Paul continued to use them in his recordings even after the development of his eponymous Gibson model.
Paul approached the Gibson Guitar Corporation with his idea of a solid-body electric guitar in 1941,
but Gibson showed no interest until Fender began marketing its Esquire and Broadcaster guitars in 1950 (the Broadcaster was renamed the Telecaster in 1952).
Gibson's Ted McCarty was the chief designer of the guitar, which was based on Paul's drawings and later dubbed the Gibson Les Paul. Gibson entered into a promotional and financial arrangement with Les Paul, paying him a royalty on sales. The guitar went on sale in 1952. Paul continued to make design suggestions.
In 1960, sales of the original Les Paul model had dropped, so a more modernistic model was introduced (today called the SG), but then still bearing the Les Paul name. Not liking the new look and severe problems with the strength of the body and neck, made Paul dissatisfied with this new Gibson guitar. This, and a pending divorce from Mary Ford, led to Paul ending his endorsement and use of his name on Gibson guitars from 1964 until 1966, by which time his divorce was completed.
Paul continued to suggest technical improvements, although they were not always successful commercially. In 1962, Paul was issued , for a pickup in which the coil was integrated into the bridge. In the mid-1940s, he introduced an aluminum guitar with the tuning mechanisms below the bridge. As it had no headstock, and the string attachments were at the nut, it was the first "headless" guitar. Unfortunately, Paul's guitar was so sensitive to the heat from stage lights that it would not keep tune. However, he used it for several of his hit recordings. This style was further developed by others, most successfully Ned Steinberger.
A less-expensive version of the Les Paul guitar is manufactured for Gibson's Epiphone brand.
Multitrack recording
Paul first experimented with sound on sound while in elementary school when he punched holes in the piano roll for his mother's player piano. In 1946, his mother complimented him on a song she had heard on the radio, when in fact she had heard George Barnes, not Paul. This motivated Paul to spend two years in his Hollywood garage recording studio, creating his unique sound, his New Sound. Paul stunned the music industry with his New Sound in 1948.
Paul recorded several songs with Bing Crosby, most notably "It's Been a Long, Long Time," which was a number-one single in 1945.
After a recording session, Bing Crosby suggested that Paul build a recording studio so he could produce the sound he wanted. Paul started his studio in the garage of his home on North Curson Street in Hollywood. The studio drew many vocalists and musicians who wanted the benefit of his expertise. His experiments included microphone placement, track speed, and recording overdubs. These methods resulted in a clarity previously unheard in this type of multitrack recording. People began to consider his recording techniques as instruments—as important to production as a guitar, bass, or drums.
Capitol Records released "Lover (When You're Near Me)", on which Paul played eight different parts on electric guitar, some recorded at half-speed, hence "double-fast" when played back at normal speed for the master. This was the first time he used multitracking in a recording. His early multitrack recordings, including "Lover" and "Brazil" were made with acetate discs. He recorded a track onto a disk, then recorded himself playing another part with the first. He built the multitrack recording with overlaid tracks rather than parallel ones as he did later. By the time he had a result that satisfied him, he had discarded some five hundred recording disks.
As a teen he had built a disc-cutter assembly using the flywheel from a Cadillac, a dental belt and other parts from his father's car repair shop. Years later in his Hollywood garage, he used the acetate disc setup to record parts at different speeds and with delay, resulting in his signature sound with echoes and birdsong-like guitar riffs.
In 1949, Crosby gave Paul one of the first Ampex Model 200A reel to reel tape recorders. Paul invented sound on sound recording using this machine by placing an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together onto a new track. The Ampex was a monophonic tape recorder with only one track across the entire width of quarter-inch tape, and therefore, the recording was "destructive" in the sense that the original recording was permanently replaced with the new, mixed recording. He eventually enhanced this by using one tape machine to play back the original recording and a second to record the combined track. This preserved the original recording.
In 1952, Paul invented the flange effect, where a sound phases in and out in harmonic tone. The first example of this can be heard on his song "Mammy's Boogie".
Observing film recordings inspired Paul to design the stacking of eight tape recorders. He worked with Ross Snyder on the design of the first eight-track recording deck built for him by Ampex for his home studio. Rein Narma built a custom 8-channel mixing console for him. The mixing board included in-line equalization and vibrato effects. He named the recorder "The Octopus" and the mixing console "The Monster". The name "octopus" was inspired by comedian W. C. Fields who was the first person to hear Paul play his multi-tracked guitar experiments. "He came to my garage to make a little record (in 1946)," Les recalled. "I played him the acetate of 'Lover' that I'd done. When he heard it, he said, 'My boy, you sound like an octopus.'"
Les Paul and Mary Ford
In the summer of 1945, Paul met country-western singer Iris Colleen Summers. They began working together on Paul's radio show, as Rhubarb Red and The Ozark Apple Knockers with Mary Lou. Later Paul suggested the stage name Mary Ford. They married in Milwaukee in 1949.
Their hits included "How High the Moon", "Bye Bye Blues", "Song in Blue", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise", and "Vaya con Dios". The songs were recorded with multiple tracks where Ford harmonized with herself and Paul played multiple layers of guitars.
They used the recording technique known as close miking where the microphone is less than from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when a singer is or more from the microphone. When using a pressure-gradient (uni- or bi-directional) microphone, it emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice due to the microphone's proximity effect and gives a more relaxed feel because the performer is not working as hard. The result is a singing style which diverged from the unamplified theater style of the musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.
They also performed music-hall style semi-comic routines with Mary mimicking whatever line Les decided to improvise.
Radio and television programs
Paul hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC Radio in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics. The program was recorded from their home and with gentle humor between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as "In the Mood", "Little Rock Getaway", "Brazil", and "Tiger Rag". Many of these shows survive and are available from various sources.
When Paul used magnetic tape, he could take his recording equipment on tour, making episodes for his fifteen-minute radio show in a hotel room.
The show appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled 'Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home with "Vaya Con Dios" as the theme song. Sponsored by Warner–Lambert's Listerine mouthwash, it was aired on NBC television during 1954–1955, and then was syndicated until 1960. The five-minute show, consisting of the performance of only one or two songs, aired five times a day, five days a week, and therefore was used as a brief interlude or fill-in for programming schedules. Since Paul created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to current quality standards until his death.
During his radio shows, Paul introduced the fictional "" device, which multiplies anything fed into it, such as a guitar sound or a voice. It was Paul's way of explaining how his single guitar could be multiplied to become a group of guitars. The device even became the subject of comedy, with Ford multiplying herself and her vacuum cleaner with it so she could finish the housework faster. Later, Paul created a real Les Paulverizer that he attached to his guitar. The invention allowed Paul to access pre-recorded layers of songs during live performances so he could replicate his recorded sound on stage.
Later career
In 1965, Paul went into semi-retirement, although he did return to his studio occasionally. He and Ford had divorced at the end of 1964 after she became tired of touring. One of Paul's most recognizable recordings from then through the mid-1970s was an album for London Records/Phase 4 Stereo, Les Paul Now (1968), on which he updated some of his earlier hits. Paul played the initial guitar track, and George Barnes laid down the additional tracks while Paul engineered in his home studio. He also recorded two albums, Chester and Lester (1976) and Guitar Monsters (1978), for RCA Victor, comprising a meld of jazz and country improvisation with guitar virtuoso Chet Atkins, backed by some of Nashville's celebrated studio musicians.
In 1969 Paul produced the album Poe Through the Glass Prism for RCA. The album featured songs based on Edgar Allan Poe's writing by the northeastern Pennsylvania band the Glass Prism. The album produced a single titled "The Raven" that appeared on Billboard's Hot 100.
As years progressed Paul played at slower tempos with a large pick that was easier to hold in his arthritic hand. In 2006, at the age of 90, he won two Grammy Awards at the 48th Annual Grammy Awards for his album Les Paul & Friends: American Made World Played. He also performed every Monday night at Manhattan's Iridium Jazz Club with guitarist Lou Pallo, bassist Paul Nowinski (and later, Nicki Parrott), and guitarist Frank Vignola and for a few years, pianist John Colianni. Paul, Pallo and Nowinski also performed at Fat Tuesdays.
Composer Richard Stein sued Paul for plagiarism, charging that Paul's "Johnny (is the Boy for Me)" was taken from Stein's 1937 song "Sanie cu zurgălăi" (Romanian for "Sleigh with Bells"). In 2000, a cover version of "Johnny" by Belgian musical group Vaya Con Dios that credited Paul prompted another action by the Romanian Musical Performing and Mechanical Rights Society.
Personal life
Les Paul married Virginia Webb in 1937. They had two children, Les Paul Jr. (Rusty) (1941–2015), and Gene (1944), who was named after actor-songwriter Gene Lockhart.
After getting divorced in 1949, Paul married Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers). The best man and matron of honor were the parents of guitarist Steve Miller, whose family was from Milwaukee. Paul was Miller's godfather and his first guitar teacher. Ford gave birth to their first child on November 30, 1954, but the girl was born prematurely and died when she was four days old. They adopted a girl, Colleen, in 1958, and their son, Robert (Bobby), was born the following year. Paul and Ford divorced in December 1964.
Paul and Ford maintained a house in Mahwah, New Jersey, and after their divorce Ford lived there until her death in 1977.
In 1995, Paul established the Les Paul Foundation, which was designed to remain dormant until his death. The Les Paul Foundation inspires innovative and creative thinking by sharing the legacy of Les Paul through support of music education, recording, innovation, and medical research related to hearing. The Foundation established the Les Paul Innovation Award in 1991 and the Les Paul Spirit Award in 2016.
Death
On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, New York. After hearing about his death, many musicians commented on his importance. Slash called him "vibrant and full of positive energy", while Richie Sambora called him a "revolutionary in the music business". The Edge said, "His legacy as a musician and inventor will live on and his influence on rock and roll will never be forgotten." On August 21, 2009, he was buried in Prairie Home Cemetery, Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Awards and honors
A few of Les Paul's many awards are listed below. In 2007, he was given the National Medal of Arts from U.S. President George W. Bush.
Paul was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2005) for his development of the solid-body electric guitar. In 1988, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by guitarist Jeff Beck, who said, "I've copied more licks from Les Paul than I'd like to admit." He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (2005), the Big Band & Jazz Hall of Fame (1990), the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (1996), and the New Jersey Hall of Fame (2010).
Two of his songs entered the Grammy Hall of Fame: "How High the Moon" and "Vaya Con Dios". In 1976, he and Chet Atkins received the Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental. In 2005, he won Best Pop Instrumental for "Caravan" and Best Rock Instrumental for "69 Freedom Special."
In 1983, Paul received a Grammy Trustees Award for lifetime achievement. In 2001, he was honored with the Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award, which recognizes "individuals or institutions that have set the highest standards of excellence in the creative application of audio technology," a select award given to masters of audio innovation including Thomas Alva Edison, Leo Fender, and Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick. In 2004, he received an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in Engineering and a Lifetime Achievement in Music Education from the Wisconsin Foundation for School Music.
In 1960, he and Mary Ford received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2009, Paul was named one of the top ten electric guitarists of all time by Time magazine. Two years later he was named the eighteenth greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. During the same year, his name was added to the Nashville Walk of Fame.
Concerts and exhibitions
In July 2005, a 90th-birthday tribute concert was held for Les Paul at Carnegie Hall in New York City. After performances by Steve Miller, Peter Frampton, Jose Feliciano, and a number of others, Paul was presented with a commemorative guitar from the Gibson Guitar Corporation. Three years later, at a tribute concert at the State Theater in Cleveland, Ohio, he received the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters Award. On June 9, 2015, a yearlong celebration of Paul's 100th birthday kicked off in Times Square with performances by musicians including Steve Miller, Jose Feliciano, and Neal Schon, a memorabilia exhibition, and a proclamation from the Les Paul Foundation declaring June 9 as Les Paul Day.
In 2007, the biographical film Les Paul Chasing Sound was aired on the public television series American Masters. The premier showing was held at Milwaukee's Downer Theater in conjunction with a concert Paul put on for the Waukesha County Historical Society & Museum. The film contained interviews with Les Paul, performances by his trio on his 90th birthday, and interview commentary and performances by other musicians.
In June 2008, an exhibit showcasing Paul's legacy and featuring items from his personal collection opened at Discovery World in Milwaukee. Paul played a concert in Milwaukee to coincide with the opening of the exhibit. Paul's hometown of Waukesha, Wisconsin, opened a permanent exhibit titled "The Les Paul Experience" at the Waukesha County Museum in June 2013. The exhibit features artifacts on loan from the Les Paul Foundation. A self-guided tour of Les Paul's Waukesha was created by the Les Paul Foundation.
A permanent Les Paul exhibit is also located at the Mahwah Historical Museum. Other museums that include Les Paul are the Museum of Making Music in Phoenix and the Grammy Museum in Newark, NJ.
In 2009, the concert film Les Paul Live in New York was aired on public television showing Les Paul performing on his 90th birthday at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York and in archival clips.
Discography
Albums
The New Sound (Capitol, 78 rpm and 45 rpm EP, 1950; rpm LP, 1955)
Les Paul's New Sound, Vol. 2 (Capitol, 1951)
Bye Bye Blues! (Capitol, 1952)
The Hit Makers! (Capitol, 1953)
Les and Mary (Capitol, 1955)
Songs of Today (Capitol, 45 rpm EP, 1956)
Time to Dream (Capitol, 1957)
The Hits of Les and Mary (Capitol, 1960)
Les Paul and Mary Ford (Capitol, rpm EP, 1961)
Bouquet of Roses (Columbia, 1962)
Warm and Wonderful (Columbia, 1962)
Les Paul Now (Decca, 1968)
The World Is Still Waiting For The Sunrise (Capitol, 1974)
Chester and Lester with Chet Atkins (RCA Victor, 1976)
Guitar Monsters with Chet Atkins (RCA Victor, 1978)
Early Les Paul (Capitol, 1982)
Feed Back 1944–1955 (Circle, 1986)
The Best of the Capitol Masters: Selections from "The Legend and the Legacy" Box Set (Capitol, 1992)
American Made World Played (Capitol, 2005)
A Tribute to a Legend (Immergent, 2008)
Hit singles
A peaked at No. 2 on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts
Singles
"It's Been a Long, Long Time"—Bing Crosby with Les Paul & His Trio (1945), #1 on Billboard Pop singles chart, 1 week, December 8
"Rumors Are Flying"—The Andrews Sisters with Les Paul and Vic Schoen & His Orchestra (1946)
"This Can't Be Love"//"Up And At 'Em"—The Les Paul Trio (1946), V-Disc 664A
"Guitar Boogie" (1947)
"Lover (When You're Near Me)" (1948)
"Brazil" (1948)
"What Is This Thing Called Love?" (1948)
"Suspicion"—as Rhubarb Red with Fos Carling (1948)
"Nola" (1950)
"Goofus" (1950)
"Dry My Tears"/"Cryin'" (1950)
"Little Rock Getaway" (1950/1951)
"Tennessee Waltz"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1950/1951), #1, Cashbox
"Mockin' Bird Hill"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Cashbox
"How High The Moon"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 9 weeks, April 21 – June 16; #1, Cashbox, 2 weeks; #2, R&B chart
"I Wish I Had Never Seen Sunshine"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951), #2, Billboard; #3, Cashbox
"Just One More Chance"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1951)
"Jazz Me Blues" (1951)
"Josephine" (1951)
"Whispering" (1951)
"Jingle Bells" (1951)
"Tiger Rag"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952), #2, Billboard; #8, Cashbox
"I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Carioca" (1952)
"In the Good Old Summertime"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Smoke Rings"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Meet Mister Callaghan" (1952), #5, Billboard
"Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Lady of Spain" (1952)
"My Baby's Coming Home"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1952)
"Bye Bye Blues"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)
"I'm Sitting on Top of the World"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953)
"Sleep" (Fred Waring's theme song) (1953)
"Vaya Con Dios"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #1, Billboard Pop singles chart, 11 weeks, August 8 – October 3, November 7–14; #1, Cashbox, 5 weeks
"Johnny (Is The Boy for Me)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #15, Billboard; #25, Cashbox
"Don'cha Hear Them Bells"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1953), #13, Billboard; #28, Cashbox
"The Kangaroo" (1953), #25, Billboard; #23, Cashbox
"I Really Don't Want To Know"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"I'm A Fool To Care"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"Whither Thou Goest"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954)
"Mandolino"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #19, Billboard
"Song in Blue"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1954), #17, Cashbox
"Hummingbird"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Amukiriki (The Lord Willing)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Magic Melody"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1955)
"Texas Lady"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
"Moritat" (Theme from "Three Penny Opera") (1956)
"Nuevo Laredo"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1956)
"Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1957)
"Put a Ring on My Finger"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1958)
"All I Need Is You"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1959)
"Jura (I Swear I Love You)"—Les Paul & Mary Ford (1961)
"Love Sneakin' Up on You"—Les Paul, Joss Stone & Sting (2005)
Compositions
Paul was also a prolific composer. Some of the songs he wrote were "Song in Blue", "Cryin'", "Hip-Billy Boogie", "Suspicion", "Mandolino", "Magic Melody", "Don'cha Hear Them Bells", "The Kangaroo", "Big-Eyed Gal", "Deep in the Blues", "All I Need is You", "Take a Warning", "Mammy's Boogie", "Up And At 'Em", "Pacific Breeze", "Golden Sands", "Hawaiian Charms", "Mountain Railroad", "Move Along, Baby (Don't Waste My Time)", "Dry My Tears", "I Don't Want You No More", "Doing the Town", "Les' Blues", "No Strings Attached", "Subterfuge", "Lament For Strings", "Five Alarm Fire", "You Can't Be Fit as a Fiddle (When You're Tight as a Drum)", and "Walkin' and Whistlin' Blues".
See also
Ampex
Discovery World
Gibson Les Paul
Gibson SG
List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees
Mary Ford
Les Paul and Mary Ford
References
Bibliography
Garrett, Charles, ed. "Paul Les [Polfuss, Lester Williams]" The Grove Dictionary of American Music, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press. 2006. Print.
External links
Les Paul Chasing Sound biography
Les Paul Live in New York concert film
Remembering Les Paul Audio interviews at WGN Radio
The Les Paul Show, Audio archive (free mp3s) of Les Paul's radio show
"Classic Tracks: Les Paul & Mary Ford 'How High the Moon'" at Sound on Sound
Les Paul's final interview at Performing Musician
NAMM Oral History Program Interview Audio interview (2001)
Category:1915 births
Category:2009 deaths
Category:20th-century American male musicians
Category:21st-century American male musicians
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:21st-century American guitarists
Category:American blues guitarists
Category:American jazz guitarists
Category:American rock guitarists
Category:American male guitarists
Category:American male jazz musicians
Category:American country harmonica players
Category:American country guitarists
Category:American country singers
Category:Guitarists from Wisconsin
Category:Musicians from Milwaukee
Category:Blues rock musicians
Category:Capitol Records artists
Category:Columbia Records artists
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Category:Mercury Records artists
Category:RCA Victor artists
Category:20th-century American inventors
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Category:Inventors of musical instruments
Category:Guitar makers
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Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:American people of German descent
Category:People from Mahwah, New Jersey
Category:People from Waukesha, Wisconsin
Category:Deaths from pneumonia in New York (state)
Category:Gibson Les Paul | [
{
"text": "Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence. Ampex operates as Ampex Data Systems Corporation, a subsidiary of Delta Information Systems, and consists of two business units. The Silicon Valley unit, known internally as Ampex Data Systems (ADS), manufactures digital data storage systems capable of functioning in harsh environments. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, unit, referred to as Ampex Intelligent Systems (AIS), serves as a laboratory and hub for the company's line of industrial control systems, cyber security products and services and its artificial intelligence/machine learning technology.\n\nAmpex's first great success was a line of reel-to-reel tape recorders developed from the German wartime Magnetophon system at the behest of Bing Crosby. Ampex quickly became a leader in audio tape technology, developing many of the analog recording formats for both music and movies that remained in use into the 1990s. Starting in the 1950s, the company began developing video tape recorders, and later introduced the helical scan concept that made home video players possible. They also introduced multi-track recording, slow-motion and instant playback television, and a host of other advances. Ampex's tape business was rendered obsolete during the 1990s, and the company turned to digital storage products.\n\nAmpex moved into digital storage for DoD Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI) with the introduction of the first, true all digital flight test recorder. Ampex supports numerous major DoD programs with the US Air Force, US Army, US Marines, US Navy and other government entities (NASA, DHS and national labs). Ampex also works with all major DoD primes and integrators including Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed, Northrop, Raytheon and many others.\n\nCurrently, Ampex is attempting to do more with the data stored on its network attached storage (NAS) devices. This includes adding encryption for secure data storage; algorithms focused on control system cyber security for infrastructure and aerospace platforms; and artificial intelligence/machine learning for automated entity identification and data analytics.\n\nOrigin \nRussian–American inventor Alexander Matthew Poniatoff established the company in San Carlos, California, in 1944 as the Ampex Electric and Manufacturing Company. The company name came from his initials plus \"ex\" to avoid using the name AMP already in use (by Aircraft and Marine Products). During World War II, Ampex was a subcontractor to Dalmo-Victor, manufacturing high quality electric motors and generators for radars that used alnico 5 magnets from General Electric. Ampex was initially set up in an abandoned loft-space above the Dalmo-Victor plant; eventually they would have offices at 1313 Laurel Street, San Carlos, California (at the intersection of Howard Avenue and Laurel Street).\n\nNear the end of the war, while serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, Major Jack Mullin was assigned to investigate German radio and electronics experiments. He discovered the Magnetophons with AC biasing on a trip to Radio Frankfurt. The device produced much better fidelity than shellac records. The technological processes in tape recording and equipment developed by German companies before and during the 1939–1945 war had copyrights which were effectively voided after Germany's 1945 surrender and defeat. Mullin acquired two Magnetophon recorders and 50 reels of BASF Type L tape, and brought them to America, where he produced modified versions. He demonstrated them to the Institute of Radio Engineers in San Francisco on May 16, 1946.\n\nBing Crosby, a big star on radio at the time, was receptive to the idea of pre-recording his radio programs. He disliked the regimentation of live broadcasts, and much preferred the relaxed atmosphere of the recording studio. He had already asked the NBC network to let him pre-record his 1944–45 series on transcription discs, but the network refused; so Crosby had withdrawn from live radio for a year and returned (this time to the recently created ABC) for the 1946–47 season, only reluctantly.\n\nIn June 1947, Mullin, who was pitching the technology to the major Hollywood movie studios, got the chance to demonstrate his modified tape recorders to Crosby. When Crosby heard a demonstration of Mullin's tape recorders, he immediately saw the potential of the new technology and commissioned Mullin to prepare a test recording of his radio show. Ampex was finishing its prototype of the Model 200 tape recorder, and Mullin used the first two models as soon as they were built. After a successful test broadcast, ABC agreed to allow Crosby to pre-record his shows on tape. Crosby immediately appointed Mullin as his chief engineer and placed an order for $50,000 worth of the new recorders so that Ampex (then a small six-man concern) could develop a commercial production model from the prototypes.\n\nCrosby Enterprises was Ampex's West Coast representative until 1957.\n\nEarly tape recorders \n\nThe company's first tape recorder, the Ampex Model 200A, was first shipped in April 1948. The first two units, serial numbers 1 and 2, were used to record Bing Crosby's show. The American Broadcasting Company used these recorders along with 3M Scotch 111 gamma ferric oxide coated acetate tape for the first-ever U.S. delayed radio broadcast of Bing Crosby's Philco Radio Time. Ampex tape recorders revolutionized the radio and recording industries because of their superior audio quality and ease of operation over audio disk cutting lathes.\n\nThe firm's earliest production of multichannel machines wasn't aimed at music recording; it noted in 195354 that \"Ampex began the commercial production of multitrack tape recorders about four years ago for those interested in telemetered information from guided missiles and the like. These equipments provided any number of simultaneous channels up to 14. It was a simple step, therefore, to make stereophonic tape recorders with two or more channels.\" \n\nDuring the early 1950s, Ampex began marketing one- and two-track machines using tape. In May 1953 the firm announced proudction of two- and three-track machines on 1/4 inch tape. The line soon expanded into three- and four-track models using tape. In the early 1950s, Ampex moved to Redwood City, California. Ampex acquired Orradio Industries in 1959, which became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division, headquartered in Opelika, Alabama. This made Ampex a manufacturer of both recorders and tape. By the end of that decade Ampex products were much in demand by top recording studios worldwide.\n\nIn 1952, movie producer Mike Todd asked Ampex to develop a high-fidelity movie sound system using sound magnetically recorded on the film itself, as contrasted with the technology of the time, which used magnetic tracks on a separate celluloid base film (later commonly known as mag stock). The result of this development was the CinemaScope/Todd-AO motion picture sound system, which was first used in movies such as The Robe (1953) in 35mm and Oklahoma (1955) in 70mm (and also in 35mm). In 1960, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Ampex an Oscar for technical achievement as a result of this development.\n\nLes Paul, a friend of Crosby and a regular guest on his shows, had already been experimenting with overdubbed recordings on disc. He received an early portable Ampex Model 300 from Crosby. Using this machine, Les Paul invented \"Sound on Sound\" recording technology. He placed an additional playback head, located before the conventional erase/record/playback heads. This allowed Paul to play along with a previously recorded track, both of which were mixed together on to a new track. This was a destructive process because the original recording was recorded over.\n\nProfessional 8-track recorders\n\nAmpex built a handful of multitrack machines during the late 1950s that could record as many as eight tracks on tape. The project was overseen by Ross Snyder, Ampex manager of special products. To make the multitrack recorder work, Snyder invented the Sel-Sync process, which used some tracks on the head for playback and other tracks on the head for recording. This made the newly recorded material be in sync with the existing recorded tracks. The first of these machines cost $10,000 and was installed in Les Paul's home recording studio by David Sarser.\n\nIn 1967, Ampex responded to demand by stepping up production of their 8-track machines with the production model MM 1000. Like earlier 8-track machines of this era, it used 1-inch tape.\n\n16 and 24-track recorders\nIn 1966, Ampex built their first 16-track recorder, the model AG-1000, at the request of Mirasound Studios in New York City. In 1967, Ampex introduced a 16-track version of the MM 1000 which was the world's first 16-track professional tape recorder put into mass-production. Both used a tape transport design adapted from the video recording division. The 16-track MM-1000 quickly became legendary for its tremendous flexibility, reliability and outstanding sound quality. This brought about the \"golden age\" of large format analog multitrack recorders which would last into the mid-1990s. MCI built the first 24-track recorder (using 2-inch tape) in 1968 which was installed at TTG Studios in Los Angeles. Later machines built by Ampex starting in 1969 would have as many as 24 tracks on 2 inch tape. In addition to this, the introduction of SMPTE time code allowed studios to run multiple machines in perfect synchronization, making the number of available tracks virtually unlimited.\n\nBy the 1970s, Ampex faced tough competition from the Swiss company Studer and Japanese manufacturers such as Otari and Sony (who also purchased the MCI brand in 1982). In 1979, Ampex introduced their most advanced 24-track recorder, the model ATR-124. The ATR-124 was ruggedly constructed and had audio specifications that nearly rivaled the first digital recording machines. However, sales of the ATR-124 were slow due to the machine's high price tag. Ampex sold only about 50 or 60 ATR-124 machines and withdrew from the professional audio tape recorder market entirely in 1983.\n\nThe 1990s\nBy the 1990s Ampex focused more on video recorders, instrumentation recorders, and data recorders. In 1991, Ampex sold their professional audio recorder line to Sprague Magnetics. The Ampex Recording Media Corporation spun off in 1995 as Quantegy Inc.; that company has ceased producing recording tape.\n\nVideo technology\n\nVideo processing \n\nWhile AMPEX are well recognized for their contribution to magnetic tape recording, they also had a huge impact on developments the whole video signal chain.\nThey did rebadge some specialist low-volume OEM products to complete the package, but their in-house teams developed industry leading products in the following categories:\n\nDigital optics \nADO Ampex Digital Optics provided comprehensive frame manipulation in 2 and 3 dimensions. Adjusting the aspect, size, and rotation of the image was performed continuously in real-time. An optional digital 'combiner' was available to perform the foreground layering and priority switching – to reduce the burden on the vision mixer with multi-channel effects.\n\nVideo switching and effects \nAVC – The AVC range of vision mixers ranged from small, single buss devices up to the high-end Century Series, with multiple Mix/Effect busses, infinite re-entry and powerful keying and control software.\n\nEditing controllers \nThe product line evolved quickly from manual editing on the actual VTRs themselves to incorporate SMPTE timecode providing advanced timeline control.\nThe RA-4000 and EDM-1 were fully functional early products, but soon evolved to the extremely powerful ACE family to compete with CMX and other edit controller brands.\n\nQuadruplex two-inch tape\n\nStarting in the early 1950s, RCA, Bing Crosby and others tried to record analog video on very fast-moving magnetic tape. As early as 1952, Ampex developed prototype video tape recorders that used a spinning head and relatively slow-moving tape. In early 1956, a team produced the first videotape recorder. A young, 19-year-old engineer Ray Dolby was also part of the team. Ampex demonstrated the VR-1000, which was the first of Ampex's line of 2-inch Quadruplex videotape recorders on April 14, 1956, at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago. The first magnetically recorded time-delayed television network program using the new Ampex Quadruplex recording system was CBS's Douglas Edwards and the News on November 30, 1956.\n\nThe \"Quad\" head assembly rotates at 14,400 rpm (NTSC). The four head pieces (quad) are switched successively so that recorded stripes cross the video portion (most of the tape middle, audio is on one edge, control track is on the other) so that head to tape write speed is well in excess of the physical motion. They wrote the video vertically across the width of a tape that was wide and ran at per second. This allowed hour-long television programs to be recorded on one reel of tape. In 1956, one reel of tape cost $300; and Ampex advertised the cost of the recorder as $45,000. A version was released later, and this required a new, narrower headwheel. This vertical writing facilitated mechanical editing, once the control track was developed to display the pulse that indicates where a frame ends and the next one begins. Later, Ampex developed electronic editing.\n\nThe National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Ampex its first Emmy in 1957 for this development. Ampex received a total of 12 Emmys for its technical video achievements.\n\nIn 1959, Richard Nixon, then Vice President, and Nikita Khrushchev held discussions at the Moscow Trade Fair, which became known as the \"Kitchen Debate\" because they were mostly held in the kitchen of a suburban model house. These discussions were recorded on an Ampex color videotape recorder, and during the debate Nixon pointed this out as one of the many American technological advances.\n\nIn 1967, Ampex introduced the Ampex VR-3000 portable broadcast video recorder, which revolutionized the recording of broadcast quality television in the field without the need for long cables and large support vehicles. Broadcast quality images could now be shot anywhere, including from airplanes, helicopters and boats.\n\nThe Quadruplex format dominated the broadcast industry for a quarter of a century. The format was licensed to RCA for use in their \"television tape recorders.\" Ampex's invention revolutionized the television production industry by eliminating the kinescope process of time-shifting television programs, which required the use of motion picture film. For archival purposes, the kinescope method continued to be used for some years; film was still preferred by archivists. The Ampex broadcast video tape recorder facilitated time-zone broadcast delay so that networks could air programming at the same hour in various time zones. Ampex had trademarked the name \"video tape\", so competitor RCA called the medium \"TV tape\" or \"television tape\". The terms eventually became genericized, and \"videotape\" is commonly used today.\n\nWhile the quadruplex recording system per se is no longer in use, the principle evolved into the helical scanning technique used in virtually all video tape machines, such as those using the consumer formats of VHS, Sony Betamax and Video 2000. Sony Betacam was successful as a professional format but operated with a different recording system and faster tape speed than Betamax.\n\nOne of the key engineers in the development of the Quadruplex video recorder for Ampex was Ray Dolby, who worked under Charlie Ginsburg and went on to form Dolby Laboratories, a pioneer in audio noise reduction systems. Dolby's contribution to the videotape system was limited to the mathematics behind the reactance tube FM modulator, as videotape then used FM modulation for the video portion. Another contributor designed the FM modulator itself. Dolby left Ampex to seek a PhD in physics in England, which is where Dolby Labs was later founded, before moving back to San Francisco. Dolby's brother Dale was also an engineer at Ampex.\n\nVR-5000 and VR-8000 \nIn 1961, Ampex introduced the first 1-inch helical scan video recorders, the Ampex 2-inch helical VTRs, which recorded video using helical scan recording technology on tape.\n\nAmpex 2-inch helical VTR \n\nAmpex 2 inch helical VTRs were manufactured from 1963 to 1970. Model VR-1500 for home. The VR-660 for Broadcast television systems, industrial companies, educational institutions, and a few for In-flight entertainment. The VR-1500 and VR-660 found service at educational institutions especially due to their relatively low cost vs. quadruplex VTRs. These machines were simple to operate, reliable, small in size—and produced, for their time, very good video without the complexity of the larger and much more complex 2\" Quad machines.\n\nHS-100 and HS-200 \"slo-mo\" disc recorder \n\nIn March 1967, Ampex introduced the HS-100 video disc recorder. The system was developed by Ampex at the request of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) for a variety of sports broadcast uses. It was first demonstrated on the air on March 18, 1967, when ABC's Wide World of Sports televised the \"World Series of Skiing\" from Vail, Colorado. The video was recorded on analog magnetic disc. The disc weighed and rotated at 60 rps, 3600 rpm (50 rps in PAL). One NTSC unit could record 30 seconds of video, PAL units 36 seconds. The video could then be played back in slow motion, stop action to freeze frame.\n\nA more deluxe version, the HS-200, was introduced in April 1968, and provided a large control console with variable speed playback. This made it ideal for instant replay for sports events and precise timing control in post-production service. CBS-TV was the first to use the technique during live sportscasts, though it was quickly adopted by all American TV networks. The HS-200, which was an HS-100 connected to a control console, had greater precise frame and timing control capability, lending itself to post-production applications like special effects and titles. The HS-200 had a frame accurate timing computer that enabled frame-accurate cuts and dissolve transitions by way of a two-input video switcher. Slow-motion sequences could likewise be programmed and could be \"triggered\" to begin via an external control pulse such as might come from an external VTR editor like the Ampex VR-2000 VTR with Editec. The HS-200 was the first system capable of single-frame video animation recording, using magnetic discs as opposed to videotape. The HS-200 also provided a readout with specific frame numbers showing from the 900 frames available (NTSC version). Sequences could be triggered to start from any of these 900 frames with frame-accurate repeatability for creative fine tuning of sequence start and end points.\n\nType A \n\n1 inch type A videotape (designated Type A by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, SMPTE) was an open-reel helical scan videotape format developed by Ampex in 1965, one of the first standardized open-reel videotape formats in the width; most others of that size at that time were proprietary.\n\nType C \n\n1 inch type C videotape (designated Type C by SMPTE) was a professional open-reel videotape format co-developed and introduced by Ampex and Sony in 1976. It became the replacement in the professional video and television broadcast industries for the then-incumbent Quadruplex.\n\nD2 \n\nD2 is a digital video tape format created by Ampex and other manufacturers (through a standards group of SMPTE) and introduced at the 1988 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) convention as a lower-cost alternative to the D-1 format. Like D-1, D-2 video is uncompressed; however, it saves bandwidth and other costs by sampling a fully encoded NTSC or PAL composite video signal, and storing it directly to magnetic tape, rather than sampling component video. This is known as digital composite.\n\nDCT and DST \n\nDigital Component Technology (DCT) and Data Storage Technology (DST) are VTR and data storage devices respectively, created by Ampex in 1992. Both were similar to the D1 and D2 VTR formats, using a width, with the DCT format using DCT (discrete cosine transform) video compression, also its namesake.\n\nThe DCT and DST formats yielded relatively high capacity and speed for data and video. Double-density DST data storage was introduced in 1996. The final generation of these products were quad density, introduced in 2000, resulting in a large cartridge holding 660GB of data.\n\nMilestones \n In 1948, the first tape-delayed U.S. radio program was broadcast by using an Ampex Model 200 tape recorder.\n In May 1949 Model 300 introduced improvements in audio head, tape drive and tape path.\n In 1950, Model 400 introduced lower cost professional quality audio recorder, soon to be replaced by the Model 400A, which was the logical precursor of the Model 350.\n In 1950, Ampex introduced the first \"dedicated\" instrumentation recorder, Model 500, built for the U.S. Navy.\n In April 1953 Model 350 introduced audio recorder to replace the Model 400/Model 400A. The Model 350 had more simplicity and durability. Ampex released the 35 mm four-track CinemaScope stereo reproduction system.\n In May 1954 Model 600 introduced mastering quality audio portable recorder. Models 3200-3300 high-speed duplicators also introduced.\n In 1954, in a recording studio equipped with an Ampex reel-to-reel audio tape recording machine, an unknown truck driver named Elvis Presley recorded his historic first single, \"That's All Right\" at Sun Studios in Memphis. Also that year, Ampex introduced the first multi-track audio recorder derived from multi-track data recording technology.\n In 1955, Ampex released the 70 mm and 35 mm six-track and four-track Todd-AO system, and an improved 35mm four-track system.\n On March 14, 1956, The Ampex VRX-1000 (later renamed the Mark IV) videotape recorder is introduced at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters in Chicago. This is the first practical videotape recorder and is hailed as a major technological breakthrough. CBS goes on air with the first videotape delayed broadcast, Douglas Edwards and The News, on November 30, 1956, from Los Angeles, California, using the Ampex Mark IV.\n In March 1957, Ampex won an Emmy award for the invention of the Video Tape Recorder (VTR).\n In 1958, NASA selected Ampex data recorders and magnetic tape. It has been used for virtually all U.S. space missions since.\n In 1959, the Nixon-Khrushchev Kitchen Debate was recorded on Ampex videotape. The fact that the debate was being videotaped was mentioned by Nixon as an example of American technological development.\n In 1960, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Ampex with an Oscar for technical achievement.\n January 1961 Helical scan recording was invented by Ampex. The technology behind the worldwide consumer video revolution, it is used in all home video tape recorders.\n In 1963, Ampex technology was used to show replays of the live assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald.\n In 1963, Ampex introduced EDITEC, electronic video editing, allowing broadcast television editors frame-by-frame recording control, simplifying tape editing and the ability to make animation effects possible. This was the basis for all subsequent editing systems.\n On December 7, 1963 – Instant Replay is used for the first time during the live transmission of the Army Navy Game by its inventor, director, Tony Verna.\n In April 1964, Ampex introduced the VR-2000 high band videotape recorder, the first ever to be capable of color fidelity required for high quality color broadcasting.\n February 1965 – introduced VR-303 and VR-7000 closed-circuit video tape recorder.\n May 1965 – introduced AG-350 first all-transistorized audio recorder.\n July 1965 – introduced VR-660B VTR advanced version of VR-660; replaces VR-660 and VR-1500.\n November 1965 – introduced VR-7000 compact portable closed circuit video tape recorder.\n During 1966–1967, Ampex FR-900 data drives were used to record the first images of the Earth from the Moon, as part of the Lunar Orbiter program. Two drives were refurbished to recover the images as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP).\n\n In 1967, ABC used the Ampex HS-100 disk recorder for slow-motion playback of downhill skiing on the program World Series of Skiing in Vail, Colorado. This was the first use of slow-motion instant replay in sporting events.\n In 1968, the introduction of the Ampex VR-3000 revolutionizes video recording: the first truly portable VTR. It is used at the '68 Summer Olympics in Mexico City to follow the world's cross-country runners for the first time in Broadcast history.\n In 1969, Ampex introduced Videofile, still in use at Scotland Yard for the electronic storage and retrieval of fingerprints.\n In 1972, Ampex introduced the ACR-25, the first automated robotic library system for the recording and playback of television commercials. Each commercial was recorded on an individual cartridge. These cartridges were then loaded into a large rotating carousel. Using sophisticated mechanics and vacuum pneumatics, the \"carts\" were loaded into and extracted from the machine with an 8-second cycle time for spots under 61 seconds. This freed TV stations from loading individual machines with spots in real time, or preparing spot reels in advance of a broadcast. The TV newsroom also began to use the ACR-25 to run news stories because of its random-access capability. The ACR-25 used AVR-1 signal, servo, and timebase systems, and a machine-programming control bay designed by Ampex engineer E. Stanley Busby. Both machines had a lockup time of 200 milliseconds, as distinct from the industry standard 5 second pre-roll. This was accomplished with optical-vacuum reel servos providing the vacuum capstan negligible inertial mass to control, and predictive digital servos that could re-frame vertically at horizontal rate, as well as timebase correction with a window exceeding 64 microseconds (compared to the VR-2000's window of less than 5 microseconds).\n Also in 1970, Ampex started its own record label, Ampex Records. Its biggest hit was \"We Gotta Get You A Woman\" by Todd Rundgren (as \"Runt\"), reaching No. 20 on the charts in 1970.\n In 1978, the Ampex Video Art (AVA) video graphics system is used by artist LeRoy Neiman on air during Super Bowl XII. AVA, the first video paint system, allows the graphic artist, using an electronic pen, to illustrate in a new medium, video. This innovation paved the way for high quality electronic graphics, such as those used in video games.\n In 1982, Ampex introduced DST (high-performance computer mass storage products able to store half the Library of Congress in of floor space) and DCT, the first digital component postproduction system using image compression technology to produce high quality images.\n In 1983, Ampex introduced the DCRS digital cassette recorder, offering compact cassette storage with the equivalent of 16 digital or 8 DDR instrumentation reels on one cassette. Also, Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML) data decoding technology has its first use in Ampex's DCRsi recorders. This technology is commonly used in high performance computer disk drives and other high density magnetic data storage devices.\n In 1985, Ampex introduced the DIS 120i and DIS 160i dual port, data/instrumentation recorders. These made it possible for the first time to capture real time instrumentation data and then utilize the same recorder to process the data in a computer environment through its second port using SCSI-2 protocol.\n In 2005, Ampex received its 12th Emmy award for its invention of slow-motion color recording and playback. Also honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards were the members of the engineering team that created the videotape recorder when they worked for Ampex: Charles Andersen, Ray Dolby, Shelby Henderson, Fred Pfost, and the late Charles Ginsburg and Alex Maxey.\n\nSticky-shed syndrome \n\nSome master tapes and other recordings predominantly from the 1970s and 1980s have degraded due to the so-called sticky-shed syndrome. When sticky-shed syndrome occurs, the binding agent deteriorates, resulting in the magnetic coating coming off the base and either sticking to the backing of the tape layer wound on top of it (resulting in dropout), or being scraped off and deposited on the tape heads while lifting the head off the tape, degrading the treble.\n\nThe problem has been reported on a number of makes of tape (usually back-coated tapes), including Ampex tapes.\n\nAmpex filed for a baking process (\"A typical temperature used is and a typical time is 16 hours\") to attempt to recover such tapes, allowing them to be played once more and the recordings transferred to new media. The problems have been reported on tapes of type 406/407, 456/457, 2020/373.\n\nBranding \n In 1959, Ampex acquired Orradio Industries and it became the Ampex Magnetic Tape Division.\n In 1995, Ampex divested this division, then called the Ampex Recording Media Corporation. This became Quantegy, Inc., which later changed its name to the current Quantegy Recording Solutions.\n In January 2005, having previously filed for bankruptcy protection, Quantegy closed its manufacturing facility in Opelika.\n In October 2014, Ampex Data Systems Corporation was sold to Delta Information Systems, but retains the rights to the Ampex name.\nIn 2017, Ampex established a second business unit, Ampex Intelligent Systems (AIS), in Colorado Springs Colorado, and branded its Silicon Valley business unit Ampex Data Systems (ADS).\n\nRecord labels \nAmpex Records was started in 1970. Its biggest hit was \"We Gotta Get You A Woman\" by Todd Rundgren (as \"Runt\"), reaching No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970. Ampex also originated three subsidiary labels: Bearsville, Big Tree, and Lizard. Ampex Records ceased operations around 1973; Bearsville and Big Tree switched distribution respectively to Warner Bros. Records and Bell Records, and Lizard became an independent entity. Later on, Big Tree was picked up by Atlantic Records.\n\nLegal history \nIn 2005, iNEXTV, a wholly owned subsidiary of respondent Ampex Corporation, brought a defamation lawsuit against a poster on an Internet message board who posted messages critical of them (Ampex Corp. v. Cargle (2005), Cal.App.4th). The poster, a former employee, responded with an anti-SLAPP suit and eventually recovered his attorney fees. The case was unique in that it involved the legality of speech in an electronic public forum.\n\nSince 2014 \nAfter being sold to Delta Information Systems in 2014, two former subsidiaries of Ampex Corporation continued business as part of the Ampex legacy. Ampex Data Systems Corporation (ADSC) headquartered in Silicon Valley, and Ampex Japan Ltd. are the only two Ampex businesses that still exist as more than \"in name only\" entities. ADSC has two business units. The Silicon Valley unit, Ampex Data Systems (ADS), continues the Ampex tradition in the storage industry by manufacturing ruggedized, high-capacity, high-performance digital data storage systems. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, unit, Ampex Intelligent Systems (AIS), is the center for company's line of industrial control system cyber security products and services and its artificial intelligence/machine learning technology which is available in all of the products.\n\nThe Ampex video system is obsolete, but many thousands of quadruplex videotape recordings remain. Machines that survive are used to transfer archival recordings to modern digital video formats.\n\nAmpex Corporation supported the Ampex Museum of Magnetic Recording, started by Peter Hammar in 1982.\n\nThe contents of that museum were donated to Stanford in 2001. A project is underway to curate Ampex artifacts in physical and digital form. This project will find a permanent home in Redwood City for the Ampex Museum and digital artifacts will be curated at AmpexMuseum.org This project is being funded by contributions from former Ampex employees.\n\nSee also\n Ampex Golden Reel Award\n Erhard Kietz\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\n Ampex Corporation Records, –1999 ( linear ft.) are housed in the Department of Special Collections and University Archives at Stanford University Libraries\n FindLaw Ampex Corp v. Cargle (2005)FindLaw\n\nExternal links \n\n \n Ampex Virtual Museum\n\nCategory:Video storage\nCategory:Companies based in Hayward, California\nCategory:Electronics companies of the United States\nCategory:Defunct record labels of the United States\nCategory:Electronics companies established in 1944\nCategory:American companies established in 1944\nCategory:1944 establishments in California\nCategory:Record labels established in 1970\nCategory:Record labels disestablished in 1973\nCategory:Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008\nCategory:Video equipment manufacturers\nCategory:2014 mergers and acquisitions",
"title": "Ampex"
},
{
"text": "Discovery World is a science and technology museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The museum is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of STEM majors through curiosity and creativity.\n\nFocus\n\nMission \n\"Discovery World is an extraordinary experience devoted to sharing the wonders of science and igniting a love of endless exploration. We are the spark of joy in a child’s eyes when they make a connection with a living creature. We are the sudden and satisfying “Aha” when you discover something you didn’t even know you were looking for. We are the beginning of your lifelong learning adventure.\"Discovery World focuses on innovation and technology, as well as Great Lakes education and conservation. It contains interactive exhibits, the Reiman Aquarium, a theater, and multiple event spaces. Many of the exhibits include hands-on elements with themes based on science all around us and water conservation. The entire Great Lakes watershed, built to scale in the Great Lakes Future Exhibit, addresses freshwater issues, stewardship, and the human relationship with freshwater resources.\n\nHistory \nFounded by Robert Powrie Harland, Sr., Discovery World was initially known as the Science, Economics and Technology Center. Plans for it appeared in the Milwaukee Journal in 1981. The museum's early location was the Milwaukee Public Library, inside the Wisconsin Ave. entrance of the library. The museum featured hands-on exhibits, computerized simulations, and science shows.\n\nLeadership\nCEO: Brian Wunar\n\nExhibits \n\nDiscovery World contains numerous interactive science, technology, and freshwater exhibits in its 120,000-foot facility. These exhibits include the following:\n\nGreat Lakes Future \nA model of the entire Great Lakes watershed built to scale addresses freshwater issues, stewardship, and the relationship between humans and freshwater resources. It also features an artificially induced weather event. With the push of a button, visitors can call for \"rain\" to fall down upon this watershed, observing where the water flows and how run-off pollutants navigate the region. The perimeter of the exhibit features several tank habitats. Inhabitants include an Alligator Snapping Turtle, Tiger Salamanders, a Northern Spiny Softshell Turtle, an Ornate Box Turtle, a Three-Toed Box Turtle, a Blanding's Turtle, a Red-eared Slider, North American Wood Turtles, a Corn Snake, a Bull Snake, Pumpkinseed, and Bluegill. Several ice-age and prehistoric animal skulls are found throughout the exhibit as well.\n\nReiman Aquarium \nThe Reiman Aquarium occupies the lower level of Discovery World. Tank exhibits replicate a wide variety of aquatic habitats, including that of Lake Michigan, Amazon Basin rivers, the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Caribbean Sea, and the African Great Lakes.\n\nLake Michigan Tank\n\nThe Lake Michigan tanks is a 75,000-gallon cold freshwater tank in the center of the aquarium. Dozens of other tanks follow a path around the exhibit. This tank is home to Lake and Shovelnose Sturgeon, Largemouth Bass, White and Black Crappie, Paddlefish, Northern Pike, Walleye, Freshwater Drums, Bowfin, Spotted, Longnose, and Shortnose Gar, Bigmouth and Smallmouth Buffalo, Channel Catfish, White Bass, and Common Carp, all of which are native to the Great Lakes. Aquarists and interns conduct one cleaning dive a week to manually scrub algae and feed the fish.\n\n\"L\" Tanks\n\nThe aquarists call these the \"L\" tanks due to their unconventional shape. These tanks occupy two levels, while tank glass penetrates the floor between these levels. This allows visitors to watch tank inhabitants swim beneath their feet.\n\n Great Lakes Comp Tank\n This is essentially a smaller, less diverse version of the Lake Michigan tank. This first of the two \"L\" tanks features Bluegill, Black Crappie, and Smallmouth Bass.\n North Atlantic Tank\n This North-Atlantic-simulating tank holds cold saltwater. This second \"L\" tank feature Striped Bass, Snowy Grouper, and Summer Flounder.\nAmazon Basin River Tank\n\nThe freshwater Amazon Basin River system tank features a Silver Arowana, Bigtooth River Stingray, Blood Red Parrotfish, Black Ghost Knifefish, Jurupari, Marbled Angelfish and Motoro/Leopoldi hybrid Stingray. This large tank is placed in a corner from which an apron of glass extends out through the floor, allowing visitors to walk over and view tank inhabitants beneath their feet.\n\nCaribbean Tank\n\nThis 65,000-gallon warm saltwater tank is the most colorful and active tank and is displayed via an upside down halfpipe design, which visitors can walk through. This tank is home to a Rooster Hogfish, a Sargassum Triggerfish, two Bamboo Sharks, Goatfish, French and Queen Angelfish, a Cownose Stingray, and a variety of Grunts, a Scrawled Filefish.\n\nHere, aquarists and interns also conduct one cleaning dive a week to scrub algae. \nTouch Tanks\n\nThere are two touch tanks where visitors can have a hands-on interaction with some aquatic creatures.\n\nA cold freshwater touch tank features young Lake Sturgeon who, when large enough, will be relocated to the larger Lake Michigan tank to join a larger, more diverse environment more appropriate for an adult sturgeon.\n\nA much warmer saltwater touch tank features Atlantic Stingray and Cortez Round Stringray. Under employee supervision, children and other visitors can learn how to responsibly interact with aquatic life.\n\nWeird and Wild\n\nThe final hallway of the aquarium features several tanks with a handful of unique organisms. These include a South American tank, home to a Black Ghost Knifefish; an interesting relative to the Electric Eel which, too, can generate its own electric field. This is used to navigate its environment. A terrarium features several Blue Poison Dart frogs. In captivity, these frogs are not poisonous as they acquire their poison through bioaccumulation within their ecosystem. Another tank is home to the tiny freshwater Pea Pufferfish. To follow is a Piranha tank, an Axolotl tank, Cichlid tank, and Amazon tank. Finally is the tank holding a West African Lungfish, a primitive fish belonging to the lobe-finned fish class Sarcopterygii. In addition to having fleshy, boned appendages, lungfish also have a modified air bladder used to gasp surface air, a useful trait when considering their native oxygen-deprived waters.\n\nLes Paul’s House of Sound \nThis interactive experience showcases the innovative and creative spirit of the legendary musician Les Paul. The exhibit allows visitors to travel along Paul's timeline to see his beginnings in Wisconsin to his travels around the world. Les Paul's House of Sound features three different areas: Les's Early Years, The Musician on the Road to Stardom, and Friends of Les Paul. The exhibit includes Paul’s Grammy Awards, the first Gibson guitar Paul produced, and the \"Klunker\" he used to produce top ten hits.\n\nHelen Bader Foundation's Great Lakes Future \nThis large interactive model of the Great Lakes features flora and fauna that populate the Great Lakes, an interactive hydrologic cycle that allows visitors to control the weather, and a Sky Bridge that offers the opportunity to see the Great Lakes in a whole new way. The permanent exhibit was designed by Grace La and James Dallman of LA DALLMAN and was published in the Berlin monograph 1000x Architecture of the Americas.\n\nCity of Freshwater & Badger Meter Liquid House \nThis exhibit explains how the water used in homes eventually flows back to Lake Michigan. Other features of this exhibit include a look into Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District processes, Milwaukee Water Works, and Milwaukee’s Deep Tunnel project, which reduces the amount of wastewater dumped into Lake Michigan each year. The permanent exhibit, comprising more than twenty interactive installations, was designed by Grace La and James Dallman of LA DALLMAN.\n\nRockwell Automation Dream Machine \nThis exhibit allows the public to design products to take home, experience a custom-built automated factory, and learn modern engineering trends. Visitors can operate the controls of the retractable domes of Miller Park and the Milwaukee Art Museum.\n\nOther Exhibits \nOther exhibits at Discovery World include The Challenge (an 88 ft replica of a 19th century schooner), Simple Machine Shipyard, Driving and Flight Simulators, All Aboard, Milwaukee Muscle, Power On, Physics and You & The Innovation Station, Virtual Explorer, Clean Air Trek, BIG, and The Distant Mirror.\n\nExperiences \nDiscovery World also offers:\n\n Kohl’s Design It! Lab is a weekend experience that turns the Kohl’s Design It! Lab into a café that serves a full menu of projects such as laser-cut cardboard houses or apparel made with repurposed materials.\n Wind Leaves is a permanent group of sculptures in front of Discovery World. It consists of seven tall \"leaves\" coated in stainless steel disks that reflect the surroundings and react to wind. They are interactive and can be spun by visitors.\n\nLabs and studios \nDiscovery World has 10 labs and studios that allow visitors to become involved with innovation, creativity, science, technology and the environment, especially with freshwater resources and the Great Lakes. The 10 labs and studios are made up of:\n \n Biology Lab allows the public to explore everything from microscopic organisms to understanding how to measure different substances and materials using professional laboratory tools.\n Kohl’s Design It! Lab is a space that exposes visitors to industry professionals, equipment, industrial design, and the economic opportunities within the realms of sustainability, design, and beauty. The lab explores the science of the human body and examines cultures by discovering how artifacts are made, through hands-on design projects.\n Print & Publishing Lab is a space that focuses on the physical applications of graphic design and digital artwork that can be applied to the business and art world. Through customized classes and workshops, designers and entrepreneurs gain access to pro-level software and screen printing equipment. Visitors also gain the skills to turn their designs into physical products that can be used in the marketplace.\n MillerCoors THIRST Lab is a space designed to teach visitors how to understand water as a resource, as an ingredient, and as an opportunity. By examining the production process in the THIRST Lab, participants become aware of water’s role in the creation of products. \n General Science Lab provides more space and tools for the public to engage in designing the future. The lab is home to programs and experiences having to do with archaeology, physics, chemistry, and computer drafting and design.\n Electronics Lab gives visitors a place to tinker. Participants can explore circuitry, robotics, mechanical design, and relationships to the natural world. \n Digital Arts Lab teaches how to develop original ideas and creative skills in the areas of visual art, digital literacy, audio and writing. Professional software and WACOM drawing tablets are key tools that students use in developing original, quality work. \n Video Studio helps people develop presentation and digital literacy skills. The studio is also a production space for photography, live performance, and professional rentals.\n Audio Studio is a professional environment designed for creating high quality music and voice recordings for podcasts. Using high-end digital and analog equipment in three isolation booths, the Discovery World staff guides visitors through the process of capturing and working with sound for a variety of projects.\n\nFunding \nDiscovery World is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization that does not receive any public funding. The organization has received significant donations from area corporations, including $2.5 million from Rockwell Automation in October 2014, and $2 million from Kohl's in January 2016.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \nDiscovery World website\n\nCategory:Children's museums in Wisconsin\nCategory:Museums in Milwaukee\nCategory:Science museums in Wisconsin\nCategory:Maritime museums in Wisconsin",
"title": "Discovery World"
},
{
"text": "The Gibson Les Paul is a solid body electric guitar that was first sold by the Gibson Guitar Corporation in 1952. The guitar was designed by factory manager John Huis and his team with input from and endorsement by guitarist Les Paul. Its typical design features a solid mahogany body with a carved maple top and a single cutaway, a mahogany set-in neck with a rosewood fretboard, two pickups with independent volume and tone controls, and a stoptail bridge, although variants exist.\n\nThe Les Paul was originally offered with a gold finish and two P-90 pickups. In 1957, humbucking pickups were added, along with sunburst finishes in 1958. The 1958–1960 sunburst Les Paul, today one of the best-known electric guitar types in the world, was considered a commercial failure, with low production and sales. For 1961, the Les Paul was redesigned into what is now known as the Gibson SG. The original single-cutaway, carved top bodystyle was re-introduced in 1968. The Les Paul has been produced in many versions and editions since. Along with Fender's Telecaster and Stratocaster, it was one of the first mass-produced electric solid-body guitars. Due to their versatility, Les Paul electric guitars have been used in a wide range of music genres, including rock, country, pop, soul, rhythm and blues, blues, jazz, reggae, punk, and heavy metal.\n\nHistory\n\n(1950–1952)\n\nIn 1950, the ancestors of the Fender Telecaster (Fender Esquire and Fender Broadcaster) were introduced to the musical market and solid-body electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction to market demand, Gibson Guitar president Ted McCarty brought guitarist Les Paul into the company as a consultant.\n\nLes Paul was a respected innovator who had been experimenting with guitar design for years. He had hand-built a solid-body prototype nicknamed \"The Log,\" named after the pine block running through the middle of the guitar whose width and depth are a little more than the width of the fretboard. Conventional hollow guitar sides or \"wings\" were added for shape. In 1945 or 1946, Paul had approached Gibson with \"The Log\" prototype, but his design was rejected.\n\nIn 1951, McCarty and his team at Gibson began work on what would eventually become the Les Paul Model. Early prototypes of the Les Paul model are very similar to the final version. The new Les Paul guitar was to be an expensive, well-made instrument in accordance with Gibson's reputation at the time, and distinct from growing rival guitar manufacturer Fender's models.\n\nMcCarty approached Les Paul for the right to imprint the musician's name on the headstock with the intention of increasing sales; in 1951, Gibson presented Paul a nearly finished instrument for approval. McCarty stated that design discussions with Les Paul were limited to the tailpiece and the fitting of a maple cap over the mahogany body for increased density and sustain, which Les Paul had requested reversed. However, this reversal would have caused the guitar to become too heavy, and Paul's request was refused. Paul states that the original Custom should have had the maple cap and the Goldtop was to be all mahogany. The Custom did not appear on the market for another two years following the introduction of the Goldtop; it is possible that Gibson had planned a full model range of guitars (with a roll-out over the course of several years) at the time when initial specifications were being set. Les Paul's contributions to the guitar line bearing his name were more than cosmetic; for example, Paul specified that the guitar be offered in a gold finish, not only for flashiness, but to emphasize the high quality of the Gibson Les Paul instrument. Later Les Paul models included flame maple (tiger stripe) and \"quilted\" maple tops, again in contrast to the competing Fender line's range of car-like custom color finishes.\n\nThe 1952 Les Paul featured a mahogany body with a one-inch-thick maple cap, a mahogany neck with a rosewood fretboard, two P-90 single coil pickups, and a one-piece, 'trapeze'-style bridge/tailpiece with strings fitted under (instead of over) a steel stop-bar.\n\nThe guitar made its public debut when Paul used it onstage in June 1952 at the Paramount theatre in New York. On July 24, 1952, at a special musicians clinic at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, it was previewed by prominent guitarists such as Tiger Haynes, George Barnes, Mundell Lowe, Tony Mottola, and Billy Mure.\n\n(1953–1957)\n\nA second Les Paul model was introduced in 1953. Called the Les Paul Custom, this black guitar with gold-plated hardware was dubbed the \"Black Beauty\". New bridge and tailpiece designs were rapidly adopted. The one-piece \"wraparound\" stopbar was introduced in 1953. The following year saw the introduction of the fully-adjustable Tune-o-matic bridge. The Goldtop and Custom models continued without significant changes until 1957. New humbucker pickups designed by Seth Lover in 1955 debuted on Les Pauls in 1957 and P-90 pickups were no longer offered. These pickups carried the markings \"PAF\", for \"Patent Applied For\" (referring to ). This innovation in pickups became the flagship pickup design most associated with Gibson. Many other guitar companies followed suit, outfitting their electrics with versions of the humbucking pickup.\n\n(1958–1968)\n\nIn 1958, the Les Paul saw its first major design change. A new model, called the Standard, retained most features of the 1957 Goldtop. However, Standards featured a cherry-red sunburst finish. These guitars were priced higher than the Goldtop models, but lower than the Customs. At this time, Gibson instruments were marketed toward an older, jazz-oriented audience rather than young burgeoning guitarists. As a result, over the three-year period of production, only about 1,700 Standards were made.\n\nThese Les Pauls were considered to be too heavy and old-fashioned, and they initially did not find favor amongst guitarists. In 1961, Gibson stopped producing the traditional Les Paul in favor of a lighter redesign which was later called the SG. The mid-1960s, however, brought a resurgence of interest in the Les Paul Standard. In 1964, The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards began using a sunburst, 1959 Les Paul Standard — becoming the first \"star-guitarist\" to play a Les Paul on the British scene. The guitar, outfitted with a Bigsby tailpiece, served as one of the guitarist's prominent instruments and provided the first impetus to the use of Les Pauls during the British blues boom. In 1965, Eric Clapton began using Les Pauls because of the influence of Freddie King and Hubert Sumlin, and played a 1960 Standard on the groundbreaking album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton. In America, Mike Bloomfield began using a 1954 Les Paul goldtop while touring with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and recorded most of his work on the band's East-West album with that guitar. A year later, he traded it for a 1959 Standard with which he became most identified. By 1967, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was using mid-1950s, P-90 pickup-equipped goldtops or black custom models, which he used through 1968. Concurrently in the late 1960s, artists such as Peter Green, Jeff Beck, Paul Kossoff, and Jimmy Page began using sunburst Les Paul Standards. Responding to this influence and increased pressure from the public, Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul single-cutaway guitar in July 1968, and the guitar remains in production today.\n\n(1969–1985)\n\nIn 1969, Gibson's parent company (Chicago Musical Instruments) was taken over by the conglomerate ECL. Gibson remained under the control of CMI until 1974 when it became a subsidiary of Norlin Musical Instruments.\n\nThese ownership changes, often called the \"Norlin Era\", caused Gibson products of the time to undergo changes in manufacturing and construction. Les Paul designs were altered and a reinforced upper neck volute was added to decrease headstock breaks. Neck woods were changed from one-piece mahogany to a three-piece maple design. The body was also changed from one-piece mahogany with a maple top to multiple slabs of mahogany with multiple pieced maple tops. This is referred to as \"multipiece\" construction, and sometimes incorrectly referred to as a \"pancake\" body. The expression \"pancake body\" actually refers to a body made of a thin layer of maple sandwiched between two slabs of mahogany, with a maple cap. The grain of the maple was placed at 90 degrees to that of the mahogany. The \"pancake\"-like layers are clearly visible when looking at the edge of the guitar. This process is also known as \"crossbanding\", and was done to make use of less expensive and more readily available thinner mahogany. Crossbanding was phased out by 1977.\n\nIn this era, Gibson began experimenting with new models, such as the Les Paul Recording. This guitar was generally unpopular with guitarists because of its complex electronics. Less noticeable changes included, but were not limited to, optional maple fingerboards (added in 1976), pickup cavity shielding, and the crossover of the ABR1 Tune-o-matic bridge into the wide \"Nashville\" bridge. During the 1970s, the Les Paul body shape was incorporated into other Gibson models, including the S-1, the Sonex, the L6-S, and other models that did not follow the classic Les Paul layout.\n\nPost-Norlin\nIn January 1986, Gibson again changed ownership and began manufacturing a range of varied Les Paul models. The 1980s also saw the end to several design characteristics, including the volute and maple neck. However, because of consumer demand, the Gibson Les Paul guitar is available today in a wide array of choices, ranging from guitars equipped with modern digital electronics to classic re-issue models built to match the look and specifications of the guitar's earliest production runs from 1952 to 1960.\n\nIn 1986, responding to the high demand for vintage models, Gibson formed a Custom Shop division. Originally, the Custom Shop began producing accurate reproductions of early Les Pauls, as well as one-offs. Today, the Custom Shop produces numerous limited-run \"historic-spec\" models, as well as signature artist models. The first Custom Shop artist guitar was the 1996 Joe Perry Les Paul, and today, several artist models are offered. \"Reliced\" or \"aged\" models are made in the Custom Shop to replicate well used vintage guitars.\n\n, Gibson offers several variations of the Les Paul guitar with differences in price, features, electronics and finishes. For example, the modern 'Standard' offers split-coil pickups for a wider range of sounds. The 'Traditional' model offers the more basic features of guitars available during the 1950s to 1980s, and the 'Classic' model offers yet other features. 'Special' and 'Studio' models have a more basic level of finish and are lower-priced. These models are marketed as 'Gibson USA' guitars, capitalizing on their American heritage.\n\nand variations\nThe first model, simply called the \"Gibson Les Paul\", was released in 1952. This style has since been retroactively named \"The Goldtop\", as the model came only in one finish: an old gold solid paint, with two P-90 pickups and nickel plated hardware. In 1954, the Gibson Les Paul Custom was added to the model line. The Custom featured a solid black finish, gold-plated hardware, and other high-end appointments, including becoming one of the first Gibson models to have 3 pickups. The standard goldtop model received PAF humbucking pickups in 1957, and the goldtop paint job was retired in 1958 and replaced with a two-tone translucent sunburst paint job. From 1958 onwards, this main model was known as the Les Paul Standard, nicknamed \"the Burst\", and is known for its high collectability. The original Les Paul body shape was retired in 1961 and radically redesigned as the Gibson SG (which for the first several years was known as the Les Paul SG, before Les Paul's endorsement deal ran out). In the mid-late 1960s, the unique tonal quality of the humbucker-equipped \"Burst\" models became a favorite among rock guitarists, and this renewed interest caused Gibson to bring back the Standard and Custom models in 1968. They have remained in production ever since; as well Gibson added a number of other model lines over the years, including budget/student lines such as the Les Paul Junior and Les Paul Special, studio-quality guitars with basic appointments but upgraded electronics, such as the Les Paul Professional and Les Paul Recording, and other short-lived models, including dozens of celebrity endorsed models.\n\n(1952–1958, 1968–present)\n\nThe first Les Paul model Goldtops were produced from 1952–1957. Early 1952 Les Pauls were not issued serial numbers, did not have bound fingerboards, and are considered by some as \"LP Model prototypes\". However, later 1952 Les Pauls were issued serial numbers and also came with bound fingerboards. The design scheme of some of these early models varied. For instance, some early Les Pauls were fitted with black covered P-90 pickups instead of the usual cream-colored plastic covers. The weight and the tonal characteristics of the Goldtop Les Paul were largely due to the mahogany and maple construction.\n\nIn 1953, the trapeze tailpiece was dropped, and a new stopbar design was added. This design combined a pre-intonated bridge and tailpiece with two studs just behind the bridge pickup. This increased the sustain of the Goldtop noticeably; however, the intonation and string height adjustability were limited. A new design, the Tune-o-matic, replaced the stopbar in 1955. It consisted of a separate bridge and tailpiece attached directly to the top of the guitar, combining an easily adjustable bridge with a sustain-carrying tailpiece. This design has been used on most Les Pauls ever since. The tuners were produced by Kluson.\n\n(1954–1960, 1968–present)\n\nThe Les Paul Custom features gold hardware, multilayer binding including the headstock, ebony fingerboard, real mother-of-pearl inlays and two or three-pickup layout. 1950s Customs were all-mahogany, rather than the mahogany-with-maple-cap of the Goldtop. The original Customs were fitted with a P-90 pickup in the bridge position and an Alnico V \"staple\" pickup in the neck. In 1957, the Custom was fitted with Gibson's new PAF humbucker pickups, and later became available with three pickups instead of the usual two. The traditional Les Paul Custom was discontinued in 1961 and its name transferred to the custom version of the then-new Gibson SG.\n\nIn 1968, Gibson reintroduced the Les Paul Custom as a two-pickup-only model. The headstock angle was changed from 17 degrees to 14, and a wider headstock and a maple top (in lieu of the original 1953–1961 mahogany top construction) were added. White and two sunburst finish options were added to the color palette in 1974. Also new in 1974 was the optional TP-6 fine-tuner tailpiece, allowing for micro-adjustment of string tuning from the bridge. The mahogany neck was replaced with a three-piece maple neck in 1975 (though mahogany still saw limited use) with this change lasting until around 1982. Popular colors, such as wine red and \"silverburst,\" were added in the 1970s and '80s. Gibson currently produces several Custom models with various finishes and pickups.\n\n(1958–1960, 1976–present)\n\nIn 1958, new Standard model retained most specifications of the 1957 Goldtop, including PAF humbucker pickups, a maple top, and a tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tailpiece or Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. The gold color used since 1952 was replaced by a cherry-red version of the Sunburst finish long used on Gibson's flat-top and archtop acoustic and hollow electric guitars. Since the maple cap was now visible, tops were made either with a solid \"plaintop\" piece of maple or two bookmatched pieces of figured (curly or quilted) maple. To differentiate from the earlier Goldtop model, the new Les Paul was referred to as The Les Paul Standard. Specifications during 1958–60 varied from year to year and also from guitar to guitar. Typical 1958 Les Paul Standard necks had a thicker neck, thinner frets and lower fret height, which changed during the course of 1959 to develop into typical 1960 necks with a thinner cross-section and wider, higher frets. The cherry dye used on the 1958–59 models faded rapidly from ultraviolet light exposure, so in early 1960 Gibson switched to a new, fade-resistant formulation which was also less translucent and slightly more orange; this is sometimes called the \"tomato soup burst.\" Fading of the original paint job was unpredictable, as the red color could either lighten or darken depending on the specific formulation and on the conditions the guitar had been exposed to, resulting in a wide array of nicknames, such as \"lemon burst\" or \"tobacco burst\", for the resulting colorations. Despite the wide variety of color variations now found on the original 1958–59 models, they all went to market with nearly identical paint jobs. Furthermore, during the production run, Gibson changed the color of plastic used on the pickup bobbins multiple times between black and white again; however during assembly, pickups were assembled semi-randomly, with no attention given to matching the two single-coil bobbins to each other when building the humbucking pickups; the guitar was sold with a nickel-plated pickup cover, so Gibson didn't consider the color of the bobbins to be an aesthetic consideration. Additionally, since the translucent finish allowed the wood grain to show, each Sunburst model has a unique combination of finish fade, wood grain, and pickup colors resulting in a highly individualized guitar, adding to the collectability of the model. Many famous original Les Paul standards can be easily identified by their unique appearance. \n\nOriginal production of the Standards lasted from 1958 to early 1961. As Gibson only kept records on shipments of \"Les Paul\" models, and the Sunburst Standard overlapped production years with both the earlier Goldtop and later SG models, nailing down exact production numbers is difficult. Depending on the source, it is estimated anywhere from 1,200 to 1,700 of these early models were made and have subsequently become highly valuable.\n\nProduction ended in 1961 when Gibson redesigned the Les Paul to feature a \"double cutaway\" body, which has subsequently become the Gibson SG. The model was quietly reintroduced to dealers as early as 1972 before production of Les Paul Standards \"officially\" resumed in 1976 due to high demand. They have remained in continuous production since then, as well as periodic reissues from the Gibson Custom Shop, using the original 1958–60 specs.\n\n(1954–1960) and (1955–1960)\n\nIn 1954, the Les Paul Junior debuted, targeted the beginning or student guitarist. As a cost-saving measure, many of the appointments of the Standard and Custom models are absent from the Junior. The Junior is characterized by its flat-top \"slab\" mahogany body (in contrast to the carved maple top on other models), finished in sunburst. It had a single P-90 pickup (in contrast to the two- and three-humbucker pickup configurations on the more expensive models), simple volume and tone controls, an unbound rosewood fingerboard with plain dot-shape position markers, and a combination bridge/tailpiece unit similar to the Goldtop.\n\nIn 1955, Gibson launched the Les Paul TV model, which was identical to the Junior except for the name and a fashionable contemporary \"limed oak\" style finish, later more accurately named \"limed mahogany\". This natural wood finish with white grain filler often aged into a natural wood or dull yellow appearance, and eventually evolved into the opaque mustard yellow, popularly called \"TV yellow\". The model was not, as a popular myth says, to avoid glare from old TV cameras, but a modern look and a name to promote \"The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show\" then on television.\n\nGibson made a radical design change to their Junior and TV models in 1959: to accommodate player requests for more access to the top frets than the previous designs allowed, these electric guitar models were revamped with a new double-cutaway body shape. In addition, Juniors were now available with a cherry red finish, while the re-shaped TV adopted a more yellow-tinged finish.\n\n(1955–1960)\n\nThe Les Paul Special was released in 1955, featuring a slab body, two soapbar P-90 single coil pickups, and was finished in a color similar to TV Yellow (but not called a TV model). It fit in the model line between the Junior and the Standard, having the two-pickup configuration of the Standard, but featuring the simpler, more basic appointments of the Junior.\n\nIn 1959, the Special was given the same new double-cutaway body shape as the Junior and the TV received in 1959. Around this time, Les Paul decided to discontinue his affiliation with Gibson; the model was renamed \"SG Special\" in the late 1959. However, when the new design was applied to the two-pickup Special, the cavity for the neck pickup overlapped the neck-to-body joint. This weakened the joint to the point that the neck could break after only moderate handling. The problem was soon resolved when Gibson designers moved the neck pickup farther down the body, producing a stronger joint and eliminating the breakage problem.\n\n(1961–1963)\n\nIn 1960, Gibson experienced a decline in electric guitar sales due to strong competition from Fender's comparable but much lighter double-cutaway design, the Stratocaster. In response, Gibson modified the Les Paul line. For 1961, the Les Paul was thinner and much lighter than earlier models, with two sharply pointed cutaways and a vibrato system. However, the redesign was done without Les Paul's knowledge, and he hated the design, so he asked Gibson to remove his name. The double cutaway design retained the \"Les Paul\" name until 1963 when Les Paul's endorsement deal with Gibson ended. Without a contract, Gibson could no longer call its guitars \"Les Pauls,\" and it renamed them \"SGs\" (for \"Solid Guitars\").\n\n(1970–1985)\n\nThe Deluxe was among the \"new\" 1968–1969 Les Pauls and seen as an evolution of the Special. This model featured \"mini-humbuckers\", also known as \"New York\" humbuckers, and did not initially prove popular. The mini-humbucker pickups fit into the pre-carved P-90 pickup cavity using an adaptor ring developed by Gibson in order to use a surplus supply of Epiphone mini-humbuckers. The Deluxe was introduced in 1970 and helped to standardize production among Gibson's U.S.-built Les Pauls. The first incarnation of the Deluxe featured a one-piece body and slim three-piece neck. (It has been thought that some of these early \"one-piece\" bodies were actually leftovers from original 1950's Les Paul parts) The multipiece body (a thin layer of maple on top of two layers of Honduran mahogany) arrived later in 1969. Towards the end of that year, a reinforcing neck volute was added. 1969 Deluxes feature the Gibson logo devoid of the dot over the \"i\" in Gibson. By late 1969/early 1970, the dot over the \"i\" had returned, plus a \"Made In USA\" stamp on the back of the headstock. Gibson produced 216 Deluxe Gold Top as specially-ordered guitars with full-size humbucker t-tops pickups between 1972 and 1974 (179 in 1973, 28 in 1974 and 9 in 1972), as a Les Paul Standard pickup specification. These Gold Tops are quite rare to find today and are worth US$9,000 to US$10,000 in the collector's market, because they were the first guitars since the Gold Top 1958 fitted with humbucker pickups from the factory.\n\nUntil the end of the year 1974, 90% of the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe manufactured were Gold Top. New colors emerged from 1975, less valued than the Gold Top. By late 1975, the neck construction was changed from mahogany to maple. This lasted until the early 1980s, when the construction returned to mahogany. The body changed back to solid mahogany from the pancake design in late 1976 or early 1977. In 1985 Gibson discontinued the Deluxe model.\n\nAdrian Smith, of Iron Maiden, uses a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Gold Top 1972, with the bridge pickup converted to a humbucker, and has been using it since joining Iron Maiden in 1980. Pete Townshend used Les Paul Deluxes onstage almost exclusively between 1973 and 1979, often with additional middle pickups.\n\nJimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin, used a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe 1969 Red, converted to humbuckers, during the 1970s, and reunion of 2007. Vivian Campbell, of Dio, used a Deluxe Black 1977, with a humbucker conversion, during his period in the band. Ace Frehley used Deluxe 1973 converted humbucker in 70s. Steve Lukather has Deluxe Gold Top 1974 original humbucker.\n\nScott Gorham and Brian Robertson, of Thin Lizzy, also used Les Paul Deluxes in the 1970s (Robertson converted his Deluxe Cherry Sunburst 1973 to humbuckers in 1977, and plays the guitar to this day). Slash has a Deluxe Tobacco Sunburst 1975, converted to Humbuckers, and uses it during live shows. Yngwie Malmsteen had a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe Gold Top 1969 in his collection for more than 30 years, converted to humbuckers. It was sold for over US$25,000 a few years ago.\n\nProfessional (1969–1971) \nThe Les Paul Professional was produced from 1969–1971, it was a rare model as only around 118 were ever produced. Designed primarily as a studio guitar, it featured an unadorned dark-stained mahogany slab body with two low-impedance pickups mounted at an angle and a unique control layout that included not only the standard \"rhythm/lead\" switch, but also two toggles between the tailpiece and the volume/tone knobs that allowed for additional tone options. The low-impedance pickups required a special cable that included an on-board transformer. The model came with either a stop tailpiece or a Gibson-branded Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. Chicago guitarist Terry Kath used a Les Paul Professional both in the studio and on stage. The model was never popular, and was phased out in 1971 and replaced with the Les Paul Recording model, which itself was replaced in 1983 by the Les Paul Studio model. A few Professionals shipped in 1972 and 1973, though the catalogues had switched to the Recording model by then.\n\nRecording (1971–1979) \n\nThe Les Paul Recording was produced from late 1971–1979 (the first models shipped in 1972). It was a slightly modified version of the Professional model, and featured the same low-impedance pickups and same body, though with a lighter-colored stain. The control layout was changed, the rhythm/lead selector switch was moved near the other controls from the upper left to lower right side of the guitar body, and the tone control toggle switches were rotated 90 degrees. The plastic plate to label the switches and knobs was larger than the Professional model as well. Les Paul himself favored the Recording model among all of the guitars to bear his name; it was his main guitar during his years playing at the Iridium Jazz Club and other New York venues. The model was re-issued in 2014.\n\nThe Paul (1978–1982) \n\nA single sharp cutaway Les Paul-style walnut body, set walnut neck, pearl dot inlays, walnut headstock overlay with gold Gibson logo (1978–1981) or Gibson logo branded into the headstock (Firebrand, 1981–1982). Hardware included three-per-side tuners, stop tailpiece, two exposed humbucker pickups, four knobs (two volume, two tone), three-way pickup switch, chrome hardware, available in Natural Walnut finish. It was manufactured between 1978 and 1982. It included such high end items as Grover tuning keys and the Tune-O-Matic bridge. It has become affectionately referred to as \"The Coffee Table Burst\" because of its natural finish.\n\n(1983–present) \n\nThe Studio model was introduced in 1983, and is still in production. The guitar is intended for the studio musician; therefore, the design features of the \"Les Paul Studio\" are centered on optimal sound output and not on flashy appearance. This model retains only the elements of the Gibson Les Paul that contribute to tone and playability, including the carved maple top and standard mechanical and electronic hardware. However, the Studio design, until 2017, omits several stock Gibson ornamentations that do not affect sound quality, including body/neck binding. The first Studios from 1983 to 1986 were made with alder bodies rather than mahogany/maple. The current Studios come with a chambered mahogany body with either a maple or mahogany cap. The entry level Les Paul Studio \"faded\" has a weight relieved mahogany body and top and a satin finish. In 2018 neck binding and a pair of Gibson's most popular humbucking pickups, 57 Classic and 57 Classic+, and two push-pull pots were introduced. In order to guarantee the stability of the tuning and an excellent sustain were introduced the Grover tuners, the self-lubricating nut and the aluminium tune-o-matic bridge.\n\nGibson also offered the Studio in a \"standard\" model. This variant was adorned with neck and body binding, ebony fretboard and sunburst paint job. All Studios at the time had dot fretboard markers and a thinner body.\n\nMemphis ES-Les Paul (2014–2016)\n\nGibson released the Memphis ES-Les Paul in 2014. It is a semi-acoustic model with f-holes and most with two Alnico humbuckers. There was a limited Custom Shop run of VOS Black Beauty ES Les Pauls with three humbuckers. Some of these limited run guitars were also fitted with Bigsby tailpieces. The neck is mahogany, but the sides and back are laminated maple and poplar. A mahogany block runs throughout the body to increase sustain.\n\nThe Les Paul Memphis ES was released with Gibson’s MHS (Memphis Historic Spec) humbuckers. These scatter wound pickups have unbalanced coils to emulate vintage PAFs. The bridge and middle pickups both have Alnico II magnets while the neck pickup houses an Alnico III.\n\nIn addition to the factory-installed Bigsby B7 and retro ‘Milk Bottle’ Grover Rotomatics on some models, other vintage enhancements were added to the guitar. The neck features a Historic-style truss-rod, rolled fingerboard edges, and is fretted over top of the binding. The three-pickup wiring offers modern switching and employs Orange Drop capacitors for less treble-cut.\n\nDue to its limited run, the Memphis ES-Les Paul has become a sought-after and collectible Les Paul model.\n\nHP (2016–2019) \n\nThe Gibson Les Paul HP – which stands for \"High Performance\" – was introduced in 2016, intending to be a Les Paul version featuring the most modern features, like the G-Force automatic tuner, a compound radius fretboard, a titanium adjustable zero-fret nut, and a carved fast access neck heel, similar to the Axcess model. Each knob had a push/pull function allowing to split the pickups and transient suppression. The guitar came in a special hardshell case, with a polished aluminium finish.\n\nThe model was slightly modified in 2017, when the toggle-switch plate was removed, the knobs changed from ordinary speed knobs to chrome top hat ones, and the pickup rings changed from white to chrome.\n\nThe model had a major change in 2018, with the complete removal of the pickup rings – the pickups were now mounted at the back of the guitar, with two screws for each pickup. This change made pickup swap noticeably harder, demanding a modification of the mounting piece of each pickup, which had to be bent inwards.\n\nThe model was again changed in 2019, reversing the 2018 pickup ring removal. The knobs changed to transparent top hat ones, and the G-Force tuner was removed with locking tuners being added. This was the last of the HP series, which was discontinued in 2020.\n\nDark Fire\n\nThe Gibson Dark Fire is a variant of the Les Paul. It was a second generation Robot Guitar, using an updated version of the Powertune self-tuning system produced by Tronical Gmbh. The Dark Fire also introduced Gibson's Chameleon Tone Technology, a system consisting of onboard electronics designed to simulate various guitar tones. Additionally, the guitar included an audio interface called the Robot Interface Pack or RIP.\n\nPickups\nThe Dark Fire had one Burstbucker 3 humbucker in the bridge position, a P-90H at the neck, and a special Tronical-designed piezoelectric tune-o-matic sat in place of the bridge. The Burstbucker 3 and P-90H were selected via the three-way selector switch. The piezoelectric could be activated via the MCK, blending the magnetic and piezoelectric together under a standard 1/4\" guitar cable. Gibson supplied a TRS stereo cable that allowed the piezo signal and the magnetic signal to be split between two different amps.\n\nEpiphone Les Paul\n\nThe Gibson also sells Les Paul guitars under their Epiphone brand of low-cost instruments; most are similar copies of Gibson-branded models. Made outside the United States, the Epiphone Les Pauls are made from more commonly available woods using less expensive foreign labor and have less hand detailing than the Gibson models, and as a result sell for a lower price. Epiphone has been owned by Gibson Guitars since the 1950s.\n\nEpiphone also makes several less common models of the Les Paul such as the Les Paul Goth, Les Paul Ultra/Ultra II, Les Paul Prophecy, and Les Paul Tribute Plus.\n\nSignature models\n\nJimmy Page\n\nGibson has produced three Jimmy Page signature models. The first was issued in the mid-1990s. It is based on a stock sunburst Les Paul Standard. In 2005, the Gibson Custom Shop issued a limited run of Jimmy Page Signature guitars based on Page's 1959 \"No. 1\". Several years later, Gibson issued its third Jimmy Page Signature guitar, this one based on Page's #2, issued in a production run of 325 guitars.\n\nGary Moore\n\nGary Moore created his own signature Les Paul in the early 2000s, characterised by a yellow flame top, no binding and signature truss rod cover. It featured two open-topped humbucker pickups, one with \"zebra coils\" (one white and one black bobbin). In 2009, Gibson released another Gary Moore signature guitar, the Gibson Gary Moore BFG Les Paul. The Gary Moore BFG is much like their previous Les Paul BFG series, with the added styling of Moore's various 1950s Les Paul Standards.\n\nSlash\n\nSlash has collaborated with Gibson on seventeen signature Les Paul models.\n\nThe first of these guitars is the Slash \"Snakepit\" Les Paul Standard, which was introduced by the Gibson Custom Shop in 1996, based on the smoking snake graphic off the cover of Slash's Snakepit's debut album and a mother of pearl snake inlay covering the length of the ebony fretboard. An Epiphone version was released as well. Production was limited to 100.\n\nIn 2004, the Gibson Custom Shop introduced the Slash Signature Les Paul Standard, a guitar that Gibson has used ever since as the \"standard\" non-limited edition Slash Les Paul. In 2008, Gibson USA released the Slash Signature Les Paul Standard Plus Top, an authentic replica of one of two Les Pauls Slash received from Gibson in 1988. It has an Antique Vintage Sunburst finish over a solid mahogany body with a maple top. An Epiphone version was released as well. Also in 2008, the Gibson Custom Shop introduced the Slash \"Inspired By\" Les Paul Standard. This guitar is a replica of his 1987 Les Paul Standard.\n\nIn 2010, Gibson released the Slash \"AFD/Appetite for Destruction\" Les Paul Standard II as a tribute to Guns N' Roses' debut album, Appetite for Destruction, which resembles the Kris Derrig built 1959 Les Paul replica Slash used for the recording of the album. Production was limited to 400, with 100 aged guitars signed by Slash, and another 300 finished with the Custom Shop's VOS process. An Epiphone version was simultaneously released as well.\n\nIn 2013, Gibson and Epiphone both released the Slash \"Rosso Corsa\" Les Paul Standard, and also the Gibson USA's Slash \"Vermillion\" Les Paul Standard. In the year of 2017, Gibson released Slash \"Anaconda Burst\" Les Paul, which consist of both a Plain Top, as well as a Flame Top. An Epiphone version of the guitar was released as well. In 2017, Gibson Custom Shop released the Slash Firebird, a guitar which is a radical departure from the Les Paul style association he is well known for. The finish was produced in only two separate colors, which is Trans Black and Trans White. Only 50 copies of each color were produced.\n\nJoe Perry\n\nGibson has issued two signature Les Paul guitars for Joe Perry of Aerosmith. The first was developed in 1996 and was customized with an active mid-boost control, black chrome hardware, and a translucent black finish. It was replaced in 2004 by a second, more visually distinctive Les Paul, the \"Boneyard\" Les Paul. This guitar is characterized by Perry's custom \"Boneyard\" logo on the headstock and a figured maple top with a green tiger finish, and is available with either a stop bar tailpiece or a Bigsby tailpiece.\n\nJoe Perry owned a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard. Perry is not sure how, but he lost track of his 1959 Les Paul in 1982. When he wanted to get the guitar back it was in the possession of Slash (which he later used in the music video for November Rain). Perry asked if he could buy back the guitar but Slash refused. Perry continued to ask about the guitar from time to time, and eventually received the guitar back from Slash as a 50th birthday present in 2000.\n\nPeter Frampton\n\nA replica of the three-pickup \"Black Beauty\" Les Paul Custom used by Peter Frampton as his main guitar from his days in Humble Pie through his early solo career was introduced through the Gibson Custom Shop in 2012. Frampton's original guitar was a 1954 Les Paul modified extensively. His guitar was presumed lost in a South American plane crash in 1980, but was returned to Frampton in 2011.\n\nMike Bloomfield\nGibson used hundreds of photographs of the late blues guitarist's instrument to produce the limited-edition Bloomfield signature. The company produced one hundred Bloomfield models with custom-aged finishes and two hundred more with the company's VOS finishing in 2009. They reproduced the tailpiece crack on the aged version, plus the mismatched volume and tone control knobs and the \"Les Paul\"-engraved truss rod cover on both versions, while including a toggle switch cover. The headstock was characterized by the kidney-shaped Grover tuning keys installed on the guitar before Bloomfield traded for it.\n\nPete Townshend\n\nIn 2005, Gibson issued three Pete Townshend signature edition Les Paul Deluxe guitars, based on Townshend's heavily customised \"#1\" Wine Red 1976 Les Paul Deluxe, \"#3\" Gold top 1976, and \"#9\" Cherry Sunburst 1976. These guitars were modified by Alan Rogan and used extensively on stage and in the studio with The Who. In addition to the two mini-humbuckers the guitar carried, Rogan modified Townshend's originals with a DiMarzio humbucker in the middle. Toggle switches located behind the guitar's tailpiece turned the pickup on and off and added volume boost. The control knobs were wired for volume, one for each pickup and a master tone. The reissues differed from Townshend's originals in that the reissues had an inlay at the first fret while the originals did not.\n\nAce Frehley\nThe Ace Frehley signature model (released in 1997 and re-released in 2012) has three double-white DiMarzio pickups, a cherry sunburst finish (AAAA), a color image of Frehley's face in his Kiss make-up on the headstock, mother-of-pearl lightning bolt inlays, and Frehley's simulated signature on the 12th fret. A Custom Shop run of only 300 guitars were built with DiMarzio PAF, Super Distortion, and Dual Sound pickups. The production run model was only built with DiMarzio Super Distortion pickups. This was one of Gibson's best selling artist runs. The more recent 2012 \"Budokan\" model, intended to pay tribute to the guitar used during the Kiss' first trip to Japan in 1977, features mother-of-pearl block inlays (no signature at the 12th fret), Grover machine heads with pearloid banjo buttons, and a grade A maple top.\n\nBilly Gibbons\nBilly Gibbons of ZZ Top has a signature model, featuring his signature Seymour Duncan pickup set, based on his \"Pearly Gates\" 1959 Les Paul Standard.\n\nEric Clapton\n\nClapton played a 1960 Standard as a member of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers as well as in the early days of Cream. The guitar was said to have been stolen while Clapton was preparing for the first Cream tour in 1966, following the recording of Fresh Cream, and was long considered an iconic instrument by Clapton's fans. Gibson announced production of the Clapton 1960 Standard, also nicknamed the \"Beano Burst\", in 2010. Gibson says the instrument \"accurately represents what Eric Clapton personally feels his 1960 Les Paul should be\", with Clapton consulting on the design of the guitar. Production is limited but all feature period-correct hardware, two Gibson reproduction PAF humbucking pickups, and subtly figured \"antiquity burst\" maple tops.\n\nMark Knopfler\nMark Knopfler has a signature model of his 1958 Les Paul Standard.\n\nPaul Kossoff\n\nPaul Kossoff, of Free and Back Street Crawler, favored a 1959 Les Paul Standard. In 2011–12, Gibson's Custom Shop made a reproduction of Kossoff's Standard, featuring a so-called \"green-lemon\" flametop, two-piece carved maple top, mahogany body and neck, Custom Bucker humbucking pickups and kidney-bean shaped Grover tuners similar to those Kossoff had installed on the instrument. One hundred Kossoff models were made to resemble the guitar at the time of Kossoff's death in 1976, with another 250 in a VOS finish.\n\nMarc Bolan\nMarc Bolan of T.Rex played a late-50s Les Paul, potentially a stripped Goldtop, later refitted with a Les Paul Custom neck. Gibson recreated this unique guitar in 2011, producing 450 examples including 100 hand-aged, numbered versions and 350 utilising the vintage original spec process. The guitars are notable for the custom-made PAF-reproduction uncovered humbucker pickups. The guitars feature a custom finish, referred to by Gibson as \"Bolan chablis\".\n\nAdam Jones\nAdam Jones of Tool has played a 1979 Silverburst Les Paul since the bands inception. The guitars themselves were created for a short amount of time. Jones said in an interview in 1995 that he once owned 5 at a time. In June of 2020, Adam Jones announced via his Instagram that a signature model made by Gibson based on his guitar was in production. Two different models were made: a custom version that was sold for a limited time and a standard version which is more readily available. Jones later teased an Epiphone signature in 2021 of the same guitar, which was first released in December 2022 as one of seven collectible versions featuring visual art at the back.\n\nLes Paul players\n\nLes Paul copies and lawsuits\nAlthough early Les Paul imitations in the 1960s and 1970s, such as those made by Höfner, Hagström, Harmony Company, and Greco differed from Gibson's designs, with different electronics and even bolt-on necks, in the late 1970s some Japanese companies came very close to perfecting copies of the original 1958–1960 Standards.\n\nA lawsuit was brought by the Norlin Corporation (the parent company of Gibson) in 1977, against Elger/Hoshino U.S.A. (manufacturer and distributor, respectively, of Ibanez) over use a headstock shape and logo, both considered similar to the Gibson designs. However, the suit was based on an Ibanez headstock design that had been discontinued by 1976. The case was officially closed on February 2, 1978. Those mid-1970s guitars later became known as \"lawsuit era\" guitars.\n\nESP Guitars makes several guitars based on the Les Paul design. The Edwards and Navigator lines are made in Japan in the vein of the late 1970s and 1980s guitars from Tokai, Burny, and Greco, complete with Gibson style headstocks.\n\nHeritage Guitars, founded in 1985 by four long-time Gibson employees when Gibson relocated to Nashville, continues to build guitars at the original factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Many of their models are inspired by Gibson's late-1950s/early-1960s sunbursts and Customs. \n\nIn 2006, Gibson lost a lawsuit against PRS Guitars, Gibson claiming PRS was infringing on the Les Paul shape and design. The court's decision allowed PRS to reintroduce single cutaway versions of its instruments.\n\nIn 2008, Gibson lost the trademark for the Les Paul in Finland. According to the court, \"Les Paul\" has become a common noun for guitars of a certain type. The lawsuit began when Gibson sued Musamaailma, which produces Tokai guitars, for trademark violation. However, several witnesses testified that the term \"Les Paul\" denotes character in a guitar rather than a particular guitar model. The court also found it aggravating that Gibson had used Les Paul in the plural form and that the importer of Gibson guitars had used Les Paul as a common noun. The court decision will become effective, as Gibson is not going to appeal.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nFurther reading\n Electric Guitar Man: The Genius of Les Paul (Library Binding). Edwin Brit Wyckoff. Enslow Elementary (April 2008). \n Million Dollar Les Paul: In Search of the Most Valuable Guitar in the World (Paperback). Tony Bacon. Jawbone Press 1st edition (2008). \n – Gibson Dark Fire\n\nExternal links\n\n \n All About Gibson Les Paul on RMusic\n Goldtop Traditional Les Paul Repair log on London Guitar Academy\n\n*\nCategory:The Beatles' musical instruments",
"title": "Gibson Les Paul"
},
{
"text": "The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG Standard is Gibson's best-selling model of all time. SG stands for \"solid guitar\".\n\nOrigins\nThe SG design was given a thinner, more contoured body with a double cutaway. Not only did this make the upper frets more accessible, it was further eased by moving the neck joint outwards by three frets. The simpler body construction significantly reduced production costs, and the SG, with its slender neck profile and small heel where it joined the body, was advertised as having the \"fastest neck in the world\".\n\nAlthough the new guitar was popular, Paul strongly disliked it. Problems with the strength of the body and neck made Paul dissatisfied with the new guitar. At the same time, Paul was going through a public divorce from wife and vocalist partner Mary Ford, and his popularity was dwindling as music tastes had changed in the early 1960s. Paul asked lifelong friend and former President of Gibson Ted McCarty to withhold his $1 royalty per guitar, and Gibson mutually agreed to end the contract. Gibson also honored Les Paul's request to remove his name from the guitar.\n\nIn the early-to-mid 1960s Gibson's parent corporation, Chicago Musical Instruments, revived the Kalamazoo brand name for a short time. Later models of the KG-1 and KG-2 featured a body style similar to the Gibson SG, effectively creating a budget-line model until the brand was dropped in the late 1960s. Gibson currently makes lower-cost, internationally sourced versions of the SG at their subsidiary Epiphone.\n\nBecause of its ease of play, comfort to hold, popularity, and vintage heritage, the body style of the SG is often copied by other manufacturers, although much less frequently than the Les Paul and the Fender Stratocaster.\n\nDesign\nThe SG generally has a solid mahogany body, with a black pickguard. The 24.75\" scale mahogany neck joins the body at the 19th or 22nd fret. Early models had a smaller neck joint with a longer tenon. This neck design provided access above the 16th fret. Epiphone-made bolt-on neck models still use a 16th fret neck joint. The SG's set neck is shallower than the Gibson Les Paul's. The SG features the traditional Gibson combination of two or three humbucker pickups or P90 pickups and a Tune-o-matic bridge assembly, wraparound bridge, or vibrato tailpiece, depending on the model.\n\nThe SG Standard features pearloid trapezoid fretboard inlays, as well as fretboard binding and inlaid pearl \"Gibson\" logo and crown; the mid-level SG Special features pearloid dot inlays and an inlaid pearl \"Gibson\" logo, without a crown. The Standard has a volume and a tone control for each individual pickup, and a three-way switch that allows the player to select either the bridge pickup, the neck pickup, or both together. The SG does not include switching to coil split the humbuckers in stock form.\n\nSome models use body woods other than mahogany; examples include the swamp ash SG Special, the SG Zoot Suit, made using multiple birch wood laminate, and the SG Voodoo, the 2009 Raw Power, and some walnut bodied 1970s models. High-end models, including the Diablo, occasionally sport decorative maple caps, carved tops, and gold hardware.\n\nModels and variations\n\nAt the launch of the SG in 1961, Gibson offered four \nvariants of the SG; the SG Junior (a stripped-down version of the standard, analogous to the Les Paul Junior), the SG Special, the SG Standard, and the top-of-the-line SG Custom.\n\nAs of 2010 Gibson's current core variants were the SG Standard and the SG Special. Over the years, Gibson has offered many variations of the SG, and continues to manufacture special editions, including models such as the Special and Faded Special, Supreme, Artist Signature SGs, Menace, and Gothic, as well as the premium-priced VOS reissues of the sixties SG Standard and Custom.\n\nModels produced between 1961 and early 1966 have the original small pickguard; in late 1966 the guitar was redesigned slightly, first with a longer, more robust neck joint, and then came the modern larger semi-symmetrical \"batwing\" pickguard. This design continued until late 1971 or early 1972, when variations of the SG were sold with a raised Les Paul style pickguard and a front-mounted control plate. The low-end SG-100 and the P-90 equipped SG-200 appeared during this time, as well as the luxurious SG Pro and SG Deluxe guitars. Vibrato (tremolo arm) tailpieces were also introduced as options.\n\nIn 1972 the design went back to the original style pickguard and rear-mounted controls but with the neck then set further into the body, joining roughly at the 20th fret. By the end of the seventies, the SG models returned to the original sixties styling, and modern (1991–present) standard and special models have mostly returned to the 1967–1969 styling and construction, with a few exceptions; various reissues and other models of the SG still retain the original 1961–1967 styling.\n\nIn 1979, a low-cost SG made of walnut wood was introduced called \"The SG.\" It had a clear finish and an ebony fingerboard and was accompanied by low-cost \"Les Paul\" and \"ES 335\" type guitars. \"The Paul\" was also made from walnut, but \"The ES\" was made out of solid mahogany (rather than the semi-solid body they usually produced). All three guitars were discontinued after about a year, replaced by the \"firebrand\" series, again made of mahogany. Also in 1979 a limited edition model, the SG Exclusive was produced. Visually similar to the SG Standard of the time, the special features included an ebony fretboard, two Dirty Fingers humbucker pickups, and a master volume, two tone controls, and rotary coil tap that gradually eliminated one coil from each humbucker. The finish was black with cream color plastics and the truss rod cover read \"Exclusive\".\n\nIn 1980, the first SG manufactured with \"active\" factory pickups was introduced. Gibson experimented with an SG that included the same Moog active electronics that had previously been used in another Gibson model, the RD Artist. The resulting SG had a slightly thicker body to accommodate the extra circuitry, and was dubbed the \"Gibson SG-R1\". The SG-R1 was renamed the \"SG Artist\" in 1981, and was discontinued shortly afterwards. Approximately 200 active SGs were produced.\n\nIn 2008, Gibson introduced the Robot SG, which feature a motorized tuning system developed by Tronical. Limited-edition variants include the SG Robot Special and the limited-edition Robot SG LTD. The Robot system was designed to be convenient for players who need to frequently change tunings, without requiring them to manually tune or carry several guitars; however, they also carry a significant price premium.\n\nAround 2000 through 2009, Gibson introduced the SG Classic, which harked back to a Junior/Special type design, with bound mahogany fret board with dot inlays and two P-90 pickups, with a thin '60s neck profile.\n\nIn 2009, Gibson introduced the Raw Power line of SGs, which have an all-maple body, unbound maple neck and fretboard, and unique colors not previously seen in SGs. These models are priced between the entry-level Specials and the more expensive Standards. The year 2009 also brought the Guitar Center-exclusive SG Standard with Coil Taps available in both 50s and 60s style necks.\n\nIn 2013 Gibson released the new Gibson SG Baritone. This SG comes in Alpine white and has 24 frets. It comes tuned down two and a half steps to B-E-A-D-F#-B. It is made with a full mahogany body, Richlite fretboard 496R (Ceramic) Bridge Position\t500T (Ceramic) pickups and a tune-o-matic bridge.\n\nGibson's EB-3, EB-0, EDS-1275, and later model of Melody Maker and Kalamazoo also shared or once shared SG-shaped bodies, but these are not the members of the SG family.\n\nEpiphone also offers a range of value-priced models, including a model with 1960s styling, sold as the G-400. These models often feature simpler construction than their Gibson counterparts, although they also often implement a number of features missing from production Gibson models; examples include the period-correct 1961 SG Special's wraparound bridge (unavailable on any Gibson SG Special production model as of 2013), the 22\" scale SG Express, the metal-oriented Prophecy line (equipped with high-output humbuckers and unique inlays), and a replica of the Gibson EDS-1275, popularized by Jimmy Page.\n\nUnique SGs\n\nSister Rosetta Tharpe played a white Gibson Les Paul SG with three humbucking pickups, customized with an old-style maestro vibrato. \nAngus Young of AC/DC occasionally uses a custom-made SG with lightning-bolt inlays, based on a custom model originally produced by luthier John Diggins. Since then, Young has collaborated with Gibson to make the Angus Young SG which features a custom-designed Humbucker in the bridge position, a '57 Classic in the neck position and the lightning-bolt inlays.\nRobby Krieger of The Doors used a Gibson SG Standard starting in 1965. Gibson produced a limited run of 150 SG's which incorporate many of Krieger's favorite components of various SG's.\nBernard Sumner of Joy Division and New Order used a Gibson SG Standard in 1976 (particularly used on album Closer in 1980)\nGillian Gilbert of New Order used a Gibson SG Standard in 1980 (on album \"Movement\")\n Eric Clapton used a 1964 Gibson SG Standard starting in 1967 while in Cream. This guitar was known as the \"Fool\" guitar, as it was painted by the Dutch artists known collectively as The Fool. In spring 1968, the SG was loaned to Jackie Lomax, an associate of George Harrison. The \"Fool\" was later sold to Todd Rundgren for $500 before eventually being sold to a private collector for about $500,000.\n Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath owns several custom-made black left-handed Gibson SGs with white cross-shaped fretboard inlays. Epiphone produces a similar guitar as the Tony Iommi G-400. Iommi's original SG (used on the early Sabbath albums) was a modified cherry red, left-handed 1964 SG Special with P-90 pickups which he nicknamed \"Monkey\" as he added a sticker of a monkey playing a fiddle to the guitar. He originally had a right-handed version restrung to fit his left handedness. He then met someone in the same situation as him but he was right handed with a left-handed guitar. Then then traded and created heavy metal as we know it today.\n John Cipollina of Quicksilver Messenger Service used a custom Gibson SG with custom pickguards in the shape of bat-like figures, as well as the fret board being customized with unique patterns.\n Music Machine made a limited run of 20 Stinger SG's in 2003. Ten were standards and ten were customs.\n Mike Ness of Social Distortion played a black SG in the late 70s and early 80s, with the Social Distortion logo on it, as well as a white Joan Jett and the Blackhearts bumper sticker. It can be seen on the cover of the compilation album Mainliner: Wreckage From the Past.\n Mike Oldfield used a modified 1963 SG with a guitar synthesizer pickup to control a Roland GR300 Module for some of his guitar sounds on his 1980s albums such as 1983's Crises (including \"Shadow on the Wall\"), 1984's Discovery (including the title track) and 1987's Islands (including \"The Wind Chimes\") as well as single-only tracks from this period such as 1984's \"In The Pool\" and 1986's \"Shine\".\nTommy Bolin when in Zephyr used a 1963 SG.\n In 1992, the Gibson Custom Shop introduced a \"premium plus\" reissue of the '67 SG. There was an estimated run of 100 of these instruments. It included three '57 humbuckers, ABR-1 bridge, ebony fingerboard, slim tapered neck and a mother-of-pearl block. There were no certificates issued from Gibson on this particular run.\n In 1998 Gibson introduced a rarer, higher-specification version of the SG Special—The SG Special Limited Edition. It came with an ebony fingerboard, factory gold hardware, and two gold array Humbuckers, and included a Gibson gigbag.\n The 2015 Eden of Coronet guitar which earned the title of most valuable guitar in the world.\n\nNotable SG users\n\nAlso: Robbie Krieger of The Doors preferred the SG. And Mick Taylor played a red SG for his first live concert with The Rolling Stones, in Hyde Park for Brian Jones's memorial, 1969.\n\nSee also \n Gibson Les Paul\n Gibson Les Paul Special—the first model named \"Gibson SG Special\" (1959–1961).\n Gibson SG Special\n Gibson SG Junior\n Gibson EB-0\n Gibson EB-3\n Gibson EDS-1275\n Epiphone G-400\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Details on SGs used by Pete Townshend\n BBC News item regarding George Harrison's Gibson SG\n\nCategory:1961 musical instruments\nSG\nCategory:The Beatles' musical instruments",
"title": "Gibson SG"
},
{
"text": "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, established in 1983 and located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, is dedicated to recording the history of some of the best-known and most influential musicians, bands, producers, and others that have in some major way influenced the music industry, particularly in the area of rock and roll. Originally, there were four categories of induction: performers, non-performers, early influences, and lifetime achievement. In 2000, \"sidemen\" was introduced as a category.\n\nThe only category that has seen new inductees every single year is the performers category. Artists become eligible for induction in that category 25 years after the release of their first record. In order to be inducted, an artist must be nominated by a committee that selects a number of candidates, the highest being 16 for the 2020 class. Ballots are then sent to more than 1,000 \"rock experts\" who evaluate the candidates and vote on who should be inducted. The performers that receive the highest number of votes are inducted. This number varies; for example, seven were inducted in 2019. Starting in 2012, fans could vote on a fan ballot with an equal weight to the other ballots. , new inductees are honored at an annual ceremony held alternately in New York and at the Hall of Fame in Cleveland; prior to that, the ceremonies rotated between Cleveland, New York, and Los Angeles. , there are 365 inductees.\n\nInductees\n\nPerformers \nThe performers category is meant for recording artists and bands that have \"influence and significance to the development and perpetuation of rock and roll\".\n\nNote 1. These backing bands were inducted by a separate committee, and not by the ballot voting used for all other performer inductees.\n\nNote 2. This artist was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame after inducting someone else.\n\nNote 3. This artist was already a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when they inducted someone else.\n\nNote 4. Dire Straits were the first artist in the hall's history to not have an official induction speaker. Band member John Illsley did the induction speech himself.\n\nNote 5. John Gustafson was originally included among the list of inducted members for Roxy Music; however, his name was dropped in the final list.\n\nNote 6. In 2012, six additional bands and groups were inducted as performers by a special committee, due to the controversial nature of their band being excluded when their lead singer was inducted. \"There was a lot of discussion about this,\" said Terry Stewart, a member of the nominating committee. \"There had always been conversations about why the groups weren't included when the lead singers were inducted. Very honestly, nobody could really answer that question – it was so long ago... We decided we'd sit down as an organization and look at that. This is the result.\"\n\nNote 7. Although Pat Benatar is a solo artist, her husband, guitarist and primary musical partner Neil Giraldo was also included as part of her induction.\n\nEarly/musical influences \nArtists inducted into the early influences category were originally for (until 2021 with the inductions of Gil Scott-Heron and Kraftwerk) those \"whose music predated rock and roll but had an impact on the evolution of rock and roll and inspired rock's leading artists\". Unlike the performers category, these inductees are selected by a committee. In 2023, the award was renamed from \"Early influence\" to \"Musical influence\"\n\nA. Previously nominated as a performer.\n\nNon-performers (Ahmet Ertegun Award) \nThe non-performer category honors \"songwriters, producers, disc jockeys, record executives, journalists and other industry professionals who have had a major influence on the development of rock and roll\". Several of the inductees in this category were in fact prominent performers as well. The inductees in this category are selected by the same committee that chooses the early influences. This category has been criticized for inducting those that have \"been coming to the dinner for years and paying for their tickets\" and for not revealing the Hall's full criteria. In 2008, this category was renamed the \"Ahmet Ertegun Award\".\n\nAward for Musical Excellence \nEstablished in 2000 as \"Sidemen\", the category \"honors those musicians, producers and others who have spent their careers out of the spotlight working with major artists on various parts of their recording and live careers\". A separate committee, composed mainly of producers, chooses the inductees. In 2010, the category was renamed to the \"Award for Musical Excellence\". According to Joel Peresman, the president of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, \"This award gives us flexibility to dive into some things and recognize some people who might not ordinarily get recognized.\"\n\nA. Previously nominated in the performers category.\nB. Inducted members: Garry Tallent, Roy Bittan, Max Weinberg, Steven Van Zandt, Nils Lofgren, Patti Scialfa, Clarence Clemons, Danny Federici, Vini Lopez, David Sancious.\nC. Inducted members: Les Binks, K. K. Downing, Rob Halford, Ian Hill, Dave Holland, Glenn Tipton, Scott Travis.\n\nSingles \nAt the 2018 ceremony, a new induction category for singles was announced by Steven Van Zandt. According to Van Zandt, the category is \"a recognition of the excellence of the singles that shaped rock 'n' roll, kind of a rock 'n' roll jukebox, records by artists not in the Rock Hall – which is not to say these artists will never be in the Rock Hall. They just are not in the Rock Hall at the moment.\" However, The Isley Brothers, whose song \"Twist and Shout\" was inducted in 2019, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as performers in 1992. In 2023, Link Wray, whose song \"Rumble\" was inducted in 2018, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a Musical Influence inductee.\n\nMultiple inductees \nAs of 2021, twenty-six performers have been inducted twice or more; fifteen have been recognized as a solo artist and with a band, and eight have been inducted with two separate bands. Eric Clapton is the only one to be inducted three times: as a solo artist, with Cream, and with The Yardbirds. Clyde McPhatter was the first to ever be inducted twice and is one of three artists to be inducted first as a solo artist and then as a member of a band, the other artists being Neil Young and Rod Stewart. Stephen Stills is the only artist to be inducted twice in the same year.\n\nCrosby, Stills & Nash and The Beatles are the only two bands whose members were also each inducted separately, with other acts or as solo artists. In addition to their 1997 induction with CSN, David Crosby was inducted with The Byrds in 1991, Stephen Stills with Buffalo Springfield in 1997, and Graham Nash with The Hollies in 2010. Beatles members John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison were inducted as solo artists in the main performer category, while Ringo Starr was inducted in the Award for Musical Excellence category.\n\nThere are several performers who were inducted with one (or more) of the bands they played for, but were not inducted as members of one (or more) other bands. For example, Neil Young was inducted with Buffalo Springfield and as a solo artist, but was left out when Crosby, Stills & Nash were inducted.\n\nIn 2019, Stevie Nicks became the first woman to be inducted twice, after having been inducted with Fleetwood Mac in 1998. She was later joined by Carole King and Tina Turner. In 2021, Carole King was the first person to be inducted as both a performer and a non-performer. \n\nJohn Lennon and Dave Grohl are the only two multiple inductees who were inducted in their first year of eligibility on both inductions.\n\nPreviously nominated artists \nThe following artists have been nominated at least once for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but have yet to be selected as an inductee.\n\nD. Band member Nile Rodgers was inducted as an Award for Music Excellence recipient in 2017.\nE. Band members Clyde McPhatter and Jackie Wilson were both inducted as solo artists in 1987, and McPhatter was inducted a second time as a member of the Drifters in 1988.\nF. In addition to this nomination for his solo career, Ben E. King was inducted as a member of The Drifters in 1988.\nG. Band member Chaka Khan was inducted in the Award for Musical Excellence category for her solo career in 2023.\nH. In addition to this nomination for his solo career, Sting was inducted as a member of The Police in 2003.\nI. Band member Eric Burdon was inducted as a member of The Animals in 1994.\nJ. In addition to this nomination for his solo career, Steve Winwood was inducted as a member of Traffic in 2004.\n\nInductees also in the Country Music Hall of Fame \nAs of 2023, there are 16 members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame also inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n \n\nCategory:Lists of musicians\nRock and Roll\nCategory:Music-related lists\nInductees",
"title": "List of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees"
},
{
"text": "Mary Ford (born Iris Colleen Summers; July 7, 1924 – September 30, 1977) was an American vocalist and guitarist, comprising half of the husband-and-wife musical team Les Paul and Mary Ford. Between 1950 and 1954, the couple had 16 top-ten hits, including \"How High the Moon\" and \"Vaya con Dios\", which were number one hits on the Billboard charts. In 1951 alone they sold six million records. With Paul, Ford became one of the early practitioners of multi-tracking.\n\nEarly life\nMary Ford was born Iris Colleen Summers in El Monte, California, the second daughter of Marshall McKinley Summers (born February 13, 1896, in Ridgway, Illinois; died August 5, 1981, in Los Angeles), a Nazarene minister, who later became a painting contractor, and his wife, Dorothy May White Summers. Mary Ford was the sister of Byron Fletcher Summers, Esther E. Williams, Carol Jean Corona, Bruce Summers, Eva Wootten, and Bob Summers. Ford came from a musical family. Her parents left Missouri, travelling cross-country while singing gospel music and preaching at revival meetings across the United States. They eventually settled in southern California, where they were heard over KPPC-AM, Pasadena's first Christian radio station. Her sisters and brothers were all musicians. Bruce was a jazz organist; Bob was a film composer.\n\nWhile still a junior high school student, Colleen Summers and Mildred L. \"Milly\" Watson (later Millie Pace) (born February 26, 1922, in Los Angeles; died August 2, 1976, in Orange County, California), a local girl, performed together in churches in Pasadena, California, and later made gospel recordings with Milly's older brother, Marvin, for which she wrote some songs. In 1939 Summers and Milly won a Pasadena talent contest judged by \"several Hollywood notables, including a very young Judy Garland\". Hoping to have a musical career, Summers and Milly Watson lost interest in school, played truant frequently and eventually quit school, only to find employment as a cinema attendant.\n\nEarly career\nBy 1943, Colleen Summers, with Vivian Earles and June Widener, the sister of western swing guitarist-vocalist Jimmie Widener, formed the Sunshine Girls, a western trio who sang backup to Jimmy Wakely and his trio. They were regulars on The Hollywood Barn Dance, a successful weekly CBS Radio program broadcast on Saturday nights, and hosted by Foy Willing and emceed by Cliffie Stone.\n\nIn 1944, the Sunshine Girls trio appeared with Wakely in the PRC film I'm from Arkansas, in which they sang \"You Are My Sunshine\" and \"Whistlin' (Walkin') Down the Lane With You\" with Wakely.\n\nIn 1945, when Eddie Dean introduced her to guitarist Les Paul, she was a popular western vocalist on KXLA's Dinner Bell Round-Up Time. The two began performing together in 1946. After Summers left the Sunshine Girls to work with Paul and his trio, she was replaced initially by Marilyn Myers Tuttle. After Tuttle left, Summers' older sister, Eva, sang with Earles and Widener as the Three Rays on the Jimmy Wakely Show on CBS.\n\nColleen Summers appeared on Gene Autry's Melody Ranch CBS radio program as a cast member and featured vocalist from July through early November 1946.\n\nIn 1946–48, Summers was a regular actor in the drama portion of The All-Star Western Theatre, a radio program hosted by Foy Willing and his Riders of the Purple Sage.\n\nBy 1947, Summers became romantically involved with Les Paul, whose first marriage to Virginia M. Webb was failing, as it could no longer endure the stresses and strains of his show-business career. In January 1948, while traveling on Route 66 through Oklahoma, the couple's car driven by Summers skidded off the road and plummeted 20 feet into a frozen creek bed. After the accident, Summers identified herself to authorities as Iris Watson. Among Paul's many injuries, his right elbow was shattered, and it would be eighteen months before he could play guitar again. After Paul's wife Virginia took their two sons to Chicago, Summers moved in with Paul in his house on Curson Avenue, where she took care of him as he recuperated from the effects of the car accident.\n\nBy the summer of 1949, Summers was performing under the stage name of Mary Ford. To avoid confusing her established western music audience, initially Paul named his musical partner \"Mary Lou\", but later selected the stage name \"Mary Ford\" from a telephone directory so her name would be almost as short as his.\n\nThat same year, Les Paul divorced his wife and wed Mary Ford on December 29 in a \"small private ceremony without much fanfare\" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The couple had three children: a baby born on November 26, 1954, who died four days later; Mary Colleen Paul, whom they fostered from 1958; and Robert Ralph \"Bobby\" Paul (born in 1959).\n\nCareer with Les Paul\n\nShortly after their wedding, Paul and Ford began making radio programs together for NBC, including Les Paul and Mary Ford at Home, a fifteen-minute program that was pre-recorded and broadcast every Friday night.\n\nFord and Paul were music superstars during the first half of the 1950s, putting out 28 hits for Capitol Records between 1950 and 1957, including \"Tiger Rag\", \"Vaya con Dios\" (11 weeks at No. 1), \"Mockin' Bird Hill\" (top 10), \"How High the Moon\" (nine weeks at No. 1), \"Bye Bye Blues,\" and \"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise\". These songs featured Ford harmonizing with herself, giving the vocals a novel sound. Paul and Ford did all their recording at home or on the road and submitted the masters to Capitol, with Paul dictating to the record company what songs were destined to become hits. Paul and Ford also used the now-ubiquitous recording technique known as close miking, where the microphone is less than six inches from the singer's mouth. This produces a more intimate, less reverberant sound than when the singer is a foot or more from the microphone (see proximity effect). It also emphasizes low-frequency sounds in the voice. The result was a singing style that diverged strongly from earlier styles, such as vocals in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.\n\nAfter extensive touring and recording, the couple decided to leave Hollywood and moved to New York City to make the crossover from radio to television. They took a cramped apartment in Paul's former New York neighborhood, where they conceived and recorded their arrangement of \"How High The Moon\", a hard-swinging multi-layered arrangement containing twelve overdubs using the guitar and Ford's voice. While Capitol was reluctant to release this song, after they had scored several more hits with Capitol, including, 'Tennessee Waltz\" and \"Mockin' Bird Hill\", \"How High The Moon\" was released in March 1951. Within a month, \"How High The Moon\" and \"Mockin' Bird Hill\" captured Your Hit Parade'''s number one and number two spots, respectively.\n\nDuring 1951, Ford and Paul earned $500,000, and had recorded more top ten hits for the year than Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters combined. They also tied Patti Page for top selling recording artist, having sold more than six million records since January 1951.\n\nPaul bought a Cadillac to use on their expanding road tours with plenty of space for all their electronic gear. They also purchased a woodland retreat in Mahwah, New Jersey, in the Ramapo Mountains, and their mansion included a recording studio and an echo chamber carved out of a neighboring mountain. In September 1952, after cutting \"I'm Sitting on Top of the World\", Ford and Paul sailed for London to appear at the Palladium Theatre, where they debuted before Queen Elizabeth II and the royal family. In 1952, their innovative sound was satirized by Stan Freberg in his recording of \"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise\" (Capitol, F 2279).\n\nIn 1953, the couple recorded \"Vaya con Dios\" (Capitol 2486), the biggest-selling song of their career. It was released in June 1953, entered the Billboard charts on June 13, 1953, reached number one on August 8, and remained there for a total of nine weeks. The song lasted thirty-one weeks on the chart, and also reached number one on the Cash Box chart.\n\nFollowing the success of \"Vaya con Dios\", in 1953 the couple hosted The Les Paul and Mary Ford Show, their own daily television program broadcast from their Mahwah home. The show, which was five minutes long and sponsored by Listerine, ran from 1953 to 1960 on NBC television and in syndication. In early 1955, the rise in popularity of rock and roll music eventually threatened the popularity of many performers, including Paul and Ford. In 1955, they gave a concert at Carnegie Hall, and in 1956, the couple performed at the Eisenhower White House.\n\nWith the growth of rock and roll, Ford and Paul faded from the charts in the late 1950s.\n\nIn 1956, Ford separated briefly from Paul when she ran away to Amarillo, Texas.\n\nIn July 1958, Paul and Ford left Capitol and signed with the Columbia label, but the move failed to restore their declining career, and Ford began increasingly suffering from alcoholism. In 1961, they appeared on NBC's Five Star Jubilee.\n\nLes and Mary divorced in December 1964.\n\nLater years\nIn November 1963, Ford released her first solo single, an English-language version of \"Dominique\", for Calendar Records.\n\nIn about 1965, Ford married Donald Hatfield, whom she had known since high school, and they settled in Monrovia, California. Foy Willing and his wife attended the wedding reception.\n\nFord and her sisters were used as vocalists on Foy Willing's album The New Sound of American Folk, which was recorded at their brother Bobby Summers' Sound House Recorders in El Monte, California, and released on the Jubilee label.\n\nBassist Red Wootten, who married Mary's sister Eva Summers, wrote his memories of playing at the Crescendo in Los Angeles with Mary, her sister Carol and her brother, Bob Summers:\nMy brother, Buddy Wootten, also a bassist, called me from Atlanta to tell me he had just finished working the Fox Theater with Les Paul and Mary Ford. Mary also told me this later. This was while I was holding forth with Woody Herman Orchestra. So, later when I had married her sister (Eva), we worked with her other sister and Bob Summers (her brother) on guitar (sounds like Les Paul too) and Mary's other sister Carol. The gig was the Crescendo club right in the middle of Sunset Strip. A very hip joint!\n\nMary used a drummer added to Bob, Mary and myself on electric bass. We did almost all the Les Paul-Mary Ford recordings but with more heavy end on the bass. Les having used guitar on his bass tracks with Mary earlier. On all their recordings (as good as they were), I always missed that deep dark sound ... Mary (bless her heart) recorded a few of my compositions (never released), but she did an excellent job as always. Mary divorced Les Paul and later married her old school friend from Monrovia, California, namely Don Hatfield, who owned a large construction company in California. He is still with us, and I see him occasionally. Doing great, but he misses Mary.\n\nBob Summers, my brother-in-law, has come into his own over the years too. Bob and I worked a lot on MGM records with the Mike Curb scene, early 1960s. He also was chief arranger for the Mike Curb Congregation, and they recorded some of my material, great too! Also Bob and I worked at Capitol Records for Ken Nelson and Cliffie Stone, passed recently. Too many country artists to even name nearly all of them: Hank Thompson, Wynn Stewart, Rose Maddox and others. Roy Lanham did one of his better albums at the Sound House, Merced, in El Monte (my old stamping grounds) and Mary Ford's home place, 9840 Kale Street. Bruce Summers (who is no longer with us), a piano man whom I played with a few times; a real swinger too.\n\nIn Downey, California, Mary's sister Esther Williams played the organ in The Village Restaurant. Esther's daughter, Esther Colleen \"Suzee\" Williams, recalled one amusing incident at the restaurant in the years after Mary Ford and Les Paul had split up:\nThere was one singer that came in to sing with my mom. His name was Lou Monica. Well, Mary asked him to learn the song \"Donkey Serenade.\" It's not an easy song to sing. However, Mr. Monica agreed, and after a couple of weeks he said he was ready. As he began to sing, the doors of the club opened wide, and in came Mary, dressed in black with a black gaucho hat, on top of a donkey! Mr. Monica never skipped a beat.\n\nAwards and honors\nFord and Paul were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1541 Vine Street in Hollywood. In 1978, they were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.\n\nDeath\nFord succumbed to complications of alcohol abuse in 1977. After eight weeks in a diabetic coma, she died in Arcadia, California, at the age of 53. She is buried at Forest Lawn-Covina Hills in Covina, California. Although her year of birth has been variously reported as either 1924, 1925, or 1928, the year 1924 is engraved on her tombstone, along with \"Vaya con Dios\" (\"Go with God\"), the name of one of her most popular songs.\n\nDocumentary film\nInterviews and performance footage of the couple are featured in the musical documentary Chasing Sound: Les Paul at 90, directed by John Paulson (Johnny Mathis Live, An Evening with Chita Rivera). Distributed by Koch Entertainment, the film premiered May 9, 2007 at the Downer Theater in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, followed by its television premiere, July 11, 2007, on PBS as part of its American Masters series.American Masters: Les Paul\n\nDiscography\n\nHit singles\n\"Vaya con Dios\"\n\"Tennessee Waltz\"\n\"Mockin' Bird Hill\"\n\"How High the Moon\"\n\"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise\"\n\"Whispering\"\n\"My Baby's Coming Home\"\n\"Lady of Spain\"\n\"Bye Bye Blues\"\n\"I'm Sitting on Top of the World\"\n\nAlbumsHawaiian ParadiseThe Hit Makers!The New SoundLes Paul's New Sound with Mary Ford, Vol. 2 – Capitol Records SM-286 (originally released 1951), A Capitol Monophonic Re-issue\nA01 in the Good Old Summer Time [2:06]\nA02 I'm Confessin' (That I Love You)[2:45]\nA03 Three Little Words [1:53]\nA04 The Lonesome Road [2:50]\nA05 Carioca [2:20]\nB01 I Can't Give You Anything But Love [1:54]\nB02 Just One More Chance [1:50]\nB03 Don'Cha Hear Them Bells [1:55]\nB04 The Moon of Manakoora [2:45]\nB05 Chicken Reel [2:05]Bye Bye Blues!Les and MaryTime to DreamLover's LuauWarm and WonderfulBouquet of RosesSwingin' SouthFabulous Les Paul & Mary Ford''\n\nReferences\n\nWatch\n\"Chasing Sound\" trailer (10 minutes)\n\nListen to\nInternet Archive: The Les Paul Show (11 episodes)\nSounds like Les Paul/Mary Ford, but it's actually Mary Ford's sisters (Carol, Eva) and brother (Bob)\n\nExternal links\n\nVisit with Les and Mary (Reeve Audio)\n\nCategory:1924 births\nCategory:1977 deaths\nCategory:American women country singers\nCategory:Challenge Records artists\nCategory:Deaths from diabetes\nCategory:People from Arcadia, California\nCategory:20th-century American singers\nCategory:20th-century American guitarists\nCategory:Guitarists from California\nCategory:20th-century American women singers\nCategory:Country musicians from California\nCategory:Alcohol-related deaths in California\nCategory:20th-century American women guitarists",
"title": "Mary Ford"
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"text": "Les Paul and Mary Ford were a popular 1950s husband-and-wife musical duo who performed and recorded during 1945–1963. They both sang and played guitars.\n\nFord and Paul were music superstars during the first half of the 1950s, putting out 28 hits for Capitol Records between 1950 and 1957, including \"Tiger Rag\", \"Vaya con Dios\" (11 weeks at No. 1), \"Mockin' Bird Hill\" (top 10), \"How High the Moon\" (nine weeks at No. 1), \"Bye Bye Blues\" and \"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise\".\n\nBackground\nThe couple were introduced to each other by Gene Autry in 1945 and were married on December 29, 1949. They first appeared in the pop charts in 1950. Between the years 1950 and 1954, Les Paul and Mary Ford had 16 top-ten hits. They had five top-ten hits within nine months. \"Tennessee Waltz\", \"Mockin' Bird Hill\", \"How High the Moon\" (#1 for nine weeks), \"The World Is Waiting for the Sunrise\" and \"Whispering\". From August 1952 to March 1953 they had five more top-ten hits; \"My Baby's Coming Home\", \"Lady of Spain\", \"Bye Bye Blues\", \"I'm Sitting on Top of the World\" and \"Vaya Con Dios\" (#1 for 11 weeks). Their 1954 version of \"I'm a Fool to Care\" went to No. 6, and was featured in a memorable Southern Comfort commercial in 2013 that got over 1 million views on YouTube.\n\nIn 2009, they were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.\n\nPaul and Ford are famous for creating a makeshift recording studio in their garage. In their garage studio, they used multitrack recording to record many of their hits including ‘Lover’, ‘Nola’, ‘Brazil’ and ‘Whispering' with only the two of them.\n\nPaul and Ford divorced acrimoniously in December 1964, which also ended the collaboration between the two.\n\nThe duo have a star at 1541 Vine Street in the Recording section of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.\n\nRadio and television programs\nPaul had hosted a 15-minute radio program, The Les Paul Show, on NBC in 1950, featuring his trio (himself, Ford, and rhythm player Eddie Stapleton) and his electronics, recorded from their home and with gentle humour between Paul and Ford bridging musical selections, some of which had already been successful on records, some of which anticipated the couple's recordings, and many of which presented dazzling re-interpretations of such jazz and pop selections as \"In the Mood,\" \"Little Rock Getaway,\" \"Brazil,\" and \"Tiger Rag.\" Several recordings of these shows survive among old-time radio collectors today.\n\nThe show also appeared on television a few years later with the same format, but excluding the trio and retitled The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (aka Les Paul & Mary Ford At Home) with \"Vaya Con Dios\" as a theme song. Sponsored by Warner–Lambert's Listerine, it was widely syndicated during 1954—55 and was only five minutes long (one or two songs) on film and therefore used as a brief interlude or fill-in on programming schedules. Since Les created the entire show himself, including audio and video, he maintained the original recordings and was in the process of restoring them to up-to-date quality at the time of his death.\n\nReferences\n\nSources\nJacobson, Bob. Les Paul: Guitar Wizard. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2012.\nLarkin, Colin, ed. Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 4th ed. Ed. \"Les Paul\". Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. February 22, 2015.\nShaughnessy, Mary Alice. Les Paul: An American Original. New York: W. Morrow, 1993.\nWyckoff, Edwin Brit. Electric Guitar Man: The Genius of Les Paul. Genius at work! Berkeley Heights, N.J.: Enslow Publishers, 2008.\n\nExternal links\n'''===Streaming===\nEpisodes of the Les Paul Show from Les Paul Show | Variety - Old Time Radio Downloads\n\nCategory:Married couples\nCategory:American musical duos\nCategory:Musical groups established in the 1950s\nCategory:Capitol Records artists\nCategory:Columbia Records artists",
"title": "Les Paul and Mary Ford"
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"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
"title": "Bibliography"
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"The Les Paul Show was his first radio show.",
"His next show was The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show (also known as Les Paul & Mary Ford at Home) on television.",
"On television, he hosted The Les Paul & Mary Ford Show where he used \"Vaya Con Dios\" as the theme song. The show was similar in format to his previous radio program, but without the trio. The show aired five times a day, five days a week for only five minutes long and was often used as a brief interlude or fill-in in programming schedules. During the show, he introduced a fictional device called the \"Les Paulverizer\" and later, he created a real version of this device that allowed him to access pre-recorded layers of songs during live performances to replicate his recorded sound on stage. Paul also maintained the original recordings of the show and was restoring them until his death.",
"The text does not provide information on the popularity of Paul's shows.",
"Some interesting aspects from the text include the creation of the \"Les Paulverizer\" device, both in a fictional sense during his television show for comedic effect and also as a real device to enhance his live performances. Additionally, the format of his television show was unique in that it was aired five times a day, five days a week, but only for five minutes at a time. The fact that Paul had been restoring the original recordings of his show until his death is also notable.",
"The text does not provide specific details on how Paul tried to restore the original recordings."
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C_82a2d2228b3743ecaaa4aea52dcdeecf_0 | Goo Goo Dolls | The Goo Goo Dolls (originally Sex Maggot) are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by vocalist and guitarist John Rzeznik, vocalist and bassist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska. Mike Malinin was the band's drummer from January 1995 until December 27, 2013 (but not made an official member until 1998). Although renowned for their commercially successful 1998 single "Iris", they have had several other notable and popular singles including "Name" and "Naked" from 1995's A Boy Named Goo, "Slide", "Black Balloon", "Dizzy", and "Broadway" from 1998's Dizzy Up the Girl, "Here Is Gone" from 2002's Gutterflower, "Better Days", "Give a Little Bit", and "Stay with You" from 2006's | Let Love In (2005-2007) | In 2006, the Goo Goo Dolls marked their 20th anniversary with their new album Let Love In, which included the studio recording of "Give a Little Bit" as well as other top 10 radio singles "Better Days", "Stay with You", and "Let Love In". With their third consecutive single ("Let Love In") from the album, the Goo Goo Dolls hit a record 12 top 10 hits in Adult Top 40 history, beating Matchbox Twenty and Sheryl Crow until Matchbox Twenty's release of Exile on Mainstream and the Goo Goo Dolls' release of "Before It's Too Late" from the Transformers Soundtrack, which left both groups with 13 top 10 hits in the Adult Top 40. Goo Goo Dolls planned to release another single from Let Love In, "Without You Here", as well as a song from the July 2007 Transformers movie called "Before It's Too Late", originally titled "Fiction". To promote the new single, the Goo Goo Dolls performed "Before It's Too Late" at both The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 8, 2007, and again at The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on June 22, 2007. In July 2007 the band discussed their career as a whole and gave a live performance on A&E's Private Sessions. Rzeznik stated that after the release of "Without You Here" and their summer tour with Lifehouse and Colbie Caillat, the band would return to the studio to begin work on their next album, their ninth overall. On June 27, 2007, the Goo Goo Dolls performed to a sold out crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. The performance premiered on HDNet in high-definition on Sunday, September 30. The entire concert was released as a DVD on the limited edition version of their 2008 release, Vol.2. The Goo Goo Dolls and the NHL Buffalo Sabres came together to create a video for the Sabres 2007 playoff run. The video was a compilation of shots from the Buffalo area and Sabres players played to the song "Better Days". It was played on jumbotron and at the HSBC Arena before every playoff game. Though not certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the album is said to have gone Gold by various music sites. The song "Better Days" was used in the trailer for the 2009 film Love Happens. It was also used in the pilot episode of the CBS TV show, Jericho and in a promo for WGRZ aired during Super Bowl XLVI. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Goo Goo Dolls are an American rock band formed in 1986 in Buffalo, New York, by guitarist/vocalist John Rzeznik, bassist/vocalist Robby Takac, and drummer George Tutuska.
After starting off as a cover band and then developing a punk sound, The Goo Goo Dolls experienced mainstream success following the 1995 release of their breakthrough single, "Name". The band is renowned for its biggest hit, "Iris", released in 1998. The song spent nearly 12 straight months on the Billboard charts and held the number one position on the Hot 100 Airplay chart for 18 weeks. In October 2012, "Iris" was ranked #1 on Billboards "Top 100 Pop Songs 1992–2012" chart. Other notable singles include "Slide", "Black Balloon", and "Broadway" from 1998's Dizzy Up the Girl; "Here Is Gone" from 2002's Gutterflower; and "Better Days", "Give a Little Bit", and "Stay with You" from 2006's Let Love In.
The band has had 19 top-ten singles on various charts, has sold 15 million records worldwide, and has been nominated for four Grammy Awards.
Origins and early music (1986–1993)
The band's original lineup included John Rzeznik (guitar, vocals), Robby Takac (bass, vocals), and George Tutuska (drums, percussion). Takac and Tutuska had been long-time friends in school and met Rzeznik while he was playing in the band The Beaumonts with Takac's cousin, Paul Takac, and close friend Michael Harvey who was the inspiration for the band. In 1999 Rolling Stone reported the trio picked their name from a True Detective ad for a toy called a Goo Goo Doll. In 2022 Rzeznik said he didn't remember how they picked the name. "We had a gig and so we had to come up with some kind of a name just to play the show," Rzeznik said. "It's kind of a stupid name."
The band started out playing covers, but went on to develop a punk sound. With Takac as their lead singer, the band released their first album, Goo Goo Dolls, in 1987 on Mercenary Records, but was picked up in 1988 by Celluloid Records, a larger record company. They played around Buffalo's underground music circuit and across the country opening for punk bands such as Gang Green, SNFU, Dag Nasty, Bad Religion, Motörhead, ALL, The Dead Milkmen, Doughboys, Big Drill Car, The Gun Club, Uniform Choice, The Dickies, and DRI and playing with fellow Buffalo bands. The band released its second album, Jed, in 1989.
The band released its third album, Hold Me Up, in 1990 and featured Rzeznik as the lead vocalist on five tracks, including the single "There You Are"—as well as their then-concert favorite, "Two Days in February". After being embraced by local college radio and punk scenes (including such venues as CBGB), the Goo Goo Dolls incorporated elements of heavy metal, pop rock, and punk rock into the album. In 1991, the song "I'm Awake Now" was recorded for the soundtrack of Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
Superstar Car Wash, released in 1993, received significant media attention. The critical success and encouraging sales of their last album resulted in a larger budget from Metal Blade Records. The album was partially recorded at Metalworks Studios in Mississauga, Ontario. The single "We Are the Normal" received a major push toward play on college and independent radio, and its video was displayed on MTV's 120 Minutes program. "Fallin' Down" made it onto the 1993 soundtrack of Pauly Shore's hit film Son in Law.
Mainstream success (1993–2010)
A Boy Named Goo, legal issues, and Tutuska's departure (1993–1997)
Just before A Boy Named Goo'''s release, Tutuska was fired from the band and replaced by Mike Malinin. Prior to Tutuska's departure, there was a payment dispute between him and Rzeznik over Tutuska's contribution to the writing of the Superstar Car Wash single "Fallin' Down". During the completion of A Boy Named Goo, Tutuska had told band management that he would not tour behind the album unless royalties were to be split evenly among the three members, a practice Tutuska said had been the band's standard practice ever since the release of its self-titled debut in 1987. Tutuska has said that when he told Rzeznik he had not received royalties from "Fallin' Down", Rzeznik admitted that he had been receiving such royalties for two years.A Boy Named Goo, released in 1995, had a catchy rock sound, and became one of the most successful alternative rock albums of the mid-1990s. A Boy Named Goo became the first album in Metal Blade history to achieve double-platinum status. This success, however, proved bittersweet, as the band found themselves in a legal battle with Metal Blade records. The band filed suit against Metal Blade, claiming they had not earned any royalties from their album's sales, which was attributed to a "grossly unfair, one-sided and unenforceable contract" which had been signed by the band in 1987. The two sides reached a settlement which had the band signed to the Metal Blade's distributing label, Warner Bros. Records, under which the band released their sixth album, Dizzy Up the Girl, in 1998.
The Goo Goo Dolls experienced mainstream success following the 1995 release of their breakthrough single, "Name". The success of "Name" marked a fundamental change in the band's sound from alternative rock to a more mainstream, adult-oriented direction; this disappointed many of the original fans of the band. "Name" made the band popular, and led to guest appearances on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Charmed.
Dizzy Up the Girl and Gutterflower (1997–2005)
Rzeznik was approached to write a song for the City of Angels soundtrack, and the end product was "Iris". This song continued the band's fame, as it stayed on top of Billboard Hot 100 Airplay charts for a record-breaking 18 weeks and spent 4 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Songs chart. Iris held the record for the most weeks on the radio for almost 22 years before The Weeknd released "Blinding Lights" and broke the long-standing record on August 22, 2020. Shortly after Iris was released in 1998, it was nominated for three Grammys. According to several interviews with Rzeznik, he was experiencing serious bouts of writer's block when he was approached, and was on the verge of quitting the band days before he wrote the song.
"Iris" was included on the quadruple-platinum Dizzy Up the Girl, considered their most successful album, and was among top-ten hits "Slide", "Black Balloon", "Broadway", and "Dizzy" from the same album. In 2001, the Goos released their first ever compilation CD, What I Learned About Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce. Next, Gutterflower (2002) achieved gold certification, producing the hits "Here Is Gone", "Sympathy", and "Big Machine". On July 4, 2004, the band performed a free concert in Buffalo, playing through a deluge of rain that can be seen on the DVD released later that year. The DVD also contained a studio version of the Goo Goo Dolls' cover of "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp. The single reached the top of the Adult Top 40 chart in 2005. July 4, 2004 has been proclaimed "Goo Goo Dolls Day" in their native Buffalo, New York.
Let Love In (2005–2007)
In 2006, the Goo Goo Dolls marked their 20th anniversary with their new album Let Love In, which included the studio recording of "Give a Little Bit" as well as other top 10 radio singles "Better Days", "Stay with You", and "Let Love In". With their third consecutive single ("Let Love In") from the album, the Goo Goo Dolls hit a record 12 top 10 hits in Adult Top 40 history; upon the release of "Before It's Too Late", that total increased to 13. Goo Goo Dolls performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on June 8, 2007, and at The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on June 22, 2007.
On June 27, 2007, the Goo Goo Dolls performed to a sold-out crowd at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado. The entire concert was released as a DVD on the limited edition version of their 2008 release, Vol.2. Though the album has not (as of 2007) been certified by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), various music sites have asserted that it has gone gold.
Greatest hits albums (2007–2008)
On November 13, 2007, the Goo Goo Dolls released a greatest hits album entitled Greatest Hits Volume One: The Singles, which includes a new version of "Name" recorded and mixed by Paul David Hager, and a remix of "Feel the Silence" by Michael Brauer.
The band performed "Better Days" and "Stay With You" at the halftime of the Detroit Lions' 2007 Thanksgiving Day game at Ford Field, which focused on the United Way and the NFL's commitment to youth health and fitness.
Something for the Rest of Us (2008–2010)
The Goo Goo Dolls announced recording sessions for a new album, on their official website, unrelated to their Volume Two in 2008. In addition, the band performed as part of the O2 Wireless Festival in London's Hyde Park in the summer of 2008.
Something for the Rest of Us was released on August 31, 2010. While the album was full of the pop-rock that has sustained the band for decades, lead singer/guitarist Rzeznik's songwriting took on a more somber, serious tone. Something for the Rest of Us included the single "Home", which extended the band's record to 14 top ten hits at the Hot AC radio format (more than any other artist in the history of that format).
The band performed a live mini-concert at the Apple Store in Manhattan, New York on December 2, 2010.
Later career (2010–present)
Magnetic and Malinin's departure (2010–2015)
The album Magnetic was released on June 11, 2013 and debuted at #8 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. On July 19, 2013, the band released the second single off of Magnetic, "Come to Me".
In December 2013, Malinin announced his departure from the band. In November 2014, Malinin sued the band for wrongful termination, claiming that he was fired after requesting paternity leave.
The Goo Goo Dolls contributed to the soundtrack of the broadway musical Finding Neverland in 2015. The soundtrack, released June 9, 2015, contained the song "If the World Turned Upside Down."
Boxes, 20th anniversary of A Boy Named Goo and touring (2015–2017)
The band spent the majority of 2015 in the studio writing and recording their eleventh studio album, Boxes, at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington. The album was released on May 6, 2016.
The Goo Goo Dolls celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of A Boy Named Goo by releasing a special edition of the album on November 27, 2015.
Goo Goo Dolls released an exclusive vinyl box set for Record Store Day on April 22, 2017 entitled Pick Pockets, Petty Thieves, and Tiny Victories (1987–1995).
You Should Be Happy, Miracle Pill, and Christmas album (2017–2021)
On May 12, 2017, Goo Goo Dolls released a five-song EP entitled You Should Be Happy. In support of the EP, the band toured throughout the summer of 2017 on the "Long Way Home" tour with Phillip Phillips. With 2018 marking the 20th anniversary of Dizzy Up the Girl, the band embarked on a commemorative tour where they performed the album in its entirety. Also in 2018, the band released two live albums: The Audience is This Way in June, and The Audience is That Way in November.
At the beginning of 2019, the Goo Goo Dolls announced that they were working on a twelfth studio album. On record store day (April 13, 2019), a vinyl box limited to 1000 copies under the name Topography was released.
On August 24, 2020, the band announced its first Christmas album: It's Christmas All Over, which was released on October 30. Later that year, Rzeznik sat down with Atwood Magazine to discuss the band's 35th anniversary.
In May 2021, the band announced that Rarities, a double compilation featuring rare and unheard songs spanning from 1995 to 2007, would be released on June 25, 2021.
Chaos in Bloom (2022–present)
In a June 2021 interview published on YouTube, singer John Rzeznik revealed that the band was working on their 14th studio album, which would be released sometime in 2022. When asked about how the album differs from the band's previous work, Rzeznik claimed that the band had decided to approach both writing and recording in an alternative way. Specifically, the band used earlier forms of production which they utilized prior to the digital era in the music industry.
In a November 2021 Spin interview, Rzeznik stated that he produced most of the album himself. He added that the album would sound more experimental than the band's past releases, hinting that he did not believe it would receive much radio airplay. It was later confirmed that the album was entirely produced by Rzeznik.
On June 27th 2022, the band officially announced on their Facebook page the title of their new album, Chaos in Bloom, as well as the first single off it, "Yeah, I Like You". The latter premiered on July 1st 2022.
Band members
Current members
John Rzeznik – guitar (1986–present), lead and backing vocals (1990–present), backing and lead vocals (1986–1990), keyboards (2008–2010)
Robby Takac – bass (1986–present), backing and lead vocals (1990–present), lead and backing vocals (1986–1990), guitar (2016)
Current touring musicians
Brad Fernquist – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (2006–present)
Craig Macintyre – drums, percussion (2014–present)
Jim McGorman – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals (2018–present)
Former members
George Tutuska – drums, percussion (1986–1995), vocals (1990)
Mike Malinin – drums, percussion (1995–2013)
Former touring musicians
Lance Diamond – guest vocals (1986–2014; died 2015)
Nathan December – guitar, mandolin, backing vocals (1998–2000)
Dave Schulz – keyboards, backing vocals (1998–2000)
Jason Freese – keyboards, accordion, saxophone, backing vocals (2001–2004)
Greg Suran – guitar, mandolin, percussion, backing vocals (2002–2006)
Paul Gordon – keyboards, backing vocals (2004–2006)
Korel Tunador – keyboards, guitar, saxophone, backing vocals (2006–2009, 2009–2018)
Scott Eric Olivier – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals (2009)
Rick Woolstenhulme Jr. – drums, percussion (2013–2014)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Goo Goo Dolls (1987)
Jed (1989)
Hold Me Up (1990)
Superstar Car Wash (1993)
A Boy Named Goo (1995)
Dizzy Up the Girl (1998)
Gutterflower (2002)
Let Love In (2006)
Something for the Rest of Us (2010)
Magnetic (2013)
Boxes (2016)
Miracle Pill (2019)
It's Christmas All Over (2020)
Chaos in Bloom (2022)
Accolades, awards, and nominations
"Iris", the band's 1998 hit single, enjoyed critical acclaim. At the 41st Grammy Awards, "Iris" received nominations for "Record of the Year" and "Pop Performance by a Duo or Group." The song also garnered John Rzeznik a "Song of the Year" nomination. The song was ranked at number 39 on Rolling Stones list of the 100 greatest pop songs.
In October 2012, "Iris" was ranked number one on Billboards "Top 100 Pop Songs 1992–2012" chart, which ranked the top songs of the first 20 years of the Mainstream Top 40/Pop Songs chart. The list also featured the Goo Goo Dolls' hits "Slide", ranking at number nine, and "Name" at number 24. The Goo Goo Dolls are the only musicians to have three songs on the list, two breaking the top 10 and all three falling within the top 25. They are also the only musicians that have back to back singles (Iris, 1998 and Slide, 1999) featured on the list.
Billboard Music Awards
|-
| 1995
| "Name"
| Top Modern Rock Track
|
|-
| rowspan=3|1998
| rowspan=2|"Iris"
| Top Hot 100 Airplay Track
|
|-
| Top Adult Top 40 Track
|
|-
| rowspan=5|Themselves
| rowspan=2|Top Adult Top 40 Artist
|
|-
| rowspan=7|1999
|
|-
| Top Hot Top 40 Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Singles Artist
|
|-
| Top Hot 100 Singles Artist – Duo/Group
|
|-
| rowspan=3|"Slide"
| Top Hot 100 Airplay Track
|
|-
| Top Hot Top 40 Track
|
|-
| Top Adult Top 40 Track
|
Other awards
References
External links
Category:1986 establishments in New York (state)
Category:Alternative rock groups from New York (state)
Category:American pop rock music groups
Category:American post-grunge musical groups
Category:Articles which contain graphical timelines
Category:Autism activists
Category:Metal Blade Records artists
Category:Musical groups established in 1986
Category:Musical groups from Buffalo, New York
Category:Punk rock groups from New York (state)
Category:Warner Records artists
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C_6fe50cb8b6144d20893642dac99da424_0 | Dolph Lundgren | Hans Lundgren was born on 3 November 1957 in Spanga, the son of Sigrid Birgitta (nee Tjerneld), a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. He lived in Spanga until the age of 13, when he moved to his grandparents' home in Nyland, Angermanland. Some sources wrongly state 1959 as his year of birth, but Lundgren himself has confirmed it to be 1957. He has two sisters and an older brother; he was raised in the Lutheran church. | Personal life | Lundgren resides in Los Angeles, California. He speaks Swedish and English, as well as smaller amounts of French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, but is not fluent in five languages as has often been reported. He is an avid football fan. He supported Everton FC when he lived in Europe, but developed more of an interest in international football tournaments (such as the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup) after moving to Los Angeles. During the 1980s, Lundgren had relationships with Jamaican singer Grace Jones and American model Paula Barbieri. In 1994, he married Anette Qviberg, a jewellery designer and fashion stylist, in Marbella. The couple decided they liked Marbella so much that they rented accommodation there for years, before eventually buying a family home there. They have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren and Greta Eveline Lundgren, both born in Stockholm. Lundgren and Qviberg have cited the reason for living away from Hollywood is that they want to give their children as normal a childhood as possible. His father died in 2000. In early May 2009, Lundgren's Marbella home was reportedly broken into by three masked burglars who tied up and threatened his wife, but fled when they found a family photo and realized that the house was owned by Lundgren. Lundgren later stated he believed the intruders to be Eastern European and had asked contacts in Bulgaria to investigate them, but to no avail. After the incident, Lundgren's elder daughter, Ida, suffered from PTSD. His wife was the "most traumatized", and as of 2011, they are divorced. Lundgren currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He broke up with his girlfriend, Jenny Sandersson, in 2014 and it was said that they were secretly engaged and married later. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in Rocky IV as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lundgren has starred in more than 80 films, most of them in the action genre.
Lundgren received a degree in chemical engineering from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in the early 1980s and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982. He holds the rank of 4th dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and was European champion in 1980–81. While in Sydney, he became a bodyguard for Jamaican singer Grace Jones and began a relationship with her. He received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT and moved to Boston. Jones convinced him to leave the university and move to New York City to be with her and begin acting, where, after a short stint as a model and bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, Lundgren got a small debut role as a KGB henchman in the James Bond film A View to a Kill.
After appearing in Rocky IV, Lundgren portrayed He-Man in the 1987 science fantasy film Masters of the Universe, Lt. Nikolai Petrovitch Rachenko in Red Scorpion (1988) and Frank Castle in the 1989 film The Punisher. Throughout the 1990s he appeared in films such as I Come in Peace (1990), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Universal Soldier film series (1992, 2009, 2012), Joshua Tree (1993), Men of War (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Silent Trigger (1996), and Blackjack (1998). In 2004 he directed his first film, The Defender, and subsequently directed The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), Icarus (2010), Castle Falls (2021) and upcoming film Wanted Man (2023), also starring in all of them.
After a long spell performing in direct-to-video films since 1995, Lundgren returned to Hollywood in 2010 with the role of Gunner Jensen in The Expendables, alongside Sylvester Stallone and an all-action star cast. He reprised his role in The Expendables 2 (2012) and The Expendables 3 (2014). Also in 2014, he co-starred in Skin Trade, an action thriller about human trafficking he co-wrote and produced. He reprised his role of Ivan Drago in Creed II (2018), and is due to reprise his role as Gunner Jensen in The Expendables 4. He appears in Aquaman (2018), playing the father of Mera. He also had a recurring role in the fifth season of Arrow as Bratva leader Konstantin Kovar, the main antagonist of the season's flashback storyline.
Early life
Hans Lundgren was born on 3 November 1957 in Spånga, the son of Sigrid Birgitta ( Tjerneld; 1932–1992), a language teacher, and Karl Hugo Johan Lundgren (1923–2000), an engineer (M.Sc.) and economist (MBA) for the Swedish government. He lived in Spånga until the age of 13, when he moved to his grandparents' home in Nyland, Ångermanland. Some sources wrongly state 1959 as his year of birth, but Lundgren himself has confirmed it to be 1957. He has two sisters, Katarina and Annika and a younger brother Johan. Lundgren claims his father was physically abusive and vented his frustration on his wife and eldest son. He has stated that, during his tirades, his father would call him a "loser", which motivated him later as he grew more ambitious to prove himself. But he also said, "I still love my father, no matter what happened. There are many things about him I still admire. As a child, I was probably too much like him, very stubborn—perhaps that's what he couldn't deal with." He has cited his troubled relationship with his father as the reason he developed a desire to participate in heavy contact sports such as boxing and karate.
He was first credited as Dolph Lundgren with the release of Rocky IV. The name "Dolph" came from a relative on his mother's side.
Lundgren has said that, as a child, he was insecure and suffered from allergies, describing himself as a "runt". He showed a keen interest in drumming and had aspirations to become a rock star. At age seven, he tried judo and Gōjū-ryū. He took up Kyokushin karate at the age of 10, and began lifting weights as a teenager. Lundgren stated that "My dad always told me that if I wanted to make something special with my life, I had to go to America." After graduating from high school with straight A's, he spent some time in the United States in the 1970s on various academic scholarships, studying chemical engineering at Washington State University and Clemson University. He studied chemical engineering for a year at Washington State University between 1975 and 1976, prior to serving his mandatory one year in the Swedish Coastal Artillery at the Coastal Ranger School. In the late 1970s, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and graduated in the early eighties with a degree in chemical engineering.
Amidst his years of studying, Lundgren honed his karate skills by training hard in the dojo for five years, attaining the rank of 2nd dan black belt in Kyokushin in 1978. He captained the Swedish Kyokushin karate team, and was a formidable challenger at the 1979 World Open Tournament (arranged by the Kyokushin Karate Organization) when he was only a green belt. He won the European championships in 1980 and 1981, and a heavyweight tournament in Australia in 1982. In 1982, Lundgren graduated with a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney. During his time in Sydney, he earned a living as a bouncer in a nightclub in the notorious King's Cross area.
Lundgren was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT in 1983. However, while preparing for the move to Boston, he was spotted in the nightclub where he worked in Sydney and was hired by Grace Jones as a bodyguard, and the two became lovers. Their relationship developed dramatically, and he moved with her to New York City. While living with Jones in her New York City apartment, Lundgren dabbled in modeling at the Zoli Agency but was described as "a bit too tall and muscular for a model's size 40". He earned a living as a bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, which was housed in the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, working with Chazz Palminteri. In the daytime, he studied drama at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop and has said that "my time in New York City opened up my adolescent Swedish eyes to a multitude of different people and lifestyles, mostly in the arts. I hung out with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Iman and Steve Rubell, danced at Studio 54, and studied acting with Andie MacDowell and Tom Hulce." Friends told him he should be in movies. He would later quit studying at MIT after two weeks to pursue acting.
Career
1980s
On the set of the James Bond film A View to a Kill, Jones suggested that he try out for a part in the film, which led to his feature film debut playing the very minor role of a suited KGB henchman named Venz. In the film, Lundgren appears in the scene in which the KGB's General Gogol (Walter Gotell) confronts Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) about leaving the KGB, at a racing ground and ends in a minor brawl in which Lundgren's character Venz points a gun at Zorin. Roger Moore, in his last performance as James Bond, once memorably said, "Dolph is larger than Denmark". Lundgren found the entertainment business more attractive and rewarding than chemical engineering, so he decided to pursue a career in acting despite having no formal training. Upon learning that Sylvester Stallone was seeking an imposing fighter to play Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985), Lundgren sent videos and pictures of himself to a distant contact of Stallone, eventually reaching him. Lundgren tried out for the role, but as he himself has stated, he was initially turned down because he was too tall.
However, he eventually beat 5,000 other hopefuls to land his breakout role opposite Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Brigitte Nielsen. To improve his physique and athletic abilities, he trained intensely in bodybuilding and boxing for five months before the film was shot. Lundgren said, "We trained six days a week—weights in the morning for about an hour, then boxing in the afternoon. We did a split of chest and back one day and then shoulders, legs, and arms the next. We boxed for an hour and a half, practiced the fight choreography, and did bag work and abs." He weighed , during filming, but in the film he was billed at , one publisher said of Drago, "He's a hulking 261 pounds of merciless fighting machine, the best that Soviet science & medicine can create". His character's lines "If he dies, he dies" and "I must break you" are amongst the best known of the Rocky series, and have often been cited in popular culture. Stallone was injured after a fight with Lundgren that Stallone had suggested as part of the filming process. Regarding this incident, Stallone said in an interview, "I went to the emergency room. My blood pressure was like 290, and they put me on a low-level flight to St. John's Hospital where I was put into intensive care because the pericardial sac around my heart was swelling and impeding the beating of my heart. I was there, like I said, for nine days surrounded by nuns. Not good." Lundgren later fought in a real boxing match against former UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov, and lost via decision. Lundgren has highlighted the premiere of Rocky IV at Westwood Movie Theatre as the moment which changed his life, remarking, "I walked in to a Westwood movie theater as Grace Jones' boyfriend and walked out ninety minutes later as the movie star Dolph Lundgren. I was shell-shocked for years from the mind-boggling and daunting experience of being a student-athlete from tiny Sweden suddenly having to live up a new action-star persona."
In 1987, Lundgren released on home media a workout video called Maximum Potential, and got his first lead role as He-Man in Masters of the Universe, based on the popular children's toyline and cartoon. He starred alongside Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Chelsea Field, Billy Barty and Courteney Cox. Lundgren weighed his all-time heaviest during the filming at . The film was a critical failure and viewed as far too violent for a family picture. It is referred to as a "flop" by Variety magazine, and has a 13% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Lundgren was criticized for being too wooden as a leading man, and it was dismissed as "a glossy fantasy starring monosyllabic Dolph Lundgren".
He next starred in Joseph Zito's Red Scorpion in 1988, opposite M. Emmet Walsh, Al White, T. P. McKenna and Carmen Argenziano. The plot centers on Lundgren's character Nikolai, a Soviet Spetsnaz-trained KGB agent who is sent to an African country where Soviet, Czechoslovakian and Cuban forces support the government's fight against an anti-communist rebel movement. Nikolai is ordered to assassinate the movement's leader, but eventually switches sides. The film was partly shot in Namibia and it was claimed that Grace Jones joined him during production in Swakopmund, insisting on staying in a $3000-a-month villa, even though his girlfriend at the time was reported to be Paula Barbieri. The film was poorly received and has an 11% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, "Dolph Lundgren's pectorals are the real stars of Red Scorpion, an action-adventure movie set in the fictional African country of Mombaka. Filmed from below so that one has the sense of peering up at a massive kinetic sculpture, his glistening torso, which over the course of the film is subjected to assorted tortures, is the movie's primary visual focus whenever the action slows down. And since Mr. Lundgren remains stone-faced, rarely speaking except to issue commands in a surprisingly hesitant monotone, his heaving chest actually communicates more emotion than his mumbling lips."
Lundgren then starred as Marvel Comics character Frank Castle (a.k.a. The Punisher) in the 1989 film The Punisher. The film was directed by Mark Goldblatt, with a screenplay by Boaz Yakin. Although it is based on the Marvel Comics character, the film changes many details of the original comic book origin and the main character does not wear the trademark "skull". The Punisher was filmed in Sydney, Australia and also featured Louis Gossett Jr., Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori, and Barry Otto. The film received mainly negative reviews, currently holds a 24% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Christopher Null gave the film 1 out of 5, stating the film was "marred by cheeseball sets and special effects, lame fight sequences, and some of the worst acting ever to disgrace the screen." Whilst criticizing the film's storyline and acting, Time Out magazine concluded the film was "destructive, reprehensible, and marvelous fun".
1990s
1990–1994
In 1990, Lundgren starred in Craig R. Baxley's sci-fi thriller I Come in Peace (also known as Dark Angel) opposite Brian Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues and Jay Bilas. Lundgren plays a tough Houston cop with an inner sensitivity, who does not let the rules of police procedure prevent him pursuing his mission to wipe out a gang of drug dealers who killed his partner. Lundgren said of his role, "What attracted me to Dark Angel is that I get to do more than just action. There's some romance, some comedy, some drama. I actually have some clever dialogue in this one. I get to act." One author said "Universe (1987) or Dark Angel (1990), demonstrates that nature and his [Lundgren's] hairdresser have suited him perfectly to Nazi genetically engineered baddie roles."
In 1991, Lundgren starred in Manny Coto's action film Cover Up opposite Louis Gossett Jr. Lundgren portrays a US Marine veteran turned reporter and who finds his own life in jeopardy after stumbling across a political cover-up over a Middle Eastern terrorist plan to kill thousands of people. The primary terrorist group in the film is the fictional group Black October, in reference to Black September. The film was shot in Israel.
Later in 1991, Lundgren appeared in martial arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo opposite Brandon Lee. In the film, Lee and Lundgren play cops who are partnered to investigate yakuzas. The film received a mainly negative reception from critics and was criticized for its violence; Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as "violent, but spiritless." Variety wrote "Lundgren can hold his own with other action leads as an actor and could easily be Van Damme-marketable if only he'd devote as much attention to quality control as he does to pectoral development." David J. Fox of the Los Angeles Times, however, described the film as a "class act", and some retrospective critics find it to be entertaining for its genre.
In 1992, Lundgren starred in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year in the sci-fi action picture Universal Soldier directed by Roland Emmerich. Lundgren (as Sergeant Andrew Scott) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (as Luc Deveraux) play U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War who are sent to secure a village against North Vietnamese forces. However they end up shooting each other dead after Devereaux discovers that Scott has gone insane and has resorted to torture and kill the villagers. They are later reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers and sent on a mission as GR operatives. At the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Van Damme and Lundgren were involved in a verbal altercation that almost turned physical when both men pushed each other only to be separated, but it was believed to have only been a publicity stunt. Universal Soldier opened in theatres on 10 July 1992, a moderate success domestically with $36,299,898 in US ticket sales, but a major blockbuster worldwide, making over $65 million overseas, which earned the film a total of $102 million worldwide, on a $23 million budget. Despite being a box office hit however, it was not well-received; mainstream critics dismissed the movie as a Terminator 2 clone. Film critic Roger Ebert said, "it must be fairly thankless to play lunks who have to fight for the entire length of a movie while exchanging monosyllabic idiocies", including it in his book I hated, hated, hated this movie.
In 1993, Lundgren starred opposite Kristian Alfonso and George Segal in Vic Armstrong's Joshua Tree. Lundgren plays Wellman Anthony Santee, a former racecar driver who has turned to hauling exotic stolen cars with his friend Eddie Turner (Ken Foree). One day he is framed by police officer Frank Severance (Segal) for the murder of a highway patrolman, also killing his friend Eddie. Santee is sent to prison after recovering in a prison hospital, but escapes during transfer and takes a female hostage named Rita Marrick (Alfonso) at a gas station, not suspecting that she's a cop. On the run from the law, involving exotic cars and desert scenery, Santee must prove his innocence and prove Severance guilty of being involved in the car ring and for murder. Much of the film was filmed in the Alabama Hills of the Sierra Nevada and the desert of the Joshua Tree National Park of southeast California.
In 1994, Lundgren starred in Bruce Malmuth's Pentathlon as an East German Olympic gold medalist pentathlete on the run from an abusive coach (David Soul). Lundgren trained with the U.S. pentathlon team in preparation for the role, which later led to him being selected to serve as the (non-competing) Team Leader of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Modern Pentathlon team during the Atlanta Games, to promote the image of the sport and to coordinate planning and other details between the team and the United States Olympic Committee. The film was seen negatively by most critics; Film Review said it was "appallingly acted and monotonous" and Video Movie Guide 2002 described it as a "silly Cold War thriller".
Later in 1994, Lundgren appeared in Perry Lang's Men of War (scripted by John Sayles) alongside Charlotte Lewis and BD Wong as Nick Gunar, a former Special Ops soldier who leads a group of mercenaries to a treasure island in the South China Sea. The film was mainly shot in Thailand, with Krabi and Phong Nga making up most of the island scenery. The film was well received by some critics. One author said "Men of War invokes the most vividly remembered fighting in a foreign land of recent Western history. This innovation, associating the muscle image with the Vietnam experience, is carried over into other contemporary muscle films." Another said, "fine performances by an all-star Dolph Lundgren as a mercenary assigned to "convince" a cast in this offbeat and disturbing film."
1995–1999
In 1995, Lundgren appeared in Robert Longo's Johnny Mnemonic, co-starring Keanu Reeves. The film portrays screenwriter William Gibson's dystopian cyberpunk view of the future with the world dominated by megacorporations and with strong East Asian influences. Reeves plays the title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. Lundgren plays Karl Honig, a Jesus-obsessed hitman and street preacher who wears a robe and carries a shepherd's staff. The film was shot on location in Toronto and Montreal in 12 weeks, filling in for the film's Newark, New Jersey and Beijing settings. The film was premiered in Japan first on 15 April 1995 and features a previously composed score by Michael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Lundgren and Japanese star Takeshi Kitano. Critical response was negative overall; Roger Ebert said, "Johnny Mnemonic is one of the great gestures of recent cinema, a movie which doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis." The film was a financial disappointment, grossing $19,075,720 in the domestic American market against its $26m budget. The cloak worn by Lundgren in the film is now located in the lobby of the Famous Players Coliseum in Mississauga, Ontario, it was his last theatrical release film until 2010. Later in 1995, Lundgren appeared in Ted Kotcheff's The Shooter, an action drama in which he plays Michael Dane, a U.S. Marshall who gets caught up in politics when he is hired to solve the assassination of a Cuban ambassador.
In 1996, Lundgren starred in Russell Mulcahy's Silent Trigger, about a sniper (Lundgren) and his female spotter (played by Gina Bellman). Lundgren plays a former Special Forces agent who joins a secretive government agency (called "The Agency") as an assassin. The movie takes place in and around an unfinished city skyscraper, shot in Montreal. The Motion Picture Guide to the films of 1997 said, "this stylish but empty thriller gives square-jawed Dolph Lundgren another shot at straight-to-video immortality".
In 1997, Lundgren starred in Frédéric Forestier's The Peacekeeper, playing Major Frank Cross of the US Air Force and the only man who can prevent the president being assassinated and with the ability to thwart an imminent nuclear holocaust. The threat is from a terrorist group, which has stolen the President's personal communications computer with the capability of launching the US arsenal to threaten global security. The film co-starred Michael Sarrazin, Montel Williams, Roy Scheider and Christopher Heyerdahl, and was shot on location in Montreal. The film was praised for its exciting action sequences. Doug Pratt described the first half of the film as "excellent" and described Lundgren's character as "tenacious", although Robert Cettl wrote "the Peacekeeper trades on the presence of B-movie action star Dolph Lundgren, an actor who never became as popular as his action contemporaries Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal."
In 1998, he appeared in Jean-Marc Piché's action/supernatural horror film The Minion alongside Françoise Robertson Lundgren portrays Lukas Sadorov, a middle eastern templar and member of an order who are charged with guarding the gateway to Hell that, if opened, will unleash all evil. The only thing that can open it is a key which is sought by the Minion, a demonic spirit that transfers itself into the nearby host body when his previous one is killed off. Awakening in New York City, the Minion tracks down Karen Goodleaf as Lukas arrives to America to protect her and the key. Michael Haag in his book Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons (2009) said, "The budget for this film was $12 million. A pity they did not spend a cent on research (citing that one reference was 600 years out) ... Lundgren is a butt-kicking Templar monk with a spiked leather glove whose sacred duty it is to do what the Templars have always done and stop a key that has kept the Anti-christ imprisoned for thousands of years from falling into the right hands.". The DVD and Video Guide of 2005 described the film as being "possibly one of the worst films ever".
Later in 1998, Lundgren appeared alongside Bruce Payne and Claire Stansfield in Sweepers as Christian Erickson, a leading demolition expert and head of an elite team of specialists, trained to disarm mine fields in a humanitarian minesweeping operation in Angola. The Video Guide to 2002 said, "that noise you hear isn't the numerous on-screen explosions but action star Lundgren's career hitting rock bottom." He also featured in the TV pilot Blackjack (directed by John Woo) as a former US Marshal who has a phobia of the color white, who becomes the bodyguard and detective of a young supermodel (Kam Heskin) who is the target of a psychotic assassin (Phillip MacKenzie). Shot on location in Toronto, the film was originally meant to be the pilot episode of a series focusing around his character, Jack Devlin but it was not accepted as a series as it was poorly received. One review said "the narrative is laughably stupid" and the DVD and Video Guide to 2005 said, "dull, lightweight, made-for-TV action fully to a satisfying climax".
In 1999, he played a mercenary in Isaac Florentine's Bridge of Dragons, a military pilot in Anthony Hickox's Storm Catcher, and a cop who's a former boxer in Jill Rips, also directed by Hickox, based on a 1987 novel by Scottish writer Frederic Lindsay.
2000s
2000–2004
In 2000, Lundgren starred in The Last Warrior as Captain Nick Preston under director Sheldon Lettich. The film was partly shot in Eilat, Israel. Later in 2000, Lundgren appeared in Damian Lee's Agent Red (also known as Captured), alongside Alexander Kuznetsov, Natalie Radford and Randolph Mantooth. The film is set during the Cold War, and is about two soldiers trapped on a submarine with a group of terrorists who plan to use a chemical weapon against the United States. Lundgren's character, Matt Hendricks, must work with his wife, a virologist, to prevent the scenario occurring. After the film was completed, producer Andrew Stevens thought it was too poor to be released and multiple people had to be hired to at least make the film half-competent. The film was very poorly received, given its "shoestring budget"; the DVD and Film Guide of 2005 wrote, "low-budget mess stars Dolph Lundgren as a navy special operations commander trying to keep a deadly virus out of the hands of terrorists. This subpar effort sinks to the bottom of the ocean in a tidal wave of cliche." During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in May 2008, Gladiator director Ridley Scott said Lundgren had been considered for the part of undefeated fighter Tigris of Gaul in 2000, but was eventually rejected because "as an actor, he just didn't fit in with what we were trying to achieve".
In 2001, Lundgren starred in Hidden Agenda, directed by Marc S. Grenier. He plays Jason Price, an ex-FBI agent who protects a witness. In 2003, Lundgren featured in Sidney J. Furie's Detention.
In 2004, he appeared opposite Polly Shannon in Direct Action under Sidney J. Furie, portraying Sergeant Frank Gannon, an officer who has spent the last three years on the Direct Action Unit (DAU) task force, fighting gang crime and corruption and after he leaves he is hunted down by former colleagues for betraying the brotherhood. Next Lundgren made a cameo in Ed Bye's Fat Slags, alongside Geri Halliwell, Naomi Campbell and Angus Deayton. His next starring role was in the science fiction picture Retrograde. In it Lundgren plays a man who is in a group of genetically unique people who travel back in time to prevent the discovery of meteors containing deadly bacteria." Shot in Italy, the film received the support of the Film Fund of Luxembourg.
He made his directorial debut, replacing Sidney J. Furie who got ill during pre-production, with The Defender, in which he also starred alongside Shakara Ledard and Jerry Springer, who played the President of the United States. Lundgren plays Lance Rockford, the bodyguard of the head of the National Security Agency, Roberta Jones (Caroline Lee-Johnson), in a war on terror.
2005–2009
In 2005, Lundgren starred and directed his second picture The Mechanik (The Russian Specialist), playing a retired Russian Special Forces hitman Nikolai "Nick" Cherenko caught in the crossfire with Russian mobsters. Sky Movies remarked that The Mechanik is "hardcore death-dealing from the Nordic leviathan" and said that "The Mechanik delivers all the no-nonsense gunplay you'd want of a Friday night".
In 2006, Lundgren played gladiator Brixos in the Italian-made historical/biblical drama, The Inquiry (L'inchiesta) a remake of a 1986 film by the same name, in an ensemble that includes Daniele Liotti, Mónica Cruz, Max von Sydow, F. Murray Abraham and Ornella Muti. Set in AD 35 in the Roman Empire, the story follows a fictional Roman general named Titus Valerius Taurus, a veteran of campaigns in Germania, who is sent to Judea by the emperor Tiberius to investigate the possibility of the divinity of the recently crucified Jesus. The film, shot on location in Tunisia and Bulgaria It premiered at the Capri, Hollywood and the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival. That same year, he appeared in the music video "Kosmosa" sung by the Russian singer Irson Kudikova.
In 2007, Lundgren directed and starred in the Mongolia-based action adventure, Diamond Dogs. Lundgren plays a mercenary hired by a group of fortune hunters to act as their guide and bodyguard. The film, a Canadian-Chinese production, was shot on location in Inner Mongolia. Later in 2007, Lundgren wrote, directed and starred in Missionary Man alongside Charles Solomon Jr.. Described as a "modern western" by Lundgren, He plays a lone, Bible-preaching stranger named Ryder who comes into a small Texas town on his 1970's Harley-Davidson motorcycle to attend the funeral of his good friend J.J., a local Native American carpenter, only to later get mixed up in a series of brawls with a local gang. According to Lundgren, it had long been a desire of his to direct a western, having long been a fan of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, yet he did not want to spend the time and money building an old western town and hiring horses, so decided to set it in modern times with a motorbike instead of entering the town on a horse in the manner than Clint Eastwood would. Lundgren's co-writer, Frank Valdez's wife's brother happened to be a notable actor working in Texas and invited Lundgren's team to shoot there. The film was shot on location in Waxahachie, south of Dallas and was produced by Andrew Stevens and it was specially screened at the 2008 AFI Dallas Film Festival.
In 2008, Lundgren starred opposite Michael Paré in the direct-to-video action flick Direct Contact. He plays an ex-US Special forces operative on a rescue mission. This was followed by another direct to video film Command Performance (2009), a hostage action drama in which Lundgren, a proficient musician in real life, plays a rock drummer forced to face terrorists at a concert. The film co-starred Canadian pop singer Melissa Smith, playing a world-famous pop singer in the film and his own daughter Ida on her screen debut, who played one of the daughters of the Russian president. The story was inspired by a concert Madonna put on for Russian President Vladimir Putin, although Lundgren has also likened the pop singer to Britney Spears. Filming took place over 5 weeks between August and September 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria and Moscow, Russia. The film premiered at the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival on 18 July 2009.
In 2009, The Dolph Lundgren Scholarship was instituted in his name, which is awarded to the student with the best grades at Ådalsskolan in Kramfors, the school where he himself studied. Lundgren then reunited with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier: Regeneration, where he plays Andrew Scott's clone. The film was released theatrically in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and directly to video in the United States and other parts of the world. Since its release, the film has received better than average reviews for a straight-to-DVD franchise sequel, with film critic Brian Orndorf giving the film a B, calling it "moody, pleasingly quick-draw, and knows when to quit, making the Universal Soldier brand name bizarrely vital once again." Dread Central gave it 3 out of 5 knives, saying "there is almost nothing but solid b-level action until the credits roll." On the negative side, Pablo Villaça said in his review that while he praised Van Damme's performance, he criticized that of Lundgren and described the film "dull in concept and execution".
Later in 2009, Lundgren directed and starred in the hit-man thriller Icarus (retitled in the US and the UK as The Killing Machine). He plays a businessman named Edward Genn, working for an investment company, who has a shady past as a KGB special agent known as "Icarus". He tries to escape from his past life, but his identity is discovered and he is hunted down, placing the lives of his wife and daughter and himself in jeopardy. Retitled in the US and the UK as The Killing Machine, it opened theatrically in Los Angeles on 10 September 2010, for an exclusive one-week engagement at Laemmele's Sunset 5 Theater in West Hollywood. It was his last directorial effort until 2021.
2010s: Expendables and direct-to-video films
In 2010, Lundgren made a guest star appearance on the TV series Chuck in the fourth-season premiere episode, "Chuck Versus the Anniversary", as Russian spy Marco, with references to Rocky IV'''s Ivan Drago. He then played a drug-addled assassin in the ensemble action film The Expendables. It was his first American theatrically released film since 1995. The film is about a group of elite mercenaries, tasked with a mission to overthrow a Latin American dictator. It was described by Lundgren as "an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other." Film production began on 3 March 2009, with a budget of $82 million. Filming commenced 25 days later in Rio de Janeiro and other locations in Brazil, and later in Louisiana. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was very successful commercially, opening at number one at the box office in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.
Lundgren was one of three hosts for the 2010 Melodifestivalen, where the Swedish contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest is selected. In the first installation on 6 February, Lundgren co-hosted the competition together with comedian Christine Meltzer and performer Måns Zelmerlöw. Lundgren's appearance was hailed by critics and audience, particularly his rendition of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation".
Lundgren played the lead role in Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds, and had supporting roles in Jonas Åkerlund's Small Apartments and a thriller called Stash House. Principal photography for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning began on 9 May 2011 in Louisiana, and filming wrapped on One in the Chamber (co-starring Cuba Gooding Jr.) around the same time. The Expendables 2 entered principal photography in late September/early October 2011, with Lundgren reprising his role as Gunner Jensen. Filming wrapped in January 2012, and it was released by Lionsgate on 17 August later that year.
In 2013, Lundgren starred alongside Steve Austin in The Package. Directed by Jesse Johnson, principal photography wrapped in March 2012, and the film was released on 9 February 2013. For a direct-to-DVD film, The Package was not a financial success. In its first week of release, the film debuted at no. 81; grossing $1,469 at the domestic box office. He starred in a number of other films later that year, including Legendary, Battle of the Damned, Ambushed, and Blood of Redemption.
In 2014, Lundgren co-starred opposite Cung Le in the action film Puncture Wounds, and reprised his role as Gunner Jensen for the third time in The Expendables 3. He then wrote, produced, and starred alongside Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman in Skin Trade, an action thriller about human trafficking. Principal photography started on 2 February 2014 in Thailand, and wrapped in Vancouver; April the same year.Friel, Eoin (19 March 2014) "Tony Jaa Interview" , The Action Elite; retrieved 9 March 2015. The film received a limited theatrical release, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on 25 August 2015."August 2015 DVD Releases", movieinsider.com; retrieved 20 August 2015. In February, he filmed a cameo for the Coen brothers' 2016 comedy film Hail, Caesar!, portraying a Soviet submarine captain.
On 21 January 2015, Lundgren started filming straight-to-video film Shark Lake on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This was followed by a further six weeks of filming in the "Reno-Tahoe area". In the film, he portrays Clint Gray, a black-market dealer of exotic species responsible for releasing a dangerous shark into Lake Tahoe. Directed by Jerry Dugan, the film's budget was $2 million. On 23 May, straight-to-video film War Pigs premiered at the GI Film Festival. In the film, Lundgren co-starred (alongside Luke Goss) as Captain Hans Picault, a French Legionnaire who trains a U.S. Army Infantry group to go behind enemy lines and exterminate the Nazis. In August 2015, he started filming Kindergarten Cop 2 in Ontario, Canada, a straight-to-video sequel to the 1990 comedy film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.Orange, B. Alan. "First Look at Dolph Lundgren in 'Kindergarten Cop 2'", www.movieweb.com, published 13 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015. He portrays Agent Reed, a law enforcement officer who must go undercover as a kindergarten teacher, in order to recover a missing flash drive from the Federal Witness Protection Program. Throughout that year, he starred in a number of other straight-to-video films, including the crime thriller The Good, the Bad and the Dead and the prison film Riot. He starred in the music video of Imagine Dragons's Believer, which was released on 7 March 2017. In August 2017, he portrayed the future version of Gil Shepard in the Syfy film Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.
In 2018, Black Water, an action thriller, directed by Pasha Patriki was released. Also starred Van Damme, this was their fifth collaboration between both actors as well as the first time they appear together as on-screen allies.Kit, Borys. "Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren Team for Action Thriller 'Black Water'", The Hollywood Reporter, published 4 January 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017. Lundgren reprised his role of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV in Creed II, the 2018 sequel to Creed. He played an older, impoverished Drago in the film, which also introduces the character's son, Viktor. This marked the beginning of what New York Magazine has described as Lundgren's "comeback." Also that year, Lundgren appeared in the DC Extended Universe film Aquaman, from director James Wan, as the underwater king Nereus. Later in 2021, Lundgren starred and directed in the 2021 action film Castle Falls as Richard Ericson, in his first feature film as directed in nearly 12 years.
2020s
In 2022, Lundgren starred in a series of Old Spice advertisements to promote a new antiperspirant line of deodorant spray. The advertisements depicted the 65 year old actor as a young adult doing an "80s action movie spoof."
Training and diet
Although Lundgren has never competed as a professional bodybuilder, he has been closely associated with bodybuilding and fitness since his role as Drago in the mid-1980s. Bodybuilding.com said, "Looking like a man in his 30s rather than his 50s, Lundgren is the poster boy of precise nutrition, supplementation and exercise application that he has practiced for over 35 years". In an interview with them, he claimed to often train up to six days a week, usually one-hour sessions completed in the morning, saying that "it's just one hour a day, and then you can enjoy the other 23 hours". Although he had begun lifting weights as a teenager, he cites co-star Sylvester Stallone as the man who got him into serious bodybuilding for a period in the 1980s after he arrived in the U.S. Stallone had a lasting influence on his fitness regimen and diet, ensuring that he ate a much higher percentage of protein and split his food intake between five or six smaller meals a day. Lundgren has professed never to have been "super strong", saying that, "I'm too tall and my arms are long. I think back then [Rocky IV] I was working with around 300 pounds on the bench and squat."
In a January 2011 interview with GQ he announced he was working on releasing his own range of vitamins and supplements. He wrote an autobiographical fitness book, Train Like an Action Hero: Be Fit Forever'', published in Sweden (by Bonnier Fakta) on 9 August 2011, offering tips he learned over the years to work out in various situations (with a busy schedule and a lot of traveling). It also discusses a detailed account of his earlier life and troubles. He cites a better quality of life as having inspired him to maintain his physical fitness.
When in Los Angeles, he trains at the Equinox Gym in Westwood and when at home in Marbella, Spain, he trains at the Qi Sport Gym in Puerto Banús. Lundgren also spars and practices karate aside from weight lifting. He cites dead lifting and squats as the best exercises for muscle building. Lundgren is not a heavy drinker, but has professed on many occasions to being fond of tequila and cocktails, citing his knowledge in chemical engineering as "making really good drinks".
Personal life
Lundgren splits his time between Stockholm and Los Angeles. He speaks Swedish and English fluently, as well as smaller amounts of French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, but is not fluent in five languages as has often been reported.
He is an avid football fan. He supported Everton F.C. when he lived in Europe, but developed more of an interest in international football tournaments (such as the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup) after moving to Los Angeles.
During the 1980s, Lundgren had relationships with Jamaican singer Grace Jones and American model Paula Barbieri. While Lundgren was completing a master's degree in chemical engineering on an exchange program with the University of Sydney in Australia, Jones spotted him at a dance club and hired him as a bodyguard. Lundgren was whisked off to the United States, where he completed his final thesis.
In 1994, he married Anette Qviberg (born 1966), a jewellery designer and fashion stylist, in Marbella. The couple decided they liked Marbella so much that they rented accommodations there for years, before eventually buying a family home there. They have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren (born 1996) and Greta Eveline Lundgren (born 2001), both born in Stockholm. Lundgren and Qviberg cited the reason for living outside Hollywood was to give their children as normal a childhood as possible. Lundgren's father died in 2000.
In early May 2009, three masked burglars reportedly broke into Lundgren's Marbella home. The burglars tied up and threatened his wife, but fled when they found a family photo and realized that the house was owned by Lundgren. Lundgren later stated he believed the intruders to be Eastern European and had asked contacts in Bulgaria to investigate them, but to no avail. After the incident, Lundgren's elder daughter, Ida, suffered from PTSD. His wife was the "most traumatized", and they are divorced.
Lundgren was in a relationship with Jenny Sandersson from 2011 to 2017. Lundgren became engaged to Norwegian personal trainer Emma Krokdal in June 2020.
In May 2023, Lundgren revealed that he had been battling lung cancer since 2015. The cancer has metastasized to his kidneys.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Special awards
References
External links
Category:1957 births
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Category:Fulbright alumni | [] | [
"Dolph Lundgren had relationships with Jamaican singer Grace Jones and American model Paula Barbieri. He married Anette Qviberg, a jewellery designer and fashion stylist, in Marbella in 1994 and they have two daughters. The couple decided to live in Marbella to give their children as normal a childhood as possible. Their home was broken into by three masked burglars who threatened his wife but fled when they realized the house was owned by Lundgren. After the incident, Lundgren's elder daughter suffered from PTSD. Lundgren and Qviberg are now divorced.",
"As of the context provided, Dolph Lundgren is not married. He divorced Anette Qviberg, and his relationship with Jenny Sandersson ended in 2014.",
"Dolph Lundgren and Anette Qviberg got married in 1994.",
"Anette Qviberg is a jewellery designer and fashion stylist who was married to Dolph Lundgren. They got married in 1994 and have two daughters together.",
"Anette Qviberg, Dolph Lundgren's wife, is known as a jewellery designer and fashion stylist. However, compared to Lundgren's fame as an actor, she is not as widely known.",
"Yes, Dolph Lundgren and Anette Qviberg have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren and Greta Eveline Lundgren. Both daughters were born in Stockholm.",
"No, Dolph Lundgren and Anette Qviberg are not still married at this time. According to the context, they were divorced as of 2011.",
"The mentioned incident refers to a home invasion that happened at Dolph Lundgren's Marbella home in 2009. Three masked burglars reportedly broke into their home, tied up and threatened his wife, Anette Qviberg. They fled when they found a family photo and realized that the house was owned by Lundgren. After the incident, Lundgren's elder daughter, Ida, suffered from PTSD.",
"The context does not provide specific details on physical injuries. However, it is mentioned that Lundgren's elder daughter, Ida, suffered from PTSD following the incident and that his wife was the \"most traumatized\".",
"Yes, Lundgren stated that he believed the intruders to be Eastern European and had asked contacts in Bulgaria to investigate them, although there were no results from those efforts mentioned in the context.",
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C_6fe50cb8b6144d20893642dac99da424_1 | Dolph Lundgren | Hans Lundgren was born on 3 November 1957 in Spanga, the son of Sigrid Birgitta (nee Tjerneld), a language teacher, and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. He lived in Spanga until the age of 13, when he moved to his grandparents' home in Nyland, Angermanland. Some sources wrongly state 1959 as his year of birth, but Lundgren himself has confirmed it to be 1957. He has two sisters and an older brother; he was raised in the Lutheran church. | Training and diet | Although Lundgren has never competed as a professional bodybuilder, he has been closely associated with bodybuilding and fitness since his role as Drago in the mid-1980s. Bodybuilding.com said, "Looking like a man in his 30s rather than his 50s, Lundgren is the poster boy of precise nutrition, supplementation and exercise application that he has practiced for over 35 years." In an interview with them, he claimed to often train up to six days a week, usually one-hour sessions completed in the morning, saying that "it's just one hour a day, and then you can enjoy the other 23 hours". Although he had begun lifting weights as a teenager, he cites co-star Sylvester Stallone as the man who got him into serious bodybuilding for a period in the 1980s after he arrived in the U.S. Stallone had a lasting influence on his fitness regime and diet, ensuring that he ate a much higher percentage of protein and split his food intake between five or six smaller meals a day. Lundgren has professed never to have been "super strong", saying that, "I'm too tall and my arms are long. I think back then [Rocky IV] I was working with around 300 pounds on the bench and squat." In a January 2011 interview with GQ he announced he is working on releasing his own range of vitamins and supplements. He wrote an autobiographical fitness book, Train Like an Action Hero: Be Fit Forever, published in Sweden (by Bonnier Fakta) on 9 August 2011, offering tips he learned over the years to work out in various situations (with a busy schedule and a lot of traveling). On 9 September 2014, Lundgren published Dolph Lundgren: Train Like an Action Hero: Be Fit Forever, a book which contains a detailed account of his earlier life and troubles. He cites a better quality of life as having inspired him to maintain his physical fitness. When in Los Angeles he trains at the Equinox Gym in Westwood and when at home in Marbella, Spain, he trains at the Qi Sport Gym in Puerto Banus. Dolph does, however, also like to spar and practice his karate in the gym to keep in top shape aside from weight lifting. He cites dead lifting and squats as the best exercises for muscle building. Lundgren is not a heavy drinker, but has professed on many occasions to being fond of tequila and cocktails, citing his knowledge in chemical engineering as "making really good drinks". CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Hans "Dolph" Lundgren (, ; born 3 November 1957) is a Swedish actor, filmmaker and martial artist. His breakthrough came in 1985, when he starred in Rocky IV as the imposing Soviet boxer Ivan Drago. Since then, Lundgren has starred in more than 80 films, most of them in the action genre.
Lundgren received a degree in chemical engineering from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in the early 1980s and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney in 1982. He holds the rank of 4th dan black belt in Kyokushin karate and was European champion in 1980–81. While in Sydney, he became a bodyguard for Jamaican singer Grace Jones and began a relationship with her. He received a Fulbright scholarship to MIT and moved to Boston. Jones convinced him to leave the university and move to New York City to be with her and begin acting, where, after a short stint as a model and bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, Lundgren got a small debut role as a KGB henchman in the James Bond film A View to a Kill.
After appearing in Rocky IV, Lundgren portrayed He-Man in the 1987 science fantasy film Masters of the Universe, Lt. Nikolai Petrovitch Rachenko in Red Scorpion (1988) and Frank Castle in the 1989 film The Punisher. Throughout the 1990s he appeared in films such as I Come in Peace (1990), Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991), Universal Soldier film series (1992, 2009, 2012), Joshua Tree (1993), Men of War (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Silent Trigger (1996), and Blackjack (1998). In 2004 he directed his first film, The Defender, and subsequently directed The Mechanik (2005), Missionary Man (2007), Command Performance (2009), Icarus (2010), Castle Falls (2021) and upcoming film Wanted Man (2023), also starring in all of them.
After a long spell performing in direct-to-video films since 1995, Lundgren returned to Hollywood in 2010 with the role of Gunner Jensen in The Expendables, alongside Sylvester Stallone and an all-action star cast. He reprised his role in The Expendables 2 (2012) and The Expendables 3 (2014). Also in 2014, he co-starred in Skin Trade, an action thriller about human trafficking he co-wrote and produced. He reprised his role of Ivan Drago in Creed II (2018), and is due to reprise his role as Gunner Jensen in The Expendables 4. He appears in Aquaman (2018), playing the father of Mera. He also had a recurring role in the fifth season of Arrow as Bratva leader Konstantin Kovar, the main antagonist of the season's flashback storyline.
Early life
Hans Lundgren was born on 3 November 1957 in Spånga, the son of Sigrid Birgitta ( Tjerneld; 1932–1992), a language teacher, and Karl Hugo Johan Lundgren (1923–2000), an engineer (M.Sc.) and economist (MBA) for the Swedish government. He lived in Spånga until the age of 13, when he moved to his grandparents' home in Nyland, Ångermanland. Some sources wrongly state 1959 as his year of birth, but Lundgren himself has confirmed it to be 1957. He has two sisters, Katarina and Annika and a younger brother Johan. Lundgren claims his father was physically abusive and vented his frustration on his wife and eldest son. He has stated that, during his tirades, his father would call him a "loser", which motivated him later as he grew more ambitious to prove himself. But he also said, "I still love my father, no matter what happened. There are many things about him I still admire. As a child, I was probably too much like him, very stubborn—perhaps that's what he couldn't deal with." He has cited his troubled relationship with his father as the reason he developed a desire to participate in heavy contact sports such as boxing and karate.
He was first credited as Dolph Lundgren with the release of Rocky IV. The name "Dolph" came from a relative on his mother's side.
Lundgren has said that, as a child, he was insecure and suffered from allergies, describing himself as a "runt". He showed a keen interest in drumming and had aspirations to become a rock star. At age seven, he tried judo and Gōjū-ryū. He took up Kyokushin karate at the age of 10, and began lifting weights as a teenager. Lundgren stated that "My dad always told me that if I wanted to make something special with my life, I had to go to America." After graduating from high school with straight A's, he spent some time in the United States in the 1970s on various academic scholarships, studying chemical engineering at Washington State University and Clemson University. He studied chemical engineering for a year at Washington State University between 1975 and 1976, prior to serving his mandatory one year in the Swedish Coastal Artillery at the Coastal Ranger School. In the late 1970s, he enrolled at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and graduated in the early eighties with a degree in chemical engineering.
Amidst his years of studying, Lundgren honed his karate skills by training hard in the dojo for five years, attaining the rank of 2nd dan black belt in Kyokushin in 1978. He captained the Swedish Kyokushin karate team, and was a formidable challenger at the 1979 World Open Tournament (arranged by the Kyokushin Karate Organization) when he was only a green belt. He won the European championships in 1980 and 1981, and a heavyweight tournament in Australia in 1982. In 1982, Lundgren graduated with a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney. During his time in Sydney, he earned a living as a bouncer in a nightclub in the notorious King's Cross area.
Lundgren was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT in 1983. However, while preparing for the move to Boston, he was spotted in the nightclub where he worked in Sydney and was hired by Grace Jones as a bodyguard, and the two became lovers. Their relationship developed dramatically, and he moved with her to New York City. While living with Jones in her New York City apartment, Lundgren dabbled in modeling at the Zoli Agency but was described as "a bit too tall and muscular for a model's size 40". He earned a living as a bouncer at the Manhattan nightclub The Limelight, which was housed in the former Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion, working with Chazz Palminteri. In the daytime, he studied drama at the Warren Robertson Theatre Workshop and has said that "my time in New York City opened up my adolescent Swedish eyes to a multitude of different people and lifestyles, mostly in the arts. I hung out with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Iman and Steve Rubell, danced at Studio 54, and studied acting with Andie MacDowell and Tom Hulce." Friends told him he should be in movies. He would later quit studying at MIT after two weeks to pursue acting.
Career
1980s
On the set of the James Bond film A View to a Kill, Jones suggested that he try out for a part in the film, which led to his feature film debut playing the very minor role of a suited KGB henchman named Venz. In the film, Lundgren appears in the scene in which the KGB's General Gogol (Walter Gotell) confronts Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) about leaving the KGB, at a racing ground and ends in a minor brawl in which Lundgren's character Venz points a gun at Zorin. Roger Moore, in his last performance as James Bond, once memorably said, "Dolph is larger than Denmark". Lundgren found the entertainment business more attractive and rewarding than chemical engineering, so he decided to pursue a career in acting despite having no formal training. Upon learning that Sylvester Stallone was seeking an imposing fighter to play Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985), Lundgren sent videos and pictures of himself to a distant contact of Stallone, eventually reaching him. Lundgren tried out for the role, but as he himself has stated, he was initially turned down because he was too tall.
However, he eventually beat 5,000 other hopefuls to land his breakout role opposite Stallone, Carl Weathers, and Brigitte Nielsen. To improve his physique and athletic abilities, he trained intensely in bodybuilding and boxing for five months before the film was shot. Lundgren said, "We trained six days a week—weights in the morning for about an hour, then boxing in the afternoon. We did a split of chest and back one day and then shoulders, legs, and arms the next. We boxed for an hour and a half, practiced the fight choreography, and did bag work and abs." He weighed , during filming, but in the film he was billed at , one publisher said of Drago, "He's a hulking 261 pounds of merciless fighting machine, the best that Soviet science & medicine can create". His character's lines "If he dies, he dies" and "I must break you" are amongst the best known of the Rocky series, and have often been cited in popular culture. Stallone was injured after a fight with Lundgren that Stallone had suggested as part of the filming process. Regarding this incident, Stallone said in an interview, "I went to the emergency room. My blood pressure was like 290, and they put me on a low-level flight to St. John's Hospital where I was put into intensive care because the pericardial sac around my heart was swelling and impeding the beating of my heart. I was there, like I said, for nine days surrounded by nuns. Not good." Lundgren later fought in a real boxing match against former UFC fighter Oleg Taktarov, and lost via decision. Lundgren has highlighted the premiere of Rocky IV at Westwood Movie Theatre as the moment which changed his life, remarking, "I walked in to a Westwood movie theater as Grace Jones' boyfriend and walked out ninety minutes later as the movie star Dolph Lundgren. I was shell-shocked for years from the mind-boggling and daunting experience of being a student-athlete from tiny Sweden suddenly having to live up a new action-star persona."
In 1987, Lundgren released on home media a workout video called Maximum Potential, and got his first lead role as He-Man in Masters of the Universe, based on the popular children's toyline and cartoon. He starred alongside Frank Langella, Meg Foster, Chelsea Field, Billy Barty and Courteney Cox. Lundgren weighed his all-time heaviest during the filming at . The film was a critical failure and viewed as far too violent for a family picture. It is referred to as a "flop" by Variety magazine, and has a 13% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Lundgren was criticized for being too wooden as a leading man, and it was dismissed as "a glossy fantasy starring monosyllabic Dolph Lundgren".
He next starred in Joseph Zito's Red Scorpion in 1988, opposite M. Emmet Walsh, Al White, T. P. McKenna and Carmen Argenziano. The plot centers on Lundgren's character Nikolai, a Soviet Spetsnaz-trained KGB agent who is sent to an African country where Soviet, Czechoslovakian and Cuban forces support the government's fight against an anti-communist rebel movement. Nikolai is ordered to assassinate the movement's leader, but eventually switches sides. The film was partly shot in Namibia and it was claimed that Grace Jones joined him during production in Swakopmund, insisting on staying in a $3000-a-month villa, even though his girlfriend at the time was reported to be Paula Barbieri. The film was poorly received and has an 11% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Stephen Holden of The New York Times said, "Dolph Lundgren's pectorals are the real stars of Red Scorpion, an action-adventure movie set in the fictional African country of Mombaka. Filmed from below so that one has the sense of peering up at a massive kinetic sculpture, his glistening torso, which over the course of the film is subjected to assorted tortures, is the movie's primary visual focus whenever the action slows down. And since Mr. Lundgren remains stone-faced, rarely speaking except to issue commands in a surprisingly hesitant monotone, his heaving chest actually communicates more emotion than his mumbling lips."
Lundgren then starred as Marvel Comics character Frank Castle (a.k.a. The Punisher) in the 1989 film The Punisher. The film was directed by Mark Goldblatt, with a screenplay by Boaz Yakin. Although it is based on the Marvel Comics character, the film changes many details of the original comic book origin and the main character does not wear the trademark "skull". The Punisher was filmed in Sydney, Australia and also featured Louis Gossett Jr., Jeroen Krabbé, Kim Miyori, and Barry Otto. The film received mainly negative reviews, currently holds a 24% "rotten" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Christopher Null gave the film 1 out of 5, stating the film was "marred by cheeseball sets and special effects, lame fight sequences, and some of the worst acting ever to disgrace the screen." Whilst criticizing the film's storyline and acting, Time Out magazine concluded the film was "destructive, reprehensible, and marvelous fun".
1990s
1990–1994
In 1990, Lundgren starred in Craig R. Baxley's sci-fi thriller I Come in Peace (also known as Dark Angel) opposite Brian Benben, Betsy Brantley, Matthias Hues and Jay Bilas. Lundgren plays a tough Houston cop with an inner sensitivity, who does not let the rules of police procedure prevent him pursuing his mission to wipe out a gang of drug dealers who killed his partner. Lundgren said of his role, "What attracted me to Dark Angel is that I get to do more than just action. There's some romance, some comedy, some drama. I actually have some clever dialogue in this one. I get to act." One author said "Universe (1987) or Dark Angel (1990), demonstrates that nature and his [Lundgren's] hairdresser have suited him perfectly to Nazi genetically engineered baddie roles."
In 1991, Lundgren starred in Manny Coto's action film Cover Up opposite Louis Gossett Jr. Lundgren portrays a US Marine veteran turned reporter and who finds his own life in jeopardy after stumbling across a political cover-up over a Middle Eastern terrorist plan to kill thousands of people. The primary terrorist group in the film is the fictional group Black October, in reference to Black September. The film was shot in Israel.
Later in 1991, Lundgren appeared in martial arts action film Showdown in Little Tokyo opposite Brandon Lee. In the film, Lee and Lundgren play cops who are partnered to investigate yakuzas. The film received a mainly negative reception from critics and was criticized for its violence; Vincent Canby of The New York Times described it as "violent, but spiritless." Variety wrote "Lundgren can hold his own with other action leads as an actor and could easily be Van Damme-marketable if only he'd devote as much attention to quality control as he does to pectoral development." David J. Fox of the Los Angeles Times, however, described the film as a "class act", and some retrospective critics find it to be entertaining for its genre.
In 1992, Lundgren starred in one of the biggest blockbusters of the year in the sci-fi action picture Universal Soldier directed by Roland Emmerich. Lundgren (as Sergeant Andrew Scott) and Jean-Claude Van Damme (as Luc Deveraux) play U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War who are sent to secure a village against North Vietnamese forces. However they end up shooting each other dead after Devereaux discovers that Scott has gone insane and has resorted to torture and kill the villagers. They are later reanimated in a secret Army project along with a large group of other previously dead soldiers and sent on a mission as GR operatives. At the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Van Damme and Lundgren were involved in a verbal altercation that almost turned physical when both men pushed each other only to be separated, but it was believed to have only been a publicity stunt. Universal Soldier opened in theatres on 10 July 1992, a moderate success domestically with $36,299,898 in US ticket sales, but a major blockbuster worldwide, making over $65 million overseas, which earned the film a total of $102 million worldwide, on a $23 million budget. Despite being a box office hit however, it was not well-received; mainstream critics dismissed the movie as a Terminator 2 clone. Film critic Roger Ebert said, "it must be fairly thankless to play lunks who have to fight for the entire length of a movie while exchanging monosyllabic idiocies", including it in his book I hated, hated, hated this movie.
In 1993, Lundgren starred opposite Kristian Alfonso and George Segal in Vic Armstrong's Joshua Tree. Lundgren plays Wellman Anthony Santee, a former racecar driver who has turned to hauling exotic stolen cars with his friend Eddie Turner (Ken Foree). One day he is framed by police officer Frank Severance (Segal) for the murder of a highway patrolman, also killing his friend Eddie. Santee is sent to prison after recovering in a prison hospital, but escapes during transfer and takes a female hostage named Rita Marrick (Alfonso) at a gas station, not suspecting that she's a cop. On the run from the law, involving exotic cars and desert scenery, Santee must prove his innocence and prove Severance guilty of being involved in the car ring and for murder. Much of the film was filmed in the Alabama Hills of the Sierra Nevada and the desert of the Joshua Tree National Park of southeast California.
In 1994, Lundgren starred in Bruce Malmuth's Pentathlon as an East German Olympic gold medalist pentathlete on the run from an abusive coach (David Soul). Lundgren trained with the U.S. pentathlon team in preparation for the role, which later led to him being selected to serve as the (non-competing) Team Leader of the 1996 U.S. Olympic Modern Pentathlon team during the Atlanta Games, to promote the image of the sport and to coordinate planning and other details between the team and the United States Olympic Committee. The film was seen negatively by most critics; Film Review said it was "appallingly acted and monotonous" and Video Movie Guide 2002 described it as a "silly Cold War thriller".
Later in 1994, Lundgren appeared in Perry Lang's Men of War (scripted by John Sayles) alongside Charlotte Lewis and BD Wong as Nick Gunar, a former Special Ops soldier who leads a group of mercenaries to a treasure island in the South China Sea. The film was mainly shot in Thailand, with Krabi and Phong Nga making up most of the island scenery. The film was well received by some critics. One author said "Men of War invokes the most vividly remembered fighting in a foreign land of recent Western history. This innovation, associating the muscle image with the Vietnam experience, is carried over into other contemporary muscle films." Another said, "fine performances by an all-star Dolph Lundgren as a mercenary assigned to "convince" a cast in this offbeat and disturbing film."
1995–1999
In 1995, Lundgren appeared in Robert Longo's Johnny Mnemonic, co-starring Keanu Reeves. The film portrays screenwriter William Gibson's dystopian cyberpunk view of the future with the world dominated by megacorporations and with strong East Asian influences. Reeves plays the title character, a man with a cybernetic brain implant designed to store information. Lundgren plays Karl Honig, a Jesus-obsessed hitman and street preacher who wears a robe and carries a shepherd's staff. The film was shot on location in Toronto and Montreal in 12 weeks, filling in for the film's Newark, New Jersey and Beijing settings. The film was premiered in Japan first on 15 April 1995 and features a previously composed score by Michael Danna, different editing, and more scenes with Lundgren and Japanese star Takeshi Kitano. Critical response was negative overall; Roger Ebert said, "Johnny Mnemonic is one of the great gestures of recent cinema, a movie which doesn't deserve one nanosecond of serious analysis." The film was a financial disappointment, grossing $19,075,720 in the domestic American market against its $26m budget. The cloak worn by Lundgren in the film is now located in the lobby of the Famous Players Coliseum in Mississauga, Ontario, it was his last theatrical release film until 2010. Later in 1995, Lundgren appeared in Ted Kotcheff's The Shooter, an action drama in which he plays Michael Dane, a U.S. Marshall who gets caught up in politics when he is hired to solve the assassination of a Cuban ambassador.
In 1996, Lundgren starred in Russell Mulcahy's Silent Trigger, about a sniper (Lundgren) and his female spotter (played by Gina Bellman). Lundgren plays a former Special Forces agent who joins a secretive government agency (called "The Agency") as an assassin. The movie takes place in and around an unfinished city skyscraper, shot in Montreal. The Motion Picture Guide to the films of 1997 said, "this stylish but empty thriller gives square-jawed Dolph Lundgren another shot at straight-to-video immortality".
In 1997, Lundgren starred in Frédéric Forestier's The Peacekeeper, playing Major Frank Cross of the US Air Force and the only man who can prevent the president being assassinated and with the ability to thwart an imminent nuclear holocaust. The threat is from a terrorist group, which has stolen the President's personal communications computer with the capability of launching the US arsenal to threaten global security. The film co-starred Michael Sarrazin, Montel Williams, Roy Scheider and Christopher Heyerdahl, and was shot on location in Montreal. The film was praised for its exciting action sequences. Doug Pratt described the first half of the film as "excellent" and described Lundgren's character as "tenacious", although Robert Cettl wrote "the Peacekeeper trades on the presence of B-movie action star Dolph Lundgren, an actor who never became as popular as his action contemporaries Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal."
In 1998, he appeared in Jean-Marc Piché's action/supernatural horror film The Minion alongside Françoise Robertson Lundgren portrays Lukas Sadorov, a middle eastern templar and member of an order who are charged with guarding the gateway to Hell that, if opened, will unleash all evil. The only thing that can open it is a key which is sought by the Minion, a demonic spirit that transfers itself into the nearby host body when his previous one is killed off. Awakening in New York City, the Minion tracks down Karen Goodleaf as Lukas arrives to America to protect her and the key. Michael Haag in his book Templars: History and Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons (2009) said, "The budget for this film was $12 million. A pity they did not spend a cent on research (citing that one reference was 600 years out) ... Lundgren is a butt-kicking Templar monk with a spiked leather glove whose sacred duty it is to do what the Templars have always done and stop a key that has kept the Anti-christ imprisoned for thousands of years from falling into the right hands.". The DVD and Video Guide of 2005 described the film as being "possibly one of the worst films ever".
Later in 1998, Lundgren appeared alongside Bruce Payne and Claire Stansfield in Sweepers as Christian Erickson, a leading demolition expert and head of an elite team of specialists, trained to disarm mine fields in a humanitarian minesweeping operation in Angola. The Video Guide to 2002 said, "that noise you hear isn't the numerous on-screen explosions but action star Lundgren's career hitting rock bottom." He also featured in the TV pilot Blackjack (directed by John Woo) as a former US Marshal who has a phobia of the color white, who becomes the bodyguard and detective of a young supermodel (Kam Heskin) who is the target of a psychotic assassin (Phillip MacKenzie). Shot on location in Toronto, the film was originally meant to be the pilot episode of a series focusing around his character, Jack Devlin but it was not accepted as a series as it was poorly received. One review said "the narrative is laughably stupid" and the DVD and Video Guide to 2005 said, "dull, lightweight, made-for-TV action fully to a satisfying climax".
In 1999, he played a mercenary in Isaac Florentine's Bridge of Dragons, a military pilot in Anthony Hickox's Storm Catcher, and a cop who's a former boxer in Jill Rips, also directed by Hickox, based on a 1987 novel by Scottish writer Frederic Lindsay.
2000s
2000–2004
In 2000, Lundgren starred in The Last Warrior as Captain Nick Preston under director Sheldon Lettich. The film was partly shot in Eilat, Israel. Later in 2000, Lundgren appeared in Damian Lee's Agent Red (also known as Captured), alongside Alexander Kuznetsov, Natalie Radford and Randolph Mantooth. The film is set during the Cold War, and is about two soldiers trapped on a submarine with a group of terrorists who plan to use a chemical weapon against the United States. Lundgren's character, Matt Hendricks, must work with his wife, a virologist, to prevent the scenario occurring. After the film was completed, producer Andrew Stevens thought it was too poor to be released and multiple people had to be hired to at least make the film half-competent. The film was very poorly received, given its "shoestring budget"; the DVD and Film Guide of 2005 wrote, "low-budget mess stars Dolph Lundgren as a navy special operations commander trying to keep a deadly virus out of the hands of terrorists. This subpar effort sinks to the bottom of the ocean in a tidal wave of cliche." During an interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in May 2008, Gladiator director Ridley Scott said Lundgren had been considered for the part of undefeated fighter Tigris of Gaul in 2000, but was eventually rejected because "as an actor, he just didn't fit in with what we were trying to achieve".
In 2001, Lundgren starred in Hidden Agenda, directed by Marc S. Grenier. He plays Jason Price, an ex-FBI agent who protects a witness. In 2003, Lundgren featured in Sidney J. Furie's Detention.
In 2004, he appeared opposite Polly Shannon in Direct Action under Sidney J. Furie, portraying Sergeant Frank Gannon, an officer who has spent the last three years on the Direct Action Unit (DAU) task force, fighting gang crime and corruption and after he leaves he is hunted down by former colleagues for betraying the brotherhood. Next Lundgren made a cameo in Ed Bye's Fat Slags, alongside Geri Halliwell, Naomi Campbell and Angus Deayton. His next starring role was in the science fiction picture Retrograde. In it Lundgren plays a man who is in a group of genetically unique people who travel back in time to prevent the discovery of meteors containing deadly bacteria." Shot in Italy, the film received the support of the Film Fund of Luxembourg.
He made his directorial debut, replacing Sidney J. Furie who got ill during pre-production, with The Defender, in which he also starred alongside Shakara Ledard and Jerry Springer, who played the President of the United States. Lundgren plays Lance Rockford, the bodyguard of the head of the National Security Agency, Roberta Jones (Caroline Lee-Johnson), in a war on terror.
2005–2009
In 2005, Lundgren starred and directed his second picture The Mechanik (The Russian Specialist), playing a retired Russian Special Forces hitman Nikolai "Nick" Cherenko caught in the crossfire with Russian mobsters. Sky Movies remarked that The Mechanik is "hardcore death-dealing from the Nordic leviathan" and said that "The Mechanik delivers all the no-nonsense gunplay you'd want of a Friday night".
In 2006, Lundgren played gladiator Brixos in the Italian-made historical/biblical drama, The Inquiry (L'inchiesta) a remake of a 1986 film by the same name, in an ensemble that includes Daniele Liotti, Mónica Cruz, Max von Sydow, F. Murray Abraham and Ornella Muti. Set in AD 35 in the Roman Empire, the story follows a fictional Roman general named Titus Valerius Taurus, a veteran of campaigns in Germania, who is sent to Judea by the emperor Tiberius to investigate the possibility of the divinity of the recently crucified Jesus. The film, shot on location in Tunisia and Bulgaria It premiered at the Capri, Hollywood and the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival. That same year, he appeared in the music video "Kosmosa" sung by the Russian singer Irson Kudikova.
In 2007, Lundgren directed and starred in the Mongolia-based action adventure, Diamond Dogs. Lundgren plays a mercenary hired by a group of fortune hunters to act as their guide and bodyguard. The film, a Canadian-Chinese production, was shot on location in Inner Mongolia. Later in 2007, Lundgren wrote, directed and starred in Missionary Man alongside Charles Solomon Jr.. Described as a "modern western" by Lundgren, He plays a lone, Bible-preaching stranger named Ryder who comes into a small Texas town on his 1970's Harley-Davidson motorcycle to attend the funeral of his good friend J.J., a local Native American carpenter, only to later get mixed up in a series of brawls with a local gang. According to Lundgren, it had long been a desire of his to direct a western, having long been a fan of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, yet he did not want to spend the time and money building an old western town and hiring horses, so decided to set it in modern times with a motorbike instead of entering the town on a horse in the manner than Clint Eastwood would. Lundgren's co-writer, Frank Valdez's wife's brother happened to be a notable actor working in Texas and invited Lundgren's team to shoot there. The film was shot on location in Waxahachie, south of Dallas and was produced by Andrew Stevens and it was specially screened at the 2008 AFI Dallas Film Festival.
In 2008, Lundgren starred opposite Michael Paré in the direct-to-video action flick Direct Contact. He plays an ex-US Special forces operative on a rescue mission. This was followed by another direct to video film Command Performance (2009), a hostage action drama in which Lundgren, a proficient musician in real life, plays a rock drummer forced to face terrorists at a concert. The film co-starred Canadian pop singer Melissa Smith, playing a world-famous pop singer in the film and his own daughter Ida on her screen debut, who played one of the daughters of the Russian president. The story was inspired by a concert Madonna put on for Russian President Vladimir Putin, although Lundgren has also likened the pop singer to Britney Spears. Filming took place over 5 weeks between August and September 2008 in Sofia, Bulgaria and Moscow, Russia. The film premiered at the Ischia Global Film & Music Festival on 18 July 2009.
In 2009, The Dolph Lundgren Scholarship was instituted in his name, which is awarded to the student with the best grades at Ådalsskolan in Kramfors, the school where he himself studied. Lundgren then reunited with Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier: Regeneration, where he plays Andrew Scott's clone. The film was released theatrically in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and directly to video in the United States and other parts of the world. Since its release, the film has received better than average reviews for a straight-to-DVD franchise sequel, with film critic Brian Orndorf giving the film a B, calling it "moody, pleasingly quick-draw, and knows when to quit, making the Universal Soldier brand name bizarrely vital once again." Dread Central gave it 3 out of 5 knives, saying "there is almost nothing but solid b-level action until the credits roll." On the negative side, Pablo Villaça said in his review that while he praised Van Damme's performance, he criticized that of Lundgren and described the film "dull in concept and execution".
Later in 2009, Lundgren directed and starred in the hit-man thriller Icarus (retitled in the US and the UK as The Killing Machine). He plays a businessman named Edward Genn, working for an investment company, who has a shady past as a KGB special agent known as "Icarus". He tries to escape from his past life, but his identity is discovered and he is hunted down, placing the lives of his wife and daughter and himself in jeopardy. Retitled in the US and the UK as The Killing Machine, it opened theatrically in Los Angeles on 10 September 2010, for an exclusive one-week engagement at Laemmele's Sunset 5 Theater in West Hollywood. It was his last directorial effort until 2021.
2010s: Expendables and direct-to-video films
In 2010, Lundgren made a guest star appearance on the TV series Chuck in the fourth-season premiere episode, "Chuck Versus the Anniversary", as Russian spy Marco, with references to Rocky IV'''s Ivan Drago. He then played a drug-addled assassin in the ensemble action film The Expendables. It was his first American theatrically released film since 1995. The film is about a group of elite mercenaries, tasked with a mission to overthrow a Latin American dictator. It was described by Lundgren as "an old-school, kick-ass action movie where people are fighting with knives and shooting at each other." Film production began on 3 March 2009, with a budget of $82 million. Filming commenced 25 days later in Rio de Janeiro and other locations in Brazil, and later in Louisiana. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was very successful commercially, opening at number one at the box office in the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.
Lundgren was one of three hosts for the 2010 Melodifestivalen, where the Swedish contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest is selected. In the first installation on 6 February, Lundgren co-hosted the competition together with comedian Christine Meltzer and performer Måns Zelmerlöw. Lundgren's appearance was hailed by critics and audience, particularly his rendition of Elvis Presley's "A Little Less Conversation".
Lundgren played the lead role in Uwe Boll's In the Name of the King 2: Two Worlds, and had supporting roles in Jonas Åkerlund's Small Apartments and a thriller called Stash House. Principal photography for Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning began on 9 May 2011 in Louisiana, and filming wrapped on One in the Chamber (co-starring Cuba Gooding Jr.) around the same time. The Expendables 2 entered principal photography in late September/early October 2011, with Lundgren reprising his role as Gunner Jensen. Filming wrapped in January 2012, and it was released by Lionsgate on 17 August later that year.
In 2013, Lundgren starred alongside Steve Austin in The Package. Directed by Jesse Johnson, principal photography wrapped in March 2012, and the film was released on 9 February 2013. For a direct-to-DVD film, The Package was not a financial success. In its first week of release, the film debuted at no. 81; grossing $1,469 at the domestic box office. He starred in a number of other films later that year, including Legendary, Battle of the Damned, Ambushed, and Blood of Redemption.
In 2014, Lundgren co-starred opposite Cung Le in the action film Puncture Wounds, and reprised his role as Gunner Jensen for the third time in The Expendables 3. He then wrote, produced, and starred alongside Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman in Skin Trade, an action thriller about human trafficking. Principal photography started on 2 February 2014 in Thailand, and wrapped in Vancouver; April the same year.Friel, Eoin (19 March 2014) "Tony Jaa Interview" , The Action Elite; retrieved 9 March 2015. The film received a limited theatrical release, followed by a Blu-ray and DVD release on 25 August 2015."August 2015 DVD Releases", movieinsider.com; retrieved 20 August 2015. In February, he filmed a cameo for the Coen brothers' 2016 comedy film Hail, Caesar!, portraying a Soviet submarine captain.
On 21 January 2015, Lundgren started filming straight-to-video film Shark Lake on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. This was followed by a further six weeks of filming in the "Reno-Tahoe area". In the film, he portrays Clint Gray, a black-market dealer of exotic species responsible for releasing a dangerous shark into Lake Tahoe. Directed by Jerry Dugan, the film's budget was $2 million. On 23 May, straight-to-video film War Pigs premiered at the GI Film Festival. In the film, Lundgren co-starred (alongside Luke Goss) as Captain Hans Picault, a French Legionnaire who trains a U.S. Army Infantry group to go behind enemy lines and exterminate the Nazis. In August 2015, he started filming Kindergarten Cop 2 in Ontario, Canada, a straight-to-video sequel to the 1990 comedy film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger.Orange, B. Alan. "First Look at Dolph Lundgren in 'Kindergarten Cop 2'", www.movieweb.com, published 13 August 2015. Retrieved 14 August 2015. He portrays Agent Reed, a law enforcement officer who must go undercover as a kindergarten teacher, in order to recover a missing flash drive from the Federal Witness Protection Program. Throughout that year, he starred in a number of other straight-to-video films, including the crime thriller The Good, the Bad and the Dead and the prison film Riot. He starred in the music video of Imagine Dragons's Believer, which was released on 7 March 2017. In August 2017, he portrayed the future version of Gil Shepard in the Syfy film Sharknado 5: Global Swarming.
In 2018, Black Water, an action thriller, directed by Pasha Patriki was released. Also starred Van Damme, this was their fifth collaboration between both actors as well as the first time they appear together as on-screen allies.Kit, Borys. "Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren Team for Action Thriller 'Black Water'", The Hollywood Reporter, published 4 January 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017. Lundgren reprised his role of Ivan Drago from Rocky IV in Creed II, the 2018 sequel to Creed. He played an older, impoverished Drago in the film, which also introduces the character's son, Viktor. This marked the beginning of what New York Magazine has described as Lundgren's "comeback." Also that year, Lundgren appeared in the DC Extended Universe film Aquaman, from director James Wan, as the underwater king Nereus. Later in 2021, Lundgren starred and directed in the 2021 action film Castle Falls as Richard Ericson, in his first feature film as directed in nearly 12 years.
2020s
In 2022, Lundgren starred in a series of Old Spice advertisements to promote a new antiperspirant line of deodorant spray. The advertisements depicted the 65 year old actor as a young adult doing an "80s action movie spoof."
Training and diet
Although Lundgren has never competed as a professional bodybuilder, he has been closely associated with bodybuilding and fitness since his role as Drago in the mid-1980s. Bodybuilding.com said, "Looking like a man in his 30s rather than his 50s, Lundgren is the poster boy of precise nutrition, supplementation and exercise application that he has practiced for over 35 years". In an interview with them, he claimed to often train up to six days a week, usually one-hour sessions completed in the morning, saying that "it's just one hour a day, and then you can enjoy the other 23 hours". Although he had begun lifting weights as a teenager, he cites co-star Sylvester Stallone as the man who got him into serious bodybuilding for a period in the 1980s after he arrived in the U.S. Stallone had a lasting influence on his fitness regimen and diet, ensuring that he ate a much higher percentage of protein and split his food intake between five or six smaller meals a day. Lundgren has professed never to have been "super strong", saying that, "I'm too tall and my arms are long. I think back then [Rocky IV] I was working with around 300 pounds on the bench and squat."
In a January 2011 interview with GQ he announced he was working on releasing his own range of vitamins and supplements. He wrote an autobiographical fitness book, Train Like an Action Hero: Be Fit Forever'', published in Sweden (by Bonnier Fakta) on 9 August 2011, offering tips he learned over the years to work out in various situations (with a busy schedule and a lot of traveling). It also discusses a detailed account of his earlier life and troubles. He cites a better quality of life as having inspired him to maintain his physical fitness.
When in Los Angeles, he trains at the Equinox Gym in Westwood and when at home in Marbella, Spain, he trains at the Qi Sport Gym in Puerto Banús. Lundgren also spars and practices karate aside from weight lifting. He cites dead lifting and squats as the best exercises for muscle building. Lundgren is not a heavy drinker, but has professed on many occasions to being fond of tequila and cocktails, citing his knowledge in chemical engineering as "making really good drinks".
Personal life
Lundgren splits his time between Stockholm and Los Angeles. He speaks Swedish and English fluently, as well as smaller amounts of French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, but is not fluent in five languages as has often been reported.
He is an avid football fan. He supported Everton F.C. when he lived in Europe, but developed more of an interest in international football tournaments (such as the UEFA European Championship and the FIFA World Cup) after moving to Los Angeles.
During the 1980s, Lundgren had relationships with Jamaican singer Grace Jones and American model Paula Barbieri. While Lundgren was completing a master's degree in chemical engineering on an exchange program with the University of Sydney in Australia, Jones spotted him at a dance club and hired him as a bodyguard. Lundgren was whisked off to the United States, where he completed his final thesis.
In 1994, he married Anette Qviberg (born 1966), a jewellery designer and fashion stylist, in Marbella. The couple decided they liked Marbella so much that they rented accommodations there for years, before eventually buying a family home there. They have two daughters: Ida Sigrid Lundgren (born 1996) and Greta Eveline Lundgren (born 2001), both born in Stockholm. Lundgren and Qviberg cited the reason for living outside Hollywood was to give their children as normal a childhood as possible. Lundgren's father died in 2000.
In early May 2009, three masked burglars reportedly broke into Lundgren's Marbella home. The burglars tied up and threatened his wife, but fled when they found a family photo and realized that the house was owned by Lundgren. Lundgren later stated he believed the intruders to be Eastern European and had asked contacts in Bulgaria to investigate them, but to no avail. After the incident, Lundgren's elder daughter, Ida, suffered from PTSD. His wife was the "most traumatized", and they are divorced.
Lundgren was in a relationship with Jenny Sandersson from 2011 to 2017. Lundgren became engaged to Norwegian personal trainer Emma Krokdal in June 2020.
In May 2023, Lundgren revealed that he had been battling lung cancer since 2015. The cancer has metastasized to his kidneys.
Filmography
Awards and honors
Special awards
References
External links
Category:1957 births
Category:Clemson University alumni
Category:Kyokushin kaikan practitioners
Category:Living people
Category:Male actors from Stockholm
Category:KTH Royal Institute of Technology alumni
Category:Swedish chemical engineers
Category:Swedish expatriate male actors in the United States
Category:Swedish Lutherans
Category:Swedish male boxers
Category:Swedish male film actors
Category:Swedish film directors
Category:Swedish male karateka
Category:Swedish male judoka
Category:University of Sydney alumni
Category:Washington State University alumni
Category:20th-century Swedish engineers
Category:20th-century Swedish male actors
Category:21st-century Swedish engineers
Category:21st-century Swedish male actors
Category:21st-century Swedish male writers
Category:Engineers from Stockholm
Category:People from Kramfors Municipality
Category:Scientists from Stockholm
Category:Swedish expatriates in Australia
Category:Swedish expatriates in Spain
Category:Swedish film producers
Category:Swedish male television actors
Category:Writers from Stockholm
Category:Fulbright alumni | [] | null | null |
C_bdc91809ffa545fb9a0d62d0fb3432d3_1 | Rogers Morton | Rogers Clark Ballard Morton (September 19, 1914 - April 19, 1979) was an American politician who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Commerce during the administrations of Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford, Jr., respectively. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland. Though he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, Morton moved to a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the early 1950s. In 1962, he was elected to the House of Representatives, in which capacity he established an environmental record. | Early life and career | Morton was born in Louisville, the son of David Clark Morton, a physician, and his wife, Mary Harris Ballard Morton, an heiress to a flour milling business. He was related to George Rogers Clark, a military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. Morton was one of three children; his brother Thruston B. Morton also had a career in politics, serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee and representing Kentucky in both the United States House of Representatives and then the United States Senate. Morton received his early education from the Woodberry Forest School near Orange, Virginia, and in 1937 graduated from Yale University, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter). Like his father, Morton worked to become a physician and entered the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. However, he dropped out after only one year. In 1939, Morton married the former Anne Jones. They had two children, David Clark and Anne Morton. In 1938, Morton was commissioned in the United States Navy but only served for a short time due to problems with his back. Afterwards, he entered his family's flour business, Ballard & Ballard. In 1941, at the outset of World War II, Morton enlisted in the Armored Field Artillery of the United States Army as a private and served in the European Theater. He received a commission during the war and left the army as a captain in 1945. After the war, Morton returned to the family business, where he served as president from 1947 to 1951. In 1952, the business was merged into the Pillsbury Flour Company, where Morton went on to serve as a director and a member of the executive committee for several more years. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Rogers Clark Ballard Morton (September 19, 1914 – April 19, 1979) was an American politician who served as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Commerce during the administrations of presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, respectively. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland.
Morton was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and moved to a farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the early 1950s. In 1962, he was elected to the House of Representatives, in which capacity he established a pro-environment record. Morton would joke that his two middle initials stood for "Chesapeake Bay". In 1968, Morton played a major role in Richard Nixon's campaign for president, and was chosen by Nixon in 1969 to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
In the elections of 1970, Morton was considered a strong candidate to challenge Joseph Tydings for his U.S. Senate seat from Maryland, but he chose instead to remain as chairman of the RNC. In 1971, President Nixon tapped Morton to serve as Secretary of the Interior, during which time he oversaw the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System and the 1973 oil crisis. Morton was the only person from the East Coast to serve as head of the Interior Department in the 20th century.
Following Nixon's resignation due to the Watergate Scandal, Morton continued in his post in the Gerald Ford administration until 1975, when he was nominated to serve as Secretary of Commerce. From April to August 1976, Morton served as Ford's campaign manager in his bid for election. Morton retired from politics following Ford's election defeat. Three years later, he died of cancer at his home in Easton on the eastern shore of Maryland.
Early life and career
Morton was born in Louisville, the son of David Clark Morton, a physician, and his wife, Mary Harris Ballard Morton, an heiress to a flour milling business. He was related to George Rogers Clark, a military officer who served during the American Revolutionary War. Morton was one of three children; his brother Thruston B. Morton also had a career in politics, serving as chairman of the Republican National Committee and representing Kentucky in both the United States House of Representatives and then the United States Senate.
Morton received his early education from the Woodberry Forest School near Orange, Virginia, and in 1937 graduated from Yale University, where he was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Phi chapter). Like his father, Morton worked to become a physician and entered the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. However, he dropped out after only one year. In 1939, Morton married the former Anne Jones. They had two children, David Clark and Anne Morton.
In 1938, Morton was commissioned in the United States Navy but only served for a short time due to problems with his back. Afterwards, he entered his family's flour business, Ballard & Ballard. In 1941, at the outset of World War II, Morton enlisted in the Armored Field Artillery of the United States Army as a private and served in the European Theater. He received a commission during the war and left the army as a captain in 1945.
After the war, Morton returned to the family business, where he served as president from 1947 to 1951. In 1952, the business was merged into the Pillsbury Flour Company, where Morton went on to serve as a director and a member of the executive committee for several more years.
Congressional career
In 1947, Morton spent a great deal of time helping his brother Thruston in his ultimately successful campaign for election to the House of Representatives in Kentucky. After this initial exposure to politics, Morton moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the early 1950s, where he set up a cattle farm along the Wye River in Talbot County. In 1962, Morton decided to challenge Democratic incumbent Thomas Francis Johnson of . Johnson, who was reeling from a political scandal, lost to Morton in the general election. Morton was lauded for not making Johnson's legal troubles his primary campaign issue.
Morton was reelected to Congress four more times, and served from 1963 until 1971. In Congress, Morton worked to enact legislation that would preserve the Chesapeake Bay, including laws reducing pollution into the bay, working for the creation of a national park on Assateague Island, and providing funds to the Army Corps of Engineers to model how the Bay functions as an estuary. Concerning civil rights, Morton voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but cast no vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
During the 1968 Republican National Convention, Morton served as the floor manager for eventual presidential nominee Richard Nixon. Morton also delivered the speech nominating Spiro Agnew, then-governor of Maryland, as the vice presidential candidate.
Due to his role in Nixon's election campaign and his environmental advocacy, Morton expected to be appointed as Secretary of the Interior in 1969. However, he was passed over for the position in favor of a westerner. He had also been considered for Nixon's vice presidential running mate, but lost out to Agnew. In January 1969, to recognize his efforts, Nixon appointed Morton as chairman of the Republican National Committee. As chairman, Morton was granted ex officio cabinet rank by Nixon, an unprecedented practice that ultimately continued through the administration of Gerald Ford.
1970 United States Senate election
In 1969, leading up to the 1970 elections, Morton was considered one of the strongest potential candidates to challenge incumbent Democratic senator Joseph Tydings. Morton had sought the Republican nomination for Maryland's other U.S. Senate seat in the 1968 elections, but bowed out in favor of Congressman Charles Mathias to prevent a primary battle.
Speculation that Morton would seek election to Tydings' seat increased after an editorial in the Baltimore Sun encouraged him to challenge Tydings. Sources within the administration of Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was formerly governor of Maryland, were also commenting that Morton would make a strong candidate and would likely run. When Morton stated he would be making an important announcement with President Nixon in December 1969, it seemed all but certain at the time that it would be to declare his candidacy.
However, Republicans around the country were concerned that Morton, who had just been appointed chairman of the RNC in January 1969, would resign during the election season to better handle the battle with Tydings. President Nixon shared their concerns, and encouraged Morton to remain as chairman. On December 16, 1969, with Nixon by his side, Morton announced that his priorities were with the national committee, and that he would not seek Tydings' seat. Morton also threw his full support for the nomination behind J. Glenn Beall Jr., a freshman member of the House from Cumberland, Mathias's successor in the House, and son of former senator James Glenn Beall.
Morton's decision not to challenge Tydings initially worried Maryland Republicans, who saw Morton as one of their best candidates. National Republican strategists had also begun to write off Tydings' seat as unwinnable for the 1970 election because of Tydings' wealth and popularity in the dense urban areas of Montgomery County and Baltimore. However, despite initial misgivings by state Republicans, Beall defeated Tydings on November 3, 1970, by a margin of more than 30,000 votes.
Secretary of the Interior
Morton continued to serve in the House and as chairman of the RNC until 1971, when he was nominated to be Secretary of the Interior by President Nixon. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate Subcommittee on the Interior, though some concerns regarding Morton's record of environmental protection were raised by Phillip Berry, then-President of the Sierra Club. Morton's predecessor, Wally Hickel, had been chosen over Morton to fill the job in 1969, but was fired by Nixon in late 1970 for criticizing White House policy. Morton was the only person from the east coast to serve as Interior Secretary in the 20th century.
Upon assuming the office of Secretary of the Interior, Morton promised he would seek to "purify the environment". However, as his tenure progressed, he was gradually isolated from the proceedings of the White House and lost several major divisions to other departments. During the 1973 oil crisis, for example, the oil and natural gas divisions of the department were transferred to the Office of Emergency Preparedness. Furthermore, though Morton was the one who announced the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, speculation was put forward that he did not play a major role in determining its route.
As he was leaving his post in 1975, further criticism was directed at Morton for his overseeing the partial dismantling of the Interior Department. He was also criticized for lacking the vigor necessary to serve as head of a cabinet department, and for failing to see through the proposed creation of a new, stronger cabinet department that would have replaced Interior.
Secretary of Commerce and the Ford administration
Following the resignation of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal, Morton continued in his position as Secretary of the Interior in the administration of President Gerald Ford. In March 1975, while still serving as the head of the Interior Department, Morton was nominated by Ford to serve as the next Secretary of Commerce. Ford cited Morton's extensive business experience as the primary factor for selecting him and expressed the hope that Morton would be able to "encourage American business to expand energy development and conservation efforts".
In January 1976, Ford announced Morton would be resigning as commerce secretary to instead serve as Counselor to the President with cabinet rank. Morton's new position was to advise the president on domestic and economic policy. In addition, Morton was to serve as the special liaison to the political committee to elect President Ford. Morton's duties blurred the line between his public and political duties, and caused controversy concerning how Morton would divide his time between the White House and Ford's election campaign, and how much of his salary would be supplied by taxpayers versus the Ford election committee. In rebuttal, Morton stated "you can't separate government from politics", and that Presidential aides should be allowed to offer political advice.
In April 1976, Morton was named campaign manager for Ford leading up to the 1976 presidential election. He replaced former U.S. Representative Howard Callaway of Georgia, who was forced to resign following allegations of improper use of authority while he was Secretary of the Army. Morton directed Ford's campaign until August 25, 1976, when he was reassigned as chairman of a steering committee and was replaced by James Baker of Houston, Texas. Morton's demotion was at his own request; he said that he no longer wished to bear "the responsibility and accountability of the chairmanship".
After the 1976 campaign, Morton retired from politics to his farm, "Presqu'isle", near Easton, Maryland, where he operated a boat construction business.
Morton had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1973, but he said that the disease was in its early phase and was still treatable. In 1979, however, Morton died of the cancer at his home in Easton. He is interred in Old Wye Cemetery in Wye Mills, Maryland.
References
External links
Guide to the Angela Raisch Collection on Rogers C.B. Morton housed at the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center
Category:1914 births
Category:1979 deaths
Category:20th-century American politicians
Category:American Episcopalians
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni
Category:Deaths from prostate cancer
Category:Deaths from cancer in Maryland
Category:Ford administration cabinet members
Category:Military personnel from Louisville, Kentucky
Category:Nixon administration cabinet members
Category:People from Easton, Maryland
Category:Politicians from Louisville, Kentucky
Category:Republican National Committee chairs
Category:Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland
Category:United States Army officers
Category:United States Navy officers
Category:United States Secretaries of Commerce
Category:United States Secretaries of the Interior
Category:Woodberry Forest School alumni
Category:Yale University alumni | [] | [
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"The text does not provide information on who contested against Morton in a presidential race."
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C_3350784b4af2445198ba3dc7d3912589_0 | Rosemary's Baby (film) | Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects that an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals. Rosemary's Baby earned almost universal acclaim from film critics and won numerous nominations and awards. | Reception | From contemporary reviews, Renata Adler wrote in The New York Times that "The movie--although it is pleasant--doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner." Variety stated, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding." The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "After the miscalculations of Cul de Sac and Dance of the Vampires" Polanski had "returned to the rich vein of Repulsion". The review noted that "Polanski shows an increasing ability to evoke menace and sheer terror in familiar routines (cooking and telephoning, particularly)" and Polanski has shown "his transformation of a cleverly calculated thriller into a serious work of art." Ruth Gordon won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in this film. Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a 99% rating (68 out of 69 reviews), with the site's consensus describing it as "A frightening tale of satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon". In 2014, Rosemary's Baby was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. Rosemary's Baby was one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films, according to his brother-in-law and assistant Jan Harlan. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Mia Farrow as a young (soon pregnant) wife living in Manhattan who comes to suspect that her elderly neighbors are members of a Satanic cult and are grooming her in order to use her baby for their rituals. The film's supporting cast includes John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Angela Dorian, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin.
The film deals with themes related to paranoia, women's liberation, Christianity (Catholicism), and the occult. While it is primarily set in New York City, the majority of principal photography for Rosemary's Baby took place in Los Angeles throughout late 1967. The film was released on June 12, 1968 by Paramount Pictures, and was a box office success, grossing over $30 million in the United States. It received almost universal acclaim and was nominated for several accolades, including multiple Golden Globe Award nominations and two Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress (for Ruth Gordon) and the Golden Globe in the same category. Since its release, Rosemary's Baby has been widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot
Guy Woodhouse, a stage actor, and his wife, Rosemary, move into the Bramford, a large Renaissance Revival apartment building in New York City. They disregard their friend Hutch's warning about the Bramford's dark past with witchcraft and murder.
In the laundry room, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio, a recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly neighbors, have taken in. One night, Terry apparently jumps to her death from the Castevets' 7th-floor apartment, distressing the Castevets. While Guy grows close to the couple, Rosemary finds them annoying and meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry's pendant to Rosemary as a good luck charm, saying it contains "tannis root".
Guy is cast in a prominent play after the lead actor inexplicably goes blind. With his acting career flourishing, Guy wants to have a baby with Rosemary. On the night that they plan to conceive, Minnie brings over individual cups of chocolate mousse for their dessert. When Rosemary complains that it has a chalky "under-taste" and does not finish it, Guy criticizes her as being ungrateful. Rosemary consumes a bit more to mollify him, then discreetly discards the rest. Soon after, she grows dizzy and passes out. In a dreamlike state, Rosemary hallucinates being raped by a demonic presence (Satan) as Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants, all nude, watch. The next morning, Guy explains the scratches covering Rosemary's body by claiming that he did not want to miss "baby night" and had sex with her while she was unconscious. He says he has since cut his nails.
Rosemary becomes pregnant, with the baby due the last week of June. The elated Castevets insist that Rosemary goes to their close friend, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent obstetrician, rather than her own physician, Dr. Hill. During her first trimester, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains and loses weight. By Christmastime, her gaunt appearance alarms her friends and also Hutch, who has been researching the Bramford's history. Before sharing his findings with Rosemary, he falls into a mysterious coma. Rosemary, unable to withstand the pain, insists on seeing Dr. Hill, while Guy argues against it, saying Dr. Sapirstein will be offended. As they argue, the pains suddenly stop and Rosemary feels the baby move.
Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, informs Rosemary that Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and said to give Rosemary a book on witchcraft, All of Them Witches, along with the cryptic message: "The name is an anagram". Rosemary eventually deduces that Roman Castevet is an anagram for Steven Marcato, the son of a former Bramford resident and a reputed Satanist. She suspects that the Castevets and Dr. Sapirstein belong to a Satanic coven and have sinister intentions for her baby. Guy discounts this and later throws the book away, upsetting Rosemary and making her suspicious of him.
Terrified, she goes to Dr. Hill for help. Assuming that she is delusional, he calls Dr. Sapirstein, who arrives with Guy to take her home, threatening if she resists, to have her sent to a mental hospital. Rosemary locks herself into the apartment, but coven members somehow infiltrate and restrain her. Dr. Sapirstein sedates an hysterical Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When she awakens, she is told the baby was stillborn. As Rosemary recovers, she notices her pumped breast milk appears to be saved instead of disposed of. She stops taking her prescribed pills, becoming less groggy. When Rosemary hears an infant crying, Guy claims new tenants with a baby have moved into an apartment one floor up.
Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary discovers a hidden door in the bedroom closet leading directly into Minnie and Roman's apartment. Guy, the Castevets, Dr. Sapirstein, and other coven members are there, gathered around a bassinet draped in black with an upside down cross hanging over it. Peering inside, Rosemary is horrified and demands to know what is wrong with her baby's eyes. Roman proclaims that the child, Adrian, Satan's son and the supposed Antichrist, "has his father's eyes". He urges Rosemary to mother her child, promising her she will not have to join the coven. When Guy attempts to calm her, saying they will be rewarded and will conceive their own children, she spits in his face. After hearing the infant's cries, however, Rosemary gives in to her maternal instincts and gently rocks the cradle.
Cast
Production
Development
In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House published the book in April 1967. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow's character to finish her call.
François Truffaut claimed that Alfred Hitchcock was first offered the chance to direct the film but declined. Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary's Baby. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary's Baby was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it. After negotiations, Paramount agreed to hire Polanski for the project, with a tentative budget of $1.9 million, $150,000 of which would go to Polanski.
Polanski completed the 272-page screenplay for the film in approximately three weeks. Polanski closely modeled it on the original novel and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, with much of it being lifted directly from the source text.
Casting
Casting for Rosemary's Baby began in the summer of 1967 in Los Angeles, California. Polanski originally envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and wanted Tuesday Weld or his own fiancée Sharon Tate to play the role. Jane Fonda, Patty Duke and Goldie Hawn were also reportedly considered for the role.
Since the book had not yet reached bestseller status, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he believed that a bigger name was needed for the lead. Mia Farrow, with a supporting role in Guns at Batasi (1964) and the yet-unreleased A Dandy in Aspic (1968) as her only feature film credits, had an unproven box office track record; however, she had gained wider notice with her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place, and her unexpected marriage to noted singer Frank Sinatra. Despite her waif-like appearance, Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed.
Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned it down. Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes, whom he had met in London. In casting the film's secondary actors, Polanski drew sketches of what he imagined the characters would look like, which were then used by Paramount casting directors to match with potential actors. In the roles of Roman and Minnie Castevet, Polanski cast veteran stage/film actors Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon. Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy was cast as Dr. Sapirstein. (Many years earlier, Bellamy and Blackmer had appeared in the pre-Code 1934 film, This Man Is Mine.)
When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard on the phone is actor Tony Curtis. Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized his voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.
Filming
Principal photography for Rosemary's Baby began on August 21, 1967, in New York City, where location shooting commenced. When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of Fifth Avenue into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it.
By September 1967, the shoot had relocated to California's Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where interior sets of the Bramford apartments had been constructed on sound stages. Some additional location shooting took place in Playa del Rey in October 1967. Farrow recalled that the dream sequence in which her character is attending a dinner party on a yacht was filmed on a vessel near Santa Catalina Island. Though Paramount had initially agreed to spend $1.9 million to make the film, the shoot was overextended due to Polanski's meticulous attention to detail, which resulted in him completing up to fifty takes of single shots. The shoot suffered significant scheduling problems as a result, and ultimately went $400,000 over budget. In November 1967, it was reported that the shoot was over three weeks behind schedule.
The shoot was further disrupted when, midway through filming, Farrow's husband, Frank Sinatra, served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Filming was completed on December 20, 1967, in Los Angeles.
Music
The lullaby played over the intro is the song "Sleep Safe and Warm", composed by Krzysztof Komeda and sung by Mia Farrow. The composition "Für Elise" is also frequently used as background music throughout the film. The original film soundtrack was released in 1968 via Dot Records. Waxwork Records released the soundtrack from the original master tapes in 2014, including Krzysztof Komeda's original work.
Track listing
Release
Critical response
In contemporary reviews, Renata Adler wrote in The New York Times that
"The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner."
Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a delightful witches brew, a bit over-long for my taste, but nearly always absorbing, suspenseful and easier to swallow than Ira Levin's book. Its suggestions of deviltry in a musty and still-respectable old apartment house on Manhattan's upper West Side are more gracefully and appealingly related than in the novel, which I found awfully silly, when it wasn't downright noxious. The very idea of a contemporary case of witchcraft, in which an innocent young housewife is impregnated by the Devil, is to say the least unnerving, particularly when the pregnancy is marked by all degrees of mental and physical pain."
Variety said, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding."
The Monthly Film Bulletin said that "After the miscalculations of Cul de Sac and Dance of the Vampires", Polanski had "returned to the rich vein of Repulsion". The review noted that "Polanski shows an increasing ability to evoke menace and sheer terror in familiar routines (cooking and telephoning, particularly)," and Polanski has shown "his transformation of a cleverly calculated thriller into a serious work of art."
Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; it has an approval rating of 96% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. The site's critics' consensus describes it as "A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
Home media
The Rosemary's Baby DVD, released in 2000 by Paramount Home Video, contains a 23-minute documentary film, Mia and Roman, directed by Shahrokh Hatami, which was shot during the making of the film. The title refers to Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski. The film features footage of Roman Polanski directing the film's cast on set. Hatami was an Iranian photographer who befriended Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate. Mia and Roman was screened originally as a promo film at Hollywood's Lytton Center, and later included as a featurette on the Rosemary's Baby DVD. It is described as a "trippy on-set featurette" and "an odd little bit of cheese."
On October 30, 2012, The Criterion Collection released the film for the first time on Blu-ray.
Legacy
The scene in which Rosemary is raped by Satan was ranked No. 23 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. In 2010, The Guardian ranked the film the second-greatest horror film of all time. In 2014, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The film inaugurated cinema's growing fascination with demons and related themes in the coming decades.
Sequels and remakes
In the 1976 television film Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, Patty Duke starred as Rosemary Woodhouse and Ruth Gordon reprised her role of Minnie Castevet. The film introduced an adult Andrew/Adrian attempting to earn his place as the Antichrist. It was disliked as a sequel by critics and viewers, and its reputation deteriorated over the years. The film is unrelated to the novel's sequel, Son of Rosemary.
A remake of Rosemary's Baby was briefly considered in 2008. The intended producers were Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller. The remake fell through later that same year.
In January 2014, NBC made a four-hour Rosemary's Baby miniseries with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary. The miniseries was filmed in Paris under the direction of Agnieszka Holland.
In 2016, the film was unofficially remade in Turkey under the title Alamet-i-Kiyamet.
The short "Her Only Living Son" from the 2017 horror anthology film XX serves as an unofficial sequel to the story.
In June 2022, Bloody Disgusting stated that the company had received announcement that the film Apartment 7A is secretly a prequel to Rosemary's Baby.
In popular culture
The film inspired the English band Deep Purple to write the song "Why Didn't Rosemary?" for their third album in 1969, after the band had watched the movie while touring the US in 1968. The song's lyrics pose the question, "Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?"
The film was parodied in the 1996 Halloween episode of Roseanne, "Satan, Darling".
See also
List of American films of 1968
Satanic film
Anton LaVey
The Omen
Notes
References
Sources
External links
.
.
. Collection of Rosemary's Baby posters from around the world.
BABY, podcast by Culture.pl's Stories From The Eastern West about the making of the film.
Rosemary's Baby: "It's Alive" – an essay by Ed Park at The Criterion Collection
Category:1968 films
Category:1968 horror films
Category:1960s English-language films
Category:1960s pregnancy films
Category:1960s psychological horror films
Category:1960s supernatural horror films
Category:American pregnancy films
Category:American psychological horror films
Category:American supernatural horror films
Category:The Devil in film
Category:Films about the Antichrist
Category:Films about actors
Category:Films about cults
Category:Films about rape
Category:Films about Satanism
Category:Films about witchcraft
Category:Films based on American horror novels
Category:Films based on works by Ira Levin
Category:Films directed by Roman Polanski
Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
Category:Films scored by Krzysztof Komeda
Category:Films set in 1965
Category:Films set in 1966
Category:Films set in apartment buildings
Category:Films set in New York City
Category:Films shot in Los Angeles
Category:Films shot in New York City
Category:Films with screenplays by Roman Polanski
Category:Gothic horror films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Photoplay Awards film of the year winners
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:1960s American films | [] | [
"Rosemary's Baby received positive reviews. Renata Adler from The New York Times viewed the movie as \"pleasant,\" albeit potentially too plausible. Variety regarded it as an excellent film that holds attention without the need for explicit violence or gore, praising Farrow's performance and calling it a triumph for director Roman Polanski. The Monthly Film Bulletin saw it as a return to form for Polanski, recognizing his ability to evoke an aura of menace and terror in familiar routines. The performance of Ruth Gordon in the film earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film is now considered a classic, with a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Library of Congress described the movie as \"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant\" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It was also a favorite film of celebrated filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.",
"Yes, Ruth Gordon won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Rosemary's Baby.",
"There are a few other interesting aspects in the article. For example, it's noted that in addition to its critical acclaim and awards, Rosemary's Baby was also marked for its significance in the industry by the Library of Congress, which selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Another interesting fact is that renowned filmmaker Stanley Kubrick counted Rosemary's Baby among his favorite films, according to his brother-in-law and assistant Jan Harlan.",
"Yes, the critics had a lot to say about the film. Renata Adler from The New York Times described the movie as \"pleasant,\" and suggested it might be too plausible for viewers. Variety hailed it as an excellent adaptation of Ira Levin's novel. It praised the director Roman Polanski for crafting a film that holds the viewers' attention without relying on explicit violence or gore, and commended Mia Farrow for her outstanding performance. The Monthly Film Bulletin suggested Polanski demonstrated an increased ability to create menace and terror in ordinary routines. The movie is also rated highly on the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, where it has a 99% approval rating based on 68 reviews. The site's consensus describes it as a disturbing, convincing, and committed tale of satanism and pregnancy.",
"According to the provided text, the only additional interesting fact about this movie is that Stanley Kubrick, a renowned filmmaker, counted Rosemary's Baby among his favorite films. This information came from Jan Harlan, Kubrick's brother-in-law and assistant."
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C_3350784b4af2445198ba3dc7d3912589_1 | Rosemary's Baby (film) | Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on the bestselling 1967 novel of the same name by Ira Levin. The cast features Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Angela Dorian, Clay Tanner, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin. The film chronicles the story of a pregnant woman who suspects that an evil cult wants to take her baby for use in their rituals. Rosemary's Baby earned almost universal acclaim from film critics and won numerous nominations and awards. | Script | In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House released the publication. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow to finish her call. Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it. The script was modeled very closely on the original novel and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, so much so that nearly every line of dialogue was taken from the novel's text. Author Ira Levin claimed that during a scene in which Guy mentions wanting to buy a particular shirt advertised in The New Yorker, Polanski was unable to find the specific issue with the shirt advertised and phoned Levin for help. Levin, who had assumed while writing that any given issue of The New Yorker would contain an ad for men's shirts, admitted that he had made it up. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Rosemary's Baby is a 1968 American psychological horror film written and directed by Roman Polanski, based on Ira Levin's 1967 novel of the same name. The film stars Mia Farrow as a young (soon pregnant) wife living in Manhattan who comes to suspect that her elderly neighbors are members of a Satanic cult and are grooming her in order to use her baby for their rituals. The film's supporting cast includes John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy, Patsy Kelly, Angela Dorian, and, in his feature film debut, Charles Grodin.
The film deals with themes related to paranoia, women's liberation, Christianity (Catholicism), and the occult. While it is primarily set in New York City, the majority of principal photography for Rosemary's Baby took place in Los Angeles throughout late 1967. The film was released on June 12, 1968 by Paramount Pictures, and was a box office success, grossing over $30 million in the United States. It received almost universal acclaim and was nominated for several accolades, including multiple Golden Globe Award nominations and two Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actress (for Ruth Gordon) and the Golden Globe in the same category. Since its release, Rosemary's Baby has been widely regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Plot
Guy Woodhouse, a stage actor, and his wife, Rosemary, move into the Bramford, a large Renaissance Revival apartment building in New York City. They disregard their friend Hutch's warning about the Bramford's dark past with witchcraft and murder.
In the laundry room, Rosemary meets a young woman, Terry Gionoffrio, a recovering drug addict whom Minnie and Roman Castevet, the Woodhouses' elderly neighbors, have taken in. One night, Terry apparently jumps to her death from the Castevets' 7th-floor apartment, distressing the Castevets. While Guy grows close to the couple, Rosemary finds them annoying and meddlesome. Minnie gives Terry's pendant to Rosemary as a good luck charm, saying it contains "tannis root".
Guy is cast in a prominent play after the lead actor inexplicably goes blind. With his acting career flourishing, Guy wants to have a baby with Rosemary. On the night that they plan to conceive, Minnie brings over individual cups of chocolate mousse for their dessert. When Rosemary complains that it has a chalky "under-taste" and does not finish it, Guy criticizes her as being ungrateful. Rosemary consumes a bit more to mollify him, then discreetly discards the rest. Soon after, she grows dizzy and passes out. In a dreamlike state, Rosemary hallucinates being raped by a demonic presence (Satan) as Guy, the Castevets, and other Bramford tenants, all nude, watch. The next morning, Guy explains the scratches covering Rosemary's body by claiming that he did not want to miss "baby night" and had sex with her while she was unconscious. He says he has since cut his nails.
Rosemary becomes pregnant, with the baby due the last week of June. The elated Castevets insist that Rosemary goes to their close friend, Dr. Abraham Sapirstein, a prominent obstetrician, rather than her own physician, Dr. Hill. During her first trimester, Rosemary suffers severe abdominal pains and loses weight. By Christmastime, her gaunt appearance alarms her friends and also Hutch, who has been researching the Bramford's history. Before sharing his findings with Rosemary, he falls into a mysterious coma. Rosemary, unable to withstand the pain, insists on seeing Dr. Hill, while Guy argues against it, saying Dr. Sapirstein will be offended. As they argue, the pains suddenly stop and Rosemary feels the baby move.
Three months later, Hutch's friend, Grace Cardiff, informs Rosemary that Hutch is dead. Before dying, he briefly regained consciousness and said to give Rosemary a book on witchcraft, All of Them Witches, along with the cryptic message: "The name is an anagram". Rosemary eventually deduces that Roman Castevet is an anagram for Steven Marcato, the son of a former Bramford resident and a reputed Satanist. She suspects that the Castevets and Dr. Sapirstein belong to a Satanic coven and have sinister intentions for her baby. Guy discounts this and later throws the book away, upsetting Rosemary and making her suspicious of him.
Terrified, she goes to Dr. Hill for help. Assuming that she is delusional, he calls Dr. Sapirstein, who arrives with Guy to take her home, threatening if she resists, to have her sent to a mental hospital. Rosemary locks herself into the apartment, but coven members somehow infiltrate and restrain her. Dr. Sapirstein sedates an hysterical Rosemary, who goes into labor and gives birth. When she awakens, she is told the baby was stillborn. As Rosemary recovers, she notices her pumped breast milk appears to be saved instead of disposed of. She stops taking her prescribed pills, becoming less groggy. When Rosemary hears an infant crying, Guy claims new tenants with a baby have moved into an apartment one floor up.
Believing her baby is alive, Rosemary discovers a hidden door in the bedroom closet leading directly into Minnie and Roman's apartment. Guy, the Castevets, Dr. Sapirstein, and other coven members are there, gathered around a bassinet draped in black with an upside down cross hanging over it. Peering inside, Rosemary is horrified and demands to know what is wrong with her baby's eyes. Roman proclaims that the child, Adrian, Satan's son and the supposed Antichrist, "has his father's eyes". He urges Rosemary to mother her child, promising her she will not have to join the coven. When Guy attempts to calm her, saying they will be rewarded and will conceive their own children, she spits in his face. After hearing the infant's cries, however, Rosemary gives in to her maternal instincts and gently rocks the cradle.
Cast
Production
Development
In Rosemary's Baby: A Retrospective, a featurette on the DVD release of the film, screenwriter/director Roman Polanski, Paramount Pictures executive Robert Evans, and production designer Richard Sylbert reminisce at length about the production. Evans recalled William Castle brought him the galley proofs of the book and asked him to purchase the film rights even before Random House published the book in April 1967. The studio head recognized the commercial potential of the project and agreed with the stipulation that Castle, who had a reputation for low-budget horror films, could produce but not direct the film adaptation. He makes a cameo appearance as the man at the phone booth waiting for Mia Farrow's character to finish her call.
François Truffaut claimed that Alfred Hitchcock was first offered the chance to direct the film but declined. Evans admired Polanski's European films and hoped he could convince him to make his American debut with Rosemary's Baby. He knew the director was a ski buff who was anxious to make a film with the sport as its basis, so he sent him the script for Downhill Racer along with the galleys for Rosemary's Baby. Polanski read the latter book non-stop through the night and called Evans the following morning to tell him he thought Rosemary's Baby was the more interesting project, and would like the opportunity to write as well as direct it. After negotiations, Paramount agreed to hire Polanski for the project, with a tentative budget of $1.9 million, $150,000 of which would go to Polanski.
Polanski completed the 272-page screenplay for the film in approximately three weeks. Polanski closely modeled it on the original novel and incorporated large sections of the novel's dialogue and details, with much of it being lifted directly from the source text.
Casting
Casting for Rosemary's Baby began in the summer of 1967 in Los Angeles, California. Polanski originally envisioned Rosemary as a robust, full-figured, girl-next-door type, and wanted Tuesday Weld or his own fiancée Sharon Tate to play the role. Jane Fonda, Patty Duke and Goldie Hawn were also reportedly considered for the role.
Since the book had not yet reached bestseller status, Evans was unsure the title alone would guarantee an audience for the film, and he believed that a bigger name was needed for the lead. Mia Farrow, with a supporting role in Guns at Batasi (1964) and the yet-unreleased A Dandy in Aspic (1968) as her only feature film credits, had an unproven box office track record; however, she had gained wider notice with her role as Allison MacKenzie in the popular television series Peyton Place, and her unexpected marriage to noted singer Frank Sinatra. Despite her waif-like appearance, Polanski agreed to cast her. Her acceptance incensed Sinatra, who had demanded she forgo her career when they wed.
Robert Redford was the first choice for the role of Guy Woodhouse, but he turned it down. Jack Nicholson was considered briefly before Polanski suggested John Cassavetes, whom he had met in London. In casting the film's secondary actors, Polanski drew sketches of what he imagined the characters would look like, which were then used by Paramount casting directors to match with potential actors. In the roles of Roman and Minnie Castevet, Polanski cast veteran stage/film actors Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon. Veteran actor Ralph Bellamy was cast as Dr. Sapirstein. (Many years earlier, Bellamy and Blackmer had appeared in the pre-Code 1934 film, This Man Is Mine.)
When Rosemary calls Donald Baumgart, the actor who goes blind and is replaced by Guy, the voice heard on the phone is actor Tony Curtis. Farrow, who had not been told who would be reading Baumgart's lines, recognized his voice but could not place it. The slight confusion she displays throughout the call was exactly what Polanski hoped to capture by not revealing Curtis' identity in advance.
Filming
Principal photography for Rosemary's Baby began on August 21, 1967, in New York City, where location shooting commenced. When Farrow was reluctant to film a scene that depicted a dazed and preoccupied Rosemary wandering into the middle of Fifth Avenue into oncoming traffic, Polanski pointed to her pregnancy padding and reassured her, "no one's going to hit a pregnant woman". The scene was successfully shot with Farrow walking into real traffic and Polanski following, operating the hand-held camera since he was the only one willing to do it.
By September 1967, the shoot had relocated to California's Paramount Studios in Hollywood, where interior sets of the Bramford apartments had been constructed on sound stages. Some additional location shooting took place in Playa del Rey in October 1967. Farrow recalled that the dream sequence in which her character is attending a dinner party on a yacht was filmed on a vessel near Santa Catalina Island. Though Paramount had initially agreed to spend $1.9 million to make the film, the shoot was overextended due to Polanski's meticulous attention to detail, which resulted in him completing up to fifty takes of single shots. The shoot suffered significant scheduling problems as a result, and ultimately went $400,000 over budget. In November 1967, it was reported that the shoot was over three weeks behind schedule.
The shoot was further disrupted when, midway through filming, Farrow's husband, Frank Sinatra, served her divorce papers via a corporate lawyer in front of the cast and crew. In an effort to salvage her relationship, Farrow asked Evans to release her from her contract, but he persuaded her to remain with the project after showing her an hour-long rough cut and assuring her she would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance. Filming was completed on December 20, 1967, in Los Angeles.
Music
The lullaby played over the intro is the song "Sleep Safe and Warm", composed by Krzysztof Komeda and sung by Mia Farrow. The composition "Für Elise" is also frequently used as background music throughout the film. The original film soundtrack was released in 1968 via Dot Records. Waxwork Records released the soundtrack from the original master tapes in 2014, including Krzysztof Komeda's original work.
Track listing
Release
Critical response
In contemporary reviews, Renata Adler wrote in The New York Times that
"The movie—although it is pleasant—doesn't seem to work on any of its dark or powerful terms. I think this is because it is almost too extremely plausible. The quality of the young people's lives seems the quality of lives that one knows, even to the point of finding old people next door to avoid and lean on. One gets very annoyed that they don't catch on sooner."
Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner called the film "a delightful witches brew, a bit over-long for my taste, but nearly always absorbing, suspenseful and easier to swallow than Ira Levin's book. Its suggestions of deviltry in a musty and still-respectable old apartment house on Manhattan's upper West Side are more gracefully and appealingly related than in the novel, which I found awfully silly, when it wasn't downright noxious. The very idea of a contemporary case of witchcraft, in which an innocent young housewife is impregnated by the Devil, is to say the least unnerving, particularly when the pregnancy is marked by all degrees of mental and physical pain."
Variety said, "Several exhilarating milestones are achieved in Rosemary's Baby, an excellent film version of Ira Levin's diabolical chiller novel. Writer-director Roman Polanski has triumphed in his first US-made pic. The film holds attention without explicit violence or gore... Farrow's performance is outstanding."
The Monthly Film Bulletin said that "After the miscalculations of Cul de Sac and Dance of the Vampires", Polanski had "returned to the rich vein of Repulsion". The review noted that "Polanski shows an increasing ability to evoke menace and sheer terror in familiar routines (cooking and telephoning, particularly)," and Polanski has shown "his transformation of a cleverly calculated thriller into a serious work of art."
Today, the film is widely regarded as a classic; it has an approval rating of 96% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 8.80/10. The site's critics' consensus describes it as "A frightening tale of Satanism and pregnancy that is even more disturbing than it sounds thanks to convincing and committed performances by Mia Farrow and Ruth Gordon." Metacritic reports a weighted average score of 96 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Accolades
Home media
The Rosemary's Baby DVD, released in 2000 by Paramount Home Video, contains a 23-minute documentary film, Mia and Roman, directed by Shahrokh Hatami, which was shot during the making of the film. The title refers to Mia Farrow and Roman Polanski. The film features footage of Roman Polanski directing the film's cast on set. Hatami was an Iranian photographer who befriended Polanski and his wife Sharon Tate. Mia and Roman was screened originally as a promo film at Hollywood's Lytton Center, and later included as a featurette on the Rosemary's Baby DVD. It is described as a "trippy on-set featurette" and "an odd little bit of cheese."
On October 30, 2012, The Criterion Collection released the film for the first time on Blu-ray.
Legacy
The scene in which Rosemary is raped by Satan was ranked No. 23 on Bravo's The 100 Scariest Movie Moments. In 2010, The Guardian ranked the film the second-greatest horror film of all time. In 2014, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
The film inaugurated cinema's growing fascination with demons and related themes in the coming decades.
Sequels and remakes
In the 1976 television film Look What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby, Patty Duke starred as Rosemary Woodhouse and Ruth Gordon reprised her role of Minnie Castevet. The film introduced an adult Andrew/Adrian attempting to earn his place as the Antichrist. It was disliked as a sequel by critics and viewers, and its reputation deteriorated over the years. The film is unrelated to the novel's sequel, Son of Rosemary.
A remake of Rosemary's Baby was briefly considered in 2008. The intended producers were Michael Bay, Andrew Form, and Brad Fuller. The remake fell through later that same year.
In January 2014, NBC made a four-hour Rosemary's Baby miniseries with Zoe Saldana as Rosemary. The miniseries was filmed in Paris under the direction of Agnieszka Holland.
In 2016, the film was unofficially remade in Turkey under the title Alamet-i-Kiyamet.
The short "Her Only Living Son" from the 2017 horror anthology film XX serves as an unofficial sequel to the story.
In June 2022, Bloody Disgusting stated that the company had received announcement that the film Apartment 7A is secretly a prequel to Rosemary's Baby.
In popular culture
The film inspired the English band Deep Purple to write the song "Why Didn't Rosemary?" for their third album in 1969, after the band had watched the movie while touring the US in 1968. The song's lyrics pose the question, "Why didn't Rosemary ever take the pill?"
The film was parodied in the 1996 Halloween episode of Roseanne, "Satan, Darling".
See also
List of American films of 1968
Satanic film
Anton LaVey
The Omen
Notes
References
Sources
External links
.
.
. Collection of Rosemary's Baby posters from around the world.
BABY, podcast by Culture.pl's Stories From The Eastern West about the making of the film.
Rosemary's Baby: "It's Alive" – an essay by Ed Park at The Criterion Collection
Category:1968 films
Category:1968 horror films
Category:1960s English-language films
Category:1960s pregnancy films
Category:1960s psychological horror films
Category:1960s supernatural horror films
Category:American pregnancy films
Category:American psychological horror films
Category:American supernatural horror films
Category:The Devil in film
Category:Films about the Antichrist
Category:Films about actors
Category:Films about cults
Category:Films about rape
Category:Films about Satanism
Category:Films about witchcraft
Category:Films based on American horror novels
Category:Films based on works by Ira Levin
Category:Films directed by Roman Polanski
Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Category:Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe-winning performance
Category:Films scored by Krzysztof Komeda
Category:Films set in 1965
Category:Films set in 1966
Category:Films set in apartment buildings
Category:Films set in New York City
Category:Films shot in Los Angeles
Category:Films shot in New York City
Category:Films with screenplays by Roman Polanski
Category:Gothic horror films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Photoplay Awards film of the year winners
Category:United States National Film Registry films
Category:1960s American films | [] | [
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C_6a7d9913f94b427691d40161333edeea_0 | Mary Chapin Carpenter | Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any singles, although 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark each produced four Top 20 hits on the Billboard country singles charts. Carpenter's most successful album to date remains 1992's | Early records and "country" label | Carpenter's first album, "Hometown Girl" was produced by John Jennings and was released in 1987. Though songs from Hometown Girl got play on public and college radio stations, it was not until Columbia began promoting Carpenter as a "country" artist that she found a wider audience. For a long time, Carpenter was ambivalent about this pigeonholing, saying she preferred the term "singer-songwriter" or "slash rocker" (as in country/folk/rock). She told Rolling Stone in 1991, "I've never approached music from a categorization process, so to be a casualty of it is real disconcerting to me". Some music critics argue that Carpenter's style covers a range of influences even broader than those from "country" and "folk". Time critic Richard Corliss described the songs in her album A Place in the World as "reminiscent of early Beatles or rollicking Motown", and one reviewer of Time* Sex* Love* noted the "wash of Beach Boys-style harmonies ... backwards guitar loops" and use of a sitar on one track, all elements not commonly found on a country or folk album. After 1989's State of the Heart, Carpenter released Shooting Straight in the Dark in 1990, which yielded her biggest single up to that point, the Grammy Award-winning "Down at the Twist and Shout". Two years later, Carpenter released the album that, to date, has been her biggest popular success, Come On Come On (1992). The album went quadruple platinum, remaining on the Country Top 100 list for more than 97 weeks, and eventually spawned seven charting singles. Come On Come On was also critically acclaimed; The New York Times's Karen Schoemer wrote that Carpenter had "risen through the country ranks without flash or bravado: no big hair, sequined gowns, teary performances.... Enriched with Ms. Carpenter's subtlety, Come On Come On grows stronger and prettier with every listen." The songs of Come On Come On had the qualities that would come to identify her work: humorous, fast-paced country-rock songs with themes of perseverance, desire, and independence, alternating with slow, introspective ballads that speak to social or relational issues. "Passionate Kisses", a cover of fellow singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams's 1988 song, was the album's third single. Carpenter's version peaked on the U.S. Country chart at No. 4, and was the first of Carpenter's songs to cross over to mainstream pop and adult contemporary charts, charting at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and at No. 11 on Adult Contemporary. The sixth single on Come On Come On, "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", was Carpenter's biggest hit off the album, charting at No. 2 on Billboard's Country chart and at No. 1 on Radio & Records's Country chart. Written by Carpenter and Don Schlitz, the fast-paced song follows a 36-year-old homemaker who leaves her husband, and was inspired by a 1970s series of Geritol commercials in which a man boasts of his wife's seemingly limitless energy and her many accomplishments, then concludes by saying, "My wife ... I think I'll keep her." Carpenter said, "That line has always stuck with me. It's just such a joke." The single received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D. C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles. She broke through with 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark.
Carpenter's most successful album is 1992's Come On Come On, which accounted for seven singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States for shipments of four million copies. After a number of commercially unsuccessful albums throughout the late 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, she exited Columbia for Zoë Records. Her first album for this label was 2007's The Calling. She continued to record for Zoë until departing to her own Lambent Light label in 2015.
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards out of eighteen nominations, including four consecutive wins in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance between 1992 and 1995. She has charted 27 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with her 1994 single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" representing her only number-one single there. Her musical style takes influence from contemporary country and folk, with many of her songs including feminist themes. While largely composed of songs she wrote herself or with longtime producer John Jennings, her discography includes covers of Gene Vincent, Lucinda Williams, and Dire Straits among others.
Biography
Mary Chapin Carpenter was born February 21, 1958, in Princeton, New Jersey. Her father, Chapin Carpenter Jr., was an executive for Life magazine. When she was 12 years old, the family moved to Tokyo, Japan and lived there for about two years, as her father was looking to begin an Asian edition of Life. Her mother, Mary Bowie Robertson, was a folk music singer and guitarist. As a child, Carpenter learned to play her mother's ukulele and classical guitar in addition to writing songs. She was also inspired by her seventh-grade science teacher, who was a guitarist as well. After her family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1974, Carpenter played various folk venues in the area. She also attended Brown University, from which she graduated with a degree in American civilization. Initially she performed cover songs at folk venues, but by 1981 she had begun performing original material as well. During this timespan she befriended John Jennings, a songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. The two began collaborating on music, which led to Jennings suggesting that she pursue a musical career full-time. They put together a demo cassette tape of several of Carpenter's songs and sold it at concerts.
Musical career
19871991: Early years with Columbia Records
Jennings had originally planned to sign Carpenter to an independent label, but the owner of a Washington, D.C. nightclub submitted some of Carpenter's demos to a representative of Columbia Records' Nashville division. This led to her signing with that label in 1987, only two days before she was slated to sign the contract with the other independent label. Columbia released her debut album Hometown Girl in 1987. The label hyphenated her first name as "Mary-Chapin" to indicate that it was a compound given name and lessen the possibility of her being referred to as just Mary. Her albums would continue to punctuate her name in this fashion until 1994. Of the ten songs on Hometown Girl, Carpenter wrote or co-wrote eight. The two exceptions were "Come On Home" and a cover of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train". She had also recorded John Stewart's "Runaway Train" with the intent of including it on the album, but Columbia removed this song because Rosanne Cash had also recorded it and wanted to issue it as a single. Jennings played guitar, synthesizer, piano, bass guitar, and mandolin on the album, while Mark O'Connor contributed on fiddle and Tony Rice on acoustic guitar. Musician Jon Carroll played piano and also provided percussion by shaking a Cream of Wheat can. While the album did not produce any charting singles, it received word of mouth attention in folk music circles, which led to her being booked to perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in addition to serving as an opening act for Emmylou Harris.
Because of her first album's commercial failure, Carpenter sought to make her next one more appealing to country radio. She charted for the first time in early 1989 with "How Do", which ascended to number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The song served as the lead single to her second Columbia album, State of the Heart. The album charted three more singles between 1989 and 1990. First was "Never Had It So Good", a song which Carpenter wrote with Jennings. By the end of 1989, this became her first top-ten hit on Billboard. After it were "Quittin' Time" (co-written by Robb Royer and Roger Linn) and "Something of a Dreamer", which Carpenter wrote by herself. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic thought that Carpenter was "still in transition" between the folk influences of her debut and the more mainstream country sounds of her later albums. She won Top New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music in 1989. At the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991, "Quittin' Time" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Her third Columbia album was 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark. Its first single release was her own composition "You Win Again". After it was a cover of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps' "Right Now". Both of these cuts achieved top-20 peaks on Hot Country Songs upon release. "Down at the Twist and Shout", which featured instrumentation from Cajun band BeauSoleil, peaked at number two in 1991. Released last from the album was the top-20 hit "Going Out Tonight". Folk singer Shawn Colvin, with whom Carpenter would collaborate again a number of times, sang duet vocals on the closing track "The Moon and St. Christopher". Don Dixon played bass guitar and sang backing vocals on the "Right Now" cover, and Matt Rollings contributed on piano. Jennings continued to serve as producer in addition to playing several instruments and contributing backing vocals. Jim Bohen of the Morristown, New Jersey, Daily Record thought that the album was more upbeat than its predecessors, citing "You Win Again" and "Down at the Twist and Shout" as examples. Mike DeGagne of AllMusic thought that the involvements of BeauSoleil and Colvin helped expand Carpenter's sound; he also praised her lyrics on "Halley Came to Jackson" and her vocal delivery on "What You Didn't Say". "Down at the Twist and Shout" accounted for Carpenter's first Grammy Award win in 1992, in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance; the song was also nominated that year for Best Country Song. The same year she won Top Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Association (CMA) awarded her Female Vocalist of the Year in both 1992 and 1993.
19921995: Come On Come On and Stones in the Road
Come On Come On, Carpenter's fourth Columbia album, was also her most commercially successful. A decade after its 1992 release, it was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), honoring shipments of four million copies in the United States. It also charted a total of seven singles between 1992 and 1994. First among these was "I Feel Lucky". Upon its release to country radio, it achieved a peak of number four on Hot Country Songs. The song was also a crossover hit in Canada, reaching top five on the country charts and number sixteen on the Adult Contemporary charts (both then published by RPM). The next release from the album was "Not Too Much to Ask", a duet with Joe Diffie. Following this was a cover of Lucinda Williams' 1989 single "Passionate Kisses". In addition to becoming a top-five country hit, Carpenter's rendition of the song went to number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Adult Contemporary charts, her first entry on either. In 1993, Carpenter joined other female country singers including Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea for a television special on CBS titled The Women of Country.
The next single off Come On Come On was "The Hard Way", followed by a cover of Dire Straits' "The Bug". After it came the top-ten hits "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" and "I Take My Chances". Carpenter co-wrote "I Feel Lucky", "Not Too Much to Ask", "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", and "I Take My Chances" with Don Schlitz, and wrote "The Hard Way" by herself. Come On Come On accounted for a number of Grammy Award wins and nominations for Carpenter. "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses" won in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1993 and 1994 respectively, while "The Hard Way" was nominated by the same association for Best Country Song. Like its predecessor, Come On Come On featured a myriad of musical collaborators. Shawn Colvin provided backing vocals on "The Hard Way", "Passionate Kisses", and the title track, with the Indigo Girls also appearing on the former. In addition, Rosanne Cash provided vocals to "Rhythm of the Blues". Former Sly and the Family Stone member Andy Newmark played drums on three tracks. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly thought the album had more "edge and directness" than its predecessors, and thought that the lyrics had a theme of "women caught between tradition and contemporary roles who realize that the solution lies with their own inner resolve".
Later in 1994, Carpenter released Stones in the Road. Upon its release, it became her only one to reach number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts. Likewise, the lead single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" became her only number one on Hot Country Songs. Follow-up "Tender When I Want to Be" peaked at number six, but the next two singles were less successful. "House of Cards" peaked at 21, while "Why Walk When You Can Fly?" became her first to miss top 40 entirely. Stones in the Road was certified double platinum for American sales of two million copies. Carpenter wrote every song on the album by herself. Among the contributing musicians were drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist Benmont Tench. "Shut Up and Kiss Me" and "Tender When I Want to Be" both featured backing vocals from Trisha Yearwood, while Lee Roy Parnell played slide guitar on both the former and closing track "This Is Love". The title track was inspired by her memories of seeing Robert F. Kennedy's funeral procession when she was young. Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stated that "Carpenter cut back on the number of hooks in her melodies, creating a palette that required closer listening to appreciate". He compared "Tender When I Want to Be" to the work of Bruce Springsteen, and considered "John Doe No. 24" and "The End of My Pirate Days" "moodier" than her previous works. Stones in the Road won Carpenter her first Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards. At the same ceremony, "Shut Up and Kiss Me" won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and was nominated for Best Country Song, thus meaning that Carpenter won the former award in four consecutive years. She also received her first nomination outside the association's country music categories that year, when "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" was nominated for Record of the Year.
19961999: Continuation of Columbia years
In 1996, Carpenter recorded a song titled "Dreamland" for a multi-artist album of lullabies called Til Their Eyes Shine: The Lullaby Album. The same year HarperCollins published the song's lyrics in a children's book also titled Dreamland, with illustrations by Julia Noonan. All profits from sales of the book were donated to the Institute for Intercultural Understanding, a children's advocacy group. Her last studio album to be released in the 1990s was 1997's A Place in the World. As was the case with Stones in the Road, she wrote every song on the album by herself. Carpenter told Russ DeVault of The Atlanta Constitution (now The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) before the album's release that she wished she had more time to record the album because she "likes to tweak things". She also stated that the title track represented a "sense of identity" and "search for fulfillment". Lead single "Let Me into Your Heart" made number eleven on the country music charts. Three singles followed"I Want to Be Your Girlfriend", "The Better to Dream of You", and "Keeping the Faith" but these three were considerably less successful. "Let Me into Your Heart" accounted for a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, her last in that category. Jurek wrote that the album "doesn't offer the deep reflective rewards of Stones in the Road, nor is it quite as kinetic as Come On Come On". Despite this, he thought that it was "well-crafted" and considered "Let Me into Your Heart" to have influences of soul music. After this album, Carpenter stated that she began to feel "malaise" toward the pace of her career. As a result, she deliberately scheduled fewer touring dates in order to allow herself more time spent with family and friends. She also expressed disdain toward A Place in the World, as she felt her management had pressured her into making a "commercially viable" album instead of letting her choose songs she wanted to record. As a result, she hired a new manager named Ron Fierstein, who at the time was also serving in this capacity for Shawn Colvin. Fierstein was supportive of Carpenter's decision to slow the pace of her career, and encouraged her to focus on touring and selecting songs until she felt she was ready to make another album.
In 1999 she released her first greatest hits album Party Doll and Other Favorites. Unlike most greatest hits packages, this consisted mostly of live recordings curated from various concerts and television appearances throughout the 1990s. It also included new studio recordings, which Carpenter and Jennings produced with Blake Chancey. The title track was a cover of Mick Jagger's "Party Doll", from his 1987 album Primitive Cool. Two of the new recordings, "Almost Home" and "Wherever You Are", were issued as singles, with the former becoming her last top-40 country hit. Eli Messinger of Country Standard Time thought that the more up-tempo tracks such as "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "Shut Up and Kiss Me" showed "just how much fun Carpenter can be", while overall praising the album for including the majority of her hit singles.
20002004: Departure from Columbia
Her next Columbia album was 2000's Time* Sex* Love*. Lead single "Simple Life" accounted for her last chart entry to date, peaking at number 53 on Hot Country Songs. According to Carpenter, the asterisks in the title represented an abbreviation of its full name: "Time is the great gift; sex is the great equalizer; love is the great mystery". This was a response that Jennings had to Carpenter when she stated that those three concepts were all represented in the album's lyrical content. Carpenter recorded the album at AIR Studios, a studio in London owned by George Martin. Chancey once again assisted her and Jennings on production duties. She wrote every song on the album, collaborating with Kim Richey, Gary Burr, and Jennings on some tracks. She also said that unlike with A Place in the World, she wanted to focus on making an album that she enjoyed, instead of attempting to find songs which would be successful at radio. Throughout 2000 and 2001, she toured in both the United Kingdom and the United States, with Steve Earle joining her for the latter. Erlewine said of the album that it "found Carpenter departing somewhat from her country-inflected sound and ruminating on relationships and career from a distinctly middle-aged perspective". John Kenyon of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette thought the album was well-produced but considered it too long and lacking in musical variety. During this album's corresponding tour, Carpenter underwent arthroscopic surgery for a knee injury and thus had to perform most of the concerts while seated. She also told Dave Scheiber of the Tampa Bay Times that while the album's songs were positively received in concert, she was disappointed by the lack of radio play and questioned whether she still considered herself a country artist.
In 2002, Carpenter joined Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, and Patty Griffin in a benefit concert for Campaigning for a Landmine Free World, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of landmines left behind in former war zones. This concert was held at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina. She was also named by Habitat for Humanity as the head of their Build Project, which employed women to build houses for the homeless across the United States. Her contract with Columbia ended with her eighth studio album, 2004's Between Here and Gone. Before its release, she stated in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) that the title track was inspired by the death of songwriter Dave Carter. Other songs on the album were inspired by the emotions Carpenter felt after the September 11 attacks. For this album, Carpenter chose session pianist Matt Rollings to produce, as she wanted to achieve a different production style than John Jennings offered. Despite this, Jennings still played several instruments on the album. Other musicians included Mac McAnally, Stuart Duncan, and Viktor Krauss. The album's cover art was painted by Atlanta, Georgia-based painter Donna Mintz, who gave the original art to her as a gift and stated that she often listened to Carpenter's albums for inspiration. Thom Jurek of AllMusic thought the album was "a sophisticated but very accessible recording, pleasant in its tempos and in its lush presentation."
20072014: Zoë Records
After leaving Columbia Records, Carpenter signed with the independent Zoë Records (a division of Rounder Records) in 2006. Her first release for the label was 2007's The Calling. While it accounted for no charting singles, the release reached number ten on the Billboard country albums charts. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2007. Once again she wrote the entire album by herself and co-produced with Rollings. Jurek thought the album had stronger rock music influences than its predecessors due to a heavier use of electric guitar and drums, while saying of the album's lyrics that she "has a hell of a way of looking at life from all sides". Shortly after the album's release Carpenter was hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism, which forced her to cancel all concert dates that year. After being released from the hospital on April 27, 2007, she issued a statement on her website saying she was recovering and planned to tour again in 2008. Once she had recovered she began work on Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas, her first album of Christmas music. This was released in 2008. For this project, Carpenter covered tracks by Robin and Linda Williams and the Red Clay Ramblers. She also included renditions of the carol "Once in Royal David's City" and the African-American spiritual "Children, Go Where I Send Thee", in addition to a number of songs she wrote herself. Jennings returned as producer for this project. She stated that the two intentionally sought to make the recording "spare", and thus did most of the songs with Jennings playing various acoustic instruments and Jon Carroll on piano.
She continued to record for Zoë Records throughout the 2010s, with her next project being The Age of Miracles in 2010. Many of the songs on this album were inspired by the emotions she felt after suffering her embolism, particularly the impact it had on her touring and recording career at the time. In particular, she stated that the track "Iceland" represented the "feelings of loss and darkness and disconnection" she felt while hospitalized, and closing track "The Way I Feel" was about the "resilience" she felt after successfully recovering. Rollings co-produced and contributed on piano and Hammond organ, while Dan Dugmore played steel guitar and twelve-string guitar. The album also featured duets with Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that the album was "a literate and thoughtful set of songs that speak to the concerns of the heart and soul with equal portions of compassion and intelligence", although he thought it might not appeal to fans of Carpenter's more up-tempo work such as "Shut Up and Kiss Me". Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine was less favorable toward the album, praising the lyrics of the title track and "I Put My Ring Back On" but overall criticizing the album's sound as "a pedestrian, coffeehouse blend of hushed acoustic strumming." In July 2010, Carpenter performed "I Feel Lucky" at the Grand Ole Opry before doing a concert at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center to promote The Age of Miracles. Throughout mid-2011, she toured across the United States in support of this album.
Ashes and Roses followed on Zoë in 2012. Two personal life events influenced this album's songs: the death of her father, and her divorce from her husband. James Taylor provided duet vocals on the track "Soul Companion". Jurek called this project "the most confessional record of her career" and praised the use of Hammond organ and mandolin in the production. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post wrote that it had "woeful and beautiful coffeehouse folk songs, decorated with sparing, almost offhanded instrumentation that’s often limited to guitars and pianos." Keefe was less favorable toward the project, criticizing Carpenter's "hushed" vocal tone and the lack of hooks. Her next project was 2013's Songs from the Movie, a collaboration with composer and conductor Vince Mendoza. This consisted of orchestral re-recordings of existing songs in her catalog. After this album's 2014 release, she performed selections from it with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland. Writing for Country Standard Time, Jeffrey B. Remz thought the album needed "a bit more energy" and "veers decidedly towards the precious and pretty side, but sometimes a bit too much so." In 2014, Carpenter's touring schedule included a mix of orchestral performances comprising selections from Songs from the Movie, as well as acoustic sets featuring Jon Carroll, multi-instrumentalist John Doyle, and opening act Tift Merritt.
2015present: Albums on Lambent Light
After leaving the Zoë label, she began recording her next album in 2015 with production work from Dave Cobb. This album, The Things That We Are Made Of, was released in 2016 via Carpenter's own Lambent Light Records label, with distribution rights by Thirty Tigers. In addition to producing the album, Cobb played guitar, Moog synthesizer, and Mellotron. "Something Tamed Something Wild" was selected as the lead single. Carpenter promoted the album with a number of dates throughout 2016, starting with a concert at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., that July. Carpenter said that she intentionally intended for her vocal tracks to be "imperfect", and that she had difficulty "relinquishing control" of production duties. She also said that some of the songs were inspired by her walking her dog through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Prior to the album's release, NPR streamed it online through its First Listen program. Scott Stroud of The Associated Press described Cobb's production as "elegant" and considered it well suited to Carpenter's voice; he also thought that Carpenter's lyrics showed an "unexpectedly poignant turn of phrase". Also in 2015, longtime collaborator John Jennings died of kidney cancer.
Next on Lambent Light was 2018's Sometimes Just the Sky. This album consisted of re-recordings of tracks from each of her previous albums, as well as the title track, the only original composition. English record producer Ethan Johns produced the project, in addition to selecting all of the musicians except for Carpenter's touring guitarist Duke Levine. The musicians recorded the project at Real World Studios, owned by Peter Gabriel. After its release, she embarked on a tour throughout mid-2018 in support. Following this project, she and Johns began work on another album. However, production was put on hiatus in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Carpenter began streaming live acoustic performances online. The second project with Johns, The Dirt and the Stars, was released in August 2020. Also in 2020, she returned to the Wolf Trap where, without an audience present, she performed a 26-song solo acoustic set. This set was recorded as an album and DVD release titled One Night Lonely, which received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album nomination. Once COVID-19 restrictions subsided across the United States, she announced plans to tour with Shawn Colvin in 2021. Due to a shoulder injury, she canceled these tour dates and did not begin touring again until 2022. Her tours in this timespan have included a number of songs from The Dirt and the Stars.
Collaborations and other works
Carpenter has made a myriad of appearances on collaborative albums. One of her first guest appearances was on the Indigo Girls' 1990 album Nomads Indians Saints, where she provided vocals to the track "Hammer and a Nail". She did likewise to Shawn Colvin's "Climb on a Back That's Strong" and Radney Foster's "Nobody Wins", both from 1992. A year later, she joined Billy Ray Cyrus, Kathy Mattea, Tanya Tucker, and Pam Tillis on Dolly Parton's single "Romeo". This song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1994. Another collaboration with Colvin, "One Cool Remove", was released as a single from Colvin's 1994 album Cover Girl. This rendition was a charted single for both artists in the United Kingdom a year later. Also in 1994, Carpenter and Kim Richey sang backing vocals on Tillis' cover of Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room", a single from the album Sweetheart's Dance.
In 1996, she sang a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me" on the multi-artist tribute album Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. This rendition was a minor hit on the Adult Contemporary charts upon release. She sang the song "Dead Man Walking (A Dream Like This)" for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Dead Man Walking. A year later, she covered Dionne Warwick's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for the soundtrack of the movie My Best Friend's Wedding. Carpenter also appeared on bluegrass musician Randy Scruggs' only charted single "It's Only Love", from his 1998 album Crown of Jewels. In 2002, she joined Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris to cover Johnny Cash's "Flesh and Blood" for the tribute album Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. This track received a nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards.
Carpenter is credited as a writer on a number of songs for other artists. These include Cyndi Lauper's "Sally's Pigeons", Wynonna Judd's "Girls with Guitars", Trisha Yearwood's "Where Are You Now", and Terri Clark's "No Fear".
Musical style
Carpenter's music is defined by her folk music influences and lyrical focus. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Carpenter "found favor on country radio in the 1980s and '90s by taking her emotionally intelligent songs to a mass audience." Of her 1980s albums, he stated that "Country radio was hesitant to play her soft, folky, feminist material, but she received good reviews and airplay on more progressive country stations, as well as college radio". In the Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music, Colin Larkin noted the use of electric guitar in her more upbeat material such as "Passionate Kisses" and "The Hard Way", while also referring to "House of Cards" as "thought-provoking". He also stated, "she, together with the likes of Trisha Yearwood, Suzy Bogguss, and Kathy Mattea, has brought fresh melody to an old and sometimes predictable genre." Larry Katz of the Red Deer Advocate contrasted her with Yearwood and Wynonna Judd, noting that unlike those artists, Carpenter usually wrote her songs herself instead of relying on Nashville-based songwriters. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly thought that by being a graduate of an Ivy League college, Carpenter "seemed the least likely female to go the distance on the country charts". Similarly, Katz thought that her upbringing was atypical of country music, which is more commonly associated with demographics pertaining to the rural Southern United States.
Nash also noted the difference between "decidedly noncountry themes like Halley’s Comet and the spiritual life of old shirts" in contrast to her more up-tempo material such as "Down at the Twist and Shout". In a review of Stones in the Road for the same publication, David Browne contrasted that album with Come On Come On, saying of the latter that "her square-jawed voice, leaner lyrics, and the sturdy-as-a-wooden-fence folk rock combined to make a deserved[...]breakthrough." He also said of her writing style that Carpenter "sounds like someone who sits down and thinks about it — a lot — before committing it to song. Not since the heyday of Gordon Lightfoot has a singer-songwriter been so damn reasonable." Mike DeGagne of AllMusic said of Carpenter's lyrics that she "portray[s] maturely the perils of romance and heartbreak from a female perspective". Writing for American Songwriter, Deborah Evans Price noted themes of feminism due to many of her songs being about single women attempting to overcome setbacks in her life; of this, Carpenter stated that "I've just been kind of writing for me." Similarly, Nash stated that many of the songs on Shooting Straight in the Dark featured women protagonists who "take matters into their own hands". Eli Messinger of Country Standard Time described her singing voice as having "empathic clarity and force", particularly on "Passionate Kisses" and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her". He also stated that the former song had a theme of "desire", and the latter a "call to self-fulfillment". Keefe found influences of folk and country pop in her 1990s albums, but thought that much of her work in the 21st century was "mixed" due to a lack of uptempo material and lyrical themes which he considered too similar to each other. He described the stronger tracks on these albums as appealing to adult album alternative formats.
Personal life
Carpenter was single for most of her recording career. In a 1994 profile, Entertainment Weekly referred to Carpenter as "a spokes-singer for the thirtysomething single woman". On June 1, 2002, she married Timmy Smith, a general contractor then working in Batesville, Virginia. Actress Sissy Spacek and singer Dave Matthews were in attendance at the wedding. By 2007, the couple lived on a farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia. The couple divorced shortly before the release of Ashes and Roses, at which point Carpenter continued to live on the farm. That album's track "What to Keep and What to Throw Away" was inspired by her divorce from Smith.
Carpenter was the author of a column in The Washington Times from December 2008 to March 2009 in which she discussed topics related to music and politics. Ben Walsh of The Independent cited this, along with her involvements in various charities, as examples of Carpenter's liberal political leanings. Relatedly, she told The Buffalo News in 1995 that she considered herself to be politically liberal; she also stated that "it seems as if the Republicans co-opted the entire country music community. In fact, a lot of country artists are Democrats."
Awards
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, and two Country Music Association awards.
Discography
Studio albums
Hometown Girl (1987)
State of the Heart (1989)
Shooting Straight in the Dark (1990)
Come On Come On (1992)
Stones in the Road (1994)
A Place in the World (1996)
Time* Sex* Love* (2001)
Between Here and Gone (2004)
The Calling (2007)
Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas (2008)
The Age of Miracles (2010)
Ashes and Roses (2012)
Songs from the Movie (2014)
The Things That We Are Made Of (2016)
Sometimes Just the Sky (2018)
The Dirt and the Stars (2020)
Notes
References
External links
Category:1958 births
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American women country singers
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Country musicians from New Jersey
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Guitarists from New Jersey
Category:Living people
Category:New Jersey Democrats
Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey
Category:Princeton Day School alumni
Category:Taft School alumni
Category:Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Category:Virginia Democrats
Category:The Washington Times people
Category:Zoë Records artists
Category:20th-century American women guitarists
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:21st-century American women singers
Category:Singer-songwriters from Virginia
Category:20th-century American women singers
Category:21st-century American women guitarists
Category:21st-century American guitarists
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:21st-century American singers | [] | null | null |
C_6a7d9913f94b427691d40161333edeea_1 | Mary Chapin Carpenter | Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D.C. clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records, who marketed her as a country singer. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any singles, although 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark each produced four Top 20 hits on the Billboard country singles charts. Carpenter's most successful album to date remains 1992's | Biography | Carpenter was born in Princeton, New Jersey, to Chapin Carpenter Jr., a Life Magazine executive, and Mary Bowie Robertson. Carpenter lived in Japan from 1969 to 1971 before moving to Washington, D.C. She attended Princeton Day School, a private coeducational prep school, before graduating from The Taft School in 1976. Carpenter described her childhood as "pretty typical suburban", with her musical interests defined chiefly by her sisters' albums of artists such as The Mamas & the Papas, The Beatles, and Judy Collins. When Carpenter was 16 her parents divorced, an event that affected Carpenter and that she wrote about in her song "House of Cards". Carpenter spent much of her time in high school playing the guitar and piano; while at Princeton Day School, her "classmates threatened to cut her guitar strings if she played 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' one more time." Despite her interest in music, Carpenter never considered performing publicly until, shortly after graduating from Taft, her father suggested that she perform at a local open-mic bar, a stressful experience for the shy Carpenter, who recalled, "I thought I was going to barf." Carpenter also hosted an open-mic night at a bar in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC for a number of years. Carpenter graduated from Brown University in 1981 with a degree in American Civilization. Carpenter played some summer sets in Washington's music scene, where she met guitarist John Jennings, who would become her producer and long-time collaborator. However, she considered music a hobby and planned on getting a "real job". She briefly quit performing, but after several job interviews decided to return to music. Carpenter was persuaded by Jennings to play original material instead of covers. Within a few years, she landed a manager and recorded a demo tape that led to a deal with Columbia Records. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958) is an American country and folk music singer-songwriter. Carpenter spent several years singing in Washington, D. C.-area clubs before signing in the late 1980s with Columbia Records. Carpenter's first album, 1987's Hometown Girl, did not produce any charting singles. She broke through with 1989's State of the Heart and 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark.
Carpenter's most successful album is 1992's Come On Come On, which accounted for seven singles and was certified quadruple platinum in the United States for shipments of four million copies. After a number of commercially unsuccessful albums throughout the late 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century, she exited Columbia for Zoë Records. Her first album for this label was 2007's The Calling. She continued to record for Zoë until departing to her own Lambent Light label in 2015.
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards out of eighteen nominations, including four consecutive wins in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance between 1992 and 1995. She has charted 27 times on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, with her 1994 single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" representing her only number-one single there. Her musical style takes influence from contemporary country and folk, with many of her songs including feminist themes. While largely composed of songs she wrote herself or with longtime producer John Jennings, her discography includes covers of Gene Vincent, Lucinda Williams, and Dire Straits among others.
Biography
Mary Chapin Carpenter was born February 21, 1958, in Princeton, New Jersey. Her father, Chapin Carpenter Jr., was an executive for Life magazine. When she was 12 years old, the family moved to Tokyo, Japan and lived there for about two years, as her father was looking to begin an Asian edition of Life. Her mother, Mary Bowie Robertson, was a folk music singer and guitarist. As a child, Carpenter learned to play her mother's ukulele and classical guitar in addition to writing songs. She was also inspired by her seventh-grade science teacher, who was a guitarist as well. After her family moved to Washington, D.C., in 1974, Carpenter played various folk venues in the area. She also attended Brown University, from which she graduated with a degree in American civilization. Initially she performed cover songs at folk venues, but by 1981 she had begun performing original material as well. During this timespan she befriended John Jennings, a songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. The two began collaborating on music, which led to Jennings suggesting that she pursue a musical career full-time. They put together a demo cassette tape of several of Carpenter's songs and sold it at concerts.
Musical career
19871991: Early years with Columbia Records
Jennings had originally planned to sign Carpenter to an independent label, but the owner of a Washington, D.C. nightclub submitted some of Carpenter's demos to a representative of Columbia Records' Nashville division. This led to her signing with that label in 1987, only two days before she was slated to sign the contract with the other independent label. Columbia released her debut album Hometown Girl in 1987. The label hyphenated her first name as "Mary-Chapin" to indicate that it was a compound given name and lessen the possibility of her being referred to as just Mary. Her albums would continue to punctuate her name in this fashion until 1994. Of the ten songs on Hometown Girl, Carpenter wrote or co-wrote eight. The two exceptions were "Come On Home" and a cover of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train". She had also recorded John Stewart's "Runaway Train" with the intent of including it on the album, but Columbia removed this song because Rosanne Cash had also recorded it and wanted to issue it as a single. Jennings played guitar, synthesizer, piano, bass guitar, and mandolin on the album, while Mark O'Connor contributed on fiddle and Tony Rice on acoustic guitar. Musician Jon Carroll played piano and also provided percussion by shaking a Cream of Wheat can. While the album did not produce any charting singles, it received word of mouth attention in folk music circles, which led to her being booked to perform at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in addition to serving as an opening act for Emmylou Harris.
Because of her first album's commercial failure, Carpenter sought to make her next one more appealing to country radio. She charted for the first time in early 1989 with "How Do", which ascended to number 19 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The song served as the lead single to her second Columbia album, State of the Heart. The album charted three more singles between 1989 and 1990. First was "Never Had It So Good", a song which Carpenter wrote with Jennings. By the end of 1989, this became her first top-ten hit on Billboard. After it were "Quittin' Time" (co-written by Robb Royer and Roger Linn) and "Something of a Dreamer", which Carpenter wrote by herself. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic thought that Carpenter was "still in transition" between the folk influences of her debut and the more mainstream country sounds of her later albums. She won Top New Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music in 1989. At the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991, "Quittin' Time" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance.
Her third Columbia album was 1990's Shooting Straight in the Dark. Its first single release was her own composition "You Win Again". After it was a cover of Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps' "Right Now". Both of these cuts achieved top-20 peaks on Hot Country Songs upon release. "Down at the Twist and Shout", which featured instrumentation from Cajun band BeauSoleil, peaked at number two in 1991. Released last from the album was the top-20 hit "Going Out Tonight". Folk singer Shawn Colvin, with whom Carpenter would collaborate again a number of times, sang duet vocals on the closing track "The Moon and St. Christopher". Don Dixon played bass guitar and sang backing vocals on the "Right Now" cover, and Matt Rollings contributed on piano. Jennings continued to serve as producer in addition to playing several instruments and contributing backing vocals. Jim Bohen of the Morristown, New Jersey, Daily Record thought that the album was more upbeat than its predecessors, citing "You Win Again" and "Down at the Twist and Shout" as examples. Mike DeGagne of AllMusic thought that the involvements of BeauSoleil and Colvin helped expand Carpenter's sound; he also praised her lyrics on "Halley Came to Jackson" and her vocal delivery on "What You Didn't Say". "Down at the Twist and Shout" accounted for Carpenter's first Grammy Award win in 1992, in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance; the song was also nominated that year for Best Country Song. The same year she won Top Female Vocalist from the Academy of Country Music. The Country Music Association (CMA) awarded her Female Vocalist of the Year in both 1992 and 1993.
19921995: Come On Come On and Stones in the Road
Come On Come On, Carpenter's fourth Columbia album, was also her most commercially successful. A decade after its 1992 release, it was certified quadruple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), honoring shipments of four million copies in the United States. It also charted a total of seven singles between 1992 and 1994. First among these was "I Feel Lucky". Upon its release to country radio, it achieved a peak of number four on Hot Country Songs. The song was also a crossover hit in Canada, reaching top five on the country charts and number sixteen on the Adult Contemporary charts (both then published by RPM). The next release from the album was "Not Too Much to Ask", a duet with Joe Diffie. Following this was a cover of Lucinda Williams' 1989 single "Passionate Kisses". In addition to becoming a top-five country hit, Carpenter's rendition of the song went to number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the Adult Contemporary charts, her first entry on either. In 1993, Carpenter joined other female country singers including Patty Loveless and Kathy Mattea for a television special on CBS titled The Women of Country.
The next single off Come On Come On was "The Hard Way", followed by a cover of Dire Straits' "The Bug". After it came the top-ten hits "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" and "I Take My Chances". Carpenter co-wrote "I Feel Lucky", "Not Too Much to Ask", "He Thinks He'll Keep Her", and "I Take My Chances" with Don Schlitz, and wrote "The Hard Way" by herself. Come On Come On accounted for a number of Grammy Award wins and nominations for Carpenter. "I Feel Lucky" and "Passionate Kisses" won in the category of Best Female Country Vocal Performance in 1993 and 1994 respectively, while "The Hard Way" was nominated by the same association for Best Country Song. Like its predecessor, Come On Come On featured a myriad of musical collaborators. Shawn Colvin provided backing vocals on "The Hard Way", "Passionate Kisses", and the title track, with the Indigo Girls also appearing on the former. In addition, Rosanne Cash provided vocals to "Rhythm of the Blues". Former Sly and the Family Stone member Andy Newmark played drums on three tracks. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly thought the album had more "edge and directness" than its predecessors, and thought that the lyrics had a theme of "women caught between tradition and contemporary roles who realize that the solution lies with their own inner resolve".
Later in 1994, Carpenter released Stones in the Road. Upon its release, it became her only one to reach number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts. Likewise, the lead single "Shut Up and Kiss Me" became her only number one on Hot Country Songs. Follow-up "Tender When I Want to Be" peaked at number six, but the next two singles were less successful. "House of Cards" peaked at 21, while "Why Walk When You Can Fly?" became her first to miss top 40 entirely. Stones in the Road was certified double platinum for American sales of two million copies. Carpenter wrote every song on the album by herself. Among the contributing musicians were drummer Kenny Aronoff and keyboardist Benmont Tench. "Shut Up and Kiss Me" and "Tender When I Want to Be" both featured backing vocals from Trisha Yearwood, while Lee Roy Parnell played slide guitar on both the former and closing track "This Is Love". The title track was inspired by her memories of seeing Robert F. Kennedy's funeral procession when she was young. Reviewing the album for AllMusic, Thom Jurek stated that "Carpenter cut back on the number of hooks in her melodies, creating a palette that required closer listening to appreciate". He compared "Tender When I Want to Be" to the work of Bruce Springsteen, and considered "John Doe No. 24" and "The End of My Pirate Days" "moodier" than her previous works. Stones in the Road won Carpenter her first Grammy Award for Best Country Album at the 37th Annual Grammy Awards. At the same ceremony, "Shut Up and Kiss Me" won Best Female Country Vocal Performance and was nominated for Best Country Song, thus meaning that Carpenter won the former award in four consecutive years. She also received her first nomination outside the association's country music categories that year, when "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" was nominated for Record of the Year.
19961999: Continuation of Columbia years
In 1996, Carpenter recorded a song titled "Dreamland" for a multi-artist album of lullabies called Til Their Eyes Shine: The Lullaby Album. The same year HarperCollins published the song's lyrics in a children's book also titled Dreamland, with illustrations by Julia Noonan. All profits from sales of the book were donated to the Institute for Intercultural Understanding, a children's advocacy group. Her last studio album to be released in the 1990s was 1997's A Place in the World. As was the case with Stones in the Road, she wrote every song on the album by herself. Carpenter told Russ DeVault of The Atlanta Constitution (now The Atlanta Journal-Constitution) before the album's release that she wished she had more time to record the album because she "likes to tweak things". She also stated that the title track represented a "sense of identity" and "search for fulfillment". Lead single "Let Me into Your Heart" made number eleven on the country music charts. Three singles followed"I Want to Be Your Girlfriend", "The Better to Dream of You", and "Keeping the Faith" but these three were considerably less successful. "Let Me into Your Heart" accounted for a Grammy nomination for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, her last in that category. Jurek wrote that the album "doesn't offer the deep reflective rewards of Stones in the Road, nor is it quite as kinetic as Come On Come On". Despite this, he thought that it was "well-crafted" and considered "Let Me into Your Heart" to have influences of soul music. After this album, Carpenter stated that she began to feel "malaise" toward the pace of her career. As a result, she deliberately scheduled fewer touring dates in order to allow herself more time spent with family and friends. She also expressed disdain toward A Place in the World, as she felt her management had pressured her into making a "commercially viable" album instead of letting her choose songs she wanted to record. As a result, she hired a new manager named Ron Fierstein, who at the time was also serving in this capacity for Shawn Colvin. Fierstein was supportive of Carpenter's decision to slow the pace of her career, and encouraged her to focus on touring and selecting songs until she felt she was ready to make another album.
In 1999 she released her first greatest hits album Party Doll and Other Favorites. Unlike most greatest hits packages, this consisted mostly of live recordings curated from various concerts and television appearances throughout the 1990s. It also included new studio recordings, which Carpenter and Jennings produced with Blake Chancey. The title track was a cover of Mick Jagger's "Party Doll", from his 1987 album Primitive Cool. Two of the new recordings, "Almost Home" and "Wherever You Are", were issued as singles, with the former becoming her last top-40 country hit. Eli Messinger of Country Standard Time thought that the more up-tempo tracks such as "Down at the Twist and Shout" and "Shut Up and Kiss Me" showed "just how much fun Carpenter can be", while overall praising the album for including the majority of her hit singles.
20002004: Departure from Columbia
Her next Columbia album was 2000's Time* Sex* Love*. Lead single "Simple Life" accounted for her last chart entry to date, peaking at number 53 on Hot Country Songs. According to Carpenter, the asterisks in the title represented an abbreviation of its full name: "Time is the great gift; sex is the great equalizer; love is the great mystery". This was a response that Jennings had to Carpenter when she stated that those three concepts were all represented in the album's lyrical content. Carpenter recorded the album at AIR Studios, a studio in London owned by George Martin. Chancey once again assisted her and Jennings on production duties. She wrote every song on the album, collaborating with Kim Richey, Gary Burr, and Jennings on some tracks. She also said that unlike with A Place in the World, she wanted to focus on making an album that she enjoyed, instead of attempting to find songs which would be successful at radio. Throughout 2000 and 2001, she toured in both the United Kingdom and the United States, with Steve Earle joining her for the latter. Erlewine said of the album that it "found Carpenter departing somewhat from her country-inflected sound and ruminating on relationships and career from a distinctly middle-aged perspective". John Kenyon of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette thought the album was well-produced but considered it too long and lacking in musical variety. During this album's corresponding tour, Carpenter underwent arthroscopic surgery for a knee injury and thus had to perform most of the concerts while seated. She also told Dave Scheiber of the Tampa Bay Times that while the album's songs were positively received in concert, she was disappointed by the lack of radio play and questioned whether she still considered herself a country artist.
In 2002, Carpenter joined Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn, and Patty Griffin in a benefit concert for Campaigning for a Landmine Free World, an organization dedicated to raising awareness of landmines left behind in former war zones. This concert was held at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, North Carolina. She was also named by Habitat for Humanity as the head of their Build Project, which employed women to build houses for the homeless across the United States. Her contract with Columbia ended with her eighth studio album, 2004's Between Here and Gone. Before its release, she stated in an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) that the title track was inspired by the death of songwriter Dave Carter. Other songs on the album were inspired by the emotions Carpenter felt after the September 11 attacks. For this album, Carpenter chose session pianist Matt Rollings to produce, as she wanted to achieve a different production style than John Jennings offered. Despite this, Jennings still played several instruments on the album. Other musicians included Mac McAnally, Stuart Duncan, and Viktor Krauss. The album's cover art was painted by Atlanta, Georgia-based painter Donna Mintz, who gave the original art to her as a gift and stated that she often listened to Carpenter's albums for inspiration. Thom Jurek of AllMusic thought the album was "a sophisticated but very accessible recording, pleasant in its tempos and in its lush presentation."
20072014: Zoë Records
After leaving Columbia Records, Carpenter signed with the independent Zoë Records (a division of Rounder Records) in 2006. Her first release for the label was 2007's The Calling. While it accounted for no charting singles, the release reached number ten on the Billboard country albums charts. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 2007. Once again she wrote the entire album by herself and co-produced with Rollings. Jurek thought the album had stronger rock music influences than its predecessors due to a heavier use of electric guitar and drums, while saying of the album's lyrics that she "has a hell of a way of looking at life from all sides". Shortly after the album's release Carpenter was hospitalized for a pulmonary embolism, which forced her to cancel all concert dates that year. After being released from the hospital on April 27, 2007, she issued a statement on her website saying she was recovering and planned to tour again in 2008. Once she had recovered she began work on Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas, her first album of Christmas music. This was released in 2008. For this project, Carpenter covered tracks by Robin and Linda Williams and the Red Clay Ramblers. She also included renditions of the carol "Once in Royal David's City" and the African-American spiritual "Children, Go Where I Send Thee", in addition to a number of songs she wrote herself. Jennings returned as producer for this project. She stated that the two intentionally sought to make the recording "spare", and thus did most of the songs with Jennings playing various acoustic instruments and Jon Carroll on piano.
She continued to record for Zoë Records throughout the 2010s, with her next project being The Age of Miracles in 2010. Many of the songs on this album were inspired by the emotions she felt after suffering her embolism, particularly the impact it had on her touring and recording career at the time. In particular, she stated that the track "Iceland" represented the "feelings of loss and darkness and disconnection" she felt while hospitalized, and closing track "The Way I Feel" was about the "resilience" she felt after successfully recovering. Rollings co-produced and contributed on piano and Hammond organ, while Dan Dugmore played steel guitar and twelve-string guitar. The album also featured duets with Alison Krauss and Vince Gill. Mark Deming of AllMusic wrote that the album was "a literate and thoughtful set of songs that speak to the concerns of the heart and soul with equal portions of compassion and intelligence", although he thought it might not appeal to fans of Carpenter's more up-tempo work such as "Shut Up and Kiss Me". Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine was less favorable toward the album, praising the lyrics of the title track and "I Put My Ring Back On" but overall criticizing the album's sound as "a pedestrian, coffeehouse blend of hushed acoustic strumming." In July 2010, Carpenter performed "I Feel Lucky" at the Grand Ole Opry before doing a concert at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center to promote The Age of Miracles. Throughout mid-2011, she toured across the United States in support of this album.
Ashes and Roses followed on Zoë in 2012. Two personal life events influenced this album's songs: the death of her father, and her divorce from her husband. James Taylor provided duet vocals on the track "Soul Companion". Jurek called this project "the most confessional record of her career" and praised the use of Hammond organ and mandolin in the production. Allison Stewart of The Washington Post wrote that it had "woeful and beautiful coffeehouse folk songs, decorated with sparing, almost offhanded instrumentation that’s often limited to guitars and pianos." Keefe was less favorable toward the project, criticizing Carpenter's "hushed" vocal tone and the lack of hooks. Her next project was 2013's Songs from the Movie, a collaboration with composer and conductor Vince Mendoza. This consisted of orchestral re-recordings of existing songs in her catalog. After this album's 2014 release, she performed selections from it with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Scotland. Writing for Country Standard Time, Jeffrey B. Remz thought the album needed "a bit more energy" and "veers decidedly towards the precious and pretty side, but sometimes a bit too much so." In 2014, Carpenter's touring schedule included a mix of orchestral performances comprising selections from Songs from the Movie, as well as acoustic sets featuring Jon Carroll, multi-instrumentalist John Doyle, and opening act Tift Merritt.
2015present: Albums on Lambent Light
After leaving the Zoë label, she began recording her next album in 2015 with production work from Dave Cobb. This album, The Things That We Are Made Of, was released in 2016 via Carpenter's own Lambent Light Records label, with distribution rights by Thirty Tigers. In addition to producing the album, Cobb played guitar, Moog synthesizer, and Mellotron. "Something Tamed Something Wild" was selected as the lead single. Carpenter promoted the album with a number of dates throughout 2016, starting with a concert at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., that July. Carpenter said that she intentionally intended for her vocal tracks to be "imperfect", and that she had difficulty "relinquishing control" of production duties. She also said that some of the songs were inspired by her walking her dog through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Prior to the album's release, NPR streamed it online through its First Listen program. Scott Stroud of The Associated Press described Cobb's production as "elegant" and considered it well suited to Carpenter's voice; he also thought that Carpenter's lyrics showed an "unexpectedly poignant turn of phrase". Also in 2015, longtime collaborator John Jennings died of kidney cancer.
Next on Lambent Light was 2018's Sometimes Just the Sky. This album consisted of re-recordings of tracks from each of her previous albums, as well as the title track, the only original composition. English record producer Ethan Johns produced the project, in addition to selecting all of the musicians except for Carpenter's touring guitarist Duke Levine. The musicians recorded the project at Real World Studios, owned by Peter Gabriel. After its release, she embarked on a tour throughout mid-2018 in support. Following this project, she and Johns began work on another album. However, production was put on hiatus in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response, Carpenter began streaming live acoustic performances online. The second project with Johns, The Dirt and the Stars, was released in August 2020. Also in 2020, she returned to the Wolf Trap where, without an audience present, she performed a 26-song solo acoustic set. This set was recorded as an album and DVD release titled One Night Lonely, which received a Grammy Award for Best Folk Album nomination. Once COVID-19 restrictions subsided across the United States, she announced plans to tour with Shawn Colvin in 2021. Due to a shoulder injury, she canceled these tour dates and did not begin touring again until 2022. Her tours in this timespan have included a number of songs from The Dirt and the Stars.
Collaborations and other works
Carpenter has made a myriad of appearances on collaborative albums. One of her first guest appearances was on the Indigo Girls' 1990 album Nomads Indians Saints, where she provided vocals to the track "Hammer and a Nail". She did likewise to Shawn Colvin's "Climb on a Back That's Strong" and Radney Foster's "Nobody Wins", both from 1992. A year later, she joined Billy Ray Cyrus, Kathy Mattea, Tanya Tucker, and Pam Tillis on Dolly Parton's single "Romeo". This song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1994. Another collaboration with Colvin, "One Cool Remove", was released as a single from Colvin's 1994 album Cover Girl. This rendition was a charted single for both artists in the United Kingdom a year later. Also in 1994, Carpenter and Kim Richey sang backing vocals on Tillis' cover of Jackie DeShannon's "When You Walk in the Room", a single from the album Sweetheart's Dance.
In 1996, she sang a cover of John Lennon's "Grow Old with Me" on the multi-artist tribute album Working Class Hero: A Tribute to John Lennon. This rendition was a minor hit on the Adult Contemporary charts upon release. She sang the song "Dead Man Walking (A Dream Like This)" for the soundtrack of the 1996 movie Dead Man Walking. A year later, she covered Dionne Warwick's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for the soundtrack of the movie My Best Friend's Wedding. Carpenter also appeared on bluegrass musician Randy Scruggs' only charted single "It's Only Love", from his 1998 album Crown of Jewels. In 2002, she joined Sheryl Crow and Emmylou Harris to cover Johnny Cash's "Flesh and Blood" for the tribute album Kindred Spirits: A Tribute to the Songs of Johnny Cash. This track received a nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards.
Carpenter is credited as a writer on a number of songs for other artists. These include Cyndi Lauper's "Sally's Pigeons", Wynonna Judd's "Girls with Guitars", Trisha Yearwood's "Where Are You Now", and Terri Clark's "No Fear".
Musical style
Carpenter's music is defined by her folk music influences and lyrical focus. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Carpenter "found favor on country radio in the 1980s and '90s by taking her emotionally intelligent songs to a mass audience." Of her 1980s albums, he stated that "Country radio was hesitant to play her soft, folky, feminist material, but she received good reviews and airplay on more progressive country stations, as well as college radio". In the Virgin Encyclopedia of Country Music, Colin Larkin noted the use of electric guitar in her more upbeat material such as "Passionate Kisses" and "The Hard Way", while also referring to "House of Cards" as "thought-provoking". He also stated, "she, together with the likes of Trisha Yearwood, Suzy Bogguss, and Kathy Mattea, has brought fresh melody to an old and sometimes predictable genre." Larry Katz of the Red Deer Advocate contrasted her with Yearwood and Wynonna Judd, noting that unlike those artists, Carpenter usually wrote her songs herself instead of relying on Nashville-based songwriters. Alanna Nash of Entertainment Weekly thought that by being a graduate of an Ivy League college, Carpenter "seemed the least likely female to go the distance on the country charts". Similarly, Katz thought that her upbringing was atypical of country music, which is more commonly associated with demographics pertaining to the rural Southern United States.
Nash also noted the difference between "decidedly noncountry themes like Halley’s Comet and the spiritual life of old shirts" in contrast to her more up-tempo material such as "Down at the Twist and Shout". In a review of Stones in the Road for the same publication, David Browne contrasted that album with Come On Come On, saying of the latter that "her square-jawed voice, leaner lyrics, and the sturdy-as-a-wooden-fence folk rock combined to make a deserved[...]breakthrough." He also said of her writing style that Carpenter "sounds like someone who sits down and thinks about it — a lot — before committing it to song. Not since the heyday of Gordon Lightfoot has a singer-songwriter been so damn reasonable." Mike DeGagne of AllMusic said of Carpenter's lyrics that she "portray[s] maturely the perils of romance and heartbreak from a female perspective". Writing for American Songwriter, Deborah Evans Price noted themes of feminism due to many of her songs being about single women attempting to overcome setbacks in her life; of this, Carpenter stated that "I've just been kind of writing for me." Similarly, Nash stated that many of the songs on Shooting Straight in the Dark featured women protagonists who "take matters into their own hands". Eli Messinger of Country Standard Time described her singing voice as having "empathic clarity and force", particularly on "Passionate Kisses" and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her". He also stated that the former song had a theme of "desire", and the latter a "call to self-fulfillment". Keefe found influences of folk and country pop in her 1990s albums, but thought that much of her work in the 21st century was "mixed" due to a lack of uptempo material and lyrical themes which he considered too similar to each other. He described the stronger tracks on these albums as appealing to adult album alternative formats.
Personal life
Carpenter was single for most of her recording career. In a 1994 profile, Entertainment Weekly referred to Carpenter as "a spokes-singer for the thirtysomething single woman". On June 1, 2002, she married Timmy Smith, a general contractor then working in Batesville, Virginia. Actress Sissy Spacek and singer Dave Matthews were in attendance at the wedding. By 2007, the couple lived on a farm outside Charlottesville, Virginia. The couple divorced shortly before the release of Ashes and Roses, at which point Carpenter continued to live on the farm. That album's track "What to Keep and What to Throw Away" was inspired by her divorce from Smith.
Carpenter was the author of a column in The Washington Times from December 2008 to March 2009 in which she discussed topics related to music and politics. Ben Walsh of The Independent cited this, along with her involvements in various charities, as examples of Carpenter's liberal political leanings. Relatedly, she told The Buffalo News in 1995 that she considered herself to be politically liberal; she also stated that "it seems as if the Republicans co-opted the entire country music community. In fact, a lot of country artists are Democrats."
Awards
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, and two Country Music Association awards.
Discography
Studio albums
Hometown Girl (1987)
State of the Heart (1989)
Shooting Straight in the Dark (1990)
Come On Come On (1992)
Stones in the Road (1994)
A Place in the World (1996)
Time* Sex* Love* (2001)
Between Here and Gone (2004)
The Calling (2007)
Come Darkness, Come Light: Twelve Songs of Christmas (2008)
The Age of Miracles (2010)
Ashes and Roses (2012)
Songs from the Movie (2014)
The Things That We Are Made Of (2016)
Sometimes Just the Sky (2018)
The Dirt and the Stars (2020)
Notes
References
External links
Category:1958 births
Category:American country singer-songwriters
Category:American women country singers
Category:Brown University alumni
Category:Columbia Records artists
Category:Country musicians from New Jersey
Category:Grammy Award winners
Category:Guitarists from New Jersey
Category:Living people
Category:New Jersey Democrats
Category:People from Princeton, New Jersey
Category:Princeton Day School alumni
Category:Taft School alumni
Category:Singer-songwriters from New Jersey
Category:Virginia Democrats
Category:The Washington Times people
Category:Zoë Records artists
Category:20th-century American women guitarists
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:21st-century American women singers
Category:Singer-songwriters from Virginia
Category:20th-century American women singers
Category:21st-century American women guitarists
Category:21st-century American guitarists
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:21st-century American singers | [] | [
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"Yes"
] |
C_f4b12b6cfb6e4644b11d9b3b52ffcf51_0 | Lenape | The Lenape (English: or ), also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in Canada and the United States. Their historical territory included present-day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania along the Delaware River watershed, New York City, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Today, Lenape people belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario. The Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal. | 17th century | New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become New York City. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day Lewes, Delaware on June 3, 1631 and named it Zwaanendael (Swan Valley). The colony had a short life, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the Dutch West India Company. In 1634, the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock went to war with the Lenape over access to trade with the Dutch at New Amsterdam. They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become tributaries to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles." The Iroquois added the Lenape to the Covenant Chain in 1676; the Lenape were tributary to the Five Nations (later Six) until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War (a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe). The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their need to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in their disastrous over-harvesting of the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-day upstate New York. The Lenape who produced wampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade. Lenape population fell sharply during this period, due to high fatalities from epidemics of infectious diseases carried by Europeans, such as measles and smallpox, to which they had no natural immunity, as the diseases had arisen on the Asian continent and moved west into Europe, where they had become endemic in the cities. The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the Iroquois. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in the transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land). After the Dutch arrival in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to Pavonia in present-day Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at Bergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of New Netherland. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact. In 1682, William Penn and Quaker colonists created the English colony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lower Delaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving English and Lenape at what is now known as Penn Treaty Park. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Although Penn endeavored to live peaceably with the Lenape and to create a colony that would do the same, he also expected his authority and that of the colonial government to take precedence. His new colony effectively displaced many Lenape and forced others to adapt to new cultural demands. Penn gained a reputation for benevolence and tolerance, but his efforts resulted in more effective colonization of the ancestral Lenape homeland than previous ones. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Lenape (, , or ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Delaware, all of New Jersey, the eastern Pennsylvania regions of the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, New York Bay and western Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley.
During the last decades of the 18th century, most Lenape were displaced from their homelands by European settlement and the American Revolutionary War, which pushed them farther west. In the 1860s, under the Indian removal policy, the U.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States to the Indian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario.
Name
The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenapi, originates from their autonym, , which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original", and , meaning "real person" or "original person" may be translated as "man".
When first encountered by European settlers, the Lenape were a loose association of related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as Lenapehoking, the Lenape traditional territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Lower New York Bay, and eastern Delaware.
The tribe's common name Delaware is not of Native American origin. English colonists named the Delaware River for the first governor of the Province of Virginia, Lord De La Warr, whose title was derived from French. The British colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived. Swedish colonists also settled in the area, and Swedish sources called the Lenape the Renappi.
Territory
Traditional Lenape lands, the Lenapehoking, was a large territory that encompassed the Delaware and Lehigh Valley regions of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey from the north bank of the Lehigh River along the west bank of the Delaware River into Delaware and the Delaware Bay. Their lands also extended west from western Long Island and New York Bay, across the Lower Hudson Valley in New York to the lower Catskills and a sliver of the upper edge of the North Branch Susquehanna River. On the west side, the Lenape lived in several small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of the Schuylkill River watershed with the rival Iroquoian Susquehannock.
Languages
The Unami and Munsee languages belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible. Moravian missionary John Heckewelder wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language." Only a few Delaware First Nation elders in Moraviantown, Ontario, fluently speak Munsee; however, adults and children are taught the languages in various programs.
William Penn, who first met the Lenape in 1682, stated that the Unami used the following words: "mother" was , "brother" was , "friend" was . Penn instructed his fellow English colonists, "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer, , which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'."
The Lenape languages used to be exclusively a spoken language. However, in 2002, the Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fund The Lenape Talking Dictionary, preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect.
Society
Clans and kinship systems
At the time of European contact, a Lenape person would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the Nanticoke people who lived to their south and west in present western Delaware and eastern Maryland.
Among many Algonquian peoples along the East Coast, the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom other Algonquian-speaking peoples originated.
The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans:
Wolf, Tùkwsit
Big Feet, Mä an'greet
Yellow Tree, Wisawhìtkuk
Pulling Corn, Pä-sakun'a'-mon
Care Enterer, We-yar-nih'kä-to
Across the River, Toosh-war-ka'ma
Vermillion, O-lum'-a-ne
Dog standing by fireside, Pun-ar'-you
Long Body, Kwin-eek'cha
Digging, Moon-har-tar'ne
Pulling up Stream, Non-har'-min
Brush Log, Long-ush-har-kar'-to
Bringing Along, Maw-soo-toh
Turtle, Pùkuwànku
Ruler, O-ka-ho'-ki
High Bank Shore, Ta-ko-ong'-o-to
Drawing Down Hill, See-har-ong'-o-to
Elector, Ole-har-kar-me'kar-to
Brave, Ma-har-o-luk'-ti
Green Leaves, Toosh-ki-pa-kwis-i
Smallest Turtle, Tung-ul-ung'-si
Little Turtle, We-lung-ung-sil
Snapping Turtle, Lee-kwin-a-i'''
Deer, Kwis-aese-kees'to Turkey, Pële Big Bird, Mor-har-ä-lä Bird's Cry, Le-le-wa'-you Eye Pain, Moo-kwung-wa-ho'ki Scratch the Path, Moo-har-mo-wi-kar'-nu Opossum Ground, O-ping-ho'-ki Old Shin, Muh-ho-we-kä'-ken Drift Log, Tong-o-nä-o-to Living in Water, Nool-a-mar-lar'-mo Root Digger, Muh-krent-har'-ne Red Face, Mur-karm-huk-se Pine Region, Koo-wä-ho'ke Ground Scratcher, Oo-ckuk'-hamThe Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal. Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity. The mother's eldest brother was more significant as a mentor to the male children than was their father, who was generally of another clan. Hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line, and women elders could remove leaders of whom they disapproved. Agricultural land was managed by women and allotted according to the subsistence needs of their extended families. Newlywed couples would live with the bride's family, where her mother and sisters could also assist her with her growing family.
By 1682, when William Penn arrived to his American commonwealth, the Lenape had been so reduced by disease, famine, and war that the sub-clan mothers had reluctantly resolved to consolidate their families into the main clan family. This is why William Penn and all those after him believed that the Lenape clans had always only had three divisions (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) when, in fact, they had over thirty on the eve of European contact.
Members of each clan were found throughout Lenape territory, and while clan mothers controlled the land, the houses, and the families, the clan fathers provided the meat, cleared the fields, built the houses, and protected the clan. Upon reaching adulthood, a Lenape male would marry outside of his clan. The practice effectively prevented inbreeding, even among individuals whose kinship was obscure or unknown. This means that a male from the Turkey Clan was expected to marry a female from either the Turtle or Wolf clans. His children, however, would not belong to the Turkey Clan, but to the mother's clan. As such, a person's mother's brothers (the person's matrilineal uncles) played a large role in his or her life as they shared the same clan lineage. Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of a woman's power in the hierarchical structure.
As in the case of the Iroquois and Susquehannocks, the animosity of differences and competitions spanned many generations, and in general tribes with each of the different language groups became traditional enemies in the areas they'd meet. On the other hand, The New American Book of Indians points out that competition, trade, and wary relations were far more common than outright warfare—but both larger societies had traditions of 'proving' (blooding) new (or young) warriors by 'counting coup' on raids into another tribes territories. The two groups were sometimes bitter enemies since before recorded history, but intermarriage occurred — and both groups have an oral history suggesting they jointly came east together and displaced the mound builders culture. In addition, both tribes practiced adopting young captives from warfare into their tribes and assimilating them as full tribal members. Iroquoians adopting Lenape (or other peoples) were known to be part of their religious beliefs, the adopted one taking the place in the clan of one killed in warfare.
Early European observers may have misinterpreted matrilineal Lenape cultural practices. For example, a man's maternal uncle (his mother's brother), and not his father, was usually considered to be his closest male relative, since his uncle belonged to his mother's clan and his father belonged to a different one. The maternal uncle played a more prominent role in the lives of his sister's children than did the father—for example likely being the one responsible for educating a young man in weapons craft, martial arts, hunting, and other life skills.
Hunting, fishing, and farming
Lenape practiced companion planting, in which women cultivated many varieties of the Three Sisters: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested seafood. In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced slash and burn agriculture. They used fire to manage land.Day, Gordon M. "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests." Ecology, Vol. 34, #2 (April 1953): 329–346. New England and New York Areas 1580–1800.Russell, Emily W.B. "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States." Ecology, Vol. 64, no. 1 (Feb. 1983): 78, 88.Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples. Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop, maize, in March. They quickly adopted European metal tools for this task.
The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes. Dutch settler David de Vries, who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or Ackingsah-sack, the Hackensack River), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area, and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. One technique used while fishing was to add ground chestnuts to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch.
The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other, nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current New York City area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor.
European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of New Netherland and New Sweden traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the Minquas or Susquehannocks and the Dutch West India Company and Swedish South Company to promote the fur trade. The Lenape were major producers of labor intensive wampum, or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After the Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time.
Clothing and adornment
The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear buckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather. Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only a small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males. The Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from a distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace. The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.
Leisure
One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game of pahsaheman: a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female), and would attempt to get a ball through the other team's goal post. However, men could not carry and pass the ball, only using their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick. If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men. These gender-split rules highlight how a woman's role in Lenape society was harmonious to a man's role, rather than acquiescent.
Another activity common was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after the other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually."
Units of measure
A number of linear measures were used. Small units of measure were the distance from the thumb and first finger, and the distance from first finger to pit of elbow. Travel distance was measured in the distance one could comfortably travel from sun-up to sun-down.
Ethnobotany
Lenape herbalists, who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like black walnut which were used to cure ringworm and with persimmons which were used to cure ear problems.
The Lenape carry the nuts of Aesculus glabra in the pocket for rheumatism, and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams. They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.
History
European contact
The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called Lower New York Bay.
Early colonial era
At the time of sustained European contact in the 1600s and 1700s, the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call the Northeastern Woodlands. Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.
17th century
The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the Iroquois. As a further complication in communication and understanding, kinship terms commonly used by European settlers had very different meanings to the Lenape: "fathers" did not have the same direct parental control as in Europe, "brothers" could be a symbol of equality but could also be interpreted as one's parallel cousins, "cousins" were interpreted as only cross-cousins, etc. All of these added complexities in kinship terms made agreements with Europeans all the more difficult. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in the transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land). After the Dutch arrival in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to Pavonia in present-day Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at Bergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of New Netherland. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact.
New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become New York City. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day Lewes, Delaware, on June 3, 1631, and named it Zwaanendael (Swan Valley). The colony had a short life, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the Dutch West India Company. In 1634, the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock went to war with the Lenape over access to trade with the Dutch at New Amsterdam. They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become tributaries to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". The Iroquois added the Lenape to the Covenant Chain in 1676; the Lenape were tributary to the Five Nations (later Six) until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War (a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe).
Based on the historical record of the mid-17th century, it has been estimated that most Lenape polities consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois, both of whom were armed by the Dutch fur traders, while the Lenape were at odds with the Dutch and so lost that particular arms race.
During the Beaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape, while rival Iroquoian peoples such as the Susquehannocks and Confederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well armed. Subsequently, the Lenape became subjugated and made tributary to first the Susquehannocks, then the Iroquois, even needing their rivals' (superiors') agreement to initiate treaties such as land sales.
Epidemics of newly introduced European infectious diseases, such as smallpox, measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery, reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no natural immunity. Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape people.
The Lenape also fought intertribal warfare, particularly with the Haudenosaunee. The Lenape and Susquehannocks fought a war in the middle of the 17th century that left the Lenape a tributary state even as the Susquehannocks had defeated the Province of Maryland between 1642–1650s.
The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their desire to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in over-harvesting the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-day upstate New York. The Lenape who produced wampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade.
In 1682, William Penn and Quaker colonists created the English colony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lower Delaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known as Penn Treaty Park. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Penn expected his authority and that of the colonial government to take precedence. His new colony effectively displaced many Lenape and forced others to adapt to new cultural demands. Penn gained a reputation for benevolence and tolerance, but his efforts resulted in more effective colonization of the ancestral Lenape homeland than previous ones.
18th century
William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were running the colony, and had abandoned many of the elder Penn's practices. Trying to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers. The resulting scheme culminated in the so-called Walking Purchase. In the mid-1730s, colonial administrators produced a draft of a land deed dating to the 1680s. William Penn had approached several leaders of Lenape polities in the lower Delaware to discuss land sales further north. Since the land in question did not belong to their polities, the talks came to nothing. But colonial administrators had prepared the draft that resurfaced in the 1730s. The Penns and their supporters tried to present this draft as a legitimate deed. Lenape leaders in the lower Delaware refused to accept it.
According to historian Steven C. Harper, what followed was a "convoluted sequence of deception, fraud, and extortion orchestrated by the Pennsylvania government that is commonly known as the Walking Purchase." In the end, all Lenape who still lived on the Delaware were driven off the remnants of their homeland under threats of violence. Some Lenape polities eventually retaliated by attacking Pennsylvania settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of the French and Indian War, the British colonial authorities investigated the causes of Lenape resentment. The British asked Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to lead the investigation. Johnson had become wealthy as a trader and acquired thousands of acres of land in the Mohawk River Valley from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York.
Beginning in the 18th century, the Moravian Church established missions among the Lenape. The Moravians required the Christian converts to share their pacifism, as well as to live in a structured and European-style mission village. Moravian pacifism and unwillingness to take loyalty oaths caused conflicts with British colonial authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies during the Seven Years' War. The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenapes' abandoning traditional warfare practices alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups, who revered warriors. The Moravians accompanied Lenape relocations to Ohio and Canada, continuing their missionary work. The Moravian Lenape who settled permanently in Ontario after the American Revolutionary War were sometimes referred to as "Christian Munsee", as they mostly spoke the Munsee branch of the Lenape language.
During the French and Indian War, the Lenape initially sided with the French, as they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their territory. But, such leaders as Teedyuscung in the east and Tamaqua in the vicinity of modern Pittsburgh shifted to building alliances with the British colonial authorities. After the end of the war, however, Anglo-American settlers continued to attack the Lenape, often to such an extent that the historian Amy Schutt writes the dead since the wars outnumbered those killed during the war.
In 1757, the "New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" wrote a constitution to expel native Munsee Lenape from their home in the Washington Valley of Morris County, New Jersey. Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as Brotherton. It was then an industrial town, known for gristmills and sawmills. This was the first Native American reservation in New Jersey. Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777.
The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758 between the Lenape and the Anglo-American colonists, required the Lenape to move westward, out of present-day New York and New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then Ohio and beyond. Through the 18th century, many Lenape moved west into the relatively depopulated upper Ohio River basin.Sporadically they continued to raid European-American settlers from far outside the area.
In 1763, Bill Hickman, Lenape, warned English colonists in the Juniata River region of an impending attack. Many Lenape joined in Pontiac's War, and were numerous among those Native Americans who besieged Pittsburgh.
In April 1763, Teedyuscung was killed when his home was burned. His son Captain Bull responded by attacking settlers from New England who had migrated to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. The settlers had been sponsored by the Susquehanna Company.
American Revolutionary War
Background
After the signing of the Treaty of Easton in 1758, the Lenape were forced to move west out of their original lands into what is today known as Ohio.
During the French and Indian War, Lenape leader Killbuck (also Bemino) had assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from Fort Pitt to Fort Sandusky. During the early 1770s, missionaries, including David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder, arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, including Gnadenhutten, Lichtenau, and Schoenbrunn. The missionaries pressured Indigenous people to abandon their traditional customs, beliefs, and ways of life, and to replace them with European and Christian ways. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Lenape became a divided people during the 1770s, including in Killbuck's family. Killbuck resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Lenape of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land.
War
At the time of the Revolutionary War, the Lenape in Ohio were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. During this time, the Lenape bands were living in numerous villages around their main village of Coshocton, between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The American colonists had Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area of Fort Detroit (in present-day Michigan). When the American Revolutionary War began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. At the war's beginning, Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. Other Indian communities, particularly the Wyandot, the Mingo, the Shawnee, and the Wolf Clan of the Lenape, favored the British. They believed that by their proclamation of 1763, restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, that the British would help them preserve a Native American territory. In 1778, Killbuck permitted American soldiers to traverse Lenape territory so that the soldiers could attack British-held Fort Detroit. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the major village of Coshocton, to provide the Lenape with protection from potential attacks by British-allied Indians and Loyalists. The Americans agreed and built Fort Laurens, which they garrisoned.
The British made plans to attack Fort Laurens in early 1779 and demanded that the neutral Lenape formally side with the British. Killbuck warned the Americans of the planned attack. His actions helped save the fort, but the Americans abandoned it in August 1779. The Lenape had lost their protectors and found themselves without solid allies in the conflict, which compounded their dispossession at the hand of encroaching American pioneers during and after the war.
Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American settlers and moved to the west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the Scioto and Sandusky rivers. Those Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and Lenape leaders signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778) with the American colonists. Through this treaty, the Lenape hoped to establish the Ohio country as a state inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, as a subset of the new United States. A third group of Lenape, many of them converted Christian Munsees, lived in several mission villages run by Moravians. Like the other bands, they also spoke the Munsee branch of Lenape, an Algonquian language.
White Eyes, the Lenape chief who had negotiated the treaty, died in 1778. Subsequently many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, American military officer Daniel Brodhead led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on April 19, 1781, and destroyed Coshocton. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the Moravian mission villages unmolested, since they were unarmed non-combatants.
Treaties of the late 18th century
The Lenape were the first Indian tribe to enter into a treaty with the new United States government, with the Treaty of Fort Pitt signed in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. By then living mostly in the Ohio Country, the Lenape supplied the Continental Army with warriors and scouts in exchange for food supplies and security.
In 1780, Munsee-speaking Lenape community leaders native to the Washington Valley that had been forcibly displaced to Brotherton, wrote a community treaty to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:In 1796, the Oneidas of New Stockbridge invited the Munsee Lenape to their reservation. The initial Lenape response was negative; in 1798, Lenape community leaders Bartholomew Calvin, Jason Skekit, and 18 others signed a public statement of refusal to leave "our fine place in Jersey." However, the tribe later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas. A few Lenape households stayed behind to assimilate in New Jersey.
19th century
In the early 19th century the amateur anthropologist Silas Wood published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct to Long Island, New York. He collectively called them the Metoac. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that in fact two linguistic groups representing two distinct Algonquian cultural identities lived on the island, not "13 individual tribes" as asserted by Wood. The bands to the west were Lenape. Those to the east were more related culturally to the Algonquian tribes of New England across Long Island Sound, such as the Pequot.Bragdon, Kathleen. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast,Columbia University Press (2002). . Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names for autonyms.
Over a period of 176 years, European settlers pushed the Lenape out of the East Coast, through to Ohio and eventually further west. Most members of the Munsee-language branch of the Lenape left the United States after the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War. Their descendants live on three Indian reserves in Western Ontario, Canada. They are descendants of those Lenape of Ohio Country who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. The largest reserve is at Moraviantown, Ontario, where the Turtle Phratry settled in 1792 following the war.
Two groups migrated to Oneida County, New York, by 1802, the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey and the Stockbridge-Munsee. In 1822, the Munsee Lenape of Washington Valley who had moved to Stockbridge were forcefully displaced by white colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away, to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Indiana to Missouri
By the Treaty of St. Mary's, signed October 3, 1818, in St. Mary's, Ohio, the Lenape ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi and an annuity of $4,000. Over the next few years, the Lenape settled on the James River in Missouri near its confluence with Wilsons Creek, occupying eventually about of the approximately allotted to them. Anderson, Indiana, is named after Chief William Anderson, whose father was Swedish. The Delaware Village in Indiana was called Anderson's Town, while the Delaware Village in Missouri on the James River was often called Anderson's Village. The tribes' cabins and cornfields were spread out along the James River and Wilsons Creek.
Role in western history
Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the mountain men, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They served as army guides and scouts in events such as the Second Seminole War, Frémont's expeditions, and the conquest of California during the Mexican–American War.Sides, Hampton, Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, Doubleday (2006), pp. 77–80, 94, 101, hardcover, 462 pages, Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.
Sagundai accompanied one of Frémont's expeditions as one of his Lenape guides. From California, Fremont needed to communicate with Senator Benton. Sagundai volunteered to carry the message through some 2,200 kilometres (1367 miles) of hostile territory. He took many scalps in this adventure, including that of a Comanche with a particularly fine horse, who had outrun both Sagundai and the other Comanche. Sagundai was thrown when his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, but avoided the Comanche's lance, shot the warrior dead, and caught his horse and escaped the other Comanche. When Sagundai returned to his own people in present-day Kansas, they celebrated his exploits with the last war and scalp dances of their history, which were held at Edwardsville, Kansas.
Kansas reservation
Under the terms of the Treaty of the James Fork that was signed on September 24, 1829, and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1830, the Lenape were forced to move further west. They were granted lands in Indian Territory in exchange for lands on the James Fork of the White River in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri and north of the Kansas River. The main reserve consisted of about with an additional "outlet" strip wide extending to the west.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which created the Territory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding removal. The Lenape were reluctant to negotiate for yet another relocation, but they feared serious trouble with white settlers, and conflict developed.
As the Lenape were not considered United States citizens, they had no access to the courts and no way to enforce their property rights. The United States Army was to enforce their rights to reservation land after the Indian Agent had both posted a public notice warning trespassers and served written notice on them, a process generally considered onerous. Major B.F. Robinson, the Indian Agent appointed in 1855, did his best, but could not control the hundreds of white trespassers who stole stock, cut timber, and built houses and squatted on Lenape lands. By 1860, the Lenpae had reached consensus to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.
Oklahoma
The main body of Lenape arrived in Indian Territory in the 1860s. The two federally recognized tribes of Lenape in Oklahoma are the Delaware Nation, headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The Delaware Tribe of Indians were required to purchase land from the reservation of the Cherokee Nation; they made two payments totaling $438,000. A court dispute followed over whether the sale included rights for the Lenape as citizens within the Cherokee Nation. While the dispute was unsettled, the Curtis Act of 1898 dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of communal tribal lands to individual households of members of tribes. After the lands were allotted in 160-acre (650,000 m2) lots to tribal members in 1907, the government sold "surplus" land to non-Indians.
Texas
Spanish Texas
The Lenape migrated into Texas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Elements of the Lenape migrated from Missouri into Texas around 1820, settling around the Red River and Sabine River. The Lenape were peaceful and shared their territory in Spanish Texas with the Caddo and other immigrating bands, as well as with the Spanish and ever-increasing American population. This peaceful trend continued after Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821.
Mexican Texas
In 1828, Mexican General Manuel de Mier y Terán made an inspection of eastern Mexican Texas and estimated that the region housed between 150 and 200 Lenape families. The Lenape requested Mier y Terán to issue them land grants and send teachers, so they might learn to read and write the Spanish language. The general, impressed with how well they had adapted to the Mexican culture, sent their request to Mexico City, but the authorities never granted the Lenape any legal titles.
The situation changed when the Texas Revolution began in 1835. Texas officials were eager to gain the support of the Texas tribes to their side and offered to recognize their land claims by sending three commissioners to negotiate a treaty. A treaty was agreed upon in February 1836 that mapped the boundaries of Indian lands, but this agreement was never officially ratified by the Texas government.
Texas Republic
The Lenape remained friendly after Texas won its independence. Republic of Texas President Sam Houston favored a policy of peaceful relations with all tribes. He sought the services of the friendly Lenape and, in 1837, enlisted several Lenape to protect the frontier from hostile western tribes. Lenape scouts joined with Texas Rangers as they patrolled the western frontier. Houston also tried to get the Lenape land claims recognized, but his efforts were met only by opposition.
The next Texan President, Mirabeau B. Lamar, completely opposed all Indians. He considered them illegal intruders who threatened the settlers' safety and lands and issued an order for their removal from Texas. The Lenape were sent north of the Red River into Indian Territory, although a few scattered Lenape remained in Texas.
In 1841, Houston was reelected to a second term as president and his peaceful Indian policy was then reinstated. A treaty with the remaining Lnape and a few other tribes was negotiated in 1843 at Fort Bird and the Lenape were enlisted to help him make peace with the Comanche. Lenape scouts and their families were allowed to settle along the Brazos and Bosque rivers in order to influence the Comanche to come to the Texas government for a peace conference. The plan was successful and the Lenape helped bring the Comanches to a treaty council in 1844.
State of Texas
In 1845, the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the US to become an American state. The Lenape continued their peaceful policy with the Americans and served as interpreters, scouts, and diplomats for the US Army and the Indian Bureau. In 1847, John Meusebach was assisted by Jim Shaw (a Lenape), in settling the German communities in the Texas Hill Country. For the remainder of his life, Shaw worked as a military scout in West Texas. In 1848, John Conner (Lenape) guided the Chihuahua-El Paso Expedition and was granted a league of land by a special act of the Texas legislature in 1853. The expeditions of the map maker Randolph B. Marcy through West Texas in 1849, 1852, and 1854 were guided by Black Beaver (Lenape).
In 1854, despite the history of peaceful relations, the last of the Texas Lenape were moved by the American government to the Brazos Indian Reservation near Graham, Texas. In 1859 the US forced the remaining Lenape to remove from Texas to a location on the Washita River in the vicinity of present Anadarko, Oklahoma.
20th century
In 1979, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Lenape living among Cherokee in Oklahoma. They began to count the Lenape as Cherokee. The Lenape had this decision overturned in 1996, when they were recognized by the federal government as a separate tribal nation.
21st century
The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the independent federal recognition of the Lenape. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation but regained it on July 28, 2009. After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and by laws in a May 26, 2009, vote. Jerry Douglas was elected as tribal chief.
In September 2000, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma received of land in Thornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
In 2004, the Delaware Nation filed suit against Pennsylvania in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking to reclaim included in the 1737 Walking Purchase to build a casino. In the suit titled The Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs, acting as the successor in interest and political continuation of the Lenni Lenape and of Lenape Chief Moses Tunda Tatamy, claimed aboriginal and fee title to the 315 acres of land located in Forks Township in Northampton County, near the town of Tatamy, Pennsylvania. After the Walking Purchase, Chief Tatamy was granted legal permission for him and his family to remain on this parcel of land, known as "Tatamy's Place". In addition to suing the state, the tribe also sued the township, the county and elected officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell.
Although the Walking Purchase forced the Lenape people to Oklahoma, not every Lenape lives in Oklahoma. Many Lenape continue to live in the Northeast. This community of people are the Munsee Lenape, and are currently in the process of applying for state recognition.
The court held that the justness of the extinguishment of aboriginal title is nonjusticiable, including in the case of fraud. Because the extinguishment occurred prior to the passage of the first Indian Nonintercourse Act in 1790, that Act did not avail the Lenape. As a result, the court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. In its conclusion the court stated: "... we find that the Delaware Nation's aboriginal rights to Tatamy's Place were extinguished in 1737 and that, later, fee title to the land was granted to Chief Tatamy—not to the tribe as a collectivity."
Contemporary tribes and organizations
U.S. federally recognized tribes
Three Lenape tribes are federally recognized in the United States:
Delaware Nation in Anadarko, Oklahoma
Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler, Wisconsin.
Canadian First Nations
The Lenape who fled United States in the late 18th century settled in what is now Ontario. Canada recognizes three Lenape First Nations with four Indian reserves. Each is located in Southwestern Ontario:
Munsee-Delaware Nation, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario
Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent
Delaware of Six Nations (at Six Nations of the Grand River), two Canadian reserves near Brantford, Ontario
State-recognized and unrecognized groups
Three groups who claim descent from Lenape people are state-recognized tribes:
Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware in Delaware
Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey
Ramapough Lenape Nation in New Jersey
More than a dozen organizations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and elsewhere claim descent from Lenape people and are unrecognized tribes. Organizations in Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Kansas have petitioned the U.S. federal government for recognition."Petitions for Federal Recognition." 500 Nations. Retrieved January 20, 2012. One of these includes the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania based in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Notable historical Lenape people
This includes only Lenape documented in history. Contemporary notable Lenape people are listed in the articles for the appropriate tribe.
Richard C. Adams (1864–1921), Lenape author of collections of traditional narratives, legal advocate for Lenape in Washington, D.C.
Black Beaver (1806–1880), trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame
Buckongahelas (c. 1720–1805), Wolf clan war leader
Nora Thompson Dean (Delaware Tribe of Indians, 1907–1984), linguist
Hannah Freeman (1731–1802), purportedly the last surviving Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania
Charles Journeycake (1817–1894), chief of the Wolf clan from 1855 and principal chief from 1861; visited Washington, D.C., 24 times on his tribe's behalf
Sachem Killbuck (Gelelemend), Turtle clan leader
Captain Jacobs (died 1756), war chief
Neolin (18th century), Lenape prophet
Chief Newcomer (Netawatwees, c. 1686–1776), founder the village of Gekelmukpechunk (Newcomerstown), Ohio in the 1760s
Oratam (16th century), sachem of the Hackensack
Captain Pipe (Hopocan), (c. 1725–c. 1818), 18th century chief and member of the Wolf Clan
Pisquetomen (died 1762), chief who assisted Christian Frederick Post in negotiating the Treaty of Easton in 1758
Sassoonan or Allumapees (c. 1675–1747), 18th century chief and member of the Turtle clan
Shingas (fl. 1740–1763), Turkey clan war leader
Tamanend (c. 1625–c. 1701), leader reported to have negotiated treaty with William Penn, and for whom Tammany Hall was named
Tamaqua (died c. 1770), chief who led peace negotiations following Pontiac's War for whom Tamaqua, Pennsylvania is named
Teedyuscung ((1700–1763), leader of the eastern Lenape
Turtleheart, chief and warrior who represented the Lenape at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768
White Eyes (c. 1730–1778), Turtle clan peace chief who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt
See also
Burial Ridge
Esopus people
Hell Town, Ohio (Lenape settlement in Ohio)
Lenape mythology
Lenape settlements
Mohicans
Munsee
Native American tribes in Maryland
Okehocking people
Ramapough Mountain Indians
Shamokin
Unalachtigo Lenape
Walking Purchase
Wappinger
Commentary
Notes
References
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Dreibelbis, Dana E., "The Use of Microstructural Growth Patterns of Mercenaria Mercenaria to Determine the Prehistoric Seasons of Harvest at Tuckerton Midden, Tuckerton, New Jersey", pp. 33, thesis, Princeton University, 1978.
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Further reading
Adams, Richard Calmit, The Delaware Indians, a brief history, Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]
Bierhorst, John. The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape. New York: W. Morrow, 1995.
Brown, James W. and Rita T. Kohn, eds. Long Journey Home . Indiana University Press (2007).
Kraft, Herbert: The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. New Jersey Historical Society, 1987. .
Kraft, Herbert. The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of New Jersey, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and parts of western Connecticut. Lenape Books, 1996. .
O'Meara, John, Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (1996) .
Otto, Paul, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006).
Pritchard, Evan T., Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York. Council Oak Books: San Francisco, 2002, 2007. .
Richter, Conrad, The Light In The Forest.'' New York: 1953.
External links
Delaware Tribe of Indians, official website
Stockbridge-Munsee Community, official website
Lenape Center
Museum of Indian Culture
Lenape/English dictionary
Lenape (Southern Unami) Talking Dictionary
Category:Algonquian ethnonyms
Category:Eastern Algonquian peoples
Category:First Nations in Ontario
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Category:Native American history of Delaware
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Category:Native American tribes in Pennsylvania
Category:Native American tribes in Indiana
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Category:People of New Netherland | [
{
"text": "Commentary or commentaries may refer to:\n\nPublications\n Commentary (magazine), a U.S. public affairs journal, founded in 1945 and formerly published by the American Jewish Committee\n Caesar's Commentaries (disambiguation), a number of works by or attributed to Julius Caesar\n Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, set of ninth-century Syriac treatises on the Bible\n Commentaries on the Laws of England, a 1769 treatise on the common law of England by Sir William Blackstone\n Commentaries on Living, a series of books by Jiddu Krishnamurti originally published in 1956, 1958 and 1960\n Moralia in Job, a sixth-century treatise by Saint Gregory\n Commentary of Zuo, one of the earliest Chinese works of narrative history, covering the period from 722 to 468 BCE\n Commentaries, a work attributed to Taautus\n\nOther uses\n Published opinion piece material, in any of several forms:\n An editorial, written by the editorial staff or board of a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical\n Column (periodical), a regular feature of such a publication in which usually the same single writer offers advice, observation, or other commentary \n An op-ed, an opinion piece by an author unaffiliated with the publication\n Letters to the editor, written by readers of such a publication\n Posts made in the comments section of an online publication, serving a similar function to paper periodicals' letters to the editor\n Commentary (philology), a line-by-line or even word-by-word explication (and usually translation) of a text\n Audio commentary track for DVDs and Blu-Rays – an additional audio track that plays in real-time with the video material, and comments on that video\n Sports commentary or play-by-play, a running description of a game or event in real time, usually during a live broadcast\n Color commentary, supplementing play-by-play commentary, often filling in any time when play is not in progress\n Atthakatha, commentaries on the Pāli Canon in Theravāda Buddhism\n Criticism, the practice of judging the merits and faults of something or someone\n Commentary! The Musical, the musical commentary accompanying Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog\n Commentary or narration, the words in a documentary film\n Exegesis, a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text (e.g. a Bible commentary)\n Literary criticism, the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature\n Close reading in literary criticism, the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text\n Political criticism or political commentary, criticism that is specific of or relevant to politics\n Public commentary received by governmental and other bodies, e.g. in response to proposals, reports, etc.\n\nSee also\n Commentry, a place in central France\n Comment (disambiguation)\n List of biblical commentaries\n Jewish commentaries on the Bible\n Commentaire, a French quarterly\n Reaction video, commentaries in video format",
"title": "Commentary"
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"Throughout the 17th century, the Lenape encountered significant change and hardship. They became involved in trade with the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam, leading to over-harvesting of the beaver population in the Hudson Valley. The trade also brought them into conflict with other tribes, such as the Susquehannock, and eventually resulted in their tributary status to the Five Nations of the Iroquois in 1676. The introduction of European diseases such as measles and smallpox led to a sharp decline in Lenape population as they had no natural immunity. Their land and resources came under increasing pressure from European settlers, first the Dutch and then the English under William Penn, leading to changes in their traditional clan and family-controlled property system. Despite efforts to restrict settlement and petition for recognition of their land rights, many Lenape were displaced or forced to adapt to new cultural demands.",
"The passage does not suggest that outsiders were not welcomed by the Lenape. However, it does indicate that they came into conflict with tribes like the Susquehannock over trade disputes, and they also experienced pressure and infringement on their land from the Dutch and English settlers. The Lenape did engage in trade with the Dutch, established peace treaties with the newcomers such as William Penn and his colonists, and petitioned for grievances regarding land transactions. These actions suggest that while the Lenape made attempts to coexist and negotiate with outsiders, the increasing number of European settlers and their cultural demands led to conflict and displacement of the Lenape.",
"Based on the information given in the context, the Covenant Chain refers to an alliance or agreement added by the Iroquois, which included the Lenape as a tributary group. The Lenape were tributary to the Five Nations (later Six) of the Iroquois from 1676 until 1753.",
"The context does not provide a clear assessment of the Lenape's wealth or prosperity during this era. However, the text describes a series of difficulties and challenges faced by the Lenape people during the 17th century. This includes conflict with other tribes, over-harvesting of beaver population due to trade demands, devastating epidemics of infectious diseases brought by Europeans against which they had no immunity, and increasing pressure and encroachment on their land by European settlers. These factors, plus the forced cultural adaptation and displacement, may suggest that the Lenape people were not trivially well off during this era."
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C_f4b12b6cfb6e4644b11d9b3b52ffcf51_1 | Lenape | The Lenape (English: or ), also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in Canada and the United States. Their historical territory included present-day New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania along the Delaware River watershed, New York City, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Today, Lenape people belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario. The Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal. | Early colonial era | At the time of sustained European contact in the 16th centuries and 17th centuries, the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call the Northeastern Woodlands. Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Delaware roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there. Based on the historical record of the mid-17th century, it has been estimated that most Lenape polities consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois, both of whom were armed by the Dutch fur traders, while the Lenape were at odds with the Dutch and so lost that particular arms race. During the Beaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Delaware, while rival Iroquoian peoples such as the Susquehannocks and Confederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well armed. Subsequently, the Lenape became subjugated and made tributary to first the Susquehannocks, then the Iroquois, even needing their rivals' (superiors') agreement to initiate treaties such as land sales. Like most tribes, Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases originating in Europe, mainly smallpox but also cholera, influenza and dysentery, and recurrent violent racial conflict with Europeans. Iroquoian peoples occasionally fought the Lenape. As the 18th century progressed, many surviving Lenape moved west--into the (relatively empty) upper Ohio River basin. Smallpox devastated Native American communities even located far from European settlements by the 1640s. The Lenape and Susquehannocks fought a war in the middle of the 17th century that left the Delaware a tributary state even as the Susquehannocks had defeated the Province of Maryland between 1642-50s. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | The Lenape (, , or ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historical territory included present-day northeastern Delaware, all of New Jersey, the eastern Pennsylvania regions of the Lehigh Valley and Northeastern Pennsylvania, New York Bay and western Long Island, and the lower Hudson Valley.
During the last decades of the 18th century, most Lenape were displaced from their homelands by European settlement and the American Revolutionary War, which pushed them farther west. In the 1860s, under the Indian removal policy, the U.S. federal government relocated most Lenape remaining in the Eastern United States to the Indian Territory and surrounding regions. Lenape people currently belong to the Delaware Nation and Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Stockbridge–Munsee Community in Wisconsin, and the Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario.
Name
The name Lenni Lenape, also Leni Lenape and Lenni Lenapi, originates from their autonym, , which may mean "genuine, pure, real, original", and , meaning "real person" or "original person" may be translated as "man".
When first encountered by European settlers, the Lenape were a loose association of related peoples who spoke similar languages and shared familial bonds in an area known as Lenapehoking, the Lenape traditional territory, which spanned what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Lower New York Bay, and eastern Delaware.
The tribe's common name Delaware is not of Native American origin. English colonists named the Delaware River for the first governor of the Province of Virginia, Lord De La Warr, whose title was derived from French. The British colonists began to call the Lenape the Delaware Indians because of where they lived. Swedish colonists also settled in the area, and Swedish sources called the Lenape the Renappi.
Territory
Traditional Lenape lands, the Lenapehoking, was a large territory that encompassed the Delaware and Lehigh Valley regions of eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey from the north bank of the Lehigh River along the west bank of the Delaware River into Delaware and the Delaware Bay. Their lands also extended west from western Long Island and New York Bay, across the Lower Hudson Valley in New York to the lower Catskills and a sliver of the upper edge of the North Branch Susquehanna River. On the west side, the Lenape lived in several small towns along the rivers and streams that fed the waterways, and likely shared the hunting territory of the Schuylkill River watershed with the rival Iroquoian Susquehannock.
Languages
The Unami and Munsee languages belong to the Eastern Algonquian language group and are largely mutually intelligible. Moravian missionary John Heckewelder wrote that Munsee and Unami "came out of one parent language." Only a few Delaware First Nation elders in Moraviantown, Ontario, fluently speak Munsee; however, adults and children are taught the languages in various programs.
William Penn, who first met the Lenape in 1682, stated that the Unami used the following words: "mother" was , "brother" was , "friend" was . Penn instructed his fellow English colonists, "If one asks them for anything they have not, they will answer, , which to translate is, 'not I have,' instead of 'I have not'."
The Lenape languages used to be exclusively a spoken language. However, in 2002, the Delaware Tribe of Indians received grant money to fund The Lenape Talking Dictionary, preserving and digitizing the Southern Unami dialect.
Society
Clans and kinship systems
At the time of European contact, a Lenape person would have identified primarily with their immediate family and clan, friends, and village unit and, after that, with surrounding and familiar village units followed by more distant neighbors who spoke the same dialect, and finally, with those in the surrounding area who spoke mutually comprehensible languages, including the Nanticoke people who lived to their south and west in present western Delaware and eastern Maryland.
Among many Algonquian peoples along the East Coast, the Lenape were considered the grandfathers from whom other Algonquian-speaking peoples originated.
The Lenape had three clans at the end of the 17th century, each of which historically had twelve sub-clans:
Wolf, Tùkwsit
Big Feet, Mä an'greet
Yellow Tree, Wisawhìtkuk
Pulling Corn, Pä-sakun'a'-mon
Care Enterer, We-yar-nih'kä-to
Across the River, Toosh-war-ka'ma
Vermillion, O-lum'-a-ne
Dog standing by fireside, Pun-ar'-you
Long Body, Kwin-eek'cha
Digging, Moon-har-tar'ne
Pulling up Stream, Non-har'-min
Brush Log, Long-ush-har-kar'-to
Bringing Along, Maw-soo-toh
Turtle, Pùkuwànku
Ruler, O-ka-ho'-ki
High Bank Shore, Ta-ko-ong'-o-to
Drawing Down Hill, See-har-ong'-o-to
Elector, Ole-har-kar-me'kar-to
Brave, Ma-har-o-luk'-ti
Green Leaves, Toosh-ki-pa-kwis-i
Smallest Turtle, Tung-ul-ung'-si
Little Turtle, We-lung-ung-sil
Snapping Turtle, Lee-kwin-a-i'''
Deer, Kwis-aese-kees'to Turkey, Pële Big Bird, Mor-har-ä-lä Bird's Cry, Le-le-wa'-you Eye Pain, Moo-kwung-wa-ho'ki Scratch the Path, Moo-har-mo-wi-kar'-nu Opossum Ground, O-ping-ho'-ki Old Shin, Muh-ho-we-kä'-ken Drift Log, Tong-o-nä-o-to Living in Water, Nool-a-mar-lar'-mo Root Digger, Muh-krent-har'-ne Red Face, Mur-karm-huk-se Pine Region, Koo-wä-ho'ke Ground Scratcher, Oo-ckuk'-hamThe Lenape have a matrilineal clan system and historically were matrilocal. Children belong to their mother's clan, from which they gain social status and identity. The mother's eldest brother was more significant as a mentor to the male children than was their father, who was generally of another clan. Hereditary leadership passed through the maternal line, and women elders could remove leaders of whom they disapproved. Agricultural land was managed by women and allotted according to the subsistence needs of their extended families. Newlywed couples would live with the bride's family, where her mother and sisters could also assist her with her growing family.
By 1682, when William Penn arrived to his American commonwealth, the Lenape had been so reduced by disease, famine, and war that the sub-clan mothers had reluctantly resolved to consolidate their families into the main clan family. This is why William Penn and all those after him believed that the Lenape clans had always only had three divisions (Turtle, Turkey, and Wolf) when, in fact, they had over thirty on the eve of European contact.
Members of each clan were found throughout Lenape territory, and while clan mothers controlled the land, the houses, and the families, the clan fathers provided the meat, cleared the fields, built the houses, and protected the clan. Upon reaching adulthood, a Lenape male would marry outside of his clan. The practice effectively prevented inbreeding, even among individuals whose kinship was obscure or unknown. This means that a male from the Turkey Clan was expected to marry a female from either the Turtle or Wolf clans. His children, however, would not belong to the Turkey Clan, but to the mother's clan. As such, a person's mother's brothers (the person's matrilineal uncles) played a large role in his or her life as they shared the same clan lineage. Within a marriage itself, men and women had relatively separate and equal rights, each controlling their own property and debts, showing further signs of a woman's power in the hierarchical structure.
As in the case of the Iroquois and Susquehannocks, the animosity of differences and competitions spanned many generations, and in general tribes with each of the different language groups became traditional enemies in the areas they'd meet. On the other hand, The New American Book of Indians points out that competition, trade, and wary relations were far more common than outright warfare—but both larger societies had traditions of 'proving' (blooding) new (or young) warriors by 'counting coup' on raids into another tribes territories. The two groups were sometimes bitter enemies since before recorded history, but intermarriage occurred — and both groups have an oral history suggesting they jointly came east together and displaced the mound builders culture. In addition, both tribes practiced adopting young captives from warfare into their tribes and assimilating them as full tribal members. Iroquoians adopting Lenape (or other peoples) were known to be part of their religious beliefs, the adopted one taking the place in the clan of one killed in warfare.
Early European observers may have misinterpreted matrilineal Lenape cultural practices. For example, a man's maternal uncle (his mother's brother), and not his father, was usually considered to be his closest male relative, since his uncle belonged to his mother's clan and his father belonged to a different one. The maternal uncle played a more prominent role in the lives of his sister's children than did the father—for example likely being the one responsible for educating a young man in weapons craft, martial arts, hunting, and other life skills.
Hunting, fishing, and farming
Lenape practiced companion planting, in which women cultivated many varieties of the Three Sisters: maize, beans, and squash. Men hunted, fished, and otherwise harvested seafood. In the 17th century, the Lenape practiced slash and burn agriculture. They used fire to manage land.Day, Gordon M. "The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forests." Ecology, Vol. 34, #2 (April 1953): 329–346. New England and New York Areas 1580–1800.Russell, Emily W.B. "Indian Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States." Ecology, Vol. 64, no. 1 (Feb. 1983): 78, 88.Smithsonian Institution—Handbook of North American Indians series: Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 15—Northeast. Bruce G. Trigger (volume editor). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. 1978 References to Indian burning for the Eastern Algonquians, Virginia Algonquians, Northern Iroquois, Huron, Mahican, and Delaware Tribes and peoples. Controlled use of fire extended farmlands' productivity. According to Dutch settler Isaac de Rasieres, who observed the Lenape in 1628, the Lenape planted their primary crop, maize, in March. They quickly adopted European metal tools for this task.
The men limited their agricultural labor to clearing the field and breaking the soil. They primarily hunted and fished during the rest of the year: from September to January and from June to July, they mainly hunted deer, but from the month of January to the spring planting in May, they hunted anything from bears and beavers to raccoons and foxes. Dutch settler David de Vries, who stayed in the area from 1634 to 1644, described a Lenape hunt in the valley of the Achinigeu-hach (or Ackingsah-sack, the Hackensack River), in which 100 or more men stood in a line many paces from each other, beating thigh bones on their palms to drive animals to the river, where they could be killed easily. Other methods of hunting included lassoing and drowning deer, as well as forming a circle around prey and setting the brush on fire. They also harvested vast quantities of fish and shellfish from the bays of the area, and, in southern New Jersey, harvested clams year-round. One technique used while fishing was to add ground chestnuts to stream water to make fish dizzy and easier to catch.
The success of these methods allowed the tribe to maintain a larger population than other, nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples in North America at the time, could support. Scholars have estimated that at the time of European settlement, around much of the current New York City area alone, there may have been about 15,000 Lenape in approximately 80 settlement sites. In 1524, Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor.
European settlers and traders from the 17th-century colonies of New Netherland and New Sweden traded with the Lenape for agricultural products, mainly maize, in exchange for iron tools. The Lenape also arranged contacts between the Minquas or Susquehannocks and the Dutch West India Company and Swedish South Company to promote the fur trade. The Lenape were major producers of labor intensive wampum, or shell beads, which they traditionally used for ritual purposes and as ornaments. After the Dutch arrival, they began to exchange wampum for beaver furs provided by Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock and other Minquas. They exchanged these furs for Dutch and, from the late 1630s, also Swedish imports. Relations between some Lenape and Minqua polities briefly turned sour in the late 1620s and early 1630s, but were relatively peaceful most of the time.
Clothing and adornment
The early European settlers, especially the Dutch and Swedes, were surprised at the Lenape's skill in fashioning clothing from natural materials. In hot weather men and women wore only loin cloth and skirt respectively, while they used beaver pelts or bear skins to serve as winter mantles. Additionally, both sexes might wear buckskin leggings and moccasins in cold weather. Women would wear their hair long, usually below the hip, while men kept only a small "round crest, of about 2 inches in diameter". Deer hair, dyed a deep scarlet, as well as plumes of feathers, were favorite components of headdresses and breast ornaments for males. The Lenape also adorned themselves with various ornaments made of stone, shell, animal teeth, and claws. The women often wore headbands of dyed deer hair or wampum. They painted their skin skirts or decorated them with porcupine quills. These skirts were so elaborately appointed that, when seen from a distance, they reminded Dutch settlers of fine European lace. The winter cloaks of the women were striking, fashioned from the iridescent body feathers of wild turkeys.
Leisure
One of the more common activities of leisure for the Lenni Lenape would be the game of pahsaheman: a football-like hybrid, split on gender lines. Over a hundred players were grouped into gendered teams (male and female), and would attempt to get a ball through the other team's goal post. However, men could not carry and pass the ball, only using their feet, while the women could carry, pass, or kick. If the ball was picked up by a woman, she could not be tackled by the men, although men could attempt to dislodge the ball. Women were free to tackle the men. These gender-split rules highlight how a woman's role in Lenape society was harmonious to a man's role, rather than acquiescent.
Another activity common was that of dance, and yet again, gender differences appear: men would dance and leap loudly, often with bear claw accessories, while women, wearing little thimbles or bells, would dance more modestly, stepping "one foot after the other slightly forwards then backwards, yet so as to advance gradually."
Units of measure
A number of linear measures were used. Small units of measure were the distance from the thumb and first finger, and the distance from first finger to pit of elbow. Travel distance was measured in the distance one could comfortably travel from sun-up to sun-down.
Ethnobotany
Lenape herbalists, who have been primarily women, use their extensive knowledge of plant life to help heal their community's ailments, sometimes through ceremony. The Lenape found uses in trees like black walnut which were used to cure ringworm and with persimmons which were used to cure ear problems.
The Lenape carry the nuts of Aesculus glabra in the pocket for rheumatism, and an infusion of ground nuts mixed with sweet oil or mutton tallow for earaches. They also grind the nuts and use them to poison fish in streams. They also apply a poultice of pulverized nuts with sweet oil for earache.
History
European contact
The first recorded European contact with people presumed to have been the Lenape was in 1524. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was greeted by local Lenape who came by canoe, after his ship entered what is now called Lower New York Bay.
Early colonial era
At the time of sustained European contact in the 1600s and 1700s, the Lenape were a powerful Native American nation who inhabited a region on the mid-Atlantic coast spanning the latitudes of southern Massachusetts to the southern extent of Delaware in what anthropologists call the Northeastern Woodlands. Although never politically unified, the confederation of the Lenape roughly encompassed the area around and between the Delaware and lower Hudson rivers, and included the western part of Long Island in present-day New York. Some of their place names, such as Manhattan ("the island of many hills"), Raritan, and Tappan were adopted by Dutch and English colonists to identify the Lenape people that lived there.
17th century
The Lenape had a culture in which the clan and family controlled property. Europeans often tried to contract for land with the tribal chiefs, confusing their culture with that of neighboring tribes such as the Iroquois. As a further complication in communication and understanding, kinship terms commonly used by European settlers had very different meanings to the Lenape: "fathers" did not have the same direct parental control as in Europe, "brothers" could be a symbol of equality but could also be interpreted as one's parallel cousins, "cousins" were interpreted as only cross-cousins, etc. All of these added complexities in kinship terms made agreements with Europeans all the more difficult. The Lenape would petition for grievances on the basis that not all their families had been recognized in the transaction (not that they wanted to "share" the land). After the Dutch arrival in the 1620s, the Lenape were successful in restricting Dutch settlement until the 1660s to Pavonia in present-day Jersey City along the Hudson. The Dutch finally established a garrison at Bergen, which allowed settlement west of the Hudson within the province of New Netherland. This land was purchased from the Lenape after the fact.
New Amsterdam was founded in 1624 by the Dutch in what would later become New York City. Dutch settlers also founded a colony at present-day Lewes, Delaware, on June 3, 1631, and named it Zwaanendael (Swan Valley). The colony had a short life, as in 1632 a local band of Lenape killed the 32 Dutch settlers after a misunderstanding escalated over Lenape defacement of the insignia of the Dutch West India Company. In 1634, the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannock went to war with the Lenape over access to trade with the Dutch at New Amsterdam. They defeated the Lenape, and some scholars believe that the Lenape may have become tributaries to the Susquehannock. After the warfare, the Lenape referred to the Susquehannock as "uncles". The Iroquois added the Lenape to the Covenant Chain in 1676; the Lenape were tributary to the Five Nations (later Six) until 1753, shortly before the outbreak of the French and Indian War (a part of the Seven Years' War in Europe).
Based on the historical record of the mid-17th century, it has been estimated that most Lenape polities consisted of several hundred people but it is conceivable that some had been considerably larger prior to close contact, given the wars between the Susquehannocks and the Iroquois, both of whom were armed by the Dutch fur traders, while the Lenape were at odds with the Dutch and so lost that particular arms race.
During the Beaver Wars in the first half of the 17th century, European colonists were careful to keep firearms from the coastally located Lenape, while rival Iroquoian peoples such as the Susquehannocks and Confederation of the Iroquois became comparatively well armed. Subsequently, the Lenape became subjugated and made tributary to first the Susquehannocks, then the Iroquois, even needing their rivals' (superiors') agreement to initiate treaties such as land sales.
Epidemics of newly introduced European infectious diseases, such as smallpox, measles, cholera, influenza, and dysentery, reduced the populations of Lenape. They and other Native peoples had no natural immunity. Recurrent violent conflicts with Europeans also devastated Lenape people.
The Lenape also fought intertribal warfare, particularly with the Haudenosaunee. The Lenape and Susquehannocks fought a war in the middle of the 17th century that left the Lenape a tributary state even as the Susquehannocks had defeated the Province of Maryland between 1642–1650s.
The Lenape's quick adoption of trade goods, and their desire to trap furs to meet high European demand, resulted in over-harvesting the beaver population in the lower Hudson Valley. With the fur sources exhausted, the Dutch shifted their operations to present-day upstate New York. The Lenape who produced wampum in the vicinity of Manhattan Island temporarily forestalled the negative effects of the decline in trade.
In 1682, William Penn and Quaker colonists created the English colony of Pennsylvania beginning at the lower Delaware River. A peace treaty was negotiated between the newly arriving colonists and Lenape at what is now known as Penn Treaty Park. In the decades immediately following, some 20,000 new colonists arrived in the region, putting pressure on Lenape settlements and hunting grounds. Penn expected his authority and that of the colonial government to take precedence. His new colony effectively displaced many Lenape and forced others to adapt to new cultural demands. Penn gained a reputation for benevolence and tolerance, but his efforts resulted in more effective colonization of the ancestral Lenape homeland than previous ones.
18th century
William Penn died in 1718. His heirs, John and Thomas Penn, and their agents were running the colony, and had abandoned many of the elder Penn's practices. Trying to raise money, they contemplated ways to sell Lenape land to colonial settlers. The resulting scheme culminated in the so-called Walking Purchase. In the mid-1730s, colonial administrators produced a draft of a land deed dating to the 1680s. William Penn had approached several leaders of Lenape polities in the lower Delaware to discuss land sales further north. Since the land in question did not belong to their polities, the talks came to nothing. But colonial administrators had prepared the draft that resurfaced in the 1730s. The Penns and their supporters tried to present this draft as a legitimate deed. Lenape leaders in the lower Delaware refused to accept it.
According to historian Steven C. Harper, what followed was a "convoluted sequence of deception, fraud, and extortion orchestrated by the Pennsylvania government that is commonly known as the Walking Purchase." In the end, all Lenape who still lived on the Delaware were driven off the remnants of their homeland under threats of violence. Some Lenape polities eventually retaliated by attacking Pennsylvania settlements. When they resisted European colonial expansion at the height of the French and Indian War, the British colonial authorities investigated the causes of Lenape resentment. The British asked Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, to lead the investigation. Johnson had become wealthy as a trader and acquired thousands of acres of land in the Mohawk River Valley from the Iroquois Mohawk of New York.
Beginning in the 18th century, the Moravian Church established missions among the Lenape. The Moravians required the Christian converts to share their pacifism, as well as to live in a structured and European-style mission village. Moravian pacifism and unwillingness to take loyalty oaths caused conflicts with British colonial authorities, who were seeking aid against the French and their Native American allies during the Seven Years' War. The Moravians' insistence on Christian Lenapes' abandoning traditional warfare practices alienated mission populations from other Lenape and Native American groups, who revered warriors. The Moravians accompanied Lenape relocations to Ohio and Canada, continuing their missionary work. The Moravian Lenape who settled permanently in Ontario after the American Revolutionary War were sometimes referred to as "Christian Munsee", as they mostly spoke the Munsee branch of the Lenape language.
During the French and Indian War, the Lenape initially sided with the French, as they hoped to prevent further European colonial encroachment in their territory. But, such leaders as Teedyuscung in the east and Tamaqua in the vicinity of modern Pittsburgh shifted to building alliances with the British colonial authorities. After the end of the war, however, Anglo-American settlers continued to attack the Lenape, often to such an extent that the historian Amy Schutt writes the dead since the wars outnumbered those killed during the war.
In 1757, the "New Jersey Association for Helping the Indians" wrote a constitution to expel native Munsee Lenape from their home in the Washington Valley of Morris County, New Jersey. Led by Reverend John Brainerd, colonists forcefully relocated 200 people to Indian Mills, then known as Brotherton. It was then an industrial town, known for gristmills and sawmills. This was the first Native American reservation in New Jersey. Reverend John Brainerd abandoned the reservation in 1777.
The Treaty of Easton, signed in 1758 between the Lenape and the Anglo-American colonists, required the Lenape to move westward, out of present-day New York and New Jersey and into Pennsylvania, then Ohio and beyond. Through the 18th century, many Lenape moved west into the relatively depopulated upper Ohio River basin.Sporadically they continued to raid European-American settlers from far outside the area.
In 1763, Bill Hickman, Lenape, warned English colonists in the Juniata River region of an impending attack. Many Lenape joined in Pontiac's War, and were numerous among those Native Americans who besieged Pittsburgh.
In April 1763, Teedyuscung was killed when his home was burned. His son Captain Bull responded by attacking settlers from New England who had migrated to the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. The settlers had been sponsored by the Susquehanna Company.
American Revolutionary War
Background
After the signing of the Treaty of Easton in 1758, the Lenape were forced to move west out of their original lands into what is today known as Ohio.
During the French and Indian War, Lenape leader Killbuck (also Bemino) had assisted the British against the French and their Indian allies. In 1761, Killbuck led a British supply train from Fort Pitt to Fort Sandusky. During the early 1770s, missionaries, including David Zeisberger and John Heckewelder, arrived in the Ohio Country near the Lenape villages. The Moravian Church sent these men to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity. The missionaries established several missions, including Gnadenhutten, Lichtenau, and Schoenbrunn. The missionaries pressured Indigenous people to abandon their traditional customs, beliefs, and ways of life, and to replace them with European and Christian ways. Many Lenape did adopt Christianity, but others refused to do so. The Lenape became a divided people during the 1770s, including in Killbuck's family. Killbuck resented his grandfather for allowing the Moravians to remain in the Ohio country. The Moravians believed in pacifism, and Killbuck believed that every convert to the Moravians deprived the Lenape of a warrior to stop further white settlement of their land.
War
At the time of the Revolutionary War, the Lenape in Ohio were deeply divided over which side, if any, to take in the war. During this time, the Lenape bands were living in numerous villages around their main village of Coshocton, between the western frontier strongholds of the British and the Patriots. The American colonists had Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) and the British, along with Indian allies, controlled the area of Fort Detroit (in present-day Michigan). When the American Revolutionary War began, Killbuck found the Lenape caught between the British and their Indian allies in the West and the Americans in the East. At the war's beginning, Killbuck and many Lenape claimed to be neutral. Other Indian communities, particularly the Wyandot, the Mingo, the Shawnee, and the Wolf Clan of the Lenape, favored the British. They believed that by their proclamation of 1763, restricting Anglo-American settlement to east of the Appalachian Mountains, that the British would help them preserve a Native American territory. In 1778, Killbuck permitted American soldiers to traverse Lenape territory so that the soldiers could attack British-held Fort Detroit. In return, Killbuck requested that the Americans build a fort near the major village of Coshocton, to provide the Lenape with protection from potential attacks by British-allied Indians and Loyalists. The Americans agreed and built Fort Laurens, which they garrisoned.
The British made plans to attack Fort Laurens in early 1779 and demanded that the neutral Lenape formally side with the British. Killbuck warned the Americans of the planned attack. His actions helped save the fort, but the Americans abandoned it in August 1779. The Lenape had lost their protectors and found themselves without solid allies in the conflict, which compounded their dispossession at the hand of encroaching American pioneers during and after the war.
Some Lenape decided to take up arms against the American settlers and moved to the west, closer to Detroit, where they settled on the Scioto and Sandusky rivers. Those Lenape sympathetic to the United States remained at Coshocton, and Lenape leaders signed the Treaty of Fort Pitt (1778) with the American colonists. Through this treaty, the Lenape hoped to establish the Ohio country as a state inhabited exclusively by Native Americans, as a subset of the new United States. A third group of Lenape, many of them converted Christian Munsees, lived in several mission villages run by Moravians. Like the other bands, they also spoke the Munsee branch of Lenape, an Algonquian language.
White Eyes, the Lenape chief who had negotiated the treaty, died in 1778. Subsequently many Lenape at Coshocton eventually joined the war against the Americans. In response, American military officer Daniel Brodhead led an expedition out of Fort Pitt and on April 19, 1781, and destroyed Coshocton. Surviving residents fled to the north. Colonel Brodhead convinced the militia to leave the Lenape at the Moravian mission villages unmolested, since they were unarmed non-combatants.
Treaties of the late 18th century
The Lenape were the first Indian tribe to enter into a treaty with the new United States government, with the Treaty of Fort Pitt signed in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. By then living mostly in the Ohio Country, the Lenape supplied the Continental Army with warriors and scouts in exchange for food supplies and security.
In 1780, Munsee-speaking Lenape community leaders native to the Washington Valley that had been forcibly displaced to Brotherton, wrote a community treaty to oppose selling any more land to white settlers:In 1796, the Oneidas of New Stockbridge invited the Munsee Lenape to their reservation. The initial Lenape response was negative; in 1798, Lenape community leaders Bartholomew Calvin, Jason Skekit, and 18 others signed a public statement of refusal to leave "our fine place in Jersey." However, the tribe later agreed to relocate to New Stockbridge to join the Oneidas. A few Lenape households stayed behind to assimilate in New Jersey.
19th century
In the early 19th century the amateur anthropologist Silas Wood published a book claiming that there were several American Indian tribes that were distinct to Long Island, New York. He collectively called them the Metoac. Modern scientific scholarship has shown that in fact two linguistic groups representing two distinct Algonquian cultural identities lived on the island, not "13 individual tribes" as asserted by Wood. The bands to the west were Lenape. Those to the east were more related culturally to the Algonquian tribes of New England across Long Island Sound, such as the Pequot.Bragdon, Kathleen. The Columbia Guide to American Indians of the Northeast,Columbia University Press (2002). . Wood (and earlier settlers) often misinterpreted the Indian use of place names for autonyms.
Over a period of 176 years, European settlers pushed the Lenape out of the East Coast, through to Ohio and eventually further west. Most members of the Munsee-language branch of the Lenape left the United States after the British were defeated in the American Revolutionary War. Their descendants live on three Indian reserves in Western Ontario, Canada. They are descendants of those Lenape of Ohio Country who sided with the British during the Revolutionary War. The largest reserve is at Moraviantown, Ontario, where the Turtle Phratry settled in 1792 following the war.
Two groups migrated to Oneida County, New York, by 1802, the Brotherton Indians of New Jersey and the Stockbridge-Munsee. In 1822, the Munsee Lenape of Washington Valley who had moved to Stockbridge were forcefully displaced by white colonists again, over 900 miles' travel away, to Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Indiana to Missouri
By the Treaty of St. Mary's, signed October 3, 1818, in St. Mary's, Ohio, the Lenape ceded their lands in Indiana for lands west of the Mississippi and an annuity of $4,000. Over the next few years, the Lenape settled on the James River in Missouri near its confluence with Wilsons Creek, occupying eventually about of the approximately allotted to them. Anderson, Indiana, is named after Chief William Anderson, whose father was Swedish. The Delaware Village in Indiana was called Anderson's Town, while the Delaware Village in Missouri on the James River was often called Anderson's Village. The tribes' cabins and cornfields were spread out along the James River and Wilsons Creek.
Role in western history
Many Lenape participated in the exploration of the western United States, working as trappers with the mountain men, and as guides and hunters for wagon trains. They served as army guides and scouts in events such as the Second Seminole War, Frémont's expeditions, and the conquest of California during the Mexican–American War.Sides, Hampton, Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West, Doubleday (2006), pp. 77–80, 94, 101, hardcover, 462 pages, Occasionally, they played surprising roles as Indian allies.
Sagundai accompanied one of Frémont's expeditions as one of his Lenape guides. From California, Fremont needed to communicate with Senator Benton. Sagundai volunteered to carry the message through some 2,200 kilometres (1367 miles) of hostile territory. He took many scalps in this adventure, including that of a Comanche with a particularly fine horse, who had outrun both Sagundai and the other Comanche. Sagundai was thrown when his horse stepped into a prairie-dog hole, but avoided the Comanche's lance, shot the warrior dead, and caught his horse and escaped the other Comanche. When Sagundai returned to his own people in present-day Kansas, they celebrated his exploits with the last war and scalp dances of their history, which were held at Edwardsville, Kansas.
Kansas reservation
Under the terms of the Treaty of the James Fork that was signed on September 24, 1829, and ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1830, the Lenape were forced to move further west. They were granted lands in Indian Territory in exchange for lands on the James Fork of the White River in Missouri. These lands, in what is now Kansas, were west of the Missouri and north of the Kansas River. The main reserve consisted of about with an additional "outlet" strip wide extending to the west.
In 1854, Congress passed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which created the Territory of Kansas and opened the area for white settlement. It also authorized negotiation with Indian tribes regarding removal. The Lenape were reluctant to negotiate for yet another relocation, but they feared serious trouble with white settlers, and conflict developed.
As the Lenape were not considered United States citizens, they had no access to the courts and no way to enforce their property rights. The United States Army was to enforce their rights to reservation land after the Indian Agent had both posted a public notice warning trespassers and served written notice on them, a process generally considered onerous. Major B.F. Robinson, the Indian Agent appointed in 1855, did his best, but could not control the hundreds of white trespassers who stole stock, cut timber, and built houses and squatted on Lenape lands. By 1860, the Lenpae had reached consensus to leave Kansas, which was in accord with the government's Indian removal policy.
Oklahoma
The main body of Lenape arrived in Indian Territory in the 1860s. The two federally recognized tribes of Lenape in Oklahoma are the Delaware Nation, headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and the Delaware Tribe of Indians, headquartered in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
The Delaware Tribe of Indians were required to purchase land from the reservation of the Cherokee Nation; they made two payments totaling $438,000. A court dispute followed over whether the sale included rights for the Lenape as citizens within the Cherokee Nation. While the dispute was unsettled, the Curtis Act of 1898 dissolved tribal governments and ordered the allotment of communal tribal lands to individual households of members of tribes. After the lands were allotted in 160-acre (650,000 m2) lots to tribal members in 1907, the government sold "surplus" land to non-Indians.
Texas
Spanish Texas
The Lenape migrated into Texas in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Elements of the Lenape migrated from Missouri into Texas around 1820, settling around the Red River and Sabine River. The Lenape were peaceful and shared their territory in Spanish Texas with the Caddo and other immigrating bands, as well as with the Spanish and ever-increasing American population. This peaceful trend continued after Mexico won their independence from Spain in 1821.
Mexican Texas
In 1828, Mexican General Manuel de Mier y Terán made an inspection of eastern Mexican Texas and estimated that the region housed between 150 and 200 Lenape families. The Lenape requested Mier y Terán to issue them land grants and send teachers, so they might learn to read and write the Spanish language. The general, impressed with how well they had adapted to the Mexican culture, sent their request to Mexico City, but the authorities never granted the Lenape any legal titles.
The situation changed when the Texas Revolution began in 1835. Texas officials were eager to gain the support of the Texas tribes to their side and offered to recognize their land claims by sending three commissioners to negotiate a treaty. A treaty was agreed upon in February 1836 that mapped the boundaries of Indian lands, but this agreement was never officially ratified by the Texas government.
Texas Republic
The Lenape remained friendly after Texas won its independence. Republic of Texas President Sam Houston favored a policy of peaceful relations with all tribes. He sought the services of the friendly Lenape and, in 1837, enlisted several Lenape to protect the frontier from hostile western tribes. Lenape scouts joined with Texas Rangers as they patrolled the western frontier. Houston also tried to get the Lenape land claims recognized, but his efforts were met only by opposition.
The next Texan President, Mirabeau B. Lamar, completely opposed all Indians. He considered them illegal intruders who threatened the settlers' safety and lands and issued an order for their removal from Texas. The Lenape were sent north of the Red River into Indian Territory, although a few scattered Lenape remained in Texas.
In 1841, Houston was reelected to a second term as president and his peaceful Indian policy was then reinstated. A treaty with the remaining Lnape and a few other tribes was negotiated in 1843 at Fort Bird and the Lenape were enlisted to help him make peace with the Comanche. Lenape scouts and their families were allowed to settle along the Brazos and Bosque rivers in order to influence the Comanche to come to the Texas government for a peace conference. The plan was successful and the Lenape helped bring the Comanches to a treaty council in 1844.
State of Texas
In 1845, the Republic of Texas agreed to annexation by the US to become an American state. The Lenape continued their peaceful policy with the Americans and served as interpreters, scouts, and diplomats for the US Army and the Indian Bureau. In 1847, John Meusebach was assisted by Jim Shaw (a Lenape), in settling the German communities in the Texas Hill Country. For the remainder of his life, Shaw worked as a military scout in West Texas. In 1848, John Conner (Lenape) guided the Chihuahua-El Paso Expedition and was granted a league of land by a special act of the Texas legislature in 1853. The expeditions of the map maker Randolph B. Marcy through West Texas in 1849, 1852, and 1854 were guided by Black Beaver (Lenape).
In 1854, despite the history of peaceful relations, the last of the Texas Lenape were moved by the American government to the Brazos Indian Reservation near Graham, Texas. In 1859 the US forced the remaining Lenape to remove from Texas to a location on the Washita River in the vicinity of present Anadarko, Oklahoma.
20th century
In 1979, the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs revoked the tribal status of the Lenape living among Cherokee in Oklahoma. They began to count the Lenape as Cherokee. The Lenape had this decision overturned in 1996, when they were recognized by the federal government as a separate tribal nation.
21st century
The Cherokee Nation filed suit to overturn the independent federal recognition of the Lenape. The tribe lost federal recognition in a 2004 court ruling in favor of the Cherokee Nation but regained it on July 28, 2009. After recognition, the tribe reorganized under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Members approved a constitution and by laws in a May 26, 2009, vote. Jerry Douglas was elected as tribal chief.
In September 2000, the Delaware Nation of Oklahoma received of land in Thornbury Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
In 2004, the Delaware Nation filed suit against Pennsylvania in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, seeking to reclaim included in the 1737 Walking Purchase to build a casino. In the suit titled The Delaware Nation v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the plaintiffs, acting as the successor in interest and political continuation of the Lenni Lenape and of Lenape Chief Moses Tunda Tatamy, claimed aboriginal and fee title to the 315 acres of land located in Forks Township in Northampton County, near the town of Tatamy, Pennsylvania. After the Walking Purchase, Chief Tatamy was granted legal permission for him and his family to remain on this parcel of land, known as "Tatamy's Place". In addition to suing the state, the tribe also sued the township, the county and elected officials, including Gov. Ed Rendell.
Although the Walking Purchase forced the Lenape people to Oklahoma, not every Lenape lives in Oklahoma. Many Lenape continue to live in the Northeast. This community of people are the Munsee Lenape, and are currently in the process of applying for state recognition.
The court held that the justness of the extinguishment of aboriginal title is nonjusticiable, including in the case of fraud. Because the extinguishment occurred prior to the passage of the first Indian Nonintercourse Act in 1790, that Act did not avail the Lenape. As a result, the court granted the Commonwealth's motion to dismiss. In its conclusion the court stated: "... we find that the Delaware Nation's aboriginal rights to Tatamy's Place were extinguished in 1737 and that, later, fee title to the land was granted to Chief Tatamy—not to the tribe as a collectivity."
Contemporary tribes and organizations
U.S. federally recognized tribes
Three Lenape tribes are federally recognized in the United States:
Delaware Nation in Anadarko, Oklahoma
Delaware Tribe of Indians in Bartlesville, Oklahoma
Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Bowler, Wisconsin.
Canadian First Nations
The Lenape who fled United States in the late 18th century settled in what is now Ontario. Canada recognizes three Lenape First Nations with four Indian reserves. Each is located in Southwestern Ontario:
Munsee-Delaware Nation, Canadian reserve near St. Thomas, Ontario
Moravian of the Thames First Nation, Canadian reserve near Chatham-Kent
Delaware of Six Nations (at Six Nations of the Grand River), two Canadian reserves near Brantford, Ontario
State-recognized and unrecognized groups
Three groups who claim descent from Lenape people are state-recognized tribes:
Lenape Indian Tribe of Delaware in Delaware
Nanticoke-Lenni Lenape Tribal Nation in New Jersey
Ramapough Lenape Nation in New Jersey
More than a dozen organizations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and elsewhere claim descent from Lenape people and are unrecognized tribes. Organizations in Pennsylvania, Idaho, and Kansas have petitioned the U.S. federal government for recognition."Petitions for Federal Recognition." 500 Nations. Retrieved January 20, 2012. One of these includes the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania based in Easton, Pennsylvania.
Notable historical Lenape people
This includes only Lenape documented in history. Contemporary notable Lenape people are listed in the articles for the appropriate tribe.
Richard C. Adams (1864–1921), Lenape author of collections of traditional narratives, legal advocate for Lenape in Washington, D.C.
Black Beaver (1806–1880), trapper, trader and scout; first inductee into the American Indian Hall of Fame
Buckongahelas (c. 1720–1805), Wolf clan war leader
Nora Thompson Dean (Delaware Tribe of Indians, 1907–1984), linguist
Hannah Freeman (1731–1802), purportedly the last surviving Lenape in Chester County, Pennsylvania
Charles Journeycake (1817–1894), chief of the Wolf clan from 1855 and principal chief from 1861; visited Washington, D.C., 24 times on his tribe's behalf
Sachem Killbuck (Gelelemend), Turtle clan leader
Captain Jacobs (died 1756), war chief
Neolin (18th century), Lenape prophet
Chief Newcomer (Netawatwees, c. 1686–1776), founder the village of Gekelmukpechunk (Newcomerstown), Ohio in the 1760s
Oratam (16th century), sachem of the Hackensack
Captain Pipe (Hopocan), (c. 1725–c. 1818), 18th century chief and member of the Wolf Clan
Pisquetomen (died 1762), chief who assisted Christian Frederick Post in negotiating the Treaty of Easton in 1758
Sassoonan or Allumapees (c. 1675–1747), 18th century chief and member of the Turtle clan
Shingas (fl. 1740–1763), Turkey clan war leader
Tamanend (c. 1625–c. 1701), leader reported to have negotiated treaty with William Penn, and for whom Tammany Hall was named
Tamaqua (died c. 1770), chief who led peace negotiations following Pontiac's War for whom Tamaqua, Pennsylvania is named
Teedyuscung ((1700–1763), leader of the eastern Lenape
Turtleheart, chief and warrior who represented the Lenape at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768
White Eyes (c. 1730–1778), Turtle clan peace chief who negotiated the Treaty of Fort Pitt
See also
Burial Ridge
Esopus people
Hell Town, Ohio (Lenape settlement in Ohio)
Lenape mythology
Lenape settlements
Mohicans
Munsee
Native American tribes in Maryland
Okehocking people
Ramapough Mountain Indians
Shamokin
Unalachtigo Lenape
Walking Purchase
Wappinger
Commentary
Notes
References
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Further reading
Adams, Richard Calmit, The Delaware Indians, a brief history, Hope Farm Press (Saugerties, NY 1995) [originally published by Government Printing Office, (Washington, DC 1909)]
Bierhorst, John. The White Deer and Other Stories Told by the Lenape. New York: W. Morrow, 1995.
Brown, James W. and Rita T. Kohn, eds. Long Journey Home . Indiana University Press (2007).
Kraft, Herbert: The Lenape: Archaeology, History, and Ethnography. New Jersey Historical Society, 1987. .
Kraft, Herbert. The Lenape or Delaware Indians: The Original People of New Jersey, Southeastern New York State, Eastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware and parts of western Connecticut. Lenape Books, 1996. .
O'Meara, John, Delaware-English / English-Delaware dictionary, Toronto: University of Toronto Press (1996) .
Otto, Paul, The Dutch-Munsee Encounter in America: The Struggle for Sovereignty in the Hudson Valley (New York: Berghahn Books, 2006).
Pritchard, Evan T., Native New Yorkers: The Legacy of the Algonquin People of New York. Council Oak Books: San Francisco, 2002, 2007. .
Richter, Conrad, The Light In The Forest.'' New York: 1953.
External links
Delaware Tribe of Indians, official website
Stockbridge-Munsee Community, official website
Lenape Center
Museum of Indian Culture
Lenape/English dictionary
Lenape (Southern Unami) Talking Dictionary
Category:Algonquian ethnonyms
Category:Eastern Algonquian peoples
Category:First Nations in Ontario
Category:Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands
Category:Native American history of Delaware
Category:Native American history of New Jersey
Category:Native American history of Pennsylvania
Category:Native American tribes in Delaware
Category:Native American tribes in New Jersey
Category:Native American tribes in New York (state)
Category:Native American tribes in Pennsylvania
Category:Native American tribes in Indiana
Category:Native American tribes in Ohio
Category:Native American tribes in Oklahoma
Category:Native American tribes in Texas
Category:Native Americans in the American Revolution
Category:Native American tribes in Wisconsin
Category:People of New Netherland | [
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"title": "Commentary"
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"Yes",
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C_58b22931a10840909e9339a69c2824d1_0 | Ranveer Singh | Ranveer Singh Bhavnani (born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards, including two Filmfare Awards, and is among the highest-paid actors in the country. After completing a bachelor's degree from Indiana University Bloomington, Singh returned to India to pursue his career in films. He made his acting debut in 2010 with a leading role in Yash Raj Films' romantic comedy Band Baaja Baaraat. | Film debut and breakthrough (2010-2011) | In January 2010, Singh was called for an audition by Shanoo Sharma, the head of the casting division for Yash Raj Films. They informed him that it was for a lead role in their film titled Band Baaja Baaraat, a romantic comedy set in the world of wedding planning. Aditya Chopra, the vice president of the company, later saw the audition tapes on video and was impressed by Singh's acting, and decided that he fit the part of Bittoo Sharma, the hero of the film. However, the director Maneesh Sharma needed some more convincing and he was called for a few more auditions over the next two weeks until they were completely convinced of his caliber. After the two weeks of testing, Singh was confirmed for the role of Bittoo, with Anushka Sharma playing the female lead. Singh described the role of Bittoo Sharma as a typical Delhi boy. To prepare for the role, he spent time with students at the Delhi University campus. Prior to the release of the film, trade analysts were skeptical of the film's commercial potential, citing the middling response to Yash Raj Films' last few productions, the lack of a male star and the fact that the female lead, Anushka Sharma, was by then an "almost-forgotten" actress. However, Band Baaja Baaraat went on to become a sleeper hit. Singh's portrayal of Bittoo was praised, with Anupama Chopra of NDTV writing that Singh was "pitch perfect in the role of the uncouth but good-hearted small town slacker who is a bit of a duffer when it comes to matters of the heart." The film earned approximately Rs214 million (US$3.3 million) at the domestic box office. At the 56th Filmfare Awards, Singh won the award for Best Male Debut. Following Band Baaja Baarat, Singh signed on for Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, a romantic comedy produced by Chopra and directed by Maneesh Sharma. He played a conman Ricky Bahl who cons girls for a living but finally meets his match. The film co-starred Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra, Dipannita Sharma and Aditi Sharma. According to Singh, the title character had various avatars in the film, including a chirpy, entertaining side and a sinister side. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India wrote, "Ranveer is, well Ranveer: your average Joe kind of hero who looks convincing enough as Sunny, Deven, Iqbal, Ricky, his sundry avatars." Commercially, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl earned Rs370 million (US$5.7 million) domestically. CANNOTANSWER | [
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"He played a conman Ricky Bahl who cons girls for a living but finally meets his match. The film co-starred Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra,"
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} | Ranveer Singh Bhavnani (; born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. The recipient of several awards, including five Filmfare Awards, he is among the highest-paid Indian actors and has been featured in Forbes Indias Celebrity 100 list since 2012.
After graduating from Indiana University Bloomington, Singh made his acting debut with a leading role in Yash Raj Films' romantic comedy Band Baaja Baaraat. The film was as a critical and commercial success, earning him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He gained praise for playing a melancholic thief in the drama Lootera (2013), and established himself as a star through his collaborations with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the first of which was in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013). He gained critical acclaim for portraying Bajirao I and Alauddin Khilji in Bhansali's period dramas Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), respectively. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the former and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for the latter. These, along with the action film Simmba (2018), in which he played the title character, rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. He won further Best Actor awards at Filmfare for playing an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019) and Kapil Dev in the sports film 83 (2021).
Singh has also hosted the television game show The Big Picture (2021–2022), and endorses several brands and products. He is married to his frequent co-star Deepika Padukone. Off-screen, he is known for his flamboyant fashion sense.
Early life and education
Ranveer Singh Bhavnani was born on 6 July 1985 into a Sindhi family in Bombay, Maharashtra, India (now Mumbai), to Anju and Jagjit Singh Bhavnani. His grandparents moved to Bombay from Karachi, Sindh (in present-day Pakistan) during the Partition of India. He has an elder sister, Ritika Bhavnani. Singh is the paternal grandson of character-actress Chand Burke and is related to actor Anil Kapoor's family through his wife Sunita Kapoor (née Bhavnani). Singh explains that he dropped his surname Bhavnani, since he felt that the name would have been "too long, too many syllables", thus downplaying his brand as a "saleable commodity".
Singh always aspired to be an actor, participating in several school plays and debates. However, after he joined H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, Singh realised that getting a break in the film industry was not easy. Feeling that the idea of acting was "too far-fetched", Singh focused on creative writing. He went to the United States where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University Bloomington in 2008. At the university, he decided to take acting classes and took up theatre as his minor.
After completing his studies and returning to Mumbai in 2007, Singh worked for a few years in advertising as a copywriter, with agencies like O&M and J. Walter Thompson. He also worked as an assistant director, but left it to pursue acting. He then decided to send his portfolio to directors. He would go for all kinds of auditions, but did not get any good opportunities, while only getting calls for minor roles: "Everything was so bleak. It was very frustrating. There were times I would think whether I was doing the right thing or not."
Career
Breakthrough (2010–2014)
In 2010, Singh auditioned for a lead role in Maneesh Sharma's Band Baaja Baaraat, a romantic comedy from the production company Yash Raj Films. Impressed by his audition, producer Aditya Chopra cast him for the part opposite Anushka Sharma. Singh described his role of Bittoo Sharma as a typical Delhi boy. To prepare for the role, he spent time with students at the Delhi University campus. Despite reservations about the film's commercial appeal from trade journalists, the film emerged as a sleeper hit. Singh's performance was praised, with Anupama Chopra of NDTV writing that Singh was "pitch perfect in the role of the uncouth but good-hearted small town slacker". At the annual Filmfare Awards, Singh won the award for Best Male Debut.
Following Band Baaja Baaraat, Singh signed on for Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, a romantic comedy once again produced by Chopra, directed by Maneesh Sharma, and co-starring Anushka Sharma. He played a conman Ricky Bahl who cons girls for a living but finally meets his match. According to Singh, the title character had various avatars in the film, including a chirpy, entertaining side and a sinister side. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India wrote, "Ranveer is, well Ranveer: your average Joe kind of hero who looks convincing enough as Sunny, Deven, Iqbal, Ricky, his sundry avatars." Commercially, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl performed moderately well. Singh received critical acclaim for Vikramaditya Motwane's period romance Lootera (2013), co-starring Sonakshi Sinha. An adaptation of O. Henry's short story The Last Leaf, the film tells the story of Pakhi Roy Chowdhury, a young Bengali woman who falls in love with Varun Shrivastava, a conman posing as an archaeologist. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN wrote that Singh "brings a quiet sensitivity to Varun, and occasionally a smoldering intensity. Offering a finely internalized performance, he leaves a lasting impression." Lootera underperformed commercially.
Singh next starred opposite Deepika Padukone in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, titled Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, in which he played Ram, a Gujarati boy based on the character of Romeo. Bhansali was impressed by Singh's performance in Band Baaja Baaraat and decided to cast him for the film. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela generated positive reviews from critics, as did Singh's performance. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani wrote that the film proved that he would be a star. The film emerged as Singh's biggest commercial success, with worldwide revenues of . Singh received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, Singh starred as a Bengali criminal in Ali Abbas Zafar's Gunday, alongside Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. David Chute of Variety praised Singh's screen presence and wrote that he "tucks the movie's center of interest under his arm and takes it with him — even though he has the could-be-thankless "good brother" role". Also, Singh's chemistry with Kapoor was considered by critic Rohit Khilnani to the prime asset of the film. Gunday proved to be Singh's biggest box office opener, and eventually emerged a box-office success with a revenue of worldwide. After a cameo appearance in Finding Fanny, Singh starred as a gangster in Shaad Ali's poorly received crime drama Kill Dil opposite Parineeti Chopra and Ali Zafar.
Established actor (2015–2019)
Zoya Akhtar's ensemble comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), produced by and cameo-starring her brother Farhan Akhtar, featured Singh alongside Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah and Priyanka Chopra as the younger sibling of a dysfunctional Punjabi business family who aspires to become a pilot. Writing for Mumbai Mirror, Kunal Guha found Singh to be the "surprise element" of the film; he praised his "immaculate comic timing" and took note of his subtlety. Commercially, the film underperformed. He next reunited with Bhansali in the period romance Bajirao Mastani (2015), opposite Padukone and Chopra. He portrayed Bajirao I, for which he shaved his head and to prepare, he locked himself in a hotel room for 21 days. Raja Sen wrote that Singh "brings his character to life and does so with both machismo and grace", and commended him for his perfecting his character's gait and accent. The film earned to become one of the highest-grossing Indian films, and garnered Singh the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
In 2016, Singh starred in Aditya Chopra's comedy-romance Befikre opposite Vaani Kapoor. He played Dharam Gulati, a stand-up comic whose romantic liaisons with Kapoor's character leads to conflict between them. Set in Paris, Befikre marked the fourth project to be directed by Chopra. Singh performed a nude scene for it, a rare occurrence in an Indian film. Jay Weissberg of Variety found the film to be an "overly energetic twist on the old friends with benefits theme" and criticised Singh's "manic behavior". It underperformed at the box office.
After a year-long absence from the screen, Singh portrayed Alauddin Khilji, a ruthless Muslim king, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Padmaavat (2018), co-starring Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, which marked his third collaboration with Bhansali and Padukone. Right-wing Hindu groups speculated that the film distorted historical facts, and issued violent threats against the cast and crew. The film's release was deferred and was allowed for exhibition after several modifications were made to it. Ankur Pathak of HuffPost criticised the film's misogynistic and regressive themes, but praised Singh for his "astute brilliance" in depicting Khilji's bisexuality. Rajeev Masand opined that he "plays the part with the sort of grotesque flamboyance that makes it hard to look at anyone or anything else when he's on the screen". Padmaavats production budget of made it the most expensive Hindi film ever made at that time. With a worldwide gross of over , it ranks as Singh's highest-grossing release and is among India cinema's biggest grossers. He won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor (shared with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun) and gained a Best Actor nomination at the ceremony.
At the end of the same year, Singh played the titular corrupt policeman in Rohit Shetty's action comedy Simmba, based on the Telugu-language film Temper (2015), co-starring Sara Ali Khan and Sonu Sood, which marked his first collaboration with filmmaker Karan Johar, who co-produced the film with Shetty. Despite disliking the film, Uday Bhatia of Mint credited Singh for playing his "cardboard creation" of a character with an "underlying sweetness that renders it more winsome than the humourless masculinity of Devgn's Singham". With worldwide earnings of , Simmba emerged as Singh's second top-earning Indian film of 2018.
Singh reteamed with Zoya Akhtar on Gully Boy (2019), a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. Singh found little in common with his character of a poor man who aspires to become a rapper, and in preparation he underwent acting workshops and spent time with both Divine and Naezy. He performed his own rap songs and was pleased that the film brought attention to India's underground music scene. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter commended him for displaying a "pleasingly full emotional range that extends to drama and hip-hop" and writing for Film Companion, Baradwaj Rangan praised his ghetto accent and found his understated performance to be a "superb showreel for his range". Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Singh received another Best Actor award.
Commercial fluctuations (2020–present)
In 2021, Singh hosted the television game show The Big Picture, which aired on Colors TV. He reprised his role as Simmba in Shetty's action film Sooryavanshi in an extended cameo. Singh then portrayed cricketer Kapil Dev in Kabir Khan's 83, a sports film based on the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Initially planned for a 2020 release, 83 was delayed several times owing to casting and pre-production that postponed filming, and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Reviews for the film were positive, with praise for Singh's portrayal of Dev. Made on a budget of , the film had a worldwide gross of and was deemed a box-office bomb. Singh's performance won him his third Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Singh's first film release of 2022 was Jayeshbhai Jordaar, a satire about female infanticide in India. Anna M.M. Vetticad of Firstpost disliked the film but commended him for "transform[ing] his body, body language and demeanour, his posture, his walk, his gestures and his entire personality" for the part, similar to how he had "metamorphosed" to play Dev in 83. He then played dual roles in Rohit Shetty's ensemble comedy Cirkus (2022), based on William Shakespeare's play Comedy of Errors. In a scathing review, Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in dismissed Singh's performance as "consistently lacklustre". Both Jayeshbhai Jordar and Cirkus were commercially unsuccessful.
Singh will next star in Karan Johar's romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani opposite Alia Bhatt.
Personal life and media image
Singh began dating Deepika Padukone, his co-star in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, in August 2012. In October 2018, the couple announced their impending marriage. The following month, they married in traditional Konkani Hindu and Sikh Anand Karaj (Singh's paternal grandfather is Sikh) ceremonies at Lake Como, Italy.
Singh has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2012, reaching his highest position (seventh) in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated his annual earnings to be and ranked him as the fifth-highest-paid actor in the country. He was also featured by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017 and 2019. In 2019, India Today featured him among the nation's 50 most powerful people, and in 2023, he featured in a similar list by The Indian Express.
In addition to his acting career, Singh launched his own record label in 2019, named IncInk, to promote local musicians. He endorses several brands,
including Adidas, Head & Shoulders, Ching's, Jack & Jones, Thums Up, and MakeMyTrip. Singh is also an investor in Vineeta Singh's start-up Sugar Cosmetics. Duff & Phelps estimated his brand value to be US$63 million, in 2019, the fourth-highest of Indian celebrities. In 2022, he peaked at the second position with a brand value of US$158.3 million.
Off-screen, Singh is known for his flamboyant fashion sense. In July 2022, Singh appeared nude in a photoshoot for Paper magazine. A month later, he was summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning in connection with several police complaints that were filed against him after the pictures went viral on social media.
Filmography
Films
Television
Discography
Awards and nominations
Singh is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards: Best Male Debut for Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), Best Actor for Bajirao Mastani (2016) and Gully Boy (2019), and biographical drama 83 (2021) and Best Actor (Critics) for Padmaavat (2018).
References
External links
Category:1985 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian male film actors
Category:Indian male dancers
Category:Indiana University alumni
Category:Male actors in Hindi cinema
Category:Sindhi people
Category:Indian people of Sindhi descent
Category:Male actors from Mumbai
Category:21st-century Indian male actors
Category:Filmfare Awards winners
Category:International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Category:Screen Awards winners
Category:Zee Cine Awards winners | [] | [
"The film Band Baaja Baaraat is a romantic comedy set in the world of wedding planning. It features the story of Bittoo Sharma, a typical Delhi boy and a wedding planner, described as an uncouth but good-hearted small-town slacker who is a bit of a duffer when it comes to matters of the heart.",
"Yes, at the 56th Filmfare Awards, Ranveer Singh, who portrayed Bittoo Sharma in the film, won the award for Best Male Debut.",
"Yes, the film Band Baaja Baaraat did well at the box office. It earned approximately Rs214 million (US$3.3 million) at the domestic box office and was termed a sleeper hit.",
"Yes, other than Ranveer Singh, the film Band Baaja Baaraat also starred Anushka Sharma, who played the female lead in the film.",
"One of the interesting aspects about the film Band Baaja Baaraat was the skepticism it faced prior to its release. Trade analysts doubted its commercial potential, citing the middling responses to Yash Raj Films' last few productions, the lack of a male star, and the fact that the female lead, Anushka Sharma, was by then an \"almost-forgotten\" actress. Despite these reservations, the film went on to become a sleeper hit. Also interesting is Ranveer Singh's prep work for the role of Bittoo Sharma. To better play the typical Delhi boy, he spent time with students at the Delhi University campus.",
"The text does not provide information on which countries the film Band Baaja Baaraat was released or shown in.",
"The text does not provide information on which countries the film Band Baaja Baaraat was released or shown in.",
"The text does not provide information about Ranveer Singh having acted in other movies prior to Band Baaja Baaraat. Based on the context, it appears Band Baaja Baaraat could have been his debut film, as he won the award for Best Male Debut at the 56th Filmfare Awards."
] | [
"Yes",
"No",
"No",
"No",
"No",
"No",
"No",
"No"
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C_58b22931a10840909e9339a69c2824d1_1 | Ranveer Singh | Ranveer Singh Bhavnani (born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several awards, including two Filmfare Awards, and is among the highest-paid actors in the country. After completing a bachelor's degree from Indiana University Bloomington, Singh returned to India to pursue his career in films. He made his acting debut in 2010 with a leading role in Yash Raj Films' romantic comedy Band Baaja Baaraat. | Early life and education | Singh was born on 6 July 1985 into a Sindhi family in Mumbai, to Anju and Jagjit Singh Bhavnani. His grandparents, Sunder Singh Bhavnani and Chand Burke, moved to Mumbai from Karachi, Sindh, (present-day Pakistan) during the Partition of India. He has an elder sister named Ritika Bhavnani. Singh is the maternal cousin of actress Sonam Kapoor and producer Rhea Kapoor, daughters of actor Anil Kapoor and wife Sunita Kapoor (nee Bhavnani). Singh explains that he dropped his surname Bhavnani, since he felt that the name would have been "too long, too many syllables", thus downplaying his brand as a "saleable commodity". Singh always aspired to be an actor, participating in several school plays and debates. Once when he had gone for a birthday party, his grandmother asked him to dance and entertain her. Singh remembers that he suddenly jumped in the lawn and started dancing to the song "Chumma Chumma" from the 1991 action film, Hum. He felt the thrill of performing and was interested in acting and dancing. However, after he joined H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, Singh realised that getting a break in the film industry was not at all easy, as it was mostly people with a film background who got these opportunities. Feeling that the idea of acting was "too far-fetched", Singh focused on creative writing. He went to the United States where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Indiana University. At the university, he decided to take acting classes and took up theatre as his minor. After completing his studies and returning to Mumbai in 2007, Singh worked for a few years in advertising as a copywriter, with agencies like O&M and J. Walter Thompson. He then worked as an assistant director, but left it to pursue acting. He then decided to send his portfolio to directors. He would go for all kinds of auditions, but did not get any good opportunities, while only getting calls for minor roles: "Everything was so bleak. It was very frustrating. There were times I would think whether I was doing the right thing or not." CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Ranveer Singh Bhavnani (; born 6 July 1985) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi films. The recipient of several awards, including five Filmfare Awards, he is among the highest-paid Indian actors and has been featured in Forbes Indias Celebrity 100 list since 2012.
After graduating from Indiana University Bloomington, Singh made his acting debut with a leading role in Yash Raj Films' romantic comedy Band Baaja Baaraat. The film was as a critical and commercial success, earning him the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut. He gained praise for playing a melancholic thief in the drama Lootera (2013), and established himself as a star through his collaborations with Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the first of which was in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (2013). He gained critical acclaim for portraying Bajirao I and Alauddin Khilji in Bhansali's period dramas Bajirao Mastani (2015) and Padmaavat (2018), respectively. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor for the former and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor for the latter. These, along with the action film Simmba (2018), in which he played the title character, rank among the highest-grossing Indian films. He won further Best Actor awards at Filmfare for playing an aspiring rapper in the musical drama Gully Boy (2019) and Kapil Dev in the sports film 83 (2021).
Singh has also hosted the television game show The Big Picture (2021–2022), and endorses several brands and products. He is married to his frequent co-star Deepika Padukone. Off-screen, he is known for his flamboyant fashion sense.
Early life and education
Ranveer Singh Bhavnani was born on 6 July 1985 into a Sindhi family in Bombay, Maharashtra, India (now Mumbai), to Anju and Jagjit Singh Bhavnani. His grandparents moved to Bombay from Karachi, Sindh (in present-day Pakistan) during the Partition of India. He has an elder sister, Ritika Bhavnani. Singh is the paternal grandson of character-actress Chand Burke and is related to actor Anil Kapoor's family through his wife Sunita Kapoor (née Bhavnani). Singh explains that he dropped his surname Bhavnani, since he felt that the name would have been "too long, too many syllables", thus downplaying his brand as a "saleable commodity".
Singh always aspired to be an actor, participating in several school plays and debates. However, after he joined H.R. College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, Singh realised that getting a break in the film industry was not easy. Feeling that the idea of acting was "too far-fetched", Singh focused on creative writing. He went to the United States where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications from Indiana University Bloomington in 2008. At the university, he decided to take acting classes and took up theatre as his minor.
After completing his studies and returning to Mumbai in 2007, Singh worked for a few years in advertising as a copywriter, with agencies like O&M and J. Walter Thompson. He also worked as an assistant director, but left it to pursue acting. He then decided to send his portfolio to directors. He would go for all kinds of auditions, but did not get any good opportunities, while only getting calls for minor roles: "Everything was so bleak. It was very frustrating. There were times I would think whether I was doing the right thing or not."
Career
Breakthrough (2010–2014)
In 2010, Singh auditioned for a lead role in Maneesh Sharma's Band Baaja Baaraat, a romantic comedy from the production company Yash Raj Films. Impressed by his audition, producer Aditya Chopra cast him for the part opposite Anushka Sharma. Singh described his role of Bittoo Sharma as a typical Delhi boy. To prepare for the role, he spent time with students at the Delhi University campus. Despite reservations about the film's commercial appeal from trade journalists, the film emerged as a sleeper hit. Singh's performance was praised, with Anupama Chopra of NDTV writing that Singh was "pitch perfect in the role of the uncouth but good-hearted small town slacker". At the annual Filmfare Awards, Singh won the award for Best Male Debut.
Following Band Baaja Baaraat, Singh signed on for Ladies vs Ricky Bahl, a romantic comedy once again produced by Chopra, directed by Maneesh Sharma, and co-starring Anushka Sharma. He played a conman Ricky Bahl who cons girls for a living but finally meets his match. According to Singh, the title character had various avatars in the film, including a chirpy, entertaining side and a sinister side. Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India wrote, "Ranveer is, well Ranveer: your average Joe kind of hero who looks convincing enough as Sunny, Deven, Iqbal, Ricky, his sundry avatars." Commercially, Ladies vs Ricky Bahl performed moderately well. Singh received critical acclaim for Vikramaditya Motwane's period romance Lootera (2013), co-starring Sonakshi Sinha. An adaptation of O. Henry's short story The Last Leaf, the film tells the story of Pakhi Roy Chowdhury, a young Bengali woman who falls in love with Varun Shrivastava, a conman posing as an archaeologist. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN wrote that Singh "brings a quiet sensitivity to Varun, and occasionally a smoldering intensity. Offering a finely internalized performance, he leaves a lasting impression." Lootera underperformed commercially.
Singh next starred opposite Deepika Padukone in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, titled Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, in which he played Ram, a Gujarati boy based on the character of Romeo. Bhansali was impressed by Singh's performance in Band Baaja Baaraat and decided to cast him for the film. Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela generated positive reviews from critics, as did Singh's performance. Writing for India Today, Rohit Khilnani wrote that the film proved that he would be a star. The film emerged as Singh's biggest commercial success, with worldwide revenues of . Singh received a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, Singh starred as a Bengali criminal in Ali Abbas Zafar's Gunday, alongside Arjun Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan. David Chute of Variety praised Singh's screen presence and wrote that he "tucks the movie's center of interest under his arm and takes it with him — even though he has the could-be-thankless "good brother" role". Also, Singh's chemistry with Kapoor was considered by critic Rohit Khilnani to the prime asset of the film. Gunday proved to be Singh's biggest box office opener, and eventually emerged a box-office success with a revenue of worldwide. After a cameo appearance in Finding Fanny, Singh starred as a gangster in Shaad Ali's poorly received crime drama Kill Dil opposite Parineeti Chopra and Ali Zafar.
Established actor (2015–2019)
Zoya Akhtar's ensemble comedy-drama Dil Dhadakne Do (2015), produced by and cameo-starring her brother Farhan Akhtar, featured Singh alongside Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah and Priyanka Chopra as the younger sibling of a dysfunctional Punjabi business family who aspires to become a pilot. Writing for Mumbai Mirror, Kunal Guha found Singh to be the "surprise element" of the film; he praised his "immaculate comic timing" and took note of his subtlety. Commercially, the film underperformed. He next reunited with Bhansali in the period romance Bajirao Mastani (2015), opposite Padukone and Chopra. He portrayed Bajirao I, for which he shaved his head and to prepare, he locked himself in a hotel room for 21 days. Raja Sen wrote that Singh "brings his character to life and does so with both machismo and grace", and commended him for his perfecting his character's gait and accent. The film earned to become one of the highest-grossing Indian films, and garnered Singh the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
In 2016, Singh starred in Aditya Chopra's comedy-romance Befikre opposite Vaani Kapoor. He played Dharam Gulati, a stand-up comic whose romantic liaisons with Kapoor's character leads to conflict between them. Set in Paris, Befikre marked the fourth project to be directed by Chopra. Singh performed a nude scene for it, a rare occurrence in an Indian film. Jay Weissberg of Variety found the film to be an "overly energetic twist on the old friends with benefits theme" and criticised Singh's "manic behavior". It underperformed at the box office.
After a year-long absence from the screen, Singh portrayed Alauddin Khilji, a ruthless Muslim king, in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Padmaavat (2018), co-starring Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, which marked his third collaboration with Bhansali and Padukone. Right-wing Hindu groups speculated that the film distorted historical facts, and issued violent threats against the cast and crew. The film's release was deferred and was allowed for exhibition after several modifications were made to it. Ankur Pathak of HuffPost criticised the film's misogynistic and regressive themes, but praised Singh for his "astute brilliance" in depicting Khilji's bisexuality. Rajeev Masand opined that he "plays the part with the sort of grotesque flamboyance that makes it hard to look at anyone or anything else when he's on the screen". Padmaavats production budget of made it the most expensive Hindi film ever made at that time. With a worldwide gross of over , it ranks as Singh's highest-grossing release and is among India cinema's biggest grossers. He won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor (shared with Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun) and gained a Best Actor nomination at the ceremony.
At the end of the same year, Singh played the titular corrupt policeman in Rohit Shetty's action comedy Simmba, based on the Telugu-language film Temper (2015), co-starring Sara Ali Khan and Sonu Sood, which marked his first collaboration with filmmaker Karan Johar, who co-produced the film with Shetty. Despite disliking the film, Uday Bhatia of Mint credited Singh for playing his "cardboard creation" of a character with an "underlying sweetness that renders it more winsome than the humourless masculinity of Devgn's Singham". With worldwide earnings of , Simmba emerged as Singh's second top-earning Indian film of 2018.
Singh reteamed with Zoya Akhtar on Gully Boy (2019), a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. Singh found little in common with his character of a poor man who aspires to become a rapper, and in preparation he underwent acting workshops and spent time with both Divine and Naezy. He performed his own rap songs and was pleased that the film brought attention to India's underground music scene. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter commended him for displaying a "pleasingly full emotional range that extends to drama and hip-hop" and writing for Film Companion, Baradwaj Rangan praised his ghetto accent and found his understated performance to be a "superb showreel for his range". Gully Boy won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Singh received another Best Actor award.
Commercial fluctuations (2020–present)
In 2021, Singh hosted the television game show The Big Picture, which aired on Colors TV. He reprised his role as Simmba in Shetty's action film Sooryavanshi in an extended cameo. Singh then portrayed cricketer Kapil Dev in Kabir Khan's 83, a sports film based on the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Initially planned for a 2020 release, 83 was delayed several times owing to casting and pre-production that postponed filming, and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. Reviews for the film were positive, with praise for Singh's portrayal of Dev. Made on a budget of , the film had a worldwide gross of and was deemed a box-office bomb. Singh's performance won him his third Filmfare Award for Best Actor.
Singh's first film release of 2022 was Jayeshbhai Jordaar, a satire about female infanticide in India. Anna M.M. Vetticad of Firstpost disliked the film but commended him for "transform[ing] his body, body language and demeanour, his posture, his walk, his gestures and his entire personality" for the part, similar to how he had "metamorphosed" to play Dev in 83. He then played dual roles in Rohit Shetty's ensemble comedy Cirkus (2022), based on William Shakespeare's play Comedy of Errors. In a scathing review, Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in dismissed Singh's performance as "consistently lacklustre". Both Jayeshbhai Jordar and Cirkus were commercially unsuccessful.
Singh will next star in Karan Johar's romantic comedy Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani opposite Alia Bhatt.
Personal life and media image
Singh began dating Deepika Padukone, his co-star in Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, in August 2012. In October 2018, the couple announced their impending marriage. The following month, they married in traditional Konkani Hindu and Sikh Anand Karaj (Singh's paternal grandfather is Sikh) ceremonies at Lake Como, Italy.
Singh has appeared in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list since 2012, reaching his highest position (seventh) in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated his annual earnings to be and ranked him as the fifth-highest-paid actor in the country. He was also featured by GQ in their listing of the 50 most influential young Indians of 2017 and 2019. In 2019, India Today featured him among the nation's 50 most powerful people, and in 2023, he featured in a similar list by The Indian Express.
In addition to his acting career, Singh launched his own record label in 2019, named IncInk, to promote local musicians. He endorses several brands,
including Adidas, Head & Shoulders, Ching's, Jack & Jones, Thums Up, and MakeMyTrip. Singh is also an investor in Vineeta Singh's start-up Sugar Cosmetics. Duff & Phelps estimated his brand value to be US$63 million, in 2019, the fourth-highest of Indian celebrities. In 2022, he peaked at the second position with a brand value of US$158.3 million.
Off-screen, Singh is known for his flamboyant fashion sense. In July 2022, Singh appeared nude in a photoshoot for Paper magazine. A month later, he was summoned by Mumbai Police for questioning in connection with several police complaints that were filed against him after the pictures went viral on social media.
Filmography
Films
Television
Discography
Awards and nominations
Singh is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards: Best Male Debut for Band Baaja Baaraat (2010), Best Actor for Bajirao Mastani (2016) and Gully Boy (2019), and biographical drama 83 (2021) and Best Actor (Critics) for Padmaavat (2018).
References
External links
Category:1985 births
Category:Living people
Category:Indian male film actors
Category:Indian male dancers
Category:Indiana University alumni
Category:Male actors in Hindi cinema
Category:Sindhi people
Category:Indian people of Sindhi descent
Category:Male actors from Mumbai
Category:21st-century Indian male actors
Category:Filmfare Awards winners
Category:International Indian Film Academy Awards winners
Category:Screen Awards winners
Category:Zee Cine Awards winners | [] | [
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C_be03eb28678d4cb68ec698590b9060c9_0 | A Night at the Opera (Queen album) | A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. A Night at the Opera incorporates a wide range of styles, including ballads, songs in a music hall style, hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences. | "Bohemian Rhapsody" | "Bohemian Rhapsody" was written by Mercury with the first guitar solo composed by May. All piano, bass and drum parts, as well as the vocal arrangements, were thought up by Mercury on a daily basis and written down "in blocks" (using note names instead of sheets) on a phonebook. The other members recorded their respective instruments with no concept of how their tracks would be utilised in the final mix. The famous operatic section was originally intended to be only a short interlude of "Galileos" that connected the ballad and hard rock portions of the song. The interlude is full of "obscure classical characters: Scaramouche, a clown from the commedia dell'arte; astronomer Galileo; Figaro, the principal character in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro...Beelzebub; identified in the Christian New Testament as Satan, Prince of Demons, but in Arabic as "Lord of the Flies". Also in Arabic the word Bismillah', which is a noun from a phrase in the Qur'an; "Bismi-llahi r-rahmani r-rahiim", meaning "In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful". During the recording, the song became affectionately known as "Fred's Thing" to the band, and the title only emerged during the final sessions. Despite being twice as long as the average single in 1975 and garnering mixed critical reviews initially, the song became immensely popular, topping charts worldwide (where it remained for an unprecedented nine weeks in the UK) and is widely regarded as one of the most significant rock songs in history. After Freddie Mercury's death, the song was rereleased as a double A-side to "These Are The Days Of Our Lives" on 9 December 1991 in the UK and September 5, 1991, in US. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was reportedly the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release.
Named after the Marx Brothers' film of the same name, A Night at the Opera was recorded at various studios across a four-month period in 1975. Due to management issues, Queen had received almost none of the money they earned for their previous albums. Subsequently, they ended their contract with Trident Studios and did not use their studios for the album (the sole exception being "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded the previous year). They employed a complex production that extensively used multitrack recording, and the songs incorporated a wide range of styles, such as ballads, music hall, dixieland, hard rock and progressive rock influences. Aside from their usual equipment, Queen also utilised a diverse range of instruments such as a double bass, harp, ukulele and more.
Upon release, A Night at the Opera topped the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and became the band's first platinum-certified album in the US. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one. Despite being twice as long as the average length of singles during the 1970s, the song became immensely popular worldwide.
Contemporary reviews for A Night at the Opera were mixed, with praise for its production and the diverse musical themes, and recognition as the album that established Queen as worldwide superstars. At the 19th Grammy Awards, its first single "Bohemian Rhapsody" received Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices. It has been hailed as Queen's best album, and one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at number 128 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2018, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Background
Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack (1974), had obtained commercial success and brought the band mainstream attention, with the single "Killer Queen" reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The album was a minor hit in the US, reaching number twelve, while "Killer Queen" hit the top 20. Despite this success, the band was broke at the time, largely due to a contract they had signed which meant that they would produce albums for a production company, who would then sell the album to a record label. This meant that Queen saw almost none of the money they earned, as Trident Studios paid them £60 weekly. Guitarist Brian May was living in a bedsit in Earls Court, West London while frontman Freddie Mercury lived in a flat in Kensington that suffered from rising damp. The matter eventually reached a turning point when bassist John Deacon, who had recently married, was denied a cash advance of £4,000 by manager Norman Sheffield to put a deposit on a house. This increasing frustration led to Mercury writing the song "Death on Two Legs", which would serve as the opening track to A Night at the Opera.
In December 1974, the band hired Jim Beach as their lawyer and began negotiating their way out of Trident. While Beach studied the group's contracts, the group continued touring. They began their first tour of Japan in April 1975, where thousands of fans met them at Haneda Airport and they played two sold out shows at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo. After a nine-month dispute, Queen were finally free of Trident and signed directly with EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in North America. They regained control of their back catalogue, while their former publishing company, Feldman, was taken over by EMI. Because Trident had invested over £200,000 in promoting Queen, the group were required to pay half that to buy out their contracts, and they had to give Trident 1% royalties from their next six albums. Additionally, a tour of America scheduled for September 1975 had to be cancelled as it had been organised by Jack Nelson, who was associated with Trident, despite the already booked venues and sold tickets. This tour was necessary for regaining funds, and its cancellation was a major setback.
With funds running low, Queen immediately began searching for new management. Three names were shortlisted: Peter Rudge, Peter Grant, who was then Led Zeppelin's manager, and John Reid, who was Elton John's manager at the time. Rudge was on tour with the Rolling Stones and could not be reached, so they contacted Grant. Grant, who was eager to manage Queen, had intended the band would sign with Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's label, and suggested Queen go on tour while he sorted out their finances. The group feared Grant would prioritise Led Zeppelin over them, and were reluctant to sign with Swan Song, so they contacted Reid. Reid was initially doubtful about managing another band; however, he accepted after learning it was Queen, and advised the group to "go into the studio and make the best record you can".
Recording and production
Queen worked with producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had also split from Trident, and engineer Mike Stone. It was the last time they would work with Baker until 1978's Jazz. Gary Langan, then 19 years old and who had been a tape operator on two of Sheer Heart Attacks songs, was promoted to an assistant engineer on the album. It was reportedly the most expensive album ever made at the time, with the estimated cost being £40,000 (equivalent to £ in ).
The album was recorded at seven different studios over a period of four months. Queen spent a month during the summer of 1975 rehearsing in a barn at what would become Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey. The group then had a three-week writing and rehearsing session in a rented house near Kington, Herefordshire before recording began. From August to September 1975, the group worked at Rockfield in Monmouthshire. For the remainder of recording sessions, which lasted until November, the group recorded at Lansdowne, Sarm Studios, Roundhouse, Scorpio Sound and Olympic Sound Studios. As their deal with Trident had ended, Trident Studios was not used during recording. The only song on the album recorded at Trident was "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded on 27 October the previous year, shortly before the band embarked on their Sheer Heart Attack Tour.
The group required multi-tracking for their complex vocal harmonies which typically consisted of May singing lower registers, Mercury singing middle registers and Taylor performing the higher parts (Deacon did not sing). Unlike their first three albums, which had used 16-track tape, A Night at the Opera was recorded using 24-track tape. Their vocal harmonies are particularly notable on the song "Bohemian Rhapsody", which features an elaborate opera sequence dominated by multitracked vocals. Similarly, "The Prophet's Song" has an a capella middle section that utilises delay on Mercury's vocals. For their self-titled "guitar orchestrations", May overdubbed his homemade Red Special guitar through an amplifier built by Deacon, known as the Deacy Amp, later released commercially as the "Brian May" amplifier by Vox. Guitar layering is one of May's distinctive techniques as a rock guitarist. He has said that the technique was developed whilst looking for a violin sound.
Aside from their usual equipment, the group used various instruments on the album. Mercury used a grand piano for most of the songs, contributing a jangle piano on "Seaside Rendezvous", while Taylor used a timpani and gong on "Bohemian Rhapsody". Deacon played double bass on "'39" and Wurlitzer Electric Piano on "You're My Best Friend". In the album liner notes, May was credited to "orchestral backdrops" – a reference to the fact that he played a number of instruments not typically found in Queen songs. He played an acoustic guitar on "Love of My Life" and "'39", as well a harp on "Love of My Life", and a toy koto on "The Prophet's Song". The song "Good Company" also features May recreating a Dixieland jazz band, which was done on his Red Special.
Songs
Overview
The album has been affiliated with progressive rock, pop, heavy metal, hard rock and avant-pop. It contains a diverse range of influences including folk, skiffle, British camp and music hall, jazz and opera. Each member wrote at least one song: Mercury wrote five of the songs, May wrote four, and Taylor and Deacon wrote one song each. The closing track was an instrumental cover of "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem, for which May was credited as the arranger.
For their first two albums, much of Queen's songwriting combined contemporary progressive rock and heavy metal, which led to a "Led Zeppelin meets Yes" description of the band. However, starting with Sheer Heart Attack, Queen began drawing inspiration from their everyday lives, and embraced more mainstream musical styles, a trend which A Night at the Opera would continue. Lyrical themes ranged from science fiction and fantasy to heartbreak and romance, often with a tongue in cheek sense of humour. The Winnipeg Free Press noted that the group blended "clever, often poignant lyrics with attractively-arranged melodies".
Side one
"Death on Two Legs" is considered to be Mercury's hate letter to Queen's first manager, Norman Sheffield, who for some years was reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972 to 1975. The lyrics refer to "blood-sucking leeches" and "decaying sewer rats". Though the song never makes direct reference to him, after listening to a playback of the song at Trident Studios around the time of the album's release, Sheffield sued the band and the record label for defamation, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement, but also confirmed his connection to the song. Executives at EMI were unsure that the song was a good idea, May was unsure about the lyrics and felt bad that Mercury was singing it, but ultimately realised it was the songwriter's final choice as to what should be sung. As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on this song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to May how they needed to be played on guitar. During live performances, Mercury would usually rededicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979. Other than on the live album, he said it was dedicated to a "motherfucker I used to know". "Death on Two Legs" remained on the setlist until, and well into, The Game Tour in 1981, and was then dropped. However, the piano introduction was played occasionally during the Hot Space and Works tours.
"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" is another song by Mercury. He played piano and performed all of the vocals. The lead vocal was sung in the studio and reproduced through headphones in a tin bucket elsewhere in the studio. A microphone picked up the sound from the bucket, which gives it a hollow "megaphone" sound. The guitar solo is also reported to have been recorded on the vocal track, as there were no more tracks to record on, as explained by producer Roy Thomas Baker during the Classic Albums documentary.
"I'm in Love with My Car" was written and sung by Taylor. The song was initially taken as a joke by May, who thought that Taylor was not serious when he heard a demo recording. Taylor played the guitars in the original demo, but they were later re-recorded by May on his Red Special. The lead vocals were performed by Taylor on the studio version, and all released live versions. The revving sounds at the conclusion of the song were recorded by Taylor's then current car, an Alfa Romeo. The lyrics were inspired by one of the band's roadies, Johnathan Harris, whose Triumph TR4 was evidently the "love of his life". The song is dedicated to him, with the album saying: "Dedicated to Johnathan Harris, boy racer to the end". When it came down to releasing the album's first single, Taylor was so fond of his song that he urged Mercury, the writer of the first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody", to allow it to be the B-side. This decision would later become the cause of much internal friction in the band, in that while it was only the B-side, it generated an equal amount of publishing royalties for Taylor as the A-side did for Mercury. The song was often played live during the 1977–1981 period. Taylor sang it from the drums while Mercury played piano and provided backing vocals. It was played in the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour in 2005 and the Rock the Cosmos Tour in 2008. Taylor would again play the song for his concerts with The Cross and solo tours, where instead of drums he played rhythm guitar.
"You're My Best Friend" was the second song and first Queen single to be written by John Deacon. He composed it while he was learning to play piano, and played the Wurlitzer electric piano (which Mercury disliked) on the recording and overdubbed the bass guitar afterwards. The song was written for his wife, Veronica. It was released as the album's second single after "Bohemian Rhapsody" and was also a top 10 hit in the UK, reaching number 7.
"'39" was May's attempt to do "sci-fi skiffle", inspired by the poet and novelist Hermann Hesse. It relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realise that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged. May sings the song on the album, with backing vocals by Mercury and Taylor. During live performances, Mercury sang the lead vocal. May had asked Deacon to play double bass as a joke but a couple of days later he found Deacon in the studio with the instrument, and he had already learned to play it. George Michael performed "'39" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992. Michael cited this song as his favourite Queen song, claiming he used to busk it on the London Underground. Recently, Queen have included the song on the setlists of their recent tours with Adam Lambert and before Lambert with Paul Rodgers; for all these tours since 2005 it is sung, as it is on the album, by May.
"Sweet Lady" is a fast rocker written by May. The song is an unusual rock style in meter (which gives way to at the bridge).
"Seaside Rendezvous", written by Mercury, has a mock-instrumental bridge section which begins at around 0:51 into the song. The section is performed entirely by Mercury and Taylor using their voices alone. Mercury imitates woodwind instruments including a clarinet and Taylor mostly brass instruments, including tubas and trumpets, and even a kazoo; during this section Taylor hits the highest note on the album, C6. The "tap dance" segment is performed by Mercury and Taylor on the mixing desk with thimbles on their fingers. Mercury plays both grand piano and jangle honky-tonk.
Side two
"The Prophet's Song" was composed by May. He explained that he wrote the song after a dream he had had about The Great Flood and his fears about the human race and its general lack of empathy. He spent several days assembling the song, and it includes a vocal canon sung by Mercury. The vocal, and later instrumental canon was produced by early tape delay devices. Over eight minutes long, it is also Queen's longest studio song. The speed-up effect that happens in the middle of the guitar solo was achieved by starting a reel-to-reel player with the tape on it, as the original tape player was stopped.
"Love of My Life" is one of Queen's most covered songs (there have been versions by many acts like Extreme featuring May, Scorpions and Elaine Paige). Mercury played piano (including a classical solo) and sang all vocals, including multi-tracked harmonies. May played harp (doing it chord by chord and pasting the takes to form the entire part), Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar (which he had bought in Japan) and his Red Special. May eventually arranged the song so it could be played on an acoustic 12 string for live performances. "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the song as a single there. When Queen and Paul Rodgers performed the song (specifically Brian solo) he sang almost none of the words and let the audience sing it all, continuing the tradition. When Queen and Adam Lambert performed it, Brian would play along to a projection of Freddie singing. When they performed with Paul Rodgers during 2004–2008, Mercury was also projected during the show, but not in a round display as they use with Adam Lambert.
"Good Company" was written and sung by May, who sings all vocals and plays ukulele. The recording features a recreation of a Dixieland-style jazz band using May's Red Special guitar and Deacy Amp. May composed the song on his father's Banjo ukulele, but recorded the song with a regular ukulele. Mercury was not involved with the song's recording, making it one of the few Queen songs not to feature their lead singer.
May recorded a version of "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem, on 27 October 1974 at Trident Studios before their Sheer Heart Attack tour. He played a guide piano which was edited out later and added several layers of guitars. After the song was completed it was played as a coda at virtually every Queen concert. When recording the track May played a rough version on piano for Roy Thomas Baker, producer, and Mike Stone, engineer. He called his own skills on the piano sub-par at the time. He performed the song live on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002. May has stated that he performed the song on the roof of Buckingham Palace as a homage to Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
"Bohemian Rhapsody"
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was written by Mercury with the first guitar solo composed by May. All piano, bass and drum parts, as well as the vocal arrangements, were thought up by Mercury on a daily basis and written down "in blocks" (using note names instead of sheets) on a phonebook. During the recording, the song became affectionately known as "Fred's Thing" to the band, and the title only emerged during the final sessions. The other members recorded their respective instruments with no concept of how their tracks would be utilised in the final mix.
The operatic section was originally intended to be only a short interlude of "Galileos" that connected the ballad and hard rock portions of the song. The interlude is full of "obscure classical characters: Scaramouche, a clown from the Commedia dell'arte; astronomer Galileo; Figaro, the principal character in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro; and Beelzebub, identified in the Christian New Testament as Satan, Prince of Demons, but in Arabic as "Lord of the Flies". Also in Arabic the word Bismillah', which is a noun from a phrase in the Qur'an; "Bismi-llahi r-rahmani r-rahiim", meaning "In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful".
Despite being twice as long as the average single in 1975 and garnering mixed critical reviews initially, the song became immensely popular, topping charts worldwide (where it remained for a then unprecedented nine weeks in the UK) and is widely regarded as one of the greatest songs in music history. The song was rereleased as a double A-side to "These Are the Days of Our Lives" on 5 September 1991, Mercury's 45th birthday, in the US and on 9 December 1991, after Mercury's death, in the UK.
Release
The album title was inspired by the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band had watched during recording sessions. Subsequently, they became good friends with the film's star Groucho Marx, to the point where Marx sent the band a letter praising their 1976 album A Day at the Races. Marx also invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in March 1977 (five months before he died). The band thanked him, and performed "'39" a cappella. The cover artwork features the band's logo, which was designed by Mercury, on a white background. The band's next album, A Day at the Races, featured a similar design but on a black background.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was released as the lead single on 31 October 1975, with "I'm in Love with My Car" as its B-side. Their management initially refused to release it; however, Kenny Everett played a copy of the song on his show 14 times, at which point audience demand for the song intensified and the band's label EMI was forced to release it. It subsequently topped the UK charts for nine weeks and peaked at number nine in the US. A second single, "You're My Best Friend" was released on 18 May 1976, with "'39" as its B-side. It reached number sixteen in the US and number seven in the UK.
The album was completed a week before the group were to embark on their A Night at the Opera Tour in support of the album. This resulted in a 36-hour mixing session, as the group wanted to have time to rehearse their setlist before touring. Due to time constraints, the group only had three and a half days to rehearse, at Elstree, with four hours taken off to shoot the music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody". The tour spanned 1975 and 1976, and covered the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia.
Re-releases
The album was first re-released in the U.S. by Hollywood Records on 3 September 1991 with two bonus remixes, as part of a complete re-release of all Queen albums.
On 30 April 2002, the album was again re-released on DVD-Audio with a 96 kHz/24bit Linear PCM stereo mix and a 5.1-channel mix in DTS 96/24 surround sound for standard DVD-Video players and 96 kHz/24bit MLP surround sound for DVD-Audio capable machines. It also includes the original 1975 video of Bohemian Rhapsody.
On 21 November 2005, it was once more re-released by Hollywood Records Catalogue Number 2061-62572-2 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album and its first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody". This release is accompanied by a DVD-Video disc with the same track listing featuring the original videos, old and new concert footage (including "'39" from the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace playing "God Save the Queen") and audio commentary by all four band members.
On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of the album set for release in May 2011. This as part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records came to an end after almost 40 years. According to Universal Music, all Queen albums were to be remastered and reissued in 2011. By September 2012 the reissue program was completed. Along with this came a 5.1 channel release of the album on Blu-ray Audio.
Reception
Contemporary critical reaction
A Night at the Opera was not reviewed by the majority of the UK music magazines when it came out because the band were remixing the album until the last moment, and consequently no preview discs were sent out to the media before the album was officially released. In Record Mirror & Disc, Ray Fox-Cumming attempted to review the album based on a single listening at the playback party held for the press, which he admitted "isn't really enough" to form a proper critical opinion. However, he described his first impressions of "an amazing rush of music with one track running helter-skelter into the next ... The orchestral effects, all done by voices, are dazzling but come and go too quickly to appreciate on a solo listening." Fox-Cumming stated that the album had three highlights – "Death on Two Legs", "The Prophet's Song" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" – and only one bad track, "Sweet Lady". He concluded that "as a whole, A Night at the Opera is faster, flashier and more complex than Sheer Heart Attack, but they haven't gone over the top". Phil Sutcliffe of Sounds reviewed the album from a cassette copy, and gave it a five-star review: "You can feel the colossal effort that went into every second of this long album – and yet there's a hardly a moment when I would criticise it for being contrived or overproduced." He singled out "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song" as the two tracks that "make a good album extraordinary", despite stating that the latter song's lyrics were "not appealing", and overall highlighting the album's "musical range power and consistently incisive lyrics".
On its release in the US four months later, Kris Nicholson of Rolling Stone said that although they share other heavy metal groups' penchant for "manipulating dynamics", Queen are an elite act in the genre and set themselves apart by incorporating "unlikely effects: acoustic piano, harp, a capella vocals, no synthesisers. Coupled with good songs." Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, felt that the album "doesn't actually botch any of a half-dozen arty-to-heavy 'eclectic' modes ... and achieves a parodic tone often enough to suggest more than meets the ear. Maybe if they come up with a coherent masterwork I'll figure out what that more is." The Winnipeg Free Press wrote: "The group's potential is practically limitless, indicating that Queen is destined to finally take its place among the small handful of truly major acts working in rock today."
Grooves noted that "Sharp operatic interludes, abrupt rhythmic changes, A Night at the Opera defies convention and places Queen in that rarefied circle of genuine superstars." Tony Stewart of NME opined that "More than anything else, A Night at the Opera is a consolidation of the previous album's success, skillfully balancing artistry and effectology. Throughout the album, they display their individual songwriting abilities and musicianship to devastating effect...If it's the most expensive album ever made in a British studio, it's also arguably the best. God save 'em."
Legacy
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album "a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece" and "prog rock with a sense of humour as well as dynamics". Erlewine felt that Queen "never bettered their approach anywhere else". Progressive rock historian Stephen Lambe has disputed that the album itself is progressive rock in his book Citizens of Hope and Glory: The Story of Progressive Rock. He wrote: "While far from progressive rock, it was the band's most grandiose and ambitious album yet, full of great songwriting and prog influences." He said the album was "a neat symbol of the furthest reach of the progressive rock movement".
While reviewing for Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot gave the album a very positive rating, stating how he believed "the band hit its artistic peak, with sterling contributions from all four band members..." alongside A Day at the Races.
In 1992, Mojo called the album "an imperial extravaganza, a cornucopia", and Queen "a band of hungrily competitive individualists on a big roll of friendship and delight". In 2004, Jason Warburg of the Daily Vault stated that the album "absolutely blew me away" and that "A Night at the Opera was the disc that would catapult Queen from British hitmakers to global superstars. As with many such landmark albums it became part milestone and part millstone, with every album that followed compared in some way or another to the musical and commercial success they achieved here. Be that as it may, the music is what counts – and it is simply amazing."
In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 230 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, number 231 on its 2012 list, and number 128 on its 2020 list. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 147th most celebrated album in popular music history.
In a 2006 review, Paul Rees of Q observed that although A Night at the Opera was "released the same year as both Bowie's arch soul pastiche Young Americans and the sleek art rock of Roxy's Siren, it has rarely been heralded as either. Yet it was, and is, every bit as brash, bold and full of the joys of its own possibilities." Feeling that Queen "never came close to bettering their fourth album", Rees concluded that "later albums would expose the lack of soul at the heart of Queen's music; they were all surface, no feeling. They elected themselves the great entertainers, and this heady rush of experimentation was not to be repeated. But A Night at the Opera remains glorious, monumental. It is British rock's greatest extravagance." In 2007, Chris Jones of BBC Music noted the diverse range of musical styles on the album, saying, "Sheer Heart Attack had hinted at a working knowledge of 19th century parlour balladry, 20s ragtime and Jimi Hendrix. A Night at the Opera was to add opera, trad jazz, heavy metal and more to the mix." He concluded that the album "remains their finest hour".
In 2011, digitally remastered versions of the earlier Queen albums were released, prompting another batch of reviews. Uncut said that the album "proved there was no limit to their capabilities" and concluded, "Containing not one but two monumental epics ('Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Prophet's Song'), and gorging on grandiose gestures galore, A Night at the Opera secured itself instant classic status". Pitchforks Dominique Leone stated, "No punches pulled, no expense spared: A Night at the Opera was Queen at the top of the mountain". AJ Ramirez of PopMatters wrote, "Kicking off with the downright ominous high-drama of 'Death on Two Legs' (a retort against the group's recently deposed management where Mercury spits out venomous invectives at the targets of his ire), the album gives way to a kaleidoscope of styles, from 1920 jazz to space-folk narratives to top-of-the-line contemporary pop-rock. Amazingly, while the transitions between genres would conceivably throw listeners for a loop, none are jarring. Instead, Queen succeeds because it pulls from all the best tricks in the library of showbiz history to deliver laughs, heartache, grandeur, and spectacle to its audience at precisely the right moments." He observed that "it is the realization of such a unique sonic vision that pushes [the album] into the realm of true excellence ... A Night at the Opera stands as a breathtaking, involving creation, and unequivocally Queen's finest album."
Accolades
In 1977, "Bohemian Rhapsody" received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices.
Band comments
Track listing
Original release
All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.
On the cassette, the positions of "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Good Company" were swapped to maintain a similar duration for each side.
Universal Music reissue (2011)
iTunes deluxe edition (2011)
Personnel
Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album.
Queen
Freddie Mercury – lead vocals , backing vocals , piano , jangle piano
Brian May – electric guitar , backing vocals , acoustic guitar , lead vocals , koto , harp , ukulele
Roger Taylor – drums , backing vocals , percussion , lead vocals and additional electric guitar
John Deacon – bass guitar , electric piano , double bass backing vocals (11)
Production
Roy Thomas Baker – production
Mike Stone – engineering
Gary Lyons – engineering
John Harris – equipment supervision
David Costa – art direction
Rick Curtin and Brian Palmer – special thanks
John Reid – management
Charts
Weekly charts
Weekly charts (reissues)
Year-end charts
Certifications
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Queen official website: Discography: A Night at the Opera: includes lyrics of all non-bonus tracks.
Category:1975 albums
Category:Albums produced by Roy Thomas Baker
Category:Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Category:Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios
Category:Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Category:Cultural depictions of the Marx Brothers
Category:Elektra Records albums
Category:EMI Records albums
Category:Hollywood Records albums
Category:Parlophone albums
Category:Queen (band) albums | [
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"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
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C_be03eb28678d4cb68ec698590b9060c9_1 | A Night at the Opera (Queen album) | A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release. The album takes its name from the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band watched one night at the studio complex when recording. A Night at the Opera incorporates a wide range of styles, including ballads, songs in a music hall style, hard rock tracks and progressive rock influences. | "'39" | "Death on Two Legs" can be referred to as Freddie Mercury's hate letter to Queen's first manager, Norman Sheffield, who for some years was reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972 to 1975. Sheffield denied the allegations in his 2013 autobiography entitled "Life on Two Legs: Set The Record Straight", and referred to copies of the original 1972 management contracts between Sheffield and Queen, which were included in the book as proof of his defence. Though the song never makes direct reference to him, after listening to a playback of the song at Trident Studios during the time of album release, Sheffield was appalled, and sued the band and the record label for defamation, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement, but also confirmed his connection to the song. During live performances, Mercury would usually rededicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979. Other than on the live album, he said it was dedicated to a "motherfucker I used to know". In the Classic Albums documentary about the making of A Night at the Opera, Brian May stated that the band was somewhat taken aback at first by the bitterness of Mercury's lyrics, and described by Mercury as being "so vindictive that he [May] felt bad singing it". After the song came together, it was agreed that the "author should have his way", and the song was recorded as written. As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on this song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to May how they needed to be played on guitar. "Death on Two Legs" remained on the setlist until, and well into, The Game Tour in 1980, and was then dropped. However, the piano introduction was played during the Hot Space and Works tours. "I'm in Love with My Car" is amongst Roger Taylor's most famous songs in the Queen catalogue. The song was initially taken as a joke by May, who thought that Taylor was not serious when he heard a demo recording. Taylor played the guitars in the original demo, but they were later re-recorded by May on his Red Special. The lead vocals were performed by Taylor on the studio version, and all released live versions. The revving sounds at the conclusion of the song were recorded by Taylor's then current car, an Alfa Romeo. The lyrics were inspired by one of the band's roadies, Johnathan Harris, whose Triumph TR4 was evidently the "love of his life". The song is dedicated to him, the album says: "Dedicated to Johnathan Harris, boy racer to the end". When it came down to releasing the album's first single, Taylor was so fond of his song that he urged Mercury (author of the first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody") to allow it to be the B-side and reportedly locked himself in a cupboard until Mercury agreed. This decision would later become the cause of much internal friction in the band, in that while it was only the B-side, it generated an equal amount of publishing royalties for Taylor as the main single did for Mercury. The song was often played live during the 1977-81 period. Taylor sang it from the drums while Mercury played piano and provided backing vocals. It was played in the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour in 2005 and the Rock the Cosmos Tour in 2008. Taylor would again play the song for his concerts with The Cross and solo tours, where instead of drums he played rhythm guitar. "'39" was May's attempt to do "sci-fi skiffle". "'39" relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realise that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged. May sings the song on the album, with backing vocals by Mercury and Taylor. During live performances, Mercury sang the lead vocal. May had asked bassist John Deacon to play double bass as a joke but a couple of days later he found Deacon in the studio with the instrument, and he had already learned to play it. Since Queen had named their albums A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races after two of the Marx Brothers' most popular films, surviving brother Groucho Marx invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in March 1977 (five months before he died). The band thanked him, and performed "'39" a cappella. George Michael performed "'39" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992. Michael cited this song as his favourite Queen song, claiming he used to busk it on the London Underground. Recently, Queen have included the song on the setlists of their recent tours with Adam Lambert and before Adam with Paul Rodgers; for all these tours since 2005 it is sung as it is on the album by May. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | A Night at the Opera is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Queen, released on 21 November 1975 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker and Queen, it was reportedly the most expensive album ever recorded at the time of its release.
Named after the Marx Brothers' film of the same name, A Night at the Opera was recorded at various studios across a four-month period in 1975. Due to management issues, Queen had received almost none of the money they earned for their previous albums. Subsequently, they ended their contract with Trident Studios and did not use their studios for the album (the sole exception being "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded the previous year). They employed a complex production that extensively used multitrack recording, and the songs incorporated a wide range of styles, such as ballads, music hall, dixieland, hard rock and progressive rock influences. Aside from their usual equipment, Queen also utilised a diverse range of instruments such as a double bass, harp, ukulele and more.
Upon release, A Night at the Opera topped the UK Albums Chart for four non-consecutive weeks. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and became the band's first platinum-certified album in the US. It also produced the band's most successful single in the UK, "Bohemian Rhapsody", which became their first UK number one. Despite being twice as long as the average length of singles during the 1970s, the song became immensely popular worldwide.
Contemporary reviews for A Night at the Opera were mixed, with praise for its production and the diverse musical themes, and recognition as the album that established Queen as worldwide superstars. At the 19th Grammy Awards, its first single "Bohemian Rhapsody" received Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices. It has been hailed as Queen's best album, and one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked it at number 128 on its list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2018, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Background
Queen's previous album, Sheer Heart Attack (1974), had obtained commercial success and brought the band mainstream attention, with the single "Killer Queen" reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. The album was a minor hit in the US, reaching number twelve, while "Killer Queen" hit the top 20. Despite this success, the band was broke at the time, largely due to a contract they had signed which meant that they would produce albums for a production company, who would then sell the album to a record label. This meant that Queen saw almost none of the money they earned, as Trident Studios paid them £60 weekly. Guitarist Brian May was living in a bedsit in Earls Court, West London while frontman Freddie Mercury lived in a flat in Kensington that suffered from rising damp. The matter eventually reached a turning point when bassist John Deacon, who had recently married, was denied a cash advance of £4,000 by manager Norman Sheffield to put a deposit on a house. This increasing frustration led to Mercury writing the song "Death on Two Legs", which would serve as the opening track to A Night at the Opera.
In December 1974, the band hired Jim Beach as their lawyer and began negotiating their way out of Trident. While Beach studied the group's contracts, the group continued touring. They began their first tour of Japan in April 1975, where thousands of fans met them at Haneda Airport and they played two sold out shows at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo. After a nine-month dispute, Queen were finally free of Trident and signed directly with EMI Records in the UK and Elektra Records in North America. They regained control of their back catalogue, while their former publishing company, Feldman, was taken over by EMI. Because Trident had invested over £200,000 in promoting Queen, the group were required to pay half that to buy out their contracts, and they had to give Trident 1% royalties from their next six albums. Additionally, a tour of America scheduled for September 1975 had to be cancelled as it had been organised by Jack Nelson, who was associated with Trident, despite the already booked venues and sold tickets. This tour was necessary for regaining funds, and its cancellation was a major setback.
With funds running low, Queen immediately began searching for new management. Three names were shortlisted: Peter Rudge, Peter Grant, who was then Led Zeppelin's manager, and John Reid, who was Elton John's manager at the time. Rudge was on tour with the Rolling Stones and could not be reached, so they contacted Grant. Grant, who was eager to manage Queen, had intended the band would sign with Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's label, and suggested Queen go on tour while he sorted out their finances. The group feared Grant would prioritise Led Zeppelin over them, and were reluctant to sign with Swan Song, so they contacted Reid. Reid was initially doubtful about managing another band; however, he accepted after learning it was Queen, and advised the group to "go into the studio and make the best record you can".
Recording and production
Queen worked with producer Roy Thomas Baker, who had also split from Trident, and engineer Mike Stone. It was the last time they would work with Baker until 1978's Jazz. Gary Langan, then 19 years old and who had been a tape operator on two of Sheer Heart Attacks songs, was promoted to an assistant engineer on the album. It was reportedly the most expensive album ever made at the time, with the estimated cost being £40,000 (equivalent to £ in ).
The album was recorded at seven different studios over a period of four months. Queen spent a month during the summer of 1975 rehearsing in a barn at what would become Ridge Farm Studio in Surrey. The group then had a three-week writing and rehearsing session in a rented house near Kington, Herefordshire before recording began. From August to September 1975, the group worked at Rockfield in Monmouthshire. For the remainder of recording sessions, which lasted until November, the group recorded at Lansdowne, Sarm Studios, Roundhouse, Scorpio Sound and Olympic Sound Studios. As their deal with Trident had ended, Trident Studios was not used during recording. The only song on the album recorded at Trident was "God Save the Queen", which had been recorded on 27 October the previous year, shortly before the band embarked on their Sheer Heart Attack Tour.
The group required multi-tracking for their complex vocal harmonies which typically consisted of May singing lower registers, Mercury singing middle registers and Taylor performing the higher parts (Deacon did not sing). Unlike their first three albums, which had used 16-track tape, A Night at the Opera was recorded using 24-track tape. Their vocal harmonies are particularly notable on the song "Bohemian Rhapsody", which features an elaborate opera sequence dominated by multitracked vocals. Similarly, "The Prophet's Song" has an a capella middle section that utilises delay on Mercury's vocals. For their self-titled "guitar orchestrations", May overdubbed his homemade Red Special guitar through an amplifier built by Deacon, known as the Deacy Amp, later released commercially as the "Brian May" amplifier by Vox. Guitar layering is one of May's distinctive techniques as a rock guitarist. He has said that the technique was developed whilst looking for a violin sound.
Aside from their usual equipment, the group used various instruments on the album. Mercury used a grand piano for most of the songs, contributing a jangle piano on "Seaside Rendezvous", while Taylor used a timpani and gong on "Bohemian Rhapsody". Deacon played double bass on "'39" and Wurlitzer Electric Piano on "You're My Best Friend". In the album liner notes, May was credited to "orchestral backdrops" – a reference to the fact that he played a number of instruments not typically found in Queen songs. He played an acoustic guitar on "Love of My Life" and "'39", as well a harp on "Love of My Life", and a toy koto on "The Prophet's Song". The song "Good Company" also features May recreating a Dixieland jazz band, which was done on his Red Special.
Songs
Overview
The album has been affiliated with progressive rock, pop, heavy metal, hard rock and avant-pop. It contains a diverse range of influences including folk, skiffle, British camp and music hall, jazz and opera. Each member wrote at least one song: Mercury wrote five of the songs, May wrote four, and Taylor and Deacon wrote one song each. The closing track was an instrumental cover of "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem, for which May was credited as the arranger.
For their first two albums, much of Queen's songwriting combined contemporary progressive rock and heavy metal, which led to a "Led Zeppelin meets Yes" description of the band. However, starting with Sheer Heart Attack, Queen began drawing inspiration from their everyday lives, and embraced more mainstream musical styles, a trend which A Night at the Opera would continue. Lyrical themes ranged from science fiction and fantasy to heartbreak and romance, often with a tongue in cheek sense of humour. The Winnipeg Free Press noted that the group blended "clever, often poignant lyrics with attractively-arranged melodies".
Side one
"Death on Two Legs" is considered to be Mercury's hate letter to Queen's first manager, Norman Sheffield, who for some years was reputed to have mistreated the band and abused his role as their manager from 1972 to 1975. The lyrics refer to "blood-sucking leeches" and "decaying sewer rats". Though the song never makes direct reference to him, after listening to a playback of the song at Trident Studios around the time of the album's release, Sheffield sued the band and the record label for defamation, which resulted in an out-of-court settlement, but also confirmed his connection to the song. Executives at EMI were unsure that the song was a good idea, May was unsure about the lyrics and felt bad that Mercury was singing it, but ultimately realised it was the songwriter's final choice as to what should be sung. As with "Bohemian Rhapsody", most of the guitar parts on this song were initially played on piano by Mercury, to demonstrate to May how they needed to be played on guitar. During live performances, Mercury would usually rededicate the song to "a real motherfucker of a gentleman", although this line was censored on the version that appeared on their Live Killers album in 1979. Other than on the live album, he said it was dedicated to a "motherfucker I used to know". "Death on Two Legs" remained on the setlist until, and well into, The Game Tour in 1981, and was then dropped. However, the piano introduction was played occasionally during the Hot Space and Works tours.
"Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon" is another song by Mercury. He played piano and performed all of the vocals. The lead vocal was sung in the studio and reproduced through headphones in a tin bucket elsewhere in the studio. A microphone picked up the sound from the bucket, which gives it a hollow "megaphone" sound. The guitar solo is also reported to have been recorded on the vocal track, as there were no more tracks to record on, as explained by producer Roy Thomas Baker during the Classic Albums documentary.
"I'm in Love with My Car" was written and sung by Taylor. The song was initially taken as a joke by May, who thought that Taylor was not serious when he heard a demo recording. Taylor played the guitars in the original demo, but they were later re-recorded by May on his Red Special. The lead vocals were performed by Taylor on the studio version, and all released live versions. The revving sounds at the conclusion of the song were recorded by Taylor's then current car, an Alfa Romeo. The lyrics were inspired by one of the band's roadies, Johnathan Harris, whose Triumph TR4 was evidently the "love of his life". The song is dedicated to him, with the album saying: "Dedicated to Johnathan Harris, boy racer to the end". When it came down to releasing the album's first single, Taylor was so fond of his song that he urged Mercury, the writer of the first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody", to allow it to be the B-side. This decision would later become the cause of much internal friction in the band, in that while it was only the B-side, it generated an equal amount of publishing royalties for Taylor as the A-side did for Mercury. The song was often played live during the 1977–1981 period. Taylor sang it from the drums while Mercury played piano and provided backing vocals. It was played in the Queen + Paul Rodgers Tour in 2005 and the Rock the Cosmos Tour in 2008. Taylor would again play the song for his concerts with The Cross and solo tours, where instead of drums he played rhythm guitar.
"You're My Best Friend" was the second song and first Queen single to be written by John Deacon. He composed it while he was learning to play piano, and played the Wurlitzer electric piano (which Mercury disliked) on the recording and overdubbed the bass guitar afterwards. The song was written for his wife, Veronica. It was released as the album's second single after "Bohemian Rhapsody" and was also a top 10 hit in the UK, reaching number 7.
"'39" was May's attempt to do "sci-fi skiffle", inspired by the poet and novelist Hermann Hesse. It relates the tale of a group of space explorers who embark on what is, from their perspective, a year-long voyage. Upon their return, however, they realise that a hundred years have passed, because of the time dilation effect in Einstein's theory of relativity, and the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged. May sings the song on the album, with backing vocals by Mercury and Taylor. During live performances, Mercury sang the lead vocal. May had asked Deacon to play double bass as a joke but a couple of days later he found Deacon in the studio with the instrument, and he had already learned to play it. George Michael performed "'39" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992. Michael cited this song as his favourite Queen song, claiming he used to busk it on the London Underground. Recently, Queen have included the song on the setlists of their recent tours with Adam Lambert and before Lambert with Paul Rodgers; for all these tours since 2005 it is sung, as it is on the album, by May.
"Sweet Lady" is a fast rocker written by May. The song is an unusual rock style in meter (which gives way to at the bridge).
"Seaside Rendezvous", written by Mercury, has a mock-instrumental bridge section which begins at around 0:51 into the song. The section is performed entirely by Mercury and Taylor using their voices alone. Mercury imitates woodwind instruments including a clarinet and Taylor mostly brass instruments, including tubas and trumpets, and even a kazoo; during this section Taylor hits the highest note on the album, C6. The "tap dance" segment is performed by Mercury and Taylor on the mixing desk with thimbles on their fingers. Mercury plays both grand piano and jangle honky-tonk.
Side two
"The Prophet's Song" was composed by May. He explained that he wrote the song after a dream he had had about The Great Flood and his fears about the human race and its general lack of empathy. He spent several days assembling the song, and it includes a vocal canon sung by Mercury. The vocal, and later instrumental canon was produced by early tape delay devices. Over eight minutes long, it is also Queen's longest studio song. The speed-up effect that happens in the middle of the guitar solo was achieved by starting a reel-to-reel player with the tape on it, as the original tape player was stopped.
"Love of My Life" is one of Queen's most covered songs (there have been versions by many acts like Extreme featuring May, Scorpions and Elaine Paige). Mercury played piano (including a classical solo) and sang all vocals, including multi-tracked harmonies. May played harp (doing it chord by chord and pasting the takes to form the entire part), Gibson Hummingbird acoustic guitar (which he had bought in Japan) and his Red Special. May eventually arranged the song so it could be played on an acoustic 12 string for live performances. "Love of My Life" was such a concert favourite that Mercury frequently stopped singing and allowed the audience to take over. It was especially well received during concerts in South America, and the band released the song as a single there. When Queen and Paul Rodgers performed the song (specifically Brian solo) he sang almost none of the words and let the audience sing it all, continuing the tradition. When Queen and Adam Lambert performed it, Brian would play along to a projection of Freddie singing. When they performed with Paul Rodgers during 2004–2008, Mercury was also projected during the show, but not in a round display as they use with Adam Lambert.
"Good Company" was written and sung by May, who sings all vocals and plays ukulele. The recording features a recreation of a Dixieland-style jazz band using May's Red Special guitar and Deacy Amp. May composed the song on his father's Banjo ukulele, but recorded the song with a regular ukulele. Mercury was not involved with the song's recording, making it one of the few Queen songs not to feature their lead singer.
May recorded a version of "God Save the Queen", the British national anthem, on 27 October 1974 at Trident Studios before their Sheer Heart Attack tour. He played a guide piano which was edited out later and added several layers of guitars. After the song was completed it was played as a coda at virtually every Queen concert. When recording the track May played a rough version on piano for Roy Thomas Baker, producer, and Mike Stone, engineer. He called his own skills on the piano sub-par at the time. He performed the song live on the roof of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002. May has stated that he performed the song on the roof of Buckingham Palace as a homage to Jimi Hendrix's version of "The Star-Spangled Banner".
"Bohemian Rhapsody"
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was written by Mercury with the first guitar solo composed by May. All piano, bass and drum parts, as well as the vocal arrangements, were thought up by Mercury on a daily basis and written down "in blocks" (using note names instead of sheets) on a phonebook. During the recording, the song became affectionately known as "Fred's Thing" to the band, and the title only emerged during the final sessions. The other members recorded their respective instruments with no concept of how their tracks would be utilised in the final mix.
The operatic section was originally intended to be only a short interlude of "Galileos" that connected the ballad and hard rock portions of the song. The interlude is full of "obscure classical characters: Scaramouche, a clown from the Commedia dell'arte; astronomer Galileo; Figaro, the principal character in Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro; and Beelzebub, identified in the Christian New Testament as Satan, Prince of Demons, but in Arabic as "Lord of the Flies". Also in Arabic the word Bismillah', which is a noun from a phrase in the Qur'an; "Bismi-llahi r-rahmani r-rahiim", meaning "In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful".
Despite being twice as long as the average single in 1975 and garnering mixed critical reviews initially, the song became immensely popular, topping charts worldwide (where it remained for a then unprecedented nine weeks in the UK) and is widely regarded as one of the greatest songs in music history. The song was rereleased as a double A-side to "These Are the Days of Our Lives" on 5 September 1991, Mercury's 45th birthday, in the US and on 9 December 1991, after Mercury's death, in the UK.
Release
The album title was inspired by the Marx Brothers film of the same name, which the band had watched during recording sessions. Subsequently, they became good friends with the film's star Groucho Marx, to the point where Marx sent the band a letter praising their 1976 album A Day at the Races. Marx also invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in March 1977 (five months before he died). The band thanked him, and performed "'39" a cappella. The cover artwork features the band's logo, which was designed by Mercury, on a white background. The band's next album, A Day at the Races, featured a similar design but on a black background.
"Bohemian Rhapsody" was released as the lead single on 31 October 1975, with "I'm in Love with My Car" as its B-side. Their management initially refused to release it; however, Kenny Everett played a copy of the song on his show 14 times, at which point audience demand for the song intensified and the band's label EMI was forced to release it. It subsequently topped the UK charts for nine weeks and peaked at number nine in the US. A second single, "You're My Best Friend" was released on 18 May 1976, with "'39" as its B-side. It reached number sixteen in the US and number seven in the UK.
The album was completed a week before the group were to embark on their A Night at the Opera Tour in support of the album. This resulted in a 36-hour mixing session, as the group wanted to have time to rehearse their setlist before touring. Due to time constraints, the group only had three and a half days to rehearse, at Elstree, with four hours taken off to shoot the music video for "Bohemian Rhapsody". The tour spanned 1975 and 1976, and covered the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia.
Re-releases
The album was first re-released in the U.S. by Hollywood Records on 3 September 1991 with two bonus remixes, as part of a complete re-release of all Queen albums.
On 30 April 2002, the album was again re-released on DVD-Audio with a 96 kHz/24bit Linear PCM stereo mix and a 5.1-channel mix in DTS 96/24 surround sound for standard DVD-Video players and 96 kHz/24bit MLP surround sound for DVD-Audio capable machines. It also includes the original 1975 video of Bohemian Rhapsody.
On 21 November 2005, it was once more re-released by Hollywood Records Catalogue Number 2061-62572-2 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the album and its first single, "Bohemian Rhapsody". This release is accompanied by a DVD-Video disc with the same track listing featuring the original videos, old and new concert footage (including "'39" from the Queen + Paul Rodgers tour and Brian May on the roof of Buckingham Palace playing "God Save the Queen") and audio commentary by all four band members.
On 8 November 2010, record company Universal Music announced a remastered and expanded reissue of the album set for release in May 2011. This as part of a new record deal between Queen and Universal Music, which meant Queen's association with EMI Records came to an end after almost 40 years. According to Universal Music, all Queen albums were to be remastered and reissued in 2011. By September 2012 the reissue program was completed. Along with this came a 5.1 channel release of the album on Blu-ray Audio.
Reception
Contemporary critical reaction
A Night at the Opera was not reviewed by the majority of the UK music magazines when it came out because the band were remixing the album until the last moment, and consequently no preview discs were sent out to the media before the album was officially released. In Record Mirror & Disc, Ray Fox-Cumming attempted to review the album based on a single listening at the playback party held for the press, which he admitted "isn't really enough" to form a proper critical opinion. However, he described his first impressions of "an amazing rush of music with one track running helter-skelter into the next ... The orchestral effects, all done by voices, are dazzling but come and go too quickly to appreciate on a solo listening." Fox-Cumming stated that the album had three highlights – "Death on Two Legs", "The Prophet's Song" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" – and only one bad track, "Sweet Lady". He concluded that "as a whole, A Night at the Opera is faster, flashier and more complex than Sheer Heart Attack, but they haven't gone over the top". Phil Sutcliffe of Sounds reviewed the album from a cassette copy, and gave it a five-star review: "You can feel the colossal effort that went into every second of this long album – and yet there's a hardly a moment when I would criticise it for being contrived or overproduced." He singled out "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "The Prophet's Song" as the two tracks that "make a good album extraordinary", despite stating that the latter song's lyrics were "not appealing", and overall highlighting the album's "musical range power and consistently incisive lyrics".
On its release in the US four months later, Kris Nicholson of Rolling Stone said that although they share other heavy metal groups' penchant for "manipulating dynamics", Queen are an elite act in the genre and set themselves apart by incorporating "unlikely effects: acoustic piano, harp, a capella vocals, no synthesisers. Coupled with good songs." Robert Christgau, writing in The Village Voice, felt that the album "doesn't actually botch any of a half-dozen arty-to-heavy 'eclectic' modes ... and achieves a parodic tone often enough to suggest more than meets the ear. Maybe if they come up with a coherent masterwork I'll figure out what that more is." The Winnipeg Free Press wrote: "The group's potential is practically limitless, indicating that Queen is destined to finally take its place among the small handful of truly major acts working in rock today."
Grooves noted that "Sharp operatic interludes, abrupt rhythmic changes, A Night at the Opera defies convention and places Queen in that rarefied circle of genuine superstars." Tony Stewart of NME opined that "More than anything else, A Night at the Opera is a consolidation of the previous album's success, skillfully balancing artistry and effectology. Throughout the album, they display their individual songwriting abilities and musicianship to devastating effect...If it's the most expensive album ever made in a British studio, it's also arguably the best. God save 'em."
Legacy
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the album "a self-consciously ridiculous and overblown hard rock masterpiece" and "prog rock with a sense of humour as well as dynamics". Erlewine felt that Queen "never bettered their approach anywhere else". Progressive rock historian Stephen Lambe has disputed that the album itself is progressive rock in his book Citizens of Hope and Glory: The Story of Progressive Rock. He wrote: "While far from progressive rock, it was the band's most grandiose and ambitious album yet, full of great songwriting and prog influences." He said the album was "a neat symbol of the furthest reach of the progressive rock movement".
While reviewing for Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot gave the album a very positive rating, stating how he believed "the band hit its artistic peak, with sterling contributions from all four band members..." alongside A Day at the Races.
In 1992, Mojo called the album "an imperial extravaganza, a cornucopia", and Queen "a band of hungrily competitive individualists on a big roll of friendship and delight". In 2004, Jason Warburg of the Daily Vault stated that the album "absolutely blew me away" and that "A Night at the Opera was the disc that would catapult Queen from British hitmakers to global superstars. As with many such landmark albums it became part milestone and part millstone, with every album that followed compared in some way or another to the musical and commercial success they achieved here. Be that as it may, the music is what counts – and it is simply amazing."
In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine ranked it at number 230 on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, number 231 on its 2012 list, and number 128 on its 2020 list. According to Acclaimed Music, it is the 147th most celebrated album in popular music history.
In a 2006 review, Paul Rees of Q observed that although A Night at the Opera was "released the same year as both Bowie's arch soul pastiche Young Americans and the sleek art rock of Roxy's Siren, it has rarely been heralded as either. Yet it was, and is, every bit as brash, bold and full of the joys of its own possibilities." Feeling that Queen "never came close to bettering their fourth album", Rees concluded that "later albums would expose the lack of soul at the heart of Queen's music; they were all surface, no feeling. They elected themselves the great entertainers, and this heady rush of experimentation was not to be repeated. But A Night at the Opera remains glorious, monumental. It is British rock's greatest extravagance." In 2007, Chris Jones of BBC Music noted the diverse range of musical styles on the album, saying, "Sheer Heart Attack had hinted at a working knowledge of 19th century parlour balladry, 20s ragtime and Jimi Hendrix. A Night at the Opera was to add opera, trad jazz, heavy metal and more to the mix." He concluded that the album "remains their finest hour".
In 2011, digitally remastered versions of the earlier Queen albums were released, prompting another batch of reviews. Uncut said that the album "proved there was no limit to their capabilities" and concluded, "Containing not one but two monumental epics ('Bohemian Rhapsody', 'The Prophet's Song'), and gorging on grandiose gestures galore, A Night at the Opera secured itself instant classic status". Pitchforks Dominique Leone stated, "No punches pulled, no expense spared: A Night at the Opera was Queen at the top of the mountain". AJ Ramirez of PopMatters wrote, "Kicking off with the downright ominous high-drama of 'Death on Two Legs' (a retort against the group's recently deposed management where Mercury spits out venomous invectives at the targets of his ire), the album gives way to a kaleidoscope of styles, from 1920 jazz to space-folk narratives to top-of-the-line contemporary pop-rock. Amazingly, while the transitions between genres would conceivably throw listeners for a loop, none are jarring. Instead, Queen succeeds because it pulls from all the best tricks in the library of showbiz history to deliver laughs, heartache, grandeur, and spectacle to its audience at precisely the right moments." He observed that "it is the realization of such a unique sonic vision that pushes [the album] into the realm of true excellence ... A Night at the Opera stands as a breathtaking, involving creation, and unequivocally Queen's finest album."
Accolades
In 1977, "Bohemian Rhapsody" received two Grammy Award nominations for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus and Best Arrangement for Voices.
Band comments
Track listing
Original release
All lead vocals by Freddie Mercury unless noted.
On the cassette, the positions of "Seaside Rendezvous" and "Good Company" were swapped to maintain a similar duration for each side.
Universal Music reissue (2011)
iTunes deluxe edition (2011)
Personnel
Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album.
Queen
Freddie Mercury – lead vocals , backing vocals , piano , jangle piano
Brian May – electric guitar , backing vocals , acoustic guitar , lead vocals , koto , harp , ukulele
Roger Taylor – drums , backing vocals , percussion , lead vocals and additional electric guitar
John Deacon – bass guitar , electric piano , double bass backing vocals (11)
Production
Roy Thomas Baker – production
Mike Stone – engineering
Gary Lyons – engineering
John Harris – equipment supervision
David Costa – art direction
Rick Curtin and Brian Palmer – special thanks
John Reid – management
Charts
Weekly charts
Weekly charts (reissues)
Year-end charts
Certifications
Notes
References
Bibliography
External links
Queen official website: Discography: A Night at the Opera: includes lyrics of all non-bonus tracks.
Category:1975 albums
Category:Albums produced by Roy Thomas Baker
Category:Albums recorded at Olympic Sound Studios
Category:Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios
Category:Albums recorded at Trident Studios
Category:Cultural depictions of the Marx Brothers
Category:Elektra Records albums
Category:EMI Records albums
Category:Hollywood Records albums
Category:Parlophone albums
Category:Queen (band) albums | [
{
"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
"title": "Bibliography"
}
] | [
"\"'39\" is a song by Queen, written by Brian May. It tells the story of a group of space explorers who embark on a year-long voyage but upon their return, they find that a hundred years have passed due to the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity. May sings the song on the album, with backing vocals by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor. During live performances, Mercury sang the lead vocal.",
"On the album, Brian May sings the song \"'39\", with backing vocals by Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor. During live performances, Freddie Mercury sang the lead vocal.",
"Upon their return from the voyage, the space explorers in the song \"'39\" realize that a hundred years have passed due to the time dilation effect in Einstein's special theory of relativity. Consequently, the loved ones they left behind are now all dead or aged.",
"Yes, there is significance to their album names. Queen named their albums \"A Night at the Opera\" and \"A Day at the Races\" after two of the Marx Brothers' most popular films. A surviving Marx Brother, Groucho Marx, invited Queen to visit him at his Los Angeles home in March 1977 as a result.",
"Yes, \"39\" was performed by George Michael at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992. Michael has cited this song as his favorite Queen song and claimed he used to busk it on the London Underground.",
"George Michael performed \"'39\" at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on 20 April 1992.",
"The context does not provide specific information on why George Michael chose to perform \"'39\". However, it is noted that it was his favorite Queen song and he performed it at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992.",
"Yes, according to the context, the song \"'39\" has been included on the setlists of Queen's recent tours with Adam Lambert and before Adam with Paul Rodgers. On these tours since 2005, it is sung by Brian May, as it is on the album."
] | [
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes",
"Yes"
] |
C_bc391af1eee941eb9d16e335b199f57d_0 | Matthew Boulton | Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 1728 - 17 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment. | Community work | Boulton was widely involved in civic activities in Birmingham. His friend Dr John Ash had long sought to build a hospital in the town. A great fan of the music of Handel, Boulton conceived of the idea to hold a music festival in Birmingham to raise funds for the hospital. The festival took place in September 1768, the first of a series stretching well into the twentieth century. The hospital opened in 1779. Boulton also helped build the General Dispensary, where outpatient treatment could be obtained. A firm supporter of the Dispensary, he served as treasurer, and wrote, "If the funds of the institution are not sufficient for its support, I will make up the deficiency." The Dispensary soon outgrew its original quarters, and a new building in Temple Row was opened in 1808, shortly before Boulton's death. Boulton helped found the New Street Theatre in 1774, and later wrote that having a theatre encouraged well-to-do visitors to come to Birmingham, and to spend more money than they would have otherwise. Boulton attempted to have the theatre recognised as a patent theatre with a Royal Patent, entitled to present serious drama; he failed in 1779 but succeeded in 1807. He also supported Birmingham's Oratorio Choral Society, and collaborated with button maker and amateur musical promoter Joseph Moore to put on a series of private concerts in 1799. He maintained a pew at St Paul's Church, Birmingham, a centre of musical excellence. When performances of the Messiah were organised at Westminster Abbey in 1784 in the (incorrect) belief it was the centennial of Handel's birth and the (correct) belief that it was the 25th anniversary of his death, Boulton attended and wrote, "I scarcely know which was grandest, the sounds or the scene. Both was transcendibly fine that it is not in my power of words to describe. In the grand Halleluja my soul almost ascended from my body." Concerned about the level of crime in Birmingham, Boulton complained, "The streets are infested from Noon Day to midnight with prostitutes." In an era prior to the establishment of the police, Boulton served on a committee to organise volunteers to patrol the streets at night and reduce crime. He supported the local militia, providing money for weapons. In 1794 he was elected High Sheriff of Staffordshire, his county of residence. Besides seeking to improve local life, Boulton took an interest in world affairs. Initially sympathetic to the cause of the rebellious American colonists, Boulton changed his view once he realised that an independent America might be a threat to British trade, and in 1775 organised a petition urging the government to take a hard line with the Americans--though when the revolution proved successful, he resumed trade with the former colonies. He was more sympathetic to the cause of the French Revolution, believing it justified, though he expressed his horror at the bloody excesses of the Revolutionary government. When war with France broke out, he paid for weapons for a company of volunteers, sworn to resist any French invasion. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Matthew Boulton ( ; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
Born in Birmingham, he was the son of a Birmingham manufacturer of small metal products who died when Boulton was 31. By then Boulton had managed the business for several years, and thereafter expanded it considerably, consolidating operations at the Soho Manufactory, built by him near Birmingham. At Soho, he adopted the latest techniques, branching into silver plate, ormolu ("gilt bronze") and other decorative arts. He became associated with James Watt when Watt's business partner, John Roebuck, was unable to pay a debt to Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's share of Watt's patent as settlement. He then successfully lobbied Parliament to extend Watt's patent for an additional 17 years, enabling the firm to market Watt's steam engine. The firm installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines in Britain and abroad, initially in mines and then in factories.
Boulton was a key member of the Lunar Society, a group of Birmingham-area men prominent in the arts, sciences, and theology. Members included Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestley. The Society met each month near the full moon. Members of the Society have been given credit for developing concepts and techniques in science, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.
Boulton founded the Soho Mint, to which he soon adapted steam power. He sought to improve the poor state of Britain's coinage, and after several years of effort obtained a contract in 1797 to produce the first British copper coinage in a quarter century. His "cartwheel" pieces were well-designed and difficult to counterfeit, and included the first striking of the large copper British penny, which continued to be coined until decimalisation in 1971. He retired in 1800, though continuing to run his mint, and died in 1809. His image appears alongside his partner James Watt on the Bank of England's current Series F £50 note.
Background
Birmingham had long been a centre of the ironworking industry. In the early 18th century the town entered a period of expansion as iron working became easier and cheaper with the transition (beginning in 1709) from charcoal to coke as a means of smelting iron. Scarcity of wood in increasingly deforested England and discoveries of large quantities of coal in Birmingham's county of Warwickshire and the adjacent county of Staffordshire speeded the transition. Much of the iron was forged in small foundries near Birmingham, especially in the Black Country, including nearby towns such as Smethwick and West Bromwich. The resultant thin iron sheets were transported to factories in and around Birmingham. With the town far from the sea and great rivers and with canals not yet built, metalworkers concentrated on producing small, relatively valuable pieces, especially buttons and buckles. Frenchman Alexander wrote that while he had seen excellent cane heads, snuff boxes and other metal objects in Milan, "the same can be had cheaper and better in Birmingham". These small objects came to be known as "toys", and their manufacturers as "toymakers".
Boulton was a descendant of families from around Lichfield, his great-great-great-great grandfather, Rev. Zachary Babington, having been Chancellor of Lichfield. Boulton's father, also named Matthew and born in 1700, moved to Birmingham from Lichfield to serve an apprenticeship, and in 1723 he married Christiana Piers. The elder Boulton was a toymaker with a small workshop specialising in buckles. Matthew Boulton was born in 1728, their third child and the second of that name, the first Matthew having died at the age of two in 1726.
Early and family life
The elder Boulton's business prospered after young Matthew's birth, and the family moved to the Snow Hill area of Birmingham, then a well-to-do neighbourhood of new houses. As the local grammar school was in disrepair Boulton was sent to an academy in Deritend, on the other side of Birmingham. At the age of 15 he left school, and by 17 he had invented a technique for inlaying enamels in buckles that proved so popular that the buckles were exported to France, then reimported to Britain and billed as the latest French developments.
On 3 March 1749 Boulton married Mary Robinson, a distant cousin and the daughter of a successful mercer, and wealthy in her own right. They lived briefly with the bride's mother in Lichfield, and then moved to Birmingham, where the elder Matthew Boulton made his son a partner at the age of 21. Though the son signed business letters "from father and self", by the mid-1750s he was effectively running the business. The elder Boulton retired in 1757 and died in 1759.
The Boultons had three daughters in the early 1750s, but all died in infancy. Mary Boulton's health deteriorated, and she died in August 1759. Not long after her death Boulton began to woo her sister Anne. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister was forbidden by ecclesiastical law, though permitted by common law. Nonetheless, they married on 25 June 1760 at St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe. Eric Delieb, who wrote a book on Boulton's silver, with a biographical sketch, suggests that the marriage celebrant, Rev. James Penfold, an impoverished curate, was probably bribed. Boulton later advised another man who was seeking to wed his late wife's sister: "I advise you to say nothing of your intentions but to go quickly and snugly to Scotland or some obscure corner of London, suppose Wapping, and there take lodgings to make yourself a parishioner. When the month is expired and the Law fulfilled, live and be happy ... I recommend silence, secrecy, and Scotland."
The union was opposed by Anne's brother Luke, who feared Boulton would control (and possibly dissipate) much of the Robinson family fortune. In 1764 Luke Robinson died, and his estate passed to his sister Anne and thus into Matthew Boulton's control.
The Boultons had two children, Matthew Robinson Boulton and Anne Boulton. Matthew Robinson in turn had six children with two wives. His eldest son Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, broadly educated and also a man of science, gained some fame posthumously for his invention of the important aeronautical flight control, the aileron. As his father before him, he also had two wives and six children.
Innovator
Expansion of the business
After the death of his father in 1759, Boulton took full control of the family toymaking business. He spent much of his time in London and elsewhere, promoting his wares. He arranged for a friend to present a sword to Prince Edward, and the gift so interested the Prince's older brother, George, Prince of Wales, the future King George III, that he ordered one for himself.
With capital accumulated from his two marriages and his inheritance from his father, Boulton sought a larger site to expand his business. In 1761 he leased at Soho, then just in Staffordshire, with a residence, Soho House, and a rolling mill. Soho House was at first occupied by Boulton relatives, and then by his first partner, John Fothergill. In 1766 Boulton required Fothergill to vacate Soho House, and lived there himself with his family. Both husband and wife died there, Anne Boulton of an apparent stroke in 1783 and her husband after a long illness in 1809.
The at Soho included common land that Boulton enclosed, later decrying what he saw as the "idle beggarly" condition of the people who had used it. By 1765 his Soho Manufactory had been erected. The warehouse, or "principal building", had a Palladian front and 19 bays for loading and unloading, and had quarters for clerks and managers on the upper storeys. The structure was designed by local architect William Wyatt at a time when industrial buildings were commonly designed by engineers. Other buildings contained workshops. Boulton and Fothergill invested in the most advanced metalworking equipment, and the complex was admired as a modern industrial marvel. Although the cost of the principal building alone had been estimated at £2,000 (about £276,000 today); the final cost was five times that amount. The partnership spent over £20,000 in building and equipping the premises. The partners' means were not equal to the total costs, which were met only by heavy borrowing and by artful management of creditors.
Among the products Boulton sought to make in his new facility were sterling silver plate for those able to afford it, and Sheffield plate, silver-plated copper, for those less well off. Boulton and his father had long made small silver items, but there is no record of large items in either silver or Sheffield plate being made in Birmingham before Boulton did so. To make items such as candlesticks more cheaply than the London competition, the firm made many items out of thin, die-stamped sections, which were shaped and joined together. One impediment to Boulton's work was the lack of an assay office in Birmingham. The silver toys long made by the family firm were generally too light to require assaying, but heavier items had to be sent over to the nearest assay office, at Chester, to be assayed and hallmarked, with the attendant risks of damage and loss. Alternatively they could be sent to London, but this exposed them to the risk of being copied by competitors. Boulton wrote in 1771, "I am very desirous of becoming a great silversmith, yet I am determined not to take up that branch in the large way I intended, unless powers can be obtained to have a marking hall [assay office] at Birmingham." Boulton petitioned Parliament for the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham. Though the petition was bitterly opposed by London goldsmiths, he was successful in getting Parliament to pass an act establishing assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield, whose silversmiths had faced similar difficulties in transporting their wares. The silver business proved not to be profitable due to the opportunity cost of keeping a large amount of capital tied up in the inventory of silver. The firm continued to make large quantities of Sheffield plate, but Boulton delegated responsibility for this enterprise to trusted subordinates, involving himself little in it.
As part of Boulton's efforts to market to the wealthy, he started to sell vases decorated with ormolu, previously a French speciality. Ormolu was milled gold (from the French or moulu) amalgamated with mercury, and applied to the item, which was then heated to drive off the mercury, leaving the gold decoration. In the late 1760s and early 1770s there was a fashion among the wealthy for decorated vases, and he sought to cater to this craze. He initially ordered ceramic vases from his friend and fellow Lunar Society member Josiah Wedgwood, but ceramic proved unable to bear the weight of the decorations and Boulton chose marble and other decorative stone as the material for his vases. Boulton copied vase designs from classical Greek works and borrowed works of art from collectors, merchants, and sculptors.
Fothergill and others searched Europe for designs for these creations. In March 1770 Boulton visited the Royal Family and sold several vases to Queen Charlotte, George III's wife. He ran annual sales at Christie's in 1771 and 1772. The Christie's exhibition succeeded in publicising Boulton and his products, which were highly praised, but the sales were not financially successful with many works left unsold or sold below cost. When the craze for vases ended in the early 1770s, the partnership was left with a large stock on its hands, and disposed of much of it in a single massive sale to Catherine the Great of Russia—the Empress described the vases as superior to French ormolu, and cheaper as well. Boulton continued to solicit orders, though "ormolu" was dropped from the firm's business description from 1779, and when the Boulton-Fothergill partnership was dissolved by the latter's 1782 death there were only 14 items of ormolu in the "toy room".
Among Boulton's most successful products were mounts for small Wedgwood products such as plaques, cameo brooches and buttons in the distinctive ceramics, notably jasper ware, for which Wedgwood's firm remains well known. The mounts of these articles, many of which have survived, were made of ormolu or cut steel, which had a jewel-like gleam. Boulton and Wedgwood were friends, alternately co-operating and competing, and Wedgwood wrote of Boulton, "It doubles my courage to have the first Manufacturer in England to encounter with—The match likes me well—I like the Man, I like his spirit."
In the 1770s Boulton introduced an insurance system for his workers that served as the model for later schemes, allowing his workers compensation in the event of injury or illness. The first of its kind in any large establishment, employees paid one-sixtieth of their wages into the Soho Friendly Society, membership in which was mandatory. The firm's apprentices were poor or orphaned boys, trainable into skilled workmen; he declined to hire the sons of gentlemen as apprentices, stating that they would be "out of place" among the poorer boys.
Not all of Boulton's innovations proved successful. Together with painter Francis Eginton, he created a process for the mechanical reproduction of paintings for middle-class homes, but eventually abandoned the procedure. Boulton and James Keir produced an alloy called "Eldorado metal" that they claimed would not corrode in water and could be used for sheathing wooden ships. After sea trials the Admiralty rejected their claims, and the metal was used for fanlights and sash windows at Soho House. Boulton feared that construction of a nearby canal would damage his water supply, but this did not prove to be the case, and in 1779 he wrote, "Our navigation goes on prosperously; the junction with the Wolverhampton Canal is complete, and we already sail to Bristol and to Hull."
Partnership with Watt
Boulton's Soho site proved to have insufficient hydropower for his needs, especially in the summer when the millstream's flow was greatly reduced. He realised that using a steam engine either to pump water back up to the millpond or to drive equipment directly would help to provide the necessary power. He began to correspond with Watt in 1766, and first met him two years later. In 1769 Watt patented an engine with the innovation of a separate condenser, making it far more efficient than earlier engines. Boulton realised not only that this engine could power his manufactory, but also that its production might be a profitable business venture.
After receiving the patent, Watt did little to develop the engine into a marketable invention, turning to other work. In 1772, Watt's partner, Dr. John Roebuck, ran into financial difficulties, and Boulton, to whom he owed £1,200, accepted his two-thirds share in Watt's patent as satisfaction of the debt. Boulton's partner Fothergill refused to have any part in the speculation, and accepted cash for his share. Boulton's share was worth little without Watt's efforts to improve his invention. At the time, the principal use of steam engines was to pump water out of mines. The engine commonly in use was the Newcomen steam engine, which consumed large amounts of coal and, as mines became deeper, proved incapable of keeping them clear of water. Watt's work was well known, and a number of mines that needed engines put off purchasing them in the hope that Watt would soon market his invention.
Boulton boasted about Watt's talents, leading to an employment offer from the Russian government, which Boulton had to persuade Watt to turn down. In 1774 he was able to convince Watt to move to Birmingham, and they entered into a partnership the following year. By 1775 six of the 14 years of Watt's original patent had elapsed, but thanks to Boulton's lobbying Parliament passed an act extending Watt's patent until 1800. Boulton and Watt began work improving the engine. With the assistance of iron master John Wilkinson (brother-in-law of Lunar Society member Joseph Priestley), they succeeded in making the engine commercially viable.
In 1776 the partnership erected two engines, one for Wilkinson and one at a mine in Tipton in the Black Country. Both engines were successfully installed, leading to favourable publicity for the partnership. Boulton and Watt began to install engines elsewhere. The firm rarely produced the engine itself: it had the purchaser buy parts from a number of suppliers and then assembled the engine on-site under the supervision of a Soho engineer. The company made its profit by comparing the amount of coal used by the machine with that used by an earlier, less efficient Newcomen engine, and required payments of one-third of the savings annually for the next 25 years. This pricing scheme led to disputes, as many mines fuelled the engines using coal of unmarketable quality that cost the mine owners only the expense of extraction. Mine owners were also reluctant to make the annual payments, viewing the engines as theirs once erected, and threatened to petition Parliament to repeal Watt's patent.
The county of Cornwall was a major market for the firm's engines. It was mineral-rich and had many mines. However, the special problems for mining there, including local rivalries and high prices for coal, which had to be imported from Wales, forced Watt and later Boulton to spend several months a year in Cornwall overseeing installations and resolving problems with the mineowners. In 1779 the firm hired engineer William Murdoch, who was able to take over the management of most of the on-site installation problems, allowing Watt and Boulton to remain in Birmingham.
The pumping engine for use in mines was a great success. In 1782 the firm sought to modify Watt's invention so that the engine had a rotary motion, making it suitable for use in mills and factories. On a 1781 visit to Wales Boulton had seen a powerful copper-rolling mill driven by water, and when told it was often inoperable in the summer due to drought suggested that a steam engine would remedy that defect. Boulton wrote to Watt urging the modification of the engine, warning that they were reaching the limits of the pumping engine market: "There is no other Cornwall to be found, and the most likely line for increasing the consumption of our engines is the application of them to mills, which is certainly an extensive field." Watt spent much of 1782 on the modification project, and though he was concerned that few orders would result, completed it at the end of the year. One order was received in 1782, and several others from mills and breweries soon after. George III toured the Whitbread brewery in London, and was impressed by the engine there (now preserved at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia). As a demonstration, Boulton used two engines to grind wheat at the rate of 150 bushels per hour in his new Albion Mill in London. While the mill was not financially successful, according to historian Jenny Uglow it served as a "publicity stunt par excellence" for the firm's latest innovation. Before its 1791 destruction by fire, the mill's fame, according to early historian Samuel Smiles, "spread far and wide", and orders for rotative engines poured in not only from Britain but from the United States and the West Indies.
Between 1775 and 1800 the firm produced approximately 450 engines. It did not let other manufacturers produce engines with separate condensers, and approximately 1,000 Newcomen engines, less efficient but cheaper and not subject to the restrictions of Watt's patent, were produced in Britain during that time. Boulton boasted to James Boswell when the diarist toured Soho, "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—POWER." The development of an efficient steam engine allowed large-scale industry to be developed, and the industrial city, such as Manchester became, to exist.
Involvement with coinage
By 1786, two-thirds of the coins in circulation in Britain were counterfeit, and the Royal Mint responded by shutting itself down, worsening the situation. Few of the silver coins being passed were genuine. Even the copper coins were melted down and replaced with lightweight fakes. The Royal Mint struck no copper coins for 48 years, from 1773 until 1821. The resultant gap was filled with copper tokens that approximated the size of the halfpenny, struck on behalf of merchants. Boulton struck millions of these merchant pieces. On the rare occasions when the Royal Mint did strike coins, they were relatively crude, with quality control nonexistent.
Boulton had turned his attention to coinage in the mid-1780s; they were just another small metal product like those he manufactured. He also had shares in several Cornish copper mines, and had a large personal stock of copper, purchased when the mines were unable to dispose of it elsewhere. However, when orders for counterfeit money were sent to him, he refused them: "I will do anything, short of being a common informer against particular persons, to stop the malpractices of the Birmingham coiners." In 1788 he established the Soho Mint as part of his industrial plant. The mint included eight steam-driven presses, each striking between 70 and 84 coins per minute. The firm had little immediate success getting a licence to strike British coins, but was soon engaged in striking coins for the British East India Company for use in India.
The coin crisis in Britain continued. In a letter to the Master of the Mint, Lord Hawkesbury (whose son would become Prime Minister as Earl of Liverpool) on 14 April 1789, Boulton wrote:
In the course of my journeys, I observe that I receive upon an average two-thirds counterfeit halfpence for change at toll-gates, etc. and I believe the evil is daily increasing, as the spurious money is carried into circulation by the lowest class of manufacturers, who pay with it the principal part of the wages of the poor people they employ. They purchase from the subterraneous coiners 36 shillings'-worth of copper (in nominal value) for 20 shillings, so that the profit derived from the cheating is very large.
Boulton offered to strike new coins at a cost "not exceeding half the expense which the common copper coin hath always cost at his Majesty's Mint". He wrote to his friend, Sir Joseph Banks, describing the advantages of his coinage presses:
It will coin much faster, with greater ease, with fewer persons, for less expense, and more beautiful than any other machinery ever used for coining ... Can lay the pieces or blanks upon the die quite true and without care or practice and as fast as wanted. Can work night and day without fatigue by two setts of boys. The machine keeps an account of the number of pieces struck which cannot be altered from the truth by any of the persons employed. The apparatus strikes an inscription upon the edge with the same blow that strikes the two faces. It strikes the [back]ground of the pieces brighter than any other coining press can do. It strikes the pieces perfectly round, all of equal diameter, and exactly concentric with the edge, which cannot be done by any other machinery now in use.
Boulton spent much time in London lobbying for a contract to strike British coins, but in June 1790 the Pitt Government postponed a decision on recoinage indefinitely. Meanwhile, the Soho Mint struck coins for the East India Company, Sierra Leone and Russia, while producing high-quality planchets, or blank coins, to be struck by national mints elsewhere. The firm sent over 20 million blanks to Philadelphia, to be struck into cents and half-cents by the United States Mint—Mint Director Elias Boudinot found them to be "perfect and beautifully polished". The high-technology Soho Mint gained increasing and somewhat unwelcome attention: rivals attempted industrial espionage, while lobbying for Boulton's mint to be shut down.
The national financial crisis reached its nadir in February 1797, when the Bank of England stopped redeeming its bills for gold. In an effort to get more money into circulation, the Government adopted a plan to issue large quantities of copper coins, and Lord Hawkesbury summoned Boulton to London on 3 March 1797, informing him of the Government's plan. Four days later, Boulton attended a meeting of the Privy Council, and was awarded a contract at the end of the month. According to a proclamation dated 26 July 1797, King George III was "graciously pleased to give directions that measures might be taken for an immediate supply of such copper coinage as might be best adapted to the payment of the laborious poor in the present exigency ... which should go and pass for one penny and two pennies". The proclamation required that the coins weigh one and two ounces respectively, bringing the intrinsic value of the coins close to their face value. Boulton made efforts to frustrate counterfeiters. Designed by Heinrich Küchler, the coins featured a raised rim with incuse or sunken letters and numbers, features difficult for counterfeiters to match. The twopenny coins measured exactly an inch and a half across; 16 pennies lined up would reach two feet. The exact measurements and weights made it easy to detect lightweight counterfeits. Küchler also designed proportionate halfpennies and farthings; these were not authorised by the proclamation, and though pattern pieces were struck, they never officially entered circulation. The halfpenny measured ten to a foot, the farthing 12 to a foot. The coins were nicknamed "cartwheels", both because of the size of the twopenny coin and in reference to the broad rims of both denominations. The penny was the first of its denomination to be struck in copper. The new coins were issued at the Soho Mint and by Charlotte Matthews who was the banker and business advisor to Watt and Boulton.
The cartwheel twopenny coin was not struck again; much of the mintage was melted down in 1800 when the price of copper increased and it had proved too heavy for commerce and was difficult to strike. Much to Boulton's chagrin, the new coins were being counterfeited in copper-covered lead within a month of issuance. Boulton was awarded additional contracts in 1799 and 1806, each for the lower three copper denominations. Though the cartwheel design was used again for the 1799 penny (struck with the date 1797), all other strikings used lighter planchets to reflect the rise in the price of copper, and featured more conventional designs. Boulton greatly reduced the counterfeiting problem by adding lines to the coin edges, and striking slightly concave planchets. Counterfeiters turned their sights to easier targets, the pre-Soho pieces, which were not withdrawn, due to the expense, until a gradual withdrawal took place between 1814 and 1817.
Watt, in his eulogy after Boulton's death in 1809, stated:
In short, had Mr. Boulton done nothing more in the world than he has accomplished in improving the coinage, his name would deserve to be immortalised; and if it be considered that this was done in the midst of various other important avocations, and at enormous expense,— for which, at the time, he could have had no certainty of an adequate return,—we shall be at a loss whether most to admire his ingenuity, his perseverance, or his munificence. He has conducted the whole more like a sovereign than a private manufacturer; and the love of fame has always been to him a greater stimulus than the love of gain. Yet it is to be hoped that, even in the latter point of view, the enterprise answered its purpose.
Activities and views
Scientific studies and the Lunar Society
Boulton never had any formal schooling in science. His associate and fellow Lunar Society member James Keir eulogised him after his death:
Mr. [Boulton] is proof of how much scientific knowledge may be acquired without much regular study, by means of a quick & just apprehension, much practical application, and nice mechanical feelings. He had very correct notions of the several branches of natural philosophy, was master of every metallic art & possessed all the chemistry that had any relations to the object of his various manufactures. Electricity and astronomy were at one time among his favourite amusements.
From an early age, Boulton had interested himself in the scientific advances of his times. He discarded theories that electricity was a manifestation of the human soul, writing "we know tis matter & tis wrong to call it Spirit". He called such theories "Cymeras [chimeras] of each others Brain". His interest brought him into contact with other enthusiasts such as John Whitehurst, who also became a member of the Lunar Society. In 1758 the Pennsylvania printer Benjamin Franklin, the leading experimenter in electricity, journeyed to Birmingham during one of his lengthy stays in Britain; Boulton met him, and introduced him to his friends. Boulton worked with Franklin in efforts to contain electricity within a Leyden jar, and when the printer needed new glass for his "glassychord" (a mechanised version of musical glasses) he obtained it from Boulton.
Despite time constraints imposed on him by the expansion of his business, Boulton continued his "philosophical" work (as scientific experimentation was then called). He wrote in his notebooks observations on the freezing and boiling point of mercury, on people's pulse rates at different ages, on the movements of the planets, and on how to make sealing wax and disappearing ink. However, Erasmus Darwin, another fellow enthusiast who became a member of the Lunar Society, wrote to him in 1763, "As you are now become a sober plodding Man of Business, I scarcely dare trouble you to do me a favour in the ... philosophical way."
The Birmingham enthusiasts, including Boulton, Whitehurst, Keir, Darwin, Watt (after his move to Birmingham), potter Josiah Wedgwood and clergyman and chemist Joseph Priestley began to meet informally in the late 1750s. This evolved into a monthly meeting near the full moon, providing light to journey home afterwards, a pattern common for clubs in Britain at the time. The group eventually dubbed itself the "Lunar Society", and following the death of member Dr William Small in 1775, who had informally co-ordinated communication between the members, Boulton took steps to put the Society on a formal footing. They met on Sundays, beginning with dinner at 2 pm, and continuing with discussions until at least 8.
While not a formal member of the Lunar Society, Sir Joseph Banks was active in it. In 1768 Banks sailed with Captain James Cook to the South Pacific, and took with him green glass earrings made at Soho to give to the natives. In 1776 Captain Cook ordered an instrument from Boulton, most likely for use in navigation. Boulton generally preferred not to take on lengthy projects, and he warned Cook that its completion might take years. In June 1776 Cook left on the voyage on which he was killed almost three years later, and Boulton's records show no further mention of the instrument.
In addition to the scientific discussions and experiments conducted by the group, Boulton had a business relationship with some of the members. Watt and Boulton were partners for a quarter century. Boulton purchased vases from Wedgwood's pottery to be decorated with ormolu, and contemplated a partnership with him. Keir was a long-time supplier and associate of Boulton, though Keir never became his partner as he hoped.
In 1785 both Boulton and Watt were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society. According to Whitehurst, who wrote to congratulate Boulton, not a single vote was cast against him.
Though Boulton hoped his activities for the Lunar Society would "prevent the decline of a Society which I hope will be lasting", as members died or moved away they were not replaced. In 1813, four years after his death, the Society was dissolved and a lottery was held to dispose of its assets. Since there were no minutes of meetings, few details of the gatherings remain. Historian Jenny Uglow wrote of the lasting impact of the Society:
The Lunar Society['s] ... members have been called the fathers of the Industrial Revolution ... [T]he importance of this particular Society stems from its pioneering work in experimental chemistry, physics, engineering, and medicine, combined with leadership in manufacturing and commerce, and with political and social ideals. Its members were brilliant representatives of the informal scientific web which cut across class, blending the inherited skills of craftsmen with the theoretical advances of scholars, a key factor in Britain's leap ahead of the rest of Europe.
Community work
Boulton was widely involved in civic activities in Birmingham. His friend Dr John Ash had long sought to build a hospital in the town. A great fan of the music of Handel, Boulton conceived of the idea to hold a music festival in Birmingham to raise funds for the hospital. The festival took place in September 1768, the first of a series that lasted until 1912. The hospital, Birmingham General, opened in 1779. Boulton also helped build the General Dispensary, where outpatient treatment could be obtained. A firm supporter of the Dispensary, he served as treasurer, and wrote, "If the funds of the institution are not sufficient for its support, I will make up the deficiency." The Dispensary soon outgrew its original quarters, and a new building in Temple Row was opened in 1808, shortly before Boulton's death.
Boulton helped found the New Street Theatre in 1774, and later wrote that having a theatre encouraged well-to-do visitors to come to Birmingham, and to spend more money than they would have otherwise. Boulton attempted to have the theatre recognised as a patent theatre with a Royal Patent, entitled to present serious drama; he failed in 1779 but succeeded in 1807. He also supported Birmingham's Oratorio Choral Society, and collaborated with button maker and amateur musical promoter Joseph Moore to put on a series of private concerts in 1799. He maintained a pew at St Paul's Church, Birmingham, a centre of musical excellence. When performances of the Messiah were organised at Westminster Abbey in 1784 in the (incorrect) belief it was the centennial of Handel's birth and the (correct) belief that it was the 25th anniversary of his death, Boulton attended and wrote, "I scarcely know which was grandest, the sounds or the scene. Both was transcendibly fine that it is not in my power of words to describe. In the grand Halleluja my soul almost ascended from my body."
Concerned about the level of crime in Birmingham, Boulton complained, "The streets are infested from Noon Day to midnight with prostitutes." In an era prior to the establishment of the police, Boulton served on a committee to organise volunteers to patrol the streets at night and reduce crime. He supported the local militia, providing money for weapons. In 1794 he was elected High Sheriff of Staffordshire, his county of residence.
Besides seeking to improve local life, Boulton took an interest in world affairs. Initially sympathetic to the cause of the rebellious American colonists, Boulton changed his view once he realised that an independent America might be damaging towards British trade, and in 1775 organised a petition urging the government to adopt a firmer stance with the Americans—though when the revolution proved successful, he resumed trade with the former colonies. He was more sympathetic to the cause of the French Revolution, believing it justified, though he expressed his horror at the bloody excesses of the Revolutionary government. When war with France broke out, he paid for weapons for a company of volunteers, sworn to resist any French invasion.
Family and later life, death, and memorials
When Boulton was widowed in 1783 he was left with the care of his two teenage children. Neither his son Matthew Robinson Boulton nor his daughter Anne enjoyed robust health; the younger Matthew was often ill and was a poor student who was shuttled from school to school until he joined his father's business in 1790; Anne suffered from a diseased leg that prevented her from enjoying a full life. Despite his lengthy absences on business, Boulton cared deeply for his family. He wrote to his wife in January 1780,
Nothing could in the least palliate this long, this cold, this very distant separation from my dearest wife and children but the certain knowledge that I am preparing for their ease, happiness and prosperity, and when that is the prise, I know no hardships that I would not encounter with, to obtain it.
With the expiry of the patent in 1800 both Boulton and Watt retired from the partnership, each turning over his role to his namesake son. The two sons made changes, quickly ending public tours of the Soho Manufactory in which the elder Boulton had taken pride throughout his time in Soho. In retirement Boulton remained active, continuing to run the Soho Mint. When a new Royal Mint was built on Tower Hill in 1805, Boulton was awarded the contract to equip it with modern machinery. His continued activity distressed Watt, who had entirely retired from Soho, and who wrote to Boulton in 1804, "[Y]our friends fear much that your necessary attention to the operation of the coinage may injure your health".
Boulton helped deal with the shortage of silver, persuading the Government to let him overstrike the Bank of England's large stock of Spanish dollars with an English design. The Bank had attempted to circulate the dollars by countermarking the coins on the side showing the Spanish king with a small image of George III, but the public was reluctant to accept them, in part due to counterfeiting. This attempt inspired the couplet, "The Bank to make their Spanish Dollars pass/Stamped the head of a fool on the neck of an ass." Boulton obliterated the old design in his restriking. Though Boulton was not as successful in defeating counterfeiters as he hoped (high quality fakes arrived at the Bank's offices within days of the issuance), these coins circulated until the Royal Mint again struck large quantities of silver coin in 1816, when Boulton's were withdrawn. He oversaw the final issue of his coppers for Britain in 1806, and a major issue of coppers to circulate only in Ireland. Even as his health failed, he had his servants carry him from Soho House to the Soho Mint, and he sat and watched the machinery,which was kept exceptionally busy in 1808 by the striking of almost 90,000,000 pieces for the East India Company. He wrote, "Of all the mechanical subjects I ever entered upon, there is none in which I ever engaged with so much ardour as that of bringing to perfection the art of coining."
By early 1809 he was seriously ill. He had long suffered from kidney stones, which also lodged in the bladder, causing him great pain. He died at Soho House on 17 August 1809. He was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church, Handsworth, in Birmingham – the church was later extended over the site of his grave. Inside the church, on the north wall of the sanctuary, is a large marble monument to him, commissioned by his son, sculpted by the sculptor John Flaxman. It includes a marble bust of Boulton, set in a circular opening above two putti, one holding an engraving of the Soho Manufactory.
Boulton is recognised by several memorials and other commemorations in and around Birmingham. Soho House, his home from 1766 until his death, is now a museum, as is his first workshop, Sarehole Mill. The Soho archives are part of the Birmingham City Archives, at the Library of Birmingham. He is recognised by blue plaques at his Steelhouse Lane birthplace and at Soho House. A gilded bronze statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch (1956) by William Bloye stands opposite Centenary Square in central Birmingham. Matthew Boulton College was named in his honour in 1957. The two-hundredth anniversary of his death, in 2009, resulted in a number of tributes. Birmingham City Council promoted "a year long festival celebrating the life, work and legacy of Matthew Boulton".
On 29 May 2009 the Bank of England announced that Boulton and Watt would appear on a new £50 note. The design is the first to feature a dual portrait on a Bank of England note, and presents the two industrialists side by side with images of a steam engine and Boulton's Soho Manufactory. Quotes attributed to each of the men are inscribed on the note: "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—POWER" (Boulton) and "I can think of nothing else but this machine" (Watt). The notes entered circulation on 2 November 2011.
In March 2009, Boulton was honoured with the issue of a Royal Mail postage stamp. On 17 October 2014 a bronze memorial plaque to Boulton was unveiled in the Chapel of St Paul, Westminster Abbey, beside the plaque to his business partner James Watt.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Matthew Boulton Bicentenary Celebrations 2009 on Birmingham Assay Office's website
Archives at Birmingham Central Library
Revolutionary Players website
Cornwall Record Office Boulton & Watt letters
Soho Mint website, celebrating Matthew Boulton, his mint and its products
Soho House Museum, Matthew Boulton's home from 1766 till his death in 1809, became a Museum in 1995
Category:1728 births
Category:1809 deaths
Category:18th-century British businesspeople
Category:18th-century British engineers
Category:18th-century British inventors
Category:British businesspeople in retailing
Category:English businesspeople
Category:English business theorists
Category:English mechanical engineers
Category:English silversmiths
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:High Sheriffs of Staffordshire
Category:Industrial Revolution in England
Category:Members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham
Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Category:People of the Industrial Revolution | [
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"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
"title": "Bibliography"
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C_bc391af1eee941eb9d16e335b199f57d_1 | Matthew Boulton | Matthew Boulton (; 3 September 1728 - 17 August 1809) was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment. | Early and family life | The elder Boulton's business prospered after young Matthew's birth, and the family moved to the Snow Hill area of Birmingham, then a well-to-do neighbourhood of new houses. As the local grammar school was in disrepair Boulton was sent to an academy in Deritend, on the other side of Birmingham. At the age of 15 he left school, and by 17 he had invented a technique for inlaying enamels in buckles that proved so popular that the buckles were exported to France, then reimported to Britain and billed as the latest French developments. On 3 March 1749 Boulton married Mary Robinson, a distant cousin and the daughter of a successful mercer, and wealthy in her own right. They lived briefly with the bride's mother in Lichfield, and then moved to Birmingham, where the elder Matthew Boulton made his son a partner at the age of 21. Though the son signed business letters "from father and self", by the mid-1750s he was effectively running the business. The elder Boulton retired in 1757 and died in 1759. The Boultons had three daughters in the early 1750s, but all died in infancy. Mary Boulton's health deteriorated, and she died in August 1759. Not long after her death Boulton began to woo her sister Anne. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister was forbidden by ecclesiastical law, though permitted by common law. Nonetheless, they married on 25 June 1760 at St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe. Eric Delieb, who wrote a book on Boulton's silver, with a biographical sketch, suggests that the marriage celebrant, Rev. James Penfold, an impoverished curate, was probably bribed. Boulton later advised another man who was seeking to wed his late wife's sister: "I advise you to say nothing of your intentions but to go quickly and snugly to Scotland or some obscure corner of London, suppose Wapping, and there take lodgings to make yourself a parishioner. When the month is expired and the Law fulfilled, live and be happy ... I recommend silence, secrecy, and Scotland." The union was opposed by Anne's brother Luke, who feared Boulton would control (and possibly dissipate) much of the Robinson family fortune. In 1764 Luke Robinson died, and his estate passed to his sister Anne and thus into Matthew Boulton's control. The Boultons had two children, Matthew Robinson Boulton and Anne Boulton. Matthew Robinson in turn had six children with two wives. His eldest son Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, broadly educated and also a man of science, gained some fame posthumously for his invention of the important aeronautical flight control, the aileron. As his father before him, he also had two wives and six children. CANNOTANSWER | [
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} | Matthew Boulton ( ; 3 September 172817 August 1809) was an English businessman, inventor, mechanical engineer, and silversmith. He was a business partner of the Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century, the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the mechanisation of factories and mills. Boulton applied modern techniques to the minting of coins, striking millions of pieces for Britain and other countries, and supplying the Royal Mint with up-to-date equipment.
Born in Birmingham, he was the son of a Birmingham manufacturer of small metal products who died when Boulton was 31. By then Boulton had managed the business for several years, and thereafter expanded it considerably, consolidating operations at the Soho Manufactory, built by him near Birmingham. At Soho, he adopted the latest techniques, branching into silver plate, ormolu ("gilt bronze") and other decorative arts. He became associated with James Watt when Watt's business partner, John Roebuck, was unable to pay a debt to Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's share of Watt's patent as settlement. He then successfully lobbied Parliament to extend Watt's patent for an additional 17 years, enabling the firm to market Watt's steam engine. The firm installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines in Britain and abroad, initially in mines and then in factories.
Boulton was a key member of the Lunar Society, a group of Birmingham-area men prominent in the arts, sciences, and theology. Members included Watt, Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestley. The Society met each month near the full moon. Members of the Society have been given credit for developing concepts and techniques in science, agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport that laid the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.
Boulton founded the Soho Mint, to which he soon adapted steam power. He sought to improve the poor state of Britain's coinage, and after several years of effort obtained a contract in 1797 to produce the first British copper coinage in a quarter century. His "cartwheel" pieces were well-designed and difficult to counterfeit, and included the first striking of the large copper British penny, which continued to be coined until decimalisation in 1971. He retired in 1800, though continuing to run his mint, and died in 1809. His image appears alongside his partner James Watt on the Bank of England's current Series F £50 note.
Background
Birmingham had long been a centre of the ironworking industry. In the early 18th century the town entered a period of expansion as iron working became easier and cheaper with the transition (beginning in 1709) from charcoal to coke as a means of smelting iron. Scarcity of wood in increasingly deforested England and discoveries of large quantities of coal in Birmingham's county of Warwickshire and the adjacent county of Staffordshire speeded the transition. Much of the iron was forged in small foundries near Birmingham, especially in the Black Country, including nearby towns such as Smethwick and West Bromwich. The resultant thin iron sheets were transported to factories in and around Birmingham. With the town far from the sea and great rivers and with canals not yet built, metalworkers concentrated on producing small, relatively valuable pieces, especially buttons and buckles. Frenchman Alexander wrote that while he had seen excellent cane heads, snuff boxes and other metal objects in Milan, "the same can be had cheaper and better in Birmingham". These small objects came to be known as "toys", and their manufacturers as "toymakers".
Boulton was a descendant of families from around Lichfield, his great-great-great-great grandfather, Rev. Zachary Babington, having been Chancellor of Lichfield. Boulton's father, also named Matthew and born in 1700, moved to Birmingham from Lichfield to serve an apprenticeship, and in 1723 he married Christiana Piers. The elder Boulton was a toymaker with a small workshop specialising in buckles. Matthew Boulton was born in 1728, their third child and the second of that name, the first Matthew having died at the age of two in 1726.
Early and family life
The elder Boulton's business prospered after young Matthew's birth, and the family moved to the Snow Hill area of Birmingham, then a well-to-do neighbourhood of new houses. As the local grammar school was in disrepair Boulton was sent to an academy in Deritend, on the other side of Birmingham. At the age of 15 he left school, and by 17 he had invented a technique for inlaying enamels in buckles that proved so popular that the buckles were exported to France, then reimported to Britain and billed as the latest French developments.
On 3 March 1749 Boulton married Mary Robinson, a distant cousin and the daughter of a successful mercer, and wealthy in her own right. They lived briefly with the bride's mother in Lichfield, and then moved to Birmingham, where the elder Matthew Boulton made his son a partner at the age of 21. Though the son signed business letters "from father and self", by the mid-1750s he was effectively running the business. The elder Boulton retired in 1757 and died in 1759.
The Boultons had three daughters in the early 1750s, but all died in infancy. Mary Boulton's health deteriorated, and she died in August 1759. Not long after her death Boulton began to woo her sister Anne. Marriage with a deceased wife's sister was forbidden by ecclesiastical law, though permitted by common law. Nonetheless, they married on 25 June 1760 at St. Mary's Church, Rotherhithe. Eric Delieb, who wrote a book on Boulton's silver, with a biographical sketch, suggests that the marriage celebrant, Rev. James Penfold, an impoverished curate, was probably bribed. Boulton later advised another man who was seeking to wed his late wife's sister: "I advise you to say nothing of your intentions but to go quickly and snugly to Scotland or some obscure corner of London, suppose Wapping, and there take lodgings to make yourself a parishioner. When the month is expired and the Law fulfilled, live and be happy ... I recommend silence, secrecy, and Scotland."
The union was opposed by Anne's brother Luke, who feared Boulton would control (and possibly dissipate) much of the Robinson family fortune. In 1764 Luke Robinson died, and his estate passed to his sister Anne and thus into Matthew Boulton's control.
The Boultons had two children, Matthew Robinson Boulton and Anne Boulton. Matthew Robinson in turn had six children with two wives. His eldest son Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, broadly educated and also a man of science, gained some fame posthumously for his invention of the important aeronautical flight control, the aileron. As his father before him, he also had two wives and six children.
Innovator
Expansion of the business
After the death of his father in 1759, Boulton took full control of the family toymaking business. He spent much of his time in London and elsewhere, promoting his wares. He arranged for a friend to present a sword to Prince Edward, and the gift so interested the Prince's older brother, George, Prince of Wales, the future King George III, that he ordered one for himself.
With capital accumulated from his two marriages and his inheritance from his father, Boulton sought a larger site to expand his business. In 1761 he leased at Soho, then just in Staffordshire, with a residence, Soho House, and a rolling mill. Soho House was at first occupied by Boulton relatives, and then by his first partner, John Fothergill. In 1766 Boulton required Fothergill to vacate Soho House, and lived there himself with his family. Both husband and wife died there, Anne Boulton of an apparent stroke in 1783 and her husband after a long illness in 1809.
The at Soho included common land that Boulton enclosed, later decrying what he saw as the "idle beggarly" condition of the people who had used it. By 1765 his Soho Manufactory had been erected. The warehouse, or "principal building", had a Palladian front and 19 bays for loading and unloading, and had quarters for clerks and managers on the upper storeys. The structure was designed by local architect William Wyatt at a time when industrial buildings were commonly designed by engineers. Other buildings contained workshops. Boulton and Fothergill invested in the most advanced metalworking equipment, and the complex was admired as a modern industrial marvel. Although the cost of the principal building alone had been estimated at £2,000 (about £276,000 today); the final cost was five times that amount. The partnership spent over £20,000 in building and equipping the premises. The partners' means were not equal to the total costs, which were met only by heavy borrowing and by artful management of creditors.
Among the products Boulton sought to make in his new facility were sterling silver plate for those able to afford it, and Sheffield plate, silver-plated copper, for those less well off. Boulton and his father had long made small silver items, but there is no record of large items in either silver or Sheffield plate being made in Birmingham before Boulton did so. To make items such as candlesticks more cheaply than the London competition, the firm made many items out of thin, die-stamped sections, which were shaped and joined together. One impediment to Boulton's work was the lack of an assay office in Birmingham. The silver toys long made by the family firm were generally too light to require assaying, but heavier items had to be sent over to the nearest assay office, at Chester, to be assayed and hallmarked, with the attendant risks of damage and loss. Alternatively they could be sent to London, but this exposed them to the risk of being copied by competitors. Boulton wrote in 1771, "I am very desirous of becoming a great silversmith, yet I am determined not to take up that branch in the large way I intended, unless powers can be obtained to have a marking hall [assay office] at Birmingham." Boulton petitioned Parliament for the establishment of an assay office in Birmingham. Though the petition was bitterly opposed by London goldsmiths, he was successful in getting Parliament to pass an act establishing assay offices in Birmingham and Sheffield, whose silversmiths had faced similar difficulties in transporting their wares. The silver business proved not to be profitable due to the opportunity cost of keeping a large amount of capital tied up in the inventory of silver. The firm continued to make large quantities of Sheffield plate, but Boulton delegated responsibility for this enterprise to trusted subordinates, involving himself little in it.
As part of Boulton's efforts to market to the wealthy, he started to sell vases decorated with ormolu, previously a French speciality. Ormolu was milled gold (from the French or moulu) amalgamated with mercury, and applied to the item, which was then heated to drive off the mercury, leaving the gold decoration. In the late 1760s and early 1770s there was a fashion among the wealthy for decorated vases, and he sought to cater to this craze. He initially ordered ceramic vases from his friend and fellow Lunar Society member Josiah Wedgwood, but ceramic proved unable to bear the weight of the decorations and Boulton chose marble and other decorative stone as the material for his vases. Boulton copied vase designs from classical Greek works and borrowed works of art from collectors, merchants, and sculptors.
Fothergill and others searched Europe for designs for these creations. In March 1770 Boulton visited the Royal Family and sold several vases to Queen Charlotte, George III's wife. He ran annual sales at Christie's in 1771 and 1772. The Christie's exhibition succeeded in publicising Boulton and his products, which were highly praised, but the sales were not financially successful with many works left unsold or sold below cost. When the craze for vases ended in the early 1770s, the partnership was left with a large stock on its hands, and disposed of much of it in a single massive sale to Catherine the Great of Russia—the Empress described the vases as superior to French ormolu, and cheaper as well. Boulton continued to solicit orders, though "ormolu" was dropped from the firm's business description from 1779, and when the Boulton-Fothergill partnership was dissolved by the latter's 1782 death there were only 14 items of ormolu in the "toy room".
Among Boulton's most successful products were mounts for small Wedgwood products such as plaques, cameo brooches and buttons in the distinctive ceramics, notably jasper ware, for which Wedgwood's firm remains well known. The mounts of these articles, many of which have survived, were made of ormolu or cut steel, which had a jewel-like gleam. Boulton and Wedgwood were friends, alternately co-operating and competing, and Wedgwood wrote of Boulton, "It doubles my courage to have the first Manufacturer in England to encounter with—The match likes me well—I like the Man, I like his spirit."
In the 1770s Boulton introduced an insurance system for his workers that served as the model for later schemes, allowing his workers compensation in the event of injury or illness. The first of its kind in any large establishment, employees paid one-sixtieth of their wages into the Soho Friendly Society, membership in which was mandatory. The firm's apprentices were poor or orphaned boys, trainable into skilled workmen; he declined to hire the sons of gentlemen as apprentices, stating that they would be "out of place" among the poorer boys.
Not all of Boulton's innovations proved successful. Together with painter Francis Eginton, he created a process for the mechanical reproduction of paintings for middle-class homes, but eventually abandoned the procedure. Boulton and James Keir produced an alloy called "Eldorado metal" that they claimed would not corrode in water and could be used for sheathing wooden ships. After sea trials the Admiralty rejected their claims, and the metal was used for fanlights and sash windows at Soho House. Boulton feared that construction of a nearby canal would damage his water supply, but this did not prove to be the case, and in 1779 he wrote, "Our navigation goes on prosperously; the junction with the Wolverhampton Canal is complete, and we already sail to Bristol and to Hull."
Partnership with Watt
Boulton's Soho site proved to have insufficient hydropower for his needs, especially in the summer when the millstream's flow was greatly reduced. He realised that using a steam engine either to pump water back up to the millpond or to drive equipment directly would help to provide the necessary power. He began to correspond with Watt in 1766, and first met him two years later. In 1769 Watt patented an engine with the innovation of a separate condenser, making it far more efficient than earlier engines. Boulton realised not only that this engine could power his manufactory, but also that its production might be a profitable business venture.
After receiving the patent, Watt did little to develop the engine into a marketable invention, turning to other work. In 1772, Watt's partner, Dr. John Roebuck, ran into financial difficulties, and Boulton, to whom he owed £1,200, accepted his two-thirds share in Watt's patent as satisfaction of the debt. Boulton's partner Fothergill refused to have any part in the speculation, and accepted cash for his share. Boulton's share was worth little without Watt's efforts to improve his invention. At the time, the principal use of steam engines was to pump water out of mines. The engine commonly in use was the Newcomen steam engine, which consumed large amounts of coal and, as mines became deeper, proved incapable of keeping them clear of water. Watt's work was well known, and a number of mines that needed engines put off purchasing them in the hope that Watt would soon market his invention.
Boulton boasted about Watt's talents, leading to an employment offer from the Russian government, which Boulton had to persuade Watt to turn down. In 1774 he was able to convince Watt to move to Birmingham, and they entered into a partnership the following year. By 1775 six of the 14 years of Watt's original patent had elapsed, but thanks to Boulton's lobbying Parliament passed an act extending Watt's patent until 1800. Boulton and Watt began work improving the engine. With the assistance of iron master John Wilkinson (brother-in-law of Lunar Society member Joseph Priestley), they succeeded in making the engine commercially viable.
In 1776 the partnership erected two engines, one for Wilkinson and one at a mine in Tipton in the Black Country. Both engines were successfully installed, leading to favourable publicity for the partnership. Boulton and Watt began to install engines elsewhere. The firm rarely produced the engine itself: it had the purchaser buy parts from a number of suppliers and then assembled the engine on-site under the supervision of a Soho engineer. The company made its profit by comparing the amount of coal used by the machine with that used by an earlier, less efficient Newcomen engine, and required payments of one-third of the savings annually for the next 25 years. This pricing scheme led to disputes, as many mines fuelled the engines using coal of unmarketable quality that cost the mine owners only the expense of extraction. Mine owners were also reluctant to make the annual payments, viewing the engines as theirs once erected, and threatened to petition Parliament to repeal Watt's patent.
The county of Cornwall was a major market for the firm's engines. It was mineral-rich and had many mines. However, the special problems for mining there, including local rivalries and high prices for coal, which had to be imported from Wales, forced Watt and later Boulton to spend several months a year in Cornwall overseeing installations and resolving problems with the mineowners. In 1779 the firm hired engineer William Murdoch, who was able to take over the management of most of the on-site installation problems, allowing Watt and Boulton to remain in Birmingham.
The pumping engine for use in mines was a great success. In 1782 the firm sought to modify Watt's invention so that the engine had a rotary motion, making it suitable for use in mills and factories. On a 1781 visit to Wales Boulton had seen a powerful copper-rolling mill driven by water, and when told it was often inoperable in the summer due to drought suggested that a steam engine would remedy that defect. Boulton wrote to Watt urging the modification of the engine, warning that they were reaching the limits of the pumping engine market: "There is no other Cornwall to be found, and the most likely line for increasing the consumption of our engines is the application of them to mills, which is certainly an extensive field." Watt spent much of 1782 on the modification project, and though he was concerned that few orders would result, completed it at the end of the year. One order was received in 1782, and several others from mills and breweries soon after. George III toured the Whitbread brewery in London, and was impressed by the engine there (now preserved at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, Australia). As a demonstration, Boulton used two engines to grind wheat at the rate of 150 bushels per hour in his new Albion Mill in London. While the mill was not financially successful, according to historian Jenny Uglow it served as a "publicity stunt par excellence" for the firm's latest innovation. Before its 1791 destruction by fire, the mill's fame, according to early historian Samuel Smiles, "spread far and wide", and orders for rotative engines poured in not only from Britain but from the United States and the West Indies.
Between 1775 and 1800 the firm produced approximately 450 engines. It did not let other manufacturers produce engines with separate condensers, and approximately 1,000 Newcomen engines, less efficient but cheaper and not subject to the restrictions of Watt's patent, were produced in Britain during that time. Boulton boasted to James Boswell when the diarist toured Soho, "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—POWER." The development of an efficient steam engine allowed large-scale industry to be developed, and the industrial city, such as Manchester became, to exist.
Involvement with coinage
By 1786, two-thirds of the coins in circulation in Britain were counterfeit, and the Royal Mint responded by shutting itself down, worsening the situation. Few of the silver coins being passed were genuine. Even the copper coins were melted down and replaced with lightweight fakes. The Royal Mint struck no copper coins for 48 years, from 1773 until 1821. The resultant gap was filled with copper tokens that approximated the size of the halfpenny, struck on behalf of merchants. Boulton struck millions of these merchant pieces. On the rare occasions when the Royal Mint did strike coins, they were relatively crude, with quality control nonexistent.
Boulton had turned his attention to coinage in the mid-1780s; they were just another small metal product like those he manufactured. He also had shares in several Cornish copper mines, and had a large personal stock of copper, purchased when the mines were unable to dispose of it elsewhere. However, when orders for counterfeit money were sent to him, he refused them: "I will do anything, short of being a common informer against particular persons, to stop the malpractices of the Birmingham coiners." In 1788 he established the Soho Mint as part of his industrial plant. The mint included eight steam-driven presses, each striking between 70 and 84 coins per minute. The firm had little immediate success getting a licence to strike British coins, but was soon engaged in striking coins for the British East India Company for use in India.
The coin crisis in Britain continued. In a letter to the Master of the Mint, Lord Hawkesbury (whose son would become Prime Minister as Earl of Liverpool) on 14 April 1789, Boulton wrote:
In the course of my journeys, I observe that I receive upon an average two-thirds counterfeit halfpence for change at toll-gates, etc. and I believe the evil is daily increasing, as the spurious money is carried into circulation by the lowest class of manufacturers, who pay with it the principal part of the wages of the poor people they employ. They purchase from the subterraneous coiners 36 shillings'-worth of copper (in nominal value) for 20 shillings, so that the profit derived from the cheating is very large.
Boulton offered to strike new coins at a cost "not exceeding half the expense which the common copper coin hath always cost at his Majesty's Mint". He wrote to his friend, Sir Joseph Banks, describing the advantages of his coinage presses:
It will coin much faster, with greater ease, with fewer persons, for less expense, and more beautiful than any other machinery ever used for coining ... Can lay the pieces or blanks upon the die quite true and without care or practice and as fast as wanted. Can work night and day without fatigue by two setts of boys. The machine keeps an account of the number of pieces struck which cannot be altered from the truth by any of the persons employed. The apparatus strikes an inscription upon the edge with the same blow that strikes the two faces. It strikes the [back]ground of the pieces brighter than any other coining press can do. It strikes the pieces perfectly round, all of equal diameter, and exactly concentric with the edge, which cannot be done by any other machinery now in use.
Boulton spent much time in London lobbying for a contract to strike British coins, but in June 1790 the Pitt Government postponed a decision on recoinage indefinitely. Meanwhile, the Soho Mint struck coins for the East India Company, Sierra Leone and Russia, while producing high-quality planchets, or blank coins, to be struck by national mints elsewhere. The firm sent over 20 million blanks to Philadelphia, to be struck into cents and half-cents by the United States Mint—Mint Director Elias Boudinot found them to be "perfect and beautifully polished". The high-technology Soho Mint gained increasing and somewhat unwelcome attention: rivals attempted industrial espionage, while lobbying for Boulton's mint to be shut down.
The national financial crisis reached its nadir in February 1797, when the Bank of England stopped redeeming its bills for gold. In an effort to get more money into circulation, the Government adopted a plan to issue large quantities of copper coins, and Lord Hawkesbury summoned Boulton to London on 3 March 1797, informing him of the Government's plan. Four days later, Boulton attended a meeting of the Privy Council, and was awarded a contract at the end of the month. According to a proclamation dated 26 July 1797, King George III was "graciously pleased to give directions that measures might be taken for an immediate supply of such copper coinage as might be best adapted to the payment of the laborious poor in the present exigency ... which should go and pass for one penny and two pennies". The proclamation required that the coins weigh one and two ounces respectively, bringing the intrinsic value of the coins close to their face value. Boulton made efforts to frustrate counterfeiters. Designed by Heinrich Küchler, the coins featured a raised rim with incuse or sunken letters and numbers, features difficult for counterfeiters to match. The twopenny coins measured exactly an inch and a half across; 16 pennies lined up would reach two feet. The exact measurements and weights made it easy to detect lightweight counterfeits. Küchler also designed proportionate halfpennies and farthings; these were not authorised by the proclamation, and though pattern pieces were struck, they never officially entered circulation. The halfpenny measured ten to a foot, the farthing 12 to a foot. The coins were nicknamed "cartwheels", both because of the size of the twopenny coin and in reference to the broad rims of both denominations. The penny was the first of its denomination to be struck in copper. The new coins were issued at the Soho Mint and by Charlotte Matthews who was the banker and business advisor to Watt and Boulton.
The cartwheel twopenny coin was not struck again; much of the mintage was melted down in 1800 when the price of copper increased and it had proved too heavy for commerce and was difficult to strike. Much to Boulton's chagrin, the new coins were being counterfeited in copper-covered lead within a month of issuance. Boulton was awarded additional contracts in 1799 and 1806, each for the lower three copper denominations. Though the cartwheel design was used again for the 1799 penny (struck with the date 1797), all other strikings used lighter planchets to reflect the rise in the price of copper, and featured more conventional designs. Boulton greatly reduced the counterfeiting problem by adding lines to the coin edges, and striking slightly concave planchets. Counterfeiters turned their sights to easier targets, the pre-Soho pieces, which were not withdrawn, due to the expense, until a gradual withdrawal took place between 1814 and 1817.
Watt, in his eulogy after Boulton's death in 1809, stated:
In short, had Mr. Boulton done nothing more in the world than he has accomplished in improving the coinage, his name would deserve to be immortalised; and if it be considered that this was done in the midst of various other important avocations, and at enormous expense,— for which, at the time, he could have had no certainty of an adequate return,—we shall be at a loss whether most to admire his ingenuity, his perseverance, or his munificence. He has conducted the whole more like a sovereign than a private manufacturer; and the love of fame has always been to him a greater stimulus than the love of gain. Yet it is to be hoped that, even in the latter point of view, the enterprise answered its purpose.
Activities and views
Scientific studies and the Lunar Society
Boulton never had any formal schooling in science. His associate and fellow Lunar Society member James Keir eulogised him after his death:
Mr. [Boulton] is proof of how much scientific knowledge may be acquired without much regular study, by means of a quick & just apprehension, much practical application, and nice mechanical feelings. He had very correct notions of the several branches of natural philosophy, was master of every metallic art & possessed all the chemistry that had any relations to the object of his various manufactures. Electricity and astronomy were at one time among his favourite amusements.
From an early age, Boulton had interested himself in the scientific advances of his times. He discarded theories that electricity was a manifestation of the human soul, writing "we know tis matter & tis wrong to call it Spirit". He called such theories "Cymeras [chimeras] of each others Brain". His interest brought him into contact with other enthusiasts such as John Whitehurst, who also became a member of the Lunar Society. In 1758 the Pennsylvania printer Benjamin Franklin, the leading experimenter in electricity, journeyed to Birmingham during one of his lengthy stays in Britain; Boulton met him, and introduced him to his friends. Boulton worked with Franklin in efforts to contain electricity within a Leyden jar, and when the printer needed new glass for his "glassychord" (a mechanised version of musical glasses) he obtained it from Boulton.
Despite time constraints imposed on him by the expansion of his business, Boulton continued his "philosophical" work (as scientific experimentation was then called). He wrote in his notebooks observations on the freezing and boiling point of mercury, on people's pulse rates at different ages, on the movements of the planets, and on how to make sealing wax and disappearing ink. However, Erasmus Darwin, another fellow enthusiast who became a member of the Lunar Society, wrote to him in 1763, "As you are now become a sober plodding Man of Business, I scarcely dare trouble you to do me a favour in the ... philosophical way."
The Birmingham enthusiasts, including Boulton, Whitehurst, Keir, Darwin, Watt (after his move to Birmingham), potter Josiah Wedgwood and clergyman and chemist Joseph Priestley began to meet informally in the late 1750s. This evolved into a monthly meeting near the full moon, providing light to journey home afterwards, a pattern common for clubs in Britain at the time. The group eventually dubbed itself the "Lunar Society", and following the death of member Dr William Small in 1775, who had informally co-ordinated communication between the members, Boulton took steps to put the Society on a formal footing. They met on Sundays, beginning with dinner at 2 pm, and continuing with discussions until at least 8.
While not a formal member of the Lunar Society, Sir Joseph Banks was active in it. In 1768 Banks sailed with Captain James Cook to the South Pacific, and took with him green glass earrings made at Soho to give to the natives. In 1776 Captain Cook ordered an instrument from Boulton, most likely for use in navigation. Boulton generally preferred not to take on lengthy projects, and he warned Cook that its completion might take years. In June 1776 Cook left on the voyage on which he was killed almost three years later, and Boulton's records show no further mention of the instrument.
In addition to the scientific discussions and experiments conducted by the group, Boulton had a business relationship with some of the members. Watt and Boulton were partners for a quarter century. Boulton purchased vases from Wedgwood's pottery to be decorated with ormolu, and contemplated a partnership with him. Keir was a long-time supplier and associate of Boulton, though Keir never became his partner as he hoped.
In 1785 both Boulton and Watt were elected as Fellows of the Royal Society. According to Whitehurst, who wrote to congratulate Boulton, not a single vote was cast against him.
Though Boulton hoped his activities for the Lunar Society would "prevent the decline of a Society which I hope will be lasting", as members died or moved away they were not replaced. In 1813, four years after his death, the Society was dissolved and a lottery was held to dispose of its assets. Since there were no minutes of meetings, few details of the gatherings remain. Historian Jenny Uglow wrote of the lasting impact of the Society:
The Lunar Society['s] ... members have been called the fathers of the Industrial Revolution ... [T]he importance of this particular Society stems from its pioneering work in experimental chemistry, physics, engineering, and medicine, combined with leadership in manufacturing and commerce, and with political and social ideals. Its members were brilliant representatives of the informal scientific web which cut across class, blending the inherited skills of craftsmen with the theoretical advances of scholars, a key factor in Britain's leap ahead of the rest of Europe.
Community work
Boulton was widely involved in civic activities in Birmingham. His friend Dr John Ash had long sought to build a hospital in the town. A great fan of the music of Handel, Boulton conceived of the idea to hold a music festival in Birmingham to raise funds for the hospital. The festival took place in September 1768, the first of a series that lasted until 1912. The hospital, Birmingham General, opened in 1779. Boulton also helped build the General Dispensary, where outpatient treatment could be obtained. A firm supporter of the Dispensary, he served as treasurer, and wrote, "If the funds of the institution are not sufficient for its support, I will make up the deficiency." The Dispensary soon outgrew its original quarters, and a new building in Temple Row was opened in 1808, shortly before Boulton's death.
Boulton helped found the New Street Theatre in 1774, and later wrote that having a theatre encouraged well-to-do visitors to come to Birmingham, and to spend more money than they would have otherwise. Boulton attempted to have the theatre recognised as a patent theatre with a Royal Patent, entitled to present serious drama; he failed in 1779 but succeeded in 1807. He also supported Birmingham's Oratorio Choral Society, and collaborated with button maker and amateur musical promoter Joseph Moore to put on a series of private concerts in 1799. He maintained a pew at St Paul's Church, Birmingham, a centre of musical excellence. When performances of the Messiah were organised at Westminster Abbey in 1784 in the (incorrect) belief it was the centennial of Handel's birth and the (correct) belief that it was the 25th anniversary of his death, Boulton attended and wrote, "I scarcely know which was grandest, the sounds or the scene. Both was transcendibly fine that it is not in my power of words to describe. In the grand Halleluja my soul almost ascended from my body."
Concerned about the level of crime in Birmingham, Boulton complained, "The streets are infested from Noon Day to midnight with prostitutes." In an era prior to the establishment of the police, Boulton served on a committee to organise volunteers to patrol the streets at night and reduce crime. He supported the local militia, providing money for weapons. In 1794 he was elected High Sheriff of Staffordshire, his county of residence.
Besides seeking to improve local life, Boulton took an interest in world affairs. Initially sympathetic to the cause of the rebellious American colonists, Boulton changed his view once he realised that an independent America might be damaging towards British trade, and in 1775 organised a petition urging the government to adopt a firmer stance with the Americans—though when the revolution proved successful, he resumed trade with the former colonies. He was more sympathetic to the cause of the French Revolution, believing it justified, though he expressed his horror at the bloody excesses of the Revolutionary government. When war with France broke out, he paid for weapons for a company of volunteers, sworn to resist any French invasion.
Family and later life, death, and memorials
When Boulton was widowed in 1783 he was left with the care of his two teenage children. Neither his son Matthew Robinson Boulton nor his daughter Anne enjoyed robust health; the younger Matthew was often ill and was a poor student who was shuttled from school to school until he joined his father's business in 1790; Anne suffered from a diseased leg that prevented her from enjoying a full life. Despite his lengthy absences on business, Boulton cared deeply for his family. He wrote to his wife in January 1780,
Nothing could in the least palliate this long, this cold, this very distant separation from my dearest wife and children but the certain knowledge that I am preparing for their ease, happiness and prosperity, and when that is the prise, I know no hardships that I would not encounter with, to obtain it.
With the expiry of the patent in 1800 both Boulton and Watt retired from the partnership, each turning over his role to his namesake son. The two sons made changes, quickly ending public tours of the Soho Manufactory in which the elder Boulton had taken pride throughout his time in Soho. In retirement Boulton remained active, continuing to run the Soho Mint. When a new Royal Mint was built on Tower Hill in 1805, Boulton was awarded the contract to equip it with modern machinery. His continued activity distressed Watt, who had entirely retired from Soho, and who wrote to Boulton in 1804, "[Y]our friends fear much that your necessary attention to the operation of the coinage may injure your health".
Boulton helped deal with the shortage of silver, persuading the Government to let him overstrike the Bank of England's large stock of Spanish dollars with an English design. The Bank had attempted to circulate the dollars by countermarking the coins on the side showing the Spanish king with a small image of George III, but the public was reluctant to accept them, in part due to counterfeiting. This attempt inspired the couplet, "The Bank to make their Spanish Dollars pass/Stamped the head of a fool on the neck of an ass." Boulton obliterated the old design in his restriking. Though Boulton was not as successful in defeating counterfeiters as he hoped (high quality fakes arrived at the Bank's offices within days of the issuance), these coins circulated until the Royal Mint again struck large quantities of silver coin in 1816, when Boulton's were withdrawn. He oversaw the final issue of his coppers for Britain in 1806, and a major issue of coppers to circulate only in Ireland. Even as his health failed, he had his servants carry him from Soho House to the Soho Mint, and he sat and watched the machinery,which was kept exceptionally busy in 1808 by the striking of almost 90,000,000 pieces for the East India Company. He wrote, "Of all the mechanical subjects I ever entered upon, there is none in which I ever engaged with so much ardour as that of bringing to perfection the art of coining."
By early 1809 he was seriously ill. He had long suffered from kidney stones, which also lodged in the bladder, causing him great pain. He died at Soho House on 17 August 1809. He was buried in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church, Handsworth, in Birmingham – the church was later extended over the site of his grave. Inside the church, on the north wall of the sanctuary, is a large marble monument to him, commissioned by his son, sculpted by the sculptor John Flaxman. It includes a marble bust of Boulton, set in a circular opening above two putti, one holding an engraving of the Soho Manufactory.
Boulton is recognised by several memorials and other commemorations in and around Birmingham. Soho House, his home from 1766 until his death, is now a museum, as is his first workshop, Sarehole Mill. The Soho archives are part of the Birmingham City Archives, at the Library of Birmingham. He is recognised by blue plaques at his Steelhouse Lane birthplace and at Soho House. A gilded bronze statue of Boulton, Watt and Murdoch (1956) by William Bloye stands opposite Centenary Square in central Birmingham. Matthew Boulton College was named in his honour in 1957. The two-hundredth anniversary of his death, in 2009, resulted in a number of tributes. Birmingham City Council promoted "a year long festival celebrating the life, work and legacy of Matthew Boulton".
On 29 May 2009 the Bank of England announced that Boulton and Watt would appear on a new £50 note. The design is the first to feature a dual portrait on a Bank of England note, and presents the two industrialists side by side with images of a steam engine and Boulton's Soho Manufactory. Quotes attributed to each of the men are inscribed on the note: "I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have—POWER" (Boulton) and "I can think of nothing else but this machine" (Watt). The notes entered circulation on 2 November 2011.
In March 2009, Boulton was honoured with the issue of a Royal Mail postage stamp. On 17 October 2014 a bronze memorial plaque to Boulton was unveiled in the Chapel of St Paul, Westminster Abbey, beside the plaque to his business partner James Watt.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Further reading
External links
Matthew Boulton Bicentenary Celebrations 2009 on Birmingham Assay Office's website
Archives at Birmingham Central Library
Revolutionary Players website
Cornwall Record Office Boulton & Watt letters
Soho Mint website, celebrating Matthew Boulton, his mint and its products
Soho House Museum, Matthew Boulton's home from 1766 till his death in 1809, became a Museum in 1995
Category:1728 births
Category:1809 deaths
Category:18th-century British businesspeople
Category:18th-century British engineers
Category:18th-century British inventors
Category:British businesspeople in retailing
Category:English businesspeople
Category:English business theorists
Category:English mechanical engineers
Category:English silversmiths
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Category:High Sheriffs of Staffordshire
Category:Industrial Revolution in England
Category:Members of the Lunar Society of Birmingham
Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands
Category:People of the Industrial Revolution | [
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"text": "Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author (or enumerative bibliography); the other one, applicable for collectors, is \"the study of books as physical objects\" and \"the systematic description of books as objects\" (or descriptive bibliography).\n\nEtymology \nThe word was used by Greek writers in the first three centuries CE to mean the copying of books by hand. In the 12th century, the word started being used for \"the intellectual activity of composing books.\" The 17th century then saw the emergence of the modern meaning, that of description of books. Currently, the field of bibliography has expanded to include studies that consider the book as a material object. Bibliography, in its systematic pursuit of understanding the past and the present through written and printed documents, describes a way and means of extracting information from this material. Bibliographers are interested in comparing versions of texts to each other rather than in interpreting their meaning or assessing their significance.\n\nField of study \nBibliography is a specialized aspect of library science (or library and information science, LIS) and documentation science. It was established by a Belgian, named Paul Otlet (1868–1944), who was the founder of the field of documentation, as a branch of the information sciences, who wrote about \"the science of bibliography.\" However, there have recently been voices claiming that \"the bibliographical paradigm\" is obsolete, and it is not today common in LIS. A defence of the bibliographical paradigm was provided by Hjørland (2007).\n\nThe quantitative study of bibliographies is known as bibliometrics, which is today an influential subfield in LIS and is used for major collection decisions such as the cancellation of big deals, through data analysis tools like Unpaywall Journals.\n\nBranches \nCarter and Barker describe bibliography as a twofold scholarly discipline—the organized listing of books (enumerative bibliography) and the systematic description of books as physical objects (descriptive bibliography). These two distinct concepts and practices have separate rationales and serve differing purposes. Innovators and originators in the field include W. W. Greg, Fredson Bowers, Philip Gaskell and G. Thomas Tanselle.\n\nBowers (1949) refers to enumerative bibliography as a procedure that identifies books in “specific collections or libraries,” in a specific discipline, by an author, printer, or period of production (3). He refers to descriptive bibliography as the systematic description of a book as a material or physical artefact. Analytical bibliography, the cornerstone of descriptive bibliography, investigates the printing and all physical features of a book that yield evidence establishing a book's history and transmission (Feather 10). It is the preliminary phase of bibliographic description and provides the vocabulary, principles and techniques of analysis that descriptive bibliographers apply and on which they base their descriptive practice.\n\nDescriptive bibliographers follow specific conventions and associated classification in their description. Titles and title pages are transcribed in a quasi-facsimile style and representation. Illustration, typeface, binding, paper, and all physical elements related to identifying a book follow formulaic conventions, as Bowers established in his foundational opus, The Principles of Bibliographic Description. The thought expressed in this book expands substantively on W. W. Greg's groundbreaking theory that argued for the adoption of formal bibliographic principles (Greg 29). Fundamentally, analytical bibliography is concerned with objective, physical analysis and history of a book while descriptive bibliography employs all data that analytical bibliography furnishes and then codifies it with a view to identifying the ideal copy or form of a book that most nearly represents the printer's initial conception and intention in printing.\n\nIn addition to viewing bibliographic study as being composed of four interdependent approaches (enumerative, descriptive, analytical, and textual), Bowers notes two further subcategories of research, namely historical bibliography and aesthetic bibliography. Both historical bibliography, which involves the investigation of printing practices, tools, and related documents, and aesthetic bibliography, which examines the art of designing type and books, are often employed by analytical bibliographers.\n\nD. F. McKenzie extended previous notions of bibliography as set forth by Greg, Bowers, Gaskell and Tanselle. He describes the nature of bibliography as \"the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception\" (1999 12). This concept broadens the scope of bibliography to include \"non-book texts\" and an accounting for their material form and structure, as well as textual variations, technical and production processes that bring sociocultural context and effects into play. McKenzie's perspective contextualizes textual objects or artefacts with sociological and technical factors that have an effect on production, transmission and, ultimately, ideal copy (2002 14). Bibliography, generally, concerns the material conditions of books [as well as other texts] how they are designed, edited, printed, circulated, reprinted, collected.\n\nBibliographic works differ in the amount of detail depending on the purpose and can generally be divided into two categories: enumerative bibliography (also called compilative, reference or systematic), which results in an overview of publications in a particular category and analytical or critical bibliography, which studies the production of books. In earlier times, bibliography mostly focused on books. Now, both categories of bibliography cover works in other media including audio recordings, motion pictures and videos, graphic objects, databases, CD-ROMs and websites.\n\nEnumerative bibliography \n\nAn enumerative bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from \"works cited\" lists at the end of books and articles, to complete and independent publications. A notable example of a complete, independent publication is Gow's A. E. Housman: A Sketch, Together with a List of His Classical Papers (1936). As separate works, they may be in bound volumes such as those shown on the right, or computerized bibliographic databases. A library catalog, while not referred to as a \"bibliography,\" is bibliographic in nature. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources.\n\nEnumerative bibliographies are based on a unifying principle such as creator, subject, date, topic or other characteristic. An entry in an enumerative bibliography provides the core elements of a text resource including a title, the creator(s), publication date and place of publication. Belanger (1977) distinguishes an enumerative bibliography from other bibliographic forms such as descriptive bibliography, analytical bibliography or textual bibliography in that its function is to record and list, rather than describe a source in detail or with any reference to the source's physical nature, materiality or textual transmission. The enumerative list may be comprehensive or selective. One noted example would be Tanselle's bibliography that exhaustively enumerates topics and sources related to all forms of bibliography. A more common and particular instance of an enumerative bibliography relates to specific sources used or considered in preparing a scholarly paper or academic term paper.\n\nCitation styles vary.\nAn entry for a book in a bibliography usually contains the following elements:\n creator(s)\n title\n place of publication\n publisher or printer\n date of publication\n\nAn entry for a journal or periodical article usually contains:\n creator(s)\n article title\n journal title\n volume\n pages\n date of publication\n\nA bibliography may be arranged by author, topic, or some other scheme. Annotated bibliographies give descriptions about how each source is useful to an author in constructing a paper or argument. These descriptions, usually a few sentences long, provide a summary of the source and describe its relevance. Reference management software may be used to keep track of references and generate bibliographies as required.\n\nBibliographies differ from library catalogs by including only relevant items rather than all items present in a particular library. However, the catalogs of some national libraries effectively serve as national bibliographies, as the national libraries own almost all their countries' publications.\n\nDescriptive bibliography \nFredson Bowers described and formulated a standardized practice of descriptive bibliography in his Principles of Bibliographical Description\n(1949). Scholars to this day treat Bowers' scholarly guide as authoritative. In this classic text, Bowers describes the basic function of bibliography as, \"[providing] sufficient data so that a reader may identify the book described, understand the printing, and recognize the precise contents\" (124).\n\nDescriptive bibliographies as scholarly product \nDescriptive bibliographies as a scholarly product usually include information on the following aspect of a given book as a material object:\nFormat and Collation/Pagination Statement—a conventional, symbolic formula that describes the book block in terms of sheets, folds, quires, signatures, and pages\n\nAccording to Bowers (193), the format of a book is usually abbreviated in the collation formula:\nBroadsheet: I° or b.s. or bs.\nFolio: 2° or fol.\nQuarto: 4° or 4to or Q° or Q\nOctavo: 8° or 8vo\nDuodecimo: 12° or 12mo\nSexto-decimo: 16° or 16mo\nTricesimo-secundo: 32° or 32mo\nSexagesimo-quarto: 64° or 64mo\nThe collation, which follows the format, is the statement of the order and size of the gatherings.\nFor example, a quarto that consists of the signed gatherings:\n2 leaves signed A, 4 leaves signed B, 4 leaves signed C, and 2 leaves signed D\nwould be represented in the collation formula:\n4°: A2B-C4D2\nBinding—a description of the binding techniques (generally for books printed after 1800)\nTitle Page Transcription—a transcription of the title page, including rule lines and ornaments\nContents—a listing of the contents (by section) in the book\nPaper—a description of the physical properties of the paper, including production process, an account of chain-line measurements, and a description of watermarks (if present)\nIllustrations—a description of the illustrations found in the book, including printing process (e.g. woodblock, intaglio, etc.), measurements, and locations in the text\nPresswork—miscellaneous details gleaned from the text about its production\nCopies Examined—an enumeration of the copies examined, including those copies' location (i.e. belonging to which library or collector)\n\nAnalytical bibliography \nThis branch of the bibliographic discipline examines the material features of a textual artefact—such as type, ink, paper, imposition, format, impressions and states of a book—to essentially recreate the conditions of its production. Analytical bibliography often uses collateral evidence—such as general printing practices, trends in format, responses and non-responses to design, etc.—to scrutinize the historical conventions and influences underlying the physical appearance of a text. The bibliographer utilizes knowledge gained from the investigation of physical evidence in the form of a descriptive bibliography or textual bibliography. Descriptive bibliography is the close examination and cataloging of a text as a physical object, recording its size, format, binding, and so on, while textual bibliography (or textual criticism) identifies variations—and the aetiology of variations—in a text with a view to determining \"the establishment of the most correct form of [a] text\" (Bowers 498[1]).\n\nBibliographers \n\nA bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. A person who limits such efforts to a specific field or discipline is a subject bibliographer.\"\n\nA bibliographer, in the technical meaning of the word, is anyone who writes about books. But the accepted meaning since at least the 18th century is a person who attempts a comprehensive account—sometimes just a list, sometimes a fuller reckoning—of the books written on a particular subject. In the present, bibliography is no longer a career, generally speaking; bibliographies tend to be written on highly specific subjects and by specialists in the field.\n\nThe term bibliographer is sometimes—in particular subject bibliographer—today used about certain roles performed in libraries and bibliographic databases.\n\nOne of the first bibliographers was Conrad Gessner who sought to list all books printed in Latin, Greek and Hebrew in Bibliotheca Universalis (1545).\n\nNon-book material \nSystematic lists of media other than books can be referred to with terms formed analogously to bibliography:\n Discography—recorded music\n Filmography—films\n Webography (or webliography)—websites\n Arachniography, a term coined by NASA research historian Andrew J. Butrica, which means a reference list of URLs about a particular subject. It is equivalent to a bibliography in a book. The name derives from arachne in reference to a spider and its web.\n\nSee also \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n (in Wikipedia)\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading \n Blum, Rudolf. (1980) Bibliographia. An Inquiry in Its Definition and Designations, Dawson, American Library Association.\n Bowers, Fredson. (1995) Principles of Bibliographical Description, Oak Knoll Press.\n Duncan, Paul Shaner. (1973) How to Catalog a Rare Book, 2nd ed., rev., American Library Association.\n \n Gaskell, Philip. (2000) A New Introduction to Bibliography, Oak Knoll Press.\n McKerrow, R. B. (1927) An Introduction to Bibliography for Literary Students, Oxford: Clarendon Press\n Schneider, Georg. (1934) Theory and History of Bibliography, New York: Scarecrow Press.\n National Library of Canada, Committee on Bibliography and Information Services for the Social Sciences and Humanities, Guidelines for the Compilation of a Bibliography (National Library of Canada, 1987). N.B.: This is a brief guide to accurately practical bibliography, not a study concerning more precise and systematic bibliography.\n \nRobinson, A. M. Lewin (1966) Systematic Bibliography; rev. ed. London: Clive Bingley\n\nExternal links \n\n Oxford Bibliographies Online, in-depth annotated bibliographies by scholars in selected fields\n Introduction to Bibliography, a comprehensive syllabus by G. Thomas Tanselle\n The Bibliographical Society of America, a resource for information about current work in the field of bibliography\n Studies in Bibliography, the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia\n A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism, and Philology, (University of Zaragoza) includes thousands of listings on literary, philological and other subjects\n\n \nCategory:Book design\nCategory:Book terminology\nCategory:Textual scholarship",
"title": "Bibliography"
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"The text does not provide information on where Matthew Boulton was born.",
"Matthew Boulton grew up in the Snow Hill area of Birmingham.",
"The text does not provide information on whether Matthew Boulton had any siblings.",
"The text suggests Matthew Boulton had a comfortable upbringing. His family moved to a well-to-do neighbourhood in Birmingham and he attended a local academy. His father's business was successful, and Boulton joined it as a partner at the age of 21.",
"The text does not provide a specific reason for why Matthew Boulton left school.",
"Yes, Matthew Boulton's invention of a technique for inlaying enamels in buckles was successful. It was so popular that the buckles were exported to France, then reimported to Britain and billed as the latest French developments.",
"The buckles Matthew Boulton created using his technique for inlaying enamels were very successful. They were popular enough to be exported to France and then they were reimported back to Britain where they were billed as the latest developments from France. This suggests they were well-regarded and perceived as fashionable or innovative.",
"Yes, Matthew Boulton started a family of his own. He was first married to Mary Robinson, with whom he had three daughters who all died in infancy. After Mary's death, Boulton married her sister Anne. The couple had two children, Matthew Robinson Boulton and Anne Boulton.",
"Matthew Boulton married Anne on 25 June 1760.",
"One interesting aspect is how Matthew Boulton navigated around the law to marry his deceased wife's sister, Anne, which was forbidden by ecclesiastical law. He advised another man to do the same thing, recommending that he go quickly and discreetly to Scotland or an obscure corner of London, become a parishioner there, and then, after fulfilling the legal residency requirement, marry and maintain silence on the matter. Furthermore, Boulton's grandson, Matthew Piers Watt Boulton, gained posthumous fame for his invention of an important aeronautical control, the aileron."
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C_29090bb342ea41eaa3bf8c3b7dd080db_0 | Lapu-Lapu | Lapu-Lapu (Baybayin: [?][?][?][?] | Legacy | Lapu-Lapu is regarded, retroactively, as the first Filipino hero. The government erected a statue in his honor on Mactan Island and renamed the town of Opon in Cebu to Lapu-Lapu City. A large statue of him, donated by South Korea, stands in the middle of Agrifina Circle in Rizal Park in Manila, replacing a fountain and rollerskating rink. Lapu-Lapu appears on the official seal of the Philippine National Police. His face was used as the main design on the 1-centavo coin that was circulated in the Philippines from 1967 to 1974. According to local legend, Lapu-Lapu never died but was turned into stone, and has since then been guarding the seas of Mactan. Fishermen in the island city would throw coins at a stone shaped like a man as a way of asking for permission to fish in the monarch's territory. Another urban legend concerns the statue of Lapu-Lapu erected at the center of the town plaza. The statue faced the old city hall, where mayors used to hold office; Lapu-Lapu was shown with a crossbow in the stance of shooting an enemy. Superstitious citizens proposed to replace this crossbow with a sword, after three consecutive mayors of the city each died of heart attack. In the United States, a street in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California is named after Lapu-Lapu. That street and others in the immediate neighborhood were renamed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors with names derived from historical Filipino heroes on August 31, 1979. During the First Regular Season of the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Senator Richard Gordon introduced a bill proposing to declare April 27 as an official Philippine national holiday to be known as Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu, (Cebuano, "Day of Lapu-Lapu"). On April 27, 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte declared April 27 (the date when Battle of Mactan happened) as Lapu-Lapu Day for honoring as the first hero in the country who defeated foreign rule. Duterte also signed the creation of "Order of Lapu-Lapu" earlier in April 7, to recognize the government workers and private citizens on supporting his advocacies. CANNOTANSWER | [
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"Lapu-Lapu is commemorated as the first Filipino hero and various monuments and tributes have been erected or named in his honor. A statue of him stands on Mactan Island and in Rizal Park in Manila, and the town of Opon in Cebu was renamed to Lapu-Lapu City. His face was the main design on the 1-centavo coin in the Philippines from 1967 to 1974. In the United States, a street in San Francisco is named after him. The Philippine National Police use his image on their official seal. Additionally, Senator Richard Gordon proposed a bill to declare April 27 as an official national holiday named Adlaw ni Lapu-Lapu and in 2017 President Duterte declared the same day as Lapu-Lapu Day, creating the \"Order of Lapu-Lapu\" to acknowledge government workers and private citizens supporting his causes.",
"The context does not provide specifics as to why Lapu-Lapu is regarded as the first Filipino hero.",
"The context does not provide information on how the legend of Lapu-Lapu began.",
"According to local legend, Lapu-Lapu never died but was turned into stone and has since been guarding the seas of Mactan. Fishermen in the area would throw coins at a stone shaped like a man as a way of asking for permission to fish in the monarch's territory. Another legend involves the statue of Lapu-Lapu erected at the center of the town plaza. The statue, shown with a crossbow in the stance of shooting an enemy, faced the old city hall where mayors used to hold office. After three consecutive mayors of the city died of heart attacks, superstitious citizens proposed to replace the crossbow with a sword.",
"The context does not provide information on when the statues of Lapu-Lapu were built."
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