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What type of flower derives its name from the French for ‘lion’s tooth’? | 10 Most Interesting Flowers And Their Interesting Facts | Learnodo Newtonic
Posted March 3, 2013 by Learnodo Newtonic in Interesting Facts 25392
10 Most Interesting Flowers And Their Interesting Facts
#1 – Tulips
Tulips once sold costlier than gold
In Russia, red tulips were used to declare romantic love, where blackish center of red tulip symbolized coal-burnt heart of the lover in the passion of love.
Tulip bulbs were sold costlier than gold in 1600’s in Holland. In 1630’s a kind of frenzy for tulips occurred in Western Europe named “Tulip mania” and tulips became so expensive as to be treated as a form of currency.
Tulip bulbs can be used in place of onions in many recipes.
Tulips lifespan is very short, being 3 to 7 days.
Tulips symbolizing imagination, have earned a reputation for declaration of love.
Tulips can grow at a rate of 1 inch per day even after being cut.
#2 – Lotus
Lotus grows in marsh and damp wetlands
A sacred flower and symbol of resurrection in Egypt, this flower which grows in marsh and damp wetlands, has a property to stay dormant in times of drought and to blossom again when water returns.
Given favorable conditions, lotus seeds can stay viable for long periods, even extending to several years. Oldest recorded germination was seen in a dry lake bed in north eastern China, from seeds that were 1300 yrs old.
Stamens of lotus are dried to produce fragrant teas while lotus seeds or nuts can be eaten either raw or popped like popcorn. Lotus seed paste is used in many pastry, cake and pudding recipes.
Fabric made from fibers of lotus plant is used in Myanmar for making robes of Buddha. According to old legend, lotus flowers bloomed everywhere that lord Buddha walked.
In Asian traditions, lotus is seen as a divine symbol of sexual purity and non attachment. Also symbolizing elegance and beauty, lotus is used in poetry and songs, allegorically for ideal female attributes.
#3 – Dandelions
Dandelion means lions tooth
Flowers and leaves of dandelion are rich source of vitamin A and C, calcium, iron and potassium. One cup of dandelion tea can provide 7,000-13,000 I.U. of vitamin A.
The English name of dandelion is derived from the French dent de lion which means “lions tooth” due to it coarsely toothed leaves.
Its flower petals are used in making dandelion wine while its roasted roots are used as a caffeine free dandelion coffee.
Sunflowers tend to turn towards the sun
Sunflowers are also known as Helianthus (Helia: Sun Anthus: Flower) in scientific terms.
Sunflower was used as a symbol of Spiritual Church due to its property of turning towards sun as “spiritualism turns toward the light of truth”. Its property of move towards sun is called “heliotropism”.
Sunflowers can be used to remove or extract toxic elements from soil like arsenic, lead and uranium. After Chernobyl disaster, they were use to remove cesium-137 and strontium-90 from a nearby pond.
Sunflower oil is widely used for cooking while its seeds are used as snack.
Daisies or the Day’s eyes
Daisies symbolize innocence.
Daisy is a ‘two in one’ flower i.e. white petals peripherally and tiny yellow disc petals that form the eye.
Its medicinal properties include relieving indigestion, easing of cough, slowing the bleeding and easing back pain.
Daisies can become serious weed if not controlled as they thrive in very rough conditions and are resistant to many bugs and pesticides.
Some daisies open their petals in day’s sun time but close them in evening when sun sets giving them the name “day’s eyes”.
#6 – Daffodils
Daffodils aka Narcissus
Daffodils are believed to have earned their name from the word asphodel (genus of perennial plants native to western, southern and central Europe) and the Dutch article “de affodil”. Another widely known name for them is Narcissus.
All species of Narcissus have the alkaloid poison named lycorine in bulbs and also in the leaves. Daffodil bulbs can be confused with onion while cooking and may lead to poisoning.
Daffodils are cultivated for commercial use for making galantamine, a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
In west, Daffodils symbolize vanity while in the East, they are a symbol of wealth and good fortune.
It is national flower of Wales.
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#7 – Roses
Roses are symbols of love and beauty
Roses, often associated with Virgin Mary, are symbol of love and beauty. Red roses are widely used on Valentines Day to express love.
Rose hips (the berry-like fruit structure of rose) of some species of rose are amongst the richest source of Vitamin C. They are used to make jams, jellies and also brewed for tea.
Two thousand flowers of rose are needed to produce one gram of rose oil.
In Chinese herbal medicine, some species of rose are used to treat stomach problems.
A red rose held in hand is a symbol of socialism or social democracy.
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Lilly means true white
Lilies derived their name from Greek root ‘lirion’ meaning “true, white”.
One of the most famous lilies is Madonna lily which is always white with yellow stamens. It is one of the oldest lilies dating 3000 yrs back. Roman Catholic Church dedicated it to Mother Mary.
Madonna lily can stand adverse conditions against pests, diseases and frost.
Madonna lily was used in 17th century for treatment of snake bites and sore muscles. Its leaves and flowers used to make useful liniments to heal wounds and bruises.
Day lily is an edible variety which should be eaten in moderation or else it can act as a diuretic or laxative.
Accidental eating of day lilies can cause renal toxicity and death in cats.
Arum lily contains large amounts of calcium oxalate poison which is extremely poisonous on ingestion, even to humans.
Dahlia is a daisy like flower and is related to both daisy and sunflower.
It is the national flower of Mexico.
Dahlia is believed to get its name from an 18th century Swedish Botanist, Anders Dahl.
“Dahl” sounds very much like ‘dal’ in Swedish meaning ‘valley’. Thus it is also called ‘valley flower’ sometimes.
Dahlias serve decorative purposes in cakes, tarts, pastries, salads and in garnishing of deserts.
Dahlias with large flowers usually have only 4-5 flowers per plant.
Dahlias come in a variety of colors and many hybrids create many beautiful colors.
They are very susceptible to viral and bacterial infections.
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Carnations’ scientific name ‘Dianthus caryophyllus’ means ‘flower of the Gods’.
Some people believe that the name comes from ‘corone’ meaning ‘floral garland’.
It is the national flower of Spain.
They come in all natural colors ranging from white to red.
Carnations are many times related to feelings. Red carnation symbolize deep love, white represents pure love while yellow represents dejection.
It is said that carnations first grew from Mother Mary’s tears seeing Jesus carrying the cross to cavalry.
In France and francophone cultures, carnations stand for bad luck and misfortune.
In Korea, to tell the fortune of a young girl, 3 carnations are put on her hair. If the bottom one dies first, she will have a hard life. If the middle one dies first, she will have hard times in youth but life will improve later. If the top one dies first, she will have a tough life only in the end.
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What sort of holiday was the subject of ‘Three Men on the Bummel’ (1900)? | Dandelion Flower Pictures & the Dandelion Flowers Meaning
Dandelion Flowers
The dandelion flower is recognizable to just about everyone. This is due to the fact that although these small plants are native to Europe and Asia, at least two of their species can be found growing wild all around the world. The dandelion flower is a member of the asteraceae family and, as is common with other members of this line, has a single head that is composed of several smaller, yellow ray flowers. The foliage for this flower is generally lobed, dark green and hairless. The distinctive lance shape of the leaves were the inspiration for its name – the Old French dent-de-lion, which means lion’s tooth. The stems of these flowers are hollow and, when broken, seep a thick, faintly white sap.
Since the entire dandelion flower is perfectly edible, many people over time have used this plant for both culinary and medicinal purposes. When dried and steeped in hot water, these flowers can make a superb diuretic, and are also thought to help in eliminating kidney stones. The milky sap is considered very effective with skin conditions, and can aid in diminishing warts. The flower heads can be eaten uncooked in salads or mixed with vegetables, and the roots may be dried and brewed as a substitute for coffee. There are also many myths and superstitions surrounding the dandelion flower. Two contradictory superstitions state that if you blow on the dried flower ball, the number of seeds that remain can either tell you how many children you will have, or how many more years you will live. If all of the seeds come off, however, you will be granted a wish. In folk myths, the dandelion has been used to tell time and predict the weather. In these stories, the number of times it takes you to blow away all of the seeds from a single flower is the exact hour of the day. The weather, on the other hand, is dependent upon whether or not the head of the flower opens in the morning.
As a symbol, the dandelion flower is the ultimate emblem for persistence and a strong will. It is also thought to represent wishes coming true, cheerful love, and general happiness. As a gift, these small, delicate flowers are certainly unique. Although uncommon, it is possible to give these to someone as a potted plant; however, they are best given freshly clipped and presented as a single yellow flower, so as to represent a sweet, innocent affection; or in its more downy form, encouraging the recipient to make a wish.
Dandelion Flower Pictures
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Who celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29th, 2003, but died two months later? | May 29 2003 Bob Hope celebrates 100th birthday | Craig Hill Training Services
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Filed Under Academy Award , Bing Crosby , Bob Hope , Dolores Hope , dorothy lamour , Entertainment , History , mickey rooney , United States , World War II
Dolores and Bob Hope, married for 69 years
On May 29th 2003, 35 U.S. states declared it to be Bob Hope Day, when the iconic comedic actor and entertainer turned 100 years old.
In a public ceremony held in Hollywood, city officials renamed the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Avenue–famous for its historic buildings and as a central point on the Hollywood Walk of Fame –Bob Hope Square. Several 1940s-era U.S. planes flew overhead as part of an air show honouring Hope’s longtime role as an entertainer of U.S. armed forces all over the world. Hope, who was then suffering from failing eyesight and hearing and had not been seen in public for three years, was too ill to attend the public ceremonies. Three of his children attended the naming ceremony, along with some of his younger show-business colleagues, including Mickey Rooney.
One of the leading talents on the vaudeville scene by the 1930s, the London-born, American -raised Hope met his future wife (of nearly seven decades), the nightclub singer Dolores Reade , while he was performing on Broadway in the musical Roberta. They married in 1934, and four years later Hope launched his own radio program, The Bob Hope Show, which would run for the next 18 years. One of the country’s most popular comics, Hope had a successful film career largely thanks to the series of seven “Road” movies he made with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, including Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946) and Road to Rio (1947).
In 1941, after America’s entrance into World War II, Hope began performing for U.S. troops abroad; he would play shows for more than a million American servicemen by 1953. Some 65 million people watched him perform for troops in Vietnam on Christmas Eve in 1966, in his largest broadcast. Hope also became a legend for his countless TV specials, which he would perform over the course of some five decades. He hosted the Academy Awards ceremony a total of 18 times, more than any other Oscars host.
Dubbed “Mr. Entertainment” and the “King of Comedy,” Hope died on July 27, 2003, less than two months after his 100th birthday celebration. He was survived by Dolores, their four adopted children–Linda, Anthony, Nora and Kelly–and four grandchildren.
| Bob Hope |
Where might you expect to meet “a pretty nurse … selling poppies from a tray”? | Bob (and Delores) Hope and Adoption - [[:Template:Adoption Wiki]]
Bob (and Delores) Hope and Adoption
1978
1903 – 2003
Entertainer
Leslie Townes Hope (May 29, 1903 - July 27, 2003), best known as Bob Hope, was a famous entertainer, having appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, on radio and television, movies and in army concerts. Hope was born in Eltham, London, as fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer. The family lived in Weston-super-Mare, Whitehall and St. George in Bristol before moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. He became a United States citizen in 1908.
Hope became famous with several Broadway musicals including Roberta, Say When, the 1936 Ziegfeld Follies and Red, Hot and Blue. Before becoming an comedian, Hope boxed professionally under the boxing nickname of Packy East.
According to biographer Arthur Marx, Hope married his first wife, Grace Louise Troxell, his vaudeville partner since 1928, on January 25, 1933; they were quickly divorced. He married his second wife, reportedly on February 19, 1934, Dolores DeFina, a Bronx-born nightclub singer professionally known as Dolores Reade. They had met two months previously, at The Vogue, a Manhattan nightclub where Reade was performing. Dolores and Bob Hope had four children - all adopted from the same Evanston, Ill., orphanage - and remained together until his death.
In his 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938, he introduced the song that became his trademark: Thanks for the Memories
Hope celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29, 2003, and might rival Irving Berlin or George Burns as the most notable entertainment centenarian. In honor of Hope on his birthday, the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles, California was christened Bob Hope Square. His centennial was declared Bob Hope Day in 35 U.S. states. Hope celebrated his birthday privately in his Toluca Lake home where he had lived since 1937. Even at 100 years of age, Hope maintained his sense of humor, quipping "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type." And according to one of Hope's daughters, when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, he told his wife, "Surprise me." He died two months later of pneumonia at 9:28 PM July 27, 2003 at his home in Toluca Lake, north of Hollywood.
Bob Hope is interred in San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, California .
References
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bob Hope". Credits: Wikipedia
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What was the title of Peter Wright’s controversial 1987 book? (One word will suffice.) | Please Email Me your entries.
Thanks to Geoffrey Corner of Philadelphia for starting the list in April 1996.
Other Resources:-
For a comprehensive list of US Banned recordings: http://www.ericnuzum.com/banned/
For a detailed account of the recordings listed here and more, in November 1998 a book titled Smashed Hits was published by The Freedom of speech Group.
More stuff on "bans" in the UK can be found in the book "Banned! Censorship of Popular Music in Britain: 1967-1992" by Martin Cloonan [email protected] (Arena, Aldershot, UK, 1996).
NOTE! The ban on many of the records has subsequently been lifted and some only carried a daytime ban.
Banned by the BBC
Sexual
› Jane Birkin - Je T’aime - Maybe it wasn't helped by Serge Gainsbourg singing about the joys of going "entre tes reins" - between your kidneys - i.e. up your bum (alledgedly). On top of the pops an instrumental version by "Sounds Nice" was used - 1969 & 1974
› Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax - Sexual references - 1983
› The Au Pairs - Come Again - Referred to orgasm - 1981
› Lil Louis - French Kiss - "Heavy breathing" - 1989
› The New Yorkers - Love For Sale - "Sexual" content - 1930??
› Judge Dread - Several records with titles as Big 6, Big 7,Big 8, 10 etc - "Sexual" content - 1972 - 1975
› Ivor Biggun - The winker's song (misprint) - Sexually explicit - 1978
› Troggs - I Can’t Control Myself - The sound Reg Presley makes at the end of the song was said to be like someone climaxing. - 1966
› Rolling Stones - Lets spend the night together - Promoted promiscuity - 1967
› Cliff Richard - Honky tonk angel - Self imposed ban as "saint" Cliff didn’t know that a Honky tonk angel was a Hooker! circa ‘72 -’73.
› Adam Faith - Made You - Banned for lewdness/Sexual Content Double A-Side with "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" - 1960
› The Stranglers - Peaches - Considered "woman baiting" - 1977
› Scott Walker - Jackie - Reference to "authentic queers" - 1967
› George Michael - I Want Your Sex - banned only before the "watershed" - 1987
› Paul McCarney & Wings - Hi Hi Hi - Banned, not due to drug references but to explicit sexual lyrics - 1972
› Joe Brown & The Bruvvers' revival of George Formby's "My Little Ukelele" (1963, Piccadilly/Pye) was banned as "too risque"
› Max Romeo - Wet Dream - A song about his bedroom ceiling. No the BBC wouldn't buy that - 1969
› Donna Summer - Love to love you - Groans & heavy breathing secured the ban - 1976
› The Prodigy - Smack my bitch up - Despite denials, this single was never herd during the day - 1997
› Pete Shelley - Homosapien - "SPIN Alternative Record Guide." The book claims "Homosapien" was banned for containing the line "Homo superior in my interior."(About 1982)
› Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Open Your Box - From the album of the same name and B side of a single, it was banned for containing the lyric "open your legs" - 1970
Political
› Marxman - Sad Affair - Contained IRA slogan - 1993
› Police - Invisible Sun was banned (certainly by R1/TOTP, maybe others)
references to Northern Ireland (Barrel of an Armalite, etc.) - 1981
› Paul McCartney - Give Ireland Back to the Irish - Obvious - 1972
› Johnny Horton - Battle of New Orleans - Reference to "Bloody British" - 1959
› Hawkwind - "Urban Guerrila" - early 1970's. Banned due to mainland UK terrorist attacks at the time.
› Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen - Anti monarchy - 1977
› Blow Monkeys - The Day After You - Anti Margaret Thatcher - 1987
› Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat - Too provocative (Falklands) - 1980
› Elaine Page/Julie Covington "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" Falklands Crisis - 1980
› McGuiness Flint - Let the people go - Government policy on the IRA - 1975
› Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" - The "All-Music Guide" says "Fascist Groove Thang" was banned by the BBC for its overtly political nature. (About 1981)
› Six Months In A Leaky Boat. - 'Split Enz' 1984 - During the Falklands war, their song that went 'I just spent six months in a leaky boat, Lucky just to keep afloat.' I think that you might have to be careful about using the term "banned". E.g. During the Falklands those records were not banned as such, but local BBC radio DJs were asked to think carefully about what to play - especially close to news bulletins on the war. Martin Cloonan [email protected]
Political 2 - The Gulf War 1
All these recordings were banned during the gulf war in 1990.
Jose Felicano & The Doors - Light My Fire
Something Happens - "Parachute"
The Cure - Killing an Arab
Little angels - Bone yard
Massive Attack had the word "attack" dropped during the gulf war.
Bomb the Bass also suffered during this period.
‘The Word,’ listed 64 songs on its February 1st program that BBC Radio have deemed "unsuitable" to play during the Gulf Crisis: Lee McMurray
Abba Waterloo
A-ha Hunting High And Low
Alarm 68 Guns
Animals We Got To Get Out Of This Place 5.
Arrival I Will Survive 6.
Joan Baez The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 7.
Bangles Walk Like An Egyptian 8.
The Beatles Back In The USSR 9.
Pat Benetar Love Is A Battlefield
Big Country Fields Of Fire
Blondie Atomic
Boomtown Rats Don't Like Mondays
Brook Bros. Warpaint
Cher Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
Eric Clapton I Shot The Sheriff
Phil Collins In The Air Tonight
Cutting Crew I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight
Skeeter Davies End Of The World
Desmond Dekker Israelites
Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
Duran Duran View To A Kill
Jose Feliciano Light My Fire
First Choice Armed And Extremely Dangerous
Roberta Flack Killing Me Softly
Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes
Eddie Grant Living On The Frontline
Eddie Grant Give Me Hope Joanna
Elton John Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
Johnny Hates Jazz I Don't Want To Be A Hero
John Lennon Give Peace A Chance
John Lennon Imagine
Jona Louis Stop The Cavalry
Lulu Boom Bang A Bang
McGuinness Flint When I'm Dead And Gone
Bob Marley Buffalo Soldier
Maria Muldaur Midnight At The Oasis
M*A*S*H Suicide Is Painless
Mike And The Mechanics Silent Running
Rick Nelson Fools Rush In
Nicole A Little Peace
Billy Ocean When The Going Gets Tough
Donny Osmond Soldier Of Love
Paper Lace Billy Don't Be A Hero
Queen Killer Queen
Martha Reeves Forget Me Not
B.A. Robertson Bang Bang
Kenny Rogers Ruby (Don't Take Your Love To Town)
Spandau Ballet I'll Fly For You
Specials Ghost Town
Bruce Springsteen I'm On Fire
Edwin Starr War
Status Quo In The Army Now
Status Quo Burning Bridges
Cat Stevens I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun
Rod Stewart Sailing
Donna Summer State Of Independence
Tears For Fears Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Temptations Ball Of Confusion
Stevie Wonder Heaven Help Us All
Morbid
› The Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire - morbid /"scary" content (backing group to Rod Stewart, produced by Joe Meek - 1961
› Sam M.Lewis - Gloomy Sunday - Too mournful - 1930??
› Mike Berry & The Outlaws - Tribute To Buddy Holly -"morbid concern" for a dead teenage idol - A Joe Meek masterpiece - 1961
› Ricky Valance - Tell Laura I love her - banned because of the reference to dying in a stock car race? - 1960
› The Downliners Sect's 1965 EP, "THE SECT SING SICK SONGS" was banned for poor taste/morbidity; it included a cover of Jimmy Cross' - I WANT MY BABY BACK (where a necrophiliac boyfriend digs up & jumps in his girlfriend's coffin)
› Napoleon XIV - They're coming to take me away ha-haaaa - Preceded rap by some 25 years. Man going bonkers over lost dog - 1966
Advertising
› Paul Simon - Kodachrome - Advertising - 197?
› The Kinks - Lola - was originally banned because it mentioned Coca-Cola, was later changed to Cherry Cola to get airplay. - 1970
› Paul Simon - Me and Julio - Originally banned for referring to Newsweek magazine. - 1972
› Dr Hook & the Medicine show - The cover of Rolling Stone - Advertising - 1972
› Dr Hook & the Medicine show - The Cover of the Radio Times - Tried to get around the ban by sucking up to the BBC with this version! - 1972
› Danny Williams - "You're Fabulous Babe" - 1977. Banned due to advertising. Babe was a perfume.
› Pink Floyd - IT WOULD BE SO NICE, April 1968. The lyrics mentioned the British newspaper The Evening Standard. The record could not be played on UK radio. As a result, Pink Floyd had to spend about $1000 to replace the Evening Standard with Daily Standard to appease the BBC. The record failed in the charts despite the touch of controversy. Another thing, the copies sold in shops were the Evening Standard version, but all releases available now are the corrected version.
› Jimmy Buffett's single, "come Monday" contained the line, "I've got my Hush Puppies on." Since the BBC considered this to be advertising he re-recorded that line so it said, "I've got my hiking shoes on."
F Word - Part 1
37 Tracks Unlikely To Be Herd On Daytime Radio In The UK Anytime Soon...
• Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse - Frank
• Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys? - Arctic Monkeys - Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys?
• Fuck Forever - Babyshambles - Down In Albion
• Fuckin' With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) - Beck - Mellow Gold
• Get Fucked Stud - Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
• Fuck You - Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
• Get Your Hands Off My Woman Motherfucker - The Darkness - Permission to Land
• Mother Fucker From Hell - The Datsuns - The Datsuns
• Too Drunk To Fuck - Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (Disc 2)
• You Fucking Love It - Dirty Pretty Things - Waterloo to Anywhere
• This Fucking Job - Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do
• Still Don't Give a Fuck - Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
• Fucking In Heaven - Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby
• Big Bad Mean Motherfucker - Girls - Album
• Fuck You, It's Over - Glasvegas - A Snowflake Fell... (EP)
• Who the Fuck? - Graham Coxon - Sky Is Too High
• Fuck the Valley Fudge - Grandaddy - Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla
• Fucking Ada - Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Laughter
• Fucking song - Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
• Fuck The People - The Kills - Keep On Your Mean Side
• Your Fucking Sunny Day - Lambchop - Thriller/Hank
• Fuck You - Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
• How Fucking Romantic - The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1
• Fuck It, I Love You - Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
• Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole - Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright
• Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
• Fuckin' Up - Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory
• Fuckin' In The Bushes - Oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
• You Fuckin' Die...! - Pixies - Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim
• Sexy Mother Fucker - Prince & The New Power Generation - The Love Symbol Album
• Song For The Deaf (The Blind Can Goes Get Fucked Remix) - Queens Of The Stone Age - First It Giveth (Single #1) [UK]
• Fuck School - The Replacements - Stink! [Deluxe Edition]
• Man Don't Give a Fuck - Super Furry Animals - Outspaced
• Some People Try to Fuck With You - Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt
• Fuck Nicole - The Teenagers - Reality Check
• Peace The Fuck Out - Travis - 12 Memories
• My Shit's Fucked Up - Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
A Few More With The Offending 'Word' Too Prominent To Gain Daytime Airplay.
› John Lennon - Working Class Hero - 1970
› Black Grape - "Shake your money" - 1995 Use of F word.
› Linda McCarytney - The light comes from within - Even the inclusion of the F word & being dead she can't get a hit! - 1999
› Richie Kavanagh - "Aon Focal Eile" Banned in Britain because first syllable of "Focal", (the Irish for "Word") sounded too much like "Fuck"...
› The Rolling Stones - Star Star. Despite the title being changed, the words star fucker (repeated dozens of times) could still be herd in the chorus! - 1973
Banned but saved by the radio edit - F word part 2
› Radiohead - Creep - Edited to make the F word disappear - 1992
› Beautiful South - Don't marry her have me - Originally titled and contained the line "Don't marry her fuck me" - 1996
› Prince's "Sexy Motherfucker" which was renamed "Sexy MF" 1992
›The Stranglers - "Peaches" The lyrics were changed for radio. 1977
› XTC - "Respectable Street", from '82, lyrics about abortion, sex positions, and neighbors retching over each other's fences were replaced.
› Monty Python's "Always look on the bright side of life" where "Life's a piece of shit / when you think of it" was replaced to suit the BBC's tastes.
Thanks to Liam O'Brien for most reminding me of the following...
› Lemonheads-"Big Gay Heart". Lyrics changed from "suck my dick" to (comically) "duck my sick" for radio play. Also "piss me off" to "tick me off"
› Smashing Pumpkins-"Vieuphoria" (video) on back cover "Silverfuck" re-named "Silvercrank".
› Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page "Come To Me", obviously all single versions had F-word deleted, but the Japanese Import single had Godzilla roars over the swearing moments.
› Marilyn Manson-"Beautiful People". They rerecorded a version substituting "every other hater" for "every mother fucker", but left the word "shit" on their that had to be blanked out when played.
› MC5's-"Kick Out The Jams", first recorded use of motherfucker, banned by major chain in US (can't remember who, might be Wal*Mart) so the band ran a full page advert in mags saying FUCK...(whoever it was). Fucking Heroes ay? Then they got dropped by the record company, SPINELESS BASTARDS!!!
› When the Sex Pistols were taken to court for their album title "Never Mind The Bollocks" and the judge decreed that "Bollocks" isn't a swear word. HOORAY!!!
› Ce Lo Green - Fuck You - 2010 - Banned for obvious reasons, however managed to reach No 1 in the UK charts by changing the words & title to 'Forget You'. NOTE on Austraila's Tripple J Radio & US Sirus Satalight stations they have no problem playing the original un edited version during daylight hours!
Miscellaneous
› Nero & The Gladiators' - "Hall Of The Mountain King" was banned for its spoken intro-a short beatnik query about the location of "the king's pad" - 1961
› Roberta Flack - Killing me softly - Reason Unknown - 1973
› Mungo Jerry - Have a Whiff on Me - Drug references - 1971
Banned by "Top of the Pops" (BBC)
› D-Mob - We Call It Acieed - Drug reference - 1988
› The Pouges - A pair of brown eyes - Video ban - 1985
› Bjork - Alarm Call - For her animated nipples! - 1998
Lonnie Donegan - Digging my Potatoes - 1956
This song seems to be generating more discussion than any other banned recording....
Lonnie Donegan's single "Digging My Potatoes" was banned in the UK and US on its release in 1956 for lyrical references to sex, including the following (from memory so approx.):
"suck on my [sweet?] bone"
"I thought you was [sic] my friend until I caught you in my bed"
"I love you best between the sheets"
Given the above I think it's remarkable that Decca chose to release it on any format, let alone as a follow up to the transatlantic hit "Rock Island Line"!
Hope this helps... Andrew Rose [email protected]
The Lonnie Donegan song "Diggin' My Potatoes" was banned in 1955. The reason was that it included the line, "Thought you were my friend till I caught you in my bed". The "bed" in the song is another word for "garden". Also the verse, "Love you in the winter/ Love you in the fall/ But in between them blankets, baby/ I love you best of all". It was to be issued as a single that year, but after the ban it wasn't. It is only availible on EP's. Many mothers broke the EP's when the children bought them. A few still survive.
This song was on the same EP as his two smash hits "John Henry" and "The Rock Island Line". The banned song didn't hurt Lonnie's popularity, though. He had hits on the charts until the Beatles (his own followers) took over the charts.
Sean Gaston - Lonnie Donegan's "Digging my potatoes" was certainly issued in UK as a
single on the Decca Jazz label, with "Bury my body" on the flip side. I once
owned this record on a 10 inch 78 rpm record. C.Pryce [email protected]
Banned in the USA (Probably UK)
The Beatles - A day in the life - Banned in the '60's for drug references - 1967
Rolling Stones - Stoned - Original B side to I Wanna be your man - Drug references - 1964
Ten Years After - Good morning Little Schoolgirl - Under age sexual references - 1969
Chumbawamba - We Are the World - Explicit direct action support - 1985
Junior Delgardo - Broadwater Farm - Prophecising riots - 1985
Mark Dinning - Teen Angel - Called a "death disk" - 1960
Falco - Psycho Terror - Line "all Vienna is on heroine" - 1979
The Heptones - Fattie Fattie - Lewd and suggestive
Napolean XII - There Coming to Take me Away - Reference "mentally challenged" - 1966
Smoke - My Friend Jack - Was indeed banned because of drugs refs (my friend Jack eats sugar lumps, my friend Jack eats sugar lumps ... he's been travelling everywhere) - 1967
Eurythmics - Sex Crime (1994) - Reapeated use of the words 'Sex' & 'Crime' - 1984
Chef - Chocolate salty balls - 1998 -Apparently the US public have filthy minds!
Other Mentions
Although the Marvin Gaye Record Sexual Healing was not banned, The DJ’s On UK's national "Radio One" had to drop the word "sexual" from the title!
Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels" was censored on MTV so that the line "let's roll another joint" became "lets hit another joint."
When the video is shown on VH1, "roll" is left in, but the word "joint" is mangled so that it is impossible to make out (it sounds like the word is being played backwards).
Brian Eno's Album "My life in the bush of ghosts" now exclude the track "Qu'ran" (in the UK) due to serious fatwahs from Islamic fundamentalists.
Banned By The BBC - 1931 - 1957
Issued in September 2008, this triple CD catalogues a lot of the 'censored' recordings between 1931 & 1957.
Disc: 1
1. We Can't Let You Broadcast That - Long, Norman
2. Minnie The Moocher - Calloway, Cab
3. With My Little Ukelele In My Hand - Formby, George
4. Untitled - BBC Dance Orchestra Directed By Henry Hall
5. Song Of India - Dorsey, Tommy & His Orchestra
6. She Had To Go And Lose It At The Orchestra - Messner, Johnny
7. With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock - Formby, George
8. Gloomy Sunday - Holiday, Billie
9. House Of The Rising Sun - White, Josh
10. God Bless The Child - Holiday, Billie
11. Story Of A Starry Night - Miller, Glen
12. Light A Candle In The Chapel - Sinatra, Frank & Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
13. Deep In The Heart Of Texas - Crosby, Bing
14. La Petite Tokinoise - Baker, Josephine
15. Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans - Coward, Noel
16. Paper Doll - Mills Brothers
17. Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There - Durbin, Deanna
18. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Crosby, Bing
19. Blue Danube - Jones, Spike & His City Slickers
20. Till The End Of Time - Como, Perry
21. Rum And Coca Cola - Andrews Sisters
22. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows - Como, Perry
23. Cradle Song - Sinatra, Frank
24. Christening Tony - Askey, Arthur
25. Sabre Dance - Herman, Woody
Disc: 2
1. We Have To Be So Careful - Beverley Sisters
2. Huggin' And A Chalkin' - Mercer, Johnny
3. Foggy Foggy Dew - Pears, Peter
4. Deck Of Cards - Tyler, T. Texas
5. I'm Nobody's Baby - Howerd, Frankie
6. Sixty Minute Man - Ward, Billy & The Dominoes
7. Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair - Melly, George
8. It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Wells, Kitty
9. I Went To Your Wedding - Jones, Spike & His City Slickers
10. Answer Me - Laine, Frankie
11. Crying In The Chapel - Lawrence, Lee
12. Hank Janson Blues - Shelton, Anne
13. Devil Is A Woman - Jeffries, Herb
14. Such A Night - Ray, Johnnie
15. Hold My Hand - Ray, Johnnie
16. My Friend - Fisher, Eddie (1)
17. Honey Love - Lotis, Dennis & Ted Heath & His Music
18. Keep Me In Mind - Roza, Lita
19. Story Of Three Loves - Martin, Ray & His Orchestra
20. Cuddle Me - Lotis, Dennis
21. Heel - Kitt, Eartha
23. Cross Of Gold - Regan, Joan
Disc: 3
1. Stranger In Paradise - Four Aces
2. I Heard The Angels Singing - Laine, Frankie
3. Man With The Golden Arm - May, Billy Orchestra
4. Bewitched - Fitzgerald, Ella
5. John And Marsha - Freberg, Stan
6. Greensleeves - Beverley Sisters
7. Walk Hand In Hand - Martin, Tony
8. St Theresa Of The Roses - Vaughan, Malcolm
9. Mack The Knife - Armstrong, Louis
10. Woman Love - Vincent, Gene & The Blue Caps
11. Diggin' My Potatoes - Donegan, Lonnie
12. Maggie May - Vipers Skiffle Group
13. Toll The Bell Easy - Les Hobeaux
14. Garden Of Eden - Vaughan, Frankie
15. Rose And A Baby Ruth - Hamilton, George IV
16. Old Dope Peddler - Lehrer, Tom
17. How Little We Know - Sinatra, Frank
18. Puh Leeze Mr Brown - Bassey, Shirley
19. Burn The Candle - Bassey, Shirley
20. Silver Madonna - Stevens, Kirk
21. Rock You Sinners - Baxter, Art & His Rock 'N' Roll Sinners
22. Sky - Clark, Petula
23. Love Is Strange - Mickey & Sylvia
24. Honeycomb - Rodgers, Jimmie (2)
25. Rose And A Candy Bar - Hamilton, George IV
Up For Discussion
As the BBC won't admit to even having a banned list, here are some of the candidates that I have received. Some of these suggestions may have been banned at some time.
"I Love a Man in a Uniform" by The Gang of Four came close to being banned -- if not banned for a time -- because of its overt criticism of the Falklands War.
Did not Frank Zappa get banned because of his single - Bobby Brown?! [email protected]
I believe that Carter USM's "Bloodsport For All" was also banned by Radio One at the time of the Gulf War - Mike Hartland [email protected]
I agree with Mike Hartland. I distinctly remember Bloodsport for All by Carter USM being banned during the Gulf War. I think several record shops also refused to stock it.
Dan Carney [email protected]
The Beatles song I Am The Walrus was banned from BBC radio because it contained the word 'knickers' Steve Farrell [email protected]
Banned in Australia & possiblly elswhere - The Royal Guardsmen "Snoopy vs the Red Baron" (1967) was played on radio with the word "bloody" beeped out: "The (beep) Red Baron of Germany". It sounded ridiculous, but it was a No. 1 hit here.
The Beatles' "Ballad of John & Yoko" (1969) was played on radio with the word "Christ" edited out of the chorus; another No. 1 hit.
The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" (1966) was banned for radio airplay. The single was, for example, a Top 20 hit in Sydney. Lindsay Martin [email protected]
As I understand it, Tina Turner's song "Private Dancer" had to be edited before the BBC would play it--not because of references to prostitution, but rather because it contained a reference to American Express, which went against the Beeb's ban on advertising. I believe the offending phrase was changed to "pounds sterling." (I may be wrong, of course; I wasn't in the UK at the time, and I only heard about it in the US press.) Terence Foraker [email protected]
I'm not sure, but wasn't "Eight miles high" by the Byrds also banned, due
to drug reference? Tobias Andrasson [email protected]
During the gulf war I remember Simon Bates at the birthday spot for Edwin Starr playing a song other than War, because he it was 'inappropriate'. He sounded apologetic about this so it may not have been his idea to play something else.
Gordon Taylor [email protected]
The Beatles - "Come together" was banned by the BBC for the words coca cola. David Campbell [email protected]
"3 am Eternal" by the KLF had a section at the start of the record taken out by Radio 1 during the Gulf War. It was the sound of a machine gun being fired. Richard Doy [email protected]
I didn't see the song/album listed by the artist Ice T. I know that it was banned for the song "Cop Killer". adecker [email protected]
Radio One wouldn't play Deeper or Promise by Delirious, because they are a 'religious band'. The obviously didn't catch on that so were Sixpence None The Richer.
Also, Cliff was temporarily banned with his 'Millennium Prayer' single, again because it was Christian. Ewan Jones [email protected]
Sorry to disagree, but the Cliff record was not banned, but simply not played because it was a dreadful record! JW.
Sorry to stick my nose in but didn't some of the songs like Terry by Twinkle, Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las and Pipeline by The Ventures also get banned at one time???
Obviously Terry and LOTP was due to the dumped lad riding off and "deliberately" crashing their motorbikes but I heard that Pipeline was banned because it was a slang term for a condom in the States, but I don't know that one for sure.
Also what about Gary Gilmores Eyes by The Adverts, brill track.
Another song brought to mind by your brilliant (& nostalgic) page is "Moratorium" by Buffy Sainte Marie, on the flip side of the Soldier Blue single. It was a juke box hit here in Gt Yarmouth because it contained the words "fuck the War and bring all our brothers back home again", naturally in 1972(ish) all us teenagers would quite happily sing along to this at the top of our voices.
[email protected]
On the banned list I didn't see Birmingham 6/Streets of Sorrow by The Pogues I think it was banned due to anti-terrorism legislation for suggesting that some people in British jails were innocent and questioning whether Irish people where at a disadvantage when brought before the courts.
For perhaps inclusion in the 'Banned' section, the Anti-Nowhere League had their first single 'Streets of London/So What' banned for obscenity as it fell foul of the obscene publications law. Check out the ANL website - http://www.antinowhereleague.com/history.htm
Leon Rosselson and his Ballad Of A Spycatcher which featured Billy Bragg and members of the Oyster Band singing lyrics containing hints from Peter Wrights banned Spycatcher book. Rosselson said of the song:
Written to challenge the ruling of the three Law Lords that Peter Wright's book Spycatcher - a biography on his work as...a spycatcher for the British government - could not be published in this country, nor could the press quote from or refer to any of the material in the book. It took me two days to devour the book and regurgitate it (including even the odd lump in intact quotation) in these memorable verses. So the song was definitely illegal, and the least we could hope for was a blanket banning from the airwaves. Alas, after some initial hesitation, a single of the song started to receive radio play and even rose to number 7 in the NME indie singles charts. So much for subversive intentions...
I remember hearing it on a Simon Bates mid morning show on Radio 1 in 1987, with a big run up to the actual playing along the lines of him expecting a court order (or the police) demanding that he not play the song; he did, they didn't. But it was generally frowned upon, just the same.
David Garvey [email protected]
Deep In The Heart of Texas, was banned during World War II because there was a clappy bit in it and, when played over a factory's loudspeaker, the workers would stop momentarily to join in. Chris Davison
| Spycatcher |
Jai Alai is a variation of what court sport? | Please Email Me your entries.
Thanks to Geoffrey Corner of Philadelphia for starting the list in April 1996.
Other Resources:-
For a comprehensive list of US Banned recordings: http://www.ericnuzum.com/banned/
For a detailed account of the recordings listed here and more, in November 1998 a book titled Smashed Hits was published by The Freedom of speech Group.
More stuff on "bans" in the UK can be found in the book "Banned! Censorship of Popular Music in Britain: 1967-1992" by Martin Cloonan [email protected] (Arena, Aldershot, UK, 1996).
NOTE! The ban on many of the records has subsequently been lifted and some only carried a daytime ban.
Banned by the BBC
Sexual
› Jane Birkin - Je T’aime - Maybe it wasn't helped by Serge Gainsbourg singing about the joys of going "entre tes reins" - between your kidneys - i.e. up your bum (alledgedly). On top of the pops an instrumental version by "Sounds Nice" was used - 1969 & 1974
› Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax - Sexual references - 1983
› The Au Pairs - Come Again - Referred to orgasm - 1981
› Lil Louis - French Kiss - "Heavy breathing" - 1989
› The New Yorkers - Love For Sale - "Sexual" content - 1930??
› Judge Dread - Several records with titles as Big 6, Big 7,Big 8, 10 etc - "Sexual" content - 1972 - 1975
› Ivor Biggun - The winker's song (misprint) - Sexually explicit - 1978
› Troggs - I Can’t Control Myself - The sound Reg Presley makes at the end of the song was said to be like someone climaxing. - 1966
› Rolling Stones - Lets spend the night together - Promoted promiscuity - 1967
› Cliff Richard - Honky tonk angel - Self imposed ban as "saint" Cliff didn’t know that a Honky tonk angel was a Hooker! circa ‘72 -’73.
› Adam Faith - Made You - Banned for lewdness/Sexual Content Double A-Side with "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" - 1960
› The Stranglers - Peaches - Considered "woman baiting" - 1977
› Scott Walker - Jackie - Reference to "authentic queers" - 1967
› George Michael - I Want Your Sex - banned only before the "watershed" - 1987
› Paul McCarney & Wings - Hi Hi Hi - Banned, not due to drug references but to explicit sexual lyrics - 1972
› Joe Brown & The Bruvvers' revival of George Formby's "My Little Ukelele" (1963, Piccadilly/Pye) was banned as "too risque"
› Max Romeo - Wet Dream - A song about his bedroom ceiling. No the BBC wouldn't buy that - 1969
› Donna Summer - Love to love you - Groans & heavy breathing secured the ban - 1976
› The Prodigy - Smack my bitch up - Despite denials, this single was never herd during the day - 1997
› Pete Shelley - Homosapien - "SPIN Alternative Record Guide." The book claims "Homosapien" was banned for containing the line "Homo superior in my interior."(About 1982)
› Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Open Your Box - From the album of the same name and B side of a single, it was banned for containing the lyric "open your legs" - 1970
Political
› Marxman - Sad Affair - Contained IRA slogan - 1993
› Police - Invisible Sun was banned (certainly by R1/TOTP, maybe others)
references to Northern Ireland (Barrel of an Armalite, etc.) - 1981
› Paul McCartney - Give Ireland Back to the Irish - Obvious - 1972
› Johnny Horton - Battle of New Orleans - Reference to "Bloody British" - 1959
› Hawkwind - "Urban Guerrila" - early 1970's. Banned due to mainland UK terrorist attacks at the time.
› Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen - Anti monarchy - 1977
› Blow Monkeys - The Day After You - Anti Margaret Thatcher - 1987
› Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat - Too provocative (Falklands) - 1980
› Elaine Page/Julie Covington "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" Falklands Crisis - 1980
› McGuiness Flint - Let the people go - Government policy on the IRA - 1975
› Heaven 17 - (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" - The "All-Music Guide" says "Fascist Groove Thang" was banned by the BBC for its overtly political nature. (About 1981)
› Six Months In A Leaky Boat. - 'Split Enz' 1984 - During the Falklands war, their song that went 'I just spent six months in a leaky boat, Lucky just to keep afloat.' I think that you might have to be careful about using the term "banned". E.g. During the Falklands those records were not banned as such, but local BBC radio DJs were asked to think carefully about what to play - especially close to news bulletins on the war. Martin Cloonan [email protected]
Political 2 - The Gulf War 1
All these recordings were banned during the gulf war in 1990.
Jose Felicano & The Doors - Light My Fire
Something Happens - "Parachute"
The Cure - Killing an Arab
Little angels - Bone yard
Massive Attack had the word "attack" dropped during the gulf war.
Bomb the Bass also suffered during this period.
‘The Word,’ listed 64 songs on its February 1st program that BBC Radio have deemed "unsuitable" to play during the Gulf Crisis: Lee McMurray
Abba Waterloo
A-ha Hunting High And Low
Alarm 68 Guns
Animals We Got To Get Out Of This Place 5.
Arrival I Will Survive 6.
Joan Baez The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 7.
Bangles Walk Like An Egyptian 8.
The Beatles Back In The USSR 9.
Pat Benetar Love Is A Battlefield
Big Country Fields Of Fire
Blondie Atomic
Boomtown Rats Don't Like Mondays
Brook Bros. Warpaint
Cher Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)
Eric Clapton I Shot The Sheriff
Phil Collins In The Air Tonight
Cutting Crew I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight
Skeeter Davies End Of The World
Desmond Dekker Israelites
Dire Straits Brothers In Arms
Duran Duran View To A Kill
Jose Feliciano Light My Fire
First Choice Armed And Extremely Dangerous
Roberta Flack Killing Me Softly
Frankie Goes To Hollywood Two Tribes
Eddie Grant Living On The Frontline
Eddie Grant Give Me Hope Joanna
Elton John Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting
Johnny Hates Jazz I Don't Want To Be A Hero
John Lennon Give Peace A Chance
John Lennon Imagine
Jona Louis Stop The Cavalry
Lulu Boom Bang A Bang
McGuinness Flint When I'm Dead And Gone
Bob Marley Buffalo Soldier
Maria Muldaur Midnight At The Oasis
M*A*S*H Suicide Is Painless
Mike And The Mechanics Silent Running
Rick Nelson Fools Rush In
Nicole A Little Peace
Billy Ocean When The Going Gets Tough
Donny Osmond Soldier Of Love
Paper Lace Billy Don't Be A Hero
Queen Killer Queen
Martha Reeves Forget Me Not
B.A. Robertson Bang Bang
Kenny Rogers Ruby (Don't Take Your Love To Town)
Spandau Ballet I'll Fly For You
Specials Ghost Town
Bruce Springsteen I'm On Fire
Edwin Starr War
Status Quo In The Army Now
Status Quo Burning Bridges
Cat Stevens I'm Gonna Get Me A Gun
Rod Stewart Sailing
Donna Summer State Of Independence
Tears For Fears Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Temptations Ball Of Confusion
Stevie Wonder Heaven Help Us All
Morbid
› The Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire - morbid /"scary" content (backing group to Rod Stewart, produced by Joe Meek - 1961
› Sam M.Lewis - Gloomy Sunday - Too mournful - 1930??
› Mike Berry & The Outlaws - Tribute To Buddy Holly -"morbid concern" for a dead teenage idol - A Joe Meek masterpiece - 1961
› Ricky Valance - Tell Laura I love her - banned because of the reference to dying in a stock car race? - 1960
› The Downliners Sect's 1965 EP, "THE SECT SING SICK SONGS" was banned for poor taste/morbidity; it included a cover of Jimmy Cross' - I WANT MY BABY BACK (where a necrophiliac boyfriend digs up & jumps in his girlfriend's coffin)
› Napoleon XIV - They're coming to take me away ha-haaaa - Preceded rap by some 25 years. Man going bonkers over lost dog - 1966
Advertising
› Paul Simon - Kodachrome - Advertising - 197?
› The Kinks - Lola - was originally banned because it mentioned Coca-Cola, was later changed to Cherry Cola to get airplay. - 1970
› Paul Simon - Me and Julio - Originally banned for referring to Newsweek magazine. - 1972
› Dr Hook & the Medicine show - The cover of Rolling Stone - Advertising - 1972
› Dr Hook & the Medicine show - The Cover of the Radio Times - Tried to get around the ban by sucking up to the BBC with this version! - 1972
› Danny Williams - "You're Fabulous Babe" - 1977. Banned due to advertising. Babe was a perfume.
› Pink Floyd - IT WOULD BE SO NICE, April 1968. The lyrics mentioned the British newspaper The Evening Standard. The record could not be played on UK radio. As a result, Pink Floyd had to spend about $1000 to replace the Evening Standard with Daily Standard to appease the BBC. The record failed in the charts despite the touch of controversy. Another thing, the copies sold in shops were the Evening Standard version, but all releases available now are the corrected version.
› Jimmy Buffett's single, "come Monday" contained the line, "I've got my Hush Puppies on." Since the BBC considered this to be advertising he re-recorded that line so it said, "I've got my hiking shoes on."
F Word - Part 1
37 Tracks Unlikely To Be Herd On Daytime Radio In The UK Anytime Soon...
• Fuck Me Pumps - Amy Winehouse - Frank
• Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys? - Arctic Monkeys - Who The Fuck Are The Arctic Monkeys?
• Fuck Forever - Babyshambles - Down In Albion
• Fuckin' With My Head (Mountain Dew Rock) - Beck - Mellow Gold
• Get Fucked Stud - Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
• Fuck You - Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
• Get Your Hands Off My Woman Motherfucker - The Darkness - Permission to Land
• Mother Fucker From Hell - The Datsuns - The Datsuns
• Too Drunk To Fuck - Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables (Disc 2)
• You Fucking Love It - Dirty Pretty Things - Waterloo to Anywhere
• This Fucking Job - Drive-By Truckers - The Big To-Do
• Still Don't Give a Fuck - Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
• Fucking In Heaven - Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way, Baby
• Big Bad Mean Motherfucker - Girls - Album
• Fuck You, It's Over - Glasvegas - A Snowflake Fell... (EP)
• Who the Fuck? - Graham Coxon - Sky Is Too High
• Fuck the Valley Fudge - Grandaddy - Excerpts From the Diary of Todd Zilla
• Fucking Ada - Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Laughter
• Fucking song - Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
• Fuck The People - The Kills - Keep On Your Mean Side
• Your Fucking Sunny Day - Lambchop - Thriller/Hank
• Fuck You - Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
• How Fucking Romantic - The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs, Vol. 1
• Fuck It, I Love You - Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat
• Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole - Martha Wainwright - Martha Wainwright
• Fuck Tha Police - N.W.A. - Straight Outta Compton
• Fuckin' Up - Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Ragged Glory
• Fuckin' In The Bushes - Oasis - Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants
• You Fuckin' Die...! - Pixies - Surfer Rosa & Come On Pilgrim
• Sexy Mother Fucker - Prince & The New Power Generation - The Love Symbol Album
• Song For The Deaf (The Blind Can Goes Get Fucked Remix) - Queens Of The Stone Age - First It Giveth (Single #1) [UK]
• Fuck School - The Replacements - Stink! [Deluxe Edition]
• Man Don't Give a Fuck - Super Furry Animals - Outspaced
• Some People Try to Fuck With You - Teenage Fanclub - Mellow Doubt
• Fuck Nicole - The Teenagers - Reality Check
• Peace The Fuck Out - Travis - 12 Memories
• My Shit's Fucked Up - Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya
A Few More With The Offending 'Word' Too Prominent To Gain Daytime Airplay.
› John Lennon - Working Class Hero - 1970
› Black Grape - "Shake your money" - 1995 Use of F word.
› Linda McCarytney - The light comes from within - Even the inclusion of the F word & being dead she can't get a hit! - 1999
› Richie Kavanagh - "Aon Focal Eile" Banned in Britain because first syllable of "Focal", (the Irish for "Word") sounded too much like "Fuck"...
› The Rolling Stones - Star Star. Despite the title being changed, the words star fucker (repeated dozens of times) could still be herd in the chorus! - 1973
Banned but saved by the radio edit - F word part 2
› Radiohead - Creep - Edited to make the F word disappear - 1992
› Beautiful South - Don't marry her have me - Originally titled and contained the line "Don't marry her fuck me" - 1996
› Prince's "Sexy Motherfucker" which was renamed "Sexy MF" 1992
›The Stranglers - "Peaches" The lyrics were changed for radio. 1977
› XTC - "Respectable Street", from '82, lyrics about abortion, sex positions, and neighbors retching over each other's fences were replaced.
› Monty Python's "Always look on the bright side of life" where "Life's a piece of shit / when you think of it" was replaced to suit the BBC's tastes.
Thanks to Liam O'Brien for most reminding me of the following...
› Lemonheads-"Big Gay Heart". Lyrics changed from "suck my dick" to (comically) "duck my sick" for radio play. Also "piss me off" to "tick me off"
› Smashing Pumpkins-"Vieuphoria" (video) on back cover "Silverfuck" re-named "Silvercrank".
› Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page "Come To Me", obviously all single versions had F-word deleted, but the Japanese Import single had Godzilla roars over the swearing moments.
› Marilyn Manson-"Beautiful People". They rerecorded a version substituting "every other hater" for "every mother fucker", but left the word "shit" on their that had to be blanked out when played.
› MC5's-"Kick Out The Jams", first recorded use of motherfucker, banned by major chain in US (can't remember who, might be Wal*Mart) so the band ran a full page advert in mags saying FUCK...(whoever it was). Fucking Heroes ay? Then they got dropped by the record company, SPINELESS BASTARDS!!!
› When the Sex Pistols were taken to court for their album title "Never Mind The Bollocks" and the judge decreed that "Bollocks" isn't a swear word. HOORAY!!!
› Ce Lo Green - Fuck You - 2010 - Banned for obvious reasons, however managed to reach No 1 in the UK charts by changing the words & title to 'Forget You'. NOTE on Austraila's Tripple J Radio & US Sirus Satalight stations they have no problem playing the original un edited version during daylight hours!
Miscellaneous
› Nero & The Gladiators' - "Hall Of The Mountain King" was banned for its spoken intro-a short beatnik query about the location of "the king's pad" - 1961
› Roberta Flack - Killing me softly - Reason Unknown - 1973
› Mungo Jerry - Have a Whiff on Me - Drug references - 1971
Banned by "Top of the Pops" (BBC)
› D-Mob - We Call It Acieed - Drug reference - 1988
› The Pouges - A pair of brown eyes - Video ban - 1985
› Bjork - Alarm Call - For her animated nipples! - 1998
Lonnie Donegan - Digging my Potatoes - 1956
This song seems to be generating more discussion than any other banned recording....
Lonnie Donegan's single "Digging My Potatoes" was banned in the UK and US on its release in 1956 for lyrical references to sex, including the following (from memory so approx.):
"suck on my [sweet?] bone"
"I thought you was [sic] my friend until I caught you in my bed"
"I love you best between the sheets"
Given the above I think it's remarkable that Decca chose to release it on any format, let alone as a follow up to the transatlantic hit "Rock Island Line"!
Hope this helps... Andrew Rose [email protected]
The Lonnie Donegan song "Diggin' My Potatoes" was banned in 1955. The reason was that it included the line, "Thought you were my friend till I caught you in my bed". The "bed" in the song is another word for "garden". Also the verse, "Love you in the winter/ Love you in the fall/ But in between them blankets, baby/ I love you best of all". It was to be issued as a single that year, but after the ban it wasn't. It is only availible on EP's. Many mothers broke the EP's when the children bought them. A few still survive.
This song was on the same EP as his two smash hits "John Henry" and "The Rock Island Line". The banned song didn't hurt Lonnie's popularity, though. He had hits on the charts until the Beatles (his own followers) took over the charts.
Sean Gaston - Lonnie Donegan's "Digging my potatoes" was certainly issued in UK as a
single on the Decca Jazz label, with "Bury my body" on the flip side. I once
owned this record on a 10 inch 78 rpm record. C.Pryce [email protected]
Banned in the USA (Probably UK)
The Beatles - A day in the life - Banned in the '60's for drug references - 1967
Rolling Stones - Stoned - Original B side to I Wanna be your man - Drug references - 1964
Ten Years After - Good morning Little Schoolgirl - Under age sexual references - 1969
Chumbawamba - We Are the World - Explicit direct action support - 1985
Junior Delgardo - Broadwater Farm - Prophecising riots - 1985
Mark Dinning - Teen Angel - Called a "death disk" - 1960
Falco - Psycho Terror - Line "all Vienna is on heroine" - 1979
The Heptones - Fattie Fattie - Lewd and suggestive
Napolean XII - There Coming to Take me Away - Reference "mentally challenged" - 1966
Smoke - My Friend Jack - Was indeed banned because of drugs refs (my friend Jack eats sugar lumps, my friend Jack eats sugar lumps ... he's been travelling everywhere) - 1967
Eurythmics - Sex Crime (1994) - Reapeated use of the words 'Sex' & 'Crime' - 1984
Chef - Chocolate salty balls - 1998 -Apparently the US public have filthy minds!
Other Mentions
Although the Marvin Gaye Record Sexual Healing was not banned, The DJ’s On UK's national "Radio One" had to drop the word "sexual" from the title!
Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels" was censored on MTV so that the line "let's roll another joint" became "lets hit another joint."
When the video is shown on VH1, "roll" is left in, but the word "joint" is mangled so that it is impossible to make out (it sounds like the word is being played backwards).
Brian Eno's Album "My life in the bush of ghosts" now exclude the track "Qu'ran" (in the UK) due to serious fatwahs from Islamic fundamentalists.
Banned By The BBC - 1931 - 1957
Issued in September 2008, this triple CD catalogues a lot of the 'censored' recordings between 1931 & 1957.
Disc: 1
1. We Can't Let You Broadcast That - Long, Norman
2. Minnie The Moocher - Calloway, Cab
3. With My Little Ukelele In My Hand - Formby, George
4. Untitled - BBC Dance Orchestra Directed By Henry Hall
5. Song Of India - Dorsey, Tommy & His Orchestra
6. She Had To Go And Lose It At The Orchestra - Messner, Johnny
7. With My Little Stick Of Blackpool Rock - Formby, George
8. Gloomy Sunday - Holiday, Billie
9. House Of The Rising Sun - White, Josh
10. God Bless The Child - Holiday, Billie
11. Story Of A Starry Night - Miller, Glen
12. Light A Candle In The Chapel - Sinatra, Frank & Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
13. Deep In The Heart Of Texas - Crosby, Bing
14. La Petite Tokinoise - Baker, Josephine
15. Don't Let's Be Beastly To The Germans - Coward, Noel
16. Paper Doll - Mills Brothers
17. Say A Prayer For The Boys Over There - Durbin, Deanna
18. I'll Be Home For Christmas - Crosby, Bing
19. Blue Danube - Jones, Spike & His City Slickers
20. Till The End Of Time - Como, Perry
21. Rum And Coca Cola - Andrews Sisters
22. I'm Always Chasing Rainbows - Como, Perry
23. Cradle Song - Sinatra, Frank
24. Christening Tony - Askey, Arthur
25. Sabre Dance - Herman, Woody
Disc: 2
1. We Have To Be So Careful - Beverley Sisters
2. Huggin' And A Chalkin' - Mercer, Johnny
3. Foggy Foggy Dew - Pears, Peter
4. Deck Of Cards - Tyler, T. Texas
5. I'm Nobody's Baby - Howerd, Frankie
6. Sixty Minute Man - Ward, Billy & The Dominoes
7. Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair - Melly, George
8. It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels - Wells, Kitty
9. I Went To Your Wedding - Jones, Spike & His City Slickers
10. Answer Me - Laine, Frankie
11. Crying In The Chapel - Lawrence, Lee
12. Hank Janson Blues - Shelton, Anne
13. Devil Is A Woman - Jeffries, Herb
14. Such A Night - Ray, Johnnie
15. Hold My Hand - Ray, Johnnie
16. My Friend - Fisher, Eddie (1)
17. Honey Love - Lotis, Dennis & Ted Heath & His Music
18. Keep Me In Mind - Roza, Lita
19. Story Of Three Loves - Martin, Ray & His Orchestra
20. Cuddle Me - Lotis, Dennis
21. Heel - Kitt, Eartha
23. Cross Of Gold - Regan, Joan
Disc: 3
1. Stranger In Paradise - Four Aces
2. I Heard The Angels Singing - Laine, Frankie
3. Man With The Golden Arm - May, Billy Orchestra
4. Bewitched - Fitzgerald, Ella
5. John And Marsha - Freberg, Stan
6. Greensleeves - Beverley Sisters
7. Walk Hand In Hand - Martin, Tony
8. St Theresa Of The Roses - Vaughan, Malcolm
9. Mack The Knife - Armstrong, Louis
10. Woman Love - Vincent, Gene & The Blue Caps
11. Diggin' My Potatoes - Donegan, Lonnie
12. Maggie May - Vipers Skiffle Group
13. Toll The Bell Easy - Les Hobeaux
14. Garden Of Eden - Vaughan, Frankie
15. Rose And A Baby Ruth - Hamilton, George IV
16. Old Dope Peddler - Lehrer, Tom
17. How Little We Know - Sinatra, Frank
18. Puh Leeze Mr Brown - Bassey, Shirley
19. Burn The Candle - Bassey, Shirley
20. Silver Madonna - Stevens, Kirk
21. Rock You Sinners - Baxter, Art & His Rock 'N' Roll Sinners
22. Sky - Clark, Petula
23. Love Is Strange - Mickey & Sylvia
24. Honeycomb - Rodgers, Jimmie (2)
25. Rose And A Candy Bar - Hamilton, George IV
Up For Discussion
As the BBC won't admit to even having a banned list, here are some of the candidates that I have received. Some of these suggestions may have been banned at some time.
"I Love a Man in a Uniform" by The Gang of Four came close to being banned -- if not banned for a time -- because of its overt criticism of the Falklands War.
Did not Frank Zappa get banned because of his single - Bobby Brown?! [email protected]
I believe that Carter USM's "Bloodsport For All" was also banned by Radio One at the time of the Gulf War - Mike Hartland [email protected]
I agree with Mike Hartland. I distinctly remember Bloodsport for All by Carter USM being banned during the Gulf War. I think several record shops also refused to stock it.
Dan Carney [email protected]
The Beatles song I Am The Walrus was banned from BBC radio because it contained the word 'knickers' Steve Farrell [email protected]
Banned in Australia & possiblly elswhere - The Royal Guardsmen "Snoopy vs the Red Baron" (1967) was played on radio with the word "bloody" beeped out: "The (beep) Red Baron of Germany". It sounded ridiculous, but it was a No. 1 hit here.
The Beatles' "Ballad of John & Yoko" (1969) was played on radio with the word "Christ" edited out of the chorus; another No. 1 hit.
The Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" (1966) was banned for radio airplay. The single was, for example, a Top 20 hit in Sydney. Lindsay Martin [email protected]
As I understand it, Tina Turner's song "Private Dancer" had to be edited before the BBC would play it--not because of references to prostitution, but rather because it contained a reference to American Express, which went against the Beeb's ban on advertising. I believe the offending phrase was changed to "pounds sterling." (I may be wrong, of course; I wasn't in the UK at the time, and I only heard about it in the US press.) Terence Foraker [email protected]
I'm not sure, but wasn't "Eight miles high" by the Byrds also banned, due
to drug reference? Tobias Andrasson [email protected]
During the gulf war I remember Simon Bates at the birthday spot for Edwin Starr playing a song other than War, because he it was 'inappropriate'. He sounded apologetic about this so it may not have been his idea to play something else.
Gordon Taylor [email protected]
The Beatles - "Come together" was banned by the BBC for the words coca cola. David Campbell [email protected]
"3 am Eternal" by the KLF had a section at the start of the record taken out by Radio 1 during the Gulf War. It was the sound of a machine gun being fired. Richard Doy [email protected]
I didn't see the song/album listed by the artist Ice T. I know that it was banned for the song "Cop Killer". adecker [email protected]
Radio One wouldn't play Deeper or Promise by Delirious, because they are a 'religious band'. The obviously didn't catch on that so were Sixpence None The Richer.
Also, Cliff was temporarily banned with his 'Millennium Prayer' single, again because it was Christian. Ewan Jones [email protected]
Sorry to disagree, but the Cliff record was not banned, but simply not played because it was a dreadful record! JW.
Sorry to stick my nose in but didn't some of the songs like Terry by Twinkle, Leader of the Pack by the Shangri-Las and Pipeline by The Ventures also get banned at one time???
Obviously Terry and LOTP was due to the dumped lad riding off and "deliberately" crashing their motorbikes but I heard that Pipeline was banned because it was a slang term for a condom in the States, but I don't know that one for sure.
Also what about Gary Gilmores Eyes by The Adverts, brill track.
Another song brought to mind by your brilliant (& nostalgic) page is "Moratorium" by Buffy Sainte Marie, on the flip side of the Soldier Blue single. It was a juke box hit here in Gt Yarmouth because it contained the words "fuck the War and bring all our brothers back home again", naturally in 1972(ish) all us teenagers would quite happily sing along to this at the top of our voices.
[email protected]
On the banned list I didn't see Birmingham 6/Streets of Sorrow by The Pogues I think it was banned due to anti-terrorism legislation for suggesting that some people in British jails were innocent and questioning whether Irish people where at a disadvantage when brought before the courts.
For perhaps inclusion in the 'Banned' section, the Anti-Nowhere League had their first single 'Streets of London/So What' banned for obscenity as it fell foul of the obscene publications law. Check out the ANL website - http://www.antinowhereleague.com/history.htm
Leon Rosselson and his Ballad Of A Spycatcher which featured Billy Bragg and members of the Oyster Band singing lyrics containing hints from Peter Wrights banned Spycatcher book. Rosselson said of the song:
Written to challenge the ruling of the three Law Lords that Peter Wright's book Spycatcher - a biography on his work as...a spycatcher for the British government - could not be published in this country, nor could the press quote from or refer to any of the material in the book. It took me two days to devour the book and regurgitate it (including even the odd lump in intact quotation) in these memorable verses. So the song was definitely illegal, and the least we could hope for was a blanket banning from the airwaves. Alas, after some initial hesitation, a single of the song started to receive radio play and even rose to number 7 in the NME indie singles charts. So much for subversive intentions...
I remember hearing it on a Simon Bates mid morning show on Radio 1 in 1987, with a big run up to the actual playing along the lines of him expecting a court order (or the police) demanding that he not play the song; he did, they didn't. But it was generally frowned upon, just the same.
David Garvey [email protected]
Deep In The Heart of Texas, was banned during World War II because there was a clappy bit in it and, when played over a factory's loudspeaker, the workers would stop momentarily to join in. Chris Davison
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Who won the 2014 Men’s US Open Golf Championship? | Caddie Services
2014 U.S. Opens
Pinehurst hosted the 2014 U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open Championships in back-to-back weeks June12-22, marking the first time in history that both tournaments were played in the same year, on the same course. Congratulations to Champions Martin Kaymer and Michelle Wie.
For a recap and complete results, visit www.usopen.com .
For Tournament Information
| Martin Kaymer |
Jazz. Who had four Top 10 hits in the 60s, including ‘Sukiyaki’ and ‘Midnight in Moscow’? | U.S. Open 2014 Golf Leaderboard | Golf Channel
Pinehurst Resort and Country Club | Par: 70 | Yardage: 7562
Purse: $8,000,000 | Defending Champion: Justin Rose
Final day of the 2014 U.S. Open from Pinehurst No. 2! What a tournament it has been, yesterday the hole locations for the third round seem to have held the leader back from carding another 65. Martin Kaymer ended up with a 2-over 72, putting him at 8-under-par and a total of 5 shots ahead of Rickie Fowler and Erik Compton. Dustin Johnson and Henrik Stenson are one shot behind them at 2-under, both have carded 69’s in the first two rounds and 70’s in the third round. Phil Mickelson is out of contention after carding a 2-over 72 on the third round, putting him 5 over for the tournament. Don’t miss the excitement of the final round, would Rickie or Erik be able to catch up to Martin? We shall see, catch it all unfold live on NBC from NOON until 7:30PM ET., or stream it live from any device on NBC Live Extra from NOON to 7PM ET.
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What was the first name of the Ms. Loos who wrote ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’? | Gentlemen Prefer Loos
L-R: Jean Harlow and Anita Loos promoting Red-Headed Woman, 1932
by Elyse Graham
When James Joyce was nearly blind and working on the first draft of Finnegans Wake, the book he permitted himself during his daily reading window was Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a best-selling satire by Anita Loos. [1]
The book has the interest of biographical color rather than any usefulness for explaining the Wake. But Loos uses language in an interesting way; her book is a prime example of modernist techniques seeping into popular use. And the dialect humor is close to what Joyce worked for in certain chapters of his earlier books.
(In fact, although Loos works against the background of modernism and name-checks Conrad, there is an important sense in which her book is a reminder of how much high modernism borrowed from popular culture. Emphasis on the material of language had characterized the main stream of American literary humor throughout the nineteenth century.)
Loos grew up in California in a small family that ran a nickelodeon. She spent her spare hours at the library poring over magazines that arrived from back East. For extra income, her father enrolled his children as players in various stock troupes and touring companies, but Loos apparently didn’t care for acting. At six years old, she had won a children’s poetry contest, which left her intent, she later said, to become a famous writer (Carey, 15-20).[2]
She struck the right kind of writing for her historical moment in 1916. That year she sketched out a film treatment—it was a short story laid out visually, since she didn’t know scriptwriting technique—and mailed it to Biograph, the production company that made reels for her family’s theater. An envelope returned bearing a check and a release form. She was twenty-three years old. Over the next several years, Loos wrote a number of scripts for Biograph and eventually moved to New York City– where, she recalled later, she would be “breathing the same air as Henry Mencken” (Carey, 21-28).
Loos befriended Mencken, and later claimed to have had a flirtatious relationship with him—not a distinction; he tried to charm most of the women he met. One day in 1924, while riding a train across the Midwest, Loos noticed that the men in her car ignored her but leaped to hoist luggage for the blonde beside her. She simmered and thought about a blonde who then had Mencken’s arm, undeservedly in Loos’s opinion. “There was some mystifying difference between us,” she later wrote of the train passenger. “Why did she so far outdistance me in feminine allure? Could her power, like that of Samson, have something to do with her hair?” [3] Loos took out a yellow pad and began to write.
Cover of the Popular Library edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 1948. Illustrated by Earle K. Bergey
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes became the American best-seller of 1925 . When it first appeared in serial in the women’s magazine “Harper’s Bazaar,” the story made circulation fly—and so increased male readership that makers of cigars, menswear, and sporting goods started to run ads (Loos, 80). Edith Wharton, tongue only a little in cheek, hailed it as “the great American novel.” “Apparently,” wrote a theater critic in 1926, “every present day musical show is compelled by law to include a song called ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.'”[4]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes masquerades as the diary of one Lorelei Lee, a flapper from Little Rock who lives well on the bounty of older men. With a brunette friend who, in the capacity of chaperone, eggs her on, Lorelei has various adventures in gold-digging and finally marries a Philadelphia millionaire, whom she convinces to move to Hollywood so she can be in pictures.
The book had nothing new to say about sexual politics. Even ten years earlier, chorus girls and blondes were worn gags on the magazine circuit.[5] The richness of Blondes lies in its mastery—and it is mastery—of dialect and irony. Loos always said that she finished the manuscript on the train and forgot it in her suitcase for six months, but six months is just enough time to groom prose and leave a cover of indifference. If comedy is a rhetorical device, so is talent.
Lorelei writes not dictates, but her prose follows the mannerisms of colloquial speech, with lots of fragmented sentences, verbal tics (“I was intreeged,” “It was devine”), and verbal filler surrounding repeating key phrases. The idea is that not much mental organizing intervenes between brain signal and written word.
March 16th:
A gentleman friend and I were dining at the Ritz last evening and he said that if I took a pencil and a paper and put down all of my thoughts it would make a book. This almost made me smile as what it would really make would be a whole row of encyclopediacs. I mean I seem to be thinking practically all of the time. I mean it is my favorite recreation and sometimes I sit for hours and do not seem to do anything else but think. So this gentleman said a girl with brains ought to do something else with them besides think. And he said he ought to know brains when he sees them, because he is in the senate and he spends quite a great deal of time in Washington, d. c., and when he comes into contract with brains he always notices it. [6]
Free association doesn’t entail candidness. Lorelei euphemizes as she goes. “So of course if a gentleman is educating a girl,” she says, “he likes to stay and talk about topics of the day until quite late, so I am quite fatigued the next day and I do not really get up until it is time to dress for dinner at the Colony” (Blondes, 13).
What talk means is anyone’s guess. As Susan Hegeman observes, the effect of the novel’s doublespeak is to leave open to the imagination any number of possible levels of scandal. On one hand, Lorelei’s sexual magnetism is apparent from the way men act around her; but on the other, she comes across as oddly sexless. She even gives men childish nicknames like “Daddy” and “Piggy.” She withholds the mention of sex for so long that it becomes a preoccupation for the reader, just as it is for her male followers.[7]
Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw and Marilyn Monroe as Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, 20th Century Fox, 1953
The irony of Blondes, in short, refuses to reveal its bottom. At the verbal level, Lorelei’s solecisms undermine her pretensions about herself and the gentlemen who furnish her education. At another level, Lorelei is an ignoramus pretending even greater ignorance. She perpetually undercuts her scatterbrained prose with shrewd mercenary conduct, which she undercuts again by giving fifty-centime tips in France because the coin is so small. Lorelei’s true intelligence and her true actions are questions that never resolve. Nothing puts what the heroine is trading for gifts, but our knowledge of the sexual economy urges us to fill in the gaps (Hegeman, 536).
This is the source of the novel’s cynicism. Blondes shows its readers to match Lorelei in worldly knowledge, but they likely stop short of her worldly behavior. Because the novel mocks just such bourgeois morality– Lorelei vouches for her father’s respectability by citing his Elk membership; a censor board excises naughty bits from films, then watches the cuts obsessively– the reader emerges not as a moral hero but as another fool.
Loos’s genius was to recognize this. Lorelei’s narration burlesques, in excoriating detail, the vernacular of the American middle class. Lorelei uses “you” as an indefinite pronoun, swallows complicated concepts in vague nouns, and rounds out sentences with mindless verbal filler. Apparently to sound sophisticated, she upgrades “me” to “I” in such phrases as “a sweet girl like I.” Her cramped vocabulary prompts her to recycle adjectives: “quite” and “quite a lot” to mean everything from somewhat to vehemently to often to incessantly, and “nice” for all manner of moral euphemisms (“a nice girl”). (The latter substitution is especially barbed, since it questions the difference between innocence and stupidity.)
Compounding this effect is the tendency of her sentences to wander around repeated key words and phrases. The repetitive phrasing, combined with a dearth of punctuation– she can spell, but she punctuates sloppily– forces upward interesting structural variations, sometimes creating odd poetry:
So Mr. Spoffard spends all of his time looking at things that spoil peoples morals. So Mr. Spoffard really must have very strong morals or else all the things that spoil other peoples morals would spoil his morals. But they do not seem to spoil Mr. Spoffards morals and I really think it is wonderful to have such strong morals. (Blondes, 138)
The patterning forces the reader to look close—to consider anew, as verbal artifacts, familiar items of American slang: “an old fashioned girl,” “having a good time.” At the same time, the repeating phrases become tonal variations on middle-class banality. Loos probably owes something to Ring Lardner and something to Gertrude Stein.[8]
Lorelei’s idiomatic basis in the bourgeoisie raises the novel’s satirical stakes. By its lights, Lorelei’s semiliteracy is mass ignorance, her sexual doublespeak is social hypocrisy, and her mercenary instinct is the grubby soul of capitalism. Loos liked to joke that the Russian authorities endorsed her book as a capitalist tragedy– a reading, as she knew, that is perfectly respectable. In Susan Hegeman’s entertaining gloss, Lorelei’s diamonds are credible shorthand for the way wealth covers its dubious origins. The gifts of jewelry she receives improve (we may suppose) her looks– which attracts more gifts– which make her yet more attractive– a process that mimics the circulation of capital attracting capital. As her “capital of attractiveness” builds, the suspect labor behind it slides in importance– so that by the book’s end, Lorelei is so cleansed that she is fit to marry a prominent bluenose (Hegeman, 543). Lorelei rises through conspicuous consumption, and she is herself a display of men’s pecuniary strength. She is the endpoint of commodification, the consumer who is also a consumer good.
The novel gets its moral center from Lorelei’s brunette friend, Dorothy. Dorothy approves of Lorelei’s dealings; what distinguish her are brains and a lack of taste for hypocrisy. (Told that a candidate for district attorney has poured $1,000 of liquor down his sink and is petitioning all to do likewise, Dorothy asks, “If he poured 1,000 dollars worth down his sink to get himself one million dollars worth of publicity and a good job—when we pour it down our sink, what do we get?”) (Blondes, 142-43) Dorothy doesn’t draw suitors as Lorelei does, but she seems to interest a few worthy men. Lorelei moans when Dorothy turns down lunch with a studio magnate in favor of “a gentleman called Mr. Mencken from Baltimore who really only prints a green magazine which has not even got any pictures in it.” “But,” Lorelei adds philosophically, “Mr. Eisman is always saying that every girl does not want to get ahead and get educated like me” (Blondes, 40).
Piece originally posted at The Modernism Lab |
References:
[1] Richard Ellman, James Joyce: 582; James Joyce, Letters I: 246; Gary Carey, Anita Loos: A Biography: 98, 108. Hereafter cited as Carey, with page number.
[2] Quoted in Marion Elizabeth Rodgers, Mencken: The American Iconoclast (Oxford University Press, 2005): 245.
[3] Anita Loos, Cast of Thousands (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1977): 85. Hereafter cited as Loos, with page number.
[4] The Bookman 64, 3 (Nov. 1926): 341.
[5] See, for example, Puck 61, 1571 (Apr. 10, 1907): 2; The National Police Gazette LXXIX, 1265 (Nov. 16, 1901): 3.
[6] Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (New York: Liveright, 1973): 11-12. Hereafter cited as Blondes, with page number.
[7] Susan Hegeman, “Taking Blondes Seriously.” American Literary History 7, 3 (Autumn 1995): 525-554. Hereafter cited as Hegeman, with page number.
[8] See Richard Bridgman, The Colloquial Style in America(New York: Oxford University Press, 1966)
| Anita |
What is the oldest British classic flat race? | Anita Loos - Biography - IMDb
Anita Loos
Biography
Showing all 25 items
Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (6) | Personal Quotes (7) | Salary (5)
Overview (4)
4' 11" (1.5 m)
Mini Bio (1)
While she is now best known for her book "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," Anita Loos was one of Hollywood's foremost early screenwriters. She began writing screen scenarios for the 'Biograph Company' at an early age (though not 12, as she later claimed), and the first to be produced, The New York Hat (1912), was not only directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith but starred another of Hollywood's future heavyweights: Mary Pickford . After working for some years with Griffith (including writing the surtitles for his epic Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916), she began to work for Douglas Fairbanks , whom she had championed in his early days in Hollywood.
Her husband and collaborator John Emerson convinced her to quit screenwriting for the sake of his own pride -- nevertheless, fate intervened in the form of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," an unassuming book she had compiled from a series of magazine stories she had based on the predilection of then-famous intellectual H.L. Mencken to be dazzled by gold-digging ditzes. The book was a surprise smash all over the world, later spawning a sequel ("But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes"), which became a not particularly successful silent movie but later a hugely successful film starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell , and a hit Broadway musical.
This success, and the on-again, off-again nature of her marriage to Emerson allowed her to re-enter the film industry, where she worked on such classics as San Francisco (1936), The Women (1939), and Jean Harlow 's Red-Headed Woman (1932). In her later years, she also wrote several pieces for the theater, eventually regaining fame via a number of movie memoirs, including "A Girl Like I" and "Kiss Hollywood Goodbye." These are today as well known for their colorful treatment of the truth as for their witty observations on the early days of Hollywood.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Camille Scaysbrook
Spouse (2)
Trivia (6)
Her brother founded the Blue Cross health insurance company.
Was notoriously sketchy on the topic of her age, famously claiming that she began working as a Hollywood writer at the age of 12. She was at least twice this age.
Aunt of Mary Loos .
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives." Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 511-512. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
Started as a writer for the American Mutoscope & Biograph Co. her first full film screenplay was The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) starring Lillian Gish .
Interviewed in "Talking to the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember" by Stuart Oderman (BearManor Media).
Personal Quotes (7)
[commenting on the young deaths of many of the Mack Sennett bathing beauties, in "A Girl Like I"] ...beauty combined with lack of brains is extremely deleterious to the health.
[From her 1977 book "Cast of Thousands"[ I can never take for granted the euphoria produced by a cup of coffee. I'm grateful every day that it isn't banned as a drug, that I don't have to buy it from a pusher, that its cost is minimal and there's no need to increase the intake. I can count on its stimulation 365 mornings every year. And thanks to the magic in a cup of coffee, I'm able to plunge into a whole day's cheerful thinking.
It's true that the French have a certain obsession with sex, but it's a particularly adult obsession. France is the thriftiest of all nations; to a Frenchman, sex provides the most economical way to have fun. The French are a logical race.
Memory is more indelible than ink.
[My brother] Clifford would painstakingly correct anyone who mispronounced our name. I never cared what people called me. So I became Miss "Loose," while my brother was always Dr. "Lohse."
[on Hollywood in the 1920s] To place in the limelight a great number of people who ordinarily would be chambermaids and chauffeurs, and give them unlimited power and wealth, is bound to produce lively results.
I'm furious about the women's liberationists. They keep getting up on soapboxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That's true, but it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.
Salary (5)
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Where is the Happy Valley racecourse? | Happy Valley Racecourse - Hong Kong Horse Racing
Happy Valley Racecourse 跑馬地馬場 , 2 Sports Road, Happy Valley, Hong Kong Island (852) 2895 1523 or (852) 2966 8111
Races usually held from September - July on Wednesday Evenings. (sometimes on weekends)
First race normally starts at 7:30pm. Admission: HK$10 Sorry, no one under 18 permitted in the racecourse.
The International Jockey Championship is a contest held yearly at the Happy Valley Racecourse. The challenge showcases top riders from around the world competing for the title as International Riding Champion.
Happy Valley offers visitors lots of things to see and do besides horse racing. Of course, the beautiful horses, colorful racing silks and our high quality racing are all main attractions.
Entry to the racecourse is via Wong Nai Chung Road. Take the Happy Valley tram, which runs east-west along Hong Kong Island, to the end of the line and walk across the road to the track.
Alternatively, catch the public railway system (the MTR) to Causeway Bay and follow the signs to the racecourse. Taxis from Central cost about $HK40.
| Hong Kong |
Which French statesman (1758-1794) was nicknamed ‘The Incorruptible’? | Horse Racing | Hong Kong Tourism Board
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Horse racing became a fixture in Hong Kong in 1841 but enjoyment of this sport was originally confined to the city’s elite. Today, a trip to one of the city’s world-class tracks — Happy Valley on Hong Kong Island or Sha Tin in the New Territories — will confirm that it has very much gone mainstream since.
The racing season starts in September and runs to July of the following year. Any meeting will provide a taste of the local passion for racing, with hundreds of fans armed with racing guides intently listening to radio commentary, gripping their betting sheets and cheering on their favourites. To experience all the real glamour and spectacle of the sport, try to see the Hong Kong Derby, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup or the ‘turf world championship’ Hong Kong International Races , when some of the richest racing purses in the sport attract horses and jockeys from all over the world and the competition is intense. Don’t miss ‘ Happy Wednesdays ’ at Happy Valley Racecourse where you can enjoy night carnivals season-round alongside the thrill of live racing, with music, bites, drinks and more!
Come Horse Racing Tour
Join the Come Horse Racing Tour to enjoy the action on the turf from the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Member’s Enclosure, which has optimal views of the track. Tour Guides will provide you with betting information and assistance.
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Which detective was in charge of the hunt for the Great Train Robber, Ronnie Biggs? | The Great Train Robbery Investigation - How the Great Train Robbery Worked | HowStuffWorks
How the Great Train Robbery Worked
Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Just two days after the robbery, the Flying Squad was created from the best detectives of Scotland Yard and was charged with finding the criminals behind the Great Train Robbery. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler, known around Scotland Yard for his professionalism and thoroughness, was assigned to be the squad's chief. Among the team of detectives was Jack Slipper, a tall man with a pencil moustache who would become a household name for his work on the case and his cat -and- mouse chases with Ronnie Biggs.
The Flying Squad's first break in the case came eight days after its investigation began. A suspicious vehicle was reported at an old farmhouse about 30 miles (48.28 km) from the scene of the crime. The old farmhouse -- Leatherslade Farm -- was the same one that the men used as their safe house. Food , sleeping bags and bedding were found in the house, along with bank note wrappers and post office sacks. Fingerprints were found on a bottle of ketchup and on the Monopoly game the men had played with some of the £1, £5 and £10 notes they had stolen.
Up Next
How Prisons Work
Within a day of the discovery of the fingerprints, Roger Cordrey was arrested. In a week, Charlie Wilson was arrested in London and police were on to Bruce Reynolds, Jimmy White, Roy James and Buster Edwards. Biggs' fingerprint was found on a bottle of ketchup in the safe house and he was arrested on Sept. 4, 1963.
Ronnie Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Tommy Wisbey, Jim Hussey and Bob Welch were all sent to Bedford prison to await trial. While in prison, they learned that Goody had been questioned but let go for insufficient evidence. However, several weeks later, he, too, was arrested, charged and sent to Bedford.
Three of the suspects arrested in connection with the Great Train Robbery are photographed leaving Linslade court with blankets over their heads.
Central Press/ Getty Images
Two months after arriving at Bedford, Biggs was planning his escape but would have to wait -- the group was transferred to Aylesbury prison and security was tight. During their time at Aylesbury, they learned evidence against them was strong and Biggs again began to plot escape. But he was foiled when one of his friends got cold feet.
By December of that year, John Wheater, Brian Fields, John Daly and Roy James were arrested -- James in a spectacular chase across neighborhood rooftops before his capture. Bruce Reynolds evaded arrest until 1969.
Twelve of the 15 robbers were eventually caught and brought to trial. But how were they sentenced, and did any escape? Find out in the next section.
| Jack Slipper |
What C is the alternative name for the Water Moccasin,the U.S.A.’s only venomous water snake? | The Great Train Robbery Investigation - How the Great Train Robbery Worked | HowStuffWorks
How the Great Train Robbery Worked
Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
Just two days after the robbery, the Flying Squad was created from the best detectives of Scotland Yard and was charged with finding the criminals behind the Great Train Robbery. Detective Chief Superintendent Tommy Butler, known around Scotland Yard for his professionalism and thoroughness, was assigned to be the squad's chief. Among the team of detectives was Jack Slipper, a tall man with a pencil moustache who would become a household name for his work on the case and his cat -and- mouse chases with Ronnie Biggs.
The Flying Squad's first break in the case came eight days after its investigation began. A suspicious vehicle was reported at an old farmhouse about 30 miles (48.28 km) from the scene of the crime. The old farmhouse -- Leatherslade Farm -- was the same one that the men used as their safe house. Food , sleeping bags and bedding were found in the house, along with bank note wrappers and post office sacks. Fingerprints were found on a bottle of ketchup and on the Monopoly game the men had played with some of the £1, £5 and £10 notes they had stolen.
Up Next
How Prisons Work
Within a day of the discovery of the fingerprints, Roger Cordrey was arrested. In a week, Charlie Wilson was arrested in London and police were on to Bruce Reynolds, Jimmy White, Roy James and Buster Edwards. Biggs' fingerprint was found on a bottle of ketchup in the safe house and he was arrested on Sept. 4, 1963.
Ronnie Biggs, Charlie Wilson, Tommy Wisbey, Jim Hussey and Bob Welch were all sent to Bedford prison to await trial. While in prison, they learned that Goody had been questioned but let go for insufficient evidence. However, several weeks later, he, too, was arrested, charged and sent to Bedford.
Three of the suspects arrested in connection with the Great Train Robbery are photographed leaving Linslade court with blankets over their heads.
Central Press/ Getty Images
Two months after arriving at Bedford, Biggs was planning his escape but would have to wait -- the group was transferred to Aylesbury prison and security was tight. During their time at Aylesbury, they learned evidence against them was strong and Biggs again began to plot escape. But he was foiled when one of his friends got cold feet.
By December of that year, John Wheater, Brian Fields, John Daly and Roy James were arrested -- James in a spectacular chase across neighborhood rooftops before his capture. Bruce Reynolds evaded arrest until 1969.
Twelve of the 15 robbers were eventually caught and brought to trial. But how were they sentenced, and did any escape? Find out in the next section.
| i don't know |
What was the name of the sheepdog in the Perishers cartoon strip? | The Perishers
The Perishers
, written by Maurice Dodd , drawn by Dennis Collins , and they have appeared in Britain's
Daily Mirror
newspaper since the 1960s at least. Perhaps because this is a British strip, searching the internet turns up very little information about it. Its debt to
Peanuts
seems indisputable, and certainly when Charles Schultz died, Maurice Dodd acknowledged in his tribute that he had had to modify his original strip to avoid too close a likeness to
Peanuts
. But however derivative the initial inspiration may have been, the tone of voice of the British strip is quite distinct from that of its American equivalent. The title itself makes this clear: the term "perisher", according to Chambers, is a slang expression for "a reprehensible or annoying person", a rather old-fashioned word even when the strip was young, but often used in a tone of irritated affection (or affectionate irritation). A feature which marks the British strip off from the American version is its refusal to view the children with any sentimentality whatsoever.
This strip catches the core personnel of the strip at the end of the school day, and gives a characteristic sample of its humour. The running gag is that Baby Grumpling, accustomed to waiting for the older children outside the school railings, interprets their time "behind bars" as incarceration, and greets their release with exaggerated joy. In this particular example, the humour of this misunderstanding is pointed out by piling on slang expressions for imprisonment and escape: Wellington, the intellectual, leads the way "We are not crashin' out or makin' a break", while Maisie makes sure of the last word, for the benefit of any reader still unsure what the joke is: "We have not been doin' porridge." There is little for Marlon to do here but assent, but another of the series' running gags places him at centre stage:
Wellington plays the straight man, allowing the other three to express their personalities and backgrounds through the sandwiches they have brought to school in their packed lunch. Maisie is in many ways an old-fashioned girl, and her unappetising combination of "drippin' and banana" indulges two treats of a generation earlier (dripping, the fat saved from roast meat and spread on bread, and bananas, a variety of fruit notoriously unavailable in war-time Britain: but this strip bears a 1971 copyright!). The punningly named Fiscal Yere, one of the cast's regular "guest stars", and usually drawn "smoking" a chocolate cigar as a sign of his family's extreme wealth, here transforms that symbol of affluence into sandwiches. And Marlon, whose obtuseness more often makes him the butt of the punchlines, here gets the last word, as he yet again produces his inch-thick tomato-ketchup sandwiches, which he persists in regarding as a foodstuff rather than an offensive weapon, despite the impossibility of biting into them without splattering all in the vicinity with gore.
Dim though Marlon is, Maisie finds him irresistible, and pursues him relentlessly; sometimes her passion is the whole point of the strip, sometimes it merely serves to keep the characters in motion as they deliver their stand-up routines. Here the characters race down the steps from the metal bridge, past the front door with the milk bottles and down to the arch at the end of the street, through a continuous townscape in which the three panel frames divide not space but time, setting the rhythm which allows the joke maximum effect: "Just what kind of idiot are you going to grow up to be?" is treated by Marlon not as rhetoric, but as a serious career choice. It is a sign of the innate conservatism of the strip that Maisie, unstoppable in her determination to be May Queen, dreams of the future only in terms of romance, her only toy a doll's pram. Marlon has professional ambitions:
"I'm goin' back to my original plan of bein' a brain surgeon. Or maybe a bloke wot goes down sewers in big rubber boots."
"Oh, not that again. Marlon, I don't wish to discourage you, goodness knows, but have you thought this thing through. Do you realise the trainin', the practice, the amount of strugglin' that lies ahead?"
"Crumbs, Maisie, give me a bit of credit, do. I bet I could learn to get them boots on in a matter of weeks."
By 1978,
The Perishers
had registered the existence of feminism, but only in the terrifying person of Beryl Bogey "the black-belt-all-in-free-style liberated women's netball champion" recruited by Maisie to bring into line anyone considering voting for her rival as May Queen.
Sometimes Maisie is shown looking after her younger brother, Baby Grumpling:
whose conviction that all children spend their days in prison (like his identification of the old man in the red coat - who knows whether children have been naughty or nice, and rewards them accordingly - as "old Joe Stalin") must betray a guilty conscience. His favourite (or perhaps simply most visual) vice is digging holes in the garden, but he is endlessly creative in finding others. In one strip he kneels by his bedside, all curly hair and striped pyjamas, and prays, as he always speaks, in lower-case lettering:
"dear god i haven't told any fibs and i haven't pinched any of maisie's sweets
and i haven't put frozen peas in dad's gumboots
and i haven't shaved the cat
i know i asked you to make me a good boy, but this is
ridiculous
"
But the heart of the group is the odd couple formed by Wellington, usually seen wearing rubber Wellington boots in a visual repetition of the verbal joke which links his name to that of Boot, his Old English Sheepdog. The boy and his dog are the undeniable equivalent of Peanuts' Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Like Charlie Brown, Wellington is in some ways the odd-man-out in his group. For a start, he is an intellectual, with a taste for long words and philosophical meditations. His home life is also unusual; he and Boot live alone together in a disused railway station. Having no adults to support him, Wellington is obliged to make his own living, which he does by various dubious means, including the manufacture and sale of "buggies", mock racing cars which the ever-gullible Marlon can usually be persuaded to buy. Although Wellington periodically tries to show Boot how to use a broom, the dog is too intelligent to be caught in this way, and domestic duties in house and garden invariably fall to Wellington:
Visually, Wellington's gardening methods may seem unconventional, but verbally, they are normal enough: he is pruning his garden. Here again is the delight in the ambiguities of language which characterises
The Perishers
, and may go some way to explain the strip's failure to conquer the world. The images, too, give clues about the characters and setting which might be opaque to someone from another time or place: the building, around one corner of which Boot can be seen peering nervously, displays architectural details which mark it unmistakably as a (disused) railway station; Maisie, in her black tights, gym slip and straw hat, not to mention her beauty spot, looks like a refugee from St Trinians, a schoolgirl a decade older than herself, and from a decade further into the past.
Once a year, the group take a summer holiday. This is usually preceded by a discussion of the options, including some baroque variation on the theme of an invented event, the rhubarb thrashing championships. The earliest of these are simple enough: Wellington is disinclined to attend because "last year the rhubarb fought back!", but become more elaborate:
- Goin' to the rhubarb-thrashin' championships this year?
- No.
- Still peeved about the bloke with two heads?
- It's not that so much...
...But who stands a chance with all those ten-foot dwarfs?
But each year, the holiday is represented by the same images: the children pitch their tent in a field and play on the beach. Sometimes the crowd of holidaymakers provides the excuse for a joke, but more often the Perishers have the place to themselves. Baby Grumpling indulges in his favourite occupation of digging holes (occasionally burying Marlon completely) while the older children splash in the sea, and Boot shows an adult's reluctance to enter the cold water:
Wellington is a mixture of hyperactive six year old and respectful guardian of tradition, as he rushes down to the sea in his old-fashioned ("it belonged to my great-grandfather") swimming costume, and the deerstalker hat which he so rarely removes. Boot's highly literate thoughts reveal that his initial surrender to this carefree mood: "Devil may care, come what may, following with a merry laugh even into the jaws of... the ocean?" is followed by a comic anti-climax. For once, the pair seem not so much to echo Peanuts as to prefigure Calvin and Hobbes.
Boot's vocabulary may be unexpected in a dog, but it is entirely consistent with the romantic image of the eighteenth century rake, an English Milord placed under an enchantment by a slighted gypsy. For Boot, like Snoopy, had a previous life in which he was not a dog, and from time to time reminisces about his former life. "Can you really recall your mother from the days when you were an English Milor'?" asks his friend B.H. (Calcutta) failed. "There's something there if I grope for it," replies Boot:
"I see pictures...Candlelight... A figure at the gaming table... A tinkling laugh, flashing eyes (Oh, those eyes)... The quiver of lace, the flutter of a frilled fan...
Or was that Uncle Boris?"
The humour here operates on three levels: at its simplest, the gag works as a one-liner; it feeds into the long-term characterisation of Boot; and the counterpoint of words and images also plays its part. This glimpse of a more elegant past gains added piquancy by images which give the dialogue, and some very human body-language, to a dog, addressing another dog against a backdrop of a heap of scrap cars.
To one small group of characters, Boot is even more than human. Each year on his holidays, while the children swim, he strolls along the beach, peering into rock pools:
Unknown to Boot, the crabs in one particular pool have constructed an entire religion around his annual appearance. It is not an attractive creed; its adherents are always ready to panic, to divide into warring factions, and to make bad puns (the example quoted, "In times like these we should think ourselves lucky to have a woof over our heads", is one of the better ones).
In fact, the crabs are among the least sympathetic creatures in the strip, though not quite as repellent as Kilroy the tortoise (who speaks in Gothic script and bears an uncanny resemblance to Adolf Hitler) or the beetle and grub who often accompany him. These latter appear to be intended to represent the forces of socialism, being cowardly, workshy and given to singing
The Red Flag
- well, how about one of those chopper bikes?
- Don't be silly, Baby Grumpling.
- would you consider a box of black magic?
- No, Baby Grumpling.
- could i have an ice lolly?
- Well, all right... I'll tell Maisie to get you one when she goes up the High Street.
- when it comes to negociatin', that vic feather's got nothin' on me.
Vic Feather, like
Black Magic
chocolates, is simply a brand name; it invites the same laughter of recognition, and dates the strip as surely, as Baby Grumpling's Christmas present:
In 1973, or thereabouts, the toy that all children wanted for Christmas was a space hopper, a large orange bouncy ball, with "ears" that you could cling to as you rode around on your space hopper; and Baby Grumpling had one which defied gravity and rode roughshod over any opposition; it careered through a sequence of visual gags, culminating in what looked like the entire cast of the strip bouncing along out of control until they encountered Wellington in his new roller skates - an encounter which is probably best left to the imagination.
It would be possible to continue indefinitely in this vein, pointing out the beauties of over a decade of daily strips, glossing over the inevitable repetitions and signs of age, praising the wordplay here, the intricately mapped street layout there and the sheer creative silliness of that joke.
The Perishers
may never have made it big in the United States, despite the efforts of their fan, Rod McKuen - but they were published in Dutch . They also appeared on BBC television, in an animated series whose best feature was probably the voice given to Boot by the perfectly-cast Leonard Rossiter. There was even a
Perishers
| Boot |
What was the title used by the British Prime Minister from 1828 to 1830? | Learn and talk about The Perishers, 1959 comics debuts, 1978 British television programme debuts, 1979 British television programme endings, BBC children's television programmes
Genre(s)
Comedy
The Perishers was a British comic strip about a group of urban children and a dog. It began in the Daily Mirror on 19 October 1959 and was written for most of its life by Maurice Dodd (25 October 1922 – 31 December 2005). It was drawn by Dennis Collins until his retirement in 1983, after which it was drawn by Dodd and later by Bill Mevin . After Dodd died, the strip continued with several weeks' backlog of strips and some reprints until 10 June 2006. The strip returned, again as reprints, on 22 February 2010, [1] replacing Pooch Café .
Many Perishers strips are polyptychs —a single continuous background image is divided into three or four panels and the characters move across it from panel to panel. The story is set in the fairly drab fictional town of Croynge (sometimes spelled Crunge), which is apparently a South London borough . The name is a portmanteau of Croydon and Penge . The location often resembles an industrial Northern town and may have its roots in how Croydon, Penge and the towns between them appeared in the 1950s. Collins's artwork in particular gives the town detailed, realistic architecture and a consistent geography.
The first strip from 19 October 1959.
Thematically, the strip draws upon nostalgia for childhood experiences and often has a static, almost limbo-like atmosphere, in a similar manner to its companion strip, Andy Capp . The main characters largely exist independently of 'the real world', and adults are rarely seen; for example, every year the Perishers go on holiday but always get thrown off the train home, forcing them to walk and arrive home several weeks late (a joke on how a short scene in comic book time can take several weeks when told in daily installments), yet with seemingly no repercussions.
Contents
Wellington[ edit ]
An impoverished orphan boy who lives with his dog, Boot. In the early days of the strip they lived in an approximately 10-foot (3 m) diameter concrete pipe section in a seemingly abandoned builder's yard. In 1966 he and Boot moved into a small railway station that had been closed by the Beeching Axe , and they have lived there ever since. Wellington takes his nickname from his trademark wellington boots – he cannot afford proper shoes. He named his dog Boot to go with Wellington.
Wellington is quite an intellectual and given to philosophical trains of thought. He can also be quite resourceful – he appears to support himself by selling handmade wooden buggies and pilfering food from sympathetic local shops, or convoluted schemes to create sudden crowds in order to celebrate his birthday on 25 October (which also happens to be Maurice Dodd's Birthday). Wellington can also be something of a worrier, always concerned that the world is going to rack an' rooney (rack and ruin). Over the years he has worried that the world is becoming clogged up with dirt, that people might get crushed by the weight of air above their heads, and that each new year might be the same old year recycled to save money. Actually there might be something in that; Wellington (unlike the majority of comic characters) has noticed that he and his friends never seem to get any older. On those rare occasions when he cheers up a small raincloud usually appears to dampen his spirits.
Boot[ edit ]
An Old English Sheepdog who lives with his boy, Wellington. Boot is a generally affable and mellow character, given to flights of fancy and daydreaming. In this respect, Boot is the UK equivalent of Snoopy from Charles M. Schulz 's Peanuts strip. Boot is also convinced that he is in fact an 18th-century English lord enchanted into a dog by a gypsy wench (as he puts it, I knew I should have bought those damn clothespegs!) – the strip gives occasional hints that this is actually true as opposed to another fantasy. As a lord, he demands to be treated with respect, and often tells Wellington so to his face. Unfortunately Wellington only hears barking. Wellington thinks Boot is lazy and should help out with the household chores, but Boot usually manages to find some way to "accidentally" mess things up in the hope that he won't be asked again. He hates taking baths, and his bathtime struggles with Wellington usually turn into epic battles. Boot's favourite food appears to be links of sausages, and his attempts to consume these in advance of Wellington provide the basis of many episodes.
Boot was originally drawn with a short tail (on one occasion he met a bob-tailed sheepdog, and on hearing the name decided to call his own tail Fred), but Maurice Dodd later discovered that real Old English Sheepdogs' tails are docked, and so over the course of several years Collins drew his tail shorter and shorter until it vanished altogether – Boot still appears completely white, rare for the breed.
"Who is the Mother of Boot?" was a long-running mystery until a reader informed Wellington that Boot's dam was named "Cherry Blossom." ("Cherry Blossom" happens to be a brand of boot polish).
Marlon[ edit ]
Marlon is not very bright, but this has not dampened his ambitions. He once tried his hand at inventing. The fact that most of his inventions – fire, the wheel, the horse and cart and so forth – had already been invented by someone else did not deter him, because he felt he was slowly catching up. He also claimed to have invented a "micro-stetho-deeposcope" – supposedly a high-tech instrument for probing deeply below the earth's surface, but which actually turned out to be a piece of broken mirror tied to a chair leg.
One of his culinary inventions did make a splash – literally: the inch-thick ketchup sandwich (subsequently renamed the 2.5 cm-thick ketchup sandwich when Marlon decided to go metric). The splash in question occurred whenever he bit into one, caused by a huge dollop of ketchup hitting whoever happened to be standing nearby. The sandwich is used as a recurring gag, occasionally replaced with other types of filling for variety.
Marlon also dreams of becoming either a brain surgeon (which is spelt brane surgeon in his speech balloons), or "a bloke wot goes down sewers in big rubber boots" – he considers either career to be equally prestigious. In the meantime he spends his pocket money on Wellington's buggies, which usually results in a battle between Wellington's persuasive skills and Maisie's desire for him to spend the money on her.
Maisie[ edit ]
An adorable little girl – at least, according to her. In fact, she is somewhat unfeminine and has a tendency to become violent if she doesn't get her own way, with a scream that can stun woodworm . She is scared of insects and spiders ; on one occasion, when Wellington tells her that the field they are walking through may contain thousands of hidden insects, she is too terrified to move. She is in love with Marlon and continues to pursue him despite his continual resistance – their relationship has been described as a one sided love triangle. She imagines herself and Marlon as the heroine and hero of a romantic novel – he bold as a hawk, she soft as a dove. In reality, of course, she is tough as nails and he is thick as a plank. Maisie bears resemblance to Lucy in Charles Schulz's Peanuts strip. The British actress Maisie Williams was christened Margaret but has always been known as Maisie, after the character. [2]
Baby Grumpling[ edit ]
A toddler, possibly named after the "Baby Dumpling" character in the US comic strip Blondie . In the early days of the strip he did not speak, because he knew that once he started he would be expected to keep talking all the time. When he finally began to speak he did so in lower-case letters . In the early days of the strip he was not related to the other characters, but was later revealed to be Maisie's little brother (a retcon – in an earlier strip Maisie had referred to Baby Grumpling's parents as if they were not her own). He enjoys causing mischief by digging holes in the garden (which he always blames on worms, a significant part of his diet, or moles) and by putting insects into Maisie's underwear drawer. He used to think that school was a kind of prison from which the older Perishers were temporarily released each evening.
He often discusses philosophy with the new baby (an unseen character in a pram). He is also frequently seen questioning the plausibility of fairy tales or nursery rhymes read out by Maisie, while at the same time vandalising an alarm clock or other household item. His teddy bear Gladly (short for " Gladly, my cross-eyed bear ") puts in occasional appearances.
Recurring characters[ edit ]
Not all of these characters appeared during the same time periods
The Crabs: The crustacean inhabitants of a seaside rock pool, visited by Boot every year during the Perishers' summer holiday. Some of the crabs believe that Boot's eyes peering down at them are a mystical visitation – "The Eyeballs in the Sky" – and this belief is exploited by a preacher crab who uses their appearance as an excuse to extort money from his congregation. His efforts are always opposed by a scientist crab who continually attempts to invent a device to break through the surface and see what the Eyeballs really are, despite the preacher's protests that he will rend the fabric of the pooliverse. The conflict usually ends up in a full-scale crab fight, and Boot is left none the wiser as to crustacean behaviour. Usually, one of the crabs claims that something is "bad fer y'r 'ealth".
Plain Jane: a friend of Maisie's, often seen selling potions and tonics from a home-made stall.
Fiscal Yere: a millionaire's son who always complains about the problems of being rich, whilst maintaining his chocolate cigar habit to the others' chagrin.
Fred Beetle and the Caterpillar: a pair of insects often encountered by Boot. Fred is a socialist who seems to be modelled on Fred Kite from I'm All Right Jack . The Caterpillar's chain-smoking habit has stunted his growth and prevented his metamorphosis into a butterfly. This is just as well since he doesn't like heights.
Adolf Kilroy : a tortoise shaped like a World War German helmet. He thinks he is the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and speaks in Fraktur . He often teams up with Fred Beetle and Caterpillar in an attempt to overthrow Boot, but the fact that Boot is much bigger always defeats them.
This character last appeared in the summer of 1983 and it is said upon his 1984 take-over of the Daily Mirror that Robert Maxwell, a Czech whose family was murdered by Nazi German troops, objected to the Kilroy/Hitler character appearing in the strip. Kiroy's shell was shaped like a German army helmet and also had a swastika dangling around his neck.
B. H. (Calcutta) Failed: an Indian bloodhound who lost his sense of smell in an unfortunate incident involving an elephant filled with curry – which exploded in the noonday sun. B. H. literally bumped into Boot one day, and they have been friends ever since despite B. H.'s frequent attempts to steal Boot's meat bones. One of the strip's odder elements is B.H.'s claim to be a reporter for "The West Crunge Clarion and Dubious Advertiser", a low budget and downmarket local newspaper. He has a journalist's ear for an attention-grabbing headline, but his career may be held back by his inability to remember how to make the letter "b".
Tatty Oldbitt (the Sailors' Friend): an amorous female basset hound who likes to chase sailors – although just what she intends to do if she catches one is probably best left unexplored. She also chases Boot from time to time, but since he considers himself a lord she never gets very far with him, and often ends up going off with B. H. instead.
Dirty McSquirty: the dirtiest boy in town, always accompanied by a cloud of flies .
Cousin Worsoff: an unseen character. Dirty McSquirty's cousin, he is the proverbial "person who is worse off than you". He lives in the sewer, and Dirty speaks to him through drain covers.
Poor girl: a girl who harasses Wellington with constant tales of poverty, despite wearing a fur coat and claiming to have a household full of equally impoverished staff.
Beryl Bogey: a large girl, or possibly gorilla, whose presence on Maisie's netball team gives them the ability to break down the opposition...literally. Her idol is King Kong .
The cat: an unnamed cat recently adopted by Wellington, much to Boot's annoyance. The cat and Boot are engaged in a permanent battle of wits.
The goldfish: another new pet of Wellington's. Contemplates philosophy while swimming around in his tiny bowl.
The water-snail: the most recent arrival, bought by Wellington to clean the goldfish's bowl. The snail considers this a degrading job.
Catch phrases[ edit ]
This is a partial list of the phrases coined or made popular by the Perishers.
" Go-faster stripes " (chevrons) — Wellington's big selling-point on the buggies he tries to persuade Marlon to buy. It has become a way of describing any useless or frivolous addition to a product.
"GRONFF!!" — The sound of Boot gobbling up something tasty, often something meant for another character, once the contents of a bird table. Also used sometimes when other characters eat.
" Parasite ! Trotskyite ! Marmite !" — Insults hurled at each other by the Beetle and the Caterpillar whenever they brawl, which is frequently. Marmite is, of course, not exactly a valid insult.
"Vilson Kepple und Betty!" — Kilroy the Tortoise's favourite exclamation. It derives from the stage act Wilson, Keppel and Betty .
"Need any help with that paper bag ?" — Maisie can detect the opening of a bag of crisps from far away, appearing almost instantly to help with the consumption, uttering this phrase as soon as she arrives.
"Yeuk!!" — Marlon's reaction to Maisie's perennial romantic advances. He responds to her in this way so often that Maisie has actually asked Marlon, "Is 'yeuk' the only word you know?"
"Ratbag" — The kids' favourite insult. Absent from the very early days of the strip, it quickly became a staple. Maisie is particularly fond of the word, and constantly uses it to refer to Marlon.
"Berk" - New Baby's final response to anything said to it by Baby Grumpling. Might be construed as calling him one. [3]
Final strip and editorial comment[ edit ]
A final, specially drawn strip appeared on the Daily Mirror's comic page on Saturday 10 June 2006. The strip depicts the silhouetted figures of Maisie, Baby Grumpling, Wellington, Boot and Marlon walking down a street into the sunset. Wellington says, "Well, dear readers, it's taken almost fifty years for you to see the back of us. In sayin' goodbye we hope that you remember us with the affecshun we feel for you." The tone of the strip is reminiscent of Charles M. Schulz 's final Peanuts strip, from which the Perishers strip took its inspiration.
The strip was initially replaced by the short-lived Ronaldinho , during the then-ongoing World Cup . After the tournament, the American Pooch Cafe appeared as a more permanent replacement.
Reprints[ edit ]
After a gap of nearly four years, the original cartoon strip returned to the Daily Mirror as reprints, on 22 February 2010.
Additionally, over the years there have been a number of cheaply printed reprint collections in paperback, all of which went out of print quickly.
LP record[ edit ]
Around 1980 an LP record album entitled THE PERISHERS SING! (WELL SORT OF) was issued by Response Records. The lyrics written by Maurice Dodd and the music by Trevor Evan Jones. An instrumental version of the final track "It's Great to be a Kid" was also the theme music for the animated TV version. Dodd's official website claims 12 songs were penned, but the finished album only contained 10 tracks. It featured narration by Bernard Cribbins , and also credits Nicky James and Barbara Sexton with vocals.
Track list[ edit ]
Side 1: 1. Ole Boot and Me (Wellington) 2. Battle of Vindaloo (B.H. Calcutta)* 3. Pervided I Get My Way (Maisie) 4. Eyeballs in the Sky (the Crabs)* 5. Dreaming (Wellington)
Side 2: 1. Boot (Boot)* 2. At Least We've Got Each Other (Wellington) 3. Speed Demon (Marlon) 4. Für Adolf (Adolf Kilroy) 5. It's Great to be a Kid (all the kids)
Lyrics for the three (*) noted songs can be found on Dodd's official website under "The Battle of Vindaloo", "A Crabby Lament" and "The song of Boot".
External links[ edit ]
Official website which seems to have nothing specifically about The Perishers apart from the title, but a fair bit, inexplicably, about house painting.
An unofficial Perishers page – This has some useful descriptive material, but poor quality images.
The Perishers comic strips at Mirror Online
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Around which city did Charles I make his H.Q. during the Civil War? | BBC - History : British History Timeline
August 1604
James I ends the war with Spain
One of James I's first acts of foreign policy was to end the long war with Spain, which had continued intermittently for 20 years. The resulting Treaty of London was largely favourable to Spain, but was also an acknowledgement by the Spanish that their hopes of bringing England under Spanish control were over. The end of the war greatly eased the English government's near bankrupt financial state. England and Spain were at peace for the next 50 years.
5 November 1605
Gunpowder Plot to assassinate James I is discovered
In 1604, a group of English Catholics, angered by James I's failure to relax the penal laws against their co-religionists, hatched a plot to blow up the king and parliament by igniting gunpowder barrels concealed in a vault beneath the building. The plot was discovered before it could be carried out. The conspirators, including Guy Fawkes after whom the plot is often known, were either killed resisting arrest, or captured and then executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.
September 1607
Irish Earls flee to the continent fearing arrest
Following their defeat in the Nine Years' War, Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and Rory O’Donnell, Earl of Tyrconnell were treated leniently by the victorious English government of Ireland and allowed to retain their lands and titles. But in 1605, the new lord deputy, Arthur Chichester, began to restrict their authority. Fearing arrest, the two fled to the continent with 90 family members and followers - the 'Flight of the Earls'. This marked the end of the power of Ireland’s Gaelic aristocracy.
1609
Plantation of Ulster sees Protestants moving onto confiscated Irish land
In the wake of the Nine Years' War, James I determined to secure Ulster for the Crown through a systematic settlement programme. Protestants from England and Scotland were encouraged to move to Ulster, cultivate the land and establish towns. These 'planters' moved onto land confiscated from its Gaelic Catholic inhabitants. The plantation was often organised through guilds and corporations. The London companies were granted the city of Derry, thereafter known as Londonderry.
1611
'King James Bible' is published
By the end of the 16th century, there were several different English bibles in circulation and the church authorities felt a definitive version was needed. The 'Authorised Version of the Bible' (also known as the 'King James Bible') was commissioned in 1604. It became the most famous English translation of the scriptures and had a profound impact on the English language.
14 February 1613
James I's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederick V, Elector Palatine
The eldest daughter of James I and Anne of Denmark, Princess Elizabeth, was widely admired for her beauty, spirit and charm. She married Frederick V, Elector of the Rhine Palatinate, at the age of 16 and travelled with him to Heidelberg. Six years later, Frederick was elected king of Bohemia, but he and Elizabeth were driven out of the country by Catholic forces soon afterwards. It was through Elizabeth's descendants that the House of Hanover came to inherit the English throne.
23 April 1616
William Shakespeare dies
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, popular in his time but subsequently regarded as the greatest writer in the English language. He wrote numerous sonnets and poems as well as more than 30 plays, including 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'Henry V', 'Richard III', 'Romeo and Juliet, 'Macbeth', 'Hamlet' and 'King Lear'.
1619
First record of Africans in British North American colonies
The first Africans who arrived in Jamestown, Virginia were not slaves but indentured servants. However, over the course of the 17th century their status gradually shifted so that more and more became slaves. Race-based slavery soon became central to the economy of the British colonies in North America.
August 1620
'Pilgrim Fathers' sail for America in the 'Mayflower'
A group attempting to escape religious persecution in England sailed for the New World and landed at Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts. They became known as the 'Pilgrim Fathers', and are often portrayed as the founders of modern America. In reality, the first permanent British colony in North America was Jamestown in Virginia, founded by Captain John Smith in 1607. Jamestown was established on behalf of the London Company, which hoped to make a profit from the new colony for its shareholders.
27 March 1625
James I dies and Charles I accedes to the throne
James I was struck down by what contemporaries described as 'a tertian ague' and died in his bed at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, at the age of 57. He was succeeded by his only surviving son, Charles, then 24-years-old, who was proclaimed as king at the gates of Theobalds a few hours later.
14 May 1625
Barbados comes under British control
Captain John Powell landed in Barbados in 1625 and claimed the island as a British Caribbean colony. He returned two years later with a group of settlers and Barbados was developed into a sugar plantation economy using at first indentured servants and then slaves captured in West Africa.
October 1627
English forces are defeated at La Rochelle, France
In a bid to help the French Protestants of La Rochelle, who were besieged by Catholic forces, Charles I sent an English army. It was commanded by his chief minister, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, who attempted to capture the nearby island of Rhé at the approaches to La Rochelle. Despite his best efforts, Buckingham was eventually forced to evacuate the island amid scenes of chaos and confusion.
23 August 1628
Charles I's chief minister, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, is assassinated
Anxious to redeem his honour in the wake of the defeat by the French at the Isle of Rhé, George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, travelled down to Portsmouth in order to prepare for a new expedition to La Rochelle. While conferring with his officers, Buckingham was stabbed by John Felton, a discontented former soldier. The duke was immensely unpopular and few apart from the king mourned his death.
10 March 1629
Charles I dissolves parliament and begins 11 years of personal rule
Already disillusioned with parliaments, Charles I was outraged when, on 2 March 1629, members of parliament first held the Speaker of the House down in his chair and then passed three resolutions condemning the king's financial and religious policies. Eight days later, Charles dissolved the assembly and embarked on a period of government without parliaments, known as the 'Personal Rule'.
23 July 1637
New Scottish prayer book causes a riot in Edinburgh
Keen to secure a greater degree of religious conformity across his three kingdoms, Charles I ordered the introduction of a new prayer book in Scotland. The measure backfired badly when, at St Giles church in Edinburgh, an angry crowd protested against the book, shouting: 'The Mass is come amongst us!' - a negative reference to the reintroduction of Catholicism.
28 February 1638
Scots begin to sign the National Covenant to prevent religious 'innovations'
Determined not to accept the new prayer book which Charles I was trying to impose on them, the Scots had drawn up a 'National Covenant' which bound its signatories to resist all religious 'innovations'. On 28 February 1638, leading Scottish gentlemen began signing the document in Grey Friars Church, Edinburgh. Thousands followed. The General Assembly of the Kirk declared episcopacy (bishops) abolished and Charles prepared to send troops into Scotland to restore order.
13 April 1640
'Short Parliament' opens at Westminster
Desperate for money to fight the Scots, Charles I was forced to summon a new parliament - his first after 11 years of personal rule. At first, there seemed a good chance that members of parliament might be prepared to set their resentments of the king's domestic policies aside and agree to grant him money. Yet such hopes proved illusory, and Charles was forced to dissolve the parliament within a month.
28 August 1640
Scots defeat the English at Newburn on the River Tyne
Having advanced deep into England, the Scottish army found Charles I's forces waiting for them on the southern bank of the River Tyne at Newburn. Charging across the river under cover of artillery fire, the Scots swiftly put the English infantry to flight. Charles was forced to agree to a humiliating truce.
3 November 1640
'Long Parliament' opens at Westminster
With the Scottish army firmly established in Northern England and refusing to leave until its expenses had been paid, Charles I was again forced to summon a parliament. But instead of providing the king with financial assistance, many of the members of parliament - some of whom were zealous Protestants, or Puritans - used it to voice angry complaints against his policies.
October 1641
Rebellion breaks out in Ireland
In late 1641, Ireland rebelled. The country's Catholic inhabitants were simultaneously appalled by the prospect of a Puritan parliament achieving political dominance in England, and entranced by the possibility of seizing concessions similar to those which had been won by the Scots. Several thousand English and Scottish Protestant settlers were killed and many more were forced to flee.
4 January 1642
Charles I tries to arrest five leading members of parliament
Fearing that his opponents in parliament were not only determined to seize political control, but also to impeach his Catholic wife, Henrietta Maria, Charles I marched into the House of Commons and attempted to arrest five leading members of parliament. Forewarned, they slipped away and Charles was forced to leave empty-handed.
22 August 1642
Civil War begins as Charles I raises his standard at Nottingham
By setting up his royal standard on the Castle Hill at Nottingham, and by summoning his loyal subjects to join him against his enemies in parliament, Charles effectively signalled the start of the English Civil War. Inauspiciously for him: 'the standard itself was blown down the same night... by a... strong and unruly wind'.
1 - 7 October 1642
Cornishmen rise in support of Charles I
Although parliament had initially managed to gain control of almost all of southern England, in October 1642 some 10,000 Cornishmen rose up in arms for Charles I and chased parliament's few local supporters across the River Tamar. Thus a new front in the developing English Civil War was opened, with the Cornishmen becoming some of the king's toughest soldiers.
23 October 1642
Royalist and Parliamentarian armies clash at Edgehill, Warwickshire
As Charles I's army advanced on London from the Welsh Marches, its path was blocked by parliament's army under Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, at Edgehill in Warwickshire. The struggle that followed was bloody but indecisive, putting paid to hopes that the English Civil War might be settled by a single battle.
15 September 1643
Royalists sign a ceasefire with the Irish
Having suffered a series of reverses and desperate for more men, Charles I ordered James Butler, Marquis of Ormond, to arrange a ceasefire with the Catholic 'confederates' (or insurgents) in Ireland, so that the English Protestant soldiers fighting there could be shipped home to serve against the Parliamentarians. The so-called 'cessation of arms' outraged the king's English opponents.
25 September 1643
Parliamentarians enter into an alliance with the Scots
Fearing that they would be unable to beat the Royalist forces without outside help, the Parliamentarians concluded an alliance with the Scots. By the terms of the treaty the Scots agreed to send a powerful army to fight Charles I, in return for church reform in England 'according to the word of God', that is, in keeping with Scottish Protestantism.
2 July 1644
Scottish and Parliamentarian armies destroy Charles I's northern army
Charles I's northern supporters were besieged in York by a joint force of Parliamentarians and Scots, but were relieved by a Royalist army under the king's nephew, Prince Rupert. Triumph quickly turned to disaster for Rupert when his army was destroyed in a pitched battle at Marston Moor on the following day. Thereafter, the north of England was effectively lost to the king.
15 February 1645
Parliament establishes the 'New Model Army'
Following the humiliating defeat of its main field army in the Battle of Lostwithiel in Cornwall in 1644, parliament decided a more effective army was required. It passed the 'Self-denying Ordinance' that required all members of both houses of parliament to lay down their commands. The restructured fighting force, established by law on 15 February, was named the 'New Model Army'. Sir Thomas Fairfax was appointed its lord general and Oliver Cromwell his second-in-command.
14 June 1645
Royalists are crushed by the New Model Army at Naseby, Northamptonshire
Confident that his veteran troops would outfight parliament's newly-raised forces, Charles I launched his main field army of around 9,000 men against Sir Thomas Fairfax's army of around 14,000 men at Naseby in Northamptonshire. The result was a disaster for the king. The superb Royalist infantry were lost, and with them, all chance of winning the war.
5 May 1646
Charles I surrenders to the Scots
As the Parliamentarian net closed around him, Charles I decided to throw in his lot with the Scots. He made his way to the camp of the Scottish army at Southwell, near Newark, and gave himself up. The Scots eventually handed him over to the Parliamentarians for £400,000. At the end of December 1647, the bulk of the Scottish army marched back across the River Tweed and the king's Scottish guards were replaced by English Parliamentarian ones.
17 - 19 August 1648
Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarian troops defeat a Scottish-Royalist Army
In mid-1648, England experienced a further eruption of violence known as the Second Civil War. Rebellions in favour of the king broke out in many parts of England and Wales, and a joint force of Scots and English Royalists rode south but were destroyed at Preston by an army under Oliver Cromwell. This marked the end of the Royalist resurgence.
6 December 1648
'Pride's Purge' turns away half of parliament
Enraged by parliament's opposition to their political ideals, officers of the New Model Army decided to remove those members of parliament they regarded as untrustworthy in what was effectively a coup d'etat. Colonel Thomas Pride, after whom the purge is named, accordingly turned away some 180 members, while over 40 more were arrested. The resulting parliament of less than 160 members was derisively known as 'the Rump'.
30 January 1649
Charles I is executed at Whitehall, London
In the wake of the Second Civil War, Oliver Cromwell and the other senior commanders of the New Model Army decided that England could never be settled in peace while Charles I remained alive. Accordingly, the king was charged with high treason, tried, found guilty and beheaded. Charles faced his trial and death with remarkable dignity. His last word on the scaffold was: 'Remember'. The execution of a king was greeted across Europe with shock.
15 May 1649
'Leveller' mutiny crushed by New Model Army leadership
In an atmosphere of greater religious tolerance and lack of censorship during the war, radical political and religious ideas flourished. The New Model Army was a hothouse for many of these ideas. It was particularly influenced by the 'Levellers', a small but vocal group who called for significant changes in society, including an extension of the franchise. The army leadership reacted badly to challenges to their authority, and in May 1649 crushed a Leveller mutiny at Burford in Oxfordshire.
11 - 12 September 1649
Oliver Cromwell's troops storm the town of Drogheda, Ireland
Determined to subdue 'the rebellious Irish', parliament ordered Oliver Cromwell to lead a powerful expeditionary force across the Irish Sea. After landing at Dublin, Cromwell quickly moved on to storm the nearby town of Drogheda. His troops slaughtered more than 3,000 of the defenders in the process.
1 January 1651
Charles II is crowned king of Scotland
Desperate to recover his father's throne, Charles I's eldest son struck a bargain with the Scots whereby he agreed to take the Covenant himself in return for the promise of Scottish military assistance. Early in 1651, Charles was crowned Charles II of Scotland at Scone Castle.
3 September 1651
Oliver Cromwell defeats Charles II at the Battle of Worcester
Following his coronation as king of the Scots, Charles II raised a Scottish army and invaded England. Many English royalists came in to support him, but in a hard-fought battle at Worcester, the Parliamentarian commander Oliver Cromwell defeated the young king's army. It proved to be the last major battle of the English Civil War. Charles subsequently fled into exile abroad.
16 December 1653
Oliver Cromwell makes himself Lord Protector
After the execution of Charles I, the various factions in parliament began to squabble amongst themselves. In frustration, Oliver Cromwell dismissed the purged 'Rump' parliament and summoned a new one. This also failed to deal with the complexity of the problems England was now facing. Cromwell’s self-appointment as 'Lord Protector' gave him powers akin to a monarch. His continuing popularity with the army propped up his regime.
May 1655
Britain takes Jamaica from Spain
The Spanish had ruled Jamaica since 1509, and introduced African slaves to work in the sugar plantations. The British seized the island and continued to develop the sugar trade. During this period, many slaves escaped into the mountains. These people became known as 'Maroons' and came to control large areas of the Jamaican interior, often launching attacks on the sugar plantations.
3 September 1658
Oliver Cromwell dies and is succeeded by his son, Richard
When Oliver Cromwell died, he was succeeded as Lord Protector by his son, Richard. The Commonwealth of England collapsed into financial chaos and arguments between the military and administration increased. Parliament was once again dissolved and Richard Cromwell was overthrown. George Monck, one of the army's most capable officers, realised that only the restoration of the king could end the political chaos, and Charles II was invited to return from exile.
1 January 1660
Samuel Pepys starts his diary
Samuel Pepys was a naval administrator and later a member of parliament whose diaries, covering the years from 1660-1669, provide a fascinating insight into mid-17th century life. The scope of the diary ranges from private remarks to detailed observations of the events and personalities around him.
29 May 1660
Charles II is restored to the throne
Charles II's official restoration to the English throne - he had already been acknowledged as king in Scotland in 1651 - occurred on 29 May. The king’s restoration was marked by massive celebrations, lesser versions of which continued to be held on Royal Oak Day for centuries to come.
March 1665
Great Plague of London begins
Towards the end of the winter of 1664-1665, bubonic plague broke out in the poverty-stricken London parish of St Giles-in-the-Fields. Soon the contagion was spreading fast, and over the following months more than 100,000 people died. By the time the epidemic finished in December 1665, a quarter of the capital's inhabitants had perished.
2 September 1666
Great Fire of London destroys two-thirds of the city
The fire broke out in a baker's shop in Pudding Lane in the City of London and spread rapidly. Within four days, two-thirds of the city had been destroyed and 65,000 people were homeless. Despite this, the fire did have some positive outcomes. Within three weeks, an architect called Christopher Wren presented plans for rebuilding much of the city. Although his plans were never fully implemented, Wren was responsible for the rebuilding of more than 50 churches, including St Paul's Cathedral.
June 1667
Dutch ships attack the English fleet in the Medway
In 1667, the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter led a daring raid up the River Medway. Having broken a chain which the English had placed across the river, he attacked the naval dockyard at Chatham, burning and taking many ships. It was a terrible humiliation for the English. The diarist Samuel Pepys wrote: 'Never were people so dejected as they are in the City… this day.'
1672
Royal African Company is established to regulate the African slave trade
Charles II granted the Royal African Company a monopoly on the rapidly expanding slave trade. Rival merchants opposed the monopoly and in 1698 Parliament opened the slave trade to all. Britain would become one of the leading transatlantic slave trading nations. Ships took guns and manufactured goods from Britain to West Africa, where goods were exchanged for people. Captives were taken across the Atlantic and sold into slavery on the plantations of the Caribbean and North America. Cargoes of rum, tobacco, cotton and sugar were then carried to England. This was known as the triangle trade.
29 March 1673
Test Act excludes Catholics from public office
The Test Act required public office holders to accept communion in the Protestant form and swear an oath of allegiance recognising the monarch as the head of the Church of England. The intention of the act was to exclude Catholics and dissenters from public office. Charles II’s brother James, Duke of York, a Catholic himself, was a victim of the act. He was forced to surrender his public office as lord high admiral as he would not take the oath.
4 November 1677
Mary Stuart marries William of Orange, Charles I's grandson
Born in 1662, Mary Stuart was the elder daughter of Charles II's brother, James, Duke of York, and his first wife Anne Hyde. Although both her parents later converted to Catholicism, Mary herself was brought up as a Protestant. Her marriage in 1677 to the Dutch Protestant Prince William of Orange, himself the grandson of Charles I, strengthened William's claim to the English throne.
September 1678
'Popish Plot' to murder Charles II is 'revealed'
Disgraced clergyman Titus Oates claimed he had learned of a Catholic and French conspiracy to kill Charles II, replace him with his Catholic brother James, Duke of York, and transform England into a Catholic-absolutist state. Oates's 'revelations' sparked panic and many innocent people were arrested and tried. The plot was little more than an invention. At the height of the furore a second Test Act was passed requiring members of both houses of parliament to make an anti-Catholic declaration.
6 February 1685
Charles II dies and James II accedes to the throne
Having suffered a stroke, Charles II converted to Catholicism on his death-bed and passed away a few hours later. He was succeeded by his brother, James, whose adherence to the Catholic faith made many of his staunchly Protestant subjects deeply suspicious. Nevertheless, James enjoyed considerable popularity when he first acceded to the throne as James II.
5 July 1685
James II defeats James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, at Sedgemoor, Somerset
Hoping to seize the throne from James II, Charles II's illegitimate son, James Scott, Duke of Monmouth, landed at Lyme Regis in Dorset. As he marched eastwards, hundreds flocked to join him. Yet Monmouth's raw West Country recruits proved no match for James II's experienced soldiers, and when they fought at Sedgemoor on the Somerset Levels, the rebels were cut to pieces. Monmouth was captured and executed at the Tower of London.
10 June 1688
Birth of James II's son sparks popular outrage
Following the death of his first wife, James II married Mary of Modena, a Catholic, in 1673. The birth of a son to the royal couple in 1688 provoked popular outrage. Many of James II's opponents, furious that their Catholic king now had a male heir, denounced the infant as an imposter, and claimed that the baby had been smuggled into the queen's bedroom in a warming-pan.
5 November 1688
William of Orange lands with an army at Torbay
William of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht, was implored by Protestant conspirators to 'deliver' them from the Catholic James II. William, who had a legitimate claim to the throne through his grandfather, Charles I, raised an army in the Netherlands and transported it across the English Channel to Devon. As nobles and officers defected to William, James II lost his nerve and eventually fled abroad, leaving William free to take the crown.
13 February 1689
William and Mary are formally proclaimed king and queen
In the wake of James II's flight to exile, many felt that William and his wife Mary (James II's daughter) should be termed 'regents', rather than monarchs in their own right, because the former king was still alive. William was not prepared to accept this, and on 6 February 1689 the House of Lords at last conceded the point. The formal declaration of William and Mary as king and queen took place a week later. This became known as the 'Glorious Revolution'.
March 1689
James II lands in Kinsale with a French army
Encouraged by Louis XIV of France, James II sailed to Ireland hoping that, with Ireland under his control, he would be able to recover England and Scotland as well. Landing at the head of 20,000 French troops, James quickly found himself reinforced by thousands of eager Irish Catholics. Soon, most of Ireland was in James's hands.
27 July 1689
Jacobite Highlanders defeat William III's troops in the Battle of Killiecrankie
In Scotland, as in Ireland, many people still supported the Catholic James II against the Protestant William III. When Williamite troops (mostly Lowland Scots) advanced into the Grampian Mountains during the summer of 1689, John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, led his clansmen against them at the Battle of Killiecrankie. Claverhouse himself died on the field. His army was routed by William's forces at the Battle of Dunkeld a month later.
16 December 1689
'Bill of Rights' is confirmed by an act of parliament
William and Mary had accepted a Declaration of Rights on 13 February 1689 as an implicit condition of being offered the throne. In December, it was confirmed by an act of parliament, becoming the 'Bill of Rights'. It is a statement of rights of the subject as represented by parliament (whereas Magna Carta is broadly a statement of the rights of the individual). It remains a basic document of English constitutional law and the template for other constitutions around the world.
1 July 1690
William III defeats James II at the Battle of the Boyne, Ireland
James II had landed in Kinsale in 1689 and now controlled most of Ireland. William III sailed to Ireland himself to face his opponent. They met on the River Boyne, where William ordered his forces to cross and attack the joint Irish-French army. The Jacobite troops were routed and James retreated to France soon afterwards, earning himself the Irish nickname 'Séamus á Chaca' ('James the Sh*t'). In less than two years, William's forces had completed the re-conquest of Ireland.
13 February 1692
Government troops massacre the MacIains of Glencoe
Despite James II's defeat in Ireland, Jacobite sympathies remained strong in the Scottish Highlands. William III's Scottish supporters resolved to terrorise the Jacobite clans into submission. At 5am on 13 February, Captain Robert Glenlyon and his soldiers, who were then enjoying the hospitality of the MacIain clan of Glencoe, suddenly fell upon their unsuspecting hosts. Some 30-40 people were slaughtered in the massacre.
1694
Bank of England is established to manage mounting debts
England had accrued a considerable national debt on the back of William III's expensive wars. Scottish merchant William Paterson founded the Bank of England to assist the Crown in managing its debt. The Bank became the national reserve, and in 1697 its position of prominence was secured when parliament forbade the formation of any further joint-stock banks in England. The bank has issued bank notes since 1694. A separate Bank of Scotland was established in 1695.
28 December 1694
Mary dies, leaving William III to rule alone
William III's wife Mary died at the age of 32 leaving no children. William had loved his wife deeply, despite the somewhat tempestuous nature of their relationship, and was grief-stricken at her death.
1699
80% of those living in the Caribbean are African slaves
Initially, European colonists forced the indigenous people of the Caribbean to work in the sugar plantations. However, they were decimated by European diseases against which they had no immunity, so plantation owners began to buy African slaves. The profits from slavery were potentially very high for European slave traders. In 1708 a slave could be bought in Africa for £5, and sold in the West Indies for £20. The profits for plantation owners from cotton, tobacco and above all sugar were even higher. For the enslaved people, the work was hard, the punishments harsh and the living standards very poor.
12 June 1701
Act of Settlement places the House of Hanover in line for the English throne
William III was childless, as was James II's last surviving child, Anne. English Protestants wanted to prevent the return of James II (who lived until September 1701) and his Catholic son, also James. Parliament decreed that after the deaths of William, Anne and any children they might yet have, the throne would revert to the heirs of James I's daughter, Elizabeth, the wife of the Elector Palatine. Thus, Sophie, electress of Hanover, and her heirs became next in line to the throne.
September 1701
English, Dutch and Austrians sign the Treaty of the Grand Alliance
The expansionist policies of Louis XIV of France were threatening to overturn the balance of power in Europe, and his attempts to bring about a future union of the Spanish and French crowns caused the English, Dutch and Austrians to ally against him. The so-called 'War of the Spanish Succession' began the following year.
8 March 1702
William III dies and Anne accedes to the throne
William III died two weeks after being thrown from his horse when it tripped over a molehill in Hyde Park, London. Jacobites, gloating at their old enemy's downfall, drank to 'the little gentleman in black velvet' who had inadvertently helped to bring about the king's death. William was succeeded by Anne, who was the younger sister of his wife Mary and the second daughter of James II and Anne Hyde.
13 August 1704
John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, defeats the French at Blenheim, Bavaria
Allied forces under John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, Prince Eugene of Savoy and Prince Lewis of Baden shattered a Franco-Bavarian army under the Duc de Tallard at the Battle of Blenheim on the River Danube in Bavaria. It was a crucial victory in the War of the Spanish Succession and helped to pave the way for the eventual defeat of the French in northern Europe and the frustration of Louis XIV's imperial ambitions.
March 1707
Act of Union of England and Scotland is ratified
Although the Act of Settlement of 1701 ensured that there would eventually be a Protestant succession in England, there was no guarantee that this would be the case in Scotland too. Leading Scots were thus persuaded to agree to a union of the two kingdoms. Once the Act of Union had finally been ratified, England and Scotland officially became one country - Great Britain.
April 1713
Treaty of Utrecht ends a decade of war in Europe
The English and their Dutch allies came to terms with France at the Treaty of Utrecht, ending ten years of warfare. Many long-standing problems were resolved by the treaty. In particular, the French agreed to abandon their support for the dynastic claims of James II's son, James, to the throne of Great Britain. France also recognised the Hanoverian succession in Britain, which had been established by the Act of Settlement in 1701.
1 August 1714
Anne dies and George I accedes to the throne
Anne, the last Stuart monarch, died at Kensington Palace in London aged 49. None of her children survived her, so under the terms of the Act of Succession of 1701 she was succeeded by George, Elector of Hanover, who was proclaimed as George I. He was the first of the Hanoverian monarchs. In dynastic terms at least, Britain had entered a new age.
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What became the world’s tallest building in 1311 A.D.? | King Charles II | Britroyals
Born: May 29, 1630 at St. James Palace
Parents: Charles I and Henrietta Maria
Relation to Elizabeth II: 1st cousin 9 times removed
House of: Stuart
Ascended to the throne: May 29, 1660 aged 30 years
Crowned: April 23, 1661 at Westminster Abbey, and at Scone as King of Scots, 1 January 1651
Married: Catherine of Braganza
Children: About 17 illegitimate children by at least 8 different mistresses
Died: February 6, 1685 at Whitehall Palace, London, aged 54 years, 8 months, and 10 days
Buried at: Westminster
Reigned for: 24 years, 8 months, and 9 days
Succeeded by: his brother James II
Charles II was born in St James's Palace, London. During the Civil War he lived with his father in Oxford 1642�45, and after the victory of Cromwell's Parliamentary forces he was in exile in France. Accepting the Scottish Covenanters' offer to make him King, he landed in Scotland in 1650, and was crowned at Scone on 1 January 1651. An attempt to invade England was ended on 3 September 1651 by Cromwell's victory at the Battle of Worcester. Charles escaped according to legend by hiding in an oak tree, and for nine years he was in exile in Holland, France, Germany, Flanders, and Spain. The death of Cromwell and the collapse of the English Commonwealth lead to opening of negotiations in 1659 by George Monk for the restoration of the monarchy.
In April 1660 Charles issued the Declaration of Breda, promising a general amnesty and freedom of conscience. Parliament accepted the Declaration and he was proclaimed King on 8 May 1660. Charles landed at Dover on 26 May 1660, and entered London three days later. He was crowned at Westminster on 23 April 1661. Despite the Declaration there was retribution. The body of Oliver Cromwell was dug up and posthumously decapitated, Charles I was venerated a Saint by the Anglican Church, and all legal documents were post-dated as though Charles II had succeeded on his father�s death in 1649. The Act of uniformity required all Puritans to accept the doctrines of the Church of England. Many who refused sought a new life in the colonies in North America. The Restoration brought liberalizing social changes including the re-opening of theatres and study of sciences that had been banned by the Puritans. The Royal Society for the study of Science was established and the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. In May 1662 Charles married the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. Her dowry brought Tangiers and Bombay to British control, but despite four pregnancies she produced no children. Charles did however have at least 17 illegitimate children by his various mistresses who included Lady Castlemaine, Nell Gwyn, Lady Portsmouth, and Lucy Walter.
England was at war with Holland and in 1664 seized the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam in North America and renamed it New York. However the Dutch Navy sailed up the River Medway and humiliated the Royal Navy by capturing the English flagship and burning other ships. In 1665 the Great Plague struck London killing over 60,000 people, and was followed in 1666 by the Fire of London which destroyed a large part of the city including St Paul�s cathedral. Sir Christopher Wren was commissioned to rebuild the cathedral. The Dutch war furnished an excuse for banishing Lord Clarendon who was made a scapegoat in 1667, and he was replaced by the Cabal of Clifford and Arlington, both secret Catholics, and Buckingham, Ashley (Lord Shaftesbury), and Lauderdale. In 1670 Charles signed the Secret Treaty of Dover, whereby he promised Louis XIV of France he would declare himself a Catholic, re-establish Catholicism in England, and support the French king's projected war against the Dutch; in return Louis was to finance Charles and in the event of resistance to supply him with troops. The third Dutch War followed in 1672, and at the same time Charles issued the Declaration of Indulgence, suspending all penal laws against Catholics and Dissenters.
In 1673, Parliament forced Charles to withdraw the Indulgence and accept a Test Act excluding all Catholics from office, and in 1674 to end the Dutch war. The Test Act broke up the Cabal, while Shaftesbury, who had learned the truth about the treaty, assumed the leadership of the opposition. In 1678 Titus Oates's announcement of a 'Popish plot' released a general panic, which Shaftesbury exploited to introduce his Exclusion Bill, excluding Charles�s brother James, Duke of York, from the succession as he was openly Catholic and instead he hoped to substitute Charles's illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth. Charles dissolved Parliament in 1679 declaring there would be no talk of change of succession. He now ruled as absolute monarch without a parliament, financed by Louis XIV. When the Whigs plotted a revolt, their leaders were executed, and Shaftesbury and Monmouth fled to the Netherlands to William of Orange. Charles died in 1685, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church on his deathbed. He was succeeded by his brother James II.
King Charles II's Signature
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In which British city can you find the Spinnaker Tower? | How to find us | Spinnaker Tower
How to find us
Home / Plan Your Visit / How to find us
How to find us
Emirates Spinnaker Tower is situated on the waterfront of Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth. With excellent transport links and convenient car parking, the Tower is easily accessible.
BY CAR
The M27, A27 and A3(M) connect Portsmouth Harbour with the rest of Britain’s motorway network. Come into Portsmouth on the M275 and follow the brown signs to the Historic Waterfront, and then Emirates Spinnaker Tower.
This will lead you directly to the 1450 space Gunwharf Quays underground car park. On peak days, further parking can be found around the city of Portsmouth within easy walking distance.
Alternatively, Portsmouth’s new Park and Ride scheme allows you to leave your car at the edge of the city and pick up a bus directly into the Hard Interchange adjacent to Emirates Spinnaker Tower. Visit Portsmouth City Council’s Park and Ride website for more information.
BY TRAIN
Portsmouth Harbour railway station is situated beside Emirates Spinnaker Tower with direct connections to London and across the UK.
Traveling in a small group? You can save money with South West Trains GroupSave discount – 3 or 4 people travel together off-peak, only 2 pay. You can add up to 4 accompanying children for just £1.00 each!
Book your GroupSave tickets online or at your nearest station or simply call 0845 6000 650.
BY BUS OR COACH
Many local and regional bus services stop at the Hard Interchange (adjacent to Emirates Spinnaker Tower). Please visit First Bus or Stagecoach bus services’ websites for the most up to date routes and timetables.
There is a coach drop-off and pick-up point on the Gunwharf Quays site. Download our Coach Parking Guide , an all you need-to-know guide about coach parking in Portsmouth.
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Odette is the central character of which ballet? | Solent views - Review of Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, England - TripAdvisor
Review of Spinnaker Tower
Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth PO1 3TT, England
+44 23 9285 7520
Emirates Spinnaker Tower Portsmouth Entrance Ticket
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“Solent views”
Reviewed November 25, 2012
If you want to see Portsmouth and the Solent from a birds-eye view get to the top of the Spinnaker Tower... With the glass floor to spook you if you feel daring its a magnificent vista of some of the best parts of the south.
Visited February 2012
Ask KateMF about Spinnaker Tower
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
TheSpinnakerTower, General Manager at Spinnaker Tower, responded to this review, November 26, 2012
Thank you for your lovely comments. I am happy to hear you enjoyed our views and the daring glass floor. We hope to welcome you again soon.
Sarah Webb, general manager
Report response as inappropriate Thank you. We appreciate your input.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
3,401 reviews from our community
Visitor rating
“Overpriced but a day out non the less”
Reviewed November 24, 2012
over priced attraction, however a day out non the less.
Building is striking supposedly puts Portsmouth on the map, lit nicely at night, not an all day thing. ideal to see views of portsmouth.
Visited November 2012
Ask foodie e about Spinnaker Tower
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
TheSpinnakerTower, General Manager at Spinnaker Tower, responded to this review, November 26, 2012
Thank you for taking the time to post this review. I’m happy to see you enjoyed your visit to the Spinnaker Tower but am sorry to see you find us overpriced. We do hold regular pricing reviews and I will ensure your comments are raised at the next one. Thank you again for your feedback.
Sarah Webb, general manager
Report response as inappropriate Thank you. We appreciate your input.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
judebron
“Expensive for what you got”
Reviewed November 22, 2012
The views were fantastic. However the tickets were expensive and it was not very child friendly it is just a viewing platform we thought there would have been more going on up there. There Is a cafe but again that was expensive.
Helpful?
Ask judebron about Spinnaker Tower
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
TheSpinnakerTower, General Manager at Spinnaker Tower, responded to this review, November 26, 2012
Thank you for taking the time to leave your comments. I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the views from our view decks – they really are second to none. I am, however, disappointed that you found the tickets expensive. We do hold regular pricing reviews and I will ensure your comments are considered at the next one. I am also sorry to see you did not find the tower child friendly. We find that the glass floor, our free audio guides and our high spy ship finder are ample to entertain most families – I am sorry this was not the case on your visit. Your comments will be passed on to our duty managers to address.
Thank you again for your feedback and I hope to welcome you again soon.
Sarah Webb, general manager
Report response as inappropriate Thank you. We appreciate your input.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Harris W
Ask Harris W about Spinnaker Tower
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
TheSpinnakerTower, General Manager at Spinnaker Tower, responded to this review, November 19, 2012
Thank you very much for taking the time to post this review. I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed your visit. We’d have to agree that the café has a prime location overlooking Portsmouth! Even our Waterfront Café on the ground level boasts some glorious views of the harbour. I hope to welcome you again soon.
Sarah Webb, general manager
Report response as inappropriate Thank you. We appreciate your input.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
pauline m
Ask pauline m about Spinnaker Tower
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
TheSpinnakerTower, General Manager at Spinnaker Tower, responded to this review, November 19, 2012
Thank you for taking the time to post this review. I’m thrilled to hear you enjoyed your trip to the Spinnaker Tower and I will make sure to pass on your compliments to our café team. I look forward to seeing you again soon.
Sarah Webb, general manager
Report response as inappropriate Thank you. We appreciate your input.
This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
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Which ballet is sub-titled the Girl with the Enamel Eyes? | Coppelia Girl with the Enamel Eyes 1870 a sentimental comic - DANCE - 45
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Coppelia, Girl with the Enamel Eyes, 1870- a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuittier and music by Léo Delibes . It was based upon a macabre story by E.T.A. Hoffmann entitled " Der Sandmann " ("The Sandman"), published in 1815. The ballet premiered May 25 , 1870 at the Paris Opera , with Giuseppina Bozzachi in the title role. Its first flush of success was interrupted by the Franco-Prussian War and the siege of Paris, but eventually it became the most-performed ballet at the Opera Garnier . Swanilda, Frantz Arthur Saint-Leon- the Maître de Ballet of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 ; famous for creating the choreography of the ballet Coppélia . Giuseppina Bozzacchi Franco-Prussian War Imperial Russian Ballet- The Mariinsky Ballet, affiliated with the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg , is one of the most famous ballet companies in history. The company was known as
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the Imperial Ballet until the early 20th century. Following the assassination of Sergei Kirov , they were renamed Kirov Ballet but reverted to the original name after the fall of the Communism. It was for this company that the great choreographer Marius Petipa staged quintessential works of classical ballet, notably the revisions of Giselle , Swan Lake , Le Corsaire and the original ballets Raymonda , The Nutcracker , La Bayadere , Don Quixote , Harlequinade , and The Sleeping Beauty . Tsar- a Slavonic term designating certain monarchs . Jean Baptiste Lande St. Petersburg [to Leningrad, to St. Petersburg]- s a city located in Northwestern Federal District of Russia on the delta of the Neva River at the east end of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea . It is informally known as Piter and was formerly known as Petrograd and Leningrad. Maryinsky Theater to Kirov Theater- The Mariinsky Theatre and the Kirov Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet named for Sergei Kirov is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in St Petersburg , Russia . The Mariinsky Theatre is named after Empress Maria Alexandrovna , wife of Tsar Alexander II . Moscow, Bolshoi Theater- is a theatre and opera company in Moscow , Russia , which gives performances of ballet and opera . Charles Didelot- was a French dancer and choreographer. The son of the dance maestro of the King of Sweden, he studied dance with his father and then in Paris with Jean Dauberval . He then followed his study with Jean-Georges Noverre . He arrived in Saint Petersburg in 1801 at the invitation of the director of the Imperial Theatres and he made his debute as the first dancer. His career ended in 1806 and from then on he taught dance, having an important influence over the development of ballet . Marius Petipa- was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Marius Petipa is often given the title "Father of Classical Ballet", and is cited nearly unanimously by the most noted artists of the classical ballet to be the most influential balletmaster and choreographer that has ever lived. He choreographed Sleeping Beauty and Acts I and III of Swan Lake. ( Ivanov did II and IV)
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TERM
Russian Revolution 1917: the revolution was against the Tsar, the Tsar controlled, fu
dance 45
| Coppelia |
What forced Nijinsky to retire at a comparatively young age from ballet? | La fille aux yeux d'email (The Girl with Enamel Eyes) - ChElFi - The Avengers (Marvel Movies) [Archive of Our Own]
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<a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2377886"><strong>La fille aux yeux d'email (The Girl with Enamel Eyes)</strong></a> (1084 words) by <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChElFi"><strong>ChElFi</strong></a><br />Chapters: 1/1<br />Fandom: <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/tags/The%20Avengers%20(Marvel%20Movies)">The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Captain%20America%20(Movies)">Captain America (Movies)</a><br />Rating: General Audiences<br />Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply<br />Relationships: Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov<br />Characters: Original Female Character(s), Steve Rogers, Pepper Potts, Maria Hill, Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanov<br />Additional Tags: 30 Day OTP Challenge, day 29, doing something sweet, Captain Hill - Freeform, Established Relationship, POV Original Character, POV Child, Humor, Angst and Humor, Fluff and Humor, Attempt at Humor, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence<br />Series: Part 29 of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/147255">I Don't Dance</a><br />Summary: <p>Maria and Steve watch Hope dance in Coppelia. (An oversimplification, but you know I suck at summaries.)</p>
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In the Universal films what was the name of Frankenstein’s hunchback? | Frankenstein in popular culture | Universal Monsters Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
Frankenstein in popular culture
Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster in Bride of Frankenstein .
Mary Shelley 's novel Frankenstein , and the famous character of Frankenstein's monster have influenced popular culture for at least 100 years. The work has inspired numerous films, television programs, video games and derivative works. The character of the monster remains one of the most recognized icons in horror fiction . [1]
Contents
Edit
The first film adaptation of Frankenstein in 1910 by Edison Studios.
The first film adaptation of the tale, Frankenstein , was done by Edison Studios in 1910, written and directed by J. Searle Dawley , with Augustus Phillips as Frankenstein, Mary Fuerte as Elizabeth, and Charles Ogle as the Monster. The brief (16 min.) story has Frankenstein chemically create his creature in a vat. The monster haunts the scientist until Frankenstein's wedding night, when true love causes the creature to vanish. For many years, this film was believed lost. A collector announced in 1980 that he had acquired a print in the 1950s and had been unaware of its rarity.
The Edison version was followed soon after by another adaptation entitled Life Without Soul (1915), directed by Joseph W. Smiley, starring William A. Cohill as Dr. William Frawley, a modern-day Frankenstein who creates a soulless man, played to much critical praise by Percy Standing , who wore little make-up in the role. The film was shot at various locations around the United States, and reputedly featured much spectacle. In the end, it turns out that a young man has dreamed the events of the film after falling asleep reading Mary Shelley's novel. This film is now considered a lost film .
There was also at least one European film version, the Italian Il Mostro di Frankenstein ("The Monster of Frankenstein") in 1921. The film's producer Luciano Albertini essayed the role of Frankenstein, with the creature being played by Umberto Guarracino, and Eugenio Testa directing from a screenplay by Giovanni Drivetti. The film is also now considered a lost film.
Universal Pictures
See also Universal Monsters
The most famous adaptation of the story, 1931 's Frankenstein , was produced by Universal Pictures , directed by James Whale , and starred Boris Karloff as the monster. The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry . Its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein ( 1935 ), was also directed by Whale and is probably the most critically acclaimed of all the Universal horror films. It was followed by Son of Frankenstein in 1939 and The Ghost of Frankenstein in 1942 . The latter film marked the series' descent into B movie territory; later efforts by Universal combined two or more monsters, culminating in the comedy Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein . The Universal films in which The Monster appears (and the actors who played him) are:
Frankenstein (1931 - Boris Karloff)
Edit
In Great Britain , a long-running series by Hammer Films focused on the character of Dr. Frankenstein (usually played by Peter Cushing ) rather than his monster. Peter Cushing played Dr. Frankenstein in all of the films except for Horror of Frankenstein in which the character was played by Ralph Bates . Cushing also played a creation in Revenge of Frankenstein. David Prowse played two different Monsters.
The Hammer films are a series in the loosest sense, since there is only tenuous continuity between the films after the first two (which are carefully connected). Starting with The Evil of Frankenstein, the films are stand-alone stories with occasional vague references to previous films, much the way the James Bond films form a series. In some of the films, the Baron is a kindly, even heroic figure, while in others he is ruthless and cruel, and clearly the villain of the piece.
The Hammer Films series (and the actor playing The Creature) consisted of:
Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell ( 1974 - David Prowse)
In 1959, Hammer shot a half-hour pilot episode for a TV series to be called Tales of Frankenstein, in association with Columbia Pictures. Anton Diffring played the Baron, and Don Megowan his creation. Curt Siodmak directed. The series was scrapped, largely because of the two companies' disagreement over what the basic thrust of the series would be. Hammer wanted to do a series about Baron Frankenstein involved in various misadventures, while Columbia wanted a series of science fiction stories loosely based around the idea of science gone wrong. Though unshown at the time of its production, the episode is available on DVD from several sources.
Other films
Edit
Depictions of The Monster have varied widely, from mindless killing machines to the depiction of The Monster as a kind of tragic hero (closest to the Shelley version in behavior) in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, The Bride, and Van Helsing. Throughout the Universal series, he evolves from the latter to the former.
Three films have depicted the genesis of the Frankenstein story in 1816: Gothic directed by Ken Russell (1986), Haunted Summer directed by Ivan Passer (1988), and Remando al viento (English title: Rowing with the Wind) directed by Gonzalo Suárez (1988). The opening scene of Bride of Frankenstein also dealt with this event.
1950s & 1960s
Edit
1957: American International Pictures (AIP) released the low-budget I Was a Teenage Frankenstein in November 1957, a few months after their wildly successful I Was a Teenage Werewolf . In a desperate and vain attempt to be viewed as a great scientist, an unscrupulous professor creates a monster out of parts of teenagers killed in a car crash, then later directs his creation to kill a good-looking teenager to replace the monster's disfigured face. Whit Bissell stars as Prof. Frankenstein, Gary Conway plays the creature. A follow-up, How to Make a Monster , was released in July 1958. This film featured actor Gary Conway as an actor playing the Teenage Frankenstein in a film.
1958: Another wildly differing adaptation is the 1958 film Frankenstein 1970 , which focuses on the themes of nuclear power, impotence, and the film industry. Boris Karloff stars as Dr. Frankenstein, who harvests the bodies of actors to create a clone of himself using his nuclear-powered laboratory. His intention is to have this clone carry on his genes into future generations.
1958: This year also brought the bizarre Frankenstein's Daughter , in which modern descendant of Frankenstein Donald Murphy experiments with a Jekyll/Hyde type of serum before stitching together a grotesque female creature. John Ashley and Sandra Knight co-starred.
1961: Frankenstein, el Vampiro y Cia ("Frankenstein, the Vampire and Company") was a Mexican remake of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein .
1965: An extremely tangential adaptation is Ishirō Honda 's 1965 tokusatsu kaiju film Frankenstein Conquers the World (Furankenshutain tai Chitei Kaijû Baragon), produced by Toho Company Ltd . The film's prologue is set in World War II ; the monster's heart is stolen by Nazis from the laboratory of Dr. Reisendorf in war-torn Frankfurt , and taken to Imperial Japan . Immortal, the heart survives the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and is eaten by a savage child survivor, [2] and after discovered by scientists in Present Day Japan, he feeds on protein, eventually growing into a giant humanoid monster that breaks loose and battles the subterranean monster Baragon , which was destroying villages and devouring people and animals. There was also a sequel to this film (see below).
1965: Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster . Martians come to Earth to steal our women, with the goal of repopulating their planet. When they cause a NASA space craft to crash, the pilot (Captain Frank Saunders) becomes horribly disfigured. Becoming a "Frankenstein" like monster, it's up to him to save the women of Earth.
1966: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter . Director William Beaudine 's Sci-Fi\Western contribution has what would actually be Frankenstein's granddaughter, Maria Frankenstein, cobbling a monster out of Jesse James ' ( John Lupton ) brawny partner-in-crime, Hank Tracy (Cal Bolder), after an ambush by the law. Frankenstein renames her creation Igor . Narda Onyx plays Maria Frankenstein.
1966: War of the Gargantuas (Furankenshutain no Kaijû: Sanda tai Gaira), also directed by Honda, is a sequel to Frankenstein Conquers the World (although this is obscured in the US version), with the Frankenstein Monster's severed cells growing into two giant humanoid brother monsters: Sanda (the Brown Gargantua), the strong and gentle monster raised by scientists in his youth, and Gaira (the Green Gargantua), the violent and savage monster who devours humans. The two monsters eventually battle each other in Tokyo .
1970s & 1980s
1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was directed by Kenneth Branagh , who also portrayed Victor Frankenstein. It featured a star cast with Robert De Niro as the monster, Tom Hulce as Henry, John Cleese as Professor Waldman, Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth, and Aidan Quinn as Captain Robert Walton.
2004: Van Helsing . This film was a reinvention of the famous Universal stable of monsters of the 1930s and 1940s. Shuler Hensley plays the Monster who, contrary to usual practice, is directly referred to by the name Frankenstein in the film's publicity, but he is named mostly in the film as "the monster" or "the creature". The portrayal of the creature in this movie as intelligent, articulate, sympathetic, and as a hero who only wants to live, is somewhat close to the portrayal in the book. Physically, he is large and bulky, as opposed to his tall and thin portrayal in the classic films, and bears many physical features of Boris Karloff's portrayal, such as the bolted neck and flat head. He also has a visible brain and heart, which glow green and protected under glass casings, and a large engine in his left leg. He plays a vital role in the birth of Dracula 's numerous offspring, the combination of his 'father's' machine that gave him life in the first place and the use of himself as a power source allowing the numerous stillborn children Dracula has conceived with his brides over the centuries to be brought to life, requiring Van Helsing to kill Dracula himself in order to stop the children.
2005: Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove . In this film, Frankenstein's monster is resurrected to fight terrorists along with a half-fish, half-man creature. However, the plan soon goes awry.
2006: Perfect Woman. This film, produced by Olympic Productions, is a modern spin on the tale. The plot follows a reality game show that is looking for the perfect woman to win the perfect man, played by Marcus Schenkenberg . Little do the girls know that the game show is a mask for an evil genius who is literally trying to make the perfect woman, using various body parts.
2006: Subject Two . This film, written and directed by Philip Chidel, has a modern nanotechnology spin on the tale. The plot follows a disillusioned medical student's journey to a remote snowbound mountain location where he is met by Dr. Vic.
2009: Army of Frankenstein, This film is directed by Richard Raaphorst, the story tells over a fight in the year 1945 between Polish and German Borderlines at the end of the Second World War . [3]
2011: "Frankenstein's Wedding - Live in Leeds" - Broadcast live on BBC3, this adaptation used the romance between Victor and Elizabeth as a basis for a music drama portraying the rest of the story and was filmed live on the 19th of March 2011 at Kirkstall Abbey in Leeds. The drama used popular music, such as "Wires" by Athlete, sung by Andrew Gower, portraying the Scientist, Frankenstein. Other members of the cast included Lacey Turner as Elizabeth "Liz" Lavenza and David Harewood as the Creature.
Parodies and Satires
The Tim Burton films Frankenweenie and Edward Scissorhands bear many references to the Frankenstein story.
A 2001 short film called Frankenthumb , directed by Steve Oedekerk, a parody of the James Whale 1931 film told with thumbs with superimposed faces and elaborate miniature sets.
One of the Garbage Pail Kids was a Frankenstein-like character whose name was, appropriately, "Frank N. Stein" (his alternate name was "Undead Jed").
Return of the Killer Tomatoes (1988) includes a scene in which the lead character is watching a movie called Frankenstein's Mummy (as a spoof of the 1930s sequel titles) on nighttime television. Return also features a character named Igor who parodies the "hunchbacked assistant" cliche upon his first appearance in the film.
Frank Enstein (1992) is a direct-to-video children's film about a robot named "Frank Enstein" who goes on an adventure.
Television derivatives
Edit
The Frankenstein story and its elements have been adapted many times for television:
The anthology series Tales of Tomorrow (1951–1953) featured a half-hour adaptation starring Lon Chaney Jr. as an atomically-animated monster.
Boris Karloff reprised his role wearing the Frankenstein monster makeup in a 1962 episode of Route 66 entitled Lizard's Leg and Owlet's Wing for Halloween. Also appearing in the episode were Lon Chaney, Jr. as both the Wolf Man and The Mummy and Peter Lorre .
Universal produced a television sitcom from 1964 to 1966 for CBS entitled The Munsters with Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster , a character physically resembling the Universal's cinematic depiction of Frankenstein's monster, who was the patriarch of a family of kindly monsters. The rest of the family included a grandfather resembling the Universal Dracula (who may actually be Dracula), a wife that resembles "The Bride of Frankenstein" , and a werewolf son . The Munsters' house at 1313 Mockingbird Lane can still be seen on the Universal Studios' backlot tour at Universal Studios in Universal City , California .
The 1965 Doctor Who serial The Chase features a sequence set in what appears to be a mysterious old house where various horror film monsters, including Frankenstein's monster, menace first the Doctor and his companions and later the Daleks . The house is subsequently revealed to be a Haunted House exhibit at an event entitled the "Festival of Ghana , 1996 "
Milton the Monster (1965–1967) was a cartoon character developed shortly after The Munsters about a kind-hearted Frankenstein monster who famously "flipped his lid" (emitted steam like a whale's blowhole) when angered, and who was constantly nearly kicked out of the lab by his scheming creator.
The Gothic TV drama Dark Shadows featured a plotline running from April 1968 until December 1968 in which an artificial man named Adam is stitched together from corpses and reanimated using the life force of vampire Barnabas Collins .
The 1968 BBC-TV series Mystery and Imagination featured an adaptation starring Ian Holm as both Frankenstein and his creation.
In the Adult Swim animated series Minoriteam , the title characters frequently fought an opponent named Racist Frankenstein .
In the animated series " Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles " a boy scientist Buzz Conroy and his father Professor Conroy fight supervillains with the aid of a powerful heroic robot named "Frankenstein Jr." who is like a mix between " Gigantor " and Frankenstein.
Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein are the father and mother of Frankie Stein in Monster High .
Frankenstein's Wedding was a live television adaptation broadcast on BBC Three on the 19th March 2011.
In an episode of the cartoon series The Venture Bros. , entitled ¡Viva los Muertos! , Dr Veture reanimates the corpse of a Monarch henchman killed by Brock Samson, naming the creature "Venturestein".
Other derivatives
" Some Kind of Monster " is a 2004 song by Metallica which uses themes from Frankenstein.
"Jesse James meets Frankenstein's Daughter" is a song by American Folk musician Space Mandino .
The Rammstein song " Mutter " is about a monster that kills its creator or mom in this case.
The musical " The Rocky Horror Picture Show " includes a song called "There's A Light (Over at the Frankenstein Place)"
The punk band Crass referenced Frankenstein in the song "Reject of Society".
"Dr. Frankenstein" a concept album/rock opera written by cuban/mexican musician Jose Fors was based on both the original novel and James Whale's films. It was released in 2009.
Toy Love released a 1980 single, "Bride of Frankenstein".
The German band Oomph!'s song " Brennende Liebe " details a sort of Frankenstein scenario, and the video features Frankenstein, his wife, and the scientist and his associates.
The rock band Glass Wave included a song about Frankenstein's monster (entitled "Creature") on their 2010 album. The lyrics are sung through the creature's voice.
Kevin Max 's song "Jumpstart Your Electric Heart," from his 2005 album The Imposter is a modern-day retelling of Shelley's Frankenstein.
Radio
Edit
On August 3, 1931, Alonzo Dean Cole adapted the novel as a 30-minute episode of his program The Witch's Tale . It was redone on March 7, 1932 and July 17, 1935.
In 1938, George Edwards produced a 13-part, 3-hour series for radio. It follows the structure and spirit of the novel closely.
Two other versions were made in both 1944 and 1955.
In 1945 it was adapted as a 30-minute drama on the syndicated program The Weird Circle .
In 1946 it was adapated as a 30-minute drama on the program Favorite Story.
Another 30-minute drama version was used on Suspense on November 3, 1952 starring Herbert Marshall and was used again on June 7, 1955 starring Stacy Harris.
In 1999, the Radio Tales drama series presented an adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel for National Public Radio .
Stage
Edit
Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, written by Richard Brinsley Peake , was produced at the English Opera House in London in 1823.
Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim is an 1887 musical burlesque composed by Meyer Lutz and written by Richard Henry .
A Broadway adaptation of the story by Victor Gialanella played for one performance on January 4, 1981 (after 29 previews) and was considered the most expensive flop ever produced to that date. [7] It is noteworthy for John Carradine 's playing the part of the blind "DeLacey". Also starring were David Dukes as "Victor Frankenstein", Dianne Wiest as "Elizabeth", John Glover as "Henry Clervel", and Keith Joachim as "The Creature". [8]
A musical adaptation entitled "Day of Wrath", (composed by Eric Sirota, with lyrics by E. Sirota & S. Sudol), was first produced in 1990, in Clinton, NJ. [9]
Joined At The Heart is a musical with music & lyrics by Graham Brown & Geoff Meads, book by Frances Anne Bartam and directed by Frances Brownlie. It tells the love story of Victor Frankenstein and his step sister Elizabeth, a young orphan girl taken in by Victor's parents and cared for as if she were their own daughter. When Victor's mother dies, he vows to end the suffering that death brings by pursuing eternal life. Joined At The Heart reached the final of the Worldwide Search for Musicals competition. The show was produced at The Junction 2 in Cambridge, UK from 1–4 August 2007 and at the Edinburgh Fringe in Scotland from 12–18 August 2007.
Young Frankenstein , a musical theatre adaptation of Mel Brooks ' Young Frankenstein , opened in November 2007 and closed in January 2009. [10]
" Frankenstein - A New Musical ", a pop-opera adaptation which adhered closely to the original novel,opened at 37 Arts Theatre, New York, in Autumn 2007 and closed in December 2007. The first UK performance was at The Stables Theatre Hastings in May 2009. Music was by Mark Baron, book by Jefferey Jackson and Gary P Cohen. [11]
A performance storytelling production of Frankenstein is currently touring both in the UK and internationally. It is performed by storyteller Ben Haggarty and the composer, singer and musician Sianed Jones. http://www.crickcrackclub.com/CRICRACK/TOURFR.HTM
Frankenstein , a play adapted by Nick Dear from the original novel, premieres at the Royal National Theatre in 2011.
Novels
Edit
The story of Frankenstein, or to be precise, " Frankenstein's monster ", has formed the basis of many original novels over the years, some of which were considered sequels to Shelley's original work, and some of which were based more upon the character as portrayed in the Universal films. Yet others were completely new tales inspired by Frankenstein.
1957: French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière wrote six Frankenstein novels in 1957 and 1958 for Angoisse, the horror imprint of publisher Fleuve Noir, under the house pseudonym of Benoît Becker (with plotting assistance from Guy Bechtel for the first novel).
1. La Tour de Frankenstein [The Tower of Frankenstein] (FNA No. 30, 1957)
2. Le Pas de Frankenstein [The Step of Frankenstein] (FNA No. 32, 1957)
3. La Nuit de Frankenstein [The Night of Frankenstein] (FNA No. 34, 1957)
4. Le Sceau de Frankenstein [The Seal of Frankenstein] (FNA No. 36, 1957)
5. Frankenstein Rôde [Frankenstein Prowls] (FNA No. 41, 1958)
6. La Cave de Frankenstein [The Cellar of Frankenstein] (FNA No. 50, 1959)
Carrière followed the footsteps of the Monster, christened Gouroull, as he made his way back from Iceland, to Scotland, and then Germany and Switzerland, from the late 1800s to the 1920s. The plots have the Monster pursuing his own, evil agenda, unafraid of the weaker humans. Even people who try to help or reason with him are just as likely to be killed by the inhuman fiend.
1973: Frankenstein Unbound, by Brian Aldiss , combining the titles of Mary Shelley's novel with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound (1820), sends a time traveller from the twenty-first century back to Geneva in 1816 when Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (as she was then) was engaged in writing the original Frankenstein story.
1978: Allan Rune Pettersson wrote two novels in 1978 and 1989
Frankenstein's Aunt Returns
1980: The Frankenstein Diaries. Translated and Edited by the Reverend Hubert Venables. Purports to be the actual diary of Victor Frankenstein. Written in a diary style with accompanying illustrations. [12]
1986: In The Frankenstein Papers, Fred Saberhagen retells Shelley's story (with significant modifications) from the creature's point of view. It is revealed that the novel had actually taken place during the American Revolution and Benjamin Franklin and his son play a major role in the novel. It is revealed through a series of letters as well as the monster's diary that the monster is actually an amnesiac humanoid alien who was disfigured by the electric explosion used in Victor's experiments, and that the creature that Victor had stitched together never in fact came to life. It is also revealed that Victor had performed the experiments under the behest of the sinister British nobleman Roger Saville, who had wished to create a race of super-men so as to form a colony of slaves and to defeat the American rebels. It is also implied that Saville and his hunchbacked assistant Small had murdered Victor's family in order to blackmail him, and that the novel was actually written by Robert Walton (who wanted to profit from the slave business) as a means to spread distrust to the monster. However, Benjamin rescues the Alien and helps him regain his memory with the help of Cagliostro , the book ends with the alien departing Earth, and deciding that despite the cruelty men like Saville are capable of, men like Benjamin Freeman are the true examples of the human race.
1986: In Stephen King's It , the monster "It" took the form of Frankenstein's monster.
1997: Frankenstein According to Spike Milligan is one of a series of parody novels by Spike Milligan . In this, Milligan crafts a bizarre story, with many gags based on specific moments and instances from the text of the novel, such as "I am self-educated: for the first fourteen years of my life I ran wild on the common. At the end of that time I fell exhausted to the ground."
2004: Dean Koontz has written a series of Frankenstein novels: Dean Koontz's Frankenstein . These reimagine Frankenstein in the setting of modern-day New Orleans.
2005: Joseph Covino Jr has written an epic derivative novel faithful to Mary Shelley's original classic titled, Frankenstein Resurrected. [13]
2008: Kathlyn Bradshaw's The Frankenstein Murders ( Cormorant Books ) is a psychological horror/murder mystery that takes place after the events of the original novel and deconstructs its most important elements. ISBN 978-1-897151-16-7 [14]
Comics
(Main article: Frankenstein (comics) )
The Monster has also been the subject of many comic book adaptations, ranging from the ridiculous (a 1960s series portraying The Monster as a superhero; see below), to more straightforward interpretations of Shelley's work.
Dick Briefer's Frankenstein (1940-1954)
(Main article: Frankenstein (Prize Comics) )
In 1940 , cartoonist Dick Briefer wrote and drew a Frankenstein's-monster comic book title for Crestwood Publications 's Prize Comics, beginning with a standard horrific version, updated to contemporary America, but then in 1945 crafting an acclaimed and well-remembered comedic version that spun off into his own title, Frankenstein Comics. The series ended with issue #17 (Jan.-Feb. 1949 , but was revived as a horror title from #18-33 (March 1952 - Oct.-Nov. 1954 ). The original Prize version served as catalyst for an intra-company crossover , where all characters starring in Prize Comics at the time teamed up to fight Frankenstein. [15] [16]
DC Comics
DC Comics ' Movie Comics #1 (April 1939 ) featured an eight-page fumetti adaptation of the film Son of Frankenstein .
The Monster appeared in Superman No. 143 (February 1961 ), in a story entitled "Bizarro Meets Frankenstein!"
In 1973 the "Spawn of Frankenstein" appeared in the Phantom Stranger comic, written by Len Wein . The portrayal of the monster was as a reclusive, sympathetic character who had been living alone in the Arctic since the death of his creator.
A 1995 Batman special called Batman: Castle of the Bat by Jack C. Harris and Bo Hampton amalgamates Batman and Frankenstein. Bruce Wayne fills the role of Victor Frankenstein, wishing to revive his deceased father. Having successfully done so, his creation becomes the monstrous "Bat-Man", a hulking figure in a rough analogue of the Batman costume who preys upon highwaymen, similar to the one who took the lives of the (this story's) parents of Bruce Wayne. Batman's butler Alfred Pennyworth is changed to a hunchbacked dwarf named Alfredo, filling the "Igor" role.
In The Superman Monster ( 1999 ), Lex Luthor is Viktor Luther, the creator. He discovers the spacecraft that would have carried the infant Superman to Earth. Inside, however, is only the skeleton of a child. Using the Kryptonian technology, he is able to animate his (unintentionally) super-powered creature, which initially resembles Bizarro . The creature flees and is raised by the kindly couple Johann and Marta Kant. They name the creature Klaus, after their dead son. The story features the Lois Lane character becoming "The Bride" to Superman's Creature.
DC Comics and Roy Thomas revived the character "The Spawn of Frankenstein" in Young All-Stars ; he then appeared in Grant Morrison 's Seven Soldiers of Victory . Here, Frankenstein is a Milton -quoting, gun -toting warrior battling to prevent the end of the world. In addition, DC's team of movie monster-esque soldiers known as the Creature Commandos featured a character that resembled the Universal Pictures version of Frankenstein's monster; Private Elliot "Lucky" Taylor was nearly killed after stepping on a land mine , but was grotesquely reconstructed into a "Patchwork Creature" (as designated by the Who's Who in the DC Universe entry on the Creature Commandos), and later rendered mute by a failed suicide attempt. Later, DC Comics debuted an unrelated superhero (and member of the Teen Titans ) called " Young Frankenstein ."
In Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary , the protagonist, Elijah Snow, discovers an abandoned laboratory, filled with patchwork undead monsters. It is heavily implied that the lab belonged to Victor Frankenstein, and that, alongside Count Dracula, the Invisible Man , and Sherlock Holmes , Frankenstein had been part of a covert, 19th century conspiracy to shape the direction of the future.
In the comic book Major Bummer , Louie defends the common misnaming of the monster as "Frankenstein": Dr. Frankenstein is, so to speak, the monster's "father," and it is only right that a son should have his father's family name.
Marvel Comics
(Main article: Frankenstein's Monster (Marvel Comics) )
The monster appeared as a foe to Marvel Comics ' X-Men in issue #40 of their eponymous series (January 1968 ). In the story, written by Roy Thomas , the monster had various powers, including incredible strength, optic beams, and magnetized feet. He was an ambassador sent to Earth by aliens in the 1850s, but upon arrival, he went berserk. His fellow aliens followed him to the North Pole , where he was frozen. In the present, he was discovered by scientists and thawed. According to Professor X , this android was the inspiration for Shelley's novel.
The Monster of Frankenstein, the first five issues of which (Jan.-Sept. 1973) contained a faithful (in spirit at least) retelling of Shelley's tale before transferring The Monster into the present day and pitting him against James Bond -inspired evil organizations. The artist, Mike Ploog , recalled, "I really enjoyed doing Frankenstein because I related to that naive monster wandering around a world he had no knowledge of — an outsider seeing everything through the eyes of a child." [17]
Other publishers
Edit
Classic Comics #27 (December 1945 ), reprinted in Classics Illustrated #26, had versions of the Shelley novel.
Dell Comics published a superhero version of the character in the comic book series Frankenstein #2-4 (Sept. 1966 - March 1967; issue #1, published Oct. 1964, featured a very loose adaptation/update of the 1931 Universal Pictures movie).
In 1972 , French comics publisher Aredit devoted seven issues of its digest-sized Hallucinations horror comic magazine to adapt Jean-Claude Carrière's Frankenstein novels.
In 1991 , Dark Horse Comics issued an adaptation of the 1931 Universal film.
The Monster is Monster in My Pocket #13. He appears among the good monsters in the comic book (1991), the video game (1991), the animated special (1992), and the 2003 animated series. In the comics, he was relatively inarticulate, represented by hyphens between each syllable he spoke, but possessed of simple wisdom and strong morals . This characterization was essentially characterized in the video game, where he was a playable character, and his only line of dialogue in the cut scenes was "Yeah..." In the animated special, he was known as "Big Ed" and was essentially a comic simpleton.
2004 saw the debut of Doc Frankenstein , written by the Wachowski brothers , the writer-director team of The Matrix ), and drawn by Steve Skroce . The book tells the continuing adventures of Frankenstein's monster, who has since adopted his creator's name and became a hero through the ages.
In 2005 , Dead Dog Comics produced a sequel to the Frankenstein mythos with Frankenstein: Monster Mayhem, written by R. D. Hall with art by Jerry Beck . In Dead Dog's version, the monster sets out to create his own Necropolis .
Also in 2005, Speakeasy Comics put out their sequel, The Living and the Dead, written by Todd Livingston and Robert Tinnell , with art by Micah Farritor. In it, Victor, now calling himself Hans, must create a new body for his first cousin who wants her syphilitic son to remain alive after a vicious beating, and she coerces him to do so under fear of exposing him for who he really is. Half-crazed due to the disease, the newly born monster proceeds to start a Grand Guignol theater in Ingolstadt until Victor puts him down with the help of the first monster he ever created. As thanks, Victor begins work on the last attempt he will make at playing God , and begins to build the original creature a mate.
In 2005, Puffin Books released a graphic novel adaptation adapted by Gary Reed with art from Frazer Irving .
The 2006 Beckett Entertainment/Image comics graphic novel The Cobbler's Monster: A Tale of Gepetto's Frankenstein features an amalgamation between Gepetto and Victor Frankenstein, who reanimates his dead son.
In 2006, Eros Comix published Adult Frankenstein, a comic book with Frankenstein x-rated stories (featuring also other classic monsters) all written by Enrico Teodorani (creator of Djustine ), with cover by Joe Vigil and interior art by some of the best Italian authors in the erotic comics field.
Also in 2006, Big Bang Comics published an issue of Big Bang Presents featuring a superhero incarnation of the monster called Super Frankenstein.
In 2009 Papercutz published a Classics Illustrated Deluxe Graphic Novel adaptation of Frankenstein by French cartoonist Marion Mousse. His adaptation was originally published in French in three volumes, and was all collected and translated into English for the Papercutz version. Of all the comic book adaptations this one is probably the most faithful to the original book.
Toys and games
Edit
Frankenstein's monster appears in the Konami video game series Castlevania , numerous times, with its name being "The Monster" or "The Creature", often as a major boss , but sometimes as a regular enemy. His presence is technically an anachronism since he appears several hundred years before his date of creation in the 18th century. The monster usually has the appearance of the Karloff/Universal version; however, the 2010 series reboot Castlevania: Lords of Shadow features a completely different-looking boss known as the "Mechanical Monstrosity", created some time prior to 1047 by "Friedrich von Frankenstein".
Several other video game version are also available, including Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster - A Cinematic Adventure Starring Tim Curry (PC) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , ( Super Nintendo , Sega Genesis , Sega CD ) based on the 1994 film of the same name. The original Nintendo (NES) has Frankenstein: The Monster Returns and for the Atari 2600 , Frankenstein's Monster.
In the 1995 Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! , Kong's archenemy, King K. Rool, assumes the persona of Baron K. Roolenstein.
A Frankenstein-like monster called Victor von Gerdenheim is a playable character in the fighting game series Darkstalkers , along with many other monsters from popular culture.
Frankenstein's monster also appears in the videogame adaptation of the film Van Helsing. He only appears as a non-playable character.
Frankenstein's monster also appears in Warriors of Primetime, where he is the final boss (this monster is inaccurate as Frankenstein claims to be 'brought back to life').
The role-playing game Promethean: The Created , published by White Wolf , focuses on beings created from human remains and animated by "the Divine Fire" who seek to attain humanity. One of the "Lineages" (groupings) of said creatures is that of the Frankensteins, who, like their namesake, are crafted from the best parts of multiple corpses and brought to life by lightning. The monster himself, going by the name John Verney, appears in some of the book's fiction and illustrations.
Many role-playing games, such as Dungeons & Dragons , allow the creation of Flesh Golems , similar creatures created through the use of magic.
In 2002, LEGO released a Dr. Frankenstein and monster set as part of the LEGO Studios toy line. in 2011 a new green skined Minifigure called Monster resambles Frankenstein.
In Atari 's 2004 PC game, RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 , a "monster animatronic" appears as part of a set of scenery included in the "Spooky" park theme.
The 2008 video game Fable II contains a quest in which a man named Victor is attempting to reanimate the body of a deceased woman, both homages to the book. Upon completion of the quest, if the player buys the house, it unlocks an area known as "The Shelley Tomb", a reference to the author of the novel.
In the 2009 Wii game MadWorld , Frankenstein's monster appears as a boss battle at the base of a dungeon, and is simply called "Frank" with bolts in his back, rather than his neck as common stereotypes depict. He is also shown as being regenerative when connected to an electric chair, and his size well exceeds the usually large 7'0" to go as much as 20'0".
Other usages
Science fiction author Isaac Asimov coined the term Frankenstein complex for the fear of robots.
Frankenstein or Franken- is sometimes used as a prefix to imply artificial monstrosity as in " frankenfood ", a politically charged name for genetically manipulated foodstuffs. The Franken- prefix can also mean anything assembled haphazardly from originally disparate elements, especially if those parts were previously discarded by others—for example, a car built from parts salvaged from many other cars. For many years Eddie Van Halen played a guitar built in such a manner which he called the " Frankenstrat ".
In 1971, General Mills introduced " Franken Berry ", a strawberry-flavored corn cereal whose mascot is a variation of the monster from the 1931 movie.
"Frankenstein" is the name of a character in the 1975 movie Death Race 2000 and its 2008 remake Death Race . The first incarnation was portrayed by recently deceased veteran actor David Carradine and the second by Jason Statham.
George A. Romero 's 1985 film Day of the Dead features a scientist conducting experiments on zombies nicknamed "Frankenstein."
The hit song China in Your Hand by the British rock band T'Pau employs the story of Frankenstein, and Mary Shelley's writing of it, in its role as a classic cautionary tale.
In David Brin 's science fiction novel Kiln People , defective golems that become autonomous are called "frankies".
Mewtwo of the Pokémon franchise has been likened to Frankenstein's monster in regards to being born through an artificial means and discontent with the fact. [18] [19]
Stitch , the main character of Disney 's Lilo & Stitch franchise, was somewhat influenced by the monster, as he was created by a scientist from miscellaneous alien DNA . Unlike Shelley's monster, however, his intentions were initially evil until he discovered an inner loneliness, causing him, and eventually his creator, to turn from crime to justice. Throughout the franchise, Stitch also demonstrates the monster's herculean strength and childlike curiosity.
In season 3 of Beast Wars Megatron clones Dinobot , making a Frankenstein's monster out of the clone by transmetallizing him with the Transmetal Driver and adding the half of Rampage's mutant spark he cut out earlier. The result was an extremely mutated Transmetal II minion under the influence of his "half-brother's" evil.
In 2006, the book The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived listed Dr. Frankenstein's Monster (sic) at #6. [20] [21]
The California Medical Association , in a rather humorous gesture, chose Halloween 2006 to announce that Dr. Richard Frankenstein had been elected president of the organization. [22] [23] He had previously been president of the Orange County Medical Association in 1995-1996. [24]
Frankenstain is a character in the Korean web-comic manhwa named " Noblesse ". He, like that of the actual character Frankenstein, is a scientist, but the similarities end there. Through his research he has gained immortality and immense power. He now serves the most powerful of all vampires known as the " Noblesse "
See also
| Igor |
Who played Professor Fate’s assistant, Max, in the Great Escape? | Victor Frankenstein (2015) Movie
Victor Frankenstein
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James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe star in a dynamic and thrilling twist on a legendary tale. Radical scientist Victor Frankenstein (McAvoy) and his equally brilliant protégé Igor Strausman (Radclif... more
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James McAvoy and Daniel Radcliffe star in a dynamic and thrilling twist on a legendary tale. Radical scientist Victor Frankenstein (McAvoy) and his equally brilliant protégé Igor Strausman (Radcliffe) share a noble vision of aiding humanity through their groundbreaking research into immortality. But Victor’s experiments go too far, and his obsession has horrifying consequences. Only Igor can bring his friend back from the brink of madness and save him from his monstrous creation.
official plot version from foxmovies.com
| i don't know |
Which river did the English cross to fight the Battle of Agincourt 700 years ago? | Crecy
CRECY - 26 August 1346
The first and biggest battle in which longbow men fought against knights and won against overwhelming numbers and repeated charges into the darkness.
The battle of Crécy was a resounding victory for the English longbow men during the 100-year war and was fought on 26 August 1346 by the Army of King Edward III and King Philip VI of France.
A large army of King Philip VI of France numbering some 30,000 to 40,000 men, was in close pursuit of King Edward III. The latter had had to cross the Somme river at a ford known as Blanchetacque, downstream of Abbeville.
This had to be undertaken at low tide, leaving a detachment of the French army and Genoese crossbowmen on the North shore time to prepare.
Longbowmen were the first to wade in to a volley of crossbow bolts. They overcame the opposition at considerable cost.
The English in turn now left a rearguard on the North shore while the tide rose and stopped the main French army coming up behind them. The English army moved swiftly North-west to take and despoil le Crotoy on the other (North) shore of the Somme estuary. They also cleared much of the countryside of resistance towards the East.
The main French Army, unable to make the crossing at the same ford, moved South-eastwards inland to Abbeville. The following day much of the French army, which included 6000 Genoese crossbowmen as well as some and German mercenaries, proceeded North-west from Abbeville to the Crotoy. Smoking fires had encouraged them into thinking the English were still in the town and could be encircled. However, the English Army had moved on and was already making defensive preparations for a battle at Crécy. The considerable detour thereby made by the French army meant that by the time it located the English, it had already marched an appreciable distance.
In the meantime the English Army numbering some 12,000 to 13,000 of which 6000 to 7000 were longbow men, was aligned on a ridge between Crécy and Wadicourt. The ground in front of the Crécy-Wadicourt ridge slopes away to a shallow valley with a small river. Just below the ridge the ground has up to three terraces in some places. The steepest part of the ridge is towards Crécy, while towards Wadicourt the fall of the ground softens and is marshy at the bottom. Woods at either end afforded some protection to the flanks, while a small wood behind the battle lines was used to locate the baggage train. The battle line was some 2000 yards (1830m) long, which given the numbers deployed was a comparatively narrow front. King Edward had chosen his ground well and now made expert use of it.
The English Army was drawn-up in three battle lines, two in the front-line and one in reserve. Each line consisted of a centre of dismounted knights and men at arms, flanked on both sides by forward curving wings of archers. The English capitalised on the lie of the land and in its occupation of the terraces. The forward line with equal numbers of archers on its wings stood at the edge of the gradually rising ground. The second line was nearer the ridge. The King held the third line a short distance back from the ridge itself and was quartered in a windmill overlooking the whole of the battlefield.
Given the length of the front and the numbers it had to accommodate it is likely that the English positioned their longbow men in wedge-shaped formations. The wedge or harrow-formation was varied in order to take account of the ground, but the majority of archers were on the flanks in an open V formation pointing towards the adversary. Placed in wedge-shaped ranks a thicker barrage of arrows was possible and this was a vital contributor to the outcome of the battle. Each longbow man carried two sheafs of 24 arrows. The method of re-supply was well rehearsed with archers going a short distance for supplies, while others took their place. Runners covered the distance between the archers and the baggage train.
The English army had good time to prepare itself, not only in terms of its disposition, but also to add to its defences with ditches, potholes and caltrops placed in the ground ahead of it.
The army was fully dismounted and had been given strict instructions not to pursue the enemy too far down the slope into the valley. The discipline it showed in not doing so was critical.
The advance for the French up to the ridge was some 500 yards (460m), of which 400 (366m) on upward sloping terrain. The slope increases as one approaches the first of the terraces. The French Army was sighted from the windmill at about four in the afternoon. The Oriflamme had been unfurled signifying that no quarter was to be given. However, King Philip's advisors counselled against joining battle that same day for two reasons. Only four hours of daylight remained and the army needed resting after a long march. Secondly the size of the Army was such that during the march columns had become mixed up and needed organising prior to battle. King Philip accepted the advice. However, the nobles seeing the English up on the ridge and confident of an easy victory, could not resist pressing for an immediate attack. As the cavalry and men at arms on foot surged forward the French King had to give way and agree to the charge, which therefore got underway without proper order.
Moments prior to the battle there was a thunderstorm with a heavy downpour, which softened the ground, making it heavier for the cavalry. It also loosened the heavy bowstrings on the crossbows of the Genoese mercenaries in the French army. This may to some extent have spoilt their cast. The longbow men in the English lines had tucked theirs under their helmets to keep them dry. When the sun came out again it was on the backs of the English and therefore shone straight into the eyes of the attacking forces.
It is possible that in the haste to attack the Genoese crossbow men had not been able to retrieve their pavises (large shields) from the baggage train. If that were so it would have left them without protection once they had shot and were starting to reload. The 6000 Genoese crossbow men were placed in a forward position and were followed up the gradually inclining slope by the cavalry. Crossbows at that time were made of wood or composite construction and shot approximately 200 to 220 yards (180-200 metres). When the crossbow men had the forward lines of the English within that distance they loosed their bolts. The flat trajectory of a crossbow bolt, pointed slightly upwards to meet the rising ground, meant that much of the shot missed the English who were partially hidden from view on the terraces.
Little did the Genoese realise that the longbow had the greater range and could cover up to 320 yards (300 metres). While the slow process of reloading their crossbows began after the first round, the English longbow men stood up and shot volley after volley of arrows.
- French Men at Arms on foot
- Genoese Cross Bow
- English Cavalry and Men at Arms on foot
- English Men at Arms on foot
- English Archers
- Canon
The reloading and unprotected Genoese were disrupted and they suffered very heavy casualties. They began to withdraw. The King and the nobles were furious at this reverse. Many of the Genoese began to cut their bowstrings or cast their bows aside, so that they could not be made to fight a second charge. Realising that dead crossbow mercenaries did not need payment, the oncoming cavalry charged straight through the ranks of the Genoese deliberately cutting down many of them in the process.
Now the full charge by the cavalry got underway, banners flying and swords raised. Volleys of arrows fell upon them like snow. Horses demented with pain threw their riders, panicked and ran down into the already disordered second wave of the attack.
Charge after charge was made by the French cavalry up the slope, which with the weight of rider, armament and equipment meant that horses were exhausted by the time they came within bowshot of the English lines. Horses and riders were killed and wounded in many hundreds with each volley of arrows, always directed at that part of the battlefield where the press was greatest.
Successive charges had to be made through ever increasing numbers of dead and wounded men and horses. Already within the first half hour the ground just below the terraces was covered with the fallen and the dying. Fifteen more charges were made by the cavalry and the men at arms on foot. They were never well enough organised, as the King’ s advisors had warned. However, they were in themselves a testimony to the raw courage of the French army. Each successive charge was weaker and during brief pauses in the battle, the English archers stood in their lines with remarkable discipline, only going down the slope far enough to collect their arrows. At some stage during the battle King Edward’s 16-year old Son, the Black Prince did fight his way too far down the slope and was almost separated from the main lines. The King refused to send reinforcements, but the position was retrieved through a flank attack by Arundel, one of his commanders.
The attacks continued into the moonlight as French commanders refused to cede against a much smaller army and its lowly born archers. Finally, only towards midnight, did the attacks cease. By that time the King of France had been wounded and taken off the battlefield. Large numbers of the French nobility had been killed or were wounded. The next day, after the morning fog had lifted, some 2000 longbow men and 500 spearmen did go down the slope and made contact with the French levies, killing a large number of them and scattering the remainder.
The battle lasted from four in the afternoon until about midnight. French and Genoese casualties are estimated at 10,000 to 30,000, the most likely figure being 12,000. Of these 11 were Princes of the realm and 1200 were Knights. The English suffered 150 to 250 dead, about the same losses as they had incurred crossing the Somme at blanchetacque.
The French army had made 15 to 16 distinct charges in all. The French nobility interpreted the new method of battle as unchivalrous. Nevertheless, the devastating effectiveness of the longbow at Crécy meant that for some 50 years thereafter Knights dismounted to fight. In the next major battle of Poitiers there were almost no crossbows. Crécy had shown they were of inferior cast, had a low rate of shot and made the reloading crossbowman vulnerable in the process. Only when their bows could be made of steel were the French armies again tempted to use them. For almost ten years after the battle of Crécy the fighting between France and England subsided. This was caused in part by the Black Death, which swept over Europe and killed more than a third of its population.
Calendars
| Somme |
Which month of 2015 saw the 900th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta? | The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War » De Re Militari
The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War
The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War
Matthew Bennett
Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War (1994)
It is a common aphorism that the history of war is too important to be left to military historians. They tend to be seen as obsessed with battle with no further interest or wider understanding of the warring societies.1 In truth, they have done themselves no favours in the past by emphasising ‘decisive’ victories. This overvalues the long-term impact of even the most significant battle and distorts by undervaluing the other, far more common, activities of raid, attrition, fortification and siege in the warfare of any period.
By their very nature battles are ephemeral events, and historians have to rely upon largely subjective accounts in reconstructing them. Some consider this an uncongenial or even inappropriate task for their profession. `Real’ history is to be found in the study of `real’ information, such as can be found in the administrative records of governments: musters lists, tax records, accounts, diplomatic correspondence, building records and so on. Biased and `journalistic’ reportage of chroniclers and government propagandists or the partial and often confused recollection of participants scarcely qualifies as history. Furthermore, the study of battles has tended to be conducted by soldiers.
There may seem nothing wrong with this, but it has led to them drawing upon their own military experience of modern warfare without making due allowance for the differences of another place and time. Just as the historians might benefit from some practical experience of, for example, `living in the field’, the soldier historians’ often impressionistic accounts need more historical rigour. They tend to be critical of medieval commanders and their forces on grounds that are simply not valid for their times. This is true of Lt-Col. A.H. Bume, still the most well-known military historian of the Hundred Years’ War.2
He deserves credit for the work he did in exploring battlefields and his observations may be perceptive. But he was guilty of missing the point about how medieval warfare was conducted, by concentrating on battles alone. He was even capable of saying of the period 1369-1396 (when the bulk of the English king’s continental possessions fell into the hands of his French rival) that: `The war (was) lacking in military interest, for there was remarkably little actual fighting’.3 When the fortresses which guarded Aquitaine were being lost this is nonsense! As a result historians have tended to see the study of battles as a field for cranks and `enthusiasts’. Since understanding a battle requires study of the tactics employed by the protagonists, tactics have been tarred with the same brush. Surely they cannot be important in comparison to the great moving forces of history exemplified by economic, demographic, medical, governmental and ideological factors?
Yet if it is valid to study the impact of religious reform movements in the later middle ages, then it should be acceptable to look at tactics, since both were important areas of intellectual concern. The former has a higher status, because intellectual religiosity has a long literary tradition and so it can be studied. In contrast, military theorising was part of an oral, vernacular and secular culture, which rarely survives in writing. In fact, from the early fifteenth century there is written evidence that military commanders were capable of innovating, experimenting and setting down how warfare should be conducted and how battles should be fought.4 Above all they were capable of learning from experience, a talent which is almost never ascribed to the medieval military mind.
So tactics were important. They were important because failure to employ correct tactics could have a profound political impact, in a period when national leaders fought in the front rank of battle. In this context, clearly, time and intellectual energy were spent in discussing and attempting to put into effect, tactical variation. Attempting, for the medieval host was an unwieldly instrument for innovation. This not because it was made up solely of part-time soldiers; the hunting classes and their retainers at war, although there was always an element of that, In England, especially, many men made war their trade, and by the mid-fourteenth century there were substantial groups of men-at-arms and archers who might be considered professionals: they fought for pay and made their careers in the military service of the state. The indenture system promoted this situation. (That is to say a system of raising troops by contracts with individuals and their followings, from simple squires to men of high noble rank.) Fighting together over a season or over years such men learnt how to deploy tactically, both quickly and efficiently, and how to combine horse, foot and missile weapons to best effect. This is what made the English and their (chiefly) Gascon allies such good soldiers during the Hundred Years War. The French and their allies rarely achieved the same level of battlefield efficiency, even after Charles V1I’s reforms of the 1440s.5
It is important to identify what tactics are. A recent, most widely read and otherwise excellent textbook on the Hundred Years’ War confuses tactics with strategy. The chevauchee is explained in terms of ‘Fabian tactics’, which is to say: a policy of defeating an opponent without the risks of battle.6 But the chevauchee (literally a `ride’) was a raiding strategy, inflicting economic damage and so weakening an enemy’s political and moral authority in the ravaged region. The misuse of the word tactics in the strict sense means that they are not discussed as an important factor. As a result, the French reaction to English tactics which was a continuing development from the 1340s to the 1450s – the duration of the war – is not considered
A further definition of the various levels of military activity should help to make the role of tactics clearer.
1. The level of diplomacy, of political manoeuvering.
2. The organisation of forces, how they were raised and paid for.
3. Logistics, that is the movement and supply of these forces.
4. Strategy, both overall and specific to theatre.
5. Operational or campaign strategy involving chevauchee, sieges and battle-seeking or avoiding courses of action.
6. Tactics, or close-range manoeuvre and use of troops and their weapons.
7. Individual acts of bravery (the aspect usually celebrated by a chronicler like Froissart).
So, in relation to the campaign of 1346, Edward III: claims the French Crown (diplomacy); raises forces by indenture (organisation); moves them across the Channel to Normandy (logistics); sacks Caen and advances to Paris (raiding strategy); then falls back to Crecy (operational decision); deploys his host defensively to ambush the pursuing French (tactics); and Edward, Prince of Wales, `wins his spurs’ in the ensuing encounter (heroics).
This is intended to be no more than a crude outline, but it does put tactics into perspective. If the study of tactics is now despised, it is because A. H. Bume and Sir Charles Oman raised them above these other aspects of warfare as the decisive factor – which it sometimes was and more often was not.7 Their views are coloured more than a little by an anachronistic nationalism and affected by their belief in the superiority of English firepower `throughout the ages’. So Burne the Gunner sees English archery as a sort of battlefield artillery (which to an extent it was, but the parallel should not be over-stressed). Sir Charles Oman is clearly influenced in his interpretation by his reading of the Peninsular War. This is the now generally accepted (though recently criticised) view that British musketry in line was inevitably superior to French column attacks, because of the number of weapons that could be brought to bear. The English archer formations flanking their men-at-arms in Burne’s reconstruction perform the same role. This serves to confirm the eternal British-French stereotypes as well. The `Brits’ phlegmatic and well–disciplined; the `Frogs’ excitable and uncontrolled; as it seemed to Victorian English gentlemen at least!8
A brief survey of archery tactics in the `English’ tradition may help to set the subject in context. The archers’ role at Hastings in 1066, is well known, although the description of plunging `fire’ late in the day is only found two generations later in Henry of Huntingdon’s chronicle.9 A detailed account of the Battle of the Standard, fought between a northern English host and invading Scots near Northallerton in 1138, places alternating bow and spearmen in the English line. This was enough to shoot down and hurl back the impetuous Scottish charges; the day being won by a counter-charge of the English cavalry reserve.10 At Falkirk, in 1298, faced with stationary Scottish schiltrons of massed pikemen, Edward I’s archers ‘shot-in’ their heavy cavalry. Perhaps this was also the plan on the second day of Bannockburn, sixteen years later. But the `Hammer of the Scots’ had been succeeded by his ineffectual son, who mishandled his archers. Moving into a flanking position on the main Scottish, they fell into disorder crossing a stream and were then counter–charged and scattered by Robert the Bruce’s well-used cavalry reserve.11 As J.E. Morris has shown, Edward I built up his missile arm by recruiting large numbers of Welsh and English archers.12 Under his grandson they were to make English arms the most feared in Europe. How did this come about?
The most important short-term influences were probably the battle of Boroughbridge in 1322 and Dupplin Moor in 1332. On the first occasion, Thomas, Duke of Lancaster was in rebellion against Edward II and retreating northwards. Sir Andrew Harclay led the Royalist forces and defended the line of the river Ure with a combination of dismounted men-at-arms and archers. Lancaster needed to break through. He attacked the bridge with dismounted men and the ford with cavalry, but both attacks were routed by the archery of the defenders. T.F. Tout, who `discovered’ this battle, believed that the archers were interspersed amongst the men-at-arms.13
Ten years later, an opportunist expeditionary force led by Edward Baliol, claimant to the throne of Scotland, similarly thrashed a much larger host of Scots by defending a defile with archers on the flanks ( fig. 1.1 ).14 In the following year, Edward III repeated the medicine at Halidon Hill. His three `battles’ were apparently each flanked by archers. The Scots under Sir Archibald Douglas had unwisely committed themselves to raising the siege of Berwick by a certain day. Their attack, uphill, in the now traditional, close-packed `schiltroms’ of spearmen, was bogged down in heavy ground (the area is still called Heavyside today), shot to pieces by the English archery and then massacred by a counter-attack of English cavalry ( fig. 1.2 ). This was the model for English tactics throughout the Hundred Years’ War. 1 4
Its first application in France was at Morlaix in Brittany in 1342 ( fig. 1.3 ). The earl of Northampton was supporting the Montfort candidate to the duchy. After initial successes in Montfortian areas he bit off more than he could chew by besieging Morlaix. Charles of Blois, the French candidate, led a much larger force (perhaps 3,000 men-at-arms and 1,500 Genoese mercenaries) against him. Northampton fell back to a defensive position a few miles north. He had a wood at his back, into which he put his baggage and horses, and a stream on one flank, adding a concealed ditch to his front. Charles attacked in three `battles’, one after the other. First came native Bretons, on foot and probably quite lightly armoured. They were shot down and hurled back onto the men-at-arms. The second battle charged on horseback, but fell into the ditch. The few who managed to get through were captured. After a delay a third French attack was launched but Northampton had already drawn back his forces – by now running out of arrows – into the wood. Hampered by the desertion of their Genoese crossbowmen the French were unable to break into the thickets and drew off. Northampton’s men were short of food (and endured a siege of uncertain duration, perhaps for several days) before they charged out and broke through the encircling French lines.15
This was no great victory, although the English were greatly outnumbered, but it prefigured in several ways their successes at Crecy and Poitiers, respectively four and fourteen years later. As Burne points out, Northampton commanded the left wing at Crecy, and his presence may have influenced the tactics on that day. Personal experience and the passing on of information between contemporaries and even down the generations was crucial in the development of tactics.
The next encounter where English tactics proved superior, was, of course, at Crecy in 1346. Perhaps the story is well known. Edward III was in Normandy attempting to bring the French king to battle. He had twice failed to draw Philip into a fight in Flanders half-a-dozen years earlier, and the cost of that expedition, involving as it did an ambitious political alliance against France, had beggared the English government. The stand-off at Buironfosse (1339), as it was called, should not be forgotten because Philip chose to create a sort of fortified camp, which Edward dare not attack.16 So French commanders did not always opt for all out attack.
The situation was different in 1346. Edward had landed in western Normandy and chevaucheed to Caen, which he took and sacked. He then advanced toward Paris. It is not clear if he intended to bring the French on to him. He may have misjudged the vigour of Philip’s response. Faced by much larger forces Edward began to withdraw north east to the Somme. The English fought their way across the ford at Blanchetacque, near the mouth of the river, and withdrew to a strong hilltop position at Crecy in Ponthieu. This was in territory well known to Edward. A recent paper suggests that the site had been carefully prepared beforehand, as regards supplies and ammunition. In addition, the field was apparently sown with pits, on the flanks at least, where the archers stood.17
This is perhaps the time to take a look at the old chestnut of how the English archers were deployed. Almost a century ago the pages of the English Historical Review were filled with debate on this subject. Froissart’s description of the English at Crecy laid out ‘i maniere d’une fierce’ has caused much controversy as to what he actually meant. It could be interpreted as referring to the branches of a candlestick, a harrow (the most popular choice) or possibly, by reference to ‘herrisson’ a spiky fence (like a hedgehog). The one which has found most favour is that the archers were deployed on the flanks of each battle of men-at-arms and sloping slightly forward in order to provide a crossfire in front of the main battle line.18 This has been elaborated by Burne into a formation with projecting `teeth’ of hollow wedges where two battles joined ( fig. 1.4 ). There is a problem with this idea as it actually produces weak points in the English line, where, if contacted by heavily equipped men-at-arms, the archers would have been hard-pressed to defend themselves. In answer to this criticism proponents of Bume’s idea suggest that the impact of the English archery would be to drive off attackers and funnel them into positions opposite their own men-at-arms, against whom, for reasons of social status opposing the men-at-arms preferred to fight.19 I am not convinced by this argument.
It seems that on most occasions the English took care to protect their front with ditches or potholes, suggesting that they did not trust to hold off an enemy by `firepower’ alone. This at least until they learned to use portable stakes as an obstacle. My theory is further reinforced by the advice of Jean de Bueil, in his treatise on warfare known as ‘Le Jouvencel’ (The Youth). This was written following personal experience in warfare, around 1466, and draws together the military lessons of the Hundred Years War. De Bueil advises deploying archers on the flanks of the main body, but protecting them by placing men-at-arms at either end of these wings (‘aux deux bouts’). In fact, this description, and my interpretation of previous deployments, is close to a sixteenth-century layout of a core of close–order fighting men flanked with `sleeves’ of shot (although studying the 1890s debate 1 found that I was not the first to see the parallel).20
So, to return to Crecy. Edward seems to have formed his three ‘battles’ in the formation shown in fig. 1.5 , although this is open to dispute. A recently published monumental work on the Hundred Years War to 1347, has the archers on the flanks surrounded by wagons for protection. I think that this is a misreading of Edward’s use of wagons to protect his flanks and rear from encirclement, an ancient device used successfully against French cavalry as recently as 1304, at Mons-en-Pevele by Flemish forces.21 The English archers had to be more mobile than this if they were to perform effectively. For as J.E. Morris pointed out, they were not ‘animated dummies’. Viollet-le-Duc’s comparison with Napoleonic ‘tirailleurs’ is a telling one.22 These musketry skirmishers formed a screen across the battalions’ front, disrupting an enemy’s formation and chain of command with their sniping fire. Similarly the archers could have started in front of the men-at-arms before falling back to the flanks as an enemy approached. They could even have skipped between any potholes which had been dug while cavalry were brought down by them.23
At Crecy then, the archers seem to have been deployed forward and on the flanks. Their crossfire may have only covered the front of their own battle, although they may have been able to shoot over the heads of their men-at-arms owing to the terraced nature of the hillside.24 Whatever was the case, the French attack failed through lack of coordination. Philip VI is rarely given any credit for generalship. But it is worth pointing out that he had successfully defeated a Flemish force at Cassel in 1328 with a well judged cavalry flank attack. Further, his avoidance of battle at Buironfosse in 1339, and the following year at Bouvines, had proved masterstrokes in that Edward’s campaigns collapsed as a result. Such a policy took some nerve to carry through, though, as it meant accepting the ravaging of his lands without reply, and enduring the taunts of chivalrous young nobles that this was the behaviour of the fox and not the lion. When Philip came upon Edward’s army on 26 August, 1346, he may have thought that he finally had the English at a disadvantage (or that the humiliation outside Paris was too much to bear). I doubt also that he was the same man as at Cassel eighteen years earlier.25
His dispositions, if he had any, involved deploying the Genoese crossbowman in front, while mounted men-at-arms formed the traditional three battles in the centre, with any infantry on the flanks.26 But this may be all too neat a description of a force hastily deploying from line of march. Certainly the Genoese crossbowmen suffered from the lack of their `pavises’ (tall shields which protected them whilst they reloaded), as these wereon carts in the baggage train. They have been much reviled and hence misunderstood. My reading of Froissart suggests that they formed up under command and advanced with three great shouts to keep them in formation. That they were outshot was a function of their smaller numbers and more rapid shooting of the archers, both of which might have been remedied by the pavises. But it was the impatience of the French chivalry to be at the English which was the real disaster. Many and uncoordinated charges, delivered frontally, were no solution to the tactical problem, although apparently there was some breakthrough of the English archers of the Prince of Wales’ battle. Philip had no control over the action and was only involved in the fighting when the English mounted for the pursuit.
Crecy proved the superiority of the English tactical system. What attempts did the French make to counter it? Already outside St Omer in 1340, a flank attack had been used to turn the position of forces commanded by Robert of Artois. But the troops who ran away that day were his inexperienced Flemish allies, and Robert won the day (on that field at least) with a determined counter-attack to his front, combining archers and dismounted men-at-arms.27 In Tout’s collected papers, he draws attention to `Some neglected fights between Crecy and Poitiers’.28 At Lunalonge, somewhere in Poitou’ in 1349, an English force led by the Captal de Buch, was attacked by Jean de Lisle, seneschal of Poitou and Jean de Boucicault ( fig. 1.6 ). The French sent part of their mounted force against the dismounted English, while another body galloped around the English rear to capture their horses. Unfortunately for the French their forces were defeated in detail, but they did drive off the English horses, forcing the victors to retire on foot during the night to a nearby fortress.
In 1351, on 6 April, near Taillebourg in the Saintonge, Guy de Nesle, marshal of France, chose to dismount most of his men-at-arms, except for two groups which he kept mounted on either flank of his main battle ( fig. 1.7 ). It should be said that he still lost, and was captured, Tout surmising that the mounted flanks were still no counter to flanks of archers. In the same year, just two months later, in the northern theatre near Ardres, the lord of Beaujeu dismounted all his force to attack John of Beauchamp, captain of Calais, who was conducting a chevauchee ( fig. 1.8 ). Beaujeu died, but the French triumphed taking Beauchamp with estimated English losses of 700 killed and captured. (We are not told who advanced to the attack although this might have been crucial, according to Jean de Bueil, below).
The following year, at Mauron in Brittany, there was a much larger battle between Guy de Nesle’s forces and those under the command of Sir Walter Bentley. The standard English formation was countered by retaining one `battle’ of 700 men-at-arms on horseback. These were successful in driving off the archers who opposed them. But in the centre and on the other flank the dismounted attack, although pushing Bentley’s line back as far as the cover to its rear, was defeated and de Nesle was killed. So the English had the victory, although the mounted French division was able to draw off unmolested. Bentley was so enraged by the failure of his right flank archers that he had thirty of them beheaded for cowardice (`pour encourager les autres’ presumably; Burne believes this indicates that only thirty fled!).
The lesson of these encounters is that the French were thinking tactically, that they were experimenting, and that these experiments were carried out all over France. Guy de Nesle was a royal official as was de Lisle,so this looks like an official policy to seek a battle-winning tactic, not just inspired improvisation at local level. That it was not universally successful may be because, to paraphrase Jean de Bueil: `A dismounted force which attacks another dismounted force is beaten.’29 So much for the benefits of hindsight; but the difficulty in maintaining formation was a real one, and disorder the main factor in defeat.
If King John had devised a plan to disrupt the English formation, he was unable to put it into effect at Poitiers, in 1356. His much larger force had caught up with Edward, Prince of Wales’ chevauchee a few miles south of the city, where the English were trying to get their heavily-laden wagons of booty over the River Moisson. All accounts of the battle are very confusing. It seems to have been what would later be called ‘a scrambling fight’. Edward certainly intended that this should be the case. For he brought his forces into an area of broken ground so unlike most of the plains surrounding Poitiers ( fig. 1.9 ). The map is only one guess as to the dispositions, which were probably fluid during the battle anyway. The Prince’s three `battles’ (one of which may have been south of the river when the action began) were defending a position protected by hedges, trees and marshy land. The French, in much greater numbers, seem to have had only two avenues of approach.
After a day’s delay for negotiation, the French attacked. Edward may have been trying to slip away when this happened, which is why Warwick’s left `battle’ may have been across the river. But if it was, it soon returned to play an important part in the action. First, the French tried surprise, a rapid cavalry charge led by the marshals Clermont and Audrehem but this foundered due to the terrain and the English archery. Then the Dauphin’s vanguard battle attacked on foot, to be driven back after a hard fight. The defeat of this force seems to have caused the second `battle’ under Orleans, to flee. This suggests that it was mounted. But the third and largest battle, commanded by the king, arrived after some delay and also walked into the attack. The main problem for the French seems to have been the lack of coordination between their attacks, as well as the terrain which made it difficult for them to bring their greater numbers to bear. As it turned out, it was the exhausted English who took the initiative, Edward mounting some, or all of his men, to counter-attack. The crucial factor was the flanking movement led by Jean de Grailly, Captal de Buch, who led his mounted force into (probably) the left rear of the French force. The shout which his men gave when they launched their attack was crucial in breaking the French morale. Although it is likely that they still out-numbered the Anglo-Gascon force, they crumpled under the two-pronged attack, leaving King John and most of his upper nobility prisoners in Edward’s hands.30
Poitiers was decided by one side having and keeping the tactical initiative. Valiant French attempts to wrest this from Edward failed because their forces were not flexible enough to cope with the situation which was presented. Once again French missilemen are notable by their absence, only featuring in the description of the final fight. While the English system could combine missile-power and shock, the product of good discipline, it could not be beaten. The result was that, for a generation, in France at least, the French went back to the successful strategy of avoiding battle. The battle of Auray in Brittany, in 1364, was an exception. Here Bertrand du Guesclin, the Breton mercenary who was to become one of chivalry’s greatest heroes, was in command. He tried the tactic of advancing his men-at-arms on foot behind pavises, in order to reduce casualties and disorder from the English arrows. Although it succeeded in this, the French still lost the hand-to-hand fight and Du Guesclin was captured. This fate was to befall him again three years later at Najera, in Spain, where he faced the Prince of Wales’s army fighting on the other side of the Castillian succession dispute. Du Guesclin’s caution, learned by hard experience, could not be impressed upon his allies, and once more the English tactical system was triumphant.
The battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, provides us with detailed information of how a defensive position was prepared to give a killing ground for the archers. To my knowledge, Crecy has never been excavated, so the field defences are unknown, but in the late 1950s an archaeological dig at Aljubarrota produced remarkable results ( fig. 1.10 ). This shows the left wing of the position and possibly the centre too. Note the ditch, `not so deep that a dismounted man could not leap it’ (Froissart), and the V-shaped field of potholes about a foot square and deep, some 200 yards wide by 100 yards in depth, in rows roughly a yard apart. The Portuguese dispositions placed the English archers in two wings in front of the men-at-arms. They seem also to have been to the flanks, as Froissart describes them as shooting from there. The first attack was made by dismounted knights, who crossed the ditch, but having done so were attacked in the rear by lightly-armed troops, presumably swarming around them, and to the front by the defending men-at-arms. The result was a massacre of the supposedly 4,000 strong vanguard. When the Castillians arrived and delivered a mounted charge they were quickly repelled and the defenders mounted up to counter-attack in pursuit. What can be seen at Aljubarrota must have been reproduced on the many battlefields which are no longer visible.31
The next phase of tactical development concerns the Burgundian experience, in which the battle of Nicopolis was crucial.32 Nicopolis (in modern Bulgaria) was the place where the largely Burgundian and French crusaders of 1396 were totally defeated by the Ottoman sultan Bayezit ( fig. 1.11 ). The battle map is taken from A. Attiya’s book on the subject and the best description comes from the ‘Book of the Deeds and Sayings of Marshal Boucicault’. Disdaining to take the advice of their Hungarian allies the crusaders attacked a defensive position. They were unaware that a light cavalry screen masked a field of stakes ‘a bowshot deep’ filled with Janissary foot archers. Brought to a halt by the obstacle, the crusader men-at-arms either tried to force their horses amongst the stakes, dismounted and tried to remove them, or just dismounted and pushed on up the hill. Eventually most seem to have chosen the last option. Contacting the lightly armoured Turkish foot they routed them. But breasting the rise after this victory they found themselves horseless and exhausted, faced by the cream of the Ottoman heavy cavalry. After some resistance there was a general surrender.33
The importance of this battle relates to the role of the stakes. This is the first reference, as far as I am aware, to such a defence. What is more Froissart describes it as in the form of a ‘herce’. There is an alternative explanation for `harrow’ interpretation mentioned earlier – that it represents the spacing of men in the same way as the spikes of a harrow, that is to say alternately and not one-behind-the–other. If this is what Froissart meant all along, then it is not formation and not deployment which is important. It implies a loosely-spaced group of archers, all able to pick targets and shoot without obstruction, several ranks deep. The stakes add a further refinement in that the archers have a defensive belt within which they can manoeuvre or retreat to its cover. It is almost impenetrable to mounted men and can only be neutralised by the strenuous efforts of dismounted men whilst in close archery range. It was a mobile version of the woods and hedges which the English archers had previously sought on the battlefield.
According to the Gesta Henrici Quinti this is how Henry ordered his archers to prepare stakes.
As a result of information divulged by some prisoners, a rumour went round the army that enemy commanders had assigned certain bodies of knights, many hundreds strong and mounted on barded horses, to break the formation and resistance of our archers when they engaged us in battle. The King, therefore, ordered that every archer, throughout the army, was to prepare for himself a stake or staff, either square or round, but six feet long, of sufficient thickness and sharpened at both ends. And he commanded that whenever the French approached to give battle and break their ranks with such bodies of horsemen, all the archers were to drive their stakes in front of them in a line and some behind them and in between the positions of the front rank, one being driven into the ground pointing towards themselves, the other end pointing towards the enemy at waist-height. So that the cavalry, when their charge had brought them close and in sight of the stakes, would either withdraw in great fear or, reckless of their own safety, run the risk of having both horses and riders impaled.34
It seems likely that Henry had heard of the success of this device at Nicopolis two decades earlier. If this is true then there is a delicate irony here. Marshal Boucicault owed his defeat and capture at Nicopolis to the tactical use of archery. At Agincourt he suffered the same fate. How did Henry learn the trick? Doubtless it circulated orally, but it was also `published’ (in the medieval sense of the word) in the book celebrating Boucicault’s career in 1411, just four years before Agincourt. What deepens the irony is that Boucicault had refined some tactics to defeat the English and intended to use them for the Agincourt campaign. Dr Christopher Philpotts only recently discovered this battle plan in a damaged Cottonian manuscript in the British Library.35
Bertrand Schnerb points out that at Othee in 1408, John the Fearless defeated the Hainaulters with a tactical plan that mimicked the English system. His main battle, dismounted, was flanked by 2,000 archers who poured arrows upon the surprised Flemings, meanwhile 400 men-at-arms and 1,000 `gros valets’ (more lightly equipped) remained mounted to sweep in on the flanks and rear. We have seen that this was a standard counter to English dismounted dispositions since the 1350s. Boucicault was attempting something similar, as fig. 1.12 shows.
Dr Philpotts showed in his article that this was the plan, however ineptly performed, for Agincourt. It proposed cavalry charges upon the flanks and rear of the English with troops of more lightly armoured horse, while the heavy men-at-arms slogged it out in the main battle, on foot. But everything went horribly wrong for the French at Agincourt ( fig. 1.13 ). The flank charges were undermanned and cramped for room and were effectively neutralised by the defensive stakes; their missilemen were not utilised but were rather pushed behind the vanguard of men-at-arms whom they should have been supporting. The attacks on foot were swept by archery, blunted by the mud (with the resultant exhaustion of the men-at-arms) and repulsed by the relatively fresh English men-at-arms. To cap it all the English archers proved nimble, deadly opponents in the boggy ground, swinging leaden mallets which they used for driving in the stakes. National stereotypes dominate again!
It appears from the foregoing that chivalrous types learnt nothing; but they did. The Burgundian Ordinance for John the Fearless’ advance on Paris in 1417 shows how. This was first published by J.E Verbruggen in 1959 (and later translated by Richard Vaughan in his book on the duke). It is well known, but Schnerb does not make the connection between the two plans clear, although he cites them both.36 Duke John lost a brother and numerous other relatives and vassals at Agincourt. He must have pondered on what went wrong. So his plan stresses (Clauses 9 & 10) that there must be sufficient space to deploy the main battle so that it does not crowd the van or neutralise the bowmen, as happened at Agincourt. Furthermore, during his advance on Paris he practised his army in drawing up in this formation, in order that his men should be able to do it in the presence of the enemy. Monstrelet draws attention to the fact that John threatened strict punishments for anyone withdrawing from the battle. Clause 2 `. . . Everyone, of whatever rank, must keep to his standard or banner in battle, with no excuses to leave it. And, on the day of battle no-one, on pain of losing his life and possessions (sur peine de perdre corps et biens), shall flee … And (the duke) wishes anyone who discovers those in flight shall kill them and cut them into pieces and shall gain their pos–sessions. And, if by chance they should not be captured, the duke calls them traitors, evil men and committers of the crime of “lese majeste” ‘ ( fig. 1.14 ).37
This had been the case at Agincourt, when the third, mounted division, melted away; it had been the case at Poitiers and it was the medieval general’s greatest problem. What John demanded was discipline. Vaughan does not realise the significance of the disciplinary clause, which he omits from his translation; but battlefield discipline is crucial to success, upon it rests the proper execution of a tactical plan. Hence the Burgundian requirements of the creation of units with clearly distinguished standards and the requirement to keep to them. These new instructions gave the Burgundian – potentially at least – an effective battlefield weapon.38
The Burgundian encounter with the Armagnacs at St-Remy-sur-Plain in 1422, saw them deployed with 1,200 dismounted men-at-arms, supported by 500 missilemen flanking them and 2,400 mounted `valet d’armes’. The formation resembled nothing so much as the sixteenth-century disposition of a main body with `sleeves’ of shot, mentioned above. The Ordinance dictates small banners for missilemen (in order that they might operate separately in what were later called `commanded’ bodies of shot). A wagon-fort protected the rear of this formation; an old tactic and a good one. When the enemy’s mounted charge was repelled the Burgundians counter-attacked with a loud shout. Co-ordinated shouting was another aspect of English tactics instanced at Poitiers and elsewhere. So when Burgundians and the English combined at Cravant to force the river crossing they were playing the same game. At Verneuil in 1424, the French flank attacks were neutralised by English stakes (although some fell down in the hard ground). The tactical debate was carried on both on and off the battlefield.
The English had a successful system and stuck to it. When it failed in the last two big battles of the war, at Formigny and Castillon, it was not because artillery blew the archers away, but because Kyriell and Talbot failed to employ the tactics properly. But artillery was beginning to make an impact in the field. When the Burgundians used it against the Barrois in 1430 they combined the shooting with great shout. Many of the enemy, ‘went to ground’ (in modern parlance) terror-stricken by the impact of the noise and blast.
So, in conclusion, there is a link to be made between the English archery of the Hundred Years’ War and British musketry of the Napoleonic Wars. But it is not solely ‘firepower’ that matters; it is the combination of missile fire and shout – the first to shake the enemy, the second to let him know that you are still confident enough to close with him, which often decided the day. Nor should this be seen as a specific national characteristic, as nineteenth-century English historians saw it – three rousing British cheers to see off the excitable lesser breeds! It was a game to which anyone could learn the rules, if they were prepared to submit to the necessary discipline and to practice. Tactics were a transferable skill and central to the conduct of one aspect of medieval warfare.
End Notes
1. Hence the growth of the ‘War and Society’ school of history, in which the study of warfare is `legitimised’ by reference to its social context. Unfortunately, and all too frequently, war often drops out of what become simply administrative studies.
2. A.H. Burne, The Crecy War (London, 1955) and The Agincourt War (London, 1956). This two volume work was republished as recently as 1991, but with no cautionary preface taking into account the extensive researches over the last half-century.
3. Bume, The Agincourt War, p. 20.
4. See M. Vale, War and Chivalry (Oxford, 1981), pp. 30-2.
5. The success of the reforms should not be over-rated, if we can believe the scornful comments of Philippe de Commynes about the battle of Montlhery, 1465, in his Memoirs: The Reign of Louis XI 1461-83, trans. Michael Jones (London, 1972), pp. 68-80.
6 C.T. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: England and France at War, c.1300-c.1450 (Cambridge, 1988).
7. Sir C. Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, 2 vols, vol. 2, 1279-1485 (First pub. 1898, revised and enlarged 1924). This work has also been reprinted recently (1991), although it badly needs updating.
8. P Griffiths, Forwanl into Battle (Chichester, 1981), esp. ch. 3, The Alleged Firepower of Wellington’s Infantry.
9. Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, ed. TA. Arnold, Rolls Series 74, VI, 28, pp. 203-4, stresses the role of the archers at Hastings.
10. J. Beeler, War/are in England 1066-1189 (New York, 1966), pp. 86-92 analyses the sources for the battlein describing the likely English formation.
11. See G.W.S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland (London, 1965) pp. 138-46 (Falkirk), 290-332 (Bannockburn); a more recent account of Bannockburn with several detailed maps may be found in R.M. Scott, Robert the Bruce, King of Scots (Edinburgh, 1993) esp. pp. 150-1.
12. J.E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901).
13. T. F. Tout, ‘The Tactics of the Battles of Boroughbridge and Morlaix’, Collected Papers, 2 (1934), pp. 221-25.
14. See R. Nicholson, Edward III and the Scots (Oxford, 1965), pp. 132-8.
15. Morlaix, after Burne, Crecy War, p. 38 and Tout, ‘Tactics’.
16. Comparison with warfare in the same area of Flanders in the eighteenth century is instructive, especially the campaign and battle of Malplaquet, 1709; see D. Chandler, Marlborough as Military Commander (London, 1973), esp. p. 253ff for the construction of an abbatis in wooded ground.
17. K.A. Fowler, `News from the Front: Letters and Despatches of the Fourteenth Century’, in Guerre et Socidte en France, en Angleterre et en Bourgogne xive xve slecle (Lille, 1991), ed. P Contamine, C. Giry-Deloison and M.H. Keen, pp. 63-92, esp. Document II, PRO, C 81/314/ 17803.
18. For the EHR debate, see E.M. Lloyd, `The “Herse” of Archers at Crecy’, July 1895, pp. 538-41; H.B. George, `The Archers at Crecy’, October 1895, pp. 733-38. J.E. Morris, ‘The Archers at Crecy’ July 1897, pp. 427-36 was the most influential. To him the ‘fierce’ was a wedge-shaped formation. Yet surely he nods when translating ‘deux battailes d’archiers i deux costes en la maniere d’un escut’ as describing shield-shaped formations and hence wedges?
19. See J. Keegan, Face of Battle (London, 1982), ch. 3 (Agincourt), esp. p. 100, for the supposed funnelling of the French men-at-arms.
20. Jean de Bueil, Le Jouvencel, ed. C. Favre & L. Lecestre, 2 vols (SHF, Paris, 1887-9) vol. 2, p. 37. See E.M. Lloyd, `The Herse” of Archers’, pp. 539-40 for sixteenth-century parallels.
21. J. Sumption, The Hundred Years’ War Trial by Battle (London, 1990), pp. 526-8; Annales Gandenses, ed. and trans. H. Johnson (London, 1951), pp. 66, 68-9.
22. See the EHR debate, note 18.
23. Geoffrey le Baker describes potholes one foot square and one deep (R. Barber, The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince (London, 1979), p. 44) but according to H. de Wailly, Crecy 1346: Anatomy of a Battle(Poole, 1987), 51, 72-74, there is no indication from aerial photographs of any such defence.
24. De Wailly, Crecy, pp. 72-3, n. 2 & 3 mentions a terrace upon which Edward’s reserve ‘battle’ was positioned, but doubts that Prince Edward’s ‘battle’ had the same advantage.
25. See J. Sumption, Trial by Battle, p. 288, for accusations of `reynarderie’ made by young nobles against Philip VI in 1339.
26. Ibid., pp. 528, on Philip VI’s dispositions.
27. Ibid., pp. 341-3 on St Omer.
28. TF Tout, Collected Papers, 2 (1934), pp. 227-31.
29. Jean de Bueil, Le Jouvencel, vol. 1, p. 153. His full remark is: `Everywhere and on all occasions that footsoldiers march against their enemy face to face, those who march lose and those who remain standing still and holding firm win.’ (This translation is from P. Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, trans. M. Jones (Oxford, 1984) p. 231.)
30. For the most detailed map and description, see J.J. Hewitt, The Black Prince’s Expedition of 1355-57(Manchester, 1958), pp. 110-39, map p. 115.
31. A. do Palo, ‘The Battle of Aljubarrota’, Antiquity, 27; 1963, pp. 264-69 and pls. 38 & 39a. The pits are variable in length, depth and distance apart laterally, but might have been drawn up on the rule of thumb of a yard long, half-a-yard wide and a foot deep. Certainly, the rows seem to have been consistently ten feet apart.(I understand that a more recent report on the battlefield was produced, in Portuguese, in 1993, but this had not come to hand at time of publication.)
32. B. Schnerb, ‘La bataille range dans la tactique des armees bourguignonnes au debut du 15e siecle: essai de synthese’, in Annales de Bourgogne, 71, 1989, pp. 5-32.
33. A. Attiya, The Crusade of Nicopolis (London, 1934), pp. 82-97; Le livre des fais du bon messiru Jehan Le Maingre, dit Bouciquaut, ed. D. Lalande (Geneva, 1985).
34. Gesta Henrici Quind, ed. and trans. F Taylor and J.S. Roskell (Oxford, 1975), pp. 68-71, slightly modified.
35. C. Phipotts, `The French plan of battle during the Agincourt campaign’, EHR, 30, 1984, pp. 59-68. For a translation and explanation of this document see M. Bennett, Agincourt: Triumph against the Odds (London,1991) pp. 62-6.
36. J.F. Verbruggen, ‘Un plan de bataille du duc de Bourgogne (14 septembre 1417) et le tactique del’epoque’, in Revue internationale d’histoire militaire, 20, 1959, pp. 443-51. This is translated by R. Vaughan,John the Fearless (London, 1966), pp. 148-50, although he omits clause 2 and confuses the issue by re-numbering the document’s clauses. Schnerb, ‘La bataille’, p. 32, mentions Nicopolis but does not understand the significance of the battle.
37. J.F. Verbruggen, `Un plan de bataille’, pp. 444-5.
38. See M. Vale, War and Chivalry, pp. 148-9, on the importance of units and flags. The Burgundian failures against the Swiss are not relevant here!
This article was first published in Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, edited by Anne Curry and Michael Hughes (Boydell, 1994). We thank Matthew Bennett for his permission to republish this article.
Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War is a collection of twelve papers that discuss warfare during the this period. The articles are:
Matthew Bennett, The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War
Andrew Ayton, English Armies in the Fourteenth Century
Anne Curry, English Armies in the Fifteenth Century
Malcolm Vale, The War in Aquitaine
W.M. Ormrod, The Domestic Response to the Hundred Years War
Michael Hughes, The Fourteenth Century French Raids on Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
John R. Kenyon, Costal Artillery Fortification in England in the Late Fourteenth and Early Fifteenth Centuries
Robert D. Smith, Artillery and the Hundred Years War: Myth and Interpretation
Robert Hardy, The Longbow
Ian Fiel, Winds of Change? Ships and the Hundred Years War
Brian Kemp, English Church Monuments during the Period of the Hundred Years War
For more information, please see Boydell & Brewer .
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By population which is the largest island on Earth? | 10 Largest Islands In The World - 10 Most Today
10 Largest Islands In The World
1. Greenland, Denmark – 2,130,800 km2 (822,706 sq ml). Greenland possesses the world’s second largest ice sheet, and has a population of around 56,000 people
10 Largest Islands In The World: Greenland
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2. New Guinea, Indonesia & Papua New Guinea – 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq ml) and a population of 7.5 million. With some 786,000 km of tropical land — less than one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the Earth’s surface — New Guinea has an immense biodiversity, containing between 5% and 10% of the total species on the planet
10 Largest Islands In The World: New guinea
3. Borneo, Asia – 748,168 km2 (288,869 sq ml). The island of Borneo is the largest island in Asia and is divided among 3 countries: Brunei & Indonesia & Malaysia.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Borneo
4. Madagascar, Madagascar – 587,713 km2 (226,917 sq ml) Located off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique
10 Largest Islands In The World: Madagascar
5. Baffin Island, Canada – 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq ml). The largest island in Canada with a population of only 11,000
10 Largest Islands In The World: Baffin Island
6. Sumatra, Indonesia – 473,481km2 (184,954 sq ml). It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia and has a population of almost 50 million. Its biggest city is Medan with over 4 million in the greater urban area.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Sumatra
7. Honshu, Japan – 225,800km2 (87,182 sq ml) is the largest and most populous island of Japan and the second most populous after Indonesia’s Java island.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Honshu
8. Victoria Island, Canada – 217,291km2 (83,897 sq ml) is Canada’s second largest island and slightly larger than the island of Great Britain
10 Largest Islands In The World: Victoria Island
9. Great Britain, United Kingdom – 209,331km2 (80,823 sq ml) is the largest European island and the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 62 million people it is the third most populous island in the world
10 Largest Islands In The World: Great Britain
10. Ellesmere Island, Canada – 196,236km2 (75,767 sq ml) is the tenth largest island in the world and Canada’s third largest island
10 Largest Islands In The World: Ellesmere Island
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By population which is the largest island outside Asia? | 10 Largest Islands In The World - 10 Most Today
10 Largest Islands In The World
1. Greenland, Denmark – 2,130,800 km2 (822,706 sq ml). Greenland possesses the world’s second largest ice sheet, and has a population of around 56,000 people
10 Largest Islands In The World: Greenland
[put_links_units_468_15]
2. New Guinea, Indonesia & Papua New Guinea – 785,753 km2 (303,381 sq ml) and a population of 7.5 million. With some 786,000 km of tropical land — less than one-half of one percent (0.5%) of the Earth’s surface — New Guinea has an immense biodiversity, containing between 5% and 10% of the total species on the planet
10 Largest Islands In The World: New guinea
3. Borneo, Asia – 748,168 km2 (288,869 sq ml). The island of Borneo is the largest island in Asia and is divided among 3 countries: Brunei & Indonesia & Malaysia.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Borneo
4. Madagascar, Madagascar – 587,713 km2 (226,917 sq ml) Located off the eastern coast of southern Africa, east of Mozambique
10 Largest Islands In The World: Madagascar
5. Baffin Island, Canada – 507,451 km2 (195,928 sq ml). The largest island in Canada with a population of only 11,000
10 Largest Islands In The World: Baffin Island
6. Sumatra, Indonesia – 473,481km2 (184,954 sq ml). It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia and has a population of almost 50 million. Its biggest city is Medan with over 4 million in the greater urban area.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Sumatra
7. Honshu, Japan – 225,800km2 (87,182 sq ml) is the largest and most populous island of Japan and the second most populous after Indonesia’s Java island.
10 Largest Islands In The World: Honshu
8. Victoria Island, Canada – 217,291km2 (83,897 sq ml) is Canada’s second largest island and slightly larger than the island of Great Britain
10 Largest Islands In The World: Victoria Island
9. Great Britain, United Kingdom – 209,331km2 (80,823 sq ml) is the largest European island and the largest of the British Isles. With a population of about 62 million people it is the third most populous island in the world
10 Largest Islands In The World: Great Britain
10. Ellesmere Island, Canada – 196,236km2 (75,767 sq ml) is the tenth largest island in the world and Canada’s third largest island
10 Largest Islands In The World: Ellesmere Island
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In season 2014/15 whose 48 goals won him the European Golden shoe? | Messi and Ronaldo top Golden Shoe rankings - UEFA.com
Messi and Ronaldo top Golden Shoe rankings
Published: Monday 7 February 2011, 12.28CET
Lionel Messi's second Liga hat-trick of the season for FC Barcelona has seen him join Real Madrid CF's Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the rankings for Europe's top domestic goalscorers.
Lionel Messi celebrates scoring his second goal against Atlético ©Getty Images
UEFA.com features
Published: Monday 7 February 2011, 12.28CET
Messi and Ronaldo top Golden Shoe rankings
Lionel Messi's second Liga hat-trick of the season for FC Barcelona has seen him join Real Madrid CF's Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the rankings for Europe's top domestic goalscorers.
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Three goals in FC Barcelona's 3-0 victory against Club Atlético de Madrid not only helped Lionel Messi lead this club to a Spanish record-breaking 16th successive league win , but also ensured the Argentina striker joined Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the ESM Golden Shoe rankings.
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Records fall in Spain, England
Coach Josep Guardiola was quick to acknowledge Messi's startling achievements this season: Saturday's was his fourth hat-trick in all competitions in 2010/11. "Every great side throughout history had a player who made the difference; Messi is that player for us," said Guardiola. "We're so lucky to have him, especially at the age he's at, but at the same time Leo knows that without the rest of his team-mates, he wouldn't be who he is."
Messi has scored five league goals since UEFA.com's last update on the race to be Europe's top domestic goalscorer , but Ronaldo maintained his place in the running with two strikes against Real Sociedad de Fútbol on Sunday . Manchester United FC's Dimitar Berbatov remains third, but fourth place is now shared by SSC Napoli's Edinson Cavani and Manchester City FC's Carlos Tévez, who have registered four apiece in the last fortnight.
Kenny Miller's first strikes for Bursaspor see him maintain his place on the leaderboard, while Antonio Di Natale's 100th goal for Udinese Calcio keeps him among the front-runners. FC Internazionale Milano's Samuel Eto'o is the only new entry in the top ten.
ESM Golden Shoe standings: 6 February 2011
1 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF, ESP) 24 goals x 2 = 48
1 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona, ESP) 24 x 2 = 48
3 Dimitar Berbatov (Manchester United FC, ENG) 19 x 2 = 38
4 Edinson Cavani (SSC Napoli, ITA) 18 x 2 = 36
4 Carlos Tévez (Manchester City FC, ENG) 18 x 2 = 36
6 Kenny Miller (Rangers FC/Bursaspor, SCO/TUR) 23 x 1.5 = 34.5
7 Antonio Di Natale (Udinese Calcio, ITA) 16 x 2 = 32
7 Mario Gomez (FC Bayern München, GER) 16 x 2 = 32
7 Moussa Sow (LOSC Lille Métropole, FRA) 16 x 2 = 32
10 Papiss Demba Cissé (SC Freiburg, GER) 15 x 2 = 30
10 Samuel Eto'o (FC Internazionale Milano, ITA) 15 x 2 = 30
* The Russian season is over
Rules
Only the leading five countries (Spain, Italy, Germany, France and England) on the UEFA Ranking have two as their multiplier. This is to emphasise the difference in (international) performance level between the clubs from those countries and those from the other nations.
A player cannot first play in a summer league (eg Norway) and then in a winter league (eg Spain) and combine the points total for each season.
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Last updated: 09/02/11 10.48CET
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In season 2014/15 whose 26 goals won him the Premiership Golden boot? | Top 10 Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions Sporteology
Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions
Top 10 Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 78
Cristiano Ronaldo has participated in 117 UEFA Club Competition matches for his teams and scored with a great and remarkable speed, a total of 78 goals in UEFA regulated competitions until now, and he is at the top place in the list of top 10 highest scorers of UEFA club competitions. Cristiano Ronaldo achieved a goal-per-match ratio of 0.66 in UEFA club competitions in his soccer career.
2. Raúl González – 77
Spanish striket Raúl is No: 1 In List of Top 10 Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions
In European competitions, he is the all-time leading scorer of the UEFA tournaments With 77 Goals, just ahead Filippo Inzaghi and Gerd Müller. Regarding his personal honours, he was named the best striker in the world by IFFHS in 1999. He is the only player that has won the UEFA “Best Forward of the Year” award three times, in 2000, 2001 and 2002. He was the second in the ranking of Ballon d’Or 2001 and the third ranked in 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2004, he was included in the FIFA 100 list as one of the “greatest living footballers”. He was also included in the UEFA list of the fifty best European players of the period 1954–2004.
3. Lionel Messi – 76
Commonly rated by commentators, coaches and colleagues as the best footballer in the world and as one of the greatest players in the history of the game, Messi is the first football player in history to win four FIFA/Ballons d’Or , all of which he won consecutively- as well as the first to win three European Golden Shoe awards. Messi is No: 6 in Our List of Top 10 Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions, with 76 Goals.
4. Filippo Inzaghi – 70
Filippo Inzaghi is currently the second all time most prolific goal scorer in European club competitions with 70 goals, only beaten by Raúl’s 76 goals. He is also Milan’s top international goal scorer in the club’s history with 43 goals. He also holds the record for most hat-tricks in Serie A (10), and the Champions League (three, tied with Michael Owen, Lionel Messi, and Mario Gómez). Inzaghi’s favourite footballers as a child were Paolo Rossi and Marco Van Basten.
5. Andriy Shevchenko – 67
Andriy Shevchenko is ranked as the third top goalscorer in all European competitions with 67 goals. With a tally of 175 goals scored for Milan, Shevchenko is the second most prolific player in the history of the club, and is also the all-time top scorer of the Derby della Madonnina (derby between Milan and their local rivals Internazionale) with 14 goals, as well as for the Ukrainian national team with 48 goals.
6. Gerd Müller – 62
Gerd Müller is a retired German footballer and one of the most prolific goalscorers of all time. he has the recored of 62 goals in just 69 games he played in UEFA Club Competitions. With national records of 68 goals in 62 international appearances, 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games, he was one of the most successful goalscorers ever.
7. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 62
The third-highest goalscorer in Champions League history, is the seventh in the List of Top 10 Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions. He Has Scored 62 Goals in 92 Matches He Played.
8. Henrik Larsson – 59
He was known as an excellent striker whose main attributes were his goalscoring prowess and on-field intelligence. he has Scored 56 Goals in 108 UEFA Club Competitions. He is At No 7 in list of Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions.
9. Thierry Henry – 59
It was at Arsenal that Henry made his name as a world-class footballer. Despite initially struggling in the Premier League, he emerged as Arsenal’s top goal-scorer for almost every season of his tenure there. Under long-time mentor and coach Arsène Wenger, Henry became a prolific striker and Arsenal’s all-time leading scorer with 228 goals in all competitions. he Scored 59 Goals in 140 UEFA Club Competitions, Became the 9th in All Time Goal Scorer’s List.
10. Alessandro Del Piero – 53
Del Piero scored in all competitions in which he participated. He was named in the FIFA 100, a list of the 125 greatest living footballers selected by Pelé as a part of FIFA’s centenary celebrations. He was also voted in the list of best European players for the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. With 53 UEFA Club Competitions Goals, he Will Enjoy 10th Spot in This List.
List of Leading Goal Scorers UEFA Club Competitions
Player/Country
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Which is Britain’s bestselling brand of bread? | Britain's favourite brands including Heinz, Whiskas and Kingsmill are losing sales | Daily Mail Online
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They are the brands that Britain grew up with but 53 of the top 100 are losing sales – many despite slashing prices.
Famous names like Silver Spoon sugar, Cadbury, Whiskas, Heinz and Kingsmill are suffering sales falls of more than 10per cent as shoppers switch to budget chains.
The nation’s fastest growing stores, Aldi and Lidl, effectively ban many of the top brands from their shelves.
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Famous names like Heinz (pictured left), Kingsmill and Whiskas are suffering sales falls. Silver Spoon is by far the biggest casualty of the backlash against sugar and its links to obesity
At the same time, the big four stores – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – have cut the shelf space given to brands, while pushing their own label alternatives.
Changes in eating habits, concerns about sugar consumption and a decision to cut back on carbs, particularly bread are also playing a part.
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The supermarkets have also been very clever at launching copycat products which ape the household names but have a lower price.
The figures were compiled by retail analysts Nielsen and The Grocer magazine which said the proportion of the 100 brands that are losing sales rose from 26 in 2013 to 34 in 2014 and it is now 53.
As a result, the total annual sales of the top 100 is down by some £146.4m to £20.5billion.
Kingsmill has fallen victim to declining volume sales in the sliced bread market and a bread price war
Tesco has decided to take the Kingsmill loaves off its shelves, while pushing its own label alternatives
Silver Spoon, the British granulated sugar brand is by far the biggest casualty of the backlash against sugar and its links to obesity.
The Grocer said: ‘A year ago, it was Britain’s 68th biggest grocery brand, but it has fallen out of the rankings with a staggering loss of £62.6m in sales – 47.1per cent – thanks partly to the sugar debate.’
It added: ‘The opprobrium surrounding the sugar levels in many grocery products has hit some players hard.’
The Cadbury brand – apart from Dairy Milk – has also suffered with sales down by 15.2per cent - £34.8m – in a year.
The giant has come under fire since a take-over by American food giant Kraft with concerns the new owners have failed to honour its British heritage.
It reneged on a promise to keep open a British factory, while consumers have complained about products being shrunk or changes to the chocolate used in products, such as the coating to its famous crème egg.
In the same category, Mars is down by 10.5per cent, while Kitkat has fallen some 7.6per cent. Just last week, the Mail revealed how its Kitkat chunky is less chunky after being cut from 48g to 40g without a corresponding fall in the price.
The Cadbury brand, apart from Dairy Milk (pictured), has also suffered with sales down by £34.8m in a year
The manufacturer, Nestle, claimed this was partly because of rising costs and partly because of a desire to help customers lose weight, which did not go down well.
Innocent smoothies have been caught up in the backlash against sugary drinks with sales down 10.8per cent in a year.
The Grocer said: ‘In the anti-sugar witch hunt Innocent is guilty as charged, say health lobbyists. And their increasingly alarmist proclamations have hit sales hard.’
Kingsmill has suffered badly from the nation’s efforts to cut back on carbs, particularly white sliced bread, with sales down by 11.6per cent.
The Grocer said: ‘Kingsmill has fallen victim to a double whammy of declining volume sales in the sliced bread market and a bread price war that has driven a 5.6per cent decline in the average price.’
Such is the decline that Tesco has decided to take the brand’s loaves off its shelves.
Other big bread brands have also in decline, including Warburtons, which is down 4.1per cent, and Hovis by 4.8per cent.
Heinz has been part of kitchen life for more than 100 years, however the study found both its soups and baked beans are less popular.
Sales of Heinz soups are down by 10.2per cent in a year, hit hard by the fact Britain enjoyed a relatively mild winter, while the number of cans of beans going through tills fell 3.5per cent.
The nation’s fastest growing stores, Aldi and Lidl, effectively ban many of the top brands from their shelves
There are suggestions that shoppers may be looking for something a bit more upmarket and exotic. As a result, Heinz has responded by launching Fajita pinto and Tuscan cannellini to its ‘Five Beanz’ range.
Other famous names to lose more than 10per cent in sales in just one year include WeightWatchers, which is down 21.6per cent, Tetley tea, Tate & Lyle, Flora, Whiskas cat food, Special K, Rowntrees, Princes and Activia.
The Grocer said: ‘Britain’s biggest grocery brands are playing a dangerous game. With the discounters advancing and prices being cut across the board, many are starting to look like pawns in the battle between grocery’s grandmasters.
‘Deflation reigns. The average price of 42 of the 100 biggest brands has fallen in the past year.’
Some brands, such as Coca-Cola, are trying to woo Aldi and Lidl in order to cash in on their growth. Others are targeting the pound stores by launching products that are shrunk or changed to meet the £1 price point.
| Warburtons |
Who were the puppets from Zog who were on the Big Breakfast? | Britain's favourite brands including Heinz, Whiskas and Kingsmill are losing sales | Daily Mail Online
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They are the brands that Britain grew up with but 53 of the top 100 are losing sales – many despite slashing prices.
Famous names like Silver Spoon sugar, Cadbury, Whiskas, Heinz and Kingsmill are suffering sales falls of more than 10per cent as shoppers switch to budget chains.
The nation’s fastest growing stores, Aldi and Lidl, effectively ban many of the top brands from their shelves.
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Famous names like Heinz (pictured left), Kingsmill and Whiskas are suffering sales falls. Silver Spoon is by far the biggest casualty of the backlash against sugar and its links to obesity
At the same time, the big four stores – Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – have cut the shelf space given to brands, while pushing their own label alternatives.
Changes in eating habits, concerns about sugar consumption and a decision to cut back on carbs, particularly bread are also playing a part.
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The supermarkets have also been very clever at launching copycat products which ape the household names but have a lower price.
The figures were compiled by retail analysts Nielsen and The Grocer magazine which said the proportion of the 100 brands that are losing sales rose from 26 in 2013 to 34 in 2014 and it is now 53.
As a result, the total annual sales of the top 100 is down by some £146.4m to £20.5billion.
Kingsmill has fallen victim to declining volume sales in the sliced bread market and a bread price war
Tesco has decided to take the Kingsmill loaves off its shelves, while pushing its own label alternatives
Silver Spoon, the British granulated sugar brand is by far the biggest casualty of the backlash against sugar and its links to obesity.
The Grocer said: ‘A year ago, it was Britain’s 68th biggest grocery brand, but it has fallen out of the rankings with a staggering loss of £62.6m in sales – 47.1per cent – thanks partly to the sugar debate.’
It added: ‘The opprobrium surrounding the sugar levels in many grocery products has hit some players hard.’
The Cadbury brand – apart from Dairy Milk – has also suffered with sales down by 15.2per cent - £34.8m – in a year.
The giant has come under fire since a take-over by American food giant Kraft with concerns the new owners have failed to honour its British heritage.
It reneged on a promise to keep open a British factory, while consumers have complained about products being shrunk or changes to the chocolate used in products, such as the coating to its famous crème egg.
In the same category, Mars is down by 10.5per cent, while Kitkat has fallen some 7.6per cent. Just last week, the Mail revealed how its Kitkat chunky is less chunky after being cut from 48g to 40g without a corresponding fall in the price.
The Cadbury brand, apart from Dairy Milk (pictured), has also suffered with sales down by £34.8m in a year
The manufacturer, Nestle, claimed this was partly because of rising costs and partly because of a desire to help customers lose weight, which did not go down well.
Innocent smoothies have been caught up in the backlash against sugary drinks with sales down 10.8per cent in a year.
The Grocer said: ‘In the anti-sugar witch hunt Innocent is guilty as charged, say health lobbyists. And their increasingly alarmist proclamations have hit sales hard.’
Kingsmill has suffered badly from the nation’s efforts to cut back on carbs, particularly white sliced bread, with sales down by 11.6per cent.
The Grocer said: ‘Kingsmill has fallen victim to a double whammy of declining volume sales in the sliced bread market and a bread price war that has driven a 5.6per cent decline in the average price.’
Such is the decline that Tesco has decided to take the brand’s loaves off its shelves.
Other big bread brands have also in decline, including Warburtons, which is down 4.1per cent, and Hovis by 4.8per cent.
Heinz has been part of kitchen life for more than 100 years, however the study found both its soups and baked beans are less popular.
Sales of Heinz soups are down by 10.2per cent in a year, hit hard by the fact Britain enjoyed a relatively mild winter, while the number of cans of beans going through tills fell 3.5per cent.
The nation’s fastest growing stores, Aldi and Lidl, effectively ban many of the top brands from their shelves
There are suggestions that shoppers may be looking for something a bit more upmarket and exotic. As a result, Heinz has responded by launching Fajita pinto and Tuscan cannellini to its ‘Five Beanz’ range.
Other famous names to lose more than 10per cent in sales in just one year include WeightWatchers, which is down 21.6per cent, Tetley tea, Tate & Lyle, Flora, Whiskas cat food, Special K, Rowntrees, Princes and Activia.
The Grocer said: ‘Britain’s biggest grocery brands are playing a dangerous game. With the discounters advancing and prices being cut across the board, many are starting to look like pawns in the battle between grocery’s grandmasters.
‘Deflation reigns. The average price of 42 of the 100 biggest brands has fallen in the past year.’
Some brands, such as Coca-Cola, are trying to woo Aldi and Lidl in order to cash in on their growth. Others are targeting the pound stores by launching products that are shrunk or changed to meet the £1 price point.
| i don't know |
Frank Beard is the only clean shaven member of which group? | Will ZZ Top Members Shave Their Beards?
Will ZZ Top Members Shave Their Beards?
By Jenna July 2, 2012 10:11 AM
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Almost 30 years ago, Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill turned down a million dollars to shave their beards. Will they do it?
Gillette offered up the sum for Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill to shave their iconic beards in a commercial and they both said, “NO WAY!” so, fast forward 28 years and they asked the pair the question again.
The answer? Still no.
Apparently no amount of money is going to get them to shave. Billy says quote, “No dice. Even adjusted for inflation, this isn’t going to fly. The prospect of seeing oneself in the mirror clean shaven is too close to a Vincent Price film.”
I find it incredibly ironic that the only member of ZZ Top without facial hair is the drummer and his name is Frank Beard. I also love the fact that ZZ Top’s new single is called I Gotsta Get Paid.
| ZZ Top |
Alphabetically which is the last element in the periodic table? | Jeff Beck & ZZ Top Co-Headlining Tour Dates & Concert Tickets
April 9, 2014
In this article:
Legendary guitarist Jeff Beck and platinum-selling bearded rockers ZZ Top are joining forces this summer for a co-headlining, five-week tour across the United States. Their tour will kick off in Missoula, MT, at Ogren Park on August 8, and then continue to Oregon, California and Nevada, stretching from the West to East Coast with gigs in Massachusetts and Georgia. Don’t see your city on the list? More dates will be announced in the coming weeks. Each night of the tour will be kicked off by a full set by Beck, followed by a full set by ZZ Top. They’ll end the night together, playing for an England-meets-Texas collaboration. Tickets for the tour are on sale now.
ZZ Top was formed in Houston, TX, in 1969, and they are famous not only for their music but for their long, luscious beards. Fun fact: only one member is clean-shaven, and his name is Frank Beard (he’s the drummer). ZZ Top was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. Geoffrey Arnold “Jeff” Beck has played with a variety of bands, from being a member of The Yardbirds (other alum include Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton ) and The Jeff Beck Group. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: in 1992 as a member of The Yardbirds and in 2009 as a solo artist.
Jeff Beck & ZZ Top Tickets & Tour Dates
ZZ Top Video for “Sharp-Dressed Man”
| i don't know |
Which vegetable is present in a DuBarry soup? | Cauliflower Soup (Creme du Barry) Recipe : Food Network
Lobster Bisque Recipes
4.8 20
I like this soup. I mean I really like it. I have a small problem. How do I garnish it? Jose D. 2013-10-21T19:00:07Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
Fantastic and so simple to make. Did not change one thing on recipe. Megan M. 2012-09-23T13:56:26Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
My husband (who does not usually like soup had two servings and even said "great soup!" In my book that makes this a winner. Indeed it is easy to put together - I used one spring onion instead of leeks and soy milk, served it in a bread bowl, and added some freshly cooked bacon on the top for a bit more salty punch! Great way to use up those heads of cauliflower we get in the CSA! msmaileann 2012-04-26T23:03:12Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
Love it! Easy and fast to make, delicious and healthy. I used only 4 cups of broth as I like my soups on the ticker side, no need for the milk. Even my 14 mo old likes it. igcp 2012-03-28T14:14:04Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
Simple to make and delicious. I like the mild flavor. Iris L. 2011-07-10T11:02:13Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
This is a great soup. I have made it a few times, mostly as written, except with vegetable stock. Sometimes I add some garlic during the last few minutes of cooking the leeks. My husband swears he hates cauliflower, but he loves this soup. It makes for a nice meal with some crusty bread. We do like to top with chopped parsley instead of the pretty leaf that's recommended, because we found the parsley adds some nice flavor. cle1974 2011-06-03T04:21:38Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I followed this recipe to a "T" and it turned out bland and tasteless. I even followed advice of another reviewer and added a drizzle of melted butter and a bit of nutmeg and it was still bland and tasteless. I won't make this soup again! Kahnie11 2011-03-16T22:43:47Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I substituted a yam for the potato and a sweet onion for the leek and added mushrooms. It was delicious! ornaami 2010-11-28T22:31:53Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I've been making this classic for years and the original recipe uses a splash of half and half rather than the low fat milk. When serving the soup, add a drizzle of melted butter and a light sprinkle of nutmeg. This makes all the difference. tiramissue 2010-11-14T12:02:31Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I added kale & mushrooms and pureed altogether, was so good! Freezes well also. TRISH J. 2010-08-23T18:44:40Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
This was a little bland hot but I added a bit of cayenne and lemon pepper and chives instead of parsley. Cold it was just like vichyssoise without all the calories. I also skipped the milk. Amazing what cauliflower can do! Good stuff! Barbara M. 2010-06-15T12:19:03Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
So easy and so good! I used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock (since I'm vegetarian), and it turned out fantastic! x y. 2010-06-08T22:04:13Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
i added dried thyme and lemon zest and omitted the potato (low carb!) it was amazing. amberpfeifer 2010-02-23T21:52:46Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I used chicken broth instead of chicken stock. I didn't cook the vegetables as long as the recipe said to do because they were done after about 12 minutes. I did not need the milk because as I started pureeing the mixture in small batches, ithere was too much liquid and the soup was not very thick in consistency. So I started straining out the vegetables to thicken it up. I also put in extra butter by accident which made it really good. I thought it was delicious and ate it with a little crusty bread on the side. I still couldn't convince my cauliflower-hating husband to eat it though. He had a taste and didn't like it. He's crazy!!! melindawegener 2010-01-24T15:03:11Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
Made according to the recipe, this soup is very good. I would have no problems serving it to guests as a nice, light starter. However, by substituting 1 cup Half & Half for the 2 percent milk (and reducing the amount of chicken stock by about a cup), adding 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, just a touch of sugar (1 tsp. maybe) and a dash of cinnamon, this is a wonderful and very hearty main course soup. I topped it with a dollop of sour cream and sprinkled a few sliced green onions on the soup once it was plated and it looked as good as it tasted. Served with some Italian bread, it made a great dinner! pseudogourmet 2010-01-13T09:43:17Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
My husband doesn't like foods that have been slimmed down, but he and my daughter loved this. I had leftover cauliflower so I recooked it in the broth and then put that in the blender. After returning it to the pan, I added leftover mashed potatoes. Other than that I followed the recipe. Next time I would probably put the mashed potatoes in the blender too, not sure though. It was even better then next day! Lynne G. 2009-04-28T20:33:23Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I always look for different types of soup once the weather gets cool. This soup did not disappoiint. It was very easy to put together and came out delicious. I used a little milk as the recipe called for and it made it rich and creamy...but I could see how others who have reviewed this recipe would easily omit it. I think its great either way. It has that gourmet look to it and I think it would be an impressive first course for company. MARY D. 2008-11-02T16:54:15Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
Wow! This soup is very good. I added a bit of garlic powder at the end. I only had 2 cans of chicken broth, so I used about 2 1/4 cups of water, and it was still good. I didn't need to use any milk at the end, it was already creamy and not too think. A great way to use up cauliflower! Stephanie M. 2008-09-11T22:56:29Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
It was SO creamy and I didn't even add aNY milk! My family loved it! Alyssa D. 2008-07-29T19:47:58Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
I needed a recipe to use up a head of cauliflower that was going to go bad in a few days. My search brought me to this recipe and it was perfect! The steps are a little involved, since you have to cook the soup and then puree it, but it was definitely worth the work! Angela M. 2008-03-30T15:45:10Z item not reviewed by moderator and published
On TV
| Cauliflower |
What pulse is used in an Indian dish Dhansak? | Cauliflower Soup Recipe - Allrecipes.com
Rachel Kelly
11/14/2006
I made this soup a little different. I have tried to mash cauliflower in the past and all I did was make a mess. So, instead I just chopped up the cauliflower really small, which took some time....
AUSTINB
2/4/2003
This soup was easy to prepare. The results were a light but yet satisfying soup. I received several requests for the recipes at our staff "soup" lunch.
TIBOUT
6/26/2000
Yummmmmmy!! I made this recipe last night before bed. It was quick, easy and very delicious. It's already disappeared.
Sarah Jo
10/8/2010
I made this for my older son, who had his tonsils out earlier this week. I just plugged in what I had on hand and this is one of the recipes that came up. (Thank goodness for the ingredient sear...
Carrie Rose
11/3/2006
This recipe has almost no flavor. It's pretty much just vegetables, broth, and pepper - it needs way more seasoning! I notice that most of the reviewers who liked it added something to it, mos...
1REFine
7/22/2011
Fabulous recipe. I didn't change any of the ingredients but I did purée about half of the soup in a blender after it was finished cooking. It was a lovely creamy texture but still had bits and...
NIKKIESIMAGE
2/26/2006
Quick, easy and yummy. I took a cue from a couple of other reviews and added some light smoked sausage - still only 90 calories per cup!
yellowpower
1/16/2006
I made this recipe the other night, and it's surprisingly fragrant and tasty. I actually didn't mash the cauliflower and I added twice as much celery and carrots as instructed. I thought the...
Maureen
11/28/2009
If you like plain vegetables (cauliflower, celery, carrots) you will enjoy this. Otherwise don't make it as is. We enjoyed it and it would also be good with sausage added. I did double the cele...
| i don't know |
To which animal does the adjective lapine apply? | Animal adjectives
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Animal adjectives
Students will describe animals as they review nouns and verbs associated with these animals. They will learn to use adjectives as they describe the animals. They will use this knowledge to write their stories about animals.
A lesson plan for grades 1–2 English Language Arts and English Language Development
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Related pages
Writing and English as a Second Language : Strategies for helping English Language Learners throughout the writing process.
Awesome action words : Good writers use precise verbs to make stories interesting and vivid. In this lesson, students will learn to replace boring, redundant, generic verbs with more precise “Awesome Action Words.”
Narrative writing: Using exact words : The learner will recognize exact verbs in literature and then use more exact verbs when writing a narrative.
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Print
remember that naming words are called nouns and words that show action are called verbs.
use a variety of nouns and verbs to write a story about their favorite animal.
begin to use adjectives to describe the animal and add interest to their story.
Teacher planning
Worksheets with animals from the story (see Animals 1 and Animals 2 )
Pencils, Crayons or markers, scissors, glue or stapler
Lined paper
Computer (Lab, if available) and printer
Smart TV
Overhead projector could also be used
Pre-activities
The students will need basic knowledge of:
nouns and verbs
animals and how they look and move
Activities
This lesson begins with a short discussion of the weather in winter and the kind of clothing that is required for cold weather. The discussion should include the reasons for protection from cold weather.
The lesson progresses with a reading of
The Mitten
by Jan Brett.
Discuss the reason Nicki was going outside. How did he lose his mitten? The story continues with the mole going into the mitten, followed by the rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, bear, and then finally the mouse’s attempt.
Lead the discussion as the children imagine what it must have felt like in the mitten as each animal crowded into it. This leads into describing each animal’s characteristics. This should include adjectives such as soft, prickly, gentle, stiff, scratchy, fuzzy, rough, furry, stickery, feathery, sneaky, pretty, warm, lumpy, big, little, and any others you or your children find appropriate.
The children are then given worksheets (provided in the “put the animals in the mitten” website) with the animal pictures to color and cut out. You will need to print both mittens, one left and one right. These can be glued or stapled together to make a mitten “pocket”. As the children finish coloring and cutting out their animals, they can use these “props” to retell the story in their own words. As they retell the story, encourage them to use the describing words (adjectives) as they introduce each character (animal).
The children will now use the information they have learned and verbalized, to write about their favorite animal from the story. The teacher will model describing an animal using the graphic organizers from the “Kidspiration” software via the Smart TV. (i.e. “A rabbit is soft and furry. It has long, furry ears and long legs. It can hop.”) Each child now needs paper and pencil as they begin to do pre-writing activities. The paper could be blank or pre-printed with helpful circle and tree maps or other similar graphic organizers for pre-writing activities.
The information is now ready to be written in story form. Teacher will monitor the writing encouraging the children to use the adjectives that were used in the verbal activities.
After the story is written and approved by the teacher, the child can go to the computer and type the story there, using the word processing program. When they finish typing their story they can use the paint program to illustrate their story. When every child has had opportunity to type and illustrate their story they can print the story and the pages can be compiled into a class book to be enjoyed by the entire class. This book can also be left in the media center for others to enjoy.
Assessment
The major part of the assessment for this lesson will be teacher observation, however the children’s writing can also be evaluated by using the writing assessment rubric for first grade. The teacher will observe as the students write.
Does the student write using nouns and verbs properly as well as proper punctuation?
Does the student begin to use adjectives to describe the animal being written about?
Does the student begin to use adjectives in conversation as well as written word?
Does the student easily use the keyboard for typing the story that is written?
Supplemental information
This lesson can be expanded to include a comparison of Jan Brett’s “The Mitten” and Alvin Tressalt’s “The Mitten” The latter book is out of print but there are copies still around. Check your school and/or local library for this book. The animals are slightly different and Nicki’s reason for going outside in the first place is different as well as the kind of mitten, but it makes a good comparison lesson. Animals for this lesson are provided in the attached files. Both are animals for this story, however, you may like one set better than the other because one is more realistic than the other.
Modifications
Be sure to have pictures of all the animals you will be using in this lesson. If the adjectives you will be using are colors, you will want to have a color chart visible in the room. If the adjectives involve size, you can use both pictures and modeling to show opposites like long and short. Verbs can be acted out. Get the entire class involved in this activity. It is lots of fun!
Alternative assessments
An assessment suggestions would be to present pictures of animals to the LEP students. Then provide strips of paper with adjectives and verbs on the strips. The LEP student can then glue correct strips to the picture.
Another assessment would be to match pictures of verbs or nouns to the actual word. IE: match a picture of a tiger eating to the word eat, or a picture of a bear to the word bear.
Critical vocabulary
Use a lot of pictures and modeling to help students learn the nouns and verbs.If the LEP students are Spanish speakers, teach them that in the English language, adjectives usually come begore the noun not after it as in the Spanish language. IE English: The red car, Spanish: The car red.
| Rabbit |
Egyptian, banded and King are all types of which snake? | [adjective][species] | The furry world from the inside out
The Furry World from the Inside Out
View all posts by GuestPost →
Guest post by Thurston Howl. Thurston is the editor-in-chief of Thurston Howl Publications . The author of several novels, short stories, and poems, he prides himself in the Ursa Major Award winning essay collection he edited, Furries Among Us. He received his BA in English at Vanderbilt University and his MA in English at Middle Tennessee State University. Aside from running a publishing house, he teaches English at a local college, plays piano, dances, and is actively training to be a coffee connoisseur.
Ed. note: I got so overwhelmed with other stuff that I forgot to post this! My apologies to Thurston and to his readers!
All year long, furries see it all over the social media: “3 days till AC!” “Can’t believe I’m on my way to MFF!” Or, my personal favorite, “Suffering post-con depression after that big con.” Yet, we never hear enough about the less famous small cons. Wikifur has published a list of conventions by attendee participation . It shows 55 furry cons, ranging from 58 participants to over 7,000. The arithmetic mean (average) of the participants for a con was 1,027. Yet, cons that average around that number are generally called “small cons.” I have been to more small cons than large ones. So, here I shall provide five reasons for why small cons are better—or at least, as good as—large cons.
Continue reading The Beauty of Small Cons →
View all posts by Makyo →
[a][s] contributors make the occasional appearance and presentation at conventions around the world (well, okay, a few cons in the US plus Confuzzled in the UK), and Further Confusion is one of our regulars! This year, [a][s] folks have a few panels at FC2017, so if any catch your eye, stop on by and say hi!
Note that times/dates are tentative until scheduling gets locked in by con staff. Bookmark this page and we’ll keep it up to date with any changes. Data was snagged from the panel system directly, but if I missed any [a][s] contributors’ panels, shoot me an email or leave a comment!
Friday
Gender and Furry – Makyo – Friday, January 13 – 11:00AM-12:30PM – Hilton: Santa Clara
Both gender and furry touch on very important aspects of identity, and the fandom often provides a space in which to explore one’s gender in a safe manner. Join Makyo from Love – Sex – Fur to talk about what gender is and how it interacts with the furry subculture.
Write Now! – Jakebe , Kyell – Friday, January 13 – 11:00AM-12:30PM – Marriott: Salon V
Having trouble starting that short story? We’ll present a simple structure for thinking about your story–then you’ll take half an hour to actually start writing it!
The Love – Sex – Fur Guide to Healthy Relationships – Makyo – Friday, January 13 – 1:00PM-2:30PM – Marriott: Blossom Hill
Interested in what all goes into having a happy, healthy, positive relationship with you and your partners? Curious on how to make long-distance and in-person relationships work? Come join us in an open panel discussing safe and healthy relationships.
Saturday
Resources and Tech for Furry Writers – Makyo , Chipotle Coyote, Blackfeather Tanfur – Saturday, January 14 – 11:00AM-12:30PM – Marriott: Almaden
There’s a dizzying array of software, hardware and resources, both online and off, for both established and aspiring writers to use. We’ll talk about our favorites (and least favorites), from Scrivener to InDesign, writing guilds to libraries, and all points between.
Exploring the Fandom Through Data – Makyo – Saturday, January 14 – 1:00PM-2:30PM – Marriott: Salan I/II/III
Come join Makyo from [adjective][species] to explore what it means to be a furry using data from seven years of the Furry Survey and several other resources. We’ll investigate the demographics and interests of the fandom to see what it is that makes us who we are.
What’s Your Problem? – Jakebe , Kyell , FuzzWolf, Ryan Campbell – Saturday, January 14 – 4:30PM-6:00PM – Marriott: Almaden
Your surefire story was rejected? The panelists talk about common errors (and maybe a few not-so-common ones) that get manuscripts turned away by editors.
Adult Furry Writing – Kyell , Rukis, Ryan Campbell – Saturday, January 14 – 10:00PM-11:30PM – Marriott: Almaden
Adult stories are a mainstay in the furry fiction world. Listen to some experienced authors talk about how (and why) to create effective adult stories.
Sunday
Brainstorming in Real Time – Jakebe , Kyell – Sunday, January 15 – 11:00AM-12:30PM – Marriott: Almaden
Don’t just stop at your first idea—it’s probably not your best idea! We’ll talk about generating ideas and show you the value of brainstorming in real time, mining for idea gold. Leave this panel with free story ideas!
Philosophy and Furry – Makyo , Corgi W – Sunday, January 15 – 1:00PM-2:30PM – Marriott: Salon V
Curious about the ways in which we find meaning? How do furries actualize themselves in the world? Come learn about philosophy within furry from Corgi and Makyo.
The Love – Sex – Fur Guide to Safer Sex – Makyo – Sunday, January 15 – 3:00PM-4:30PM – Marriott: Blossom Hill
Interested in what all goes into having a happy, healthy, sex-positive relationship with your partners? Curious on how to stay safe while playing? Come join us in an open panel discussing safe and healthy sexuality.
Mindfulness and Transformation in Action – Jakebe , Kannik – Sunday, January 15 – 3:00PM-4:30PM – Marriott: Salon V
Being present and mindful is at the heart of nearly every philosophical tradition. This workshop will introduce the fundamentals of Buddhism and Philosophical Ontology, teach some practices that are useful in diffusing and bringing possibility to everyday situations, and will end with a short mindfulness meditation.
Unsheathed Live – Kyell , K. M. Hirosaki, Ryan Campbell – Sunday, January 15 – 10:00PM-11:30PM – Marriott: Almaden
Everyone’s favorite highly irregular furry writing podcast returns for a Further Confusion tradition! Join Kyell Gold, K.M. Hirosaki, Not Tube, and special guest Lady Gaga. Or a manatee.
View all posts by Makyo →
This October, we’re raising the profile of anthropomorphic literature and bringing furry stories to a wider audience.
The Furry Writers’ Guild has joined forces with some of our fandom’s great authors and publishers to offer special deals during the month, from free shipping and discount codes to free books.
If you don’t read furry fiction, take advantage of the special offers and try a furry book in October.
Already a reader? Give a book to a friend, try a new author, or write a book review. Reviews on Amazon and Goodreads needn’t be long, and really help authors. Got lots to say? Submit a review to [a][s] , Flayrah , Dogpatch Press , or Claw & Quill .
What will you do this Furry Book Month? Spread the word on social media using #FurryBookMonth!
Visit furrywritersguild.com/furry-book-month/ for the list of offers.
Furry Book Month logo by Ultrafox
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Guest post by Thurston Howl. Thurston is the editor-in-chief of Thurston Howl Publications . The author of several novels, short stories, and poems, he prides himself in the Ursa Major Award winning essay collection he edited, Furries Among Us. He received his BA in English at Vanderbilt University and his MA in English at Middle Tennessee State University. Aside from running a publishing house, he teaches English at a local college, plays piano, dances, and is actively training to be a coffee connoisseur.
The past several years, a growing trend has entered the furry publishing market: the anthology. While anthologies became a most popular form of literature, particularly in genre fiction in the mid-twentieth century, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the furry anthology became a popular form of furry literature (explicitly marketed to the furry community). By now, however, almost every furry publishing house has their own signature annual anthology. FurPlanet has its Bad Dog Books anthologies, FANG and ROAR (both having just published their seventh volume). SofaWolf has the mostly erotic collection, HEAT (now with thirteen volumes), and New Fables. Rabbit Valley Press publishes the annual Tales from the Guild, featuring writers from the Furry Writers Guild. Thurston Howl Publications recently started its series, SPECIES, in which each volume centers on a different furry species. Note that most, if not all, of these houses publish many other anthologies every year, with Altered States; Inhuman Acts; and Gods with Fur coming to mind immediately. These types of furry anthologies have been the recipients of many awards, including the Ursa Major Award and the Coyotl Award.
Perhaps, it is no wonder that the genre has reached such popularity. Anthologies, especially in the furry fandom, have a myriad of strengths:
They allow multiple authors a simultaneous chance at publication, drawing in a clientele for publishing houses.
They allow readers diversity when they buy the books.
They are easier ways for authors to build their writing credits; easier than a full-on novel contract.
They are much easier to market as fifteen authors are sharing with friends and family, rather than just one.
Having an annual anthology series builds a repeating fanbase, with fans who want Volume 2, Volume 3, etc.
Plus, the anthologies give incredibly unique flavor to the personas of each publishing house. Fred Patten has written numerous articles on the various differences between the houses, and many of these differences are reflected in their anthologies. While one favors sci fi and fantasy, another favors more erotic elements.
In essence, furry anthologies are great for the publishers, the writers, and the readers: a win-win-win scenario.
With the end of the year fast approaching and with the rise of new smaller houses, such as Thurston Howl Publications and Weasel Press, it is often a challenge for writers to either find the right calls-for-submissions (CFS) or keep up with the constant barrage of deadlines. Here is a link for a general schedule of CFS until the end of the year. This schedule provides all links to the submission guidelines as well as provides the same basic information listed below.
Below are some details for the upcoming anthologies:
Payments $0.01/wd; print copy
Note: email editor before starting story
Theme: “Furries that are the national animals of countries, such as Afghanistan’s snow leopard, Algeria’s fennec, Bangladesh’s tiger, Canada’s beaver, Denmark’s mute swan, Estonia’s barn swallow, France’s rooster (fighting cock), Gambia’s hyena, Honduras’ white-tailed deer, Italy’s wolf, the U.S.’s bald eagle … There are over 200 countries and most of them have a national animal or bird. For this anthology, we are extending the theme to the official animals of provinces and states. There are several animals such as the koala (Queensland) and platypus (New South Wales) of Australia, or the giant squirrel (Maharashtra) and red panda (Sikkim) of India, or the coyote (South Dakota) and raccoon (Tennessee) of North America that are not national animals, but are the official animals of provinces or states. But: this is limited to the officially adopted animals (including birds) of national or sub-national entities only. No sports team mascots, corporate mascots like the NBC peacock, political party mascots, or breakfast cereal mascots. No fictional official animals or countries like Transylvania and vampire bats. However, some countries have both a national animal and a national bird, such as Chile – its animal is the huemal, an Andean deer, and its bird is the Andean condor. We will accept stories featuring either or both. Please make sure that they are official. There are many animals that are often associated with countries, such as the eagle & snake on the Mexican flag, or Mexico’s Chihuahua, but they are not official animals. (Mexico’s official animal is the xoloitzcuintli. Don’t know what that is? Look it up.) If you would like to submit a story, write to the managing editor (Fred Patten) first to find out if that animal or country is already claimed. If you would like to use an animal or country but don’t know what to pair it with, ask the editor or look it up. Stories sent to the editor without checking first may be wasted effort. The rules are more complex than for most furry anthologies. (1) There must be a connection between the animal and the country. If you feature a tapir, the national animal of Belize, make sure that there is something about Belize in the story. (2) No funny animal stories where the characters could just as easily be humans. Make your characters feel like uplifted or evolved animals. Most animals with fur don’t sweat. (3) Try to match the animals to their environments. If they have thick fur, don’t have them wearing thick clothing in humid tropical lands. (Or justify the discrepancy.) Stories may be humorous or serious. There may be humans in the story as secondary characters, but the main character(s) should be furry.”
If you are considering submitting to any anthology, always remember to look closely at the guidelines to make sure you send the proper file format to the right editor. Hell hath no fury like an editor’s scorn at seeing their pet peeves. If ever you have questions / concerns, you can generally feel free to email an editor to seek advice on a particular concern. Plus, seeing your willingness to open a line of communication only speaks praise of your ability to communicate effectively if they do accept your work.
View all posts by ShiningRiver →
In the year 2001, the Usenet newsgroup alt.lifestyle.furry had been in existence for five years since it’s beginning in June 1996, and its first post in August 1996, and had become a popular site for furries around the world to communicate online. By the year 2000, 540 Furveys from newsgroup participants had been posted, indicating approximately the number of people participating. Posting news and comments on furry topics was the intent of alt.lifestyle.furry, but topics other than furry had become common. Beginning on September 11, their discussion became intensely focused on the terrorist attacks that occurred in the United States and which would soon affect many people all over the world.
Continue reading The Shadow of the Future Fell Upon Us →
View all posts by Makyo →
Today, on Love – Sex – Fur, we have a beautifully illustrated comic about the confluence of adult comics and the furry subculture! Head on over to check it out here ! Note that, as with most all LSF content, the comic is not work-safe.
Yes, LSF is still out there and kicking! All of our recent submissions have fit more under the purview of [a][s], though, and that’s okay. This is your reminder, though, that both [adjective][species] and Love – Sex – Fur are always open for submissions, and as is evidenced by a comic post, we welcome submissions of all kinds!
View all posts by Makyo →
[a][s] had the pleasure to take part in a podcast, alongside Dogpatch Press , exploring furry media. That is, we wanted to explore how media works within the furry subculture, rather than the ways in which widespread media treats furry. It was a wonderful way to do a deep-dive into how media – specifically written media – works and spreads within furry. The whole thing is well worth listening to, so give it ago!
Embedding is disabled at the request of the podcast owner, but you can listen to it in its entirety on its post on YouTube here .
This article in our series debating the Furry Canon is a roundtable discussion of Watership Down by Richard Adams, first published in 1972. Your panelists are JM, Jakebe and Huskyteer.
JM
Jakebe, Huskyteer
Thanks for letting me lead off this roundtable exploration of Watership Down for the [adjective][species] Furry Canon project. Jakebe, I know that this is a book close to your heart, as it is close to the heart of many lapine furries, and by asking me to read and comment you’re risking have me piss all over something personally important.
Continue reading The Furry Canon: Watership Down (Roundtable) →
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Which type of bats generally do not use echolocation to find food? | Echolocation | Bat Biosonar
Humans generally can not hear the high pitched sounds that bats make.
Some bats send echolocation sounds though their nose but most bats use their mouth.
Most fruit bats use eyesight and smell for finding food not echolocation. (Of course fruit bat's food is generally not moving.)
Amazingly even when thousands of bats are flying out of a cave they can still use their echolocation with all the noise around.
Different species of bats use different patterns of echolocation frequencies to find food and navigate. This allows scientists to use a detector like the Anabat bat detector to record echolocation patterns for use in identifying different bat species at night and inside dark caves. At Carlsbad Caverns National Park an Anabat bat detector is used to identify which bat species live in an around the caves, and when specific species arrive at Carlsbad Caverns in the Spring and leave in the Fall. See the different echolocation patterns of bats shown to the right.
| Megabat |
In 1941 Josef Jakobs was the last spy to be executed where? | Bat | San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants
San Diego Zoo Animals & Plants
Species: 951
ABOUT
Bats are myth-understood. There may be more myths about bats than any other animal. Some people think bats are blind bloodsuckers that fly into your hair and carry rabies. In fact, these flying mammals are extremely useful to humans and are gentle, intelligent creatures. Out of nearly 1,000 bat species, only 3 feed on blood, and it is usually that of cattle. They belong to the taxonomic order Chiroptera, which means “hand wing.”
Rodrigues fruit bats belong to the Megachiroptera group of bats.
These flying mammals are divided into two major groups. Megachiroptera or mega bats are medium- to large-size bats. Many eat fruit, pollen, or nectar; some eat small land animals, and some eat fish. They have big eyes and excellent eyesight.
Lesser mouse-eared bat (Myotis myotis)
The other major group is Microchiroptera or micro bats, which are smaller bats that eat mostly insects. They use echolocation, detecting sound waves to navigate and identify the flying insects they eat. Included in this group is the smallest bat, the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat, which weighs less than a penny.
There are 47 bat species in the US, and 21 of the 23 in San Diego County are insectivorous; the other two species eat nectar. San Diego County is home to the largest bat in North America, the Western mastiff bat, which has a wingspan of over 22 inches (56 centimeters). The hoary bat is the most common bat in the US and is even found in Hawaii. The Kitti’s hog-nosed or bumblebee bat of western Thailand and southeast Burma is considered the world’s smallest mammal.
Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight. Bat wings contain the same bones as a four-fingered human hand. Indeed, a bat’s wings ARE its hands. A thin, strong membrane of soft, velvety skin spreads across these bones, connecting them to the bat's back and legs, like the fabric and ribs of an umbrella. The thumb clings to surfaces when the bat alights.
The surface of a bat’s wings has small, sensitive bumps called Merkel cells. Each bump has a tiny hair in the center, allowing the bat to collect information about the air flowing over its wings so it can change the wing’s shape to fly more efficiently.
HABITAT AND DIET
A large group of bats flying in the sky is called a "cloud."
Bats can be found almost anywhere, except in polar regions and extreme deserts. They usually rest in large social groups in caves, trees, and man-made structures such as bridges, but some species shelter in animal burrows, termite nests, or even in flowers or giant spider webs. Some bats migrate to warmer climates during the winter, while others hibernate. One species travels 2,400 miles (3,900 kilometers) each year! It is not yet known how bats navigate these long distances to find the same cave they used the year before.
Bats roost upside down, since the lightweight bones in their hind legs cannot support their body weight in an upright position. Their wings wrap around them like a cloak while they rest. Bats sleep during the day and go out at night in search of food. Bat wings are laden with blood vessels, which help them heal rapidly if injured.
Most bats take off by dropping from a hanging position, and many can’t take off from the ground. Bats land by slowing down until they stall and grabbing hold of a branch or other surface. Some bats perform a flip and then grab hold!
The micro bats use echolocation to find their insect meals. They are able to “see” their world and detect prey by emitting short bursts of high-pitched sounds that bounce off objects and return to the bat as echoes. Most bats delay emitting a second signal until they have received the echo from the first. Catching prey can cause momentary “blindness,” because the bat cannot speak with a full mouth. To avoid this problem, a number of species squeak through their nose and have evolved a variety of elaborate nasal outgrowths that direct their squeaks.
Bat ears are huge, often five or more times the size of the head. Muscles within the ears contract and relax with the burst of sound, blocking the outgoing squeaks and receiving the echo. By interpreting the incoming signal, bats in flight can distinguish the difference in sound between a tree, your head, and a tasty grasshopper. Bats are not blind, but most have better night vision than day vision. They see in black, white, and shades of gray.
As fruit doesn’t fly, fruit bats lack complex echolocation. Instead, they rely on excellent eyesight and a good sense of smell to find their food.
What's for dinner?
Mother's milk— All bats live on milk from birth up to six months of age.
Insects— About 70 percent of all bats eat insects: flies, mosquitoes, beetles, and cockroaches. A colony of bats in Texas eats 500,000 pounds (226,796 kilograms) of mosquitoes nightly!
Nectar— Bats that eat nectar are like hummingbirds, with a long snout and tongue that allow them to lap up nectar as they hover. The hair on their body catches pollen and carries it from flower to flower. Many plant species would not survive without bat pollinators.
Fruit— Fruit eaters are drawn by the smell of ripe fruit. They don’t eat the whole fruit, though; they slurp up all the juice and spit out the pulp and seeds, which helps regenerate rain forests. Their seed-dispersing behavior has earned them the name “farmers of the tropics."
At the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, the Rodrigues fruit bats are fed nectar and a variety of juicy fruits, including oranges, pears, grapes, and watermelons, as well as bananas and a bat pellet (to supplement their nutritional needs).
Fish, etc.— A few species of bats eat fish, plus lizards, frogs, birds, rodents, and even other bats! These bats kill their prey by biting its head. Fishing bats fly over the surface of the water, use echolocation to find the fish, grab it with their sharp claws, and move it into their mouth.
Blood— Only three species of bats, found from Mexico to South America, dine on the blood of mammals—often domestic cows—or birds. These bats make a small, V-shaped cut in the animal’s skin with a bite and then lick up the blood. They don’t suck blood, like the vampire legends say! And licking the blood from an animal’s leg is usually more annoying than dangerous.
A chemical in the bat’s saliva keeps the blood from clotting before the bat is done eating. This chemical could have medical uses for humans. Investigations are being done to see if it can help humans who have blood clots that could cause strokes.
FAMILY LIFE
A Rodrigues bat pup clings to its mother with its sharp claws while she roosts.
Male bats may sing, display their wings, or expand long hairs on the top of the head to attract a mate, depending on the species.
Many bat species mark their territory using scent glands on their neck and chin. Bats are status grabbers, with dominant bats getting the prime, higher-up spots while lower-caste and juvenile animals make do on the fringe.
A mother gives birth while hanging by her feet; she must catch her baby with her wings as it drops! Most female bats have only one baby, called a pup, per year, although twins and quadruplets occur in a few species. Some tropical bats can have two pregnancies per year. In some species, the pregnant females form nursery colonies in warmer roosts. A mother bat can locate her pup by its scent and sound out of millions in a roost!
The pup is born without hair and with its eyes closed. The mother nurses her pup for two to six months, then teaches it to fly and find food. The pup can cling to its mother with its sharp claws while she roosts or hang by itself. When the mother takes wing, the pup holds tight with its teeth, too. In bat species that live in smaller groups, the father may help care for the pup. A bat pup learns to fly within three to six weeks of its birth, depending on the species.
CONSERVATION
We need bats! Bats are responsible for pollinating trees, flowers, and cacti. They spread seeds so plants grow in new areas. Bats pollinate avocados, bananas, breadfruit, dates, figs, mangoes, and peaches. These remarkable mammals live together by the millions, and each can eat half its weight in insects a night, so they are great at controlling large numbers of pests that harm crops and spread disease. Certain microorganisms found in bat droppings may have important medical uses for humans. However, many populations of bat species are in grave danger.
Without active conservation programs, many bat species face extinction. They have been killed on purpose when people disturbed their caves or hunted them for food or medicine. Bats are the most endangered land mammal in North America. Bats across the eastern US and Canada are losing habitat to human activities and have also fallen prey to a fungal infection called white-nose syndrome. It rousts them during hibernation, leaving them vulnerable to starvation and freezing.
The Rodrigues fruit bat Pteropus rodricensis is also in need of help. This critically endangered species is only found on Rodrigues Island, located about 300 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. Most of this bat population is found in a single colony at 3 roost sites they have used for more than 50 years. As local people felled tamarind and mango tress to plant other crops, the favored food of these bats dwindled, as did their numbers. Following a cyclone in 2003, which destroyed habitat and swept bats out to sea, they numbered about 4,000.
Caring for them and breeding them in zoos, such as the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, creates a safety net to keep them for extinction. We hope to establish a small breeding colony of this endangered species, and we've partnered with the Rodrigues Environmental Educator Programme, working with school and community groups to support bat conservation.
Bats do more than earn their keep—insect-eating bats prevent diseases like West Nile virus and save crops from pests; fruit-eaters pollinate plants and disperse seeds while they’re at it. Bat droppings support bacteria useful to humans, including the production of antibiotics. The importance of bats to the environment cannot be exaggerated, and you can help them by creating roosts for them.
Contact a local nature center or park to find out if there is a bat club in your area, or join Bat Conservation International. You can start your own club, help protect local caves and other roosting areas, or build a bat house for your yard or neighborhood.
Sounds
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In 1830 William Watts and George Davis were the last pirates to be hanged where? | High Court of the Admiralty | Exploring London
Lost London – Execution Dock…
September 2, 2011
The favoured place to dispatch pirates, Execution Dock was located on the north bank of the River Thames just off Wapping High Street.
Among the most famous to be executed here was Kidd himself who, having been found to have turned pirate while operating as a privateer under the authority of King William III, was hanged here on 23rd May, 1701.
The site, near where a cannon foundry operated supplying the fleet of King Henry VIII, was in-use as an execution ground for more than 400 years, from the 15th century until the last hanging in 1830 (that of pirates George Davis and William Watts).
Those convicted of piracy in the High Court of Admiralty were typically brought to Execution Dock from Marshalsea Prison (or in some cases from Newgate) in a procession across London Bridge and past the Tower of London which was led by the Admiralty Marshal or his deputy who carried a silver oar as a symbol of their authority.
In a public spectacle, the pirates were then hanged on a wooden scaffold built at low tide but unlike at other sites of execution where they were cut down after death, the victims were left hanging to allow three tides to wash over them.
The most notorious of the pirates would then be tarred and put in a gibbet to be exhibited on one of the banks of the Thames as a warning to others (Kidd’s remains were apparently left in such a state for more than 20 years at Tilbury).
The exact location of Execution Dock remains a matter of dispute with favoured locations including a spot near the Town of Ramsgate pub (where a noose still hangs today), just along from The Captain Kidd pub near what are now known as King Henry’s Stairs and, between the two locations, a warehouse which stands on the waterfront and is prominently marked with an E (for Execution Dock). Some even suggest the site was outside the Prospect of Whitby pub further east along Wapping High Street.
There’s currently an exhibition on Captain Kidd at the Museum of London Docklands, Pirates: The Captain Kidd Story. See here for more information.
PICTURE: Wikipedia
| Execution Dock |
In 1783 John Austin was the last highwayman to be hung where? | Where and what was Execution Dock?
Image courtesy of drumminhands on Flickr CC-BY
Paying the price for murder and piracy on the high seas.
Under the English legal system the Admiralty Court dealt with all crimes committed on the high seas. For at least 500 years Execution Dock was where its capital sentences were carried out.
To ensure that it was within the court's jurisdiction, the gallows were located at below the high-water mark on the River Thames in London.
It also served as a visible reminder to passing ship's crews, for the bodies were left for three days, visible or immersed as the tide rose and fell. Some were then transferred and placed in an iron cage and hung in chains at Bugsby's Hole at Blackwall.
One of the most famous pirates, Captain Kidd, was hung at Execution Dock, while other pirates included some of Blackbeard's crew.
In later centuries the bodies where not left, but would be taken down and taken away for dissection by surgeons.
The last execution took place in 1830 when George John Davis and William Watts became the last men to executed for piracy in Britain.
'Execution of the Pirates at Execution Dock
Yesterday morning the two unfortunate men, George Davies, alias George Huntley and William Watts, alias Charles Williams, pursuant to their sentence at the late Admirslty Sessions, underwent the awful sentence the law.'
Evening Mail - Friday 17 December 1830 on the British Newspaper Archive
The exact location of the gallows is disputed, but some sources state that it was opposite the former warehouse shown in the picture above. Note the letter 'E'.
Google Maps link for the approximate location of Execution Dock.
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Members of which family won five Nobel prizes? | Nobel Prize Facts
Lists of Nobel Prizes and Laureates
Lists of Nobel Prizes and Laureates
Nobel Prize Facts
On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, giving the largest share of his fortune to a series of prizes in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature and Peace - the Nobel Prizes. In 1968, Sveriges Riksbank (Sweden's central bank) established The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Learn more about the Nobel Laureates here.
579 Nobel Prizes!
Between 1901 and 2016, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 579 times.
Nobel Prize
136
99
In the statutes of the Nobel Foundation it says: "A prize amount may be equally divided between two works, each of which is considered to merit a prize. If a work that is being rewarded has been produced by two or three persons, the prize shall be awarded to them jointly. In no case may a prize amount be divided between more than three persons."
911 Nobel Laureates!
885 Laureates * and 26 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2016. Of them, 78 are Laureates in Economic Sciences. A small number of individuals and organizations have been honoured more than once, which means that 881 individuals and 23 unique organizations have received the Nobel Prize in total. See Multiple Nobel Laureates .
| Physics | Chemistry | Physiology or Medicine | Literature | Peace | Economic Sciences |
Years without Nobel Prizes
Since the start, in 1901, there are some years when the Nobel Prizes have not been awarded. The total number of times are 49. Most of them during World War I (1914-1918) and II (1939-1945). In the statutes of the Nobel Foundation it says: "If none of the works under consideration is found to be of the importance indicated in the first paragraph, the prize money shall be reserved until the following year. If, even then, the prize cannot be awarded, the amount shall be added to the Foundation's restricted funds.".
Nobel Prize
1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942
Chemistry
1916, 1917, 1919, 1924, 1933, 1940, 1941, 1942
Medicine
1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941, 1942
Literature
1914, 1918, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943
Peace
1914, 1915, 1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1948, 1955, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1972
Economic Sciences
-
Nobel Laureates and Fields
The most common fields for Physics Laureates is particle physics, for Chemistry Laureates it is biochemistry, for Medicine Laureates it is genetics and for Laureates in Economic Sciences it is macroeconomics. Most of the Literature Laureates write prose.
All Laureates sorted by field and genre for literature:
| Physics | Chemistry | Physiology or Medicine | Literature | Peace | Economic Sciences |
Nobel Laureates and Affiliation
Here you can find out which universities, research institutions or companies Nobel Laureates were affiliated with at the time of the Nobel Prize announcement.
Only Nobel Laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Laureates in Economic Sciences are shown in the list.
List of all Nobel Laureates sorted by country of birth
Nobel Laureates and Age
The average age of all Nobel Laureates in all prize categories between 1901 and 2016 is 59 years.
90
49 Nobel Prizes to Women
Between 1901 and 2016 the Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded 49 times to women.
List of all female Nobel Laureates
Two Nobel Laureates Declined the Prize
Jean-Paul Sartre , awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature, declined the prize because he had consistently declined all official honours.
Le Duc Tho , awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. They were awarded the Prize for negotiating the Vietnam peace accord. Le Doc Tho said that he was not in a position to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, citing the situation in Vietnam as his reason.
Forced to Decline the Nobel Prize!
Four Nobel Laureates have been forced by authorities to decline the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbade three German Nobel Laureates, Richard Kuhn , Adolf Butenandt and Gerhard Domagk , from accepting the Nobel Prize. All of them could later receive the Nobel Prize Diploma and Medal, but not the prize amount.
Boris Pasternak , the 1958 Nobel Laureate in Literature, initially accepted the Nobel Prize but was later coerced by the authorities of the Soviet Union, his native country, to decline the Nobel Prize.
Nobel Laureates under Arrest at the Time of the Award
Three Nobel Laureates were under arrest at the time of the award of the Nobel Prize, all of them Nobel Peace Prize Laureates:
Peace 1981
Posthumous Nobel Prizes
From 1974, the Statutes of the Nobel Foundation stipulate that a Prize cannot be awarded posthumously, unless death has occurred after the announcement of the Nobel Prize. Before 1974, the Nobel Prize has only been awarded posthumously twice: to Dag Hammarskjöld (Nobel Peace Prize 1961) and Erik Axel Karlfeldt (Nobel Prize in Literature 1931).
Following the 2011 announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, it was discovered that one of the Medicine Laureates, Ralph Steinman , had passed away three days earlier. The Board of the Nobel Foundation examined the statutes, and an interpretation of the purpose of the rule above led to the conclusion that Ralph Steinman should continue to remain a Nobel Laureate, as the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet had announced the 2011 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine without knowing of his death.
"Family Nobel Laureates"
As you may notice, the Curies were a very successful 'Nobel Prize family'. Marie Curie herself was awarded two Nobel Prizes.
Nikolaas Tinbergen
The Nobel Prize Insignias
At the Nobel Prize Award Ceremonies on 10 December the Nobel Laureates receive three things: a Nobel Diploma, a Nobel Medal and a document confirming the Nobel Prize amount. Each Nobel Diploma is a unique work of art, created by foremost Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers. The Nobel Medals are handmade with careful precision and in 18 carat recycled gold.
The Nobel Medals in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature are identical on the face: it shows the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833-1896). Nobel's portrait also appears on the Nobel Peace Prize Medal and the Medal for the Prize in Economic Sciences, but with a slightly different design. The image on the reverse varies according to the institution awarding the prize.
More about the Nobel Medals
The Nobel Diplomas
Each Nobel Diploma is a unique work of art, created by foremost Swedish and Norwegian artists and calligraphers.
More about the Nobel Diplomas
The Nobel Prize Amount
Alfred Nobel left most of his estate, more than SEK 31 million (today approximately SEK 1,702 million) to be converted into a fund and invested in "safe securities." The income from the investments was to be "distributed annually in the form of prizes to those who during the preceding year have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind."
The Nobel Prize amount for 2016 is set at Swedish kronor (SEK) 8.0 million per full Nobel Prize.
More about the Nobel Prize Amount
* Why are the individuals and organisations awarded a Nobel Prize called Nobel Laureates?
The word "Laureate" refers to being signified by the laurel wreath. In Greek mythology, the god Apollo is represented wearing a laurel wreath on his head. A laurel wreath is a circular crown made of branches and leaves of the bay laurel (in Latin: Laurus nobilis). In Ancient Greece, laurel wreaths were awarded to victors as a sign of honour - both in athletic competitions and in poetic meets.
Links to more facts on the Nobel Prizes:
| Curie |
In 1802 which President of the Royal Society produced a crude electric light? | Nobel family - The Boston Globe
Nobel family
December 10, 2006
The Nobel Prizes are handed out on Dec. 10 of each year. Some families have been outstanding enough to have more than one member receive the prize. How many members of the most successful family in Nobel history have received the award?
A. 3 B. 4 C. 7 D. 12
A. 3 is not correct.
According to the Nobel Foundation, three is the number of US presidents who have received the Nobel Peace Prize. Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, who were awarded the Peace Prize in 1906 and 1919, respectively, received their prizes as sitting presidents. In 2002, 21 years after his presidency ended, Jimmy Carter became the third US president to win the award.
B. 4 is correct.
Four members of the Curie family have won the Nobel Prize, making them the most successful family in Nobel history.
The first two were husband and wife Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. In 1911, Marie Curie was again awarded the Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for her discovery of two new elements.
The other two were Irène Joliot-Curie, daughter of Pierre and Marie, and her husband Frédéric Joliot, who shared the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1935.
C. 2 is not correct.
There have been several other family combinations that have been awarded Nobel prizes. For example, there have been six father-son pairs to receive the prize. The latest such pair is the 2006 winner of the prize in chemistry, Roger Kornberg, and his father, Arthur, who won the prize for physiology/medicine in 1959.
In addition, one pair of brothers has won Nobel prizes. Jan Tinbergen was awarded the prize in economics in 1969 and his brother Nikolaas won the prize in physiology/medicine in 1973.
C. 12 is not correct.
While women in many fields still do not receive recognition on par with male colleagues, the Nobel Peace Prize is quite remarkable in that 12 women have been awarded it so far.
The latest was 2004 recipient Wangari Maathai from Kenya. The 2003 recipient was the Iranian human rights activist and author Shirin Ebadi. She was only the third Muslim to receive the prize after Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in 1978 and the Palestine Liberation Organization's Yassir Arafat in 1994.
The quiz is produced by The Globalist, a Washington-based research organization that promotes awareness of world affairs. © 2006 The Globalist, www.theglobalist.com .
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Which four words appeared under Dan Dare on the Eagle front page? | eFanzines.com - Earl Kemp: e*I* Vol. 5 No. 4
Art, thanks very much for making this embarrassing to me correction. --EK
Monday June 5, 2006:
Another issue of eI that just blows me away. As always, it immediately followed an issue of The Drink Tank and again, I was severely out-classed. Go figure.
You know, someone at Ram Books should be shot. They took a lovely cover for Red Hot & Ready and turned it into the crap that showed up on Lens Lust. Just a pure crap reinvention. At least the other two are better.
I still love that Victor Banis piece, but seeing it in eI, I completely realize that it was the right place for it. Those Rotsler pieces were nice too. I recently came into possession of a number of issues of KTEIC Magazine from 1982 that he put out and I seem to recall that sacrificial altarpiece being in one of them. I'm thinking of scanning them, but I'm not sure what to do with them after that.
There was a store around the corner from my house growing up that sold no Playboys, only Hustler and those Filthy Mags that came from Europe. You'd find one sometimes, laying in a parking lot or somewhere like that, and you'd sneak and peak and they'd always disturb me somehow. Maybe it was those close-ups of things going in and out that bugged. I never much got into Hustler. True, it's done some okay journalism, and I must admit that Larry Flynt has done some good things over the years (mixed in with a lot of terrible things) but I just couldn't get into the no-class sexuality they presented. Then again, I read Playboy for the fiction these days, so what do I know? I loved Omni, and I'll always thank Flynt for giving us that. While I hate to admit it, despite my last name being Garcia, I'm only a fourth or fifth cousin to Jerry (I figured it out once and it's not that close, but I could trace it) while Jerry Falwell is a solid fourth cousin. I remember reading about the Falwell trial when I was a kid and my Grandma saying that he was 'a dark spot on the family'.
Alan White is a good man. Sybil Danning may have been one of the most attractive women of those days I was too young to have experienced. In that photo of Alan and Sybil, Alan has my hair. It's scary how much it looks like my hair right at this very moment. I called in two of the girls from work and they both said that the hair was exactly the same! I must track down a copy of Slam. It sounds like it was a hoot.
There are some very good books written about the inside of the pornography business, and a whole lot of bad ones. The same goes for the wrestling business. I've been asked twice to write insider books, but I'm not an insider, even though I know a lot of people who are pretty deep in. Sadly, there are a lot of folks like me in various fields that get asked to write books on the Inside and sadly, a lot of folks don't have my restraint. I must pick up a copy of The Prisoner of X.
Sandra Scream. There's a pair of tits I haven't thought of in ages. She was one of the people who really changed the way Cannes views people. Adult stars had shown up before (Ciciolena or however you spell it was the one who really invented the Cannes Porn movement) but I remember hearing folks talking about Sandra for years.
If it’s the same Frank that I’ve heard about, I’m certain that there are a thousand great stories about the former Flynt bagman. There was an article about Larry’s assistants in an issue of Rolling Stone (I think it was Rolling Stone, I did read it while I was in college, so it was either Rolling Stone or The Phoenix) that told the story of the, as I believe they put it, ‘the creeps and the motherfuckers.’
If you’ve ever seen the movie version of Dragnet, Dabney Coleman’s performance as the owner of a porn empire (with titles like Bait and Field & Cream) was based off of a party imitation someone did of wrestler Dusty Rhodes if he had become Larry Flynt. It’s a funny performance and I constantly quote it.
rich brown just became my hero. That was a fantastic piece of post-modernist humour/Good Ol’ Fun. I loved it!
Pete mentions that it was uncharacteristic of France to sell Louisiana for such a small price. Fact is, Old Nap needed that money, there were wars to pay for and those that still needed paying and he was planning on getting out of the New World business anyhow. It was strange that the US would put so much of their coffers into one big score, but that’s the way we roll: big money, no whammies, stop!
I wish I could have gone to the Paperback show. I had it on my calendar, but it was either that or a visit to my friends in Vegas, and knowing what I’d be spending at a paperback show, Vegas was the better part of valor. Looking at the folks pictured, I certainly missed out. I’d have loved to meet Dick Lupoff there, but luckily he wandered into the Fanzine Lounge at BayCon and we had a lovely chat there. Great photos, though.
Thanks much for running Dad’s piece. I’m sure he’d be proud to see it in what was his favourite fanzine at the end. I found the copies of eI I had printed for him next to his bed, probably among the last things he ever read. That, and the small pile of conventional porn that was right next to it.
--Chris Garcia
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Thanks for the heads up. It was another great "issue." Congrats on last "issues" reprinting rich's "Two of a Kind," it is an intense story deserving of wider readership. rich is an amazing guy and has been a great friend for many years. And a good writer, too.
Enjoyed reading Ted's piece about Althea again.
Keep up the good work.
--Dan Steffan
#
I have to tell you this: Of all the humorous/literary/gossipy delights I effortlessly inhale from friends through the Internet--and make mental notes to go back and finish reading them--yours is the only site I do go back to and complete reading. The arrival of your zine doesn't even leave room for the inevitable guilt feelings ("what did you think of the ______?"), trying to bluff my way through their _______... something which I just couldn't endure reading more than a few lines, but really don't want to be impolite because I do like the sender.
I always enjoy your ezine in a special way: I'm basically introverted, and sometimes your zine works like a few hits off a freshly stuffed, newly lit bong. It gives me a sense of what fun it is to play being an extrovert. Like I'm really having fun at the party instead of dutifully biding my time for a quick retreat.
I trust you won't misunderstand if I say "keep it up"!
--Rose Idlet, Black Ace Books
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Just downloaded your latest eI and was surprised to see pics of me in it. I saw you at that signing, tried to find you after getting worn out scribbling in books, & failed --& didn't see the Lupoffs, either! AAargh!--that was the main reason I went! Maybe next year...
Anyway, I've been guiltily reading your ezine for years & not writing. It's a great nostalgic trip. Somehow those days ring with a clarity I miss in the present squalor. My god, even Ted White! A bit sobering, that of the Void coeditors, 2 are gone & 3 survive... Thanks!
--Gregory Benford
Friday June 9, 2006:
It took me a couple of "sit downs", but I just completed el26. My ignorance of behind the scenes porn is almost as vast as my lack of knowledge on the subject of science fiction.
But, the high level of input that you present regularly makes it worthwhile and easy to learn.
I think that we can all learn from a man like Mr. Garcia since we are all dying without the deadline. Set goals for yourself and remember; It's not that life is so short. It's that death is so long.
--Daniel Andrews
Saturday June 10, 2006:
It’s been ages, although I do make it a point to check in regularly at your web-sites to see what in the hell you’re up to (although seeing how much you manage to accomplish makes me literally tired as hell – must be age creeping up on me).
I’m delighted to see a short story by Victor Banis, “In Passing” recently posted on your site.
Speaking of “the” Victor, I just finished reading his memoir SPINE INTACT, SOME CREASES; REMEMBRANCES OF A PAPERBACK WRITER, and didn’t you come out the star (not that the designation isn’t deserving)! Such an exciting life we all led/lead – although I must admit that there are some of your and Victor’s shared experiences that I’m damned happy to have missed.
Must say that I’m sorry that the book in question hasn’t yet been picked up by any U.S. publisher, making it so damned hard to come by, it having only been published by that obscure Italian university press in a limited edition (oh, well, only apt to make my first-edition all the more valuable as a collector’s item, in time). Where are Earl Kemp and Greenleaf Classics when you need them?!
Anyway, always glad to hear that you are alive and thriving.
--William Lambert, III
(AKA William J. Lambert III, WJ Lambert, Lambert Wilhelm, Christopher Dane, Karl Klyne, Ernst Mauser, Alex von Mann, Cort Forbes, Adriana deBolt, Willa Lambert, Anna Lambert, Chad Stuart … et al).
#
Just finished downloading and reading the latest issue. The current el is as provocative as ever.
I was especially taken by Ted White's article on his brief and fruitless encounter with Althea Flynt. (And has anyone observed that Ted is one of the most apt and articulate chroniclers, and always has been?). In the movie, The People VS Larry Flynt, Althea was portrayed by Courtney Love. Highly appropriate casting, I'd say, although I wonder if Althea was really that mangy.
In passing, Althea references Matty Simmons, the publisher of National Lampoon and producer of Animal House and other related comedies.
In the early ’60s, I spent a few years working for The Diners' Club in New York. Although their showcase offices were situated at the very spiffy New York Coliseum on Columbus Circle, the grunt work was performed at an annex several blocks away on West 57th Street. It was a small overcrowded office space, tucked beside IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances). Day and night, summer and winter, their latest olfactory confections penetrated the building. It was inescapable and after a while, if you were lucky, you learned to ignore it.
Matty Simmons was an executive helping to run the company, and also helming the official Diners' Club magazine (which might have been called Signature, that's the only name that leaps to mind). I met him several times. He was always congenial and ambitious but gave the impression of satisfaction in the lofty role he had there. Shortly afterward, he left for the much more lucrative field of film and magazine production, where he enjoyed considerable success.
I also shook hands with Alfred Bloomingdale (of Bloomingdale's Department Store fame), who was an early backer of The Diners; Club. In later years he gained unwelcome notoriety for his associations with major political figures, as well as his personal pursuits.
I swore I'd never wash my hands after the handshaking encounter. And I never did.
--Mike Deckinger
Saturday June 24, 2006:
I really gotta hand it to you, Earl; you know how to pub an interesting zine. Never in my wildest imaginings would I have thought that I would be interested in reading articles written about Hustler magazine; a normal male would be much more interested in simply reading -- no, make that "eye-balling" (hahahahaha) -- Hustler. A most enjoyable read, so to speak.
I really thank you for pubbing John Paul Garcia's last and only piece of fan-writing and, of course, Chris for forwarding it on to you for publication. It really bums me out that I never met John because I was very active in fandom when he was, even though his fanac was rather minimal and we were geographically separated (West Coast fan vs. Midwestern fan.) Even so, what a cool link that would have been since Chris is now pubbing one of my favorite zines to read, Drink Tank. John's first piece of advice has always been one of my favorite practices when attending a con; many a fine conversation has taken place in the hallway outside the con suite because it is so true that everybody will come by at some time over the weekend, some way more times than once.
Y'know, someday if I'm ever out there at the time, I would love to see that Mission Hills Paperback Show and Sale; sounds like a lot of fun to an avowed bibliophile like me. Great photos, by the way.
I think Peter Weston may have something here, but I personally believe that aliens really don't want to have anything to do with us humans because we are such a self-destructive creature. We don't need no stinking alien help in starting wars and messing up our planet. Sheesh! What the heck is Peter thinking -- or smoking? (Can I have some?)
Not much else to say for now, but that in no way reflects the actual enjoyment I derived from reading eI #26. As always, an interesting and enjoyable collection of writings; I just have no pithy comments to make on it all except, "Read And Enjoyed." Thank you for your continued fine efforts.
--John Purcell
Friday June 30, 2006:
Propaganda films extend to cartoons. I have a tape at home called Uncensored Toons, full of Warner Brothers cartoons from the ’30s, ’40 and ’50s, all, shall we say, very, VERY politically incorrect. Some of the characters dance and sing to raise money for war bonds, and titles like Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips set the tone.
I have been hearing from several people, all saying that if you think Dubya was bad, don’t vote for Bill Frist. I said in my loc that it would be tough to do worse than Bush, and it looks like I might be proved wrong. The Supreme Court’s latest ruling that the war trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees is illegal, and Bush acted outside of his authority, is a welcome slap in the fact for this administration. Let the nightmare end now…
Ah, Twilight Zone Magazine…a great publication, with so many good memories inside. I have the whole set, except for the last issue, which I loaned out, and never got back, serves me right…
I wonder, Earl, if your friend Hugh has seen any of these issues of eI, and if he might be prevailed upon to make a few comments? With Hef hitting 80, I’m sure he’s got a few memories
[I suspect he’s much too busy doing his own thing. It would be a pleasure to have him aboard though and thanks for the suggestion. –EK]
I have never been able to latch onto a job as a freelance typographer, or copy editor, or any other editorial position like that. Either my qualifications are sadly lacking, or Canadian employers in the publishing industry are a helluva lot smarter than their American counterparts. I think it’s mostly the latter.
I wonder how many fans of Beauty and The Beast, and anything else Ron Perlman has done, know that Frank from LFP was his frontman? I can think of a few friends who would be shocked and disappointed.
If someone like Hugo Gernsback hadn’t been there to plant the idea of science in the future in our minds, would we have had the idea ourselves later on? Would we have gone to the moon without that initial seed? Did Uncle Hugo change us that much, or did he just accelerate the process of forward-thinking and a desire to peer forward into the future, close or distant?
I had hopes that David Gerrold would have made it up to Toronto for Gaylaxicon. In the various places it's been held, it was in Toronto last month, and Yvonne and I were on the committee. (It’s a telling remark on the GLBT SF community when the majority of the committee on a GLBT SF convention are straight.) As the head of the dealers’ room, it was up to me to contact David, and see if he wanted dealers’ tables in Toronto. I was getting remarks like, “You’re in Canada? I’ll wait until it’s in the United States again.” and I was getting discouraged. David ignored my missives, and it fell into the chairman, Lance Sibley, to contact him. He found out David had an on-going feud with one of the guests of honour, Richard Arnold, and would not be coming to Toronto. At all. Period.
I may have asked before, Earl, but are you going to LA for the Worldcon this year? Guess I’d like us to meet, and this continent is just too big, and my paycheque is just too small.
John Garcia need a lot more time. Just as Chris convinced him he had to put his memories down on paper, cancer took him away. At least John did get to do some writing, and we’ll be richer for that. I hope to see the Trimbles in Los Angeles, but if that doesn’t happen, they are scheduled to be the Fan GoHs at Astronomicon 10 in Rochester in November. John is absolutely right when it comes to finding a seat where the whole con walks past. I’ve done that three times now, and never felt like I was missing much. The people make a con for me.
--Lloyd Penney
Tuesday July 4, 2006:
I've read every issue of eI, found the whole thing brilliant and fascinating from beginning to end, but the problem is I have nothing to add. It's almost all entirely new to me. I mean, you wouldn't want to get an e-mail every two months that said nothing but "brilliant and fascinating,"
--John Boston, Wegenheim
The Fantasy Press Story*
By Lloyd Arthur Eshbach
Mr. Eshbach (left), and Mr. Willy Ley in front of the Fantasy Press display at the Philcon, 1960.
An unsolicited letter of criticism, a fannish gesture of helpfulness and a joke led to the formation of Fantasy Press.
It began when I ordered a copy of Skylark of Space from the Buffalo Book Company of Providence, Rhode Island. After months of waiting during which I wrote several letters of inquiry, I finally received The Time Stream, by John Taine. Since sales promotion and advertising were my business, and since I felt Tom Hadley (of Buffalo Book Co.) had not handled this particular transaction to his and my best advantage, I wrote him a lengthy letter of criticism and suggestion.
There was no reply until one day when I received a phone call from Providence. An interchange of calls (from Hadley) and letters (from me) led to my joining Hadley to help him sell his books. Joined him, mind you, only as a fannish gesture, since there was no mention of financial matters—only a sort of vague “if things go over we’ll talk about pay.”
For a number of months I handled correspondence, prepared promotional pieces, kept records, designed a letterhead for Hadley Publishing Company, the new name which Tom adopted, and otherwise made myself useful. ’Twas a lot of fun—until I began receiving complaints from people who for some reason had failed to receive already published books for which they had paid. This and other matters led to my returning all correspondence, records, etc., etc., to Hadley and gently withdrawing from the scene.
Some time later in the office in which I worked (as ad copy writer for the Reading branch of the Glidden Company, a paint manufacturer), I said jokingly to a friend of mine, G.H. MacGregor (who knew about the Hadley deal), “Say, Mac, how’d you like to go into the publishing business?”
“You mean like this guy Hadley?” When I replied in the affirmative, he asked, “How much dough would it take?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a couple thousand.”
“Sure,” MacGregor said. “We could get Donnell here”—the artist who was in the room at the time—“and he could do the illustrating. Maybe add Leman Houck—he’s a bookkeeper—and with each of us putting in five hundred we’d be on our way.”
I had been joking—but that’s exactly how it worked out, and the four of us formed Fantasy Press within the next week. This partnership continued until January of 1950, at which time I bought out my partners’ share of the business. They were fine partners, still are swell men and good friends of mine, but their contribution to a science fiction publishing house had to be limited. None of them even read SF.
During our initial conference I had told the others that our success in launching Fantasy Press (a name not even thought of at that time, November 1946) depended upon our getting a book by Dr. Edward E. Smith as our first title. I knew Doc would sell, since Skylark of Space had sold for Hadley. Spacehounds of IPC seemed to be the logical book to start with, since it was an independent novel, not part of Smith’s famous Lensmen or Skylark series. Since Spacehounds was our first title, released in February 1947, my efforts to secure it from Doc Smith, obviously, were successful.
To digress briefly, it may be of some interest to you to learn that the name “Fantasy Press” was chosen among the following: Nova Publications, Stellar Publishers, Science-Fantasy Press, and, it seems to me, one other. I think we might have done better—but it’s too late now.
With Spacehounds of IPC in production, I went after other stories, and got what I wanted. At that time I had no competition worthy of the name, and if I had wanted to do so, I could have sewed up most of all of the really good magazine material in sight. Frankly, I didn’t expect competition to come into the picture so quickly, but even if I had known just what the future would bring forth, I don’t think my actions would have been altered to any great extent. I knew my own limitations, and I wanted to be fair with the writers.
As must be the case with any one-man publishing house, Fantasy Press reflects the tastes of the publisher. Any material selected, of course, must have at least a fair chance of selling. I like space operas—space operas sell—so I publish space operas. Perhaps I should clarify one point. Fantasy Press does not publish literature. (And in this respect it’s just like 99% of the publishers in these United States, regardless of the kind of books they issue.) Not one book I have issued is literature—but then, this is also true of Gnome, Shasta, Prime, Doubleday, etc. I publish what I think is entertaining science fiction.
I have issued a number of books which I knew would not sell well. The Bridge of Light by Verril, and Beyond Infinity by Carr, for example. But I liked the stories, and I felt they should be published—so they went into the list. In passing, my judgment was vindicated—they haven’t sold at all well!
A few of the headaches of those early days may be worth recording. When we announced Spacehounds of IPC we gave ourselves three months for production, just to be safe. With publication date a month away, we learned that the mill which was to supply the paper hadn’t even scheduled it for manufacture! The printer (who was buying the paper) couldn’t locate any other. I asked him if he’d object to my getting paper. “Of course not,” he said with a superior smile. I can still see it—within one week the paper was in the print shop. True, it was ivory, not white, and it had a deckle edge (which we had to pay for, cut off and throw away), but it was paper on which to print the book. We missed publication date by twelve days.
When Of Worlds Beyond—The Science of Science Fiction Writing was being planned, I had a different sort of headache. I had asked seven top SF writers to write a symposium on SF writing, each to cover an assigned subject, and each to write a minimum of 2,000 words. Note the word minimum. I told the printer to get enough paper for 2,000 copies of a ninety-six-page book. I decided on a column width, and as the articles came in in various lengths, wrote the introduction for each chapter and had the printer set the copy in type. When all copy was in, at long last, and all in type, I made up the pages—and found I had exactly ninety-six pages! It couldn’t happen again in a hundred years.
But it did—on the very next book. I had estimated The Forbidden Garden by John Taine at 288 pages, bought paper on that basis, and when about half of the book had been set in type, had the printer start running the forms. When the book was ready for the bindery—you guessed it—there were exactly 288 pages!
Statistics may be of interest. Fantasy Press has published 32 books with a total of more than 123,000 copies. This does not include two books issued under Polaris Press imprint (about which more below); nor does it include the newest title, The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, Jr., which should be available by the time this article is published.
A word concerning Polaris Press. For a long time I’ve had a desire to issue some of the old “classics” of science fiction and fantasy in a truly handsome format and in a limited edition. In April of 1952 I put out the first of these, the semi-mythical The Heads of Cerberus from the pages of Thrill Book. I have received more complimentary comments on this book than on any FP release—but the sales are not good. Slightly less than 700 copies have been sold to date. (1,563 copies were printed, 1,490 of which were offered to the public.) Recently I issued the second in the series, The Abyss of Wonders, by Perley Poore Sheehan. The future of the series depends upon the sale of these two volumes. I thought I had a good idea in the Polaris Fantasy Library, but apparently not too many fans agree with me.
Since Fantasy Press and Polaris Press are actually Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, some of you may be interested in a few vital statistics. Born June 20, 1910, in Palm, Pennsylvania. Moved to Reading at age of five, attended Reading schools, married; have two sons. Began reading fantasy and science fiction (though the name hadn’t then been coined) at the age of nine in the old Munsey magazines: Burroughs, Merritt, Flint, Stevens, etc. Bought the first issue of Amazing Stories when it appeared on the newsstands. Started writing SF a year later; sold my fourth attempt to Amazing Stories at the age of seventeen. Have written and sold close to a million words of fiction of various kinds—SF under my own name; general fiction under three pen names. Wrote and sold radio plays, verse, filler articles, juveniles, etc.
My first effort (I still have it) was called “Up from the Pit.” It didn’t sell, but my third story; “A Voice from the Ether,” sold to Amazing. While all my fantasy has been published under my own name this is not true of the love stories which I hacked out for the love pulps. I used a feminine pseudonym—and the name is a never-to-be-revealed secret. I wrote some straight adventure fiction, most of it against a Brazilian background; one of these appeared as a serial in the Toronto Star Weekly almost twenty years ago. On the other hand, I wrote a number of bits for the experimental literary magazines using a pen name reserved only for these “little” mags. Because my own name was not associated with them, when two of my stories were starred in the O’Brien Year Book of the American Short Story, the pen name got the credit.
Began collecting SF and fantasy at the age of fourteen. I now have a copy of every SF magazine ever published in America, and most of those issued in England and Australia. Have approximately 2,000 SF and fantasy books, including a lot of really rare stuff. At one time my collection was far larger than it is today—the hardcover portion of it, that is. In those days I kept every book which could be designated as fantasy or science fiction. A completist, in short. But as every collector knows, there are many books in the field which aren’t worth even a single reading. These have been sold, and every book now in my fantasy library is at least readable. The scarcest items in my collection are absolutely unique. You see, when I publish a new book, I prepare a special edition of each title, limited to two copies, numbered and bound in full Morocco. The No. 1 copies go to the respective authors. The No. 2 copies go to the authors for their inscription and are then returned to me! Which means that I have the only complete set in existence, since, obviously, each writer has only his own books!
That does it, I suppose. Or maybe I should say a word or two about the future of Fantasy Press.
Scheduled for publication during 1953 in the order listed are the following: Assignment in Eternity, by Robert A. Heinlein (originally announced as “Possible Answers”); Man of Many Minds, by E. Everett Evans; Deep Space, by Eric Frank Russell; G.O.G. 666, by John Taine; Three Thousand Years, by Thomas Calvert McClary and Children of the Lens, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
For later publication I have the following: Islands of Space, by John W. Campbell, Jr.; The Time Conqueror, by L. A. Eshbach; The Metal Man and Others, by Jack Williamson; Invaders from the Infinite, by John W. Campbell, Jr.; The Vortex Blaster, by E.E. Smith; Tomorrow, by John Taine, and others.
If the Polaris Fantasy Library continues, there will be books by Homer Eon Flint, J.U. Giesy, and possibly by William Wallace Cook, George Allen England, Garrett Smith, Murray Leinster, Victor Rousseau, Stephen Chalmers, Garret P. Serviss, and many others.
- - -
*Reprinted from Destiny #8, Spring 1953.
Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules - and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
--Kurt Vonnegut; Ransom K. Fern in Sirens of Titan
[Introduction: Following is the rough draft of a major reference work in the making. We are presenting it here in this tentative final form in an effort to gather support from the readers to make it even better than it is presented here. In particular we need corrections of errors of text and content, of physical characteristics, or of any other nature. We also need better, replacement, or other missing jpegs to help round out the usability of this monumental effort that, with any luck, will not stop with Fantasy Press. You can email your additional data to me at [email protected]
or send snail mail to P.O. Box 6642, Kingman, AZ 86402-6642. –Earl Kemp]
The Anthem Series
Copyrighted material removed at the request of the author.
Belief is nearly the whole of the Universe, whether based on truth or not.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard
[INTRODUCTION: Peter Weston told me that he was particularly looking forward to the exciting, praise-filled introduction to this piece. This is the exciting, praise-filled introduction to this piece.
The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. --Earl Kemp]
‘A Rocket A Rover’
(Title by Dave Wood)
A Symposium on SF & Fantasy in early British comics, originating from discussions on the ‘Wegenheim’ e-list, and conducted (in bold face) by Peter Weston.
#
This all started when Greg Pickersgill posted a piece on his e-list about the Jeff Hawke Club, which celebrates the famous strip that ran for many years in The Daily Express, one of the major British newspapers.
“The Jeff Hawke Club exists. Not only does it exist, but today I received the seventh issue of the JH Cosmos magazine, which is Good. Really, it is – a 66-page well-produced and printed magazine and in this issue there are two complete shorter JH reprints, and the second half of a longer story carried over from issue 6. Lots of other interesting little bits and pieces too, especially the many background asides by Sydney Jordan, the brilliant illustrator of the strip.
“I could go on and on and on about why and how the Hawke strip is by FAR the best British comic strip SF ever (and deserves a damned good placing in a list of Best British SF of any kind ever too) but those of you who have even the slightest memory of it in the Daily Express back in the 50s and 60s, or who had enough sense to get the two Titan books back in the late 80s will know the quality of which I speak. Anyone who had the wonderful pleasure of meeting and seeing Sydney Jordan at Mexicon 3 in 1989 will also know what a pleasant and interesting man he is too. And if you don't know of any of this, then its time to find out. This is unabashed drum-banging – go to www.jeffhawke.com/en/jhenclub.htm ”
Sidney Jordan did a fine job on ETs
This set me off on my own trip down Memory Lane:
“Completely agree, Greg, even though I only saw the occasional Jeff Hawke strip. Reason was that rather than the Express my parents took the Daily Mirror. The two were neck-&-neck rivals in those days, both considerably more up-market than they are now. As a result I only saw Jeff Hawke by going to the reading room of the local library, which I couldn't do every day.
”Instead, I cut my teeth on the adventures of ‘Garth,’ a strange affair that ran in the Mirror for over 40 years and which presented some quite advanced ideas considering its time and place. For instance, one adventure dealt with a parallel world in which the Nazis had won WWII and then gone on to develop biological sciences so that London had been rebuilt by growing organic buildings, rather like in Vance's Houses of Iszm. Another had a Galactic civilisation grown completely dependent upon androids to do the work and run the machines, with the people reduced to a state of frustrated idleness – very like Jack Williamson's The Humanoids.
”Garth doesn’t have a surname and his origins were unclear. As an infant he was washed up on the shores of the Shetland Isles (although there was a spectacular gaffe in an early story in which he was apparently found on the coast of Tibet, which is of course landlocked!). He had a long-drawn-out relationship with Astra, a super-woman from somewhere else (a time-traveller, I think) who had been the model for the Greek goddess Aphrodite. There were lots of other plot-lines, and drawing quality was competent but nowhere up to Sidney Jordan standards, although in 1971 Frank Bellamy took over after the fall of the legendary Eagle.”
John Jarrold knew what I was talking about:
“We also had the Mirror through the 50s and 60s, so I read ‘Garth’ every day. Yes, very SF and Fantasy – sometimes Garth went forward in time or back in time or into strange worlds not unlike Burroughs’ Barsoom. I think there were several annuals of the Garth strips in the 60s and 70s… yes, here is a website:” www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/garth.htm
I took a quick look at the site:
“Thanks, John. Ah, Professor Lumiere, how could I have forgotten you! A sort of Dr Zarkov character, looking like Hercules Poirot (or Julian Headlong, if you prefer), always there with a new invention when one was needed! The later Garth drawing is more commercial, making Garth look like Schwartzenegger, and I preferred the spindlier representations from the 1950s.”
The early Garth
By now we were well away! Here’s Greg again:
“I was always a bit nonplussed by ‘Garth’ as a child - it didn't seem to make any SENSE, and the illustrator's style was so peculiar it seemed hard for me to see any of the characters as actually human....Of course years of experience of SF and fanzine 'artwork' trained me out of that limited view of things. Some quick searching appears to show that while there are some ‘Garth’ books there don't seem to be any systematic reprints. There's also this note from a comics website -
“’Four ‘Garth’ books have appeared over the years. The first, a flip book (with Romeo Jones on the reverse) in horizontal-format in the late1950s or early '60s; then in 1975 The Daily Mirror Book of Garth (soft-back annual, Frank Bellamy art with topless girls censored/bikini tops added); another horizontal-format collection in 1976 (Frank Bellamy art uncensored, nipples aplenty); and a Titan collection in the late 1980s.’”
Artwork by Frank Bellamy, with nipples aplenty
But Rog Peyton accidentally changed the subject:
The RAF in Space
“Somehow I missed out on Jeff Hawke – I’ve never seen it. I read ‘Dan Dare’ in the Eagle during my first childhood from 1950 to 1953 when I was told to stop reading comics as I was eleven years old and going to grammar school. So I never saw Dan & Digby after 1953 until Hawk reprints came out several years ago. Though I did read ‘Captain Condor’ in the Lion comic – artwork was dreadful and I can't remember the storylines. Probably equally dreadful.”
I couldn’t believe it!
“Rog, how could you have ever given up The Eagle! For those too young to remember (and for the poor Americans who missed the excitement) let me say that it changed the face of British publishing. The comic was an overnight sensation from the day it was launched in April 1950; nothing like it had ever been seen before. It was a high-quality job, photogravure-printed at a large-size on semi-gloss paper with full colour on front cover and some interior pages. But the main selling feature was the cover story, ‘Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future’, created by the masterly Frank Hampson and set in the far-future world of 1995. Remember, this was only five years after the War, we all wanted to fly Spitfires and Hurricanes, and it seemed perfectly reasonable that Britain would go on to rule the spaceways and the RAF would morph into Space Fleet Command. So boys – and their fathers – loved the adventures of Colonel Dare and his batman Digby, the fat fool from Wigan who provided comedy relief, and their fellow officers, complete with pipes, flying jackets and handlebar moustaches!
Pipes, cigarettes, and flying jackets!
“One million copies of the first issue were printed – and they promptly sold out! Looking back, it was an incredible gamble for the publishers, Hulton Press, a relatively small operation with no experience with boys’ comics; the failure of Eagle would have wiped them out. As it was, the paper settled down to a long-time weekly circulation of 750,000, still huge numbers even by American standards. For a time ‘Dan Dare’ was the hottest brand around, merchandised to sell soap, toothpaste, bedtime drinks, and over 200 licences for games and toys. Inevitably, the success of The Eagle spawned lots of competitors. ”
First issue was a sell-out
For more on the origins of ‘Dan Dare’ see my ‘Stargazing’ column on the trufen.net website;
www.dandare.org/dan/dan.htm
However, John Jarrold kept on about the Lion, a competing title:
“I remember a giant amoeba monster in ‘Captain Condor’, Rog. It had bad skin and divided into separate parts at every opportunity, not surprisingly…”
‘Huh’, I said, recalling the first issue somewhat dismissively …
“Didn't Captain Condor start by escaping from a prison colony on Titan along with various other rebels against the Evil System? I bought the first issue of Lion when it came out but decided it was a poor copy of the Eagle, so only saw occasional issues after that.”
A poor copy of the Eagle
Dave Wood quickly put me right!
“Captain Condor does have a following! And later, Keith Watson (who left Eagle somewhat precipitously) was not a bad artist. Try these sites:”
members.aol.com /nicholashl/watson/condor/condor.htm
“Oh, all right then,” I said, re-awakening long-suppressed memories:
“I suppose Lion was the first and most successful of the many challengers to Eagle. It appeared in February 1952, and the similarities were obvious, particularly with the front-cover strip ‘Outlaw in Space’ which featured a new hero, ‘Captain Condor,’ owing more than a little to the space adventures of ‘Dan Dare.’ But the artwork was crude, greatly inferior to that of Frank Hampson, and the publishers skimped on quality; Lion was normal comic size, poorly printed on newsprint with no interior colour. Still, the contents were in some ways more exciting, it was cheaper than Eagle and heavily promoted, and it was backed by the resources of one of the largest British publishing groups. So Lion thrived, and gradually its standard improved as Eagle started to become tired, until in May 1969 the beast finally swallowed the bird, a sad day in comic history.”
Keith Watson drew for the later years of Lion
Not content with that, Dave came back with the best site so far:
“Here’s one with Lion, Eagle, and ‘Space’ Kingley as well. It even has a section on Greg’s favourite, ‘Jet Ace’ Logan, flying spaceships for the RAF in 2056.”
Jet Ace Logan in action!
Now we were starting to get somewhere! I was enthusiastic:
”That's an excellent site, Dave! Somehow I missed ‘Jet Ace’ Logan at the time, but all my old favourites are here – Rick Random, good old ‘Space’ Kingley, and who would have believed it –‘Captain Valiant’, another hero from my youth. This one was an orthodox monthly comic book in strip-cartoon format in which Vic Valiant and his three buddies flew their one-man fighters against various enemies, in particular the invading 'Insectos' from the Blue Galaxy. The only thing missing from this site seems to be the Rocket comic, another poor copy of the Eagle, which ran to about two dozen issues around 1957-58. Remember that one, Dave?”
But before Dave could answer, Steve Green picked-up on my question, and introduced a minor mystery of his own about the Rocket:
“Any idea who published that? It's just that there was an early-1970s comic produced by Polystyle entitled Countdown, and I was puzzled even then to note that the copyright info listed it as Countdown and Rocket, indicating the former had absorbed the latter (a common occurrence amongst the UK weeklies), only I'd never heard of Rocket. There was a small rocket image next to the Countdown logo, but no mention anywhere else as I recall. Maybe it was a way of retaining ownership of the name? I’ve found a website with a partial guide to British comics and Rocket is listed, but no info is given on ownership, publication dates, and so on.” www.britishcomics.com/comics.htm
Actually, Rocket was on that site and I just hadn’t spotted it, but in the meantime Greg waved his magic wand, and behold!
“Here’s something on the Rocket from the British Library periodicals catalogue, a useful resource at: www.bl.uk/catalogues/newspapers/welcome.asp
Numbers: 1-32; Dates: 21 April - 24 Nov.1956 (Incorporated with Express Weekly).
Also this, from an archived eBay sales listing:-
Rocket comic #11, 1956. Last price: £10.02
‘With the tremendous success of the Eagle comic in the 1950s, News of the World publications brought out the Rocket comic, hoping to grab a share of the market; but although published in high-quality format and having the high-profile Douglas Bader as the editor, ‘Captain Falcon’ was no match for ‘Dan Dare’ and the comic folded after only 32 issues. It is now very rare.’
“Amazing! And just to think that a few hours ago we'd never heard of it, and now we know all this. Isn't the web a fantastic thing? It'll be a sad day when it is taken away from us.”
I was a bit surprised by the dating:
“Thanks for the information, Greg. I'd looked on a few sites but had only gone about as far as Steve – that is, found some listings but no real information. I remember Rocket very well, but am surprised about the dating – April 1956 – because I'd mentally worked backwards and thought it was a bit later than that.
“At the time I had high hopes for Rocket. It was indeed another Eagle imitator, printed at a similar large-size with semi-gloss paper and some full-colour artwork. But while ‘Dan Dare’ occupied only the first two pages of Eagle (the rest being full of boring stuff like ‘PC 49’ and ‘The Adventures of Harris Tweed’), this new paper was devoted to space adventures throughout! It promised a lot, but didn’t really deliver. The comic needed a strong front-page lead, an iconic character, and one was duly manufactured to fit the bill. The result was ‘Captain Falcon,’ which started promisingly enough with an adventure on the Moon, but it quickly became clear – even to a 12-year-old – that something wasn’t right! The artwork was lacking in content, and so was the storyline. I remember there were lots of different types of ray-guns, firing paralysing rays and so on, and one particularly ingenious device which created rings of force around the victim. But the creator of the strip was probably greatly relieved when the comic ceased publication before he had to bring it to some sort of a conclusion!
“More interesting was an interior text-serial called ‘The Jungle of Space’ by Conrad Frost (a feature editor at Kemsley Press in the 50s with several books and comic strip story-lines to his name, including many of the ‘Rick Random’ adventures). It began in the ‘Mountains of the Moon’ in Africa and introduced an alien humanoid race called the ‘Teagues’ (which name provoked some mirth in Birmingham circles a few years later) before going on to Mars, which had a major problem with asteroid bombardment (accidentally prophetic, that bit). Otherwise, the comic was a hodgepodge of features taken from all over the place, probably mostly from American newspapers (the name ‘Brick Bradford’ seems to ring a bell). None of them were very good, and despite the supposed editorial presence of Battle-of-Britain hero Douglas Bader, the comic suffered from not having any real 'heart', as opposed to the Eagle, where Frank Hampson & co. believed passionately in what they were doing. As a result, Rocket failed to win a significant audience and was merged into Junior Express after little more than six months. Perhaps the timing was wrong – too late to be a real threat to the well-established Eagle and Lion, and just too early to cash-in on the interest aroused after Sputnik in 1957 and the Space-Race era. I suppose it is possible that faint echoes of the title might have continued to exist into the early seventies, as Steve Green suggested earlier.”
I had high hopes for the Rocket
Ted White picked up on my dim memories:
“’Brick Bradford’ was an American newspaper strip (daily black-&-white, Sunday colour) that occasionally appeared in American comic books like Famous Funnies which reprinted newspaper strips (mostly the Sunday pages). He was a time-traveller whose vehicle was a "time top" which apparently *spun* its way through time. The art was highly stylized, but (I thought then) rather handsome.”
Jim Linwood did a further trawl which produced some illustrations:
“A couple of links here, with some detailed information on Rocket. I see the first issue had a story by British SF writer Bill Temple (‘St. Rockets’)”:
Gallery Normal - Comics UK
Dave Wood finally answered my earlier question, ‘did he remember Rocket?’
“No, maybe because I was doing my National Service around that time. However, attached is a little something YOU may remember.”
Typical space story in the Hotspur
I took a look at Dave’s attachment.
“Ah, good old Hotspur! This was one of my favourites among the earlier breed of boys papers which pre-dated Eagle. It was regular comic size, 8½” x 12”, and one of the many titles published by the D.C. Thomson Company in Dundee, along with venerable Dandy & Beano for younger readers. This is an issue from just before my time (1947) but it shows the sort of ‘space’ story that made the comics so attractive to me and my friends.”
Rog Peyton vaguely recalls the various other offerings from the same publisher:
“As I remember it, there were four comics in the same stable, coming out on a fortnightly basis (two in one week, the other two in the next) – Rover, Adventure, Wizard, and Hotspur. All were text rather than strips. I only took them for a short time around 1950-52. I remember absolutely nothing about the contents. Presumably they all eventually became one, and then died.”
By now Greg’s interest was aroused:
“There's something maddening about this but I can't prove it either way. WHEN exactly did The Wizard, a comic with pre-war (gosh, I guess we have to specifically say pre-WW2 now) origins actually cease? I was never a Wizard reader, only seeing the occasional issue, but I feel sure it either ceased or was incorporated into something else by 1960. Certainly Rover (or more correctly Rover and Adventure, a slightly unusual British weekly in that it was almost all text- based) was being published in the early 60s and carried on for, well, I forget now even though I spent far too long researching this last night. I still couldn't find a proper bibliography for The Wizard – incredibly, it seems not to be held at the British Library, even!
”I used to get as many comics as I could as a child – bought almost nothing else for years. It pains me deeply that I followed the usual foolishness of dumping them in the pursuit of giving up childish things. WHY are children allowed to take such idiotic actions? Mind you, I also gave away lots of comics to school friends who seemed less able than I to get them –I still regret (deeply) giving away a long run of Comet (with the fabulous ‘Jet-Ace Logan’ strip) to a horrible little oik called Phillip Davies who I am sure never appreciated them. That was forty years ago and I still feel unhappy about it - the momentary joy of sharing and giving is LONG past.”
Well, I couldn’t let that go by without contributing, could I?
“Of course, I’m much older than you, Greg, so can remember a bit further back. By 1951 and age eight I was reading all four of the D. C. Thomson 'big boys' comics every week. Wizard and Adventure came out on Tuesdays, Rover & Hotspur on Thursdays. They had respectable pedigrees, Wizard going back to 1922 (I had some back-issues from 1943) and the others nearly as far. They were all solid text with a standard-size introductory illustration to each story, and with fairly simple covers. Rover tended to have rows of badges from football clubs, or solemn little illustrations of how to be a spin-bowler and other sporting tips. Hotspur had one large picture, I think, ditto Wizard, and in my time only Adventure had a 2-page comic-strip on front and inside covers. (One story was about finding an unknown civilisation of pygmies deep in the African jungle which had independently advanced as far as being able to build jet planes. Even then I thought this was a bit unlikely).
”Rover was noted for ‘I Flew With Braddock’, the exploits of a bomber pilot who flew Wellington and Lancaster bombers over the Ruhr, and Alf Tupper, the 'Tough of the Track' who lived under a railway arch, did welding for a living, ate fish-&-chips, yet beat everyone else at the athletics track. Wizard had the ‘Amazing Wilson’, who ran in woollen long-johns, went in for memory-training with mental exercises, and who was the first person to run a three-minute mile. He was at least seventy years old and one of his longevity tricks was to achieve ‘total rest’ by relaxing every muscle in his body – though presumably not including his sphincters. Hotspur had regulars like ‘Morgan the Mighty’ (a sort of Tarzan-clone), 'It Takes Guts to be a Goalie', and the ‘Red Circle’ stories about a boarding school. No illustrations were signed, no authors were credited for any of the stories and it would be fascinating to know who actually wrote them.
”These comics all contained a lot of reading material – I’m checking a copy of Rover here, and in a 10-page issue (20-sides) I estimate there are at least 15,000 words. (Four columns of type per page, each at an incredible 93 lines high, set in about 6-point type, with six words per line, on average. That's about 2200 words per page, times ten, less an allowance for illustrations and covers and the occasional advertisement). Not bad value for threepence!
”And the most important thing for me was that most issues of Rover (sometimes Wizard and Hotspur, too), contained a 'juvenile' science fiction serial; the one I remember best is 'Return from Mars', in which Britain was invaded in 1953 by ‘Sarria’ (almost an anagram for ‘Russia’, you’ll note). However, a small party managed to hold out long enough to build spaceships, escape to Mars and found a colony. Two hundred years later they have returned, to liberate the old country and experience for themselves that mystical ancient drink, ‘tea’. Gripping stuff!
”I also remember a later, slightly less dramatic story which was set in the relatively far future, when the Sun has expanded and scorched the inner planets. Mankind has fled to 'Uto' in the outer Solar System, but unfortunately has omitted to take all the creepy-crawlies upon which life ultimately depends. So an expedition has been mounted to the sun-blasted Earth, to look under rocks for centipedes and similar creatures, and in the process has various adventures among the ruins. It was quite an advanced idea for the times. All this was formative material for a schoolboy who already knew what he liked, but hadn't yet found adult science fiction. Like Greg, I wish I'd kept my collection but it evaporated mysteriously when my back was turned.”
Serial in Rover, March 1953
Something about all this puzzled Ted White:
“It strikes me as strange to describe a publication as a ‘comic’ and then state it was ‘text rather than strips.’ Where's the comics, then?”
Bill Burns explained:
“A British boys' ‘comic’ of the 1940s and 50s was not ‘the comics’, nor was it much like an American ‘comic book’.
”According to the Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged), in the singular form ‘comic’ is short for ‘comic paper: A children's paper’. No specific type of content is described, and in contrast to the American ‘comic book’ the British boys' comics of our childhood, Wizard, Rover,
Adventure, etc. were mostly text adventure stories with illustrations, rather like an adult fiction magazine in form, but printed on newsprint. (The OED also distinguishes the plural use, ‘comics’, as ‘the comic strips in a newspaper, etc’) A 1910 cite from H.G. Wells gives the ancestry of the boys' comic:
"’1910 H. G. Wells Mr. Polly i. 20: One of those inspiring weeklies that dull people used to call ‘penny dreadfuls’, admirable weeklies crammed with imagination that the cheap boys' ‘comics’ of today have replaced.’
“The British ‘penny-dreadful’ of that time, according to Wikipedia, is what in the USA was called a ‘dime novel’: Both of these often involved melodramatic tales of vice and virtue in conflict, often with strong elements of horror and cruelty. Their main audience consisted of young and/or unsophisticated readers, primarily male. With the racy content toned down somewhat for boys in the 1940s and 50s, that still pretty well describes many of the comics with which we grew up. Here’s a site Rich Coad found which illustrates this ancestry:”
www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html
“That’s right,” agreed Jim Linwood:
“When I had a paper round the newsagent used to call anything aimed at children *comics* and adult's weekly magazines *books*. I think this was universal jargon throughout the trade in England. The comics aimed at boys always seemed to have *sister* magazines. The Eagle had Girl, but I can't recall the others. The girl's comics all had twee titles like Bunty, Jackie, Judy and Romeo. Marion claims they were all sexist crap, preparing girls to be obedient girlfriends and wives – her brothers were too young for the Eagle so she cycled to the library for her weekly date with Dan Dare. Frank Richards created an alternate female ‘Greyfriars’ world with the likes of ‘Bessie Bunter’ – the stories were much the same though.
”I never took to the text-only magazines, mainly because I was reading proper books from the library as well as the SF pulps and digests. Even in the 50s, their ‘Roy of the Rovers’-type stories seemed terribly dated. I think Michael Palin and Terry Jones caught their spirit perfectly in their Ripping Yarns. You can refresh your memory here.”
www.26pigs.com/comics.html#w
I took a quick look at the 26pigs site and noticed a detail seemed wrong:
“Just a quickie, Jim; I was worried that my memory might be incorrect, since both Rog and the website said that Rover, etc, were bi-weekly. However, I've checked the short run of Rovers in my possession – from 1953 – and it was definitely weekly at that time, as presumably were the other titles. That would have been about 60,000 words per week, besides all the other things like library books we were getting through – not bad for kids of ten or eleven!”
Jim added:
“I think it was during the war and immediately afterwards that Rover, Hotspur, Dandy, Beano etc. were published on alternate weeks because of paper shortages.”
Then Sandra Bond came in on Jim’s previous comments about the girls’ comics:
“Frank Richards only wrote the first half-dozen or so ‘Bessie Bunter’ stories. The editors soon came to the conclusion that a female version of ‘Billy Bunter’ did not appeal to girl readers the way Billy did to the boys – so the stories were farmed out to other hands who toned her down and made her simply a plump and rather dim but well-meaning girl instead of the original rapacious gannet in her brother's image.”
Andy Sawyer, a fellow ex-librarian, replied to Greg’s earlier query on Wizard, etc:
“Someone's almost certainly posted this but there's a lot of information at this site:
This makes me want to KILL to get my collection back. I mean look at these titles;
THE CLUTCHING TERROR The search for the Tablets of Ziss.
THE VENGEANCE OF JUBAL SMITH Western adventure.
THE VULTURE WITH THREE HEADS Bob Laxton’s search for explorer Casper Strang.
THE FIGHTS OF THE FIVE TON GHOST! War adventure with Jum the Giant elephant.
THE BLACK DEATH Plague threatens Earth.
THE FLIPPER MERCHANT DEALS IN DANGER! Story of Todd Hunter frogman.
THE SINISTER SECRET OF THE SILVER SPURS Western adventure.
CAPTAIN STORM 18th Century adventure.
THE LONG, TOUGH FIGHT TO FLY! War story.
BEWARE WHERE THE SKY IS GREEN British athletes in British Honduras.
THE WINGED DAGGER Adventure’s S.A.S. action in the Aegean Sea 1942.
MYSTERY MAN OF THE HAUNTED SWAMP Jeff Willard’s adventure’s in Australia.
“Isn't that poetry in every line? Don't you just love the exclamation marks!
”I'm surprised you can't find locations for these comic collections, but not too surprised as typically they're the sort of things that no institutions think to take. The national Library of Scotland holds Rover and Adventure and Rover and Wizard for sure (they were published in Dundee, after all), but I can't find any details so far of whether these are anything like complete runs. I thought the Victoria & Albert comic collection would have them, but I guess they're technically "story papers" rather than comics.
”I suppose my family had more excuse than most in ditching my collection as we moved from country to country every few years. And it was bloody hard to get hold of them sometimes: months would go by before a new consignment would arrive, which meant keeping up with serials was damn hard. But I must have read them regularly up to 1963, and by the time I got into thinking about tracking them down everyone else was doing the same, so I haven't actually seen any of then for years.”
And Dave Wood caught me out on a detail:
"Well, just to put the record straight on one thing (from a boy a bit older than you, Peter). The Wizard carried a cartoon strip almost from its very first issue. Every issue a task was set for the characters in the strip. The strip was composed of two small panels followed by one large panel. The two small panels set up the story for the issue and the large panel showed the result. The strip itself would not pass muster in today's clime. Suffice to say it featured two shipwrecked sailors (one fat, one thin) who run the local natives (black curly hair, bones through the nose, etc, etc), and make them build all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions. Hotspur used to feature lots of public school stories (‘Smith of the Lower Third’, etc) and cricket. Rover was indeed the football-orientated one, while the contents of Adventure were as its title suggested.
“You also said that the illustrations in Rover and its stable-mates were unsigned, and the reason for that is because publishers preferred to treat their artists as interchangeable cogs, who could never be permitted to assume greater importance than the characters whose exploits they portrayed, week in week out. However, one exception to the rule was Dudley D. Watkins, the master – inventor of ‘Desperate Dan’ and all the rest of the early Dandy & Beano crew. His first signed drawing appeared on the title page of ‘The Broons’ annual published on 17 November 1939, and was signed simply 'WATTY.' From 1946 onwards his full name appeared in neatly-lettered block capitals at the foot of thousands of impeccably-drawn pages, in billions of printed impressions. It was a privilege which made him undoubtedly the best known British comic artist of his time, and perhaps of all time; it was also a privilege richly deserved. One of his ‘fantasy’ creations was ‘Morgyn the Mighty,’ and he was also responsible for a very short-lived attempt to produce hard-cover Classics Illustrated for D. C. Thomson. Here’s a link to Watkins:”
Artwork by Dudley Watkins
Now John Jarrold was all fired-up:
“Other peoples’ remembrances drive my own memories of these comics, of Thursday mornings when I woke up at the age of seven, eight or nine, bursting with anticipation because that was the day when seven comics would be waiting for me when I got home from school. And of reading a hardback book about Matt Braddock, V.C. (I FLEW WITH BRADDOCK), allegedly written by his navigator, George Bourne, as were all the stories. I reckon I read that about 1960, having found it in my local children’s’ library at Crofton Park in South London.”
Which reminded me of my own little wheeze:
“Back in the early fifties I used to ambush the paper-boy (a much older lad of twelve or thirteen) when he made his rounds to deliver the comics on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, after he'd finished school. I knew his route, so would go back a couple of roads to lie in wait, and demand my comics when he came past, thus getting them at least an hour earlier than if I'd waited for the proper delivery! He must have hated me very much.”
Dave yet again….
"There was also Champion, which did a lot of Lost World, Boxing and Cycling. Apart from ballast imports from the North American continent and lots of here-today gone-tomorrow cheap and nasty rags, the only strip material for the older child was to be found probably in Film Fun and Radio Fun. Until Eagle ... And don't forget to reread the classic fifties book on the subject: E. S. Turner's BOYS WILL BE BOYS."
The classic book on the subject
Greg was enthusiastic:
“Now that’s a book! A real classic, though I’d recommend anything by E. S. Turner – his ABC OF NOSTALGIA (published 1984) is a particular favourite (Oh crikey, what am I saying about myself...). Mind you, BOYS WILL BE BOYS was published in 1948, so the material covered rather predates much of what we're talking about, though could fill in a few details. Worth getting anyway for the section on Spring-Heeled Jack, which impelled me to get the book SPRING-HEELED JACK by Peter Haining, which is longer but alas, rather less stimulating than Turner's original little essay.
”I don't know whether there are any comics from the 1950s I'd actually pay good money for now unless I had more cash than I knew what to do with. I like Eagle, but enough to pay several pounds an issue for? Maybe not. Of course, if I found that fabulous shop with boxes of Eagle, Rover, Sun and so on at 10p each I'd be rushing to the cash-point instantly. Oh I dunno, if I could get all the issues of Comet with the Jet-Ace Logan strip in it (1956-59) I'd probably start trying to raise the money, but perhaps fortunately that's a really unlikely option; it was not a particularly popular or well-remembered comic, and I guess very few long runs still exist.”
Still, I’ve found some of these things do sometimes appear:
“Rover, Wizard and the others do come up on eBay, and I've bought some copies for around £2.00 each, which I don’t think is unreasonable. I’ve also managed to pick up all three of the ‘Space’ Kingley books without spending a great deal of money.”
Greg again:
“You know, until we started all this I’d never even heard of Space Kingley.”
Which was my cue for another action re-play:
“Ah, Greg, if Rocket was a comic without a strong lead character, then ‘Space’ Kingley was a lead character without a comic. If only the two could have come together! Bizarrely, though, his only appearance was in three “Annuals” created for the Christmas trade, all undated, but from an inscription in one of those in my possession it appears they came out in 1954, 1955 and 1956.
The "Comet" class ships look good!
“My theory is that one of the smaller London publishers (Sampson, Low, Marston) must have noted the success of ‘Dan Dare’, the weekly Eagle and its spin-off compilation volumes, and decided they wanted some of that business. But they realised it was far easier to publish a single ‘annual’ than to produce a new weekly comic, and they probably figured that the purchasers – moms and dads, aunts and uncles – wouldn’t know the difference anyway! We may never know who actually created the character of Robert ‘Space’ Kingly but I imagine the publishers simply looked for an available writer and a commercial illustrator, and told them to get on with it. And they so nearly got it right! The books are in text form with lavish illustrations, and the artist for all three volumes was R.W. Jobson, whose work is superb, especially in his space scenes which have an almost photographic quality. His ‘Comet’ class of spaceships look good and have apparently unlimited flight capacity, (although they do have a few design faults – while proof against high vacuum, they fill with water when, in book three, the pilot inadvertently touches-down in the sea!)
“But the writers – different each time – let Jobson down badly. In the first volume we get the story of our hero’s early life and how he joined the ‘Interplanetary Rangers.’ We meet his sidekick, a useless Digby-clone named ‘Shorty’ Rowe, and have various unlikely adventures in space and under the ocean. In the second book there is a more consistent enemy in the evil ruler of an alien planet, Lemas, which has plunged into our Solar System, and echoes of ‘The Mekon’ and his Treens are never far from the surface. The last volume is the most ambitious, where ‘Space’ commands an expedition to the planetary system of a passing star. All of the stories have occasional flashes of imagination, but sadly, are full of the most elementary errors and absurdities which were obvious even to a twelve-year-old.”
Jim Linwood up-dated Greg’s earlier remark:
Expedition to another star
“Thanks for reminding me of E.S. Turner's BOYS WILL BE BOYS. I first came across it as a radio programme in the 50s and got the book out of the library. The 1948 edition ranged from the penny-dreadfuls to ‘Dick Barton’ while the 1975 edition covers Eagle, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk. I have the 1976 Penguin edition and on the final page Turner wonders ‘Will early copies of Eagle ever become collectors’ items? Will old men gather in the chimney corner to listen to recordings of ‘Dick Barton?’ Bookfinder gives £3 as the approximate going price for a copy of the Penguin edition.”
'Thanks, Jim,' I said, immediately purchasing a copy....
"...which put me right with an entertaining chapter on the 'Dundee School' - apparently, Adventure was the first title from D.C. Thomson in 1921, followed by Wizard & Rover in 1922, then something called Skipper in 1930 and finally Hotspur in 1933. This 'Big Five' proceeded to dominate the world of boys' comics for the next generation - Wizard in particular came top in a survey of reading habits of teenage boys, and although Skipper was killed-off in 1940 due to paper shortages, the other four continued well into the Sixties."
“Here’s another good site”, said the indefatigable Dave Wood:
“This one reviews the career of the great British illustrator Denis McLoughlin, who produced hundreds of dust-jackets and paperback covers, as well as a great many British comic books.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_McLoughlin
The great Denis McLoughlin
Robert Lichtman agreed:
“Yes, McLoughlin is wonderful. I have some British hardcover and paperback editions of Fredric Brown books (of which I also the American editions) *just for* the McLoughlin covers.
I also have Francis Hertzberg's DENIS McLOUGHLIN – THE MASTER OF LIGHT & SHADE, published in 1995 by Gryphon Books. They offer copies of the trade paperback edition for $20 at their Website ( www.gryphonbooks.com and then search their inventory for "mcloughlin"). It's an excellent reference, although alas there aren't enough *colour* McLoughlin illustrations inside (lots of black-&-white ones, though).”
Steve Green made a good point:
“The weird thing is that the modern Viz regularly runs beautifully-drawn pastiches of these comics, yet I dare say 90% of its readership has never seen the original material (like the semi-regular ‘Black Bob’ spoof, ‘Black Bag’, featuring a resourceful bin liner).”
“Gosh,” said Dave, “that’s going back a bit!”
“Black Bob!!! I still have my early fifties ‘Black Bob’ annual!!!
PS: Black Bob was a dog, Ted.”
“Oh yes,” I agreed, “I remember it well!”
“And not just ANY old dog – Black Bob was a magnificent Border collie, who had three times as many brains as the silly old sheep farmer who owned him (Andrew Glenn, see how this stuff sticks in one's mind) who was forever getting into trouble with flooding rivers and so on. But wasn't ‘Bob’ actually a girl dog – or am I thinking of ‘Lassie’?”
Steve wasn’t having any of this nonsense!
"’Black Bob’ was the name of a fictitious Border Collie from Selkirk in Scotland. Black Bob originally appeared as a text story in The Dandy in issue 280, dated 25 November 1944. Following this he appeared as a picture strip in The Weekly News in 1946, which continued until 1967. Drawn by Jack Prout , the popular sheepdog appeared regularly in The Dandy from his 1944 debut until issue 2122, dated 24 July 1982 . Eight ‘Black Bob’ books were published at infrequent intervals from 1950 to 1965.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bob )
That prompted a technical point from Dave Wood:
“The ‘Black Bob’ strip is typical of something on which nobody has commented, in the way that many British strips had a text passage under the pictures instead of the balloon method. Some even had both.”
To which Steve Green answered gently:
“First there was straight text, with an illustrated heading. Then, we had stories with accompanying illustrations. Next up were illustrations with accompanying text (in the case of the old "Rupert the Bear" strips, this took the form of verses). Finally, we get comics with voice balloons. A gentle evolution.”
One for the old-timers
Taking absolutely no notice, Dave spread the net a bit wider;
“Some publishers aimed at a higher market than the butcher's boy or the secondary school oik, such as magazines/comics like the ‘Greyfriars’ series (Magnet, Gem etc), Chums and Captain. They named the authors of all stories, so you will find many early exponents of British SF in their pages. And, for example, Captain carried stories by P. G. Wodehouse. (see attached).”
Which attachment caused much mirth to Michael Lowry:
“I notice the page titled ‘A Magazine for Boys and 'Old Boys'’, and the credit, ‘Edited by The Old Fag’. Ah, two lands divided by a common language indeed!”
By now there was no stopping Dave!
“Must stop looking in boxes! Ron Turner – anyone remember those Practical Mechanics covers he did in the late fifties and early sixties? And apart from all those ‘Vargo Statten’ covers, he also drew for comics such as Space Ace, and for the ‘Rick Random’ adventures.”
Making Rich Coad ask:
“I wonder how many young boys were inspired by Practical Mechanics to immediately start building a rocket-ship and satellite in the backyard out of Meccano, twine, and sticky tape?”
While I followed-up on Dave’s cue:
“Unfortunately, I think Ron Turner’s artwork for ‘Vargo Statten’ and the other Scion covers was awful, too exaggerated and garish, and I’m sure it added to the general distaste with which this stuff was received. However, I've recently acquired some issues of 'Rick Random' in the ‘Super Detective Library’ series from the 1950s. They’re only small-size picture-books in black & white, but Ron really was good in these.”
Causing him to do yet more exploring:
“To see more of Ron Turner’s work go to: www.bookpalace.com/UKComics/RonTurner/index.htm
And there’s a lot of other material in the gallery”:
www.bookpalace.com/UKComics/UKGeneral/gallerynews.htm
All of which made Rog Peyton stop and ask a question…
“Thanks for that Dave. I had a quick look at the main site and found the covers to all the old ‘Buck Jones’ and ‘Kit Carson’ comics I had when I was young. Looking at the list of artists involved. I saw the name Michael Moorcock! So was Mike an artist? But even more interesting for me was seeing the ‘Super-Detective’ titles. I used to have these and had completely forgotten them. I'm stunned as to the number of these that were science fiction. Did I read more SF in comic form than I realised, before being introduced to H G Wells in 1958? I thought I'd only read ‘Dan Dare’ and ‘Captain Condor’ but these covers....I MUST have read them! Do we know if there were any of 'our' guys writing them? Tubb? Bulmer? Bounds?”
To which I had part of an answer:
“Well, Rog, we know at least one SF author was involved, and that was Harry Harrison. He wrote a number of ‘Rick Random’ scripts for the ‘Super Detective Library’ series, a line of small-size (5¼”x 7”) 64-page strip-cartoon booklets which usually featured more orthodox detectives such as ‘The Saint’ and ‘Dick Barton.’ The publisher – Amalgamated Press – issued two titles each month, and almost from the beginning had sneaked-in various ‘space’-themed issues (they even had one titled, ‘The Man Who Owned the Moon’). In mid-1954 with Number 37 they introduced a space-age sleuth, chain-smoking Rick Random, ‘chief trouble-shooter for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation’ in the year 2043.
“The first few numbers followed the ‘detective’ brief fairly closely with self-contained stories such as ‘Crime rides the Spaceways’ and ‘Kidnappers from Space, but Rick’s role was a cross between James Bond and Flash Gordon, and the Solar System quickly proved too limited in scope. Very soon he was solving mysteries on an interstellar scale, and the series became almost the only one of these space-adventures to venture into ‘deep space’ with stories such as Harry Harrison’s ‘S.O.S. FROM SPACE.’
A script by Harry Harrison
Interior by Ron Turner
“Harry remembered, ‘I was in London in 1957 for the Worldcon. Met Sydney Jordan and wrote ‘Jeff Hawke’ for a while. He introduced me to Andy Vincent, editor at Fleetway, where ‘Rick Random’ was already going well. I started writing it in London, then from Italy, where I
went in 1958, and even worked on my last script in New York in early 1959. Then I sold ‘Deathworld’ to Astounding and could afford to drop comics. Which I did, even though Andy offered to almost double my rate. I should have said I was quitting earlier!’
“Black-and-white throughout, the series is noted for Ron Turner’s dramatic illustrations of the highly futuristic technology employed in the stories. At least 26 ‘Rick Random’ adventures were published in the six years to 1960, and he reappeared briefly in 1978 in a 2000 AD 'sci-fi special,' which reprinted ‘SOS from Space,’ and a new story ‘The Riddle of the Astral Assassin,’ written by Steve Moore, which appeared in May 1979. At least some of the stories have been reprinted in both Australia and Finland, and the Finnish fans have compiled an extensive web-site – unfortunately all in Finnish – though there is a useful checklist.”
www.saunalahti.fi/karielk/randlist.htm
And that was about it – a whistle-stop journey through the best of British comic-books of the fifties and early sixties. However, this little discussion has shown that just about all British fans of a certain age cut their teeth on comic-book adventures before graduating to adult science fiction. And, perhaps, we all remember those days so fondly because we’re all still boys at heart (even the girls, eh, Catherine!)
–Peter Weston
And I asked myself about the present. How wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
[The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. —Earl Kemp]
Ring Ring Goes the Bell
By John Nielsen Hall
The family home in Bexley, South East London circa 1964. From a dodgy scan of a transparency.
We lived on the most southeastern fringe of Greater London. When the family first moved down from the Midlands in 1957, it was still Kent. But Bexley and neighbouring Sidcup were dormitories. Every morning the Southern Region electric trains arrived one after the other to take the men (mostly) away to Charing Cross, Waterloo, London Bridge and Cannon Street. Cannon Street is where my Dad went. He worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, the public authority that ran the power stations. He worked in the huge black tower block that used to stand right by St Paul's Cathedral, going up and coming down on the same trains, with same neighbours most days. Mum stayed at home, and kept the house. Somewhere in the middle of the period I am recalling here she was pregnant with my youngest brother. Me and my “middle” brother went to different schools. This was a different Britain than the one we live in today. But then, everything was different from today.
Teenagers need Pop Music like ducks need water. All we had originally was the BBC Light Programme, and, at night, Radio Luxembourg fading in and out through the heterodyne whistles of the East German jamming stations. Even harder to hear were AFN in Cologne, or Manx Radio on the Isle of Man, the only legal opposition to the BBC's radio monopoly. I think I first heard Linda by Jan and Dean on Manx. It's lodged in my brain. Only after that did I hear the Four Seasons and then the Beach Boys. To me, they were all Californian (despite the New York/New Jersey origins of the Seasons which I didn't know about at the time). Somehow, I conceived of the idea that Los Angeles must be the greatest place on Earth. I didn't think of it as a place like home, only warmer, where kids Dads commuted by car instead of electric train, and their Moms did the same things, said the same things to their kids. I thought of big cars, big busted long haired girls on the beach and the radio playing rock and roll harmonies all day long. Then one day in about 1963, I was playing with my Dad's big tuner in his hi-fi set up, and I heard the sound of a ship's bell “Ding Ding”. It kept on doing that for a few minutes, then a voice “This is Radio Caroline on 199 metres medium wave, broadcasting from the North Sea,” followed by the Fourmost record “Caroline”. I thought that indeed, there must be a God.
The author aged about 14. Even then, too vain to wear his glasses.
Real pirate radio was going on from ships and off-shore forts. It wasn't long before me and my mates were reckless enough to try it from back gardens and isolated woods. We had a number of different stations, all on the old Medium Wave (like everywhere else, we now call it AM) using valve Transmitters built after hours in the school physics lab, with the encouragement of the teacher in charge, he being blissfully unaware of the purposes we had in mind. He went home at night, lit his pipe and listened to The Third Programme.
Schedules for our programmes were nonexistent, though we tried to keep to them. The reason for that was that we kept moving the transmitters around, and they didn't like it. Any transmission was usually preceded by a period of repairs and testing. These must have been the only stations where the audience had to listen to a given frequency for an hour before they heard anything but static. As far as possible the preferred method of programming was to warm the transmitter up, then set the tape going and then leave it.
That way, it was reasoned, if the big bad men from the Post Office turned up, they would only find the gear not us. The Post Office, in those days, was the regulator of the airwaves. It issued licences to broadcasters (except it didn't) public bodies and Radio Hams, dictated what frequencies could be used, and which could not (most of them) and policed the whole thing, with authority to prosecute offenders in Magistrates courts.
We did rather live in fear of the Post Office, whose powers loomed large when we considered what naughty boys we were.
JDT in his pomp. This photo was reunited with its subject by Greg Pickersgill.
But our egos wouldn't let us not do live gigs, and these were usually on a Saturday night and became the focus of a party. I was called JDT (which originally stood for John De
Troit—geddit?) and my rival and co-presenter called himself Alexander The Great. My tastes had now broadened to include American acts that had appeared on my radar like The Byrds and The Mamas and Papas but I also specialised in obscure Surf records (I had everything Jan and Dean ever made, was the only person I knew who had even heard of Ronnie and The Daytonas, or The Trashmen), sometimes stuff like Sky Saxon and the Seeds Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels or The Kingsmen—all American white boy rock. I cultivated a faux-American accent, reminiscent of famous wrestling commentator, Kent Walton, who had once been a DJ. Alex played Motown, Soul and early Ska. Radio Pacific was one hot radio station—if you could ever hear it—and our Saturday night live shows played record after record, interspersed with shouted claims of excellence for on the one hand The Beach Boys, and on the other, The Miracles, “Bust Out” by The Busters, followed by “Phoenix City” by Roland Alphonse.
One Sunday morning after one of these nights, I encountered my Dad in the back garden who fixed me with a grim eye, and said something like"Was that you I heard on the radio last night?”
He would have made a good lawyer, my Dad. He liked asking questions he already knew the answer to. I mumbled something like"Might have been.”
All he said was “I don't want any police at the door.” But later he told my Mum that he thought it was pretty good. Sundays were an interval of spontaneousness in the regular uniformity of the week. The family ate Sunday lunch, Roast Lamb or Roast Beef with boiled vegetables (very boiled after my Mum had been at them) and roast potatoes, the Light programme on the radio, Two Way Family Favourites (a record request show the BBC mounted with the Forces Broadcasting Network, where families and servicemen chiefly in Germany, but also in farther flung places wrote in with sentimental messages of hope for a rapid homecoming. Records could be anything from classical pieces, thru big band and swing, to rock and roll), followed by classic British comedy on the wireless: Round The Horne or The Navy Lark.
But Monday would come and then it was back to the routine. Dad standing on the platform waiting for the 8.11 to Cannon Street, me on my bike, labouring over the hill to school in Sidcup. School had been a bit of a nightmare for me before this, largely because although it was a state secondary-modern school (Failed your 11+? Bad Boy, go to the bottom of the heap) the headmaster had delusions of it being Harrow, and there were prefects and houses and fol-de-rol of all kinds, and the end result was the only rules that counted were the rules of the cane, slipper or fist.
And it was all boys, too. It was not an ideal environment for a weedy short sighted loud mouth—which is what I was. Bullying was a way of life. But I was, at least, “aware"—I knew that I was stuck with the place and I had to make the best of it. So very early on, I started fighting back. After the first few incidents, I decided who it was I was going to whack, and I just walked right up to him in a very non-threatening way and belted him in the mouth, without warning or preamble. Its not that I was very strong or possessed any unknown skill (this was before we knew about Martial Arts), so I certainly came off worst in the immediate aftermath. But after that, I would be very impassive if my books were nicked and then passed around from person to person, or my knickers disappeared from the P.E. changing room, only to reappear at Maths later—and then I would lash out at one or other of those I deemed responsible without warning. This sheer unpredictability of my behaviour gained me a respect that I had previously lacked, so after a while, I began to be accepted and/or tolerated.
Of course, the UK received wisdom in the present enlightened times is that schools do not tolerate fighting or bullying. If the headlines as I write this are any guide, then all that's happened is that the problem has moved outside the school gates. Back then it was not just other kids you had to worry about, the teachers could be almost as bad. They could prosecute a vendetta against you, if you got on their wrong side.
There was a teacher called Mr Downe who rode a little French motorcycle around—we called these things mopeds. However to ride it in the uncertainties of the British climate, he used to wear an enormous heavy rubberised mac that came down to his shoes, the whole topped off with goggles and a helmet not totally unlike an inverted flowerpot. Since the top speed of a moped might be thirty miles an hour on a good day downhill with a following wind, we boys thought this sartorial requirement a bit ludicrous. On one of the pre-recorded shows JDT made some crack about “Mr Downe leaving the school gates” accompanied by a dub of the Thunderbirds theme. This was quite possibly the funniest thing I ever essayed. Most of the school heard it, and every time the bloke appeared on his moped or off it, pupils would unaccountably start whistling that famous march, and bursting into barely repressed giggle fits.
Somehow he came to learn I was at the bottom of it, and then he began a campaign of victimisation. For example, he would ask me to read Juliet when we did Romeo and Juliet in class, when normally he would not ask me to read since I was ahead of the class (maybe even the school) when it came to Shakespeare, solely so that he could pull faces and make cheap witticisms at my passion for Romeo, and thereby attempt to put a question mark over my sexuality. “Queers” were not allowed at my school. They were not allowed in the first place because at that time they were still illegal, but also because the rest of the school, supposedly straight uncomplicated heterosexuals throughout knew what was decent, and queers were not decent. Fortunately, he didn't last long in the job. He left and began teaching at the school my brother was at. He then carried on in the same way with my brother, as he was dogged by the Thunderbirds theme at that school, as well.
I could practice my sarcasm on someone like Mr Downe, and if I was moved to it, defy or ignore any teacher, but later a posse of prefects would round me up and I would be delivered to the headmaster for a whack with a cane on the hand. There was a system called “the complaints book” where a teacher could order you out of class, tell you to fetch the “complaints book" from the school secretary. You brought it back, and he would usually offer you the option of bending over in front of the whole class and getting some whacks from a “slipper” (gym shoe—plimsoll) on the bum, or him writing in it and you taking it back. He offered you that, because the next day at Assembly, boys names appearing in the complaints book would be read out and they would have to line up outside the Headmasters office for the aforesaid caning. In these circumstances I did my level best to appear to be completely insouciant about the whole process, and told the teacher “it's up to you, Sir” in as sarky and defiant a manner as I could muster. This sent most of them into paroxysms of red faced fury.
But later, I developed a characteristically idiosyncratic way of avoiding teachers whom I had irritated. There was a stream running through the school grounds, and if I had not done the homework, or knew the teacher was going to have a beef about something I had done, I just calmly chucked myself full length in it. Soaking wet through, I would claim to have fallen in, and ask to be sent home. Usually, I asked the school nurse, which poor woman was never in the job more than a few weeks, didn't know me from Adam, and said “yes of course”. Mind you my Mum had some views on it—she had to wash my clothes. That was a minor matter. I was rumbled on one occasion, (by Mr Downe's successor, an Irishman called Mahoney) and made to sit, in cold spring weather on a chair in the sun until I dried out. I did not dry out, I nearly froze to death, but I lived, and I wasn't in class either.
Being an all boys school, sex was a subject of much concern. It was a commonplace to hear some kid, even otherwise quite sensible ones, claim they had had sex with some girl or other. A series of playing fields and a golf course separated our school from the equivalent institution for girls. If a boy made a claim like this, he was expected to embellish it as much as possible with all the details—what did she like, did he suck her tits, did she let him put his dick in her mouth, what was her fanny like? The most remarkable tales then issued forth, and it would have appeared to an interested observer that Sidcup had the most anatomically curious teenagers in Britain. Plus, it went as an unquestioned holy truth that all boys in our school were so well endowed, they were desperately sought after by the girls in very school in South East London. One of us was, in fact, pretty well endowed, and used to hold viewing sessions in the changing rooms. When this was going on, there would be a huge crowd around the P.E. Block door, and a hushed silence for a few minutes, before someone would exclaim in disgust “Oh, roll it back up, for christ's sake”, so diminished was he by the sight of the elephant's trunk hanging halfway to his knee that this particular kid possessed.
I tried to steer a middle course in all this—I had actually had sex, of a sort, with a woman, but the truth was that the woman in question was a friend of my mother's, and hence of a similar age to my Mum, who had in circumstances having to do with me being soaked through again (albeit the weather was responsible, rather than my own perversity), undressed me and slyly teased me and allowed me to climax in about half a second over the enormous bosom she had exposed to my fevered gaze. (Nowadays, she would be branded a criminal and get sent down for umpty years, but I'm happy to report our secret is still intact and my Mum still gets a card from her every Xmas.) At that particular time therefore, I was not very interested in girls of my own age. I did change my mind, of course, but for the time being that experience, which occupied my sleeping and waking dreams, and which I longed to repeat, only increased my anxiety about what we would now call homophobia raging around the school.
This reached such a pitch that raiding parties toured the loos in the lunch periods. Cubicle doors were banged on, and if there was no reply, someone would jump up and peer over the top. Those found to be there for a call of nature only received a thumbs up and a quick apology. Those wanking were laughed at—set upon on their exit if, according to the observer, they had any Dirty Books on them, so that everyone could have a look. Anyone not on their own in there would be waited for by a large crowd until they had to come out, and then savagely beaten up. So as not to come under any suspicion myself, I am ashamed to report that I often led these sorties, entertaining the mob with patter as I jumped up to peer over the locked cubicle doors. In retrospect, I doubt that I knew what a “Queer”—a homosexual—actually was, or that on the mercifully rare occasions that we actually did discover two boys in a cubicle that they were doing what they were doing because they were actually gay by inclination, or out of sheer bloody desperation. But no punishment visited on any boy by the teachers or prefects was as severe as the going over any two boys got, if caught by me and the baying mob at my back. Plus, they never heard the end of it.
But all these things passed, as did school itself. I started my first job, as an apprentice electrician, and with money in my pocket got up to more Radio Fun. Another pioneering mate of mine built a big transmitter (output a whole 100 watts!) in an old Triumph Atlas
camper van, powered by a Honda generator. He and I built into the van a couple of Garrard decks (with auto-changers, because we couldn't get any others), a tape machine and, a super piece of American technology, a Radio Shack Eight Track recorder. All the station's jingles and idents were recorded onto this by the simple expedient of putting a mike up against the speaker of the tape deck, but it proved impossible to know what was cued up when you pressed the button. You could go “Okay the time now is..." and press the eight track's button hoping that you would get the nifty little sound we had for the clock ticking, and instead get a plug for a surf caravan in Cornwall.
If anyone was listening, I don't think they ever noticed. To fool the PO, we used to park the camper about three hundred yards from the foot of a TV mast in a thickly wooded area some miles away, the received wisdom being that they could not triangulate on a signal coming from a point that close to a big wattage output close by. I think that was more in the nature of a tale to comfort ourselves with than any kind of technical camouflage. We set up by parking the van, unfolding a big T dipole antenna and chucking it up the branches of an adjacent tree or two, taking the Honda generator out and away from the van, hooking it up, starting up the gen, press the big On switch in the lovingly crafted aluminium chassis of the Tx, wait five minutes to check all the valves were alight and giving off heat, then start the tape with our theme—the instrumental version of “I Feel Love Coming On" on the B side of the hit by Felice Taylor. The opening chords of “Nut Rocker” by B Bumble and The Stingers, being my theme, followed which in turn was followed by me yelling something like:
”Hipster Flipsters Bring Ya Sisters—Are We Gonna Party Tonight!” at the top of my voice, overloading the mike and then crashing in “Wipe Out” by the Surfaris or something like it.
Miraculously, I was never nicked for it. But some of my old school friends were, though we had left school by then. The last broadcast of Radio Pacific from a back garden in Sidcup High Street was interrupted by a bloke in flat cap with a badge from the Post Office. He took everybody's names and addresses, disconnected and confiscated all the gear and that was that. One of my mates, the engineer and transmitter builder, made an appearance before the beak, got fined £10 and had to pay the prosecutions costs—or his parents did.
He is now a senior official in Barclay's Bank, awaiting his early retirement. Richard, the engineer on Pacific, works in radio communications for London Underground. (One of the jingles went “Spinning Around—Deep Underground”). He makes enough that he can commute via the Eurostar from his home in Belgium. I often think of him looking at Kent speeding by on his journey into work and wondering if he remembers all those days. I went to Los Angeles eventually, and it quickly lost its aura of magnificence. My Dad died in 2003. It’s his Rover and his roses you can see in the picture of our home in Bexley. My Mum is still with us, in her late seventies, but as a family we are all scattered about the UK now.
John Nielsen Hall
The Labour Government of Harold Wilson notoriously passed the Marine Offences Act in 1967 and made it an offence to service or board the Pirate Ships from UK waters. Similar legislation in Holland eventually finished them all off. Commercial Broadcasting was not allowed in this country until 1972, but now we have so many radio stations (the BBC alone has six, and that's only the national ones) we can’t find anything to listen to, most of the time. In the house in the picture, my room was the one on the top. I could look out over Bexley and on a clear day see the Thames and I knew the Thames went out to sea and out there were the ships, and they played the music, to which I fantasised, about my Mum’s friend’s breasts (I did see them again, after a long while—but a similar thing happened as with Los Angeles), and my own dreams of being—who? Brian Wilson? Or John Nielsen Hall.
—-
Copyright © 2006 by John Nielsen Hall. All rights reserved.
Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.
—Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos
[The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. —Earl Kemp]
Charles Platt Made Me Cum
By Graham Charnock
I was 21 when I had my first orgasm and it was all Charles Platt’s fault.
Well, we’ll come to that later (sorry, pun intended). I’ve already written for Earl about my gay sex life [“My Gay Life,” eI23, December 2005] but now I want to explore that even more forbidden realm of sex substitutes.
Let’s not beat about the bush (sorry). We’re talking Rockets. Huge tubular things standing erect.
I was obsessed with them from an early age, possibly even before I discovered science fiction.
I must admit I never could really get enough of rockets. I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I was seeking out second-hand magazines by cycling along the old Harrow Road to a Plus Books store near Ladbroke Grove, it was probably the issues of Galaxy and Analog and yeah, even Nebula, with big rockets on the cover that worked their strange attraction into impelling me to buy them. Does that make sense? Probably not. But it won’t get any better.
When I went to the national anal retentive book depository also known as the local public library, it was rockets I looked out for there also. There was little science fiction to be found amongst those volumes, curiously rebound in a kind of speckled blue-grey material I have never encountered since. But there was fortunately sufficient stuff on German rocketry, with black and white plates of V2s at Peenemunde.
I was excited by these but still not enough to have an orgasm. But then I was only sixteen at the time. I also discovered Tsiolkovsky but he was Russian and didn’t know shit all about designing phallic shapes. All his rockets were made of sticks tied together with string, it seemed to me.
Prior to 1968 there was a speculative market in ‘real science magazines’ predicting how the future colonization of the moon would happen, and I bought these up like chocolate, because the rockets they depicted were always sleek and steely dannish.
Little did we realize that such aerodynamics were not necessary and when the actual event happened in 1968 it would involve a craft that looked like two stick insects coupling.
Still the early Redstones were kind of cute, with their little tail fins, although, again, none of them ever got me off.
So obsessed with rocketry was I, that I even formed my own rocket club, which consisted just of me, drawing plans for rocket engines, which I eventually tried to make on the father’s huge metal turning lathe which he kept in the back shed. I succeeded in making a combustion chamber and a venturi nozzle, but then gave up when I realized there was no way I was going to get hold of a reasonable supply of liquid hydrogen.
Willy Ley either designed or drew rockets or made films about them, I can’t remember now. I just know that at the time I wasn’t getting my rockets off. I tried a more direct route to fake rocketry by constructing a six-foot-tall rocket in my garden consisting of tin cans soldered together. There is actually a photo of this, which I may or may not be able to find. I also bought Revell and Airfix plastic kits of rockets and stupidly constructed them rather than keep them untouched in their original boxes, when now they would have been worth a fortune. I also photographed myself with these but fortunately absolutely none of these photos survive.
And still I couldn’t come. What was I doing wrong? Well obviously I was eroticizing objects rather than women.
I saw the error of my ways and went for women in a big way. Let me rephrase that. What I did was cut out pictures of women in girdles, bras and other ancillary underwear, from innocent magazines and newspapers such as Titbits and News of the World, and stuck them in a scrapbook. One day my mother walked into my bedroom while I was doing this. She smiled and said something like ‘oh, pretty ladies’, but how could I possibly come over them after that?
When I was 21 all this changed. Essex House published a dirty Philip Jose Farmer novel where the characters actually fucked each other and yelled and screamed as they did so. This was something I had not come across before (sorry) in the works of Heinlein and Asimov. Reading it gave me a hard on, but that was all. Maybe it was the yelling and screaming that put me off, or the veiled references to Forest J. Ackerman.
Then I got hold of a copy of ‘The Gas’ by Charles Platt, with more endless fucking and sucking and this time I was obviously ready for it. One night, in bed, I put aside my copy of ‘Shoot at the Moon’ by William F. Temple which I had just finished reading, and reached out for Charles’ novel. After a few pages I noticed that not only my pyjamas but my bed was tented. Then I sensed a moistness on my pyjamas in the groinal area.
Yes it was my first spontaneous orgasm. Charles Platt had made me cum.
I think that one of the things parents have to do is to teach children hypocrisy, because that's how you survive—by being nice to people who are contemptible. So the kid coming into the world sees hypocrisy and wants to point it out. You're nice to this awful person? What you're doing is a crime, isn't it, Dad?
—Kurt Vonnegut, 10/99 Salon interview
Richard Lupoff’s Terrors
By Earl Kemp
I have always been a sucker for a good spook story. This goes way back to when I was a small child, playing outside late on hot summers evenings. In spite of the heat, there were times when we would build enormous bonfires on vacant lots and sit around them, trying to gross each other out with more repulsive ghost stories than anyone else could come up with. A year or so later the same thing happened around Cub Scout campout bonfires.
Richard Lupoff and I share a number of things in common, having acquired certain of our tastes from the same sources…comic books and radio plays and second-hand magazines…weird stuff…spooks and vampires and voodoos abounding throughout the pages of gloriously exciting pulp magazines like Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Famous Fantastic Mysteries, H.P. Lovecraft, H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Arkham House, and horrors still completely unknown.
For me, reading Richard Lupoff’s Terrors was a good bit more like taking a joyride with a good friend through some of his most often fondled territories…the favorite nightmare journeys of his youth. Also, by the way, my own favorite nightmare journeys from the dim, distant past.
This collection of 16 of Lupoff’s short stories found origins in such well-remembered places as Strange Tales, Fantastic Stories, Amazing Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and from elsewhere.
Terrors is complete with a fascinating Introduction by Fred Chappell and an Afterword by Lupoff sharing more of the secrets of his terrors.
Richard Lupoff and his Terrors (in the foreground) in Mission Hills, CA, March 26, 2006.
The first three stories in the volume, “The Crimson Wizard,” “The Crimson Wizard and the Jewels of Lemuria,” and “The Golden Saint Meets the Scorpion Queen” form a trilogy directly out of Lupoff’s past as a young boy who became a devoutly obsessed pulp magazine and comic book fanatic. There’s a lot of us out here and all around….
There are also parodies and satires of many all-time favorite mythical characters like Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft…perhaps the most mythical of all. In other directions, Lupoff goes into outer space with terrors yet to come from the future.
Clearly Lupoff has reached the status of master craftsman; his stories carry the reader along with a casualness and certainty that is rare in today’s fiction. He deserves closer scrutiny and many more delicious-to-read tales yet to be told.
This has been my first encounter with an Elder Signs Press book and I was surprised at the quality of the production values and the readability of the physical book itself.
With any luck, Lupoff and Elder Signs will have a follow-up volume of more superb Richard Lupoff nightmares in the near future.
Writers get to treat their mental illnesses every day.
-—Kurt Vonnegut
by Harvey Hornwood
Harvey Hornwood
My first meeting with Maurice Girodias took place in 1968, shortly after he had emigrated to New York from Paris, where legal entanglements, a government even more repressive than those with which he had done constant battle for almost thirty years, and his own cavalier approach to the concepts of sound business practice had resulted in the bankruptcy of his famous company, the Olympia Press. Ever hopeful even in the face of disaster—a quality which some saw as blindness and others as vision—Girodias was then struggling to reestablish Olympia in New York City, and looking around for writers who would turn out the kind of “d.b.’s” (dirty books) which had always been Olympia's staple product—writers with an abundant sexual imagination and an acute shortage of money. I qualified on both counts, having written sex books for one or two of the fly-by-night smut companies that emerged from underground in the sixties, but having been far too lazy and unambitious to actually make a living at it.
I have been asked by the editor of this zine to specifically exclude Greenleaf from my statement that “most sex book publishers of that period” were habitually slow, if not delinquent, in paying their writers, since he claims that his company was a notable exception to this rule. In my limited experience with Greenleaf I did find this to be the case, so I am happy to make that concession.
—Harvey Hornwood, email, February 20, 2006
A friend who had written for Girodias in Paris had given him my name, and after he contacted me by letter I went to see him at what was then his combination apartment and office on Gramercy Park. My first impression on meeting him was of his surprisingly youthful appearance. He would then have been close to fifty, but seemed to me like a man in his mid-thirties—though his manner exuded what one of the writers quoted in Venus Bound, John de St Jorre’s book about Olympia, called a “weary charm” his romantic-sounding French accent somehow enhancing both the charm and the weariness. Having seen some of my writing, he agreed that I should do a book for Olympia, and on the spot, with an access of whimsy that was to become familiar to me, came up with one of his more fanciful pseudonyms—Dieter von Laundromat—a suggestion to which I politely demurred. He also asked me to “spice up” a manuscript by another writer by expanding or making up a few sex scenes, a common Girodias maneuver which sometimes surprised, not always happily, the original author when he perused the published version of his work.
I provided the sex scenes, and eventually the book (though the above-mentioned tendency to laziness and prevarication made the process longer than Girodias would have liked. “Where's that book of yours?” he wrote me at one point. “Deadline already dead.”) was published. I was busy (more or less) on a second one when Maurice, out of the blue, suddenly offered me an editorial job—without having the least notion as to whether I knew anything at all about editing, which is quite a different skill from writing.
Although I had, as it happened, previously worked as an editor, I initially turned down Maurice's offer, determined at that time finally to buckle down and make my living as a freelance writer. I soon realized, however, that this was a futile fantasy, and a few weeks later I called him back to ask whether the job was still open. Girodias said yes, expressed his happiness at my availability, and suggested that I start the following Monday.
What I did not know, however, and what Maurice, in his typically lackadaisical fashion, had evidently completely forgotten, was that he had meanwhile promised the job to someone else—a lively, slender, brown-haired English girl named Frances Green, who had been doing some free-lance work for him while employed as an editorial assistant at the magazine Library Journal. Happy to exchange this staid environment for the presumably more salubrious surroundings of Olympia, Frances had given her notice at the magazine and was all prepared to make the move, when she learned that the proffered position had been appropriated by another. I went to work completely unaware of all this, and wondering why this attractive and outgoing free-lancer, on her occasional visits to the office, seemed to be particularly cool toward me alone.
By the time I joined Olympia, Girodias had moved the office out of his apartment and into two floors of a building on nearby Irving Place. At that time the editorial department consisted of two women, highly disparate in style: Uta West, a neat, self confident, efficient blonde in her thirties who later wrote a couple of books for Girodias under the pseudonym of Renee Auden; and Beverly Shelton, a fortyish aging-hippie type with a fondness for hallucinogenic drugs and a forthrightly fuck-you-don't-bother-me attitude toward her job. (I once came across a very long but fascinating manuscript by a writer living in Europe, which I thought had a lot of potential. I passed it on for another opinion to Bev, who took one look at its hefty size and promptly deposited it in her bottom drawer, where it stayed for several months, despite my sporadic efforts to wrench it loose. I suppose it eventually got back into the system, but it never did get published.)
The rest of the office staff was made up of a secretary, two or three clerical types, and a “publicist” who soon left because there was no budget for publicity. Which brings us to David Young, a prosperous businessman who Girodias had somehow persuaded to become his business partner. In Venus Bound, de St Jorre calls Young “an enormously fat man who was a member of the right-wing John Birch Society.” In fact, while Dave was undeniably corpulent, he was hardly enormous, and if he had any political convictions whatsoever I never heard of them; his most deeply held principle seemed to involve never parting with money in any but the most exigent of circumstances.
In this characteristic, many of Girodias' disgruntled authors would have claimed, he and Maurice were a matched pair. Girodias (in common, it must be said, with most of the other sex book publishers of that period) was certainly notorious for his habitual avoidance of the disagreeable task of actually paying his writers what he owed them. “Paying his authors,” as de St Jorre points out, “... was not Girodias' strong suit. Girodias found contracts boring, paperwork a burdensome chore, and the notion of regular accounting and payments an illusive ideal.” The writers, understandably, were often resentful. Mason Hoffenberg, co-author of Candy, called Girodias “a cheap crook,” and claimed that his business dictum was “Don't pay the writers"; while another long-time nemesis, Vladimir Nabokov, fulminated at having to deal with “the elusiveness, the evasiveness, the procrastination, the dodges, the duplicity, and the utter irresponsibility of the man.”
But there was an important distinction between Girodias' brand of stinginess and that of Dave Young. Along with his undeniable carelessness and irresponsibility, Maurice's parsimony was usually the consequence also of a genuine lack of funds, the necessity to make his slender means cover a host of expenses and creditors' demands; on occasion, when he did have money, he could be surprisingly generous. With Dave Young, however, stinginess was a religion. He was not above asking his employees to submit fictitious expense accounts in lieu of a raise, thus saving him tax money. Checks were occasionally sent out “accidentally” unsigned, so they would have to be returned, delaying the depletion of funds. In his bibliography of Olympia, Patrick Kearney points out that whereas the books published by the company in Paris had featured high-quality materials and workmanship, the paper, covers, and binding of the New York products were comparatively shoddy—"'almost indistinguishable from the rest of the American porno paperback offerings.”
As I gradually became immersed in the operations of the company, this fiscal constipation began to disturb me, particularly in regard to publicity and promotion. For just as it had in Paris, the Olympia Press in New York occasionally—and sometimes in spite of itself—published a book whose contents were of interest beyond the prurient. While there may have been no masterpieces on the order of Lolita, Naked Lunch, or The Ginger Man, there were books of genuine literary quality scattered, however sparsely, among the unending line of “d.b.’s.” The trouble was that no one knew about them, and given the dearth of money spent on advertising or publicity, there was no way anyone could find out. Dave Young clung grimly to the notion that spending money on anything was a bad idea, and Maurice, for all his undoubted courage and ambition, “made little effort,” as de St Jorre says, “to cultivate the literary scene, and did not understand how the American publishing world worked.”
Soon after the New York office opened, Girodias published two highly original and visionary novels, Screen and Oracle of the Thousand Hands, by Barry Malzberg, an intense, fiercely intelligent writer who would soon become well known and respected in the science fiction field, and who also turned out a series of pseudonymous sex books, more conventional but not without a certain special quality of their own. Barry was an amazingly prolific author who seemed to be able to write as fast as he could think, with no sacrifice of quality. I once asked him enviously how he was able to turn the stuff out as quickly as he did. His offhand reply: “I bought an electric typewriter.”
Diane DiPrima, the somber, red-haired goddess of Beat poetry, was persuaded by Maurice to write her “memoirs,” which I edited. According to DiPrima, each time she submitted a portion of the manuscript, Girodias would send it back demanding “More sex!” so that the Memoirs of a Beatnik were more erotic than literary, climaxing with a hilarious, though probably imaginary, five-way orgy with DiPrima, Alan Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac among the participants.
While DiPrima, serious and reserved in person, seemed an incongruous choice for the role of lively pornographer, one who didn't was Steve Cannon, now something of an elder statesman of the African-American literary community, but then a highly ebullient young hipster with an infectious grin and all the uninhibited enthusiasm of the raunchy fourteen-year-old heroine of his rambunctious novel Groove, Bang and Jive Around. The Olympia office was also occasionally brightened by the vibrant presence of Ferdinand William Vasquez-d'Acugno, whose first novel (writing as “Marco Vassi”) Mind Blower, had indeed blown my mind when I first read it in manuscript. Polymorphous, profound, and unabashedly sensuous in both his fiction and his life, Marco went on to write several even better novels for Olympia before moving on. Marco died of AIDS in 1989, depriving the world of a talent that should have been better known.
But because Girodias and his Olympia Press were still considered as mere pornography mills, and because the books were distributed for the most part only to the limited market that specialized in such wares, and because, again, there was no publicity, these books made no stir. To my mind the biggest lost opportunity—financially if not aesthetically—came when Girodias secured the manuscript of a book called Speed, by William Burroughs III—a more or less autobiographical chronicle of amphetamine addiction by the son of the same William Burroughs whose notorious heroin-spiced novel Naked Lunch Maurice had originally published in Paris. Here, I thought, was a natural best seller, on the name alone. Just one notice in Publishers Weekly…one ad in the New York Times Book Review….
But no. I explained, I argued, I wrote memos, but to no avail. Maurice shrugged. Dave was affable but stubborn. And nothing happened. Speed came out—printed, for some reason, on particularly cheap newsprint paper—and disappeared into limbo with the “d.b.’s.”
Along with the talented and the more or less well-known who drifted in and out of the Olympia offices, there were of course the run-of-the-mill writers, many of them impoverished hacks to whom churning out sex books and then trying to wrest some money for them out of Girodias was simply another scam in their day-to-day struggle for existence. Some were charming, some obnoxious; many were high most of the time, for this was the late sixties, when pot, hash, and LSD were not only ubiquitous but also relatively cheap. Most were young, but there was one scruffy, bearded middle-aged fellow known only as P.J., who had submitted a manuscript about a young lady who had a romance with a stallion. The book was accepted, spiced up with extra sex scenes, and retitled The Horse Mistress; and payment was even authorized—but herein lay a problem, as the writer refused to divulge his full name, insisting that he was P.J., period. But no bank would honor a check made out to a pair of initials, so P.J. insisted that he be paid in cash. Our accountant refused, and an impasse ensued, until some circuitous and probably illegal scheme was contrived to get around the problem.
Paul Johnston wrote as P.J. and “Justine Paris.”
—Patrick J. Kearney,
A Bibliography of the Publications of the New York Olympia Press
About six months after I started at Olympia, Uta West resigned to pursue a writing career. This opened up an editorial spot, and Frances Green, whose promised job I had earlier unwittingly usurped, was finally brought on board. Though she may still have harbored some understandable resentment toward me, we got along quite smoothly, and when eventually I learned what had happened, and explained my innocent role in the affair, all was more or less forgiven. Over the months we became quite friendly, though there was no actual romance between us—until one day, on a sudden crazy impulse worthy of my employer himself, I asked her to marry me! Quite wisely, she refused; but to my surprise and delight, suggested that we try living together and see what happened. Which we did, and what happened was that we stayed together for thirty-six years (so far), and actually did get married somewhere along the way. So I have Maurice Girodias to thank for bringing Frances into my life, though it is somehow typical that in doing so he nearly destroyed the relationship before it ever got started.
When Olympia was preparing to publish a rare non-fiction book called Inside Scientology, an exposé by a former member of that “church,” the scientologists, as is their wont, tried every means, legal and otherwise, to have it stopped. One official took an editor to lunch and tried to bribe her, actually laying an envelope full of cash on the table between them, which—more in amusement than indignation—she refused. The scientologists may have gotten their revenge, however. De St Jorre and others have speculated that they may have been at least partly responsible for bringing about the mysterious events which finally led to Girodias' deportation a few years later.
In spite of some arguments and many differences of opinion, I had always gotten along well with Maurice, who was generally even-tempered in person, however vitriolic he might get in some of his writings. This began to change when one day a longhaired, ethereal-seeming young wraith of a girl named Sharon Rudahl dropped off a manuscript she had written under the name of “Mary Sativa.” To my surprise her picaresque tale of youth, sex, drugs, and love turned out to be a perceptive, tender, and moving novel which illuminated the “hippie” generation somewhat in the same way that Kerouac’s On the Road had done for the Beats a decade earlier. The other editors shared my enthusiasm, and we spent some time and effort on coming up with a suitably sensitive and evocative title for the book—which I must admit I don't remember. Whatever it was, however, it was not fanciful enough to suit Maurice, who in consultation with Marilyn Meeske, an old friend and associate from the Paris days newly arrived in New York, came up with his own title—Acid Temple Ball.
This appellation struck me as appallingly crass, meaningless, and inappropriate, and I immediately wrote Girodias a memo expressing, at length and in no uncertain terms, my dismay both at the new title itself and at his casual disregard of his editors’ opinions. It was the only time I ever saw Maurice actually lose his temper. He came into the editorial office with his face twisted in anger, plunked the memo down on my desk, and informed me emphatically that that was all very well, but he was the publisher, and it was his company, it was his title, and that was the way it was going to be. And that‘s the way it was.
All three of my Greenleaf books were republished by Olympia (Lust Rumble [NB1769] as Third-Degree Rape [OPH235], The Sado Swappers [NB1838] as The Pain Lovers [OPH222], and Passion's Pupil [PR198] as Carnal Knowledge [OPH215]), and all three under the byline of James Kerstetter. This was strictly my doing, in my capacity as an editor at the New York Olympia office. It was an underhanded ploy, but it was all mine.
—Harvey Hornwood, email, November 2, 2005
Although there was no further hostility between Maurice and me, I had the definite feeling that I had written one memo too many. And as it happened, Girodias was soon looking to open up an editorial slot for his friend Marilyn Meeske. I suspect also that things were not helped by the fact that in passing by the office one day he happened to glimpse Frances sitting cozily on my lap. (It has been suggested that there was a hidden puritanical streak somewhere inside Girodias the freewheeling pornographer, though many of his customers would have been disappointed to learn that this innocent cuddle was probably the closest thing to an orgy that ever took place inside the Olympia offices.)
Shortly after that Maurice called me in and explained to me that he desired to resume our former author-publisher relationship. And so after a little over a year at Olympia I was out. My subsequent dealings with Girodias were friendly, however, and Frances stayed on with the company until its inevitable demise a couple of years later.
Impractical, unworldly, irresponsible, and devious Girodias certainly was, but I am glad to have known him; he was also charming, witty, visionary and, above all, courageous. He battled censorship, prudery, and stuffiness wherever he found it. He struggled incessantly—and joyously—for literary and sexual freedom in the face of governmental repression, legal tribulations, and constant financial hardship. He never lost his taste for attacking and outraging what he called the “Universal Establishment.” He was a flawed and not always admirable human being, but he fought the good fight.
- - -
*Reprinted from an original appearance in Penthouse Forum, June 1997, with the permission of Harvey Hornwood. Olympia Press NY cover scans courtesy Patrick Kearney Collection www.sonic.net/~patk/ . Greenleaf Classics cover scans courtesy Bruce Brenner Collection www.vintagepbks.com/ .
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
—Kurt Vonnegut
| pilot of future |
Which pilot first appeared when he agreed to make the risky Alderaan run? | eFanzines.com - Earl Kemp: e*I* Vol. 5 No. 4
Art, thanks very much for making this embarrassing to me correction. --EK
Monday June 5, 2006:
Another issue of eI that just blows me away. As always, it immediately followed an issue of The Drink Tank and again, I was severely out-classed. Go figure.
You know, someone at Ram Books should be shot. They took a lovely cover for Red Hot & Ready and turned it into the crap that showed up on Lens Lust. Just a pure crap reinvention. At least the other two are better.
I still love that Victor Banis piece, but seeing it in eI, I completely realize that it was the right place for it. Those Rotsler pieces were nice too. I recently came into possession of a number of issues of KTEIC Magazine from 1982 that he put out and I seem to recall that sacrificial altarpiece being in one of them. I'm thinking of scanning them, but I'm not sure what to do with them after that.
There was a store around the corner from my house growing up that sold no Playboys, only Hustler and those Filthy Mags that came from Europe. You'd find one sometimes, laying in a parking lot or somewhere like that, and you'd sneak and peak and they'd always disturb me somehow. Maybe it was those close-ups of things going in and out that bugged. I never much got into Hustler. True, it's done some okay journalism, and I must admit that Larry Flynt has done some good things over the years (mixed in with a lot of terrible things) but I just couldn't get into the no-class sexuality they presented. Then again, I read Playboy for the fiction these days, so what do I know? I loved Omni, and I'll always thank Flynt for giving us that. While I hate to admit it, despite my last name being Garcia, I'm only a fourth or fifth cousin to Jerry (I figured it out once and it's not that close, but I could trace it) while Jerry Falwell is a solid fourth cousin. I remember reading about the Falwell trial when I was a kid and my Grandma saying that he was 'a dark spot on the family'.
Alan White is a good man. Sybil Danning may have been one of the most attractive women of those days I was too young to have experienced. In that photo of Alan and Sybil, Alan has my hair. It's scary how much it looks like my hair right at this very moment. I called in two of the girls from work and they both said that the hair was exactly the same! I must track down a copy of Slam. It sounds like it was a hoot.
There are some very good books written about the inside of the pornography business, and a whole lot of bad ones. The same goes for the wrestling business. I've been asked twice to write insider books, but I'm not an insider, even though I know a lot of people who are pretty deep in. Sadly, there are a lot of folks like me in various fields that get asked to write books on the Inside and sadly, a lot of folks don't have my restraint. I must pick up a copy of The Prisoner of X.
Sandra Scream. There's a pair of tits I haven't thought of in ages. She was one of the people who really changed the way Cannes views people. Adult stars had shown up before (Ciciolena or however you spell it was the one who really invented the Cannes Porn movement) but I remember hearing folks talking about Sandra for years.
If it’s the same Frank that I’ve heard about, I’m certain that there are a thousand great stories about the former Flynt bagman. There was an article about Larry’s assistants in an issue of Rolling Stone (I think it was Rolling Stone, I did read it while I was in college, so it was either Rolling Stone or The Phoenix) that told the story of the, as I believe they put it, ‘the creeps and the motherfuckers.’
If you’ve ever seen the movie version of Dragnet, Dabney Coleman’s performance as the owner of a porn empire (with titles like Bait and Field & Cream) was based off of a party imitation someone did of wrestler Dusty Rhodes if he had become Larry Flynt. It’s a funny performance and I constantly quote it.
rich brown just became my hero. That was a fantastic piece of post-modernist humour/Good Ol’ Fun. I loved it!
Pete mentions that it was uncharacteristic of France to sell Louisiana for such a small price. Fact is, Old Nap needed that money, there were wars to pay for and those that still needed paying and he was planning on getting out of the New World business anyhow. It was strange that the US would put so much of their coffers into one big score, but that’s the way we roll: big money, no whammies, stop!
I wish I could have gone to the Paperback show. I had it on my calendar, but it was either that or a visit to my friends in Vegas, and knowing what I’d be spending at a paperback show, Vegas was the better part of valor. Looking at the folks pictured, I certainly missed out. I’d have loved to meet Dick Lupoff there, but luckily he wandered into the Fanzine Lounge at BayCon and we had a lovely chat there. Great photos, though.
Thanks much for running Dad’s piece. I’m sure he’d be proud to see it in what was his favourite fanzine at the end. I found the copies of eI I had printed for him next to his bed, probably among the last things he ever read. That, and the small pile of conventional porn that was right next to it.
--Chris Garcia
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Thanks for the heads up. It was another great "issue." Congrats on last "issues" reprinting rich's "Two of a Kind," it is an intense story deserving of wider readership. rich is an amazing guy and has been a great friend for many years. And a good writer, too.
Enjoyed reading Ted's piece about Althea again.
Keep up the good work.
--Dan Steffan
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I have to tell you this: Of all the humorous/literary/gossipy delights I effortlessly inhale from friends through the Internet--and make mental notes to go back and finish reading them--yours is the only site I do go back to and complete reading. The arrival of your zine doesn't even leave room for the inevitable guilt feelings ("what did you think of the ______?"), trying to bluff my way through their _______... something which I just couldn't endure reading more than a few lines, but really don't want to be impolite because I do like the sender.
I always enjoy your ezine in a special way: I'm basically introverted, and sometimes your zine works like a few hits off a freshly stuffed, newly lit bong. It gives me a sense of what fun it is to play being an extrovert. Like I'm really having fun at the party instead of dutifully biding my time for a quick retreat.
I trust you won't misunderstand if I say "keep it up"!
--Rose Idlet, Black Ace Books
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Just downloaded your latest eI and was surprised to see pics of me in it. I saw you at that signing, tried to find you after getting worn out scribbling in books, & failed --& didn't see the Lupoffs, either! AAargh!--that was the main reason I went! Maybe next year...
Anyway, I've been guiltily reading your ezine for years & not writing. It's a great nostalgic trip. Somehow those days ring with a clarity I miss in the present squalor. My god, even Ted White! A bit sobering, that of the Void coeditors, 2 are gone & 3 survive... Thanks!
--Gregory Benford
Friday June 9, 2006:
It took me a couple of "sit downs", but I just completed el26. My ignorance of behind the scenes porn is almost as vast as my lack of knowledge on the subject of science fiction.
But, the high level of input that you present regularly makes it worthwhile and easy to learn.
I think that we can all learn from a man like Mr. Garcia since we are all dying without the deadline. Set goals for yourself and remember; It's not that life is so short. It's that death is so long.
--Daniel Andrews
Saturday June 10, 2006:
It’s been ages, although I do make it a point to check in regularly at your web-sites to see what in the hell you’re up to (although seeing how much you manage to accomplish makes me literally tired as hell – must be age creeping up on me).
I’m delighted to see a short story by Victor Banis, “In Passing” recently posted on your site.
Speaking of “the” Victor, I just finished reading his memoir SPINE INTACT, SOME CREASES; REMEMBRANCES OF A PAPERBACK WRITER, and didn’t you come out the star (not that the designation isn’t deserving)! Such an exciting life we all led/lead – although I must admit that there are some of your and Victor’s shared experiences that I’m damned happy to have missed.
Must say that I’m sorry that the book in question hasn’t yet been picked up by any U.S. publisher, making it so damned hard to come by, it having only been published by that obscure Italian university press in a limited edition (oh, well, only apt to make my first-edition all the more valuable as a collector’s item, in time). Where are Earl Kemp and Greenleaf Classics when you need them?!
Anyway, always glad to hear that you are alive and thriving.
--William Lambert, III
(AKA William J. Lambert III, WJ Lambert, Lambert Wilhelm, Christopher Dane, Karl Klyne, Ernst Mauser, Alex von Mann, Cort Forbes, Adriana deBolt, Willa Lambert, Anna Lambert, Chad Stuart … et al).
#
Just finished downloading and reading the latest issue. The current el is as provocative as ever.
I was especially taken by Ted White's article on his brief and fruitless encounter with Althea Flynt. (And has anyone observed that Ted is one of the most apt and articulate chroniclers, and always has been?). In the movie, The People VS Larry Flynt, Althea was portrayed by Courtney Love. Highly appropriate casting, I'd say, although I wonder if Althea was really that mangy.
In passing, Althea references Matty Simmons, the publisher of National Lampoon and producer of Animal House and other related comedies.
In the early ’60s, I spent a few years working for The Diners' Club in New York. Although their showcase offices were situated at the very spiffy New York Coliseum on Columbus Circle, the grunt work was performed at an annex several blocks away on West 57th Street. It was a small overcrowded office space, tucked beside IFF (International Flavors and Fragrances). Day and night, summer and winter, their latest olfactory confections penetrated the building. It was inescapable and after a while, if you were lucky, you learned to ignore it.
Matty Simmons was an executive helping to run the company, and also helming the official Diners' Club magazine (which might have been called Signature, that's the only name that leaps to mind). I met him several times. He was always congenial and ambitious but gave the impression of satisfaction in the lofty role he had there. Shortly afterward, he left for the much more lucrative field of film and magazine production, where he enjoyed considerable success.
I also shook hands with Alfred Bloomingdale (of Bloomingdale's Department Store fame), who was an early backer of The Diners; Club. In later years he gained unwelcome notoriety for his associations with major political figures, as well as his personal pursuits.
I swore I'd never wash my hands after the handshaking encounter. And I never did.
--Mike Deckinger
Saturday June 24, 2006:
I really gotta hand it to you, Earl; you know how to pub an interesting zine. Never in my wildest imaginings would I have thought that I would be interested in reading articles written about Hustler magazine; a normal male would be much more interested in simply reading -- no, make that "eye-balling" (hahahahaha) -- Hustler. A most enjoyable read, so to speak.
I really thank you for pubbing John Paul Garcia's last and only piece of fan-writing and, of course, Chris for forwarding it on to you for publication. It really bums me out that I never met John because I was very active in fandom when he was, even though his fanac was rather minimal and we were geographically separated (West Coast fan vs. Midwestern fan.) Even so, what a cool link that would have been since Chris is now pubbing one of my favorite zines to read, Drink Tank. John's first piece of advice has always been one of my favorite practices when attending a con; many a fine conversation has taken place in the hallway outside the con suite because it is so true that everybody will come by at some time over the weekend, some way more times than once.
Y'know, someday if I'm ever out there at the time, I would love to see that Mission Hills Paperback Show and Sale; sounds like a lot of fun to an avowed bibliophile like me. Great photos, by the way.
I think Peter Weston may have something here, but I personally believe that aliens really don't want to have anything to do with us humans because we are such a self-destructive creature. We don't need no stinking alien help in starting wars and messing up our planet. Sheesh! What the heck is Peter thinking -- or smoking? (Can I have some?)
Not much else to say for now, but that in no way reflects the actual enjoyment I derived from reading eI #26. As always, an interesting and enjoyable collection of writings; I just have no pithy comments to make on it all except, "Read And Enjoyed." Thank you for your continued fine efforts.
--John Purcell
Friday June 30, 2006:
Propaganda films extend to cartoons. I have a tape at home called Uncensored Toons, full of Warner Brothers cartoons from the ’30s, ’40 and ’50s, all, shall we say, very, VERY politically incorrect. Some of the characters dance and sing to raise money for war bonds, and titles like Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips set the tone.
I have been hearing from several people, all saying that if you think Dubya was bad, don’t vote for Bill Frist. I said in my loc that it would be tough to do worse than Bush, and it looks like I might be proved wrong. The Supreme Court’s latest ruling that the war trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees is illegal, and Bush acted outside of his authority, is a welcome slap in the fact for this administration. Let the nightmare end now…
Ah, Twilight Zone Magazine…a great publication, with so many good memories inside. I have the whole set, except for the last issue, which I loaned out, and never got back, serves me right…
I wonder, Earl, if your friend Hugh has seen any of these issues of eI, and if he might be prevailed upon to make a few comments? With Hef hitting 80, I’m sure he’s got a few memories
[I suspect he’s much too busy doing his own thing. It would be a pleasure to have him aboard though and thanks for the suggestion. –EK]
I have never been able to latch onto a job as a freelance typographer, or copy editor, or any other editorial position like that. Either my qualifications are sadly lacking, or Canadian employers in the publishing industry are a helluva lot smarter than their American counterparts. I think it’s mostly the latter.
I wonder how many fans of Beauty and The Beast, and anything else Ron Perlman has done, know that Frank from LFP was his frontman? I can think of a few friends who would be shocked and disappointed.
If someone like Hugo Gernsback hadn’t been there to plant the idea of science in the future in our minds, would we have had the idea ourselves later on? Would we have gone to the moon without that initial seed? Did Uncle Hugo change us that much, or did he just accelerate the process of forward-thinking and a desire to peer forward into the future, close or distant?
I had hopes that David Gerrold would have made it up to Toronto for Gaylaxicon. In the various places it's been held, it was in Toronto last month, and Yvonne and I were on the committee. (It’s a telling remark on the GLBT SF community when the majority of the committee on a GLBT SF convention are straight.) As the head of the dealers’ room, it was up to me to contact David, and see if he wanted dealers’ tables in Toronto. I was getting remarks like, “You’re in Canada? I’ll wait until it’s in the United States again.” and I was getting discouraged. David ignored my missives, and it fell into the chairman, Lance Sibley, to contact him. He found out David had an on-going feud with one of the guests of honour, Richard Arnold, and would not be coming to Toronto. At all. Period.
I may have asked before, Earl, but are you going to LA for the Worldcon this year? Guess I’d like us to meet, and this continent is just too big, and my paycheque is just too small.
John Garcia need a lot more time. Just as Chris convinced him he had to put his memories down on paper, cancer took him away. At least John did get to do some writing, and we’ll be richer for that. I hope to see the Trimbles in Los Angeles, but if that doesn’t happen, they are scheduled to be the Fan GoHs at Astronomicon 10 in Rochester in November. John is absolutely right when it comes to finding a seat where the whole con walks past. I’ve done that three times now, and never felt like I was missing much. The people make a con for me.
--Lloyd Penney
Tuesday July 4, 2006:
I've read every issue of eI, found the whole thing brilliant and fascinating from beginning to end, but the problem is I have nothing to add. It's almost all entirely new to me. I mean, you wouldn't want to get an e-mail every two months that said nothing but "brilliant and fascinating,"
--John Boston, Wegenheim
The Fantasy Press Story*
By Lloyd Arthur Eshbach
Mr. Eshbach (left), and Mr. Willy Ley in front of the Fantasy Press display at the Philcon, 1960.
An unsolicited letter of criticism, a fannish gesture of helpfulness and a joke led to the formation of Fantasy Press.
It began when I ordered a copy of Skylark of Space from the Buffalo Book Company of Providence, Rhode Island. After months of waiting during which I wrote several letters of inquiry, I finally received The Time Stream, by John Taine. Since sales promotion and advertising were my business, and since I felt Tom Hadley (of Buffalo Book Co.) had not handled this particular transaction to his and my best advantage, I wrote him a lengthy letter of criticism and suggestion.
There was no reply until one day when I received a phone call from Providence. An interchange of calls (from Hadley) and letters (from me) led to my joining Hadley to help him sell his books. Joined him, mind you, only as a fannish gesture, since there was no mention of financial matters—only a sort of vague “if things go over we’ll talk about pay.”
For a number of months I handled correspondence, prepared promotional pieces, kept records, designed a letterhead for Hadley Publishing Company, the new name which Tom adopted, and otherwise made myself useful. ’Twas a lot of fun—until I began receiving complaints from people who for some reason had failed to receive already published books for which they had paid. This and other matters led to my returning all correspondence, records, etc., etc., to Hadley and gently withdrawing from the scene.
Some time later in the office in which I worked (as ad copy writer for the Reading branch of the Glidden Company, a paint manufacturer), I said jokingly to a friend of mine, G.H. MacGregor (who knew about the Hadley deal), “Say, Mac, how’d you like to go into the publishing business?”
“You mean like this guy Hadley?” When I replied in the affirmative, he asked, “How much dough would it take?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a couple thousand.”
“Sure,” MacGregor said. “We could get Donnell here”—the artist who was in the room at the time—“and he could do the illustrating. Maybe add Leman Houck—he’s a bookkeeper—and with each of us putting in five hundred we’d be on our way.”
I had been joking—but that’s exactly how it worked out, and the four of us formed Fantasy Press within the next week. This partnership continued until January of 1950, at which time I bought out my partners’ share of the business. They were fine partners, still are swell men and good friends of mine, but their contribution to a science fiction publishing house had to be limited. None of them even read SF.
During our initial conference I had told the others that our success in launching Fantasy Press (a name not even thought of at that time, November 1946) depended upon our getting a book by Dr. Edward E. Smith as our first title. I knew Doc would sell, since Skylark of Space had sold for Hadley. Spacehounds of IPC seemed to be the logical book to start with, since it was an independent novel, not part of Smith’s famous Lensmen or Skylark series. Since Spacehounds was our first title, released in February 1947, my efforts to secure it from Doc Smith, obviously, were successful.
To digress briefly, it may be of some interest to you to learn that the name “Fantasy Press” was chosen among the following: Nova Publications, Stellar Publishers, Science-Fantasy Press, and, it seems to me, one other. I think we might have done better—but it’s too late now.
With Spacehounds of IPC in production, I went after other stories, and got what I wanted. At that time I had no competition worthy of the name, and if I had wanted to do so, I could have sewed up most of all of the really good magazine material in sight. Frankly, I didn’t expect competition to come into the picture so quickly, but even if I had known just what the future would bring forth, I don’t think my actions would have been altered to any great extent. I knew my own limitations, and I wanted to be fair with the writers.
As must be the case with any one-man publishing house, Fantasy Press reflects the tastes of the publisher. Any material selected, of course, must have at least a fair chance of selling. I like space operas—space operas sell—so I publish space operas. Perhaps I should clarify one point. Fantasy Press does not publish literature. (And in this respect it’s just like 99% of the publishers in these United States, regardless of the kind of books they issue.) Not one book I have issued is literature—but then, this is also true of Gnome, Shasta, Prime, Doubleday, etc. I publish what I think is entertaining science fiction.
I have issued a number of books which I knew would not sell well. The Bridge of Light by Verril, and Beyond Infinity by Carr, for example. But I liked the stories, and I felt they should be published—so they went into the list. In passing, my judgment was vindicated—they haven’t sold at all well!
A few of the headaches of those early days may be worth recording. When we announced Spacehounds of IPC we gave ourselves three months for production, just to be safe. With publication date a month away, we learned that the mill which was to supply the paper hadn’t even scheduled it for manufacture! The printer (who was buying the paper) couldn’t locate any other. I asked him if he’d object to my getting paper. “Of course not,” he said with a superior smile. I can still see it—within one week the paper was in the print shop. True, it was ivory, not white, and it had a deckle edge (which we had to pay for, cut off and throw away), but it was paper on which to print the book. We missed publication date by twelve days.
When Of Worlds Beyond—The Science of Science Fiction Writing was being planned, I had a different sort of headache. I had asked seven top SF writers to write a symposium on SF writing, each to cover an assigned subject, and each to write a minimum of 2,000 words. Note the word minimum. I told the printer to get enough paper for 2,000 copies of a ninety-six-page book. I decided on a column width, and as the articles came in in various lengths, wrote the introduction for each chapter and had the printer set the copy in type. When all copy was in, at long last, and all in type, I made up the pages—and found I had exactly ninety-six pages! It couldn’t happen again in a hundred years.
But it did—on the very next book. I had estimated The Forbidden Garden by John Taine at 288 pages, bought paper on that basis, and when about half of the book had been set in type, had the printer start running the forms. When the book was ready for the bindery—you guessed it—there were exactly 288 pages!
Statistics may be of interest. Fantasy Press has published 32 books with a total of more than 123,000 copies. This does not include two books issued under Polaris Press imprint (about which more below); nor does it include the newest title, The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell, Jr., which should be available by the time this article is published.
A word concerning Polaris Press. For a long time I’ve had a desire to issue some of the old “classics” of science fiction and fantasy in a truly handsome format and in a limited edition. In April of 1952 I put out the first of these, the semi-mythical The Heads of Cerberus from the pages of Thrill Book. I have received more complimentary comments on this book than on any FP release—but the sales are not good. Slightly less than 700 copies have been sold to date. (1,563 copies were printed, 1,490 of which were offered to the public.) Recently I issued the second in the series, The Abyss of Wonders, by Perley Poore Sheehan. The future of the series depends upon the sale of these two volumes. I thought I had a good idea in the Polaris Fantasy Library, but apparently not too many fans agree with me.
Since Fantasy Press and Polaris Press are actually Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, some of you may be interested in a few vital statistics. Born June 20, 1910, in Palm, Pennsylvania. Moved to Reading at age of five, attended Reading schools, married; have two sons. Began reading fantasy and science fiction (though the name hadn’t then been coined) at the age of nine in the old Munsey magazines: Burroughs, Merritt, Flint, Stevens, etc. Bought the first issue of Amazing Stories when it appeared on the newsstands. Started writing SF a year later; sold my fourth attempt to Amazing Stories at the age of seventeen. Have written and sold close to a million words of fiction of various kinds—SF under my own name; general fiction under three pen names. Wrote and sold radio plays, verse, filler articles, juveniles, etc.
My first effort (I still have it) was called “Up from the Pit.” It didn’t sell, but my third story; “A Voice from the Ether,” sold to Amazing. While all my fantasy has been published under my own name this is not true of the love stories which I hacked out for the love pulps. I used a feminine pseudonym—and the name is a never-to-be-revealed secret. I wrote some straight adventure fiction, most of it against a Brazilian background; one of these appeared as a serial in the Toronto Star Weekly almost twenty years ago. On the other hand, I wrote a number of bits for the experimental literary magazines using a pen name reserved only for these “little” mags. Because my own name was not associated with them, when two of my stories were starred in the O’Brien Year Book of the American Short Story, the pen name got the credit.
Began collecting SF and fantasy at the age of fourteen. I now have a copy of every SF magazine ever published in America, and most of those issued in England and Australia. Have approximately 2,000 SF and fantasy books, including a lot of really rare stuff. At one time my collection was far larger than it is today—the hardcover portion of it, that is. In those days I kept every book which could be designated as fantasy or science fiction. A completist, in short. But as every collector knows, there are many books in the field which aren’t worth even a single reading. These have been sold, and every book now in my fantasy library is at least readable. The scarcest items in my collection are absolutely unique. You see, when I publish a new book, I prepare a special edition of each title, limited to two copies, numbered and bound in full Morocco. The No. 1 copies go to the respective authors. The No. 2 copies go to the authors for their inscription and are then returned to me! Which means that I have the only complete set in existence, since, obviously, each writer has only his own books!
That does it, I suppose. Or maybe I should say a word or two about the future of Fantasy Press.
Scheduled for publication during 1953 in the order listed are the following: Assignment in Eternity, by Robert A. Heinlein (originally announced as “Possible Answers”); Man of Many Minds, by E. Everett Evans; Deep Space, by Eric Frank Russell; G.O.G. 666, by John Taine; Three Thousand Years, by Thomas Calvert McClary and Children of the Lens, by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
For later publication I have the following: Islands of Space, by John W. Campbell, Jr.; The Time Conqueror, by L. A. Eshbach; The Metal Man and Others, by Jack Williamson; Invaders from the Infinite, by John W. Campbell, Jr.; The Vortex Blaster, by E.E. Smith; Tomorrow, by John Taine, and others.
If the Polaris Fantasy Library continues, there will be books by Homer Eon Flint, J.U. Giesy, and possibly by William Wallace Cook, George Allen England, Garrett Smith, Murray Leinster, Victor Rousseau, Stephen Chalmers, Garret P. Serviss, and many others.
- - -
*Reprinted from Destiny #8, Spring 1953.
Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules - and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress.
--Kurt Vonnegut; Ransom K. Fern in Sirens of Titan
[Introduction: Following is the rough draft of a major reference work in the making. We are presenting it here in this tentative final form in an effort to gather support from the readers to make it even better than it is presented here. In particular we need corrections of errors of text and content, of physical characteristics, or of any other nature. We also need better, replacement, or other missing jpegs to help round out the usability of this monumental effort that, with any luck, will not stop with Fantasy Press. You can email your additional data to me at [email protected]
or send snail mail to P.O. Box 6642, Kingman, AZ 86402-6642. –Earl Kemp]
The Anthem Series
Copyrighted material removed at the request of the author.
Belief is nearly the whole of the Universe, whether based on truth or not.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Bluebeard
[INTRODUCTION: Peter Weston told me that he was particularly looking forward to the exciting, praise-filled introduction to this piece. This is the exciting, praise-filled introduction to this piece.
The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. --Earl Kemp]
‘A Rocket A Rover’
(Title by Dave Wood)
A Symposium on SF & Fantasy in early British comics, originating from discussions on the ‘Wegenheim’ e-list, and conducted (in bold face) by Peter Weston.
#
This all started when Greg Pickersgill posted a piece on his e-list about the Jeff Hawke Club, which celebrates the famous strip that ran for many years in The Daily Express, one of the major British newspapers.
“The Jeff Hawke Club exists. Not only does it exist, but today I received the seventh issue of the JH Cosmos magazine, which is Good. Really, it is – a 66-page well-produced and printed magazine and in this issue there are two complete shorter JH reprints, and the second half of a longer story carried over from issue 6. Lots of other interesting little bits and pieces too, especially the many background asides by Sydney Jordan, the brilliant illustrator of the strip.
“I could go on and on and on about why and how the Hawke strip is by FAR the best British comic strip SF ever (and deserves a damned good placing in a list of Best British SF of any kind ever too) but those of you who have even the slightest memory of it in the Daily Express back in the 50s and 60s, or who had enough sense to get the two Titan books back in the late 80s will know the quality of which I speak. Anyone who had the wonderful pleasure of meeting and seeing Sydney Jordan at Mexicon 3 in 1989 will also know what a pleasant and interesting man he is too. And if you don't know of any of this, then its time to find out. This is unabashed drum-banging – go to www.jeffhawke.com/en/jhenclub.htm ”
Sidney Jordan did a fine job on ETs
This set me off on my own trip down Memory Lane:
“Completely agree, Greg, even though I only saw the occasional Jeff Hawke strip. Reason was that rather than the Express my parents took the Daily Mirror. The two were neck-&-neck rivals in those days, both considerably more up-market than they are now. As a result I only saw Jeff Hawke by going to the reading room of the local library, which I couldn't do every day.
”Instead, I cut my teeth on the adventures of ‘Garth,’ a strange affair that ran in the Mirror for over 40 years and which presented some quite advanced ideas considering its time and place. For instance, one adventure dealt with a parallel world in which the Nazis had won WWII and then gone on to develop biological sciences so that London had been rebuilt by growing organic buildings, rather like in Vance's Houses of Iszm. Another had a Galactic civilisation grown completely dependent upon androids to do the work and run the machines, with the people reduced to a state of frustrated idleness – very like Jack Williamson's The Humanoids.
”Garth doesn’t have a surname and his origins were unclear. As an infant he was washed up on the shores of the Shetland Isles (although there was a spectacular gaffe in an early story in which he was apparently found on the coast of Tibet, which is of course landlocked!). He had a long-drawn-out relationship with Astra, a super-woman from somewhere else (a time-traveller, I think) who had been the model for the Greek goddess Aphrodite. There were lots of other plot-lines, and drawing quality was competent but nowhere up to Sidney Jordan standards, although in 1971 Frank Bellamy took over after the fall of the legendary Eagle.”
John Jarrold knew what I was talking about:
“We also had the Mirror through the 50s and 60s, so I read ‘Garth’ every day. Yes, very SF and Fantasy – sometimes Garth went forward in time or back in time or into strange worlds not unlike Burroughs’ Barsoom. I think there were several annuals of the Garth strips in the 60s and 70s… yes, here is a website:” www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/garth.htm
I took a quick look at the site:
“Thanks, John. Ah, Professor Lumiere, how could I have forgotten you! A sort of Dr Zarkov character, looking like Hercules Poirot (or Julian Headlong, if you prefer), always there with a new invention when one was needed! The later Garth drawing is more commercial, making Garth look like Schwartzenegger, and I preferred the spindlier representations from the 1950s.”
The early Garth
By now we were well away! Here’s Greg again:
“I was always a bit nonplussed by ‘Garth’ as a child - it didn't seem to make any SENSE, and the illustrator's style was so peculiar it seemed hard for me to see any of the characters as actually human....Of course years of experience of SF and fanzine 'artwork' trained me out of that limited view of things. Some quick searching appears to show that while there are some ‘Garth’ books there don't seem to be any systematic reprints. There's also this note from a comics website -
“’Four ‘Garth’ books have appeared over the years. The first, a flip book (with Romeo Jones on the reverse) in horizontal-format in the late1950s or early '60s; then in 1975 The Daily Mirror Book of Garth (soft-back annual, Frank Bellamy art with topless girls censored/bikini tops added); another horizontal-format collection in 1976 (Frank Bellamy art uncensored, nipples aplenty); and a Titan collection in the late 1980s.’”
Artwork by Frank Bellamy, with nipples aplenty
But Rog Peyton accidentally changed the subject:
The RAF in Space
“Somehow I missed out on Jeff Hawke – I’ve never seen it. I read ‘Dan Dare’ in the Eagle during my first childhood from 1950 to 1953 when I was told to stop reading comics as I was eleven years old and going to grammar school. So I never saw Dan & Digby after 1953 until Hawk reprints came out several years ago. Though I did read ‘Captain Condor’ in the Lion comic – artwork was dreadful and I can't remember the storylines. Probably equally dreadful.”
I couldn’t believe it!
“Rog, how could you have ever given up The Eagle! For those too young to remember (and for the poor Americans who missed the excitement) let me say that it changed the face of British publishing. The comic was an overnight sensation from the day it was launched in April 1950; nothing like it had ever been seen before. It was a high-quality job, photogravure-printed at a large-size on semi-gloss paper with full colour on front cover and some interior pages. But the main selling feature was the cover story, ‘Dan Dare – Pilot of the Future’, created by the masterly Frank Hampson and set in the far-future world of 1995. Remember, this was only five years after the War, we all wanted to fly Spitfires and Hurricanes, and it seemed perfectly reasonable that Britain would go on to rule the spaceways and the RAF would morph into Space Fleet Command. So boys – and their fathers – loved the adventures of Colonel Dare and his batman Digby, the fat fool from Wigan who provided comedy relief, and their fellow officers, complete with pipes, flying jackets and handlebar moustaches!
Pipes, cigarettes, and flying jackets!
“One million copies of the first issue were printed – and they promptly sold out! Looking back, it was an incredible gamble for the publishers, Hulton Press, a relatively small operation with no experience with boys’ comics; the failure of Eagle would have wiped them out. As it was, the paper settled down to a long-time weekly circulation of 750,000, still huge numbers even by American standards. For a time ‘Dan Dare’ was the hottest brand around, merchandised to sell soap, toothpaste, bedtime drinks, and over 200 licences for games and toys. Inevitably, the success of The Eagle spawned lots of competitors. ”
First issue was a sell-out
For more on the origins of ‘Dan Dare’ see my ‘Stargazing’ column on the trufen.net website;
www.dandare.org/dan/dan.htm
However, John Jarrold kept on about the Lion, a competing title:
“I remember a giant amoeba monster in ‘Captain Condor’, Rog. It had bad skin and divided into separate parts at every opportunity, not surprisingly…”
‘Huh’, I said, recalling the first issue somewhat dismissively …
“Didn't Captain Condor start by escaping from a prison colony on Titan along with various other rebels against the Evil System? I bought the first issue of Lion when it came out but decided it was a poor copy of the Eagle, so only saw occasional issues after that.”
A poor copy of the Eagle
Dave Wood quickly put me right!
“Captain Condor does have a following! And later, Keith Watson (who left Eagle somewhat precipitously) was not a bad artist. Try these sites:”
members.aol.com /nicholashl/watson/condor/condor.htm
“Oh, all right then,” I said, re-awakening long-suppressed memories:
“I suppose Lion was the first and most successful of the many challengers to Eagle. It appeared in February 1952, and the similarities were obvious, particularly with the front-cover strip ‘Outlaw in Space’ which featured a new hero, ‘Captain Condor,’ owing more than a little to the space adventures of ‘Dan Dare.’ But the artwork was crude, greatly inferior to that of Frank Hampson, and the publishers skimped on quality; Lion was normal comic size, poorly printed on newsprint with no interior colour. Still, the contents were in some ways more exciting, it was cheaper than Eagle and heavily promoted, and it was backed by the resources of one of the largest British publishing groups. So Lion thrived, and gradually its standard improved as Eagle started to become tired, until in May 1969 the beast finally swallowed the bird, a sad day in comic history.”
Keith Watson drew for the later years of Lion
Not content with that, Dave came back with the best site so far:
“Here’s one with Lion, Eagle, and ‘Space’ Kingley as well. It even has a section on Greg’s favourite, ‘Jet Ace’ Logan, flying spaceships for the RAF in 2056.”
Jet Ace Logan in action!
Now we were starting to get somewhere! I was enthusiastic:
”That's an excellent site, Dave! Somehow I missed ‘Jet Ace’ Logan at the time, but all my old favourites are here – Rick Random, good old ‘Space’ Kingley, and who would have believed it –‘Captain Valiant’, another hero from my youth. This one was an orthodox monthly comic book in strip-cartoon format in which Vic Valiant and his three buddies flew their one-man fighters against various enemies, in particular the invading 'Insectos' from the Blue Galaxy. The only thing missing from this site seems to be the Rocket comic, another poor copy of the Eagle, which ran to about two dozen issues around 1957-58. Remember that one, Dave?”
But before Dave could answer, Steve Green picked-up on my question, and introduced a minor mystery of his own about the Rocket:
“Any idea who published that? It's just that there was an early-1970s comic produced by Polystyle entitled Countdown, and I was puzzled even then to note that the copyright info listed it as Countdown and Rocket, indicating the former had absorbed the latter (a common occurrence amongst the UK weeklies), only I'd never heard of Rocket. There was a small rocket image next to the Countdown logo, but no mention anywhere else as I recall. Maybe it was a way of retaining ownership of the name? I’ve found a website with a partial guide to British comics and Rocket is listed, but no info is given on ownership, publication dates, and so on.” www.britishcomics.com/comics.htm
Actually, Rocket was on that site and I just hadn’t spotted it, but in the meantime Greg waved his magic wand, and behold!
“Here’s something on the Rocket from the British Library periodicals catalogue, a useful resource at: www.bl.uk/catalogues/newspapers/welcome.asp
Numbers: 1-32; Dates: 21 April - 24 Nov.1956 (Incorporated with Express Weekly).
Also this, from an archived eBay sales listing:-
Rocket comic #11, 1956. Last price: £10.02
‘With the tremendous success of the Eagle comic in the 1950s, News of the World publications brought out the Rocket comic, hoping to grab a share of the market; but although published in high-quality format and having the high-profile Douglas Bader as the editor, ‘Captain Falcon’ was no match for ‘Dan Dare’ and the comic folded after only 32 issues. It is now very rare.’
“Amazing! And just to think that a few hours ago we'd never heard of it, and now we know all this. Isn't the web a fantastic thing? It'll be a sad day when it is taken away from us.”
I was a bit surprised by the dating:
“Thanks for the information, Greg. I'd looked on a few sites but had only gone about as far as Steve – that is, found some listings but no real information. I remember Rocket very well, but am surprised about the dating – April 1956 – because I'd mentally worked backwards and thought it was a bit later than that.
“At the time I had high hopes for Rocket. It was indeed another Eagle imitator, printed at a similar large-size with semi-gloss paper and some full-colour artwork. But while ‘Dan Dare’ occupied only the first two pages of Eagle (the rest being full of boring stuff like ‘PC 49’ and ‘The Adventures of Harris Tweed’), this new paper was devoted to space adventures throughout! It promised a lot, but didn’t really deliver. The comic needed a strong front-page lead, an iconic character, and one was duly manufactured to fit the bill. The result was ‘Captain Falcon,’ which started promisingly enough with an adventure on the Moon, but it quickly became clear – even to a 12-year-old – that something wasn’t right! The artwork was lacking in content, and so was the storyline. I remember there were lots of different types of ray-guns, firing paralysing rays and so on, and one particularly ingenious device which created rings of force around the victim. But the creator of the strip was probably greatly relieved when the comic ceased publication before he had to bring it to some sort of a conclusion!
“More interesting was an interior text-serial called ‘The Jungle of Space’ by Conrad Frost (a feature editor at Kemsley Press in the 50s with several books and comic strip story-lines to his name, including many of the ‘Rick Random’ adventures). It began in the ‘Mountains of the Moon’ in Africa and introduced an alien humanoid race called the ‘Teagues’ (which name provoked some mirth in Birmingham circles a few years later) before going on to Mars, which had a major problem with asteroid bombardment (accidentally prophetic, that bit). Otherwise, the comic was a hodgepodge of features taken from all over the place, probably mostly from American newspapers (the name ‘Brick Bradford’ seems to ring a bell). None of them were very good, and despite the supposed editorial presence of Battle-of-Britain hero Douglas Bader, the comic suffered from not having any real 'heart', as opposed to the Eagle, where Frank Hampson & co. believed passionately in what they were doing. As a result, Rocket failed to win a significant audience and was merged into Junior Express after little more than six months. Perhaps the timing was wrong – too late to be a real threat to the well-established Eagle and Lion, and just too early to cash-in on the interest aroused after Sputnik in 1957 and the Space-Race era. I suppose it is possible that faint echoes of the title might have continued to exist into the early seventies, as Steve Green suggested earlier.”
I had high hopes for the Rocket
Ted White picked up on my dim memories:
“’Brick Bradford’ was an American newspaper strip (daily black-&-white, Sunday colour) that occasionally appeared in American comic books like Famous Funnies which reprinted newspaper strips (mostly the Sunday pages). He was a time-traveller whose vehicle was a "time top" which apparently *spun* its way through time. The art was highly stylized, but (I thought then) rather handsome.”
Jim Linwood did a further trawl which produced some illustrations:
“A couple of links here, with some detailed information on Rocket. I see the first issue had a story by British SF writer Bill Temple (‘St. Rockets’)”:
Gallery Normal - Comics UK
Dave Wood finally answered my earlier question, ‘did he remember Rocket?’
“No, maybe because I was doing my National Service around that time. However, attached is a little something YOU may remember.”
Typical space story in the Hotspur
I took a look at Dave’s attachment.
“Ah, good old Hotspur! This was one of my favourites among the earlier breed of boys papers which pre-dated Eagle. It was regular comic size, 8½” x 12”, and one of the many titles published by the D.C. Thomson Company in Dundee, along with venerable Dandy & Beano for younger readers. This is an issue from just before my time (1947) but it shows the sort of ‘space’ story that made the comics so attractive to me and my friends.”
Rog Peyton vaguely recalls the various other offerings from the same publisher:
“As I remember it, there were four comics in the same stable, coming out on a fortnightly basis (two in one week, the other two in the next) – Rover, Adventure, Wizard, and Hotspur. All were text rather than strips. I only took them for a short time around 1950-52. I remember absolutely nothing about the contents. Presumably they all eventually became one, and then died.”
By now Greg’s interest was aroused:
“There's something maddening about this but I can't prove it either way. WHEN exactly did The Wizard, a comic with pre-war (gosh, I guess we have to specifically say pre-WW2 now) origins actually cease? I was never a Wizard reader, only seeing the occasional issue, but I feel sure it either ceased or was incorporated into something else by 1960. Certainly Rover (or more correctly Rover and Adventure, a slightly unusual British weekly in that it was almost all text- based) was being published in the early 60s and carried on for, well, I forget now even though I spent far too long researching this last night. I still couldn't find a proper bibliography for The Wizard – incredibly, it seems not to be held at the British Library, even!
”I used to get as many comics as I could as a child – bought almost nothing else for years. It pains me deeply that I followed the usual foolishness of dumping them in the pursuit of giving up childish things. WHY are children allowed to take such idiotic actions? Mind you, I also gave away lots of comics to school friends who seemed less able than I to get them –I still regret (deeply) giving away a long run of Comet (with the fabulous ‘Jet-Ace Logan’ strip) to a horrible little oik called Phillip Davies who I am sure never appreciated them. That was forty years ago and I still feel unhappy about it - the momentary joy of sharing and giving is LONG past.”
Well, I couldn’t let that go by without contributing, could I?
“Of course, I’m much older than you, Greg, so can remember a bit further back. By 1951 and age eight I was reading all four of the D. C. Thomson 'big boys' comics every week. Wizard and Adventure came out on Tuesdays, Rover & Hotspur on Thursdays. They had respectable pedigrees, Wizard going back to 1922 (I had some back-issues from 1943) and the others nearly as far. They were all solid text with a standard-size introductory illustration to each story, and with fairly simple covers. Rover tended to have rows of badges from football clubs, or solemn little illustrations of how to be a spin-bowler and other sporting tips. Hotspur had one large picture, I think, ditto Wizard, and in my time only Adventure had a 2-page comic-strip on front and inside covers. (One story was about finding an unknown civilisation of pygmies deep in the African jungle which had independently advanced as far as being able to build jet planes. Even then I thought this was a bit unlikely).
”Rover was noted for ‘I Flew With Braddock’, the exploits of a bomber pilot who flew Wellington and Lancaster bombers over the Ruhr, and Alf Tupper, the 'Tough of the Track' who lived under a railway arch, did welding for a living, ate fish-&-chips, yet beat everyone else at the athletics track. Wizard had the ‘Amazing Wilson’, who ran in woollen long-johns, went in for memory-training with mental exercises, and who was the first person to run a three-minute mile. He was at least seventy years old and one of his longevity tricks was to achieve ‘total rest’ by relaxing every muscle in his body – though presumably not including his sphincters. Hotspur had regulars like ‘Morgan the Mighty’ (a sort of Tarzan-clone), 'It Takes Guts to be a Goalie', and the ‘Red Circle’ stories about a boarding school. No illustrations were signed, no authors were credited for any of the stories and it would be fascinating to know who actually wrote them.
”These comics all contained a lot of reading material – I’m checking a copy of Rover here, and in a 10-page issue (20-sides) I estimate there are at least 15,000 words. (Four columns of type per page, each at an incredible 93 lines high, set in about 6-point type, with six words per line, on average. That's about 2200 words per page, times ten, less an allowance for illustrations and covers and the occasional advertisement). Not bad value for threepence!
”And the most important thing for me was that most issues of Rover (sometimes Wizard and Hotspur, too), contained a 'juvenile' science fiction serial; the one I remember best is 'Return from Mars', in which Britain was invaded in 1953 by ‘Sarria’ (almost an anagram for ‘Russia’, you’ll note). However, a small party managed to hold out long enough to build spaceships, escape to Mars and found a colony. Two hundred years later they have returned, to liberate the old country and experience for themselves that mystical ancient drink, ‘tea’. Gripping stuff!
”I also remember a later, slightly less dramatic story which was set in the relatively far future, when the Sun has expanded and scorched the inner planets. Mankind has fled to 'Uto' in the outer Solar System, but unfortunately has omitted to take all the creepy-crawlies upon which life ultimately depends. So an expedition has been mounted to the sun-blasted Earth, to look under rocks for centipedes and similar creatures, and in the process has various adventures among the ruins. It was quite an advanced idea for the times. All this was formative material for a schoolboy who already knew what he liked, but hadn't yet found adult science fiction. Like Greg, I wish I'd kept my collection but it evaporated mysteriously when my back was turned.”
Serial in Rover, March 1953
Something about all this puzzled Ted White:
“It strikes me as strange to describe a publication as a ‘comic’ and then state it was ‘text rather than strips.’ Where's the comics, then?”
Bill Burns explained:
“A British boys' ‘comic’ of the 1940s and 50s was not ‘the comics’, nor was it much like an American ‘comic book’.
”According to the Oxford English Dictionary (unabridged), in the singular form ‘comic’ is short for ‘comic paper: A children's paper’. No specific type of content is described, and in contrast to the American ‘comic book’ the British boys' comics of our childhood, Wizard, Rover,
Adventure, etc. were mostly text adventure stories with illustrations, rather like an adult fiction magazine in form, but printed on newsprint. (The OED also distinguishes the plural use, ‘comics’, as ‘the comic strips in a newspaper, etc’) A 1910 cite from H.G. Wells gives the ancestry of the boys' comic:
"’1910 H. G. Wells Mr. Polly i. 20: One of those inspiring weeklies that dull people used to call ‘penny dreadfuls’, admirable weeklies crammed with imagination that the cheap boys' ‘comics’ of today have replaced.’
“The British ‘penny-dreadful’ of that time, according to Wikipedia, is what in the USA was called a ‘dime novel’: Both of these often involved melodramatic tales of vice and virtue in conflict, often with strong elements of horror and cruelty. Their main audience consisted of young and/or unsophisticated readers, primarily male. With the racy content toned down somewhat for boys in the 1940s and 50s, that still pretty well describes many of the comics with which we grew up. Here’s a site Rich Coad found which illustrates this ancestry:”
www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/home.html
“That’s right,” agreed Jim Linwood:
“When I had a paper round the newsagent used to call anything aimed at children *comics* and adult's weekly magazines *books*. I think this was universal jargon throughout the trade in England. The comics aimed at boys always seemed to have *sister* magazines. The Eagle had Girl, but I can't recall the others. The girl's comics all had twee titles like Bunty, Jackie, Judy and Romeo. Marion claims they were all sexist crap, preparing girls to be obedient girlfriends and wives – her brothers were too young for the Eagle so she cycled to the library for her weekly date with Dan Dare. Frank Richards created an alternate female ‘Greyfriars’ world with the likes of ‘Bessie Bunter’ – the stories were much the same though.
”I never took to the text-only magazines, mainly because I was reading proper books from the library as well as the SF pulps and digests. Even in the 50s, their ‘Roy of the Rovers’-type stories seemed terribly dated. I think Michael Palin and Terry Jones caught their spirit perfectly in their Ripping Yarns. You can refresh your memory here.”
www.26pigs.com/comics.html#w
I took a quick look at the 26pigs site and noticed a detail seemed wrong:
“Just a quickie, Jim; I was worried that my memory might be incorrect, since both Rog and the website said that Rover, etc, were bi-weekly. However, I've checked the short run of Rovers in my possession – from 1953 – and it was definitely weekly at that time, as presumably were the other titles. That would have been about 60,000 words per week, besides all the other things like library books we were getting through – not bad for kids of ten or eleven!”
Jim added:
“I think it was during the war and immediately afterwards that Rover, Hotspur, Dandy, Beano etc. were published on alternate weeks because of paper shortages.”
Then Sandra Bond came in on Jim’s previous comments about the girls’ comics:
“Frank Richards only wrote the first half-dozen or so ‘Bessie Bunter’ stories. The editors soon came to the conclusion that a female version of ‘Billy Bunter’ did not appeal to girl readers the way Billy did to the boys – so the stories were farmed out to other hands who toned her down and made her simply a plump and rather dim but well-meaning girl instead of the original rapacious gannet in her brother's image.”
Andy Sawyer, a fellow ex-librarian, replied to Greg’s earlier query on Wizard, etc:
“Someone's almost certainly posted this but there's a lot of information at this site:
This makes me want to KILL to get my collection back. I mean look at these titles;
THE CLUTCHING TERROR The search for the Tablets of Ziss.
THE VENGEANCE OF JUBAL SMITH Western adventure.
THE VULTURE WITH THREE HEADS Bob Laxton’s search for explorer Casper Strang.
THE FIGHTS OF THE FIVE TON GHOST! War adventure with Jum the Giant elephant.
THE BLACK DEATH Plague threatens Earth.
THE FLIPPER MERCHANT DEALS IN DANGER! Story of Todd Hunter frogman.
THE SINISTER SECRET OF THE SILVER SPURS Western adventure.
CAPTAIN STORM 18th Century adventure.
THE LONG, TOUGH FIGHT TO FLY! War story.
BEWARE WHERE THE SKY IS GREEN British athletes in British Honduras.
THE WINGED DAGGER Adventure’s S.A.S. action in the Aegean Sea 1942.
MYSTERY MAN OF THE HAUNTED SWAMP Jeff Willard’s adventure’s in Australia.
“Isn't that poetry in every line? Don't you just love the exclamation marks!
”I'm surprised you can't find locations for these comic collections, but not too surprised as typically they're the sort of things that no institutions think to take. The national Library of Scotland holds Rover and Adventure and Rover and Wizard for sure (they were published in Dundee, after all), but I can't find any details so far of whether these are anything like complete runs. I thought the Victoria & Albert comic collection would have them, but I guess they're technically "story papers" rather than comics.
”I suppose my family had more excuse than most in ditching my collection as we moved from country to country every few years. And it was bloody hard to get hold of them sometimes: months would go by before a new consignment would arrive, which meant keeping up with serials was damn hard. But I must have read them regularly up to 1963, and by the time I got into thinking about tracking them down everyone else was doing the same, so I haven't actually seen any of then for years.”
And Dave Wood caught me out on a detail:
"Well, just to put the record straight on one thing (from a boy a bit older than you, Peter). The Wizard carried a cartoon strip almost from its very first issue. Every issue a task was set for the characters in the strip. The strip was composed of two small panels followed by one large panel. The two small panels set up the story for the issue and the large panel showed the result. The strip itself would not pass muster in today's clime. Suffice to say it featured two shipwrecked sailors (one fat, one thin) who run the local natives (black curly hair, bones through the nose, etc, etc), and make them build all sorts of weird and wonderful contraptions. Hotspur used to feature lots of public school stories (‘Smith of the Lower Third’, etc) and cricket. Rover was indeed the football-orientated one, while the contents of Adventure were as its title suggested.
“You also said that the illustrations in Rover and its stable-mates were unsigned, and the reason for that is because publishers preferred to treat their artists as interchangeable cogs, who could never be permitted to assume greater importance than the characters whose exploits they portrayed, week in week out. However, one exception to the rule was Dudley D. Watkins, the master – inventor of ‘Desperate Dan’ and all the rest of the early Dandy & Beano crew. His first signed drawing appeared on the title page of ‘The Broons’ annual published on 17 November 1939, and was signed simply 'WATTY.' From 1946 onwards his full name appeared in neatly-lettered block capitals at the foot of thousands of impeccably-drawn pages, in billions of printed impressions. It was a privilege which made him undoubtedly the best known British comic artist of his time, and perhaps of all time; it was also a privilege richly deserved. One of his ‘fantasy’ creations was ‘Morgyn the Mighty,’ and he was also responsible for a very short-lived attempt to produce hard-cover Classics Illustrated for D. C. Thomson. Here’s a link to Watkins:”
Artwork by Dudley Watkins
Now John Jarrold was all fired-up:
“Other peoples’ remembrances drive my own memories of these comics, of Thursday mornings when I woke up at the age of seven, eight or nine, bursting with anticipation because that was the day when seven comics would be waiting for me when I got home from school. And of reading a hardback book about Matt Braddock, V.C. (I FLEW WITH BRADDOCK), allegedly written by his navigator, George Bourne, as were all the stories. I reckon I read that about 1960, having found it in my local children’s’ library at Crofton Park in South London.”
Which reminded me of my own little wheeze:
“Back in the early fifties I used to ambush the paper-boy (a much older lad of twelve or thirteen) when he made his rounds to deliver the comics on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, after he'd finished school. I knew his route, so would go back a couple of roads to lie in wait, and demand my comics when he came past, thus getting them at least an hour earlier than if I'd waited for the proper delivery! He must have hated me very much.”
Dave yet again….
"There was also Champion, which did a lot of Lost World, Boxing and Cycling. Apart from ballast imports from the North American continent and lots of here-today gone-tomorrow cheap and nasty rags, the only strip material for the older child was to be found probably in Film Fun and Radio Fun. Until Eagle ... And don't forget to reread the classic fifties book on the subject: E. S. Turner's BOYS WILL BE BOYS."
The classic book on the subject
Greg was enthusiastic:
“Now that’s a book! A real classic, though I’d recommend anything by E. S. Turner – his ABC OF NOSTALGIA (published 1984) is a particular favourite (Oh crikey, what am I saying about myself...). Mind you, BOYS WILL BE BOYS was published in 1948, so the material covered rather predates much of what we're talking about, though could fill in a few details. Worth getting anyway for the section on Spring-Heeled Jack, which impelled me to get the book SPRING-HEELED JACK by Peter Haining, which is longer but alas, rather less stimulating than Turner's original little essay.
”I don't know whether there are any comics from the 1950s I'd actually pay good money for now unless I had more cash than I knew what to do with. I like Eagle, but enough to pay several pounds an issue for? Maybe not. Of course, if I found that fabulous shop with boxes of Eagle, Rover, Sun and so on at 10p each I'd be rushing to the cash-point instantly. Oh I dunno, if I could get all the issues of Comet with the Jet-Ace Logan strip in it (1956-59) I'd probably start trying to raise the money, but perhaps fortunately that's a really unlikely option; it was not a particularly popular or well-remembered comic, and I guess very few long runs still exist.”
Still, I’ve found some of these things do sometimes appear:
“Rover, Wizard and the others do come up on eBay, and I've bought some copies for around £2.00 each, which I don’t think is unreasonable. I’ve also managed to pick up all three of the ‘Space’ Kingley books without spending a great deal of money.”
Greg again:
“You know, until we started all this I’d never even heard of Space Kingley.”
Which was my cue for another action re-play:
“Ah, Greg, if Rocket was a comic without a strong lead character, then ‘Space’ Kingley was a lead character without a comic. If only the two could have come together! Bizarrely, though, his only appearance was in three “Annuals” created for the Christmas trade, all undated, but from an inscription in one of those in my possession it appears they came out in 1954, 1955 and 1956.
The "Comet" class ships look good!
“My theory is that one of the smaller London publishers (Sampson, Low, Marston) must have noted the success of ‘Dan Dare’, the weekly Eagle and its spin-off compilation volumes, and decided they wanted some of that business. But they realised it was far easier to publish a single ‘annual’ than to produce a new weekly comic, and they probably figured that the purchasers – moms and dads, aunts and uncles – wouldn’t know the difference anyway! We may never know who actually created the character of Robert ‘Space’ Kingly but I imagine the publishers simply looked for an available writer and a commercial illustrator, and told them to get on with it. And they so nearly got it right! The books are in text form with lavish illustrations, and the artist for all three volumes was R.W. Jobson, whose work is superb, especially in his space scenes which have an almost photographic quality. His ‘Comet’ class of spaceships look good and have apparently unlimited flight capacity, (although they do have a few design faults – while proof against high vacuum, they fill with water when, in book three, the pilot inadvertently touches-down in the sea!)
“But the writers – different each time – let Jobson down badly. In the first volume we get the story of our hero’s early life and how he joined the ‘Interplanetary Rangers.’ We meet his sidekick, a useless Digby-clone named ‘Shorty’ Rowe, and have various unlikely adventures in space and under the ocean. In the second book there is a more consistent enemy in the evil ruler of an alien planet, Lemas, which has plunged into our Solar System, and echoes of ‘The Mekon’ and his Treens are never far from the surface. The last volume is the most ambitious, where ‘Space’ commands an expedition to the planetary system of a passing star. All of the stories have occasional flashes of imagination, but sadly, are full of the most elementary errors and absurdities which were obvious even to a twelve-year-old.”
Jim Linwood up-dated Greg’s earlier remark:
Expedition to another star
“Thanks for reminding me of E.S. Turner's BOYS WILL BE BOYS. I first came across it as a radio programme in the 50s and got the book out of the library. The 1948 edition ranged from the penny-dreadfuls to ‘Dick Barton’ while the 1975 edition covers Eagle, Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk. I have the 1976 Penguin edition and on the final page Turner wonders ‘Will early copies of Eagle ever become collectors’ items? Will old men gather in the chimney corner to listen to recordings of ‘Dick Barton?’ Bookfinder gives £3 as the approximate going price for a copy of the Penguin edition.”
'Thanks, Jim,' I said, immediately purchasing a copy....
"...which put me right with an entertaining chapter on the 'Dundee School' - apparently, Adventure was the first title from D.C. Thomson in 1921, followed by Wizard & Rover in 1922, then something called Skipper in 1930 and finally Hotspur in 1933. This 'Big Five' proceeded to dominate the world of boys' comics for the next generation - Wizard in particular came top in a survey of reading habits of teenage boys, and although Skipper was killed-off in 1940 due to paper shortages, the other four continued well into the Sixties."
“Here’s another good site”, said the indefatigable Dave Wood:
“This one reviews the career of the great British illustrator Denis McLoughlin, who produced hundreds of dust-jackets and paperback covers, as well as a great many British comic books.” en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_McLoughlin
The great Denis McLoughlin
Robert Lichtman agreed:
“Yes, McLoughlin is wonderful. I have some British hardcover and paperback editions of Fredric Brown books (of which I also the American editions) *just for* the McLoughlin covers.
I also have Francis Hertzberg's DENIS McLOUGHLIN – THE MASTER OF LIGHT & SHADE, published in 1995 by Gryphon Books. They offer copies of the trade paperback edition for $20 at their Website ( www.gryphonbooks.com and then search their inventory for "mcloughlin"). It's an excellent reference, although alas there aren't enough *colour* McLoughlin illustrations inside (lots of black-&-white ones, though).”
Steve Green made a good point:
“The weird thing is that the modern Viz regularly runs beautifully-drawn pastiches of these comics, yet I dare say 90% of its readership has never seen the original material (like the semi-regular ‘Black Bob’ spoof, ‘Black Bag’, featuring a resourceful bin liner).”
“Gosh,” said Dave, “that’s going back a bit!”
“Black Bob!!! I still have my early fifties ‘Black Bob’ annual!!!
PS: Black Bob was a dog, Ted.”
“Oh yes,” I agreed, “I remember it well!”
“And not just ANY old dog – Black Bob was a magnificent Border collie, who had three times as many brains as the silly old sheep farmer who owned him (Andrew Glenn, see how this stuff sticks in one's mind) who was forever getting into trouble with flooding rivers and so on. But wasn't ‘Bob’ actually a girl dog – or am I thinking of ‘Lassie’?”
Steve wasn’t having any of this nonsense!
"’Black Bob’ was the name of a fictitious Border Collie from Selkirk in Scotland. Black Bob originally appeared as a text story in The Dandy in issue 280, dated 25 November 1944. Following this he appeared as a picture strip in The Weekly News in 1946, which continued until 1967. Drawn by Jack Prout , the popular sheepdog appeared regularly in The Dandy from his 1944 debut until issue 2122, dated 24 July 1982 . Eight ‘Black Bob’ books were published at infrequent intervals from 1950 to 1965.”
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Bob )
That prompted a technical point from Dave Wood:
“The ‘Black Bob’ strip is typical of something on which nobody has commented, in the way that many British strips had a text passage under the pictures instead of the balloon method. Some even had both.”
To which Steve Green answered gently:
“First there was straight text, with an illustrated heading. Then, we had stories with accompanying illustrations. Next up were illustrations with accompanying text (in the case of the old "Rupert the Bear" strips, this took the form of verses). Finally, we get comics with voice balloons. A gentle evolution.”
One for the old-timers
Taking absolutely no notice, Dave spread the net a bit wider;
“Some publishers aimed at a higher market than the butcher's boy or the secondary school oik, such as magazines/comics like the ‘Greyfriars’ series (Magnet, Gem etc), Chums and Captain. They named the authors of all stories, so you will find many early exponents of British SF in their pages. And, for example, Captain carried stories by P. G. Wodehouse. (see attached).”
Which attachment caused much mirth to Michael Lowry:
“I notice the page titled ‘A Magazine for Boys and 'Old Boys'’, and the credit, ‘Edited by The Old Fag’. Ah, two lands divided by a common language indeed!”
By now there was no stopping Dave!
“Must stop looking in boxes! Ron Turner – anyone remember those Practical Mechanics covers he did in the late fifties and early sixties? And apart from all those ‘Vargo Statten’ covers, he also drew for comics such as Space Ace, and for the ‘Rick Random’ adventures.”
Making Rich Coad ask:
“I wonder how many young boys were inspired by Practical Mechanics to immediately start building a rocket-ship and satellite in the backyard out of Meccano, twine, and sticky tape?”
While I followed-up on Dave’s cue:
“Unfortunately, I think Ron Turner’s artwork for ‘Vargo Statten’ and the other Scion covers was awful, too exaggerated and garish, and I’m sure it added to the general distaste with which this stuff was received. However, I've recently acquired some issues of 'Rick Random' in the ‘Super Detective Library’ series from the 1950s. They’re only small-size picture-books in black & white, but Ron really was good in these.”
Causing him to do yet more exploring:
“To see more of Ron Turner’s work go to: www.bookpalace.com/UKComics/RonTurner/index.htm
And there’s a lot of other material in the gallery”:
www.bookpalace.com/UKComics/UKGeneral/gallerynews.htm
All of which made Rog Peyton stop and ask a question…
“Thanks for that Dave. I had a quick look at the main site and found the covers to all the old ‘Buck Jones’ and ‘Kit Carson’ comics I had when I was young. Looking at the list of artists involved. I saw the name Michael Moorcock! So was Mike an artist? But even more interesting for me was seeing the ‘Super-Detective’ titles. I used to have these and had completely forgotten them. I'm stunned as to the number of these that were science fiction. Did I read more SF in comic form than I realised, before being introduced to H G Wells in 1958? I thought I'd only read ‘Dan Dare’ and ‘Captain Condor’ but these covers....I MUST have read them! Do we know if there were any of 'our' guys writing them? Tubb? Bulmer? Bounds?”
To which I had part of an answer:
“Well, Rog, we know at least one SF author was involved, and that was Harry Harrison. He wrote a number of ‘Rick Random’ scripts for the ‘Super Detective Library’ series, a line of small-size (5¼”x 7”) 64-page strip-cartoon booklets which usually featured more orthodox detectives such as ‘The Saint’ and ‘Dick Barton.’ The publisher – Amalgamated Press – issued two titles each month, and almost from the beginning had sneaked-in various ‘space’-themed issues (they even had one titled, ‘The Man Who Owned the Moon’). In mid-1954 with Number 37 they introduced a space-age sleuth, chain-smoking Rick Random, ‘chief trouble-shooter for the Interplanetary Bureau of Investigation’ in the year 2043.
“The first few numbers followed the ‘detective’ brief fairly closely with self-contained stories such as ‘Crime rides the Spaceways’ and ‘Kidnappers from Space, but Rick’s role was a cross between James Bond and Flash Gordon, and the Solar System quickly proved too limited in scope. Very soon he was solving mysteries on an interstellar scale, and the series became almost the only one of these space-adventures to venture into ‘deep space’ with stories such as Harry Harrison’s ‘S.O.S. FROM SPACE.’
A script by Harry Harrison
Interior by Ron Turner
“Harry remembered, ‘I was in London in 1957 for the Worldcon. Met Sydney Jordan and wrote ‘Jeff Hawke’ for a while. He introduced me to Andy Vincent, editor at Fleetway, where ‘Rick Random’ was already going well. I started writing it in London, then from Italy, where I
went in 1958, and even worked on my last script in New York in early 1959. Then I sold ‘Deathworld’ to Astounding and could afford to drop comics. Which I did, even though Andy offered to almost double my rate. I should have said I was quitting earlier!’
“Black-and-white throughout, the series is noted for Ron Turner’s dramatic illustrations of the highly futuristic technology employed in the stories. At least 26 ‘Rick Random’ adventures were published in the six years to 1960, and he reappeared briefly in 1978 in a 2000 AD 'sci-fi special,' which reprinted ‘SOS from Space,’ and a new story ‘The Riddle of the Astral Assassin,’ written by Steve Moore, which appeared in May 1979. At least some of the stories have been reprinted in both Australia and Finland, and the Finnish fans have compiled an extensive web-site – unfortunately all in Finnish – though there is a useful checklist.”
www.saunalahti.fi/karielk/randlist.htm
And that was about it – a whistle-stop journey through the best of British comic-books of the fifties and early sixties. However, this little discussion has shown that just about all British fans of a certain age cut their teeth on comic-book adventures before graduating to adult science fiction. And, perhaps, we all remember those days so fondly because we’re all still boys at heart (even the girls, eh, Catherine!)
–Peter Weston
And I asked myself about the present. How wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.
-- Kurt Vonnegut
[The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. —Earl Kemp]
Ring Ring Goes the Bell
By John Nielsen Hall
The family home in Bexley, South East London circa 1964. From a dodgy scan of a transparency.
We lived on the most southeastern fringe of Greater London. When the family first moved down from the Midlands in 1957, it was still Kent. But Bexley and neighbouring Sidcup were dormitories. Every morning the Southern Region electric trains arrived one after the other to take the men (mostly) away to Charing Cross, Waterloo, London Bridge and Cannon Street. Cannon Street is where my Dad went. He worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, the public authority that ran the power stations. He worked in the huge black tower block that used to stand right by St Paul's Cathedral, going up and coming down on the same trains, with same neighbours most days. Mum stayed at home, and kept the house. Somewhere in the middle of the period I am recalling here she was pregnant with my youngest brother. Me and my “middle” brother went to different schools. This was a different Britain than the one we live in today. But then, everything was different from today.
Teenagers need Pop Music like ducks need water. All we had originally was the BBC Light Programme, and, at night, Radio Luxembourg fading in and out through the heterodyne whistles of the East German jamming stations. Even harder to hear were AFN in Cologne, or Manx Radio on the Isle of Man, the only legal opposition to the BBC's radio monopoly. I think I first heard Linda by Jan and Dean on Manx. It's lodged in my brain. Only after that did I hear the Four Seasons and then the Beach Boys. To me, they were all Californian (despite the New York/New Jersey origins of the Seasons which I didn't know about at the time). Somehow, I conceived of the idea that Los Angeles must be the greatest place on Earth. I didn't think of it as a place like home, only warmer, where kids Dads commuted by car instead of electric train, and their Moms did the same things, said the same things to their kids. I thought of big cars, big busted long haired girls on the beach and the radio playing rock and roll harmonies all day long. Then one day in about 1963, I was playing with my Dad's big tuner in his hi-fi set up, and I heard the sound of a ship's bell “Ding Ding”. It kept on doing that for a few minutes, then a voice “This is Radio Caroline on 199 metres medium wave, broadcasting from the North Sea,” followed by the Fourmost record “Caroline”. I thought that indeed, there must be a God.
The author aged about 14. Even then, too vain to wear his glasses.
Real pirate radio was going on from ships and off-shore forts. It wasn't long before me and my mates were reckless enough to try it from back gardens and isolated woods. We had a number of different stations, all on the old Medium Wave (like everywhere else, we now call it AM) using valve Transmitters built after hours in the school physics lab, with the encouragement of the teacher in charge, he being blissfully unaware of the purposes we had in mind. He went home at night, lit his pipe and listened to The Third Programme.
Schedules for our programmes were nonexistent, though we tried to keep to them. The reason for that was that we kept moving the transmitters around, and they didn't like it. Any transmission was usually preceded by a period of repairs and testing. These must have been the only stations where the audience had to listen to a given frequency for an hour before they heard anything but static. As far as possible the preferred method of programming was to warm the transmitter up, then set the tape going and then leave it.
That way, it was reasoned, if the big bad men from the Post Office turned up, they would only find the gear not us. The Post Office, in those days, was the regulator of the airwaves. It issued licences to broadcasters (except it didn't) public bodies and Radio Hams, dictated what frequencies could be used, and which could not (most of them) and policed the whole thing, with authority to prosecute offenders in Magistrates courts.
We did rather live in fear of the Post Office, whose powers loomed large when we considered what naughty boys we were.
JDT in his pomp. This photo was reunited with its subject by Greg Pickersgill.
But our egos wouldn't let us not do live gigs, and these were usually on a Saturday night and became the focus of a party. I was called JDT (which originally stood for John De
Troit—geddit?) and my rival and co-presenter called himself Alexander The Great. My tastes had now broadened to include American acts that had appeared on my radar like The Byrds and The Mamas and Papas but I also specialised in obscure Surf records (I had everything Jan and Dean ever made, was the only person I knew who had even heard of Ronnie and The Daytonas, or The Trashmen), sometimes stuff like Sky Saxon and the Seeds Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels or The Kingsmen—all American white boy rock. I cultivated a faux-American accent, reminiscent of famous wrestling commentator, Kent Walton, who had once been a DJ. Alex played Motown, Soul and early Ska. Radio Pacific was one hot radio station—if you could ever hear it—and our Saturday night live shows played record after record, interspersed with shouted claims of excellence for on the one hand The Beach Boys, and on the other, The Miracles, “Bust Out” by The Busters, followed by “Phoenix City” by Roland Alphonse.
One Sunday morning after one of these nights, I encountered my Dad in the back garden who fixed me with a grim eye, and said something like"Was that you I heard on the radio last night?”
He would have made a good lawyer, my Dad. He liked asking questions he already knew the answer to. I mumbled something like"Might have been.”
All he said was “I don't want any police at the door.” But later he told my Mum that he thought it was pretty good. Sundays were an interval of spontaneousness in the regular uniformity of the week. The family ate Sunday lunch, Roast Lamb or Roast Beef with boiled vegetables (very boiled after my Mum had been at them) and roast potatoes, the Light programme on the radio, Two Way Family Favourites (a record request show the BBC mounted with the Forces Broadcasting Network, where families and servicemen chiefly in Germany, but also in farther flung places wrote in with sentimental messages of hope for a rapid homecoming. Records could be anything from classical pieces, thru big band and swing, to rock and roll), followed by classic British comedy on the wireless: Round The Horne or The Navy Lark.
But Monday would come and then it was back to the routine. Dad standing on the platform waiting for the 8.11 to Cannon Street, me on my bike, labouring over the hill to school in Sidcup. School had been a bit of a nightmare for me before this, largely because although it was a state secondary-modern school (Failed your 11+? Bad Boy, go to the bottom of the heap) the headmaster had delusions of it being Harrow, and there were prefects and houses and fol-de-rol of all kinds, and the end result was the only rules that counted were the rules of the cane, slipper or fist.
And it was all boys, too. It was not an ideal environment for a weedy short sighted loud mouth—which is what I was. Bullying was a way of life. But I was, at least, “aware"—I knew that I was stuck with the place and I had to make the best of it. So very early on, I started fighting back. After the first few incidents, I decided who it was I was going to whack, and I just walked right up to him in a very non-threatening way and belted him in the mouth, without warning or preamble. Its not that I was very strong or possessed any unknown skill (this was before we knew about Martial Arts), so I certainly came off worst in the immediate aftermath. But after that, I would be very impassive if my books were nicked and then passed around from person to person, or my knickers disappeared from the P.E. changing room, only to reappear at Maths later—and then I would lash out at one or other of those I deemed responsible without warning. This sheer unpredictability of my behaviour gained me a respect that I had previously lacked, so after a while, I began to be accepted and/or tolerated.
Of course, the UK received wisdom in the present enlightened times is that schools do not tolerate fighting or bullying. If the headlines as I write this are any guide, then all that's happened is that the problem has moved outside the school gates. Back then it was not just other kids you had to worry about, the teachers could be almost as bad. They could prosecute a vendetta against you, if you got on their wrong side.
There was a teacher called Mr Downe who rode a little French motorcycle around—we called these things mopeds. However to ride it in the uncertainties of the British climate, he used to wear an enormous heavy rubberised mac that came down to his shoes, the whole topped off with goggles and a helmet not totally unlike an inverted flowerpot. Since the top speed of a moped might be thirty miles an hour on a good day downhill with a following wind, we boys thought this sartorial requirement a bit ludicrous. On one of the pre-recorded shows JDT made some crack about “Mr Downe leaving the school gates” accompanied by a dub of the Thunderbirds theme. This was quite possibly the funniest thing I ever essayed. Most of the school heard it, and every time the bloke appeared on his moped or off it, pupils would unaccountably start whistling that famous march, and bursting into barely repressed giggle fits.
Somehow he came to learn I was at the bottom of it, and then he began a campaign of victimisation. For example, he would ask me to read Juliet when we did Romeo and Juliet in class, when normally he would not ask me to read since I was ahead of the class (maybe even the school) when it came to Shakespeare, solely so that he could pull faces and make cheap witticisms at my passion for Romeo, and thereby attempt to put a question mark over my sexuality. “Queers” were not allowed at my school. They were not allowed in the first place because at that time they were still illegal, but also because the rest of the school, supposedly straight uncomplicated heterosexuals throughout knew what was decent, and queers were not decent. Fortunately, he didn't last long in the job. He left and began teaching at the school my brother was at. He then carried on in the same way with my brother, as he was dogged by the Thunderbirds theme at that school, as well.
I could practice my sarcasm on someone like Mr Downe, and if I was moved to it, defy or ignore any teacher, but later a posse of prefects would round me up and I would be delivered to the headmaster for a whack with a cane on the hand. There was a system called “the complaints book” where a teacher could order you out of class, tell you to fetch the “complaints book" from the school secretary. You brought it back, and he would usually offer you the option of bending over in front of the whole class and getting some whacks from a “slipper” (gym shoe—plimsoll) on the bum, or him writing in it and you taking it back. He offered you that, because the next day at Assembly, boys names appearing in the complaints book would be read out and they would have to line up outside the Headmasters office for the aforesaid caning. In these circumstances I did my level best to appear to be completely insouciant about the whole process, and told the teacher “it's up to you, Sir” in as sarky and defiant a manner as I could muster. This sent most of them into paroxysms of red faced fury.
But later, I developed a characteristically idiosyncratic way of avoiding teachers whom I had irritated. There was a stream running through the school grounds, and if I had not done the homework, or knew the teacher was going to have a beef about something I had done, I just calmly chucked myself full length in it. Soaking wet through, I would claim to have fallen in, and ask to be sent home. Usually, I asked the school nurse, which poor woman was never in the job more than a few weeks, didn't know me from Adam, and said “yes of course”. Mind you my Mum had some views on it—she had to wash my clothes. That was a minor matter. I was rumbled on one occasion, (by Mr Downe's successor, an Irishman called Mahoney) and made to sit, in cold spring weather on a chair in the sun until I dried out. I did not dry out, I nearly froze to death, but I lived, and I wasn't in class either.
Being an all boys school, sex was a subject of much concern. It was a commonplace to hear some kid, even otherwise quite sensible ones, claim they had had sex with some girl or other. A series of playing fields and a golf course separated our school from the equivalent institution for girls. If a boy made a claim like this, he was expected to embellish it as much as possible with all the details—what did she like, did he suck her tits, did she let him put his dick in her mouth, what was her fanny like? The most remarkable tales then issued forth, and it would have appeared to an interested observer that Sidcup had the most anatomically curious teenagers in Britain. Plus, it went as an unquestioned holy truth that all boys in our school were so well endowed, they were desperately sought after by the girls in very school in South East London. One of us was, in fact, pretty well endowed, and used to hold viewing sessions in the changing rooms. When this was going on, there would be a huge crowd around the P.E. Block door, and a hushed silence for a few minutes, before someone would exclaim in disgust “Oh, roll it back up, for christ's sake”, so diminished was he by the sight of the elephant's trunk hanging halfway to his knee that this particular kid possessed.
I tried to steer a middle course in all this—I had actually had sex, of a sort, with a woman, but the truth was that the woman in question was a friend of my mother's, and hence of a similar age to my Mum, who had in circumstances having to do with me being soaked through again (albeit the weather was responsible, rather than my own perversity), undressed me and slyly teased me and allowed me to climax in about half a second over the enormous bosom she had exposed to my fevered gaze. (Nowadays, she would be branded a criminal and get sent down for umpty years, but I'm happy to report our secret is still intact and my Mum still gets a card from her every Xmas.) At that particular time therefore, I was not very interested in girls of my own age. I did change my mind, of course, but for the time being that experience, which occupied my sleeping and waking dreams, and which I longed to repeat, only increased my anxiety about what we would now call homophobia raging around the school.
This reached such a pitch that raiding parties toured the loos in the lunch periods. Cubicle doors were banged on, and if there was no reply, someone would jump up and peer over the top. Those found to be there for a call of nature only received a thumbs up and a quick apology. Those wanking were laughed at—set upon on their exit if, according to the observer, they had any Dirty Books on them, so that everyone could have a look. Anyone not on their own in there would be waited for by a large crowd until they had to come out, and then savagely beaten up. So as not to come under any suspicion myself, I am ashamed to report that I often led these sorties, entertaining the mob with patter as I jumped up to peer over the locked cubicle doors. In retrospect, I doubt that I knew what a “Queer”—a homosexual—actually was, or that on the mercifully rare occasions that we actually did discover two boys in a cubicle that they were doing what they were doing because they were actually gay by inclination, or out of sheer bloody desperation. But no punishment visited on any boy by the teachers or prefects was as severe as the going over any two boys got, if caught by me and the baying mob at my back. Plus, they never heard the end of it.
But all these things passed, as did school itself. I started my first job, as an apprentice electrician, and with money in my pocket got up to more Radio Fun. Another pioneering mate of mine built a big transmitter (output a whole 100 watts!) in an old Triumph Atlas
camper van, powered by a Honda generator. He and I built into the van a couple of Garrard decks (with auto-changers, because we couldn't get any others), a tape machine and, a super piece of American technology, a Radio Shack Eight Track recorder. All the station's jingles and idents were recorded onto this by the simple expedient of putting a mike up against the speaker of the tape deck, but it proved impossible to know what was cued up when you pressed the button. You could go “Okay the time now is..." and press the eight track's button hoping that you would get the nifty little sound we had for the clock ticking, and instead get a plug for a surf caravan in Cornwall.
If anyone was listening, I don't think they ever noticed. To fool the PO, we used to park the camper about three hundred yards from the foot of a TV mast in a thickly wooded area some miles away, the received wisdom being that they could not triangulate on a signal coming from a point that close to a big wattage output close by. I think that was more in the nature of a tale to comfort ourselves with than any kind of technical camouflage. We set up by parking the van, unfolding a big T dipole antenna and chucking it up the branches of an adjacent tree or two, taking the Honda generator out and away from the van, hooking it up, starting up the gen, press the big On switch in the lovingly crafted aluminium chassis of the Tx, wait five minutes to check all the valves were alight and giving off heat, then start the tape with our theme—the instrumental version of “I Feel Love Coming On" on the B side of the hit by Felice Taylor. The opening chords of “Nut Rocker” by B Bumble and The Stingers, being my theme, followed which in turn was followed by me yelling something like:
”Hipster Flipsters Bring Ya Sisters—Are We Gonna Party Tonight!” at the top of my voice, overloading the mike and then crashing in “Wipe Out” by the Surfaris or something like it.
Miraculously, I was never nicked for it. But some of my old school friends were, though we had left school by then. The last broadcast of Radio Pacific from a back garden in Sidcup High Street was interrupted by a bloke in flat cap with a badge from the Post Office. He took everybody's names and addresses, disconnected and confiscated all the gear and that was that. One of my mates, the engineer and transmitter builder, made an appearance before the beak, got fined £10 and had to pay the prosecutions costs—or his parents did.
He is now a senior official in Barclay's Bank, awaiting his early retirement. Richard, the engineer on Pacific, works in radio communications for London Underground. (One of the jingles went “Spinning Around—Deep Underground”). He makes enough that he can commute via the Eurostar from his home in Belgium. I often think of him looking at Kent speeding by on his journey into work and wondering if he remembers all those days. I went to Los Angeles eventually, and it quickly lost its aura of magnificence. My Dad died in 2003. It’s his Rover and his roses you can see in the picture of our home in Bexley. My Mum is still with us, in her late seventies, but as a family we are all scattered about the UK now.
John Nielsen Hall
The Labour Government of Harold Wilson notoriously passed the Marine Offences Act in 1967 and made it an offence to service or board the Pirate Ships from UK waters. Similar legislation in Holland eventually finished them all off. Commercial Broadcasting was not allowed in this country until 1972, but now we have so many radio stations (the BBC alone has six, and that's only the national ones) we can’t find anything to listen to, most of the time. In the house in the picture, my room was the one on the top. I could look out over Bexley and on a clear day see the Thames and I knew the Thames went out to sea and out there were the ships, and they played the music, to which I fantasised, about my Mum’s friend’s breasts (I did see them again, after a long while—but a similar thing happened as with Los Angeles), and my own dreams of being—who? Brian Wilson? Or John Nielsen Hall.
—-
Copyright © 2006 by John Nielsen Hall. All rights reserved.
Mere opinions, in fact, were as likely to govern people's actions as hard evidence, and were subject to sudden reversals as hard evidence could never be.
—Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos
[The following article was written in British English. Every effort has been made to retain this language intact and to not translate it into US English. —Earl Kemp]
Charles Platt Made Me Cum
By Graham Charnock
I was 21 when I had my first orgasm and it was all Charles Platt’s fault.
Well, we’ll come to that later (sorry, pun intended). I’ve already written for Earl about my gay sex life [“My Gay Life,” eI23, December 2005] but now I want to explore that even more forbidden realm of sex substitutes.
Let’s not beat about the bush (sorry). We’re talking Rockets. Huge tubular things standing erect.
I was obsessed with them from an early age, possibly even before I discovered science fiction.
I must admit I never could really get enough of rockets. I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I was seeking out second-hand magazines by cycling along the old Harrow Road to a Plus Books store near Ladbroke Grove, it was probably the issues of Galaxy and Analog and yeah, even Nebula, with big rockets on the cover that worked their strange attraction into impelling me to buy them. Does that make sense? Probably not. But it won’t get any better.
When I went to the national anal retentive book depository also known as the local public library, it was rockets I looked out for there also. There was little science fiction to be found amongst those volumes, curiously rebound in a kind of speckled blue-grey material I have never encountered since. But there was fortunately sufficient stuff on German rocketry, with black and white plates of V2s at Peenemunde.
I was excited by these but still not enough to have an orgasm. But then I was only sixteen at the time. I also discovered Tsiolkovsky but he was Russian and didn’t know shit all about designing phallic shapes. All his rockets were made of sticks tied together with string, it seemed to me.
Prior to 1968 there was a speculative market in ‘real science magazines’ predicting how the future colonization of the moon would happen, and I bought these up like chocolate, because the rockets they depicted were always sleek and steely dannish.
Little did we realize that such aerodynamics were not necessary and when the actual event happened in 1968 it would involve a craft that looked like two stick insects coupling.
Still the early Redstones were kind of cute, with their little tail fins, although, again, none of them ever got me off.
So obsessed with rocketry was I, that I even formed my own rocket club, which consisted just of me, drawing plans for rocket engines, which I eventually tried to make on the father’s huge metal turning lathe which he kept in the back shed. I succeeded in making a combustion chamber and a venturi nozzle, but then gave up when I realized there was no way I was going to get hold of a reasonable supply of liquid hydrogen.
Willy Ley either designed or drew rockets or made films about them, I can’t remember now. I just know that at the time I wasn’t getting my rockets off. I tried a more direct route to fake rocketry by constructing a six-foot-tall rocket in my garden consisting of tin cans soldered together. There is actually a photo of this, which I may or may not be able to find. I also bought Revell and Airfix plastic kits of rockets and stupidly constructed them rather than keep them untouched in their original boxes, when now they would have been worth a fortune. I also photographed myself with these but fortunately absolutely none of these photos survive.
And still I couldn’t come. What was I doing wrong? Well obviously I was eroticizing objects rather than women.
I saw the error of my ways and went for women in a big way. Let me rephrase that. What I did was cut out pictures of women in girdles, bras and other ancillary underwear, from innocent magazines and newspapers such as Titbits and News of the World, and stuck them in a scrapbook. One day my mother walked into my bedroom while I was doing this. She smiled and said something like ‘oh, pretty ladies’, but how could I possibly come over them after that?
When I was 21 all this changed. Essex House published a dirty Philip Jose Farmer novel where the characters actually fucked each other and yelled and screamed as they did so. This was something I had not come across before (sorry) in the works of Heinlein and Asimov. Reading it gave me a hard on, but that was all. Maybe it was the yelling and screaming that put me off, or the veiled references to Forest J. Ackerman.
Then I got hold of a copy of ‘The Gas’ by Charles Platt, with more endless fucking and sucking and this time I was obviously ready for it. One night, in bed, I put aside my copy of ‘Shoot at the Moon’ by William F. Temple which I had just finished reading, and reached out for Charles’ novel. After a few pages I noticed that not only my pyjamas but my bed was tented. Then I sensed a moistness on my pyjamas in the groinal area.
Yes it was my first spontaneous orgasm. Charles Platt had made me cum.
I think that one of the things parents have to do is to teach children hypocrisy, because that's how you survive—by being nice to people who are contemptible. So the kid coming into the world sees hypocrisy and wants to point it out. You're nice to this awful person? What you're doing is a crime, isn't it, Dad?
—Kurt Vonnegut, 10/99 Salon interview
Richard Lupoff’s Terrors
By Earl Kemp
I have always been a sucker for a good spook story. This goes way back to when I was a small child, playing outside late on hot summers evenings. In spite of the heat, there were times when we would build enormous bonfires on vacant lots and sit around them, trying to gross each other out with more repulsive ghost stories than anyone else could come up with. A year or so later the same thing happened around Cub Scout campout bonfires.
Richard Lupoff and I share a number of things in common, having acquired certain of our tastes from the same sources…comic books and radio plays and second-hand magazines…weird stuff…spooks and vampires and voodoos abounding throughout the pages of gloriously exciting pulp magazines like Weird Tales, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Famous Fantastic Mysteries, H.P. Lovecraft, H. Rider Haggard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, Arkham House, and horrors still completely unknown.
For me, reading Richard Lupoff’s Terrors was a good bit more like taking a joyride with a good friend through some of his most often fondled territories…the favorite nightmare journeys of his youth. Also, by the way, my own favorite nightmare journeys from the dim, distant past.
This collection of 16 of Lupoff’s short stories found origins in such well-remembered places as Strange Tales, Fantastic Stories, Amazing Stories, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and from elsewhere.
Terrors is complete with a fascinating Introduction by Fred Chappell and an Afterword by Lupoff sharing more of the secrets of his terrors.
Richard Lupoff and his Terrors (in the foreground) in Mission Hills, CA, March 26, 2006.
The first three stories in the volume, “The Crimson Wizard,” “The Crimson Wizard and the Jewels of Lemuria,” and “The Golden Saint Meets the Scorpion Queen” form a trilogy directly out of Lupoff’s past as a young boy who became a devoutly obsessed pulp magazine and comic book fanatic. There’s a lot of us out here and all around….
There are also parodies and satires of many all-time favorite mythical characters like Sherlock Holmes and H.P. Lovecraft…perhaps the most mythical of all. In other directions, Lupoff goes into outer space with terrors yet to come from the future.
Clearly Lupoff has reached the status of master craftsman; his stories carry the reader along with a casualness and certainty that is rare in today’s fiction. He deserves closer scrutiny and many more delicious-to-read tales yet to be told.
This has been my first encounter with an Elder Signs Press book and I was surprised at the quality of the production values and the readability of the physical book itself.
With any luck, Lupoff and Elder Signs will have a follow-up volume of more superb Richard Lupoff nightmares in the near future.
Writers get to treat their mental illnesses every day.
-—Kurt Vonnegut
by Harvey Hornwood
Harvey Hornwood
My first meeting with Maurice Girodias took place in 1968, shortly after he had emigrated to New York from Paris, where legal entanglements, a government even more repressive than those with which he had done constant battle for almost thirty years, and his own cavalier approach to the concepts of sound business practice had resulted in the bankruptcy of his famous company, the Olympia Press. Ever hopeful even in the face of disaster—a quality which some saw as blindness and others as vision—Girodias was then struggling to reestablish Olympia in New York City, and looking around for writers who would turn out the kind of “d.b.’s” (dirty books) which had always been Olympia's staple product—writers with an abundant sexual imagination and an acute shortage of money. I qualified on both counts, having written sex books for one or two of the fly-by-night smut companies that emerged from underground in the sixties, but having been far too lazy and unambitious to actually make a living at it.
I have been asked by the editor of this zine to specifically exclude Greenleaf from my statement that “most sex book publishers of that period” were habitually slow, if not delinquent, in paying their writers, since he claims that his company was a notable exception to this rule. In my limited experience with Greenleaf I did find this to be the case, so I am happy to make that concession.
—Harvey Hornwood, email, February 20, 2006
A friend who had written for Girodias in Paris had given him my name, and after he contacted me by letter I went to see him at what was then his combination apartment and office on Gramercy Park. My first impression on meeting him was of his surprisingly youthful appearance. He would then have been close to fifty, but seemed to me like a man in his mid-thirties—though his manner exuded what one of the writers quoted in Venus Bound, John de St Jorre’s book about Olympia, called a “weary charm” his romantic-sounding French accent somehow enhancing both the charm and the weariness. Having seen some of my writing, he agreed that I should do a book for Olympia, and on the spot, with an access of whimsy that was to become familiar to me, came up with one of his more fanciful pseudonyms—Dieter von Laundromat—a suggestion to which I politely demurred. He also asked me to “spice up” a manuscript by another writer by expanding or making up a few sex scenes, a common Girodias maneuver which sometimes surprised, not always happily, the original author when he perused the published version of his work.
I provided the sex scenes, and eventually the book (though the above-mentioned tendency to laziness and prevarication made the process longer than Girodias would have liked. “Where's that book of yours?” he wrote me at one point. “Deadline already dead.”) was published. I was busy (more or less) on a second one when Maurice, out of the blue, suddenly offered me an editorial job—without having the least notion as to whether I knew anything at all about editing, which is quite a different skill from writing.
Although I had, as it happened, previously worked as an editor, I initially turned down Maurice's offer, determined at that time finally to buckle down and make my living as a freelance writer. I soon realized, however, that this was a futile fantasy, and a few weeks later I called him back to ask whether the job was still open. Girodias said yes, expressed his happiness at my availability, and suggested that I start the following Monday.
What I did not know, however, and what Maurice, in his typically lackadaisical fashion, had evidently completely forgotten, was that he had meanwhile promised the job to someone else—a lively, slender, brown-haired English girl named Frances Green, who had been doing some free-lance work for him while employed as an editorial assistant at the magazine Library Journal. Happy to exchange this staid environment for the presumably more salubrious surroundings of Olympia, Frances had given her notice at the magazine and was all prepared to make the move, when she learned that the proffered position had been appropriated by another. I went to work completely unaware of all this, and wondering why this attractive and outgoing free-lancer, on her occasional visits to the office, seemed to be particularly cool toward me alone.
By the time I joined Olympia, Girodias had moved the office out of his apartment and into two floors of a building on nearby Irving Place. At that time the editorial department consisted of two women, highly disparate in style: Uta West, a neat, self confident, efficient blonde in her thirties who later wrote a couple of books for Girodias under the pseudonym of Renee Auden; and Beverly Shelton, a fortyish aging-hippie type with a fondness for hallucinogenic drugs and a forthrightly fuck-you-don't-bother-me attitude toward her job. (I once came across a very long but fascinating manuscript by a writer living in Europe, which I thought had a lot of potential. I passed it on for another opinion to Bev, who took one look at its hefty size and promptly deposited it in her bottom drawer, where it stayed for several months, despite my sporadic efforts to wrench it loose. I suppose it eventually got back into the system, but it never did get published.)
The rest of the office staff was made up of a secretary, two or three clerical types, and a “publicist” who soon left because there was no budget for publicity. Which brings us to David Young, a prosperous businessman who Girodias had somehow persuaded to become his business partner. In Venus Bound, de St Jorre calls Young “an enormously fat man who was a member of the right-wing John Birch Society.” In fact, while Dave was undeniably corpulent, he was hardly enormous, and if he had any political convictions whatsoever I never heard of them; his most deeply held principle seemed to involve never parting with money in any but the most exigent of circumstances.
In this characteristic, many of Girodias' disgruntled authors would have claimed, he and Maurice were a matched pair. Girodias (in common, it must be said, with most of the other sex book publishers of that period) was certainly notorious for his habitual avoidance of the disagreeable task of actually paying his writers what he owed them. “Paying his authors,” as de St Jorre points out, “... was not Girodias' strong suit. Girodias found contracts boring, paperwork a burdensome chore, and the notion of regular accounting and payments an illusive ideal.” The writers, understandably, were often resentful. Mason Hoffenberg, co-author of Candy, called Girodias “a cheap crook,” and claimed that his business dictum was “Don't pay the writers"; while another long-time nemesis, Vladimir Nabokov, fulminated at having to deal with “the elusiveness, the evasiveness, the procrastination, the dodges, the duplicity, and the utter irresponsibility of the man.”
But there was an important distinction between Girodias' brand of stinginess and that of Dave Young. Along with his undeniable carelessness and irresponsibility, Maurice's parsimony was usually the consequence also of a genuine lack of funds, the necessity to make his slender means cover a host of expenses and creditors' demands; on occasion, when he did have money, he could be surprisingly generous. With Dave Young, however, stinginess was a religion. He was not above asking his employees to submit fictitious expense accounts in lieu of a raise, thus saving him tax money. Checks were occasionally sent out “accidentally” unsigned, so they would have to be returned, delaying the depletion of funds. In his bibliography of Olympia, Patrick Kearney points out that whereas the books published by the company in Paris had featured high-quality materials and workmanship, the paper, covers, and binding of the New York products were comparatively shoddy—"'almost indistinguishable from the rest of the American porno paperback offerings.”
As I gradually became immersed in the operations of the company, this fiscal constipation began to disturb me, particularly in regard to publicity and promotion. For just as it had in Paris, the Olympia Press in New York occasionally—and sometimes in spite of itself—published a book whose contents were of interest beyond the prurient. While there may have been no masterpieces on the order of Lolita, Naked Lunch, or The Ginger Man, there were books of genuine literary quality scattered, however sparsely, among the unending line of “d.b.’s.” The trouble was that no one knew about them, and given the dearth of money spent on advertising or publicity, there was no way anyone could find out. Dave Young clung grimly to the notion that spending money on anything was a bad idea, and Maurice, for all his undoubted courage and ambition, “made little effort,” as de St Jorre says, “to cultivate the literary scene, and did not understand how the American publishing world worked.”
Soon after the New York office opened, Girodias published two highly original and visionary novels, Screen and Oracle of the Thousand Hands, by Barry Malzberg, an intense, fiercely intelligent writer who would soon become well known and respected in the science fiction field, and who also turned out a series of pseudonymous sex books, more conventional but not without a certain special quality of their own. Barry was an amazingly prolific author who seemed to be able to write as fast as he could think, with no sacrifice of quality. I once asked him enviously how he was able to turn the stuff out as quickly as he did. His offhand reply: “I bought an electric typewriter.”
Diane DiPrima, the somber, red-haired goddess of Beat poetry, was persuaded by Maurice to write her “memoirs,” which I edited. According to DiPrima, each time she submitted a portion of the manuscript, Girodias would send it back demanding “More sex!” so that the Memoirs of a Beatnik were more erotic than literary, climaxing with a hilarious, though probably imaginary, five-way orgy with DiPrima, Alan Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac among the participants.
While DiPrima, serious and reserved in person, seemed an incongruous choice for the role of lively pornographer, one who didn't was Steve Cannon, now something of an elder statesman of the African-American literary community, but then a highly ebullient young hipster with an infectious grin and all the uninhibited enthusiasm of the raunchy fourteen-year-old heroine of his rambunctious novel Groove, Bang and Jive Around. The Olympia office was also occasionally brightened by the vibrant presence of Ferdinand William Vasquez-d'Acugno, whose first novel (writing as “Marco Vassi”) Mind Blower, had indeed blown my mind when I first read it in manuscript. Polymorphous, profound, and unabashedly sensuous in both his fiction and his life, Marco went on to write several even better novels for Olympia before moving on. Marco died of AIDS in 1989, depriving the world of a talent that should have been better known.
But because Girodias and his Olympia Press were still considered as mere pornography mills, and because the books were distributed for the most part only to the limited market that specialized in such wares, and because, again, there was no publicity, these books made no stir. To my mind the biggest lost opportunity—financially if not aesthetically—came when Girodias secured the manuscript of a book called Speed, by William Burroughs III—a more or less autobiographical chronicle of amphetamine addiction by the son of the same William Burroughs whose notorious heroin-spiced novel Naked Lunch Maurice had originally published in Paris. Here, I thought, was a natural best seller, on the name alone. Just one notice in Publishers Weekly…one ad in the New York Times Book Review….
But no. I explained, I argued, I wrote memos, but to no avail. Maurice shrugged. Dave was affable but stubborn. And nothing happened. Speed came out—printed, for some reason, on particularly cheap newsprint paper—and disappeared into limbo with the “d.b.’s.”
Along with the talented and the more or less well-known who drifted in and out of the Olympia offices, there were of course the run-of-the-mill writers, many of them impoverished hacks to whom churning out sex books and then trying to wrest some money for them out of Girodias was simply another scam in their day-to-day struggle for existence. Some were charming, some obnoxious; many were high most of the time, for this was the late sixties, when pot, hash, and LSD were not only ubiquitous but also relatively cheap. Most were young, but there was one scruffy, bearded middle-aged fellow known only as P.J., who had submitted a manuscript about a young lady who had a romance with a stallion. The book was accepted, spiced up with extra sex scenes, and retitled The Horse Mistress; and payment was even authorized—but herein lay a problem, as the writer refused to divulge his full name, insisting that he was P.J., period. But no bank would honor a check made out to a pair of initials, so P.J. insisted that he be paid in cash. Our accountant refused, and an impasse ensued, until some circuitous and probably illegal scheme was contrived to get around the problem.
Paul Johnston wrote as P.J. and “Justine Paris.”
—Patrick J. Kearney,
A Bibliography of the Publications of the New York Olympia Press
About six months after I started at Olympia, Uta West resigned to pursue a writing career. This opened up an editorial spot, and Frances Green, whose promised job I had earlier unwittingly usurped, was finally brought on board. Though she may still have harbored some understandable resentment toward me, we got along quite smoothly, and when eventually I learned what had happened, and explained my innocent role in the affair, all was more or less forgiven. Over the months we became quite friendly, though there was no actual romance between us—until one day, on a sudden crazy impulse worthy of my employer himself, I asked her to marry me! Quite wisely, she refused; but to my surprise and delight, suggested that we try living together and see what happened. Which we did, and what happened was that we stayed together for thirty-six years (so far), and actually did get married somewhere along the way. So I have Maurice Girodias to thank for bringing Frances into my life, though it is somehow typical that in doing so he nearly destroyed the relationship before it ever got started.
When Olympia was preparing to publish a rare non-fiction book called Inside Scientology, an exposé by a former member of that “church,” the scientologists, as is their wont, tried every means, legal and otherwise, to have it stopped. One official took an editor to lunch and tried to bribe her, actually laying an envelope full of cash on the table between them, which—more in amusement than indignation—she refused. The scientologists may have gotten their revenge, however. De St Jorre and others have speculated that they may have been at least partly responsible for bringing about the mysterious events which finally led to Girodias' deportation a few years later.
In spite of some arguments and many differences of opinion, I had always gotten along well with Maurice, who was generally even-tempered in person, however vitriolic he might get in some of his writings. This began to change when one day a longhaired, ethereal-seeming young wraith of a girl named Sharon Rudahl dropped off a manuscript she had written under the name of “Mary Sativa.” To my surprise her picaresque tale of youth, sex, drugs, and love turned out to be a perceptive, tender, and moving novel which illuminated the “hippie” generation somewhat in the same way that Kerouac’s On the Road had done for the Beats a decade earlier. The other editors shared my enthusiasm, and we spent some time and effort on coming up with a suitably sensitive and evocative title for the book—which I must admit I don't remember. Whatever it was, however, it was not fanciful enough to suit Maurice, who in consultation with Marilyn Meeske, an old friend and associate from the Paris days newly arrived in New York, came up with his own title—Acid Temple Ball.
This appellation struck me as appallingly crass, meaningless, and inappropriate, and I immediately wrote Girodias a memo expressing, at length and in no uncertain terms, my dismay both at the new title itself and at his casual disregard of his editors’ opinions. It was the only time I ever saw Maurice actually lose his temper. He came into the editorial office with his face twisted in anger, plunked the memo down on my desk, and informed me emphatically that that was all very well, but he was the publisher, and it was his company, it was his title, and that was the way it was going to be. And that‘s the way it was.
All three of my Greenleaf books were republished by Olympia (Lust Rumble [NB1769] as Third-Degree Rape [OPH235], The Sado Swappers [NB1838] as The Pain Lovers [OPH222], and Passion's Pupil [PR198] as Carnal Knowledge [OPH215]), and all three under the byline of James Kerstetter. This was strictly my doing, in my capacity as an editor at the New York Olympia office. It was an underhanded ploy, but it was all mine.
—Harvey Hornwood, email, November 2, 2005
Although there was no further hostility between Maurice and me, I had the definite feeling that I had written one memo too many. And as it happened, Girodias was soon looking to open up an editorial slot for his friend Marilyn Meeske. I suspect also that things were not helped by the fact that in passing by the office one day he happened to glimpse Frances sitting cozily on my lap. (It has been suggested that there was a hidden puritanical streak somewhere inside Girodias the freewheeling pornographer, though many of his customers would have been disappointed to learn that this innocent cuddle was probably the closest thing to an orgy that ever took place inside the Olympia offices.)
Shortly after that Maurice called me in and explained to me that he desired to resume our former author-publisher relationship. And so after a little over a year at Olympia I was out. My subsequent dealings with Girodias were friendly, however, and Frances stayed on with the company until its inevitable demise a couple of years later.
Impractical, unworldly, irresponsible, and devious Girodias certainly was, but I am glad to have known him; he was also charming, witty, visionary and, above all, courageous. He battled censorship, prudery, and stuffiness wherever he found it. He struggled incessantly—and joyously—for literary and sexual freedom in the face of governmental repression, legal tribulations, and constant financial hardship. He never lost his taste for attacking and outraging what he called the “Universal Establishment.” He was a flawed and not always admirable human being, but he fought the good fight.
- - -
*Reprinted from an original appearance in Penthouse Forum, June 1997, with the permission of Harvey Hornwood. Olympia Press NY cover scans courtesy Patrick Kearney Collection www.sonic.net/~patk/ . Greenleaf Classics cover scans courtesy Bruce Brenner Collection www.vintagepbks.com/ .
We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.
—Kurt Vonnegut
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What was the name of the evil robotic race in Transformers? | Transformers: Dark of the Moon Game Review
What parents need to know
Positive messages
In this game's story, the fate of the world is at stake. There is a group of evil robots called the Decepticons that aim to unleash destruction across the planet. However, the heroic Autobots step in to defeat the Decepticons and save Earth. Violence is involved, but it is a classic story of good versus evil, and there is no question that the 'good' side is the focus of this game.
Positive role models
Players are put in the role of the Autobots -- the good-hearted robot race that promotes kinship with humans. This group is led by Optimus Prime, who, despite being a robot, is just as much a role model superhero as any other comic book star.
Ease of play
This game uses a fairly straightforward control scheme for aiming, shooting, and using melee attacks. When there are a lot of enemy robots on the screen at once, or players are facing a challenging boss enemy, players need to use a strategy of defense and offense.
Violence
This game contains a lot of combat with machine guns, rockets, lasers, and other, fantastical weapons. Although all of the playable characters are robots, and humans are never the target of any violent actions, the game does take place in an urban, lifelike setting. Additionally, the realistic graphics add a level of intensity to the violence, especially during boss battles and cut-scenes where camera pans and close-up shots highlight the robotic combat.
Sex
Review this title!
What's it about?
TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON is based on the movie of the same name, although the story is different. The game acts as a prequel to the film and is focused more on the tension between the two robotic races instead of their interactions with humans. In this game, the evil Decepticon robots, headed by their leader Megatron, have hatched a new plan to destroy the planet Earth, and it is up to the Autobots and the heroic Optimus Prime to foil these efforts and ensure the safety of the human race.
Is it any good?
QUALITY
In Transformers: Dark of the Moon, players control Optimus Prime and his fellow Autobots. Much of the game is spent running around the planet and taking out enemy robots. It is primarily a shooting game with a lot of frenetic action. Because of the larger-than-life robot characters, there is a bevy of explosions and mayhem, which makes it an exciting experience for those who can handle this kind of content.
There is, however, not much variety to the gameplay, and the story feels rushed and is certainly not as compelling as the actual movie it's based on.
Families can talk about...
Families can talk about the violent content in this game. The combatants may be robots, but does that lessen the intensity of the violence?
Families can also discuss the sorts of lessons Optimus Prime might be able teach us. Can we learn anything of value from non-human protagonists?
Families can also talk about how playing a game is different than watching a movie based on the same story. How does this game compare to its silver screen counterpart?
Game details
| Decepticon |
Who tried to destroy He Man from his base in Castle Greyskull? | Transformers (2007) - IMDb
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An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager.
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Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 19 wins & 40 nominations. See more awards »
Videos
Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers' war.
Director: Michael Bay
The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets.
Director: Michael Bay
Autobots must escape sight from a bounty hunter who has taken control of the human serendipity: Unexpectedly, Optimus Prime and his remaining gang turn to a mechanic, his daughter, and her back street racing boyfriend for help.
Director: Michael Bay
When bitten by a genetically modified spider, a nerdy, shy, and awkward high school student gains spider-like abilities that he eventually must use to fight evil as a superhero after tragedy befalls his family.
Director: Sam Raimi
Peter Parker is beset with troubles in his failing personal life as he battles a brilliant scientist named Doctor Otto Octavius.
Director: Sam Raimi
After being held captive in an Afghan cave, billionaire engineer Tony Stark creates a unique weaponized suit of armor to fight evil.
Director: Jon Favreau
A police officer joins a secret organization that polices and monitors extraterrestrial interactions on Earth.
Director: Barry Sonnenfeld
A strange black entity from another world bonds with Peter Parker and causes inner turmoil as he contends with new villains, temptations, and revenge.
Director: Sam Raimi
After Peter Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to solve the mystery of his parent's mysterious death.
Director: Marc Webb
With the world now aware of his identity as Iron Man, Tony Stark must contend with both his declining health and a vengeful mad man with ties to his father's legacy.
Director: Jon Favreau
In 1962, the United States government enlists the help of Mutants with superhuman abilities to stop a malicious dictator who is determined to start World War III.
Director: Matthew Vaughn
When Tony Stark's world is torn apart by a formidable terrorist called the Mandarin, he starts an odyssey of rebuilding and retribution.
Director: Shane Black
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Storyline
A long time ago, far away on the planet of Cybertron, a war is being waged between the noble Autobots (led by the wise Optimus Prime) and the devious Decepticons (commanded by the dreaded Megatron) for control over the Allspark, a mystical talisman that would grant unlimited power to whoever possesses it. The Autobots managed to smuggle the Allspark off the planet, but Megatron blasts off in search of it. He eventually tracks it to the planet of Earth (circa 1850), but his reckless desire for power sends him right into the Arctic Ocean, and the sheer cold forces him into a paralyzed state. His body is later found by Captain Archibald Witwicky, but before going into a comatose state Megatron uses the last of his energy to engrave into the Captain's glasses a map showing the location of the Allspark, and to send a transmission to Cybertron. Megatron is then carried away aboard the Captain's ship. A century later, Captain Witwicky's grandson Sam Witwicky (nicknamed Spike by his friends) ... Written by Q. Leo Rahman
You haven't seen it all until you've seen it in IMAX See more »
Genres:
Motion Picture Rating ( MPAA )
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action violence, brief sexual humor, and language | See all certifications »
Parents Guide:
3 July 2007 (USA) See more »
Also Known As:
$70,502,384 (USA) (6 July 2007)
Gross:
Did You Know?
Trivia
John Turturro claims he based his performance as Agent Simmons on Michael Bay , though Bay insists the character is nothing like him. See more »
Goofs
The Airforce One displayed in the film is a 707/VC-137, from the markings most likely VC-137C SAM 26000. Considering the time setting the 747/VC-25 based version would be a better match. Also the marking do not match a real Airforce One version precisely. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Optimus Prime : Before time began, there was the Cube. We know not where it comes from, only that it holds the power to create worlds and fill them with life. That is how our race was born. For a time, we lived in harmony. But like all great power, some wanted it for good, others for evil. And so began the war. A war that ravaged our planet until it was consumed by death, and the Cube was lost to the far reaches of space. We scattered across the galaxy, hoping to find it and rebuild our home. ...
[...]
See more »
Crazy Credits
When the DreamWorks and Paramount logos appear, they are accompanied by a series of robotic sounds. See more »
Connections
Courtesy of Machineshop Recordings/Warner Bros. Records Inc.
By Arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing
Transformers is a very mixed bag. There are great things about it and there are some not-so-great things about it...
The good:
The visual effects. Perhaps the best special effects I've ever seen
in a movie. The transformations are amazing not to mention super-awesome. The CGI fits in seamlessly with the live action and it's easy to forget how logistically difficult a lot of it would have been to film.
The sound design. The sound effects complement the action perfectly
making everything twice as exciting. Probably less acknowledged is the alien atmosphere created by some of the score which heightens the tension very effectively and probably without the majority of the audience noticing.
Shia LeBeouf. Without him the movie wouldn't be nearly as engaging.
He has natural comic timing and is probably second to none in expressing disbelief of the "holy crap, there's a giant alien robot transforming in front of me" variety.
The humour. Transformers is funnier than most good comedies which I
was not expecting in the least. The transformers themselves are often funnier than they are impressive.
The Decepticons. Man are they cool. The opening scene is particularly
kick-arse.
The bad:
Megan Fox. If hot means "can't act and doesn't weigh much" then yes,
she's very hot. It's not a good sign if you want one of the main characters to die or at least get out of the way and stop trying to act. Her performance just seemed very shallow and probably wasn't helped by her dialogue.
The script. Although the overall storyline is good, some of the
dialogue is terrible. Too much of the film is spent on mumbo jumbo technical explanations the audience just doesn't care about. The less serious parts of the script work very well though.
Michael Bay. Although some of the action scenes are very well put
together and the humorous parts are timed very well, Bay can't help but ruin some of the scenes with unnecessarily flashy editing and over the top drama accompanied by none-too-subtle dramatic music. It's not that Michael Bay's style is too loud, it's that it's too clichéd.
The music. Nothing new here (other than the alien sounding parts).
Practically rips of Batman Begins and is otherwise forgettable. The music should enhance the film by bringing out interesting themes or emotions, not force feeding us the drama we can plainly see on the screen in super slow motion.
The ugly:
Megatron. He's ugly. And super cool.
So, my verdict? The good outweighs the bad pretty comfortably. If you took out the bad you might even have a classic on your hands. Instead you get revolutionary action scenes and some great comedy with Michael Bay's unique brand of mediocre directing sprinkled throughout.
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Which actress has starred opposite Tom Hanks in three films? | Tom Hanks: From 'Big' To 'Brothers' - Photo 3 - Pictures - CBS News
Tom Hanks: From 'Big' To 'Brothers'
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From'Big' To 'Brothers'
Though he'd appeared in various films and television shows, including the short-lived sitcom "Bosom Buddies" and the 1984 surprise hit "Splash," it wasn't until the 1988 blockbuster "Big" that actor Tom Hanks, pictured here just after the film's release, became a household name.
Credit: AP
Hanks received his first Oscar in 1994 for his role as an attorney dying of AIDS in "Philadelphia." The previous year, he starred opposite Meg Ryan in the now-classic romantic comedy "Sleepless in Seattle."
Credit: AP
Hanks' role as the simple-minded "Forrest Gump" earned him a second Academy Award in 1995, making him the first actor in 50 years to have earned two consecutive Oscars.
Credit: AP
Hanks, with John Travolta, Kelly Preston and wife Rita Wilson (second from left) at a 1995 Oscar function. Hanks met Wilson on the set of "Volunteers" in 1985 and married her three years later. The couple has two sons, Chester and Truman. Hanks also has a daughter, Elizabeth, and a son, Colin, from his previous marriage to actress/producer Samantha Lewes.
Credit: AP
Hanks played astroinaut Jim Lovell, who headed a troubled moon-bound mission, in the 1995 historical space thriller, "Apollo 13."
Credit: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
Hanks poses with "Apollo 13" director Ron Howard. Howard, whom he met on the set of the TV program "Happy Days," gave Hanks his first big break by casting him opposite Daryl Hannah in "Splash."
Credit: AP
Hanks is pictured here at the London premier of his 1997 screenwriting and directorial debut, "That Thing You Do!" He also had a starring role in the film.
Credit: AP
Hanks and Matt Damon in Steven Spielberg's 1998 war epic, "Saving Private Ryan." Both Hanks and Spielberg have been honored by veterans groups for their work in "Private Ryan" and in "Band of Brothers," a TV miniseries on World War II.
Credit: AP
Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan in "The Green Mile," based on the Stephen King serialized novel. Hanks' performance in it generated a great deal of Oscar buzz in 2000.
Credit: AP
Hanks poses with his 2001 Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, which he won for "Cast Away." In it, he played a Federal Express pilot stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash.
Credit: AP
Steven Speilberg presented Hanks with the 30th AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002. Spielberg directed several of the actor's films, including "Forrest Gump" and "Saving Private Ryan." Hanks was the youngest actor ever to recieve the lifetime honors.
Credit: AP
Hanks and Wilson (far left) are shown with the cast of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" at the 2003 People's Choice Awards. The couple jointly produced the romantic comedy, which won for best comedic motion picture. It also was a huge hit at the box office.
Credit: AP
Hanks with Irma P. Hall in the 2004 remake of the 1955 comedy, "The Ladykillers." Hanks, dubbed a modern-day Jimmy Stewart, is known for his ability to shine in both dramatic and humorous films.
Credit: AP
Hanks with Catherine Zeta-Jones, the costar of his latest film, "The Terminal."
Credit: AP
| Meg Ryan |
Which river flows through Rochester and Maidstone? | Tom Hanks | Biography and Filmography | 1956
Played the heroic flight captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger in the biographical film "Sully"
2015
Starred in Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Bridge of Spies"
2014
Executive produced the CNN docuseries "The Sixties"
2014
Executive produced HBO's Emmy-winning mini-series "Olive Kitteridge"
2013
Starred as Walt Disney in "Saving Mr. Banks," about the production of "Mary Poppins"
2013
Reprised Woody in the TV special "Toy Story of Terror"
2013
Played the title role in the real-life drama "Captain Phillips"
2012
Announced to make Broadway debut in "Lucky Guy," a play written by the late Nora Ephron
2012
Played multiple roles in "Cloud Atlas," based on David Mitchell's 2004 novel; film co-directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer
2011
Co-wrote, directed and starred in "Larry Crowne"
2011
Co-starred with Sandra Bullock and newcomer Thomas Horn in 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," based on Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 novel
2010
Reprised voice of Woody in the animated feature "Toy Story 3"
2010
Re-teamed with Steven Spielberg to executive produce HBO's 10-part miniseries "The Pacific," which earned an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Miniseries
2009
Re-teamed with Howard to play professor Robert Langdon in "Angels & Demons," the film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel and sequel to "The Da Vinci Code"
2009
Produced the live-action adaptation of Maurice Sendak's children's book Where the Wild Things Are, directed by Spike Jonze
2008
Co-starred with son Colin in "The Great Buck Howard," a comedy about a young aspiring magician (Colin) who becomes the assistant to a renowned illusionist against his father's wishes
2008
Executive produced (with wife Rita Wilson) the film adaptation of the West End stage musical "Mamma Mia!"
2008
Executive produced the HBO original movie "John Adams"
2007
Portrayed the titular Democratic Texas congressman "Charlie Wilson's War," directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and co-starring Julia Roberts; earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2006
Re-teamed with director Ron Howard to portray professor Robert Langdon in the film adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," based on Dan Brown's controversial bestseller
2004
Starred in the romantic comedy "The Terminal" as Viktor Navorski, an immigrant who becomes a resident of a New York airport terminal; directed by Steven Spielberg and co-starred Catherine Zeta-Jones
2004
Cast as the voice of The Conductor/Hero Boy in the animated film "Polar Express," directed and screenplay by Robert Zemeckis
2004
Starred as a southern professor who puts together a group of thieves to rob a casino in the remake of "The Ladykillers"; helmed by Joel and Ethan Coen
2002
Co-starred with Paul Newman in "The Road to Perdition"
2002
Collaborated again with director Spielberg for "Catch Me if You Can," playing the FBI agent pursuing Leonardo DiCaprio
2001
With Spielberg, produced the HBO WWII-themed miniseries "Band of Brothers"; also scripted and directed episodes
2000
Co-starred with Helen Hunt in "Cast Away", directed by Zemeckis; played a man stranded on a deserted island; production was halted to allow Hanks to lose an appropriate amount of weight to reflect the character's emaciation
1999
Reprised voice of Woody in "Toy Story 2"; originally planned as a direct-to-video release, film received a theatrical distribution
1999
Starred as a prison guard in the period drama "The Green Mile," adapted from Stephen King's novel
1998
Co-executive produced the 13-part HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" about the NASA space program; also acted in, scripted and directed episodes; co-produced with Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and others
1998
Third teaming with Meg Ryan, the romantic comedy "You've Got Mail"; directed by Nora Ephron; a loose remake of "The Shop Around the Corner" (1940)
1998
Headlined the Steven Spielberg-directed "Saving Private Ryan," playing a captain leading a team of soldiers in search of a missing soldier; garnered Best Actor Academy Award nomination
1996
Feature screenwrting and directing debut, "That Thing You Do!"; also played featured role of the band's manager amd wrote songs included in the film
1995
Voiced the cowboy Woody in the computer-animated feature "Toy Story"
1995
Portrayed real-life astronaut James Lovell in "Apollo 13"; directed by Howard
1994
Starred in "Forrest Gump" as a slow-witted Southerner who lives an extraordinary life; first collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis
1993
Played romantic lead opposite Ryan in the Nora Ephron-directed "Sleepless in Seattle"
1993
With Gary Goetzman, formed the production company Clavius Base
1993
Directed and acted in "I'll Be Waiting," a segment of the Showtime series "Fallen Angels"
1993
Portrayed a gay lawyer with AIDS who sues his law firm for wrongful termination in "Philadelphia"
1992
Made TV directorial debut, "None But the Lonely Heart" episode of HBO's "Tales From the Crypt" series
1992
Rejuvenated career after a string of box-office disappointments playing the boozy baseball coach in "A League of Their Own"; second collaboration with Penny Marshall as director
1990
Had first screen pairing with Meg Ryan (who had multiple roles) in the comedy "Joe Versus the Volcano"
1990
Starred as Sherman McCoy in Brian De Palma's ill-fated screen version of "The Bonfire of the Vanities"
1988
Earned first Best Actor Academy Award nomination for "Big"; directed by Penny Marshall
1988
Delivered a strong turn as a bitter stand-up comic in "Punchline"; co-starred opposite Sally Field
1986
Offered a change of pace performance as a workaholic advertising executive who tries to reconcile with his ill father (Jackie Gleason) in "Nothing in Common"
1984
Landed breakthrough leading role in a feature film, "Splash"; directed by Ron Howard
1983
Landed recurring role as Uncle Ned on the NBC sitcom "Family Ties"
1982
Made guest appearance on ABC's "Happy Days"; first met Ron Howard
1982
Made first TV-movie, Rona Jaffe's "Mazes and Monsters" (CBS)
1980
Co-starred on the short-lived cult ABC sitcom "Bosom Buddies"; played an advertising trainee who pretended to be a woman in order to live cheaply at a women-only hotel
1980
Made film acting debut, "He Knows You're Alone"; reportedly paid only $800
1978
Made professional debut as Grumio in "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Riverside Theater in Cleveland, OH
Spent three seasons performing with the Great Lakes Theater Festival in Ohio working with Vincent Dowling
Hanks was a third cousin, four generations removed of President Abraham Lincoln.
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Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1992
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On the difference between being a "star" and being an "actor": "You end up being some brand of commodity. I am a package. What do you read about me? I'm the 'nicest guy in Hollywood.' I 'never play bad guys.' I'm 'the new Jimmy Stewart.' That whole [star] thing is a trade-off. It's harder to be mysterious and be discovered. There are some bad guys I would have played, given the opportunity. Like Bill Macy [as the murderous husband] in 'Fargo'. An amazing performance, an amazing role. The problem is I'm always in search of logic in the storytelling. And the Bad guys always suffer from faulty logic." – from USA Weekend, July 24-26, 1998
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Tom Hanks' late ex-wife, Susan Dillingham claimed the actor harassed her and attempted to kill her career according to court documents she filed during the duo's lengthy divorce battle in the '80s. The unearthed documents were featured in the 2006 bio The Tom Hanks Enigma by David Gardner – per the New York Post, October 2006
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The 1997 comedy "In and Out," starring Kevin Kline and Tom Selleck and written by Paul Rudnick, was inspired by Hanks' Oscar acceptance speech for "Philadelphia," in which he acknowledged his gay high school drama teacher.
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Hanks' first published short story, "Alan Bean Plus Four," appeared in the October 27, 2014 issue of The New Yorker.
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Hanks starred in the video for Carly Rae Jepsen's 2015 hit single "I Really Like You," lip-syncing the song over the course of an average day.
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Hanks collected manual typewriters, using them to write scripts and correspondence.
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Hanks was a passionate fan of mid-'60s pop music; his stirring speech for the Dave Clark Five at the 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony became a viral hit due to his unfeigned passion for the band's hits.
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For which club did Roy of the Rovers play? | Roy of the Rovers - New Stories: Roy of the Rovers - A New Beginning - The 2013/14 Season
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Roy of the Rovers - A New Beginning - The 2013/14 Season
Melchester Rovers begin the 2013/14 season with new owners and a new management team. Can Vernon Eliot, Gerry Holloway and Roy Race lead Rovers back to the top? What dramatic off-field events will happen?
Find out by reading the full collection here...
THE STORY CONTINUES EVERY WEDNESDAY
Some parts of the story are written as prose but each edition includes BRAND NEW comic book action (as seen below), newspaper extracts, statistics and match reports.
Feedback is of course welcome, please use the comments section below or under each weekly release...
Yelcomb
| Melchester Rovers |
In terms of population which is the largest city in North America? | Roy Of The Rovers Ruined The English Game - Sabotage Times
Football
Roy Of The Rovers Ruined The English Game
From Gazza to Wazza, footballing talismen have become the stuff of legend in this country, thanks in no small part to Roy Race and his animated heroics. But is this dependance on one mercurial man the main reason "the continentals" are beating us at our own game?
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From Gazza to Wazza, footballing talismen have become the stuff of legend in this country, thanks in no small part to Roy Race and his animated heroics. But is this dependance on one mercurial man the main reason "the continentals" are beating us at our own game?
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The early 1950s saw English football suffer several hammer blows from which it has arguably never recovered. In 1950, the national team was knocked out of their first-ever World Cup by a gaggle of part-time chancers representing the USA: a pot washer, a hearse driver, some postmen and a Haitian accountant. In 1953, England were finally beaten at home by Johnny Foreigner, the little fat chaps of Hungary popping over to Wembley to hand their haughty hosts a 6-3 skelping. Ferenc Puskás and the lads went one better the following year, dishing out a record 7-1 whipping in Budapest, a humiliation arguably topped later in 1954 when England were shamed at the World Cup again, this time losing 4-2 to eight fit Uruguayans.
These incidents knocked the stuffing out of the English, who had previously considered themselves the cocks of the walk when it came to the game they invented. But they had been given a rude awakening. It was time to go back to the drawing board. In this they were not alone: the Brazilians , for example, had been outthought by Uruguay in 1950 and outfought by Hungary in 1954, so came up with the 4-2-4 to land the 1958 and 1962 World Cups. England too put their thinking caps on, Alf Ramsey eventually working out that repeatedly shuttling the ball out wide to a wiry gent who reeked of pomade and pre-match eggnog was a tactic that had been old since 1928. There would be benefits to this come the sixties.
But the 1950s had still to plant one ticking time-bomb, one that when exploded would resonate through the ages. Seven months after Hungary had inflicted that record 7-1 defeat on England, someone came along to tell the nation’s kids that English football wasn’t on the bones of its arse. That in fact everything was fine, and would be forever more, so there was no need to worry, or indeed think, about anything. In September 1954, Roy Race signed for Melchester Rovers.
His attitudes to women were barely more sophisticated, marrying Penny and forcing her to follow him around for years like a spare part. Small mercies: at least he never spit-roasted her with Blackie Gray.
Destined to become the greatest cartoon footballer of all time, Racey’s heroic influence on English football would, in fact, over the years prove disastrous. Roy was a good man at heart, virtuous, sporting and honest, attributes rewarded by his popularity with both the fictional Melchester faithful and the millions of young football fans who followed his adventures via the pages of Tiger magazine. He was super-talented, too, able to belt in goals from all angles, usually thundering home one of his trademark Racey’s Rockets in the last minute to save the day. But while his insistence on sportsmanship offered a valuable life lesson for impressionable young readers, his talent for timely goalscoring and pulling irons from fires warped their minds in far more harmful ways.
While little schemers from Italy dreamt of becoming fantasistas, conducting their team-mates to victory from the centre of the park, while South American youths honed their skills and picked up a few street-smarts in the dusty favelas, hoping to put it all together in a gambeta; thanks to Roy Race, English children spent their formative years sat on their arses being taught a very strange lesson: it doesn’t really matter what you do for 89 minutes, because a superhero will turn up eventually, welt the ball into the net, and you can all go home with your cups and medals.
Such was the sermon preached from the Melchester pulpit. In the big games, Rovers were perfectly happy to wing it, knowing Racey would amble along to the rescue at some point. As a result, nobody would bother preparing for anything. More often than not, Melchester would yawn onto the pitch, and end up a goal or two down not long after kick off. A Race-inspired comeback was nearly always on the cards. In one early adventure, Melchester’s French winger Pierre Dupont was kidnapped ahead of a game, and only escaped his captors just in time for kick-off. The match started as he was getting changed, Rovers not giving a toss about kicking off a man light. By the time Dupont arrived on the scene, Rovers were three down. Roy’s hat-trick helped them to a sweet 4-3 win.
England have long pinned their hopes on a Roy Race figure to take them through the big tournaments only to suffer when something went wrong, the country’s mood zipping up and down at the mere crack of a metatarsal.
Years later, having reached a European Cup-Winners Cup final in the mid 1970s, Racey – by now player-manager – simply could not be bothered to scout both sides from the opposite semi, deciding to run the rule over the one team he liked the look of. Sure enough, the team Race ignored and knew bugger all about won through. Once again, Racey did what the English do: shamble about, wing it, hold on for dear life, and grab a late winner.
Tactics were usually non-existent in Roverland. And on the few occasions Race scrawled a few dots onto a blackboard, the results were underwhelming. Here’s his tutorial as caretaker boss to the England squad ahead of a World Cup warm-up match against Holland in 1978: “I don’t think there’s any point in trying to match the continentals for skills. I think we’ve got to believe in ourselves and rely on the things we’re best at: fitness, speed, and POWER IN THE AIR!!!” The cartoonist’s use of bold type illustrated how central these tenets were to Racey’s credo; Gusztav Sebes our hero was not. England still won 5-1, though, and English football stumbled into the 1980s, a jurassic arena in which Harfords and Fashanus roamed the earth freely, creating wanton havoc.
Race was aptly named, trumpeting attitudes to foreigners which could be charitably described as being a good width of Big Ron’s bulbous head to the right of the Daily Mail. In the early years of the 1950s and 1960s – during which he was regularly kidnapped by swarthy Latin types, and once drugged while on tour in Australia by a poison dart launched by an “Abbo” – this take on foreign cultures could just about be explained away by the times, Rovers coming from a country still reeling from loss of Empire. But from the 1970s onwards, there really was no excuse. The “continentals” would regularly be portrayed kicking lumps out of their opponents, deploying cheeky antifútbol tactics that would have put Estudiantes to shame. Even as late as the early 1990s, Italian sides would be depicted surrounding referees demanding sending offs for spurious offences, while the national team of the USA once resorted to utilising hi-tech bugging equipment in the English changing room in order to lug in on whatever vacant nonsense Race was jabbering to his charges at half-time. Racey’s sides, visibly piqued at the saucy boldness of Johnny’s wily ways, would inevitably storm onto the pitch with a steely determination to mete out a few strokes of punishment, the last lash inevitably coming from Racey’s left boot of justice.
English children spent their formative years sat on their arses being taught a very strange lesson: it doesn’t really matter what you do for 89 minutes, because a superhero will turn up eventually, welt the ball into the net, and you can all go home with your cups and medals.
His attitudes to women were barely more sophisticated, marrying Penny, a Rovers office administrator, and forcing her to follow him around for years like a spare part, with no useful function of her own. Small mercies: at least he never spit-roasted her with Blackie Gray.
So, then: instilling into generations of children a disdain for tactics and organisation, a fear of progressive thought, and myopic Little Englander viewpoints. Yep, Racey single-handedly scuppered the progress of English football alright, snipping it off at the bud, warping young minds during those crucial formative years. Don’t believe it? Then see how life subsequently imitated art at the highest level of England’s club and international game. The nation’s most feted European Cup wins are Liverpool’s 2005 miracle of Istanbul, a Melchesteresque tactical cock-up followed by a one-man supershow, and Manchester United ’s 1999 triumph, another organizational balls-up saved only by a last-minute whirlwind. Italians, by way of comparison, may point to Fabio Capello’s Milan coolly dissecting a superb Barcelona team 4-0 in 1994, while the Spanish have Real Madrid’s signature strokes of 1960 to fawn over. As far as we’re aware, Italian or Iberian kids were never lectured by a Roberto or Rafael Race.
As for the national side? England have long pinned their hopes on a Roy Race figure to take them through the big tournaments – from the days of Kevin Keegan and Bryan Robson to the modern era of David Beckham and Wayne Rooney – only to suffer when something went wrong, the country’s mood zipping up and down at the mere crack of a metatarsal. It’s not healthy, this; by any other measurement, that’s manic depression. And consider this: everybody involved in the 1966 World Cup squad, with the possible exception of Alan Ball, would have been too old to bother with comics when Racey made his debut in Tiger. And look what they achieved. Having taken on board the lessons from the Magical Magyars, while remaining blissfully unaffected by the pernicious influence of Roy Race that would stifle subsequent generations, England’s tactically innovative team, built around a system which took precedence over its stars – spare a thought for poor old Jimmy Greaves, the Roy Race of his day – took their country to the top of the world.
"This piece is an extract from The Blizzard, a new quarterly journal of football writing available in print and digital formats on a pay-what-you-like basis from www.theblizzard.co.uk . Edited by Jonathan Wilson, its pilot issue includes articles by a host of top writers including Uli Hesse, Simon Kuper and Gabriele Marcotti."
Click here for our interview with The Blizzard
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Which composer wrote the Hebrides Overture? | Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture ('Fingal's Cave') - Classic FM
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Mendelssohn - Hebrides Overture ('Fingal's Cave')
How do you conjure up the sounds and sights of Scotland in a single piece of music? That was the challenge facing Mendelssohn when, in 1829, he travelled home from a memorable trip to the Scottish island of Staffa and its famous Fingal’s Cave.
The journey had evidently made an immediate impression on the German composer: just hours later, he had written the first few bars of this piece and sent them off to his sister, Fanny, along with a note that described "How extraordinarily the Hebrides affected me".
His travels to Scotland were part of a wider tour of Europe for Mendelssohn during his early twenties, and it’s not hard to see why he was particularly captivated by what he encountered on Staffa. Fingal’s Cave is over sixty metres deep and in stormy tides the cacophonous sounds of the waves inside it rumble out for miles. The intense and rolling melodies within the music perfectly capture this sense of both drama and awe; calmer passages, meanwhile, convey stiller waters and more tranquil surroundings. But it’s never long before the return of that stormy scene.
On completing the score, Mendelssohn triumphantly wrote ‘Fingal’s Cave’ on the front page, leaving no room for doubt that his Hebrides Overture was wholly inspired by this awesome Scottish landscape.
| Felix Mendelssohn |
Who was the Roman god of trickery and thieves? | _ Mendelssohn, composer of the overture The Hebrides - crossword puzzle clues & answers - Dan Word
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_ Mendelssohn, composer of the overture The Hebrides
Today's crossword puzzle clue is a general knowledge one: _ Mendelssohn, composer of the overture The Hebrides. We will try to find the right answer to this particular crossword clue. Here are the possible solutions for "_ Mendelssohn, composer of the overture The Hebrides" clue. It was last seen in British general knowledge crossword. We have 1 possible answer in our database.
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Which bird is known in the USA as a pigeon hawk? | Pigeon Hawk | John James Audubon's Birds of America
John James Audubon's Birds of America
Plate 92
Pigeon Hawk
The Pigeon Hawk ranges very extensively over the United States, and extends its migrations far beyond their limits on either side. Mr. TOWNSEND found it on the Rocky Mountains, as well as along the shores of the Columbia river. Dr. RICHARDSON mentions it as not uncommon about York Factory, in latitude 57 degrees, and it is not improbable that it wanders farther, as he speaks of having seen a small Hawk on the north shore of Great Bear Lake, in latitude 66 degrees, which may have been a male as small as the one represented in my plate. I found it very abundant in the Texas early in May, when I shot as many as five on a small island in a short time.
Mr. HUTCHINS's description of the eggs of this bird, which he says are white, and from two to four in number, as well as the situation of its nest, as given in his Notes on the Hudson's Bay Birds, is greatly at variance with my own observations. The eggs in these instances, which occurred at Labrador, were five; they measured an inch and three-quarters in length, an inch and a quarter in breadth, and were rather elongated; their ground colour a dull yellowish-brown, thickly clouded with irregular blotches of dull dark reddish-brown. In that country they are laid about the first of June. In the beginning of July I found five in a nest that were ready to be hatched. The nests were placed on the top branches of the low firs peculiar to that country, about ten or twelve feet from the ground, and were composed of sticks, slightly lined with moss and a few feathers. At this season the old birds evinced great concern respecting their eggs or young, remaining about them, and shewing all the tokens of anger and vexation which other courageous species exhibit on similar occasions. The young are at first covered with yellowish down; but I had no opportunity of watching their progress, as all that were taken on board the Ripley died in a few days. This species also breeds in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
A male from the Texas. Length to end of tail 13 1/4 inches, to end of wings 11 5/12, to end of claws 11 6/12; extent of wings 26.
The mouth resembles that of the other Falcons; its breadth (9 1/2) /12ths. The tongue is short, 6/12ths long, fleshy, deeply emarginate and papillate at the base, broadly grooved above, the tip rounded and slightly emarginate. The oesophagus is 4 1/2 inches long, its width at the upper part half an inch. The stomach is very large, round, 1 1/2 inches in diameter, with a very thin muscular coat; its central tendons 4/12ths in diameter. The proventriculus is 9/12ths long; its glands very numerous, and cylindrical. The intestine is 26 3/4 inches long, (2 1/2) /12ths in its greatest diameter. There are merely two slight indications of coeca; and the cloaca is globular, with a diameter of 1 inch.
The trachea is 2 3/4 inches long, a little flattened; the rings 58, well ossified; its breadth at the upper part 3/12ths, at the lower 2/12ths. The contractor muscles cover the anterior surface entirely in the upper third, and are of moderate strength, as are the sterno-tracheales; a pair of inferior laryngeal muscles going to the membrane between the last tracheal and first bronchial half ring. The bronchial half rings are 15 and 18.
PIGEON HAWK, Falco columbarius, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. ii. p. 107.
FALCO COLUMBARIUS, Bonap. Syn., p. 38.
PIGEON HAWK, Falco columbarius, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 60.
LITTLE CORPORAL HAWK, Falco temerarius, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 61. Adult Male.
FALCO COLUMBARIUS, Pigeon Hawk, Swains. and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 35.
FALCO AESALON, Merlin, Swains. and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 37.
PIGEON HAWK, Falco columbarius, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 466; Young, vol. i. p. 381; Male, vol. v. p. 368.
Wings from two to three inches shorter than the tail, on the middle feathers of which are five, on the lateral six, broad whitish bands. Adult male with the cere greenish-yellow, the feet pale orange, the upper parts light bluish-grey, each feather with a black central line; lower parts reddish or yellowish-white, the breast and sides with large oblong brown spots; tibial feathers light red, streaked with blackish-brown. Female with the cere and legs greenish-yellow, the upper parts dark greyish-brown, the lower pale red, spotted as in the male. Young with the head light reddish-brown, streaked with dusky, the upper parts brownish-grey, the feathers margined and spotted with pale red, throat white, lower parts pale red, streaked with brown. The tail-bands vary from pale red to white.
| Merlin |
“Murder she said” is based on which story by Agatha Christie? | Pigeon Hawk | Backyard and Beyond
Backyard and Beyond
Tags: birding , birds , Brooklyn , Green-Wood
A really nice and extended look at a Merlin (Falco columbarius) yesterday in Green-Wood. The bird gave me the big, beady eyes, too.
These falcons are known for perching for a long period of time, eyes on the lookout for the prize. The surroundings were busy with Blue Jays and Monk Parakeets, both roughly the same size as this small raptor, so a bit of a stretch as prey.
The faint Fu Manchu “mustache” mark is visible in these photos, coming down from the eye. This species has a broad range in North America, with three distinct populations; East Coast birds are usually “Boreal” (a.k.a Taiga), Falco columbarius columbarius. A sort of medium roast bird compared to the very light Prairie and very dark Pacific subspecies. Half a dozen other subspecies are found across northern Eurasia.
Note also the “eyebrow.” This species also known as Lady Hawk and Pigeon Hawk.
New York is the very southern end of their breeding territory, with only a few records in the state, generally in the Adirondacks. We see it here in NYC during migration. But sometimes at other times as well. I got a good picture of one last January in Green-Wood, practically right next door to yesterday’s location.
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Thanks for getting so close so we too could get close to this special bird.
Great photos!
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Who had their twelfth UK No. 1 single with their cover of Mandy? | Westlife · 2017 Tour Dates and Concert Tickets | Thrillcall
Track Artist for New Show Alerts
Westlife were an Irish boy band, formed in July 1998 and disbanded in June 2012. Originally signed by Simon Cowell and managed by Louis Walsh, the group's final line-up consisted of Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan. Brian McFadden w...
Westlife were an Irish boy band, formed in July 1998 and disbanded in June 2012. Originally signed by Simon Cowell and managed by Louis Walsh, the group's final line-up consisted of Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan. Brian McFadden was a member from July 1998 until his departure in March 2004.
Westlife sold over 50 million records worldwide, a total that included studio albums, singles, video releases, and compilation albums. The group accumulated 14 number-one singles in the United Kingdom. They achieved a total of 26 UK top ten singles over their 14-year career. In 2012, the Official Charts Company listed Westlife 34th amongst the biggest-selling singles artists in British music history. Despite their success worldwide, Westlife never managed to break into the U.S. market, achieving only one hit single in 2000, "Swear It Again".
Based on BPI certifications, the group have sold 11.1 million albums and 6.8 million singles in the UK.
History:
Origin:
Kian Egan, Markus Feehily and Shane Filan, along with fellow Sligo men Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron, and Michael Garrett, were part of a six-member pop vocal group called Six as One, changed in 1997 to IOYOU. The group, managed by choreographer Mary McDonagh and two other informal managers, released a single titled "Together Girl Forever".
Louis Walsh, the manager of fellow Irish boy band Boyzone, came to know the group after he was contacted by Filan's mother, but the group failed to secure a BMG record deal with Simon Cowell.
Cowell told Walsh: "You are going to have to fire at least three of them. They have great voices, but they are the ugliest band I have ever seen in my life." Three members of the band (Lacey, Keighron and Garrett) were told they would not be part of the new group, and auditions were held in Dublin where Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden were recruited.
The new group, formed on 3 July 1998, was renamed Westside but that name was already in use by another band, so it was changed to Westlife. In Westlife - Our Story, Byrne revealed that, unlike the others in the group, he was keen to change the name to West High. McFadden also changed the spelling of his name to Bryan to make it easier to sign autographs. Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to co-manage the group with Walsh. The band then released an EP titled Swear It Again.
Debut album:
Westlife's first big break came in 1998 when they opened for Boyzone and Backstreet Boys' concerts in Dublin. Later Act award at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party. In April 1999, the group released their first single, "Swear It Again" which immediately topped the charts in Ireland and in the UK for two weeks. Their second single, "If I Let You Go" was released in August 1999, along with the highly acclaimed "Flying Without Wings" produced by Steve Mac and written by Mac and Wayne Hector (their first 'Record of the Year'), released in October the same year, also followed suit. "Flying Without Wings" was also included on the soundtrack of the Warner Brothers film, Pokémon: The Movie 2000. Their first album, simply titled Westlife, was released in November 1999 and went to No. 2 in the UK. The album was the biggest chart dropper on the top 40 in UK music history when, in its 58th week on the charts it leapt from No. 79 to No. 3 before falling to No. 37 the following week.
In December 1999, a fourth, double-side, single was released, "I Have A Dream"/"Seasons in the Sun". It knocked Cliff Richard's "The Millennium Prayer" off the top spot and earned them the 1999 UK Christmas number-one single. The fifth and last single from the album, "Fool Again", also peaked at #1. Then the group went on a short UK, US and Asian tour in support of their debut album before releasing a second album.
Coast to Coast was released a year later and was another No. 1 UK album, beating the Spice Girls' Forever album. It became the country's 4th biggest selling album of 2000. The album was preceded by a duet with Mariah Carey singing the Phil Collins' classic "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" and the original song "My Love" (their second Record of the Year award). Both singles reached No. 1 on the UK charts. With this, Westlife broke an unexpected record of the most consecutive number-one singles in the UK, having their first seven singles debut at the top. However, in December 2000, they failed to secure their eighth chart-topper in a row, with their UK and Ireland-only single "What Makes A Man" when kid's favourite, Bob The Builder's "Can We Fix It", was crowned as the Christmas number-one single of that year. Outside the UK and Ireland, they gained chart success with "I Lay My Love on You" and "When You're Looking Like That". In 2001, they launched their first world tour, "Where Dreams Come True Tour".
The single 'My Love' was reportedly used as part of a CIA torture program in Afghanistan. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, "the music pounded constantly as part of a scheme to assault prisoners' senses".
Westlife released World of Our Own, their third album, in November 2001. "Uptown Girl", "Queen of My Heart" and "World of Our Own" were released as singles, all of which peaked at No. 1 in the UK. "Bop Bop Baby" was also released as a single, but it peaked at No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2002, Westlife went on their second world tour, the World of Our Own Tour (In The Round).
Unbreakable, Turnaround, and Brian McFadden's departure (2002-04):
The group released their eleventh UK No. 1 single, "Unbreakable" in 2002. Amidst rumours of a split, Westlife released their first greatest hits album in November that same year titled Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits Vol. 1, which zoomed all the way to No. 1 in the UK. The release was followed by the double-side single "Tonight/Miss You Nights", which debuted at No. 3 in the UK. At this time, Because Films Inspire made a TV documentary titled "Wild Westlife", directed by Iain MacDonald and starred the group, featuring their daily life as musicians and their tour experiences. In 2003, Westlife went on their third world tour, The Greatest Hits Tour, shrugging off rumours of a split.
In September 2003, Westlife released "Hey Whatever", which peaked at No. 4 on the UK Charts. Their fourth studio album, Turnaround, was then released in November, earning the group another UK No. 1 album. "Mandy", a cover of the Barry Manilow hit, was released in November 2003. Their version won them their third Record of the Year award, in under five years. Their version of "Mandy" is also considered the single with the longest leap to the top (from No. 200 to No. 1) in UK music history. "Obvious" was released as the final single from the album, charting at #3.
On 9 March 2004, just three weeks prior to embarking on their fourth world tour, Brian McFadden left the group to spend more time with his family and work on solo projects. On that day, a press conference was held where all the group's members were present, each giving emotional individual speeches. McFadden's final public performance as part of Westlife was at Newcastle upon Tyne's Powerhouse nightclub on 27 February 2004. He subsequently began a solo career, and reverted the spelling of his first name back to its original 'Brian'. He released his first solo single, "Real To Me", which entered the UK chart at No. 1 and soon after, he released his first solo album Irish Son under Sony Music. McFadden later released more singles, but only with moderate success.
Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the group kicked off their "Turnaround Tour". A live version, from the tour, of "Flying Without Wings" was released as an official UK download, earning them the title of the very first UK Downloads #1.
Allow Us to Be Frank, Face to Face, The Love Album, and Back Home (2004-08):
In September 2004, they performed on the World Music Awards, where they were recognised as the Best Irish Act of that year. They then released a Rat Pack-inspired album, ...Allow Us to Be Frank, which peaked at No. 3. No singles from this album were released in the UK. "Ain't That a Kick in the Head", accompanied with a music video, was released as a physical single in other European countries. "Smile" and "Fly Me to the Moon", both with music videos as well, were released as digital downloads only.
Prior to the release of the ...Allow Us to Be Frank album, Westlife scouted for "the perfect fan" to help promote their album from their one-season special show She's the One, presented by Kate Thornton. After X Factor-style auditions, they found Joanne Hindley, who recorded "The Way You Look Tonight" with the group. To mark this special collaboration, a special programme was televised, showing auditions and live performances. Westlife continued to tour Europe as part of their "The Number Ones Tour".
In October 2005, Westlife returned with their comeback single, "You Raise Me Up", which was taken from their Face to Face album. On 5 November 2005, both the album and the single were at No. 1 in the UK, at the same time, during the second week of the single. It was the first time that Westlife had held both the top album and the top single position in the same week. "You Raise Me Up" was awarded as their fourth Record of the Year in the UK, for 2005. In December of that year, the group released "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", a duet with Diana Ross, as the second single, and it debuted at its peak position of #2. Westlife then released a third single, "Amazing", which debuted at No. 4 and marked as the group's lowest-selling single yet. After that, Westlife embarked on the "Face to Face Tour", travelling extensively to the UK, Ireland, Australia and Asia. This tour marked the first time that Westlife travelled to mainland China for a concert.
In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five-album deal with Sony BMG. Their eighth album, The Love Album, was a "love" concept album which consisted of popular love-song covers. The album outsold other compilation albums by Oasis, The Beatles, and U2 in its first week of release and went straight to No. 1. The first single from The Love Album was a cover version of Bette Midler's classic, "The Rose", which became their 14th UK No. 1 single.
This made Westlife the third act (along with Cliff Richard) in the UK to have the most No. 1 singles, tailing behind Elvis Presley (21) and The Beatles (17). Westlife then kicked off their eighth world tour, "The Love Tour", in Perth, Australia. The group then went on to other Australian cities before moving on to South Africa, the UK and Ireland.
On 5 November 2007, Westlife released their ninth album, Back Home, which contained nine new original songs along with three cover songs. The album debuted at No. 1 on the UK Music Charts and it was also 2007's fifth biggest selling album in the UK. The first single released from the album was a cover of Michael Bublé's "Home", which peaked at No. 3 in the UK. "I'm Already There", not released as a single, managed to chart in the UK based on downloads alone, following a performance on an The X Factor episode.
On 15 December 2007, they had a two-hour show called The Westlife Show where they performed 10 of their songs, some of which were voted online by fans and some from Back Home. It was hosted by Holly Willoughby. Months later, "Us Against the World" was announced and released as their second single in UK and Ireland. Before the release of the second single, they embarked on the Back Home Tour on 25 February 2008. This tour marked the first time that the group had travelled and performed in New Zealand, performing four sold-out shows in Auckland, Wellington, New Plymouth and Christchurch. Meanwhile, "Something Right" was released as the second single and "Us Against the World" became the third single in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Both songs performed well on several music charts.
Music Week revealed on their website that Westlife were the official third top touring act within the years 2005-2008, while they were the seventh top touring act of 2008.
10th anniversary and hiatus (2008-09):
To mark their tenth year in music, Westlife staged a special 10 Years of Westlife, a sold-out concert at the world's thirty-third biggest and Europe's fourth biggest stadium,Croke Park, on 1 June 2008.Shayne Ward filled in as a support act for the concert, which Egan described to be a "pop extravaganza". Filan confirmed that a corresponding live concert DVD would be released. The group announced that they would be on hiatus for a year after their Back Home Tour and that there would not be an album release in 2008 as they would be spending more time on the production of their tenth album. As promised, the group's official website confirmed on 27 September 2008 the release of a DVD on 24 November 2008 entitled 10 Years of Westlife - Live at Croke Park Stadium which went straight to No. 1 on UK, Ireland, South African, Hong Kong and New Zealand Music DVD charts.
As the group ended another successful tour, Louis Walsh announced in the show Xpose that 1 July 2008 would be the official start of the longest hiatus of the group. He said that it will be a one-year break, from that day up to 1 July 2009. On 13 December 2008, while on a break, Westlife made an unexpected appearance on X Factor Final Performance Night where they performed "Flying Without Wings" with JLS. After the presentation, Filan and Byrne were interviewed on The Xtra Factor with Ronan Keating and Stephen Gately of Boyzone. As JLS also performed, "I'm Already There", Westlife's version of the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at No. 63 while a new entry on Ireland Singles Chart at No. 47 due to extensive downloads only. In the last week of January 2009, a DVD entitled The Karaoke Collection was released. It contained some of their music video hits. In the 27 February 2009 issue of Herald Ireland, Louis Walsh revealed that Simon Cowell had already picked three new songs which he believed would be instant hits. On 18 March 2009, Westlife won the Best Irish Pop Act on the 2009 Meteor Awards for the ninth consecutive time.
Last two studio albums (2009-10):
Their tenth album, Where We Are, was released on 30 November 2009 in the UK and peaked at No. 2 on both Irish and UK Albums Charts. The new single, "What About Now", was released a few weeks earlier on 23 October 2009, with digital downloads being available the day before. The said single peaked at# 2 on both Irish and UK Singles Chart. Daughtry's original version of the song gained exposure on the audition rounds of The X Factor prior to Westlife's release. They were also part of the Haiti charity single in early 2010 with, "Everybody Hurts", an R.E.M. cover which was organised by Cowell. The tour in support of this album was called, "The Where We Are Tour". The eleventh album was recorded and processed with songwriter and producer John Shanks in London and Los Angeles and was entirely produced by Shanks.
On 14 November 2010, the single "Safe" was released. It debuted on the UK Singles Chart on 21 November at No. 10, giving the group their 25th Top 10 single in the United Kingdom. It was also their lowest charting lead single to date in the country. The new album titled Gravity was released on 22 November 2010. It went to No. 1 in Ireland and No. 3 in the UK. In March 2011, they started their eleventh major concert tour, the Gravity Tour. This tour marked the first time the group travelled to Oman, Namibia, Guangzhou and Vietnam for concerts.
Westlife was named the fourth most hard-working music artist in the UK by PRS in 2010. In August 2011, it was reported in the Irish Examiner that the profits of the band's firm grew five-fold in 2010.
Greatest Hits and split (2011-12):
On 14 March 2011, Westlife confirmed that they had left Cowell after 13 years and his record label Syco Music after nine years. The group cited Syco's decision not to release a second single from Gravity as the reason Byrne felt it as another reason of being unloved,
After going back to RCA Records full-time for a one-year album contract, they announced their Greatest Hits album to be released on 21 November 2011. It debuted at number 1 in Ireland and number 4 in the UK. The first and lead single, "Lighthouse" was released in November 2011.
In October 2011, Kian Egan ruled out speculation that Brian McFadden would reunite with them for a television show. Egan said: "All the rumours about Brian re-joining Westlife are untrue. We have been a 4 piece for too long now. We love Brian but it's not going to be. That includes any TV performances." With a new compilation album coming out, it was speculated Westlife would be doing a new greatest hits tour. They were scheduled to headline the ChildLine Concert in Dublin on 12 November 2011 and to have another exclusive concert on O2 Blueroom, also in Dublin on 24 November.
A UK Tour was first officially announced on 18 October 2011, with dates confirmed for May 2012 and it was titled, The Greatest Hits Tour or The Farewell Tour. Stereoboard.com reported that the tour was sold-out in minutes. As part of it, ITV commissioned a one-off music event that would mark Westlife's final TV appearance as they took to the stage to sing some of their greatest hits, it was entitled "Westlife: For the Last Time". Another show entitled, "The Westlife Show: Live", was broadcast from Studio One of London Studios on the same channel on 1 November 2011. Then they had a live guesting on The Late Late Show.
On 19 October 2011, Westlife officially announced they were splitting after a Greatest Hits album and a farewell tour.
They described the split as an "amicable" one and they wanted a "well-earned break". However, later reports from the Daily Record said there was an "irreparable rift" in the band, but was later denied by a source close to the band saying: "There's no bad blood in the band, they're still great pals. But all good things come to an end and they are all keen to do their own thing." Later, the band also denied it and called the split a "united decision". A more comprehensive story behind the split was discussed by the Daily Mail. A second statement was issued through their official site, saying the fans were continuing to be the best support system.
Some fans on social networks described themselves as feeling "devastated" following news of the split. Some media predicted a possible reunion in the future, but Westlife put an end to that speculation by vowing they would never reunite.
The band had their final concert on 23 June 2012 at Croke Park Stadium in Dublin, Ireland. The 82,300 capacity show was sold out in 5 minutes. Due to this popular demand, an extra date was added at Croke Park on 22 June 2012. Their last concert was also screened live in more than 200 cinemas worldwide.
Three months after the split, Byrne revealed that members of the group fought with one another more and more often in the latter years leading up to the split and he felt that it was the right time to end their time together.
Popularity:
Westlife's début album and single coincided with the apogee of boy band popularity, and their success was most apparent in their homeland and the UK. They had 12 worldwide concert tours over their 14-year career.
Westlife performed for the Sultan of Brunei, an occasion on which they were paid £2.5 million to play a private concert of seven songs. They also performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in 2000, and in 2005 with the songs "World of Our Own" and "You Raise Me Up" with Rolf Løvland and Fionnuala Sherry, and in 2009 with "What About Now" and "You Raise Me Up".
Despite their success worldwide, Westlife were unable to break into the U.S. market. They had only one hit single in the United States, "Swear It Again", which peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000. The band made an appearance on MTV's Total Request Live and the U.S. edition of their debut album, Westlife was released, but it didn't meet with success. In 2002, with the two most prominent boy bands in the US, the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, going on hiatus that year, an attempt was made to promote and release a US version of World of Our Own, but was never successful.
"We sent over a CD of World of Our Own with no name on it. They didn't know it was Westlife and every single radio station in the States - all came back and said that this is an absolutely huge hit. They said it was great for radio and people are gonna love it, especially as there's just a slight bit of rock guitar to it. But as soon as we revealed it was Westlife, the radio pluggers all went, 'Whoa, not Westlife - it's a boyband.' And we cannot break that down, no matter what song we come out with. The problem with America is that it's all radio and you've got to break into radio first. And currently radio doesn't want to play boy bands or pop music. If Bono wrote a song with us tomorrow and it was the biggest hit in the world, if Westlife's name is put to it, it won't be a hit in America because radio will not play us."
-- Nicky Byrne
Though Westlife didn't gain as much success in the States as they did elsewhere, their music was still appreciated. Kid David Corey, assistant PD and music director at top 40 WXKS (Kiss 108) radio station in Boston, MA was a Westlife supporter that was recorded saying "Bands like Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync are still climbing the charts, and radio is supporting them, so I don't think the boy band thing is going to hurt them. Besides, this song "Swear it Again" is just too good for any of that to be a concern. I can't imagine anyone not playing this because it's another boy band, especially when it doesn't even sound like those other guys."
"Flying Without Wings" peaked at No.2 in the USA when American Idol Season 2 winner Ruben Studdard recorded and released it as his debut single. In 2003, Westlife went to Nashville to film a TV documentary. While they were there, they gave a live performance of the song "Daytime Friends", originally by country music singer Kenny Rogers.
Celebrities including Alexandra Burke and Robert Pattinson have said that they are fans of Westlife. Some well-known music artists like Ronan Keating, Will Young, Shayne Ward and Ruben Studdard have also covered their songs.
Collaboration:
The group has recorded studio and live performances with music acts including Mariah Carey ("Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)"), Lulu ("Back at One"), Joanne Hindley ("The Way You Look Tonight"), Diana Ross ("When You Tell Me That You Love Me"), Donna Summer ("No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)"), and Delta Goodrem ("All Out of Love"). They have also collaborated on "If I Had Words" with The Vard Sisters, "I Have A Dream" with Indonesian child-star Sherina, and "My Love" with Amr Diab. These songs were also recorded and included on various albums. In 2002, Westlife re-recorded their hit song "Flying Without Wings" with Mexican singer Cristian Castro and with Korean singer BoA as two separate duets.
Westlife has performed live duets with many other music artists including: Sinéad O'Connor ("Silent Night"), Donny Osmond ("Crazy Horses"), Mariah Carey ("Never Too Far/Hero Medley"), Secret Garden ("You Raise Me Up"), Lionel Richie ("Easy"), Ronan Keating ("The Dance") and Dolores O'Riordan of The Cranberries.
Products and endorsements:
Some of the products that Westlife officially released include books, calendars, and tour merchandise such as T-shirts, and fragrances. They also received sponsorship for their concert tours from Adidas in 2002 and Volkswagen in 2011.
They have official and unofficial books released. The book written by the members of Westlife was released on 16 June 2008 by HarperCollins UK Publishing entitled, 'Westlife - Our Story', as part of their 10th year celebration.
The band released a perfume gift set.
Charitable support:
The group has supported various charitable causes. They were involved in the "Helping For Haiti" charity single that was released in February 2010 in the UK, as well as releasing a cover version of "Uptown Girl" for Comic Relief, one of their biggest selling singles to date.
They have participated in a Royal British Legion poppy appeal and did an advertisement for Galway's Irish Water Safety campaign. They also lent their support to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).
Kian Egan supported the Strandhill Indonesian Relief Fund (SIRF) in aid of South Asian tsunami victims.
Members:
| Westlife |
Which girl did Hot Chocolate take to No.3 in the UK charts in 1973? | mandy song : definition of mandy song and synonyms of mandy song (English)
For the 1919 Irving Berlin song, see Mandy (1919 song) .
"Mandy", originally titled "Brandy", is a song jointly written and composed by Scott English and Richard Kerr . [1]
"Brandy" was a hit in 1971 for Scott English in the UK and in 1972 for Bunny Walters in New Zealand but achieved greater success when covered in 1974 by [Lionel Richie] in the US with the title changed to "Mandy" to avoid confusion with Looking Glass 's " Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) ." His version reached the top of the US Hot 100 Singles Chart. Later on, it was recorded by many other artists. Irish boyband Westlife had a UK #1 with their version in 2003.
Contents
"Brandy" on YouTube
Under the title "Brandy", the selection's original title, the song charted in 1971 for Scott English , one of its joint authors-composers, whose version of it reached number 12 in the UK Singles Charts . It was also released in the United States, but it was not successful there.
The suggestion that Scott English wrote the song about a favorite dog is apparently an urban legend . English has said that a reporter called him early one morning asking who "Brandy" was, and an irritated English made up the "dog" story to get the reporter off his back. [2]
Charts
"Mandy" on YouTube
In 1974 , recorded by Barry Manilow under the title "Mandy", the song was Manilow's first number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts, and his first gold single.
In the three years between English's 1971 recording and Manilow's, Looking Glass had charted with a selection titled " Brandy (You're a Fine Girl) " in 1972. Therefore, to avoid confusion, when Manilow decided to record the selection, he changed the title to "Mandy." It was Clive Davis who suggested that Manilow record the selection. Joe Renzetti arranged the record. [5] Manilow originally recorded it as an up-tempo bubblegum pop tune similar to English's original, but he and his producer, Ron Dante , reportedly hated the way it turned out; thus, he re-recorded it as a ballad and was much more pleased with the results. It was Manilow's first hit single and the first song on Clive Davis 's Arista Records label (formerly Bell Records ) to hit the Billboard Hot 100 . [6]
In the Manilow version, the fist two lines from the fourth verse following the instrumental section, were omitted, being:
"Riding on a country bus"/ No one even noticed us."
Charts
Donny Osmond (2007)
In popular culture
The Simpsons parodied this in the episode " The Last Temptation of Homer " in which Homer feels torn between his attractive new co-worker (Mindy) and his own wife. At first, Homer is washing up in his bathroom and singing "Mandy" but replacing the name with Mindy, until the last line where he says "Andy" instead. Then late, Homer and Mindy were in a hotel room together, and a turkey slips behind the bed. Later, when Homer brings Marge to the room, he starts singing to her, "Oh, Margie, you came and you found me a turkey." The song is also parodied in the episode " Day of the Jackanapes ", in which Krusty sings a new version of the song about Sideshow Bob.
The song was parodied in a Will & Grace episode where Grace Adler sang it as "Mommy" while in front of a theatre in which Manilow would perform the following day. She was regretting that her mother was avoiding meeting her.
The song was sung by David Boreanaz at a karaoke bar in an episode of Angel .
The song was featured in the movie Can't Hardly Wait when one of the characters is obsessed with a classmate named Amanda, and he hears "Mandy" on the radio. In a funny scene in the film, he is told by a friend that the song is actually about a dog.
The song was featured in Muzak format in the movie Night at the Museum , when Larry (Ben Stiller) is stranded inside an elevator after being chased.
The song was featured in an episode of Family Guy where Peter, Joe, Cleveland and Quagmire attend a Barry Manilow concert. The name "Mandy" is changed to "Quagmire" when Manilow picks him from the audience to come up on stage.
In an episode of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton sang this song to a baby who was crying, that he thought was his since the mother is his ex-girlfriend Cindy.
The song was featured in the Korean movie You're My Pet and was interpreted by Jang Geun-suk . The first time in the dance studio, and the second (covered in Korean) during the dance show.
See also
| i don't know |
What nationality is the US Open 2013 winner Martin Kaymer? | With Martin Kaymer dominating, US Open turns into spirited race for 2nd place at Pinehurst | Fox News
With Martin Kaymer dominating, US Open turns into spirited race for 2nd place at Pinehurst
Published June 14, 2014
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Martin Kaymer, of Germany, walks to the fourth tee during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst, N.C., Friday, June 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) (The Associated Press)
Martin Kaymer, of Germany, reacts to his missed birdie on the 17th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst, N.C., Friday, June 13, 2014. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton) (The Associated Press)
Brendon Todd waves after his bunker shot on the 11th hole during the second round of the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst, N.C., Friday, June 13, 2014. (AP Photo/David Goldman) (The Associated Press)
This looks like a typical U.S. Open.
Except for Martin Kaymer.
He appears to be playing an entirely different course.
Kaymer set the 36-hole scoring record at the U.S. Open on Friday with another 5-under 65 — this one without a single bogey — to build a six-shot lead over Brendon Todd and leave the rest of the field wondering if anyone had a chance to catch the 29-year-old German at Pinehurst No. 2.
"If you take Martin out of it," said defending champion Justin Rose, "it's a great golf tournament."
Kaymer was at 10-under 130, breaking by one shot the record set by Rory McIlroy at rain-softened Congressional in 2011.
"I heard he played the No. 3 course. Is that true?" Kevin Na said after a 69 put him seven shots behind. "It's unbelievable what he's done. Is 4 or 5 under out there? Yes. Ten under out there? No, I don't think so. I guess it was out there for him. I watched some of the shots he hit and some of the putts he's made and he looks flawless."
The six-shot lead after 36 holes tied the U.S. Open record first set by Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000 and matched by McIlroy at Congressional. Woods wound up winning by 15 shots. McIlroy won by eight.
"I played Congressional and I thought, 'How can you shoot that low?' And that's probably what a lot of other people think about me right now," Kaymer said.
Todd, who won the Byron Nelson Championship last month for his first PGA Tour win, made some tough par saves to keep bogeys off his card for a 67. He will play in the final group Saturday in his first U.S. Open.
Brandt Snedeker had a 68 and joined Na at 3-under 137.
Phil Mickelson was 13 shots behind after going back to his conventional putting grip and giving up too many shots. He had a 73.
Essentially, this tournament comes down to Kaymer.
"If he does it for two more days, then we're all playing for second spot," Adam Scott said.
Beyond Kaymer's dominance, here's five things to look for in the third round:
PINEHURST BITE: With heavy rains softening the greens, Pinehurst No. 2 has played a bit easier than expected. Still, there are only 13 players under par at the midway point in the tournament, and those pin positions aren't going to get any easier on the weekend. If the rain holds off, the turtleback greens will firm up even more, making it tough to go at the flag with abandon. At that point, it becomes more about damage control than putting up low numbers, perhaps improving the odds of closing the gap on the leader.
MAJOR INEXPERIENCE: Kaymer's closest pursuers don't have a lot of major championships on their resume. Of the next 18 players in the standings, only three have captured one of golf's biggest titles. Keegan Bradley (2011 PGA Championship) was eight shots back at 138, Rory McIlroy (2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship) was another stroke behind, and Adam Scott (2013 Masters) faced a daunting 10-stroke deficit. For now, the leader doesn't have to worry about a bunch of major winners in his rear-view mirror.
LEFTY'S PUTTER: Mickelson abandoned the claw grip in hopes of improving his putting stroke. It didn't work. He had four three-putts on Friday and has taken 65 swings with the short stick over the first two days, leaving him tied for 135th in the tournament rankings. No wonder he said the "hole looks like a thimble to me right now." A daunting 13 shots off the lead, Mickelson will spend the weekend more concerned with steadying his stroke on the green than making any sort of serious run for his first U.S. Open title.
BACK TO BACK: Like anyone not named Kaymer, Rose's hopes of winning the title look rather bleak at the moment. But at least he's still in the game. The defending champ shot 69 on Friday for a 1-over 141, leaving him 11 strokes off the lead. He'll need to make a big move Saturday to have any hope of chasing down Kaymer. There hasn't been a repeat winner at the U.S. Open since Curtis Strange in 1988-89.
KID IS ALL RIGHT: Nineteen-year-old Matthew Fitzpatrick is playing on the weekend in another major championship. The 2013 U.S. Amateur winner shot 71-73 to become the lone amateur to make the cut. Last year, he played in the British Open at Muirfield, finishing tied for 44th to earn the silver medal as low amateur. The other 10 not-for-pay players failed to advance at Pinehurst No. 2: Cory Whitsett, Hunter Stewart and Brian Campbell (all at 146) missed the cut by a single stroke. The others were farther back.
___
| German |
What is the current name for what used to be the Indian city of Madras? | Martin Kaymer's US Open win was historic, too bad nobody appreciated it - CBSSports.com
CBSSports.com
Martin Kaymer's US Open win was historic, too bad nobody appreciated it
Martin Kaymer made history at the US Open this year and nobody even blinked.
More Golf: Leaderboard | Rankings | Schedule | Equipment | FedEx Cup | US Open
It's tough to impress Dan Jenkins. The man has been to 222 major championships and he hands out praise the way the Spurs hand out open 3-pointers.
And yet this year, even the golf-writing legend was impressed by what Martin Kaymer did at the US Open at Pinehurst. He even compared his outing to the sacred one (for Jenkins anyway):
This was my 61st U.S. Open, and one of the most dominating performances. Well done, Martin Kaymer.
— Dan Jenkins (@danjenkinsgd) June 15, 2014
Just talking to @danjenkinsgd , who said Kaymer's 31 on back nine Thursday looked like Ben Hogan. Dan doesn't dish Hogan comparisons freely.
— Tim Rosaforte (@TimRosaforte) June 13, 2014
This is all praise of the higest order for the big German from a golf writer most hold in the highest of regards. He's not wrong, either.
Kaymer's eight sets of nine-hole stretches looked like this:
34-31-33-32-36-36-34-35
That's some golf, friends. That is some incredibly elite stuff from the hottest golfer on the planet at the moment.
The unfortunate part about all of this is that nobody really seemed to notice.
While Kaymer was busy doing what only man has ever done better -- taking 271 strokes to complete a US Open (Rory McIlroy took 268 in 2011) -- folks were too busy with the World Cup and the College World Series and preparing all the hot sports takes you can handle on LeBron James.
The TV ratings, when they're released, will look like Kaymer's scores -- preposterously low. The crowds at Pinehurst even openly cheered the few slip-ups Kaymer had on the week.
"I would say it was probably the toughest day that I played golf today," said Kaymer. "Especially the first nine. Because if you have two or three Americans chasing you, playing in America, it's never easy being a foreigner."
Kaymer's performance was the stuff of legend, ours as fans was decidedly not. Some of the jeering of Kaymer on Sunday was borderline embarrassing.
This was a 29-year-old German constructing the tallest, most beautiful piece of golfing architecture we've seen maybe since Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach in 2000 and it fell flat on the American sports landscape.
That bums me out as a golf fan.
I get it, though, I guess. Tiger was absent, Phil Mickelson might as well have been, and the US Open isn't the most exciting event to begin with.
Still, it makes you wonder if golf could eventually go the way of tennis within the United States without Tiger or someone like Tiger to carry it.
What if Kaymer had been 19 under? Or 29 under? Would folks have paid attention then?
We bled the dictionary of all its hyperbole when Tiger did this at Pebble in 2000 and this year we just shrugged and changed the channel to something more exciting, like baseball.
We called it...boring .
That is fine, of course, I don't expect German-born pseudo-robots with oily arms and oily swings to bring you to the edge of your seat without any competition within striking distance.
But you missed something terrific on Sunday if you weren't watching what Martin Kaymer did to Pinehurst. Something we don't see very often in golf.
An all-time dominant performance at the toughest tournament in the world.
For more golf news, rumors and analysis, follow @EyeOnGolf and @KylePorterCBS on Twitter or Google+ and like us on Facebook .
| i don't know |
Which city was previously called Leopoldville? | Scientists Detect AIDS Origin | International Health Insurance News
Scientists Detect AIDS Origin
The AIDS epidemic started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Kinshasa, in the 1920, according to scientists. The combination of rapid population growth, sex trade and railways allowed the deadly disease to spread across the globe. A team at the University of Oxford and the University of Leuven in Belgium analysed samples of HIV’s genetic code to identify its origin. Professor Oliver Pybus, of the University of Oxford, said: “You can see the footprints of history in today’s genomes, it has left a record, a mutation mark in the HIV genome that can’t be eradicated.”
The findings pointed to the city of Kinshasa in the 1920s, where over a million people travel to each year through railways. The city, previously called Leopoldville, was part of the Belgian Congo. Dr. Andrew Freedman, of Cardiff University, praised the study. “It does seem an interesting study demonstrating very elegantly how HIV spread in the Congo region long before the AIDS epidemic was recognised in the early 80s,” he said.
August 20, 2015 - Fine Prints on Pre-existing Illness Clause of Health Insurances
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| Kinshasa |
Which country was once called Upper Peru? | Scientists Detect AIDS Origin | International Health Insurance News
Scientists Detect AIDS Origin
The AIDS epidemic started in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Kinshasa, in the 1920, according to scientists. The combination of rapid population growth, sex trade and railways allowed the deadly disease to spread across the globe. A team at the University of Oxford and the University of Leuven in Belgium analysed samples of HIV’s genetic code to identify its origin. Professor Oliver Pybus, of the University of Oxford, said: “You can see the footprints of history in today’s genomes, it has left a record, a mutation mark in the HIV genome that can’t be eradicated.”
The findings pointed to the city of Kinshasa in the 1920s, where over a million people travel to each year through railways. The city, previously called Leopoldville, was part of the Belgian Congo. Dr. Andrew Freedman, of Cardiff University, praised the study. “It does seem an interesting study demonstrating very elegantly how HIV spread in the Congo region long before the AIDS epidemic was recognised in the early 80s,” he said.
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| i don't know |
An annual festival in Bayreuth in Germany celebrates which composer? | Germany celebrates composer Wagner's 200th
Germany celebrates composer Wagner's 200th
FRANK JORDANS
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FILE - In this May 15, 2013 file photo German artist Stephan Balkenhol, right, stands besides a part of his Richard Wagner Monument during the installation in Leipzig, central Germany. The Wagner monument will be unveiled Wednesday, May 22, 2013, to celebrate the German composer's 200th birthday. It shows a young Wagner overshadowed by his older, famous self. Some of Wagner's works will be performed later in the day in Bayreuth, where the composer's descendants organize an annual music festival. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)
FILE - In this May 15, 2013 file photo German artist Stephan Balkenhol, right, stands besides a part of his Richard Wagner Monument during the installation in Leipzig, central Germany. The Wagner monument will be unveiled Wednesday, May 22, 2013, to celebrate the German composer's 200th birthday. It shows a young Wagner overshadowed by his older, famous self. Some of Wagner's works will be performed later in the day in Bayreuth, where the composer's descendants organize an annual music festival. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)
BERLIN (AP) — Germany on Wednesday celebrated the 200th birthday of Richard Wagner, the 19th-century composer whose music has been hailed as sublime art at the height of Western culture even as he remains tainted by his visceral anti-Semitic views, which later found favor with the Nazis.
Wagner's birthplace of Leipzig, the nearby city of Dresden — where he was appointed chief conductor at the Saxon royal court — and Bayreuth, which hosts an annual festival of the composer's work, are all staging events this week in honor of his bicentennial.
German tenor Jonas Kaufmann starred in a concert by Dresden's Staatskapelle late Tuesday, with Christian Thielemann conducting parts of "Der Fliegende Hollaender," ''Lohengrin" and "Tannhaeuser" in front of an audience that included thousands gathered around the city's Semperoper opera house.
A monument to the composer — showing a young Wagner overshadowed by his older, famous self — was to be unveiled Wednesday in Leipzig. Later in the day some of his works will be performed in Bayreuth, where the composer's descendants preside over a Wagner festival every year.
The glut of Wagner celebrations, which include performances at major concert houses throughout the year, has been accompanied by a fresh examination of the composer's racist views.
Adolf Hitler was counted among the ardent fans of the man who once wrote: "I hold the Jewish race to be the born enemy of pure humanity and everything noble in it."
Wagner's association with the Nazis, even though he died 50 years before Hitler came to power, means Wagner's music is rarely played in Israel.
Writing in the German daily Die Welt, the composer's great-granddaughter Katharina Wagner said she wished she could ask him "where you got your terrible anti-Semitism from, which still casts a shadow, maybe even blackens your work today."
Earlier this month, a modern version of "Tannhauser" was cancelled in Germany after the opening-night audience complained about new scenes showing Jews being executed and dying in Holocaust gas chambers. The Duesseldorf opera company insisted that it never aimed to hurt viewers' feelings.
"This is not about mocking the victims, but mourning them," the director, Christoph Meyer, said.
For many in Germany, and elsewhere, Wagner's ambivalence is summed up in the way works such as his opera cycle "Der Ring des Nibelungen" — with its famous "Ride of the Valkyries" — can stir listeners into a frenzy.
"Wagner means total ecstasy," Maria Ossowski, a German art reporter and Wagner fan, told Berlin's rbb Inforadio. "Yes, he was a terrible person, but his music was grandiose."
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| Richard Wagner |
Which unsuccessful model of car was named after Henry Ford’s son? | Home > Special Events > Opera > Bayreuth Festival
Bayreuth Festival Tickets
The Bayreuth Festival is an annual festival, which celebrates 19th century German Composer Richard Wagner's famous operas. Shows are staged in the Festspielhaus theatre located in Bayreuth, Germany, a city which the festival is named after.
Wagner's operas can be separated into an early, middle and late stage. Operas in the early stage include Die Hochzeit, Die Feen, Das Liebesverbot, Rienzi and der Letzte der Tribunen. The middle stage includes Der fliegende Hollander, Tannhauser and Lohengrin. The late stage includes Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Number, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, Gotterdammerung and Parsifal.
Demand for The Bayreuth Festival is extremely great, with attendees sometimes waiting as much as 5-10 years for tickets. This is due to the fact that there is an approximate demand of 500,000 and only approximately 58,000 tickets to the annual event.
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Which company made a model called the Boxer? | Company History | Alfa Romeo Owners Club
Alfa Romeo Owners Club
THE TEN DECADES OF ALFA ROMEO (Source Alfa Romeo)
1910 – 1920
The Alfa Romeo story started in Milan on 24, June 1910. That was the day a group of entrepreneurs and businessmen took over the Italian Darracq automobile company (based in Portello on the outskirts of Milan) from its French parent company, and called it Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili – A.L.F.A.
The new company was formed at a time of economic and social change: the first plastics were being invented, Guglielmo Marconi received the Nobel prize for physics and Alfa’s competitors – Fiat and Lancia – were eleven and three years old respectively.
24 hp
The new company began with a winner: the 24 hp. The mechanical components, performance and driving satisfaction that proved so popular on Alfa’s first car are all features for which the brand was to become famous. The car also cost ‘only’ 12,000 Lire, i.e. £23,000 at today’s prices. The following year it made its racing debut, and it was set to win the Targa Florio when forced to withdraw due to a minor accident when the driver was temporarily blinded by mud.
In 1912, Alfa launched the 15-20 hp, and the 40-60 hp arrived in 1913. This car’s six litre engine powered it to second place overall in the Parma-Poggio Berceto hillclimb. Next year, Giuseppe Merosi built the first Alfa Grand Prix car in which driver Giuseppe Campari covered a kilometre at more than 147 km/h.
The outbreak of World War One and consequent limited resources brought difficulties for the company. On 2, December 1915 it was taken over by the Neapolitan engineer and entrepreneur Nicola Romeo. The Portello plant, which employed 2,500 people at the time, was extended to handle military orders. At this time it was producing motor-driven compressors, munitions, aircraft engines and, from 1917, rolling stock.
Nicola Romeo
With peacetime the company was forced to change again. It sought out new markets, manufacturing drills, tractors and more rolling stock. Although Romeo bought companies in Saronno, Rome and Naples, he did not forget about cars because in 1920 the Torpedo 20-30 hp appeared - the first vehicle to bear the new company name of Alfa Romeo. A 22-year old by the name of Enzo Ferrari secured second place in the Targa Florio at the wheel of one of these cars.
1921 - 1930
Like all other European countries, Italy underwent a political, social and economic crisis during the immediate post-war years. Factories were occupied and currency devalued. The dollar was quoted at little more than five lire in 1914, but rose to nearly 30 lire six years later. In 1921, Banco Nazionale di Sconto, the main shareholder of Ansaldo in Genoa, Ilva in Piombino and Alfa Romeo, collapsed. The government was forced to intervene and set up a special body (IRI) to subsidise these industries. The following year protesters marched on Rome, and even though the first locomotive built by the company was produced at the Saronno workshop, Alfa Romeo remained in difficulties.
The RL model, however, met with considerable success in 1923, when it took first, second and fourth places in the Targa Florio. At the Savio circuit the Baracca family gave Enzo Ferrari the prancing horse symbol that he was later to use on all his own cars. Merosi built the Grand Prix Romeo that later became the P1. Designer Vittorio Jano arrived from Fiat and began work on the P2.
P2 Grand Prix car
A period of great technical innovation and sporting success then began to unfold. The reliability of Alfa’s engines was indisputable and the talent of its drivers a byword for skill on racetracks across Europe. Among them were Antonio Ascari, Gastone Brilli Peri, Giuseppe Campari, Enzo Ferrari, Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi.
1931 - 1940
The world economic crisis triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1929 affected Alfa’s growth and, in 1933, the Italian State’s Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI) was forced to intervene.
The same year, the company pulled out of racing and its 8C 2300 B models were entrusted to Ferrari. The results were outstanding when it is considered that Alfa won more races than all other manufacturers during 1934, and in 1936 the company’s sporting activities actually forced standard production to take a back seat!
8C 2900 B
Two years later came the 8C 2900 B Lungo. The Touring version of this car was the most representative Alfa of the period; its mighty bonnet an intoxicating symbol of style and power. Alfa Romeo’s tradition of making standard production models to exactly the same mechanical and engine specifications as their race-winning counterparts really paid off when this car took the first three places in the Mille Miglia. In 1938, Jano resigned and, from then on, racing cars were designed by Gioacchino Colombo and Luigi Bazzi under the supervision of Wilfredo Ricart.
Strategic decisions had to be made during this period, and IRI directed Alfa’s manufacturing activities toward commercial vehicles and aero engines. In 1931 the first truck, the Bussing 50, appeared, followed by the 85C and the 350 Diesel, later to be adopted by the Fire Brigade. In 1935, the T85G won an international race for petrol-engined trucks over the Rome-Brussels-Paris route.
The delivery of more than 2000 vehicles to the Italian army during its Ethiopian campaign only served to strengthen Alfa Transport’s reputation for reliability. The truck version of the 500 model offered an excellent payload of 11,000 kg and its bus version won plaudits for styling, passenger comfort and a top speed of 68 km/h. The 110A provided public transport in Rome, Milan and Genoa.
Alfa engines were also the world’s best in aviation. They owed their success to the use of state-of-the-art materials such as Duralfa, a light aluminium alloy used to build propellers, pistons, cylinder heads and other components.
In 1939 the 135 was unveiled, a twin-row 18-cylinder radial engine that developed nearly 2000 hp and was the most powerful unit of its time. Some 150 of these were produced for the Luftwaffe. The 126, 127 and 128 set and beat 13 flying boat and aircraft world speed, height and distance records. Aeronautical output accounted for nearly 80 per cent of Alfa’s annual turnover and a new plant was built at Pomigliano d’Arco (Naples) at the end of the decade to meet growing demand, some of it from abroad. This had a positive impact on workforce numbers, which rose from 1000 to 14,000 in the space of seven years. On 10, June 1940, however, Italy joined Germany in World War Two and the company’s ambitious plans were overturned.
1941 – 1950
Like most of the Italian industry, Alfa was forced to carry out war work and its plants suffered from allied bombing raids as a result. Northern Italy also had to contend with the German occupation after September 1943. It was difficult to find raw materials and there was also a fear that entire departments would be transferred to Germany. Yet somehow the company managed to maintain its high engineering standards. In 1942, for example, a three-engined Italian SM75 powered by Alfa 128 units flew the 20,000 kilometres to Tokyo and back. After a bombing raid on 20 October 1944, however, the Portello plant ceased all activities.
After the war, nothing was left standing in which to build aviation engines or buses, let alone cars. So the 8000 Portello employees built electric cookers, steel furniture, fixtures, fittings and blinds – anything that the community needed to rebuild.
6C Villa d'Este
Cars were not built again until 1946 when the factory began to turn out pre-war 6C 2500 cars. Out on the track, the company raced 158s salvaged from the ruins. Then the new versions (Freccia d’Oro and Villa d’Este) arrived with their innovative steering wheel-mounted gear shift. Everyone liked them, including VIPs of the period. Rita Hayworth, Tyrone Power, Prince Ranieri of Monaco and King Farouk of Egypt all owned these cars.
In 1950 the 1900 was launched – the first Alfa with a unitary body designed by Orazio Satta Puliga (who joined the company in 1938). Sporting triumphs began to accumulate. The Alfa 158 enjoyed absolute supremacy in Grands Prix and won the world championship in 1950 with Farina at the wheel.
Alfa also resumed production of commercial vehicles, aircraft and marine engines as well as diesel power units for industrial application. In 1948 IRI was reorganised and Alfa passed into the hands of subsidiary holding company, Finmeccanica. These promising events were interspersed with sadder episodes: Ugo Gobbato was mysteriously killed in Milan in 1945 and racing drivers Varzi, Trossi and Wimille all died.
1951 - 1960
As De Gasperi, Adenuer and Schuman laid the foundations for a future European Union, and international politics was dominated by the cold war, the Italians dreamed of prosperity and a time when everyone would own their own car. Only one in every 96 Italians owned a car in 1949. This figure rose to one in 28 in 1958 and one in 11 in 1963. Italy’s gross domestic product also increased by 6.3 per cent per year between 1955 and 1960.
Fangio
After the success of the 1900 (some 20,000 were built), Alfa’s automotive business took on an industrial dimension. In 1951, Fangio won the world F1 championship at the wheel of a 159 fitted with the most powerful 1500 cc engine ever built. It produced 425 horsepower and was capable of more than 300 km/h. Immediately thereafter, Alfa decided to withdraw from Grand Prix racing. It continued to compete in other races, however, and produced the lens-shaped ‘1900 Disco Volante’ with a top speed of 225 km/h for this purpose.
The Giulietta Sprint Coupé, forerunner of so many successful models, arrived in 1954. This was the must-have 1300 of its day, and nearly 28,000 were sold. The 1955 Spider version was one of the finest open-topped cars of all time. It was a typically Alfa blend of style, personality and mechanical sophistication that somehow managed to express all the creative enthusiasm and will to thrive that underpinned the Italian economic boom of the early Sixties. The car’s success allowed Alfa to extend its presence overseas. The Giulietta Spider was created in response to demand from the US importer, which ordered 600.
The 2000 went into production in 1958. This box-like saloon was joined by a Spider and Coupé. During the following year, production began on a Dauphine utility model (under licence from Renault) in order to maintain production at adequate levels.
Production of commercial vehicles and Saviem diesel engines continued at Pomigliano d’Arco. The US jeep-inspired 1900 AR51 (better known as the Matta) was built for the army, while a multi-purpose light commercial vehicle known as the Romeo was built for the general public. In 1956, engineer Filippo Surace joined Alfa Romeo. Twenty years later he would take over from Orazio Satta Puliga. Alfa Romeo was to be indebted to him for, among other things, the 33, 75, 90 and 164.
1961 – 1970
The Sixties began in a rosy glow of optimism. Italy had just hosted the Olympic Games and was experiencing an economic boom.
Alfa Romeo had now become a group with subsidiary companies of its own, and had outgrown the Portello headquarters, which was being swallowed up by all the new building work going on in Milan. The company, therefore, built a new plant at Arese that covered an area of more than 2.5 million square metres, and production was gradually transferred there. A track was also built at Balocco (Vercelli) to test prototypes. Because demand for cars was predicted to rocket, Alfa Romeo also built another site at Pomigliano d’Arco (the first brick was laid on 29 April 1968). Engineer Rudolf Hruska was commissioned to design and build a new car, and thus the Alfasud took shape.
Giulia TZ2
One of the most representative cars of that period was the Giulia. It arrived in 1962 and, like other models, was destined to diversify into an extensive range of saloons and sporting models. More than one million were sold over the next 14 years. To put these figures into context, the company built almost 35,000 cars in total between 1910 and 1955, but total production had risen to around 500,000 cars by 1970.
The 2600 also dates from 1962 and was the first Alfa equipped with disc brakes.
The Spider 1600 ‘Duetto’ with its ‘cuttlefish’ profile appeared in 1966. It was taken to America on the transatlantic liner Raffaello and was made famous by the feature film The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft.
The 1750 came along the following year to replace the Giulia saloon. It was a fast, safe car with excellent roadholding. The Giulia Coupé version exhibited at the Montreal International Motor Show in 1967 was a prestigious sports car that was later fitted with a 2500 engine.
33-3 Le Mans
In 1968, the company took over a majority shareholding in the Brazilian Fabrica Nacional de Motores (FNM), where it produced trucks and cars such as the 2300 and 2300B (1974-80). In 1963 it also set up a company called Autodelta, under the guidance of Carlo Chiti, to look after all racing activities. The new firm was responsible for producing racing versions of the 33 (2.0 and 3.0 litre) and the 8 and 12 cylinder 3.0 litre boxer engines. Autodelta also produced marine engines and was successful in world powerboat championships. The hard work paid off and, in 1967, a Giulia GTA snatched the European Championship from under the noses of Porsche, BMW and Ford. Three years later, Alfa collaborated with McLaren to produce a 3.0 V8 engine that was later used by the British team in Formula One.
The company serviced aircraft engines (no fewer than 17 were displayed during the International Show at Paris Le Bourget in 1968) and also built them: the J85-13 A power unit was launched in 1970.
1971 - 1980
Socio-political problems and energy crises were the dominant themes of the Seventies. Far-reaching repercussions of the '68 protests led to difficult political times in Italy (the Aldo Moro assassination in 1978) and also to social difficulties (factories were occupied and some managers were injured and even murdered). The economy suffered as a result: inflation went into double figures and car sales dwindled. By 1970, out of 6.6 million cars sold throughout the nine member countries of the EEC, only 1.3 million (or 19 per cent) were Italian.
By 31 August 1971 the Alfa Romeo Group with its 32,500 employees was forced to face up to a difficult economic situation and the problem of insufficient funds. Despite this, it presented new models such as the 2000 saloon (1971), the Alfetta GTV coupé (1974), the Alfetta 2000 TD – the first Italian car with a turbodiesel engine (1976), a new Giulietta (1977) and the top-of-the-range Alfa 6 with its brand new 2500 cc V6 engine (1979). The Alfasud met with a considerable success: 28,000 cars were produced in 1972. It was the company's first front-wheel drive car, and 70,000 were built in 1973.
Alfa continued to do well on the race track. The 33 TT 12 won the World Makes Championship (1975) while the 33 SC 12 won the World Sportscar Championship (1977). In 1978, the Alfa Team tied for third place with Brabham in the Formula One Constructors’ league table.
In 1978, Alfa Romeo also signed an agreement with General Electric to build the CF6-32 aircraft engine. The following year it produced the first turbo aero engine to be built in Italy: the 600 bhp AR 318.
Luraghi, chairman since 1957, resigned in January 1974. He was replaced for a few months by Ermanno Guani and later by Gaetano Cortesi who stayed until June 1978. Alfa’s top management team was then headed by Ettore Massacesi as Chairman, and Corrado Innocenti as Managing Director. The task of restructuring the business and introducing new manufacturing processes fell to this pair.
1981 - 1990
By 1 January 1981, Alfa Romeo SpA was the parent company of the group and thus responsible for control, finance and strategic planning in four sectors.
In 1985, the Italo-Japanese company Cosmo Ventures Incorporated was set up to sell the Spider 3000 and Alfa 75 in Japan. The following year, an agreement with Chrysler allowed Alfa Romeo to sell the Alfa 164 in North America, where the Spider 2000 and GTV6 2.5 were already present.
Yet the financial and market situation became increasingly difficult. IRI decided to sell off the automotive business and so, Alfa Romeo was taken over by the Fiat Group in November 1986. Following that agreement, it was also decided to close down Arna, (Alfa Romeo Nissan Automobili, an Italo-Japanese company set up to produce Alfasud Boxer-engined cars).
Alfetta GTV6
The three most representative cars of the decade were the 33 (also launched in Station Wagon and 4x4 versions in 1983), the 90 (1984), the 75 (created to mark the company's 75th birthday) and the 164 in 1987, the first Alfa Romeo produced as part of the Fiat Group. In the sporting field, the GTV6 became European Touring Champion in 1985, while in 1988 the 75 Turbo Evoluzione was successful in the Italian Speed Touring Championship.
Alfa light commercial vehicles also did well. The Italian Customs and Excise became one of the biggest customers for the F12 van. The AR 8 and AR 6 models were offered in no fewer than 24 versions: multipurpose vehicles, school buses, window vans and the Ravello camper van, to name but a few. Alfa Avio was also sold off when IRI's industrial activities were further rationalised. It was initially taken over by Aeritalia, but then in 1996 was aquired by FiatAvio.
1991 - 2000
All conquering 155
The first Alfa Romeo 155 left the Pomigliano plant in 1992, and one year later the V6 TI version won the prestigious DTM, the German Touring Car Championship. The 145 and 146 three and five-door hatchbacks were introduced, while new Spider and GTV models produced at Arese continued a proud niche model tradition. They feature Alfa’s new 16v production engine. The Proteo concept car was introduced in 1991 while the stylish, sporty Nuvola prototype (1996) hinted at the memory of Nuvolari's sporting triumphs. The SZ and RZ limited production sports cars, based on the 75 3 litre, are launched. Alfa’s famous V6 engine gains a 24 valve head.
Great success came with the arrival of the 156 sports saloon, which won the Car of the Year title in 1998. Then came the 166 luxury sedan. The first common-rail diesel engine, the five cylinder 2.4 JTD, was launched by Alfa Romeo in the 156. During 2000, Alfa's 90th birthday was marked by the arrival of the 156 Sportwagon, a fine blend of Alfa Romeo experience, engineering and style. Alfa's new compact hatchback, the 147, was launched in the autumn of 2000. Its heritage was clearly visible in its dramatic design which took styling cues from some of the most stunning of Alfa Romeo’s cars of the past nine decades.
2001 – 2010
8C Competizione
The 147 was awarded the prestigious Car of the Year 2001, adjudicated by top European journalists. Alfa diesel engines become more sophisticated with m-jet technology. The new 159, Brera and Spider ranges were launched with new engines and 4-wheel drive for the higher powered versions. The 8C Competizione was designed as a limited edition flagship sports coupe with only 500 made. The Alfa MiTo B-segment car is launched in 2008.
All Alfisti look forward to the 100th anniversary celebrations to be held in 2010.
| Ferrari |
What name is given to a tall thin glass intended for champagne? | Company History | Alfa Romeo Owners Club
Alfa Romeo Owners Club
THE TEN DECADES OF ALFA ROMEO (Source Alfa Romeo)
1910 – 1920
The Alfa Romeo story started in Milan on 24, June 1910. That was the day a group of entrepreneurs and businessmen took over the Italian Darracq automobile company (based in Portello on the outskirts of Milan) from its French parent company, and called it Anonima Lombarda Fabbrica Automobili – A.L.F.A.
The new company was formed at a time of economic and social change: the first plastics were being invented, Guglielmo Marconi received the Nobel prize for physics and Alfa’s competitors – Fiat and Lancia – were eleven and three years old respectively.
24 hp
The new company began with a winner: the 24 hp. The mechanical components, performance and driving satisfaction that proved so popular on Alfa’s first car are all features for which the brand was to become famous. The car also cost ‘only’ 12,000 Lire, i.e. £23,000 at today’s prices. The following year it made its racing debut, and it was set to win the Targa Florio when forced to withdraw due to a minor accident when the driver was temporarily blinded by mud.
In 1912, Alfa launched the 15-20 hp, and the 40-60 hp arrived in 1913. This car’s six litre engine powered it to second place overall in the Parma-Poggio Berceto hillclimb. Next year, Giuseppe Merosi built the first Alfa Grand Prix car in which driver Giuseppe Campari covered a kilometre at more than 147 km/h.
The outbreak of World War One and consequent limited resources brought difficulties for the company. On 2, December 1915 it was taken over by the Neapolitan engineer and entrepreneur Nicola Romeo. The Portello plant, which employed 2,500 people at the time, was extended to handle military orders. At this time it was producing motor-driven compressors, munitions, aircraft engines and, from 1917, rolling stock.
Nicola Romeo
With peacetime the company was forced to change again. It sought out new markets, manufacturing drills, tractors and more rolling stock. Although Romeo bought companies in Saronno, Rome and Naples, he did not forget about cars because in 1920 the Torpedo 20-30 hp appeared - the first vehicle to bear the new company name of Alfa Romeo. A 22-year old by the name of Enzo Ferrari secured second place in the Targa Florio at the wheel of one of these cars.
1921 - 1930
Like all other European countries, Italy underwent a political, social and economic crisis during the immediate post-war years. Factories were occupied and currency devalued. The dollar was quoted at little more than five lire in 1914, but rose to nearly 30 lire six years later. In 1921, Banco Nazionale di Sconto, the main shareholder of Ansaldo in Genoa, Ilva in Piombino and Alfa Romeo, collapsed. The government was forced to intervene and set up a special body (IRI) to subsidise these industries. The following year protesters marched on Rome, and even though the first locomotive built by the company was produced at the Saronno workshop, Alfa Romeo remained in difficulties.
The RL model, however, met with considerable success in 1923, when it took first, second and fourth places in the Targa Florio. At the Savio circuit the Baracca family gave Enzo Ferrari the prancing horse symbol that he was later to use on all his own cars. Merosi built the Grand Prix Romeo that later became the P1. Designer Vittorio Jano arrived from Fiat and began work on the P2.
P2 Grand Prix car
A period of great technical innovation and sporting success then began to unfold. The reliability of Alfa’s engines was indisputable and the talent of its drivers a byword for skill on racetracks across Europe. Among them were Antonio Ascari, Gastone Brilli Peri, Giuseppe Campari, Enzo Ferrari, Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi.
1931 - 1940
The world economic crisis triggered by the Wall Street Crash of 1929 affected Alfa’s growth and, in 1933, the Italian State’s Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI) was forced to intervene.
The same year, the company pulled out of racing and its 8C 2300 B models were entrusted to Ferrari. The results were outstanding when it is considered that Alfa won more races than all other manufacturers during 1934, and in 1936 the company’s sporting activities actually forced standard production to take a back seat!
8C 2900 B
Two years later came the 8C 2900 B Lungo. The Touring version of this car was the most representative Alfa of the period; its mighty bonnet an intoxicating symbol of style and power. Alfa Romeo’s tradition of making standard production models to exactly the same mechanical and engine specifications as their race-winning counterparts really paid off when this car took the first three places in the Mille Miglia. In 1938, Jano resigned and, from then on, racing cars were designed by Gioacchino Colombo and Luigi Bazzi under the supervision of Wilfredo Ricart.
Strategic decisions had to be made during this period, and IRI directed Alfa’s manufacturing activities toward commercial vehicles and aero engines. In 1931 the first truck, the Bussing 50, appeared, followed by the 85C and the 350 Diesel, later to be adopted by the Fire Brigade. In 1935, the T85G won an international race for petrol-engined trucks over the Rome-Brussels-Paris route.
The delivery of more than 2000 vehicles to the Italian army during its Ethiopian campaign only served to strengthen Alfa Transport’s reputation for reliability. The truck version of the 500 model offered an excellent payload of 11,000 kg and its bus version won plaudits for styling, passenger comfort and a top speed of 68 km/h. The 110A provided public transport in Rome, Milan and Genoa.
Alfa engines were also the world’s best in aviation. They owed their success to the use of state-of-the-art materials such as Duralfa, a light aluminium alloy used to build propellers, pistons, cylinder heads and other components.
In 1939 the 135 was unveiled, a twin-row 18-cylinder radial engine that developed nearly 2000 hp and was the most powerful unit of its time. Some 150 of these were produced for the Luftwaffe. The 126, 127 and 128 set and beat 13 flying boat and aircraft world speed, height and distance records. Aeronautical output accounted for nearly 80 per cent of Alfa’s annual turnover and a new plant was built at Pomigliano d’Arco (Naples) at the end of the decade to meet growing demand, some of it from abroad. This had a positive impact on workforce numbers, which rose from 1000 to 14,000 in the space of seven years. On 10, June 1940, however, Italy joined Germany in World War Two and the company’s ambitious plans were overturned.
1941 – 1950
Like most of the Italian industry, Alfa was forced to carry out war work and its plants suffered from allied bombing raids as a result. Northern Italy also had to contend with the German occupation after September 1943. It was difficult to find raw materials and there was also a fear that entire departments would be transferred to Germany. Yet somehow the company managed to maintain its high engineering standards. In 1942, for example, a three-engined Italian SM75 powered by Alfa 128 units flew the 20,000 kilometres to Tokyo and back. After a bombing raid on 20 October 1944, however, the Portello plant ceased all activities.
After the war, nothing was left standing in which to build aviation engines or buses, let alone cars. So the 8000 Portello employees built electric cookers, steel furniture, fixtures, fittings and blinds – anything that the community needed to rebuild.
6C Villa d'Este
Cars were not built again until 1946 when the factory began to turn out pre-war 6C 2500 cars. Out on the track, the company raced 158s salvaged from the ruins. Then the new versions (Freccia d’Oro and Villa d’Este) arrived with their innovative steering wheel-mounted gear shift. Everyone liked them, including VIPs of the period. Rita Hayworth, Tyrone Power, Prince Ranieri of Monaco and King Farouk of Egypt all owned these cars.
In 1950 the 1900 was launched – the first Alfa with a unitary body designed by Orazio Satta Puliga (who joined the company in 1938). Sporting triumphs began to accumulate. The Alfa 158 enjoyed absolute supremacy in Grands Prix and won the world championship in 1950 with Farina at the wheel.
Alfa also resumed production of commercial vehicles, aircraft and marine engines as well as diesel power units for industrial application. In 1948 IRI was reorganised and Alfa passed into the hands of subsidiary holding company, Finmeccanica. These promising events were interspersed with sadder episodes: Ugo Gobbato was mysteriously killed in Milan in 1945 and racing drivers Varzi, Trossi and Wimille all died.
1951 - 1960
As De Gasperi, Adenuer and Schuman laid the foundations for a future European Union, and international politics was dominated by the cold war, the Italians dreamed of prosperity and a time when everyone would own their own car. Only one in every 96 Italians owned a car in 1949. This figure rose to one in 28 in 1958 and one in 11 in 1963. Italy’s gross domestic product also increased by 6.3 per cent per year between 1955 and 1960.
Fangio
After the success of the 1900 (some 20,000 were built), Alfa’s automotive business took on an industrial dimension. In 1951, Fangio won the world F1 championship at the wheel of a 159 fitted with the most powerful 1500 cc engine ever built. It produced 425 horsepower and was capable of more than 300 km/h. Immediately thereafter, Alfa decided to withdraw from Grand Prix racing. It continued to compete in other races, however, and produced the lens-shaped ‘1900 Disco Volante’ with a top speed of 225 km/h for this purpose.
The Giulietta Sprint Coupé, forerunner of so many successful models, arrived in 1954. This was the must-have 1300 of its day, and nearly 28,000 were sold. The 1955 Spider version was one of the finest open-topped cars of all time. It was a typically Alfa blend of style, personality and mechanical sophistication that somehow managed to express all the creative enthusiasm and will to thrive that underpinned the Italian economic boom of the early Sixties. The car’s success allowed Alfa to extend its presence overseas. The Giulietta Spider was created in response to demand from the US importer, which ordered 600.
The 2000 went into production in 1958. This box-like saloon was joined by a Spider and Coupé. During the following year, production began on a Dauphine utility model (under licence from Renault) in order to maintain production at adequate levels.
Production of commercial vehicles and Saviem diesel engines continued at Pomigliano d’Arco. The US jeep-inspired 1900 AR51 (better known as the Matta) was built for the army, while a multi-purpose light commercial vehicle known as the Romeo was built for the general public. In 1956, engineer Filippo Surace joined Alfa Romeo. Twenty years later he would take over from Orazio Satta Puliga. Alfa Romeo was to be indebted to him for, among other things, the 33, 75, 90 and 164.
1961 – 1970
The Sixties began in a rosy glow of optimism. Italy had just hosted the Olympic Games and was experiencing an economic boom.
Alfa Romeo had now become a group with subsidiary companies of its own, and had outgrown the Portello headquarters, which was being swallowed up by all the new building work going on in Milan. The company, therefore, built a new plant at Arese that covered an area of more than 2.5 million square metres, and production was gradually transferred there. A track was also built at Balocco (Vercelli) to test prototypes. Because demand for cars was predicted to rocket, Alfa Romeo also built another site at Pomigliano d’Arco (the first brick was laid on 29 April 1968). Engineer Rudolf Hruska was commissioned to design and build a new car, and thus the Alfasud took shape.
Giulia TZ2
One of the most representative cars of that period was the Giulia. It arrived in 1962 and, like other models, was destined to diversify into an extensive range of saloons and sporting models. More than one million were sold over the next 14 years. To put these figures into context, the company built almost 35,000 cars in total between 1910 and 1955, but total production had risen to around 500,000 cars by 1970.
The 2600 also dates from 1962 and was the first Alfa equipped with disc brakes.
The Spider 1600 ‘Duetto’ with its ‘cuttlefish’ profile appeared in 1966. It was taken to America on the transatlantic liner Raffaello and was made famous by the feature film The Graduate, starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft.
The 1750 came along the following year to replace the Giulia saloon. It was a fast, safe car with excellent roadholding. The Giulia Coupé version exhibited at the Montreal International Motor Show in 1967 was a prestigious sports car that was later fitted with a 2500 engine.
33-3 Le Mans
In 1968, the company took over a majority shareholding in the Brazilian Fabrica Nacional de Motores (FNM), where it produced trucks and cars such as the 2300 and 2300B (1974-80). In 1963 it also set up a company called Autodelta, under the guidance of Carlo Chiti, to look after all racing activities. The new firm was responsible for producing racing versions of the 33 (2.0 and 3.0 litre) and the 8 and 12 cylinder 3.0 litre boxer engines. Autodelta also produced marine engines and was successful in world powerboat championships. The hard work paid off and, in 1967, a Giulia GTA snatched the European Championship from under the noses of Porsche, BMW and Ford. Three years later, Alfa collaborated with McLaren to produce a 3.0 V8 engine that was later used by the British team in Formula One.
The company serviced aircraft engines (no fewer than 17 were displayed during the International Show at Paris Le Bourget in 1968) and also built them: the J85-13 A power unit was launched in 1970.
1971 - 1980
Socio-political problems and energy crises were the dominant themes of the Seventies. Far-reaching repercussions of the '68 protests led to difficult political times in Italy (the Aldo Moro assassination in 1978) and also to social difficulties (factories were occupied and some managers were injured and even murdered). The economy suffered as a result: inflation went into double figures and car sales dwindled. By 1970, out of 6.6 million cars sold throughout the nine member countries of the EEC, only 1.3 million (or 19 per cent) were Italian.
By 31 August 1971 the Alfa Romeo Group with its 32,500 employees was forced to face up to a difficult economic situation and the problem of insufficient funds. Despite this, it presented new models such as the 2000 saloon (1971), the Alfetta GTV coupé (1974), the Alfetta 2000 TD – the first Italian car with a turbodiesel engine (1976), a new Giulietta (1977) and the top-of-the-range Alfa 6 with its brand new 2500 cc V6 engine (1979). The Alfasud met with a considerable success: 28,000 cars were produced in 1972. It was the company's first front-wheel drive car, and 70,000 were built in 1973.
Alfa continued to do well on the race track. The 33 TT 12 won the World Makes Championship (1975) while the 33 SC 12 won the World Sportscar Championship (1977). In 1978, the Alfa Team tied for third place with Brabham in the Formula One Constructors’ league table.
In 1978, Alfa Romeo also signed an agreement with General Electric to build the CF6-32 aircraft engine. The following year it produced the first turbo aero engine to be built in Italy: the 600 bhp AR 318.
Luraghi, chairman since 1957, resigned in January 1974. He was replaced for a few months by Ermanno Guani and later by Gaetano Cortesi who stayed until June 1978. Alfa’s top management team was then headed by Ettore Massacesi as Chairman, and Corrado Innocenti as Managing Director. The task of restructuring the business and introducing new manufacturing processes fell to this pair.
1981 - 1990
By 1 January 1981, Alfa Romeo SpA was the parent company of the group and thus responsible for control, finance and strategic planning in four sectors.
In 1985, the Italo-Japanese company Cosmo Ventures Incorporated was set up to sell the Spider 3000 and Alfa 75 in Japan. The following year, an agreement with Chrysler allowed Alfa Romeo to sell the Alfa 164 in North America, where the Spider 2000 and GTV6 2.5 were already present.
Yet the financial and market situation became increasingly difficult. IRI decided to sell off the automotive business and so, Alfa Romeo was taken over by the Fiat Group in November 1986. Following that agreement, it was also decided to close down Arna, (Alfa Romeo Nissan Automobili, an Italo-Japanese company set up to produce Alfasud Boxer-engined cars).
Alfetta GTV6
The three most representative cars of the decade were the 33 (also launched in Station Wagon and 4x4 versions in 1983), the 90 (1984), the 75 (created to mark the company's 75th birthday) and the 164 in 1987, the first Alfa Romeo produced as part of the Fiat Group. In the sporting field, the GTV6 became European Touring Champion in 1985, while in 1988 the 75 Turbo Evoluzione was successful in the Italian Speed Touring Championship.
Alfa light commercial vehicles also did well. The Italian Customs and Excise became one of the biggest customers for the F12 van. The AR 8 and AR 6 models were offered in no fewer than 24 versions: multipurpose vehicles, school buses, window vans and the Ravello camper van, to name but a few. Alfa Avio was also sold off when IRI's industrial activities were further rationalised. It was initially taken over by Aeritalia, but then in 1996 was aquired by FiatAvio.
1991 - 2000
All conquering 155
The first Alfa Romeo 155 left the Pomigliano plant in 1992, and one year later the V6 TI version won the prestigious DTM, the German Touring Car Championship. The 145 and 146 three and five-door hatchbacks were introduced, while new Spider and GTV models produced at Arese continued a proud niche model tradition. They feature Alfa’s new 16v production engine. The Proteo concept car was introduced in 1991 while the stylish, sporty Nuvola prototype (1996) hinted at the memory of Nuvolari's sporting triumphs. The SZ and RZ limited production sports cars, based on the 75 3 litre, are launched. Alfa’s famous V6 engine gains a 24 valve head.
Great success came with the arrival of the 156 sports saloon, which won the Car of the Year title in 1998. Then came the 166 luxury sedan. The first common-rail diesel engine, the five cylinder 2.4 JTD, was launched by Alfa Romeo in the 156. During 2000, Alfa's 90th birthday was marked by the arrival of the 156 Sportwagon, a fine blend of Alfa Romeo experience, engineering and style. Alfa's new compact hatchback, the 147, was launched in the autumn of 2000. Its heritage was clearly visible in its dramatic design which took styling cues from some of the most stunning of Alfa Romeo’s cars of the past nine decades.
2001 – 2010
8C Competizione
The 147 was awarded the prestigious Car of the Year 2001, adjudicated by top European journalists. Alfa diesel engines become more sophisticated with m-jet technology. The new 159, Brera and Spider ranges were launched with new engines and 4-wheel drive for the higher powered versions. The 8C Competizione was designed as a limited edition flagship sports coupe with only 500 made. The Alfa MiTo B-segment car is launched in 2008.
All Alfisti look forward to the 100th anniversary celebrations to be held in 2010.
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Which TV spy, who first became famous in the 60’s, did Henry Cavill play In a 2015 film? | Henry Cavill - Biography - IMDb
Henry Cavill
Biography
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Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (2) | Trade Mark (3) | Trivia (41) | Personal Quotes (67) | Salary (11)
Overview (4)
6' 1" (1.85 m)
Mini Bio (2)
Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill is a British actor. He was born on the Bailiwick of Jersey, a British Crown dependency in the Channel Islands.
His mother, Marianne (Dalgliesh), a housewife, was also born on Jersey, and is of Irish, Scottish, and English ancestry. Henry's father, Colin Richard Cavill, a stockbroker, is of English origin (born in Chester, England). Henry is the second youngest son, with four brothers. He was privately educated at St. Michael's Preparatory School in Saint Saviour, Jersey before attending Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, England.
Henry's interest in acting started at an early age with school play renditions of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and Sonny in "Grease". He also starred and directed Hamlet in "40 Minutes".
It was at the age of seventeen when Henry was discovered by casting directors at school who were looking for a young boy to play Albert Mondego in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002). He went on to star in Laguna (2001), appear in BBC's "The Inspector Lynley Mysteries", TV film Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002), and TV series Midsomer Murders (1997).
When Henry was twenty years old, he gained starring roles in I Capture the Castle (2003), Red Riding Hood (2006), Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005) (V) Tristan + Isolde (2006). He also had a minor role in Stardust (2007) alongside Sienna Miller and Ben Barnes.
During 2007-2010, Henry had a leading role in TV series The Tudors (2007) as Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk. The series was a hit and was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 and won an Emmy in 2008. Entertainment Weekly named him 'Most Dashing Duke'.
He also starred in Blood Creek (2006) and Woody Allen's comedy film Whatever Works (2009). On January 30, 2011, it was announced that Henry Cavill had been cast as the next Superman in Man of Steel (2013), making him the first non-American actor to play Superman. Man of Steel (2013) was directed by Zach Snyder , produced by Christopher Nolan , and scripted by David S. Goyer .
His dream role is to play Alexander the Great
Likes rugby, but no longer plays due to injuries.
Author Stephanie Meyer based the description of Edward Cullen in her Twilight novels on Henry and even lobbied for him to play the role before Robert Pattinson was cast, but was considered too old to play a 17-year old by the time the movie was produced.
In 2005, Henry became a young contender for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale (2006), and performed in a final screen test. However, the producers believed Henry was too young for the role, and gave it to Daniel Craig . He also under heavy consideration and auditioned for the role of Superman in Superman Returns (2006), but eventually the role was given to Brandon Routh . Due to all this, Empire Magazine dubbed Henry Cavill "the most unlucky man in Hollywood" in December 2005.
Says if he hadn't picked up acting, he would have joined the armed forces to fulfill his "patriotic pride".
Has an interest in Ancient History, especially in Egyptology, Greek, and Ancient Rome.
In being cast as Superman in Man of Steel (2013), he becomes the third British actor to play the lead role in reboot of a successful screen adaptation of an American comic book series. Before him, Christian Bale was cast as Batman, and Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man.
The first non-American actor to play Superman.
Is a fan of video games.
Lost two roles to Robert Pattinson : Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and the role of Edward Cullen in Twilight (2008) which author Stephanie Meyer had described him as "Perfect for".
His favorite film is Gladiator (2000).
His favorite actor is Russell Crowe . He will be playing the son of Crowe's character Jor-El in Man of Steel (2013).
Has a knack for languages. He's already fluent in French, has conversational skills in Italian and German, and can order a beer in Czech.
Started a tradition in 2012 for giving out commemorative coins as a token of appreciation to people he has worked with. They include Gym Jones who helped Henry get physically fit for Superman, and crew members of Man of Steel (2013), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016).
Henry's last name 'Cavill' is pronounced like the word 'travel'.
Resides in London, United Kingdom and Jersey, Channel Islands.
His older brother, Major Niki Richard Dalgliesh Cavill, received an MBE as a heroic Royal Marine for keeping the vulnerable safe in a hostile environment in Afghanistan.
Has worked with actor Bill Nighy twice, once in I Capture the Castle (2003) and also The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2001).
He is a big comic book fan although he says he did not get to read them growing up due to his time at boarding school.
His favorite Superman story lines and the ones he used for inspiration are "Death Of Superman", "Return Of Superman", "Superman: Red Son" and "Earth-One". He is also a big fan of Grant Morrison's "New 52" work.
His favorite Superman story arc is "New Krypton" by Geoff Johns.
For his role as Clark Kent/Superman in Man of Steel (2013), he followed a strict work-out regimen and consumed 5000 calories a day for six months. He also dyed his hair black.
He did not watch any previous Superman films or television shows while making _Man Of Steel (2013)_, using the comics solely as a reference for his portrayal of Superman.
He achieved 6% body fat for Immortals (2011) and then went even further for Man of Steel (2013) where he achieved a body fat percentage of 3%, which is what body-builders reach during competitions.
During his childhood he was bullied a lot at school for his chubbiness and known as "Fat Cavill" because he was fat as a kid. He started to turn things around when he landed a role in the movie The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) where he had to lose a lot of weight to get the part. The biggest turning point came when he landed the lead role in Immortals (2011). Cavill went shirtless for half the movie and sported extremely chiseled eight pack abs that vowed the audience. He has never been called "fat" since then.
Played a role with the name Colley twice, and back to back. Soldier Colley in Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002) and Stephen Colley in I Capture the Castle (2003).
Was engaged to British Showjumper Ellen Whitaker in May 2011, but split up later that same year. They met at the 2009 Olympia International Horse Show in London.
Ranked the #1 "Sexiest Man" by Glamour (2013).
Voted as one of the "World's Sexiest Men" in a poll by Attitude (2013), behind Tom Daley .
While working as an extra in "A Beautiful Mind" (2001)_, Cavill asked Russell Crowe for advice about acting, since he had aspirations of pursuing a full-time career as an actor. A few days after their conversation, he received a box of gifts from Crowe that included a signed picture of him in Gladiator (2000) with the words, "Dear Henry: A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" written on it. Crowe would later play Henry's father in Man of Steel (2013).
He is the first actor since Christopher Reeve to play the role of Clark Kent/Superman in more than one film.
Good friends with Luke Evans , Jason Momoa , Luca Calvani , and Armie Hammer .
Henry's paternal grandparents, Richard Cavill and Gladys Jesse May Smith, were English. Henry's maternal grandfather, Alan Gardner Dalgliesh, was born in Guatemala, of English and Scottish descent, while Henry's maternal grandmother, Mary Kathleen O'Donnell, was Irish.
Bought an American Akita dog in January 2014 from Big Bear Akitas breeders in Arkansas, United States. Henry named him Kal, after his role as Superman. Fans have nicknamed his dog, Super Puppy.
Henry participated in the Combined Cadet Force (CCF) training programme during his time as a student at Stowe School.
Traditionally wears a signet "gentleman's" ring featuring his family coat of arms on the small finger of his left hand.
His fans have been called ''The Cavillry''.
Attended the London premiere of 'Suicide Squad' along with fellow 'Justice League' cast member Jason Mamoa in August 2016.
In 2002, he appeared in both The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and 'Goodbye, Mr. Chips (2002)(TV)'. Both were remakes of earlier films that originally starred Robert Donat in the title roles.
Admitted during an interview with Conan O'Brien that he narrowly missed the call from Zack Snyder, informing him that he had won the coveted role of Superman because he was busy playing World of Warcraft. Cavill said he only noticed Snyder's name on Caller ID at the last second and by the time he put his hand on the phone to pick it up, it was too late, so he called Snyder back immediately, jokingly stating he was busy saving someone's life.
Was director Martin Campbell's choice for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale, but he was outvoted by the producers who felt he was too young for the part.
Personal Quotes (67)
With Twilight (2008), there were all sorts of rumors going around, [but] I was never sent a script, never asked to be in the film... I think Stephenie Meyer wanted me initially when she saw me in The Count of Monte Cristo (2002), but by the time the movie went into pre-production I was too old. Batman ( Batman Begins (2005) ), I may have been spoken about in a room at some stage, but never auditioned or screen-tested. Superman ( Superman Returns (2006) ), yes, that came very close. And Bond ( Casino Royale (2006) ) came very close as well.
[on understanding the importance of playing Superman] Very much so, yes. It's important to do the role justice. There are a lot of people relying on me to do this well. I gladly accept that responsibility, and it's a great one to have because it's a wonderful opportunity. I don't let the pressures get to me because that's going to hinder my performance and, therefore, let people down. So I choose to ignore the pressure side of it and focus on doing justice to Superman.
[on how he got his eight pack for _Immortals (2011)_] You can train and train until you are blue in the face but you've got to diet, you've got to have that leanness because if you are not lean, your abs won't show. Of course the training has to be put in, but then you've to shed all the fat and keep the fat off. And that's how you get an eight pack.
[on the anxiety he faced before the filming of his shirtless scenes for Immortals (2011) where he was required to show a perfectly ripped eight-pack]It's very stressful waking up Monday morning and saying, 'Can I still see that vein in my abs?' You get the fear every morning, 'Do I look good enough?' And of course you do. But in your own head, you never look good enough. I had a big sense of pride. I was like, 'No shading. I don't want you to draw abs on me. I don't want you to put dirt in the right places. I just want to do it myself. I want to have the body.' It's a pride thing.
I suppose that when I'm building a character, it's usually related to what their family is like and who their parents are, as well as how I grew up - that nurture side.
[on the 'Man of Steel' version of Superman] We've given him a very human essence. As much as he's not susceptible to the frailties of the human physical body, he's very much susceptible to the frailties of the human psyche, and that is what really keeps us in touch with someone else, makes us go, 'I know your pain', or 'Yeah, I've felt that happy before'. We've brought that to the character.
[explaining the current fascination with super-heroes in tne movies] It's the same thing we've always needed, which is that sense of hope. There's always something wrong in the world. It just shifts depending on the generation. And it's always nice to have that fantasy where there's someone who's going to fix everything. It's beating the odds, and that's been the same with mythological characters since the dawn of time, since we could think up gods.
[on the Program he followed to achieve his Superman physique] It was work... a lot of work! I have always loved sports and physical activities, but I have never worked out like this before. To become Clark Kent, I had to be the best friend of Mark Twight, my trainer! The program involved three stages. The first was to gain weight/mass. So I spent weeks eating nearly 5000 calories daily while lifting extremely heavy, to grow bigger. I love eating, so this stage was not difficult for me, even though I can understand that some people end up having enough of drinking protein shakes 1000 calories a glass. At the end of this stage, I looked like a swole bodybuilder, and I felt like I was going to explode. The second stage was to lose fat to sculpt the muscles. I had to do hours and hours of cardio to burn all the fat. And in the last stage, we targeted specific areas of the body. Mark helped me to make my abs bulge out and my muscles more defined. The workout program was designed according to the needs of the film. The only thing I did not like is the rowing machine, a machine that simulates the movement of rowing. It is torture!
[on auditioning for the Superman role in Christopher Reeve's original costume] It was petrifying, mortifying and embarrassing all at the same time. I was coming off a movie where I had to be out of shape, and then I had gone through Christmas, so I was extra out of shape. I just had to throw on the Lycra-like outfit, and that never looks good when it's basically a sort of sausage casing.
Entering the acting world, it's a very lonely life. You all get so close, and then you promise to e-mail and text each other, but you never do. So that idea of being a sort of lone traveler I can definitely associate with.
[on whether his abs were digitally enhanced in Man Of Steel (2013)] Oh that's 100 per cent me, believe me. And I am not afraid of saying it because I went through hell to get them.
[on enjoying being Superman despite the hard work it entails] I'm really enjoying it, getting my hands dirty and just immersing myself in the job. I'm just coming off of a 45-day lean because there were various shirtless scenes and representing Superman in that physical way both efficiently and sufficiently for the fans. I'm sure you probably saw [the pictures] online over the past month. To lean and to train and to work 12 hours a day is taxing on the willpower and the body, but the stuff [images and footage] we're getting is fantastic. And I get to wake up every morning and say, "I'm Superman." I'm not complaining.
[on enjoying the experience of being in shape for Immortals (2011)] Training to that level is difficult enough but when you're also 'leaning' [stripping away all fat from the body to get ripped] for 10 months, it's insane. Being in that kind of shape is something everyone should do at least once. It's a great feeling - and I don't mean that in an arrogant way. You go to the gym, train hard and learn how far you can push yourself.
[on how his appearance changed after he had trained to become Superman] The body got harder and leaner. But the biggest change was the waist getting smaller. A lot smaller. I genuinely had to throw my clothes out, since my shoulders are too big and my waist is too small. Everything just doesn't fit like it used to. I have never been this big.
[on how he is able to achieve such great results in the gym] I'm incredible strong-willed and if I decide I'm going to do something then I won't stop until it's done. I'm driven. There are points during training where you could slow down and not beat your previous numbers or keep going and definitely puke. There's a switch in your head where you say 'sod it'... And you do it. I never collapse after a workout. You don't lie there like you are defeated, you stay standing.
[on being asked whether he looks like Superman] When my hair is longer, I wouldn't say as much. But yeah, I guess there's a certain resemblance.
[on why he maintains his buff physique even when not filming Superman] If I'm walking around an unhealthy mess, it might damage people's idea of what Superman is. So there is a responsibility.
[on being disappointed that he had to get out of shape for Cold Light Of Day] I had to get out of shape for the job in between [Immortals and Man Of Steel] - The Cold Light Of Day. My brief for that was, "Look like a regular person, you look too fit. No push-ups, no sit-ups, just eat pizza and burgers and drink beer." As everything starts to soften up, you're going, "Oh no, all that hard work I just wasted." I'm now in shape again. I got [my muscle definition] back and I plan on not losing it. I don't care what they offer me."
[on the rewards of working out constantly] There is a reward. As much as it hurts and painful as you are going through it, when you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, you go "Okay! This is why I am doing it. That makes sense."
[on feeling stressed before filming his shirtless scenes for Immortals] I felt the pressure at that point. I had to be in a certain kind of shape, it was getting close to punch day, and I only had so long left to recondition the body. I was a bit stressed over that. That's been the most difficult thing, just maintaining that throughout.
[Which film does he think he got in the best shape for] The body types of Superman [Man of Steel] and Theseus [Immortals] are very different. Training related to Theseus is very much a body weight, cardiovascular type training which will give a very lean, and not bulky body. Whereas Superman is very much a weight lifting program with an awful lot of power workouts as well which creates a far larger broader body. I am twenty pounds heavier as Superman, but just as lean as Theseus. It is all down to personal preference in the end.
[on the challenge of the Immortals shoot] Getting in shape was a tough challenge. It was staying in shape, without going on a killing spree, which was the really difficult thing. At 6% body fat, you are working 14 hours days, doing fight choreography, getting half hour lunches, having to stay in shape, having to train when you can and not being able to eat much. It's a real challenge to keep yourself professional and not losing your temper while juggling all the training with it. That was the biggest challenge.
[on filming shirtless almost for the entire film Immortals] It's like wearing a permanent costume really. Before work when you look in the mirror, or even before looking in the mirror you do feel different. A part of the character is more expressive in you. When you're in that kind of shape, I essentially was wearing my costume because I barely had a costume. Yeah, it certainly does help.
[on the "leak" of his shirtless set photos from Man Of Steel] It's just one small sequence in the movie but people like to take a lot of photographs of it whenever they get the opportunity. I'm not necessarily being shot in the best, most flattering of lights [in the leaked photos], but I put the hard prep work into it. It'll help when people see these photos beforehand, to sell them more on the character. The best part is people are seeing all the work that's gone into it. I think I won a lot of people over. When you are doing it all for them, its wonderful to have people online going, "This is great, this is amazing, I can't wait. Thank goodness it's him." It's wonderful!
[on how playing Theseus in Immortals prepared him for playing Superman] The physical experience prepped me for [Superman's] physical experience. I've learned that when you go to this kind of level, it's no longer about the physical, it's more about the mental. It's about the will power to push yourself into that very dark place. You're standing next to the precipice and you've got that weight on your shoulders and you're only halfway through the workout and you need to push yourself off and just go into that big fuck-off black hole and keep on pushing, and Immortals prepped me for that emotionally and mentally in the physical sense.
[on himself being impressed with how he looked on screen] I have shrunk down to a more normal size now. You should have seen me then. I was considerably bigger. There are a couple of shots of me that I think, 'My goodness. I was definitely a large chap.'
[on being careful about taking off his shirt in public] Due to the nature of the public eye and the media, it could be a risky move [to be shirtless in public] without being in wicked shape, even taking your shirt off at the beach. You set yourself up for too much criticism and speculation on the Internet. So, I'm keeping all my semi-nudity private for now.
[on shaving his chest for Immortals] It is extremely excruciating but I gotta say waxing has its advantages in that you end up looking more defined.
[on feeling worried about his shirtless scenes] You are sitting there going, 'I haven't done enough, I haven't done enough! I need to do more. I am not lean enough. I am not big enough'.
[on his first interaction with Mark Twight, his trainer for Superman] He asked, 'Would you like to use steroids or HGH (human growth hormone) to get to where you want to go?' I immediately said no. And he said, 'Good. Because if you did, I wouldn't train you.' To take a shortcut to get to that place is not what Superman represents. That was important to me.
[on his muscles ripping his clothes open] [In the middle of the filming] of Man of Steel, I had a suit tailored for the Immortals premiere. At that stage, I was at my very leanest, it was just after shooting my shirtless scenes [for Man of Steel]. At the very end of the [filming of Man of Steel], I put that suit on again for a photoshoot we were doing and I ripped the seams, the inside seams, just because my thighs were that much bigger.
[on deliberately trying to pick different roles from Superman] I definitely chose this role [The Man from U.N.C.L.E.], to be contrary to Superman. Because when you have a movie of that size [Man of Steel] come out it's human inclination to say 'I now know what that person is', and you have to fight against that as an actor. Not that I am going to go crazy and play a meth-head transsexual guy, but I want the freedom to show the audience that I have range. The first time people saw me on a world scale was Superman and that's not necessarily what I do.
[on whether money is important in the movie business] All those people who say, 'Oh no, the money doesn't matter.' Yeah, right. They're either mad, or they're lying. I mean, come on. 'Oh no, don't pay me anything, it's for the arts.' I'm sorry, no. Pay me the money. I'm not doing it for charity. I'm not a nonprofit organization.
[on wanting to be a leading man in Hollywood] I want to be one of those names that producers want to hire because you put bums on seats.
[on what he has to give up while keeping in shape for Superman] Guinness is what I crave, but it is not ideal for six pack abs.
[on the difference between playing the iconic roles of Superman and Napoleon Solo] When I get my shirt off [as Solo], I don't have to be looking completely shredded because [Solo's] just a spy in the 60's in a movie which doesn't take itself too seriously. Taking your shirt off for a movie involves starving yourself, and that's no fun when you are working 15-hour days. I look great, have an eight pack [as Superman], but it was a relief just to focus on the acting [as Solo].
[on not having abs in Man From U.N.C.L.E.] There's on season and there's off-season. And its enjoyable being off-season [as Napoleon Solo] because when you are on season [as Superman] it's hard work and you are starving. As much as everyone loves the idea of guys have six packs and eight packs, you are starving when you have them. It looks good but its no fun.
[on how he plans to succeed in Hollywood] There are people who are better looking than I am and people who are better actors than I am. I just have to beat them to the chase.
[on Man from U.N.C.L.E.] It's my favorite movie so far.
[on girls always expecting him to have a Superman physique] There's a blessing in being Superman. You get more attention. But there's also a curse, which is that you'd better fucking look like Superman any time you need to get your kit off. I'm very self-critical and I use that to motivate myself. I would refuse to believe girlfriends who reassured me that my weight is fine. If I look in the mirror, I might say, 'You're looking good!' Other days, because I'm off-season and haven't been training, I tell myself, 'Look at you, you fat fuck, you're a mess. If you were to meet a bird out in a bar and bring her home, she's expecting Superman. This is not Superman and she's going to be mega-disappointed.'
[on getting an erection while filming a sex scene] A girl had to be on top of me, she had spectacular breasts, and I hadn't rearranged my "stuff" into a harmless position. She's basically rubbing herself all over me and, um, it got a bit hard. It's not great when you're in a professional acting environment and somebody gets a boner, is it? I had to apologize profusely afterward.
[on who is cooler between Napoleon Solo and Superman] Napolean Solo is cooler. As far you rate someone by just interacting with them, Napolean would be far more enjoyable to interact with.
[on his dream to be James Bond one day] Bond would be wonderful to play one day. I wouldn't play the same kind of character as Daniel Craig, but hopefully I can do something that will do justice to the legacy. Barbara or Mike [the producers], if you're reading this, give me a call...
[on the prospect of using Tinder] Superman can hardly go on Tinder, can he? Actually it would probably be a lot easier...
[on sex scenes being unsexy to film] You don't think of sex scenes as showing your bum to the nation. It's actually acutely uncomfortable being naked in a roomful of people. The very last thing it is is sexy. The actual physicality is very uncomfortable. All you're doing is smacking your nuts against someone, and nothing is going in.
[on who would he pick between Wonder Woman and Louis] Who is better for a super-powered alien, a human [Lois] or a goddess [Wonder Woman]? The goddess can do all the things which we would think are normal in a relationship, and not have any fear of Superman. But you also need to have that baseline of humanity, which Lois provides. So that's more of a debate than an answer.
[on the effect Superman has had on his love life] When you meet girls, you almost have to prove yourself doubly as a man because they think, "Oh, he's probably a dick." I need to get better at approaching women. But boo-hoo, it's not that bad!
[on whether he'd ever consider losing his physique for a role] I'd prefer not to, to be honest.
[on how is he different from Napoleon Solo] I'm not quite as much of a rogue as Solo.
[on what motivates him to keep playing Superman] [To continue to expand on Superman] and the money. There are some actors out there who are all, 'Hey, I live in a cardboard box and I'll perform on that cardboard box if I have to.' That's pretty much bullshit. Acting pays well. And anyone who says they don't like money is being ridiculous. Money is lovely. Nice things are lovely.
[on his Internet detractors] When you go on the Internet forums, you're peeking behind the curtain. You think, 'Why are they being so nasty? It's weird, because there's no accountability. Someone can quite happily write a diatribe about how much of a dick I am. But if they met me in real life, I know what they'd probably say - 'Can I have a picture with you?'
[on being a fan of Outlander and Sam Heughan] Outlander I thought was absolutely spectacular. It's so good I watched it from beginning to end in almost one night. I couldn't stop. Jamie is a Scottish Superman, for sure!
[on developing an action star physique for Hollywood] In The Tudors I'd been in fine shape. But by the time I appeared in Immortals I was [so] sculpted [I looked as if I'd walked off the set of 300.] I didn't go that way for the sake of becoming an action actor. But there's a demand that you look a certain way in Hollywood. Man of Steel was the first time I had to bulk up in the full-on action-movie style, and I enjoyed it enormously. It's torture, but you enjoy the results that work brings. That's what excites me. It's rewarding.
[on the experience of playing Superman the first time as opposed to the second time] It's like shagging someone for the first time. Sometimes it turns out to be amazing. Mostly you're trying to get each other's rhythm going. It's on the next go that you start to expand. That's why I do [Superman]. You can't be pissed off at the idea of playing Superman for the rest of your life. It's a wonderful role. There's a huge potential there for complex storytelling, and I'm looking forward to exploring those avenues. People think Kryptonite can beat him. No. The only thing that can really beat Superman is Superman. His own moral choices. When you have that to start with, the storytelling can really delve into something rich. Come on, it's Superman! You can't think, 'Oh sorry, I'm just the granddaddy of all superheroes. It's such a pain.'
[on his biggest fashion faux-pas] I wore a terracotta double breasted suit recently in Rome, and people had a love-hate relationship with that jacket, but if I like it, then fuck everyone else.
[on the challenges of appearing shirtless on film] There's a period of gaining mass, when you consume vast amounts of fats, carbs, and proteins, combined with a heaving lifting regimen; that's followed by a "cut," when your caloric intake is drastically lowered and the fat essentially melts away to reveal chiseled muscle. The mass build is the fun part. You get to eat a lot, and you're lifting heavy weights. You feel really good because you've got big numbers going on the plates. But you're always aware that you'll have to eat less and start breathing more in order to show the muscles and the striations. It creeps up on you. That's the less-fun part. A lower caloric intake can also affect your moods. I had to be aware of my temper and try not to snap at people on the set. It's only during the final "leaning down" for the day of a shirtless shoot that food cravings begin to kick in.
[on why he developed an eight-pack physique for Immortals] Tarsem's brief was that he didn't want a "big" guy, he wanted a very ripped, very lean, very Greek statuesque type thing. He said after the very first meeting, "I don't want a six-pack, I want an eight-pack". I was far from having even a six-pack then, [let alone an eight-pack]. But I took it as a challenge. So I went for it.
[on always agreeing to take pictures with fans] People are very polite. They come up and ask (before taking a picture), and that makes a big difference. When people come up and ask, it's like, 'OK, yes, of course.' Rather than, 'Hey could you stop taking a photo of me across the room because there's going to be one bad shot of me and that's the one you're going to put on the Internet? Don't do that.'
[on competing at training and physical appearance with co-star Ben Affleck] We were training with different people, so there was no direct comparison. But there's always going to be competition between two men if they want to be superheroes.
[on putting his muscular Superman physique into suits for Man from UNCLE] I definitely had a bit of a problem with the suits. I don't normally keep a suit-blessed shape so the tailors had some struggles but it worked out in the end.
[on the extent to which he can deviate from his current physique] It's not as if I am going to be able to play a POW and then Superman again. My commitment lies with Superman first. Staying in shape is a point of professional necessity now. Working out has become a lifestyle choice for me. I've put on 30 pounds of muscle for this movie but calm it down to 10 pounds between films. To play Superman every two years I maintain a base level of 'extremely fit' before ramping it up to 'ridiculously cut' for filming.
[on playing his rivalry with Ben Affleck on set] Ben Affleck and I didn't compare biceps or see who could do the most sit-ups. We filmed our shirtless scenes separately and we didn't train at the same place either. Having said that, there was a form of rivalry, of competition, between us on the set. This was deliberate. The two characters absolutely can't stand each other in the film, and Ben and I wanted this to come across in every scene.
[his dating top for young men like himself] Stop looking to get laid, and look for someone who can make you the better version of you. That's going to make you happier, more than just getting laid will.
[on being comfortable with not always having his Superman body] I've found a comfortable balance, because we all like to go out for drinks and dinners and all the nice things in life, and not be a complete gym psycho. I stay fit enough to feel comfortable with taking my shirt off at the beach, because someone's going to take a photo,and then it won't all of a sudden be, "Hey look, fat Superman!" in the Daily Mail or something like that. It'll just be, "Hey, look, Henry Cavill at the beach," and I won't be ashamed to see that photo.
[on the importance of having a trainer in the gym] It's very important to have someone who can advise you on diet and what you're doing, as far as training is concerned. Thankfully, I have my trainer, Michael Blevins. If I say, "I want to have bigger hamstrings. They're nice and strong, but I want them to be bigger. What do I do?" He goes, "OK, cool. Well, do this, this, and this." Once you get to the level of being fit, there are days when you go, "Today I just want to dig a very deep hole and jump into it." Then sometimes you think, "I'm going to hurt myself today. Let's see if I still bleed." It's just going there, breathing, getting some endorphins flowing. Maybe you want to work on some muscle groups. Maybe you want to get leaner. So you can set tasks for yourself.
[on educating fans through his workout posts] A lot of working out today is, "Let's make it an easy fix." Do this, and do that, and you've got 60-second abs. There's no quick fix. Through my Instagram and my social media, I'm trying to send the message out there that it's a process. I like to get it out there that you don't have to endure a psychotic, agonizing workout. You don't have to leave it all on the floor every time. Hopefully through my social media I can help educate people.
[on his hesitation to lose his great physique for a role] I'm not going to be like, "Hey, I'm going to do a big fat-man role or a really skinny role because that's what all the big actors do these days!" I'm not going to choose work to make people go, "Oh, wow, he can really act because he can lose lots of weight!" If it were something I really cared about and I really wanted to have, like, an effect on an audience because it's subject matter that's very, very important to me, and I wanted to get it out there, then yeah, I could see myself doing it. Otherwise, no.
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What is the state capital of Louisiana? | 9 things you need to know about trailblazing TV series The Man from UNCLE
9 things you need to know about trailblazing TV series The Man from UNCLE
Your nine-step guide to the original UNCLE series with Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.
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The Man from UNCLE review: A fizzy antidote to 007
Suave spy caper The Man From UNCLE opens this week, revamping the cult '60s TV series and bringing it to the big screen for the first time in nearly 50 years. If you've never seen the original show or its eight movie spin-offs, here's your handy guide to get you up to speed...
1. The Man From UNCLE was created by James Bond's Ian Fleming... sort of
© PA Images AP
The original idea to make a television series about a suave, sophisticated spy who travelled the world fighting villainy came from producer Norman Felton. He was interested in presenting each episode from the point of view of an innocent person - say, a housewife or a farmer - who find themselves drawn into an adventure beyond their wildest dreams.
In 1962, Felton pitched the idea to none other than James Bond creator Ian Fleming; based not on his links with 007, weirdly enough, but an exotic travel book the author had written named Thrilling Cities. Fleming almost immediately came up with the name of the lead character: Napoleon Solo. At first, Solo was just that – solo – but as the series was developed, he was given an agency to work for in the shape of a global network dedicated to fighting evil, later named UNCLE.
Fleming stayed with the project, now named Mr Solo, for a year, but legal complications arose because of the success of the early Bond movies and UNCLE's similarity to them, and the then-unwell Fleming was forced to back off. The Man From UNCLE kept going, however, and the first episode aired on NBC on 22 September 1964.
2. Despite the name, there were actually two men from UNCLE
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Robert Vaughn, best known for appearing in The Magnificent Seven – and having just finished filming TV show The Lieutenant, his first lead role – was cast as Napoleon Solo. He fit the template for the worldly, dapper spy perfectly, and had a certain rakish appeal that mimicked James Bond... but not so much that lawsuits might follow!
It was decided early on that Solo needed some sort of sidekick – a small role, someone who'd only appear now and again. To celebrate UNCLE's global reach, the new guy was given Russian nationality and the name Illya Kuryakin. The Great Escape star David McCallum was brought in to play him but, while Solo was the star of the show, Kuryakin was so popular that he slowly – and then rapidly – gained greater prominence in the scripts. However, the name of the show remained firmly "Man" and not "Men".
3. The show pretended that UNCLE was a real organisation
The United Network Command For Law And Enforcement does not exist; it was created purely for the series. And yet, if you look at the show's end credits, there's this disclaimer: "We wish to thank the United Network Command For Law And Enforcement, without whose assistance this programme would not have been possible."
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The reason for this curious message? The United Nations weren't very happy that people could associate their very real organisation with a fictitious one, and the producers decided a tongue-in-cheek name-check to UNCLE in the end credits would throw gullible viewers off the scent. And it was needed, too: many, many people thought that UNCLE was real, and the show received letters from viewers who wanted to join up!
4. The stars inspired pre-Beatlemania levels of hysteria
© Rex Shutterstock Everett Collection
It took most of its first season (which was shot in black and white before switching to colour in its second year) for The Man From UNCLE to gain an audience, but once it did, things went ballistic. Viewers loved its outlandish drama, humour, technological gadgets (including a pen that doubled as a communicator) and, most of all, its stars. Or, to be precise, one of them...
David McCallum's boyish good looks, Kuryakin's exotic accent and the fact that his character was deliberately shrouded in mystery combined to make him far more popular than Solo (a fact that Vaughn was, commendably, unbothered by). The stars made personal appearances all over the US to promote the show, and while there were huge crowds for Vaughn, the hysteria hit the stratosphere for his co-star.
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In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a scratched and bleeding McCallum was locked in a toilet while the police dealt with the ladies screaming for him outside – and, after it was deemed too dangerous for him to appear in New York after an unexpected 15,000 fans turned up, some of them stampeded through a department store. "They did a colossal amount of damage at Macy's," McCallum later recalled.
5. The show mostly focused on UNCLE vs THRUSH
© Rex Shutterstock Everett Collection
Every good-guy organisation needs an evil counterpart, and UNCLE's nemesis was THRUSH. Their name was never expanded on the show itself, but one of the tie-in books later spelt out the acronym as the hilariously unwieldy The Technological Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity.
6. Thanks to UNCLE, spies took over television
The Man From UNCLE hit the ratings jackpot and became one of the most talked-about shows of the early '60s – at one point, 10,000 letters a week were arriving from fans. Everybody wanted in on the spy action, and so TV-land suddenly became drenched in copycat shows: Mission: Impossible, The Wild, Wild West, Honey West, I, Spy and the spoof series Get Smart.
Not to be overshadowed, NBC also released their own spin-off in 1966: The Girl From UNCLE, which starred Stefanie Powers as April Dancer (another name thought up by Ian Fleming back in UNCLE's early days). Alas, it wasn't a hit and was cancelled after just one season.
UNCLE didn't limit itself to the small screen, either: eight elongated episodes were turned into films and released in cinemas around the world, to surprising success. They weren't short of decent guest stars: 'The Karate Killers' (1967) starred Joan Crawford.
7. The merchandising was insane
© Rex Shutterstock Moviestore Collection
The '60s may have been the early days of TV merchandising but UNCLE threw itself fully behind the idea. In addition to a range of books (the first of which sold more than a million copies), you could buy UNCLE guns, outfits, transmitters, magic tricks and, er, putty – apparently for fingerprinting purposes.
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Fans were also sent UNCLE membership cards, which were incredibly popular: some looked so official they could be used as IDs if people weren't paying attention! One thing that did surprise everybody, though, was the popularity of THRUSH membership cards asking, "What evil thing have you done today?" These were quickly withdrawn.
8. The show's fall was mighty
The Man From UNCLE reigned supreme over the airwaves for roughly two years, but by its third season some of the momentum was being lost – not least because the showrunners decided to up the humour to disastrous levels. One episode featured Solo fighting a man in a gorilla suit, and another had Kuryakin dressing up as a yeti. Unsurprisingly, the ratings started to fall.
Another thing that was out of the show's control was the changing tastes of young women. Those who'd been screaming over David McCallum the previous year were now falling under the charms of The Beatles. As soon as the charisma of the Liverpudlian mop-tops was translated to TV in The Monkees, Davy Jones effectively stole David McCallum's crown as king of the TV sex symbols, and The Man From UNCLE tumbled from the top of the ratings to near rock-bottom.
The final episode of season four aired on January 15, 1968 and The Man From UNCLE was dead. Or was it?
9. Like Star Trek, the show was cancelled in the '60s and then came back... but only briefly
After running from 1964-1968, The Man from UNCLE returned in 1983 in a TV movie called The Return of the Man from UNCLE: The Fifteen Years Later Affair. Vaughn and McCallum reprised their roles for one last mission fighting THRUSH, and while the script wasn't what you'd call dazzling or original, the film still came top of all shows the night it aired. However, a tentatively mooted new series didn't happen.
The reunion film was also notable for the fact that it contains a cameo from James Bond - kind of. Former 007 George Lazenby comes to Solo and Kuryakin's help in a brief scene that sees him driving an Aston Martin DB5 with the number plate "JB". Fleming may very well have approved!
The next outing for Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, this time in the shape of Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer, will begin on August 14 when Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE opens in cinemas.
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On whose radio show did Kenneth Williams play Rambling Sid Rumpo? | And now a cautionary tale sung by Rambling Sid Rumpo | Wilders Security Forums
And now a cautionary tale sung by Rambling Sid Rumpo
Discussion in ' ten-forward ' started by toploader , Sep 6, 2005 .
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Joe, he was a young cordwangler,
Munging greebles he did go,
And he loved a bogler's daughter
By the name of Chiswick Flo.
Vain she was and like a grusset
Though her gander parts were fine,
But she sneered at his cordwangle
As it hung upon the line.
So he stole a woggler's mooly
For to make a wedding ring,
But the Bow Street Runners caught him
And the judge said "He will swing."
Oh, they hung him by the postern,
Nailed his mooly to the fence
For to warn all young cordwanglers
That it was a grave offence.
There's a moral to this story,
Though your cordwangle be poor,
Keep your hands off other's moolies,
For it is against the law.
thank you Sid - i'm sure we are all the wiser for that sage advice
2,743
I spent more of my time with John Peel and Home Truths..but did get bent at times with the other stuff.
Well hello me dearioes....Now let us all burst forth together, so grundle your parts and away we go...
Rambling Syd Rumpo was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman for Round The Horne, the BBC radio comedy which ran between 1965 and 1968. Barry Took noted that their inspiration for the character came in part from real-life folk singers such as Bob Dylan and Julie Felix.
Although at first many of the words may appear vulgar, most were in fact completely made up, the entire thing being a send up of folk songs and sea shanty's which seemed to add words unnecessarily because the author could not think of what else to put. These lyrics are guaranteed to screeve your cordwangle and bring moulies to your possett.
here is some of the broadcasts.
http://www.stopmessinabout.co.uk/RambSyd.htm
'GruntFuttock' is the name of a character played by Kenneth Williams in a BBC radio comedy show in the 1960s, pre-"The Goon Show". It was a hugely smutty show headed by a quite old guy called Kenneth Horne, and was called (cleverly) Round The Horne. The GruntFuttock character was part of one of their particular scetches which illustrated a very smutty, very eccentric old Englishman in a very rural tiny seaside village (West Country, like Somerset, not like Brighton), whose favourite pasttime was something involving his 'cordwangler', and that a pretty young girl had some effect on his 'moolies'. Very puerile, but very BBC.
707
greetyngs Prymrose - y've heard it said that ramblyng Syd and the well known comedyan and raconteur Kenneth Wyllyams were one and the same person just as there are those who speculate that Wyllyam Shakespeare was Francys Bacon.
who knows? much of the truth is lost in the mysts of tyme back in the days of steam radyo.
Before The suggestive language of Round the Horne there was of course the Goons who were working within a strict BBC censorship policy designed to eliminate what the producers’ guide of the time referred to as “crudities” or “doubtful material”:
...."There is an absolute ban upon the following: jokes about lavatories, effeminacy in men, immorality of any kind, suggestive references to honeymooning couples, chambermaids, fig leaves, ladies’ underwear (eg. winter draws on), animal habits (eg. rabbits), lodgers, commercial travellers" ....
It was their delight to get forbidden phrases past their often comparatively unworldly producers. For example, the Goons invented a character William Cobbler, whose surname is rhyming slang (in full cobbler’s awls, “balls”; it is also the source of the popular London interjection cobblers!). Another was Hugh Jampton, that is, “huge hampton”, in which the second word is also rhyming slang: “Hampton Wick” (a London placename), meaning “prick” (from it comes the common London idiom “he gets on my wick”, meaning “he annoys me intensely".
Babylon
Round the Horne was cutting edge. The Julian and Sandy sketches, broadcasting Chelsea high camp to suburban living rooms.
Kenneth Williams was a tragic figure. He placed no value on his vast comic talent, if anything despised himself for what he considered an ignoble profession, and was tormented over his sexuality. He's often mentioned in Joe Orton's diaries, Orton portraying him as a permanently unhappy man. If I remember correctly it eventually emerged that his death was suicide, but the fact was hushed up at the time out of respect and affection for him.
The BBC's rules for comedy make interesting reading. You can speculate over how far the Beeb was concerned with 'decency', and how far it wanted to distance itself from the music hall tradition, which ran on a staple diet of what the BBC's guidelines blacklisted. Whether the issue wasn't more to do with class, separating light entertainment for the middle classes from the vulgar amusements of the hoi polloi.
Oh yeah, and cheers for posting the songs
707
cheers Meltdown - we genteel english have always been rather coy when it comes to vulgarity.
Back in 1914, the use of the phrase "Not bloody likely" on an English stage caused a national sensation. Upon the utterance of 'The Word', it was reported that there was "a few seconds of stunned disbelieving silence, and then hysterical laughter for at least a minute and a quarter". Contemporary newspapers delivered headlines such as 'THREATS BY DECENCY LEAGUE' and 'THEATER TO BE BOYCOTTED', and the Bishop of Woolwich reportedly proclaimed that "The Word should be banned".
Then we had the swinging sixties kicked off by Lady Chatterley's Lover - every other page was plastered with f**k or c**t - but it was a work of literature so it was all done in the best possible taste
Of course nowadays we are very sophisticated about the use of vulgarity in modern broadcasting (especially when Bob Geldof is being interviewed)
| Kenneth Horne |
Who played Rose Tyler on Doctor Who? | Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams
November 19, 2014 People
Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor and comedian. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows and radio comedies with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.[1][2]
Life and Career
Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King’s Cross, London,[3] the son of Louisa (“Lou” or “Louie”) Morgan and Charles Williams, a barber and strict Methodist. Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia “Pat”, born illegitimately before Louie had met Charlie Williams. He was educated at Lyulph Stanley School, later becoming apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He joined the Army in 1944 at 18. As part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay, he first performed on stage in the Combined Services Entertainment alongside Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols.[4] He was a voracious reader able to quote poems or literary extracts from memory. Excerpts from the diaries he kept as an adult show that he adored his supportive and theatrical mother but despised his homophobic, morose and selfish father.
Comic Performer
Williams’s professional career began in 1948 in repertory theatre. Failure to become a serious dramatic actor disappointed him, but his potential as a comic performer gave him his break when he was spotted playing the Dauphin in Bernard Shaw ‘s St Joan in the West End, in 1954 [5] by radio producer Dennis Main Wilson. Main Wilson was casting Hancock’s Half Hour, a radio series starring Tony Hancock. Playing mostly funny voice roles, Williams stayed in the series almost to the end, five years later.[6] His nasal, whiny, camp-cockney inflections (epitomised in his “Stop messing about … !” catchphrase) became popular with listeners.[7] Despite the success and recognition the show brought him, Williams considered theatre, film and television to be superior forms of entertainment.
When Hancock steered the show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams found he had less to do. Tiring of this reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–1968). His roles in Round the Horne included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick). Their double act contained double entendres and Polari, the homosexual argot.
Williams also appeared in West End revues including Share My Lettuce with Maggie Smith , written by Bamber Gascoigne, and Pieces of Eight with Fenella Fielding. The latter included material specially written for him by Peter Cook, then a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge.[8] Cook’s “One Leg Too Few” and “Interesting Facts” were part of the show and became routines in his own performances. Williams’s last revue was One Over The Eight at the Duke of York’s Theatre , with Sheila Hancock.[9][10] In 1972, Williams starred opposite Jennie Linden in My Fat Friend at the West End’s Globe Theatre.[11] He also appeared with Ingrid Bergman in a production of Shaw ‘s Captain Brassbound’s Conversion at the Cambridge Theatre , in 1971.
Carry On Movies
Williams worked regularly in British film during the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the Carry On series (1958–1978) with its double entendre humour; and appearing in the series more than any other actor.[6] The films were commercially successful but Williams and the cast were apparently poorly paid. In his diaries, Williams wrote that he earned more in a British Gas advert than for any Carry On film. He often privately criticised and “dripped vitriol” upon the films, considering them beneath him.[12] This became the case with many of the films and shows in which he appeared. He was quick to find fault with his own work, and that of others. Despite this, he spoke fondly of the Carry Ons in interviews. Peter Rogers, producer of the series, recollected, “Kenneth was worth taking care of because, while he cost very little – £5,000 a film, he made a great deal of money for the franchise.”[13]
Radio and Television shows
Williams was a regular on the BBC radio panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death. From 1972, when he felt he was not being appreciated, he would scream, “I’ve come all the way from Great Portland Street” (it was a short distance to the studio from his home). He also talked for almost a minute[14] about a supposed Austrian psychiatrist called Heinrich Swartzberg, correctly guessing that the show’s creator, Ian Messiter, had just made the name up.[15]
On television he was a frequent contributor to the 1973–1974 revival of What’s My Line?, hosted the weekly entertainment show International Cabaret and was a regular reader on the children’s storytelling series Jackanory on BBC1, hosting 69 episodes.[16] He appeared on Michael Parkinson’s chat show on eight occasions, regaling audiences with anecdotes from his career. Williams was a stand-in host on the Wogan talk show in 1986; and also voiced the cartoon “Willo the Wisp”.
Personal Life and Death
On 14 October 1962, Charlie Williams was taken to hospital after drinking carbon tetrachloride that had been stored in a cough-mixture bottle. Kenneth refused to visit him. The next day Charlie died while Kenneth was out to lunch and the cinema; an hour after being given the news, Kenneth went on stage in the West End. The coroner’s court recorded a verdict of accidental death due to corrosive poisoning by carbon tetrachloride.[17]
Several years later Williams turned down work with Orson Welles in America because he disliked the country and had no desire to work there. Many years after his death, The Mail on Sunday, quoting Wes Butters, co-writer of the book Kenneth Williams Unseen: The Private Notes, Scripts And Photographs, claimed Williams had been denied a visa because Scotland Yard considered him a suspect in his father’s death.[18]
Williams insisted that he was celibate and his diaries substantiate his claims—at least from his early 40s onwards. He lived alone all his adult life and had few close companions apart from his mother, and no significant romantic relationships. His diaries contain references to unconsummated or barely consummated homosexual dalliances, which he describes as “traditional matters” or “tradiola”. (Since male homosexual activity was a criminal offence in the UK before 1967, outright admission would have been held against him if anyone had read the diaries.) He befriended gay playwright Joe Orton , who wrote the role of Inspector Truscott in Loot (1966) for him, and had holidays with Orton and his lover, Kenneth Halliwell, in Morocco. Other friends included Stanley Baxter, Gordon Jackson and his wife Rona Anderson, Sheila Hancock, and Maggie Smith and her playwright husband, Beverley Cross.[19]
Williams lived in a succession of small rented flats in central London from the mid-1950s. After his father died, his mother Louisa lived near him, then in the flat next to his. His last home was a flat on Osnaburgh Street, now demolished. Williams was fond of fellow Carry On regulars Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims.[20]
Williams rarely revealed details of his private life, though he spoke openly to Owen Spencer-Thomas about his loneliness, despondency, and sense of underachievement in two half-hour documentary programmes entitled Carry On Kenneth on BBC Radio London.[21] In later years his health declined, along with that of his elderly mother, and his depression deepened.
He died on 15 April 1988 in his flat; his last words (recorded in his diary) were “Oh, what’s the bloody point?”[22] – the cause of death was an overdose of barbiturates.[6] An inquest recorded an open verdict, as it was not possible to establish whether his death was a suicide or an accident.[23] His diaries reveal he had often had suicidal thoughts and as far back as his earliest diaries he noted there were times when he could see no point in existence. His authorised biography argues that Williams did not take his own life but died of an accidental overdose. The actor had doubled his dosage of antacid without discussing this with his doctor; this, combined with the aforementioned mixture of medication, is the widely accepted cause of death. He had a stock of painkilling tablets and it is argued that he would have taken more of them if he had been intending suicide.[24] He was cremated at East Finchley Cemetery and his ashes were scattered in the memorial gardens.[25]
Diaries and Biographies
Posthumous publication of his private diaries and letters, edited by Russell Davies, caused controversy—particularly Williams’s caustic remarks about fellow professionals—and revealed bouts of despair, often primed by feelings of personal isolation and professional failure. Williams wrote his diaries from the age of 14 in 1940 until his death 48 years later, although the earliest to survive to publication was for 1942 when he reached 16. Williams kept pocket-sized diaries for 1942 and 1947 (he kept no diaries for 1943 to 1946 as he was touring the Far East in the army); a desk diary for 1948; pocket-sized diaries for 1949 and 1950; desk diaries for 1951 to 1965; standard edition desk diaries for 1966 to 1971, and finally A4-sized executive desk diaries for 1972 to 1988. He claimed that writing in his diaries eased the loneliness he often felt. The day before his death, the final entry in his diary read, “Oh – what’s the bloody point?”[26][27]
In April 2008 Radio 4 broadcast the two-part The Pain of Laughter: The Last Days of Kenneth Williams.[28] The programmes were researched and written by Wes Butters and narrated by Rob Brydon. Butters purchased a collection of Williams’s personal belongings from the actor’s godson, Robert Chidell, to whom they had been bequeathed.[29]
The first of the programmes said that, towards the end of his life and struggling with depression and ill health, Williams abandoned Christian faith following discussions with the poet Philip Larkin. Williams had been a Methodist, though he spent much of his life struggling with Christianity’s teachings on homosexuality.[28] Kenneth Williams Unseen by Wes Butters and Russell Davies, the first Williams biography in 15 years, was published in October 2008.[30]
An authorised biography, Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams, by Christopher Stevens,[31] was published in October 2010. This drew for the first time on the full Williams archive of diaries and letters, which had been stored in a London bank for 15 years following publication of edited extracts.[32] The biography said Williams used a variety of handwriting styles and colours in his journals, switching between different hands on the page.[33]
Portrayals
Williams has been portrayed in two made-for-television films. In 2000, Adam Godley played him in the story of Sid James and Barbara Windsor’s love affair, Cor, Blimey! (Godley had originated the role in the 1998 National Theatre play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick on which Cor Blimey! was based). Subsequently in 2006, Michael Sheen played him in the BBC Four drama Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!.
David Benson’s 1996 Edinburgh Fringe show, Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, saw Benson playing Williams; after touring, the show ran in London’s West End. Benson reprised his performance at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe and continues to tour.[34] From 2003 to 2005, Robin Sebastian took on Williams in the West End stage show Round the Horne … Revisited, recreating his performance in 2008 for a production called Round the Horne: Unseen and Uncut.
Recognition
The flat in Osnaburgh Street in which Williams had lived from 1972 until his death was bought by Rob Brydon and Julia Davis for the writing of their comedy series Human Remains. The building was demolished in May 2007.[35]
Williams is commemorated by a blue plaque at the address of his father’s barber shop in Marchmont Street, London, where he lived from 1935 to 1956. The plaque was unveiled on 11 October 2009 by Bill Pertwee and Nicholas Parsons, with whom Williams performed.[36]
In September 2010, a plaque commissioned by the British Comedy Society was unveiled in the foyer of the New Diorama Theatre by the Mayor of Camden accompanied by David Benson, the actor known for his performances of his own work dedicated to Williams, Think No Evil of Us – My Life With Kenneth Williams. The theatre stands in the Regent’s Place development, site of the demolished Osnaburgh Street.
On 22 February 2014 – on what would have been Williams’ 88th birthday – an English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled at Farley Court off Marylebone Road, where Williams lived between 1963 and 1970 in Flat 62. Speaking at the ceremony, his Carry On co-star Barbara Windsor said: “Kenny was a one off, a true original”.[37][38
Trent’s Last Case (1952)
The Beggar’s Opera (1953)
Valley of Song (1953)
Twice Round the Daffodils (1962)
Carry On Cruising (1962)
Don’t Lose Your Head (1966)
Follow That Camel (1967)
Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)
Carry On Camping (1969)
Carry On Again Doctor (1969)
Carry On Loving (1970)
Carry On at Your Convenience (1971)
Carry On Matron (1971)
That’s Carry On! (1977)
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
Carry On Emmannuelle (1978)
The Secret Life of Kenneth Williams
Oh Get On with It
Stop Messing About
The Wind in the Willows
Post Mortem by Stuart Jackman
Diary of a Madman by Nikolai Gogol[39]
Television
An Audience with Kenneth Williams
What’s My Line?
Let’s Make a Musical
Meanwhile on BBC2
One Over the Eight (revue)
The Private Ear and The Public Eye
Gentle Jack
I Only Have To Close My Eyes
The Kenneth Williams Diaries
| i don't know |
Which BL car launched in 1983 was notorious for its voice synthesizer? | Austin Maestro 30th anniversary - Telegraph
Classic cars
Austin Maestro 30th anniversary
It's easy to forget the Maestro had geniune potential when it was launched in March 1983, although history hasn't been kind to the replacement for the Austin Allegro.
The MG Maestro proved more than capable of out-running a Ford Escort XR3i.
By Andrew Roberts
Comments
The date is March 1st 1983, and the event is launch of a new British Leyland car. Miracle Maestro – Driving is Believing claimed the brochure for the long-awaited Allegro replacement, one even talked in its MG or Vanden Plas versions. Yes, an Austin equipped with not only a trip computer, but the electronic package also included a voice synthesizer speaking in the dulcet tones of Nichola Mackenzie, late of BBC1's thrilling ferry drama Triangle, proved that BL entered a new England of Sony C7s and ZX Spectrums.
And the Austin Maestro did have real potential as a mid-range family car. It was spacious, its road manners were more than respectable and its five-speed gearbox, sourced from Volkswagen, was a revelation to anyone trading in their Morris Ital. In the following year BL introduced a sporting version that was destined to become a modern classic – the MG Maestro EFI. The engine was the familiar 2.0-litre O-series unit now fitted with a Lucas-designed fuel injection system, transmission was a Honda-designed unit and the result enraged ageing ton-ups boys everywhere by proving more than capable of out-running a Ford Escort XR3i.
Yet, despite the positive publicity the Maestro still faced three principal challenges. Firstly, by the early 1980s, British Leyland could not hope to even match the trade discounts offered on its nearest rival, the Ford Escort MkIII, putting it at serious disadvantage in the fleet market. Secondly, the Maestro's styling had been frozen as early as 1977, resulting in a car that now looked faintly dated - no matter how able the MG versions proved, it always seemed to belong to the 1980s of the sadly deceased Richard Briers' sit-com Ever Decreasing Circles.
Thirdly, there was BL's capacity for destroying the potential of any promising car with zero quality control, so it was rather essential that the Maestro did not suffer from dubious build standards, the effect of dire industrial relations and malfunctioning talking dashboards. Naturally British Leyland ensured that too many Maestros suffered from various permutations of this list and within a few years it was selling in lesser numbers than the Allegro some 10 years earlier.
Related Articles
| Maestro |
The Malinois, the Tevuren and the Talbot all come from which country? | MINI UK | library of motoring - An online collection of MINI information
From BMW Group PressClub UK :
Plant Oxford today celebrates 15 years since the first new MINIs rolled off the production line on 26 April, 2001.
The BMW Group, which is marking its centenary year in 2016, acquired the plant in 1994 and relaunched the brand in 2001 with the debut of the new MINI Hatch.
Since then more than 2.5 million MINIs have been produced in Oxford, with the three million milestone expected to be hit later this year. 80 per cent of the cars made here are exported to more than 110 countries around the world.
The 2001 MINI launch was the reinvention of a British motoring icon, which generated headlines around the world. As well as making the news, the car was subsequently recognised with several industry awards after it went on sale. This included being voted ‘Car of the Year’ in 2001 by leading UK weekly car magazine, Auto Express. Impressed by the car’s driving abilities, quality levels and safety features, the magazine praised the fact that the classic Mini’s DNA was “unmistakable” in the new car.
Sales of MINI, both in the UK and internationally, have gone from strength to strength over the last 15 years. In its first year nearly 40,000 MINIs were sold worldwide. By 2015 this number had risen to nearly 340,000, with more than 63,000 sold to customers in the UK – the highest since the brand’s relaunch.
Frank Bachmann, Managing Director of MINI Plant Oxford, said: “MINI is an iconic British brand that has made a remarkable journey over the past 15 years. In that time we’ve more than doubled our capacity and gone from producing just one model to an entire range of MINIs that have proved hugely popular with customers around the world. Making 1,000 high-quality cars to individual order each day is a huge challenge but we succeed in doing so because of the passion and expertise of our workforce. Today, we celebrate what’s been achieved so far and look forward to an even brighter future here in Oxford – the heart of MINI production.”
The plant’s automotive history dates back to 1913 when the great designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist William Morris (later Lord Nuffield), produced its first car, a “Bullnose” Morris, near today’s present state-of-the-art MINI production facility. The classic Mini was produced at Oxford from 1959 until 1968 with a peak output of 94,889 cars during 1966/67.
Today, more than 4,500 people are employed at the site in Cowley, which manufactures around 1,000 cars a day, including three and five door MINIs, the MINI Clubman and its first all-wheel drive All4 model – and the high-performance MINI John Cooper Works.
Three UK plants have had a part to play in MINI production – Hams Hall near Birmingham makes engines, Swindon produces body pressings and sub-assemblies for MINI, and this all comes together at Oxford with body shell production, paint and final assembly. Together these plants have helped to generate and sustain employment for thousands of people directly and indirectly though the wider supply chain and retailers.
Between 2012 and 2015 BMW Group invested £750 million at the plants, taking investment in UK production to £1.75 billion since 2000. At Oxford this has included a state-of-the-art paintshop, a high-technology body building facility, a new final assembly area, a new logistics centre, Quality and Engineering Centre and the MINIcademy, where the plant’s apprentices are trained.
Joining Technician Chris Wherritt is one of 22 current plant associates who began their careers as apprentices in 2001.
Chris said: “Starting my apprenticeship straight from school was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. After all, 2001 was a big year for the plant — I knew it would be a big change but I wasn’t aware at the time just how successful the new MINI was going to be. I already had a position secured for after my apprenticeship when the 2001 MINI rolled off the production line, and the launch was all over the news — that’s when I knew both the MINI and I had a bright future ahead of us.”
Helen Evans, currently in her first year as an engineering apprentice, said: “I’ve always been fascinated by cars and so seeing MINI’s transformation while still paying homage to the original has been really interesting. It’s been a great experience working at the plant so far and I’m really excited to see how my career with MINI will evolve in the future.”
The first MINIs – which were registered with ‘Y’ prefixed number plates – are now considered by many enthusiasts and fans of the brand to be modern classics.
MINI enthusiast Tanya Field, whose husband Jason works at the plant in IT, is working to set up a new club – Y REGister – to bring together owners of MINIs made in Oxford in 2001.
Tanya said: “Today is a wonderful milestone for MINI Plant Oxford. The first MINIs are 15 years old and are now becoming modern classics and are increasingly collectable. The creation of the Y REGister shows the growing interest in these MINIs and the heritage of the modern MINI. As someone who’s passionate about the plant’s heritage, this is something that’s really important to me.”
Editor’s notes
MINI is the only car in the segment that offers Head Up Display, which projects important information into the driver’s line of vision, thus eliminating the need to take their eyes off the road.
The John Cooper Works Hatch has the best power to weight ratio in the segment as well as the highest top speed and the best acceleration of a non 4-wheel drive car in the segment.
MINI Cooper D is the fastest accelerating car to be sub 100kg / km in the segment.
MINI Touch Controller enables users to draw in postcodes using their fingertips.
• New MINI Countryman Special Edition launched in the UK
• Limited production of up to 250 models
• Space Grey Metallic roof and mirror caps exclusive to the MINI Countryman Special Edition
• MINI Navigation System fitted as standard
MINI is launching a new limited edition Countryman in the UK, the MINI Countryman Special Edition.
The MINI Countryman Special Edition has been developed by the manufacturer’s Special Order programme, set up to allow customers to place orders for special edition models direct through MINI Retailers.
Instantly recognisable by its exclusive Space Grey Metallic roof and mirror caps, teamed with 18” 5-Star Double Spoke alloy wheels in black and Absolute Black Metallic body paint, up to 250 MINI Countryman Special Edition models will be available for customers in the UK.
The latest edition to the Countryman range comes packed with standard equipment including MINI Navigation System, Voice Control, MINI Connected, Enhanced Bluetooth™ with USB audio and multi-function steering wheel. Front Seat Heating, Automatic Air Conditioning and Xenon Headlights are also included as standard.
Inside, the MINI Countryman Special Edition has been styled to be as impressive as the outside, with interior surfaces in Piano Black and leather upholstery in Gravity-Carbon Black.
Customers can choose between two model variants, the MINI Cooper S ALL4 Countryman or the MINI Cooper SD ALL4 Countryman in either manual or automatic transmissions. Both model options are paired with MINI’s ALL4 all-wheel drive system which provides excellent traction and quickly reacts to changes in road conditions, while still providing MINI’s unique driving experience.
Customers can order the new MINI Countryman Special Edition at MINI Retailers now.
by James Day .
MINI UK has added the forthcoming MINI Clubman to its Configurator.
Colors available to build include Pepper White, Chili Red. Volcanic Orange, Lapisluxury Blue, Midnight Black Metallic, British Racing Green Metallic, Thunder Grey Metallic, Deep Blue Metallic, Moonwalk Grey Metallic, Blazing Red Metallic, Pure Burgundy Metallic, and Melting Silver Metallic.
Roof colors available are White, Black, and Silver.
Wheels include the 17″ Net Spoke, 17″ Black Net Spoke, 17″ Vent Spoke, 18″ Star Spoke, 18″ Black Star Spoke, 19″ John Cooper Works Course Spoke, and 18″ John Cooper Works Grip Spoke.
Design your own MINI Clubman at MINI UK:
by James Day .
Similar to the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), also known as “cash for clunkers” program in the US, the UK in 2009 offered a Car Scrappage Scheme for owners of old cars to trade them in for a new car and receive a £2000 rebate. Over 400,000 Brits took them up on the offer including hundreds of classic Mini owners.
The UK government just released the List of scrapped vehicles in 2009 ( Download CSV ). According to the list, 702 classic Minis were turned in, including several special editions such as the Mini 25, Mini 35, Mini British Open, and even 45 1990s-era Rover Mini Coopers. There are even 3 MINI Coopers and 2 MINI Clubman on the list.
Below are the majority of the Minis on the list:
by James Day .
MINI UK has launched its new Configurator for 2015 which includes the new MINI Hardtop (Hatch) 5-Door.
Colors available to build include Volcanic Orange, Pepper White, Deep Blue Metallic, Midnight Black Metallic, Thunder Grey Metallic, Iced Chocolate Metallic, Electric Blue Metallic, Blazing Red Metallic, British Racing Green Metallic, Moonwalk Grey Metallic, White Silver Metallic.
Wheels include the 15″ Heli Spoke, 16″ Loop Spoke, 16″ Victory Spoke (in black or silver), 17″ Cosmos Spoke (in black or silver), 17″ Tentacle Spoke, 17″ Roulette Spoke, 18″ Cone Spoke (in silver or white), and 18″ MINI Yours Vanity Spoke.
Design your own MINI at www.mini.co.uk/design-your-mini .
by James Day .
From BMW Group PressClub Global:
Oxford. MINI Plant Oxford celebrates 100 years of car-making this March, against a background of rising production, increased investment and continuing expansion. Today, Plant Oxford employs 3700 associates who manufacture up to 900 MINIs every day, and has contributed over 2.25 million MINIs to the tally of over 11.65 million cars that the factory has produced since 1913.
The first car built at the factory, a Bullnose Morris Oxford, emerged on 28 March 1913 and has been followed by cars from a wide range of famous British brands – and one Japanese – including MG, Wolseley, Riley, Austin, Austin Healey, Mini, Vanden Plas, Princess, Triumph, Rover, Sterling and Honda, besides founding marque Morris and MINI. The Pressed Steel Company subsidiary occupying the same Cowley complex also built bodyshells for Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, MG, Standard-Triumph, Ford and Hillman, as well as tooling dies for Alfa Romeo. The plant has a long and impressive history of shipping cars abroad that has resulted in more than1.7 million MINIs going to overseas customers.
The plant has produced an array of famous cars, including the Bullnose Morris, the Morris Minor, the Mini, India’s Hindustan Ambassador and today’s MINI. It also produced Hondas for a short period in the ‘80s, as well as some slightly notorious models including the early Riley Pathfinder, the much-derided Morris Marina, the startling ’70s wedge that was the Princess and in the Austin Maestro one of the world’s earliest ‘talking’ cars.
There have been eight custodians of Plant Oxford over the past 100 years, beginning with founder William Morris who owned the factory both directly and through Morris Motors until 1952, when Morris merged with arch-rival Austin to form the British Motor Corporation. Morris himself, by this time known as Lord Nuffield, was chairman for six months before retiring. During the early ‘60s the plant had as many as 28,000 employees producing an extraordinary variety of models.
In 1967 BMC became British Motor Holdings after merging with Jaguar, and the following year that group was merged with the Leyland truck company (which also included Triumph and Rover) to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation. Nationalisation followed in 1974, the group undergoing several renamings until it became the Rover Group in 1986. Boss Graham Day was charged with privatising the company for the Thatcher government, which was completed in 1988 with the sale to British Aerospace. They in turn would sell the Group, which included Land Rover, to BMW in 1994.
BMW Group invested heavily in Rover, deciding early on that a replacement for the Mini would be a priority. But considerable headwinds, and an unfavourable exchange rate lead to BMW selling Rover to the Phoenix Consortium in 2000 and Land Rover to Ford in 2000. The MINI brand was retained together with Plant Oxford, as Cowley had been renamed, along with the associated Swindon pressings factory and the new Hams Hall engine plant in Birmingham that was preparing for production.
Today, Plant Oxford is flourishing with the manufacture of the MINI hatchback, Convertible, Clubman, Clubvan, Roadster and Coupé. It is currently undergoing a major investment that includes the installation of a 1000 new robots for both a new body shop and the existing facility. This represents the lion’s share of a £750m investment programme, announced in the last year, which also sees the significant upgrading and installation of new facilities at the company’s Hams Hall engine plant and the Swindon body pressings factory.
The Oxford plant has generated considerable wealth for the nation, as well as for many other countries around the world during its 100 years, providing direct employment for hundreds of thousands of employees and tens of thousands more through indirect jobs. The plant has a long history of export success, Morris products accounting for nearly 30 percent of the nation’s total exports by the mid 1930s. In 1950, the plant produced its 100,000th overseas model – a Morris Minor – and by 1962 BMC was shipping 320,000 examples of its annual production of 850,000 vehicles to over 170 countries, Oxford contributing a major part of that total. BMC was the UK’s biggest exporter in the early ‘60s, just as Morris had been in the ‘30s.
Plant Oxford has contributed to the industrial activities of a surprising number of far-flung countries too, by producing tens of thousands of cars for export in CKD (Completely Knocked Down) form for assembly in overseas factories. Countries that have built cars from kits include Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cuba, East Africa, Ghana, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Malaya, Mexico, Nigeria, Spain, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Trinidad, Turkey, Uganda, Uruguay and many others. By 1967 CKD cars formed 40 percent of BMC’s exports, the kits assembled in 21 plants around the world. Morris Oxfords, Minors, MGAs, Minis, Morris 1100s and commercial vehicles were among the many models built in these distant factories. Plant Oxford’s export record is equally impressive today, no less than 1.7 million MINIs having been exported to over 100 countries since 2001.
Today, Plant Oxford forms the central element of BMW Group’s UK production network, which includes the Hams Hall engine factory in Birmingham and the Swindon pressings plant, formerly a part of Pressed Steel. The network faces a bright future as the next generation MINI family enters production over the coming years amid a trend of rising sales and exports.
The Cars
Many famous cars have been produced at Plant Oxford, several of them revolutionary. Here are some highlights:
‘Bullnose’ Morris Oxford 1913-26
William Morris’s first car, actually named the Morris Oxford but known as the Bullnose because of its distinctive, rounded radiator cowling in brass. A bold series of price cuts saw Morris becoming the UK’s biggest selling marque by 1924.
Morris Minor 1928-32
A small, affordable car whose price Morris eventually cut to £100, ensuring considerable popularity. Together with the baby Austin Seven, it made the motor car significantly more attainable in Britain.
Morris Eight 1935-48
A big pre-war and post-war hit, this barrel-bodied Morris developed through several iterations and remained a common sight right into the ‘60s.
Morris Minor 1948-71
A major step ahead in handling, steering, braking and roominess, the Alec Issigonis-designed Minor was a huge success. The Minor was the first British car to sell over a million, a milestone celebrated with a limited run of Minor Millions painted in a dubious shade of lilac. It was sold as a saloon, a semi-timbered Traveller estate, a convertible, a van and a pick-up.
Morris Oxford III 1956-58
The ‘50s Oxford was a family car staple of the Morris range, besides continuing with the model name that had started Morris off. An unremarkable car, except that it was the basis of India’s once hugely-popular Hindustan Ambassador, Morris shipping all the Oxford III tooling to the company in 1957. The Ambassador – or Amby, as it is fondly known – remains in small-scale production today.
BMC Mini 1959-69
The revolutionary Mini was another creation from Alec Issigonis, its transverse, front-wheel drive powertrain and space-efficient packaging redefining small car design. Go-kart handling soon inspired the sportier Coopers and giant-slaying, headline-making competition performances. Classless, fashionable, much-loved and widely exported, it introduced a word to the English language and became Britain’s most famous – and most produced – car. Plant Oxford manufactured it for 10 years from 1959, its counterpart Longbridge, Birmingham factory remaining the chief UK source until its demise in 2000.
BMC 1100/1300 1962-74
The second front-drive Issigonis model, essentially an enlarged Mini with Pininfarina styling and Hydrolastic fluid suspension. The most advanced small family car on sale at the time, it sold even faster than the Mini to become Britain’s best-seller for 10 years. Launched as a Morris, it was also sold as an Austin, MG, Riley, Vanden Plas and a Wolseley, and was offered in two-door, four-door and estate bodystyles.
Morris Marina 1971-80
Much derided at the time, but the Ford Cortina-bashing Marina was a top five best-seller for years despite its simple mechanicals, and a mainstay of the plant through the 1970s. Unusual for offering a coupe version that was cheaper than the saloon, it was replaced by the lightly restyled Ital in 1980, this car destined to be the last Morris. Like the Minor it replaced, the Marina achieved sales of over one million.
Triumph Acclaim 1981-84
Essentially a rebadged Honda Civic, the Acclaim was a stop-gap model that was the product of an unusual deal struck in 1979 by BL Cars and Honda. The goal was to providing BL with a new model offering between the 1980 launch of the Austin miniMetro and 1983’s Austin Maestro, the Acclaim’s Honda-designed production lines also prompting the installation of the first robots at the Oxford plant. The Acclaim was also significant for being the first Japanese car to be built in the UK, and the last Triumph. The BL-Honda partnership eventually led to the Japanese company setting up its own UK factory at Swindon.
Rover 800 1986-9/Honda Legend 1986-8
These executive cars were unusual for being the progeny of an engineering collaboration between Rover and Honda, the two sharing inner bodywork, suspensions and some drivetrains while presenting unique body and interior designs. Plant Oxford not only built the Rover 800 but for a short period, the sister Honda Legend model too. The 800 was also part of a major export initiative to the US in the mid ‘80s, under the Sterling brand name. This much deeper collaboration furthered a fruitful period in which Japanese just-in-time and continuous improvement techniques were introduced to the plant, eventually leading to significant gains in vehicle build quality.
Rover 75 1999-2000
The first and only Rover wholly developed under BMW ownership, the elegantly styled 75 saw a wholesale improvement in both quality and dynamic standards for the brand. Production transferred to Longbridge, Birmingham, after BMW sold Rover in 2000 and ended prematurely in 2005, although variations of the model live on in China as Roewes and MGs.
MINI 2001-06
The all-new MINI recalibrated the Mini as a larger, vastly more sophisticated premium supermini in an evolution that defined a new market, just as the original car did. Widely praised for styling that honoured its predecessor with contemporary and hugely appealing flair, it also won plaudits for its handling, imaginative interior design and build quality. The MINI also introduced personalisation on a scale never before seen in a small car, firing the gun on a trend now widely copied. It exceeded its sales targets from the start – unlike the classic Mini – and was joined by a Convertible in 2002.
MINI 2006 to date
The next generation MINI hatch further refined the 2001 concept with more space, more sophistication, more advanced engines – now mainly UK-built – more equipment and more choice. This was expanded considerably by the introduction of the Clubman estate in 2007, the Coupé and Roadster in 2012 and the Clubvan in the same year. A renewed version of the highly popular Convertible appeared in 2007.
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Which gangster Meyer Lansky founded Murder Incorporated? | Murder Inc | Mafia, cosa nostra, gansters
Murder Inc
Murder Incorporated
No crime organization in the history of the United States has ever struck terror in the hearts of gangsters throughout the criminal underworld like the notorious crime group dubbed “Murder, Inc.” by U.S. media during the 1930s and 1940s.
Murder, Inc was a group of enforcers for the New York Italian and Jewish Mafia that eventually began carrying out its grizzly business on a national scale. The murderous group was once headed at one time or another by the infamous Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Albert Anastasia, who was also known in some circles as “The Mad Hatter.”
It has been reported that Murder, Inc may have been responsible for as many as 1,000 contract murders before the group was publicly revealed by former contract killer turned informant Abe “Kid Twist” Reles. Over the ensuing year’s law enforcement, led by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, tracked down and incarcerated and/or executed numerous members of the shadowy organization until it was driven to extinction.
Ironically enough, the informant who turned out to be the catalyst for the eventual demise of Murder, Inc., Abe Reles, was mysteriously killed when he “fell” out of a window.
Early Beginnings
The core organizers of what was later to become know as Murder, Inc. began as a loosely associated gang of street thugs from Brownsville, New York, committing petty crimes to support their chosen life of crime. At that time they were simply known as the “Brownville Boys,” but their small-time status would change how the Mafia dealt with opposition when they defeated the Shapiro brothers for street supremacy of their turf.
During the 1920s three brothers named Meyer Shapiro, Willie Shapiro, and Jacob Shapiro were behind most of the illegal activities that occurred within the Brownsville area of Brooklyn, New York. They were the kingpins of prostitution, gambling, and illegal alcohol who ruthlessly ruled their territory and kept all the proceeds from their ill-gotten gains within their family. It was only a matter of time before they clashed with the Brownsville Boys.
When the Brownsville Boys decided that the Shapiro brothers stood in their way of climbing the syndicate ladder it was clear that they had to be eliminated. After a long and bloody confrontation, one-by-one the Shapiro brothers were executed and the stature of the Brownsville Boys was elevated as a ruthless gang of hit men who were ready and willing to carry out contract killings against other members of the mob for a price.
The organization was actually dubbed Murder, Inc. by the media in the 1930s to sensationalize their deadly purpose. They were originally founded by the National Crime Syndicate (NCS) under the auspices of gangsters Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and Meyer Lansky . The NCS was later run by Louse “Lepke” Buchalter until he was convicted and executed via the electric chair for murder.
Neither the police nor general public believed that a criminal organization whose sole purpose was to carry out contract murders actually existed until an angry member of the gang named Abe Wagner turned informant confirmed its existence to the authorities. Wagner subsequently went into hiding but was tracked down by thugs who worked for Bugsy Sigel and executed.
Secrecy was always the key to the successful operation of the enforcement arm of the Mafia. It was under the leadership of Louis Buchalter that the gang was molded into an efficient killing organization. Buchalter did everything possible to keep Mafia activities away from public scrutiny. Under the cloak of anonymity, the ruthlessness of the organization could be carried out with impunity. Now the secret was out and there were challenges ahead.
How Murder Inc. Worked
Few historians dispute that by eliminating the Shapiro brothers the Brownsville Boys gained their reputation as major players in the world of organized crime and could no longer be brushed off as small-time operators.
With the death of Willie Shapiro, the Brownsville Boys gained respect within the National Crime Syndicate, whose membership at the time included names such as Lucky Luciano , Joe Doto, Frank Costello , Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky and Louis Buchalter. The syndicate gave the Brownsville Boys many contract murder assignments through an intermediary named Louis Capone. In addition to cash payments for carrying out the murders, the gang was given larger amounts of territory within Brooklyn so they could run their own rackets.
The trigger men for Murder, Inc. were mostly Jewish and Italian gangsters who belonged to gangs operating in Brownsville, Ocean Hill and East New York. The efficiency and ruthlessness of the organization became well-know with criminal circles and it wasn’t long before their role as mob enforcers extended beyond the borders of New York. They became the enforcement arm of mob bosses across the United States.
The hit men employed by Murder, Inc. made use of many different types of weapons and tactics to murder their victims. In addition to handguns and shotguns, ice picks and rope for strangulation were favored. One of the most profuse murderer’s in the group was a man named Harry “Pittsburgh Phil” Strauss, who is reputed to have committed more than 100 murders.
Strauss and others were kept on a monthly retainer and they also received an additional fee ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 for each murder. In addition, the families of the killers were given financial benefits. If one of the hit men were captured by law enforcement, the Mafia would bring in some of the best criminal defense attorneys in the country to defend them.
Generally, the hit men were instructed to carry out their murders as discreetly and cleanly as possible. However, in reality most of the murders were as grisly and graphically violent as can be conceived by the human mind. Anyone identified as an informant was lucky if he was merely shot. But many were butchered, tortured and decapitated. Some were held at gunpoint and thrown into coal burning ovens to be burned alive.
These ghastly crimes were frequently difficult to prove. Usually, because the murders took place in cities where the victims were strangers and the bodies couldn’t be easily identified. Consequently, many Mafia killings would go unsolved.
The End of Murder Incorporated
No one in the underworld could have predicted that on the morning of July 25, 1939, that a case of mistaken identity would spell the beginning of the end of the crime organization known as Murder, Inc.
On that fateful day, an innocent civilian named Irving Penn was gunned down in the streets of New York while on his way to work as an executive with publisher G. Schirner, Inc., simply because he was unfortunate enough to live in the same apartment building and look vaguely similar to out-of-favor union crime boss turned informant, Philip Orlovsky.
The murder of an ordinary man who never committed a crime in his life and the devastation it caused his wife and two daughters drew outrage from the public and initiated a series of actions by law enforcement that eventually doomed the crime organization.
Penn was shot in the back multiple times by a .32-caliber pistol by a drive by shooter as he walked toward the subway on his way to work. The car was occupied by five members of Murder, Inc., Seymour Magoon (the wheelman), Jacob Migden (he identified Penn as Orlovsky), Gioacchino Parisi (the trigger man), Buggsy Goldstein and Louis Capone (who organized the hit). Initially, it appeared as if it was just another routine murder ordered by the mob.
Penn was rushed to the hospital and his dying words to the onsite police detective were, “I don’t have an enemy in the world.”
The murder of Penn was splashed across the front-page of every major newspaper. The court of public opinion pressured law enforcement to bring organized crime permanently under control. During the subsequent four years a series of investigations and arrests were conducted that chipped away at the code of silence that protected criminal organizations for so many years. When mobsters realized that once they were captured they were on the fast track to receiving the death penalty, they began to break their silence to save their own lives.
Magoon and Goldstein were quickly arrested and they subsequently fingered Migden and Parisi as the men primarily responsible for murdering Penn. Two years later, Migden was arrested even though he had plastic surgery performed on his face to change his appearance.
By the time Jacob Migden went to trial in February 1943 as the man who fingered Penn, the feared organization once known as Murder, Inc. had been decimated.
It took 10 years to track down Parisi before he was finally arrested in the Poconos. There were few remaining credible witnesses to testify against him, and eventually Parisi was released due to a lack of evidence. Ultimately, he died of natural causes in 1982 at the ripe old age of 83.
| Lucky Luciano |
Which cartoon gunfighter was so fast he could outdraw his shadow? | Meyer Lansky - Biography of Jewish Gangster
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By Ariela Pelaia
Meyer Lansky was a powerful member of the mafia during the early to mid 1900s. He was involved with both the Jewish mafia and the Italian mafia and is sometimes referred to as the “Mob’s Accountant.”
Meyer Lansky’s Personal Life
Meyer Lansky was born Meyer Suchowljansky in Grodno, Russia (now Belarus) on July 4, 1902. The son of Jewish parents, his family immigrated to the United States in 1911 after suffering at the hands of pogroms (anti-Jewish mobs). They settled in New York City’s Lower East Side and by 1918 Lansky was running a youth gang with another Jewish teen who would also become a prominent member of the mafia: Bugsy Siegel . Known as the Bugs-Meyer Gang, their activities began with theft before expanding to include gambling and bootlegging.
In 1929 Lansky married a Jewish woman named Ana Citron who was a friend of Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend Esta Krakower. When their first child, Buddy, was born they discovered that he suffered from cerebral palsy.
Ana blamed her husband for Buddy’s condition, worrying that God was punishing the family for Lansky’s criminal activities. Though they went on two have another son and a daughter, eventually the couple divorced in 1947. Not long afterwards Ana was placed in a mental hospital.
The Mob’s Accountant
Eventually Lansky and Siegel became involved with Italian gangster Charles “Lucky” Luciano . Luciano was behind the formation of a national crime syndicate and allegedly decided to murder Sicilian crime boss Joe “The Boss” Masseria on the advice of Lanksy. Masseria was gunned down in 1931 by four hit men, one of whom was Bugsy Siegel.
As Lanksy’s influence grew he became one of the mafia’s major bankers, earning him the nickname of “The Mob’s Accountant.” He managed mafia funds, financed major endeavors and bribed authority figures and key individuals. He also channeled a natural talent for numbers and business into developing profitable gambling operations in Florida and New Orleans. He was known for running fair gambling houses where players did not have to worry about rigged games.
When Lansky’s gambling empire expanded to Cuba he came to an agreement with then Cuban leader Fulgencia Batista. In exchange for monetary kickbacks Batista agreed to give Lansky and his associates control of Havana’s racetracks and casinos.
He later became interested in the promising location of Las Vegas, Nevada. He helped Bugsy Siegel convince the mob to finance The Pink Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas – a gambling venture that would ultimately lead to Siegel’s death and pave the way for the Las Vegas we know today.
World War II
During World War II Lansky reportedly used his mafia connections to break up Nazi rallies in New York. He made it a point to discover where rallies were taking place and would then use mafia muscle to disrupt the rallies.
As the war continued, Lansky became involved with anti-Nazi activities sanctioned by the US Government. After trying to enlist in the US Army but being rejected due to his age, he was recruited by the Navy to take part in an initiative that pit organized crime leaders against Axis spies. Called “Operation Underworld,” the program sought the aid of the Italian mafia that controlled the waterfront. Lansky was asked to speak with his friend Lucky Luciano who by this point was in prison but still controlled the Italian mafia. As a result of Lansky's involvement, the mafia provided security along the docks in New York Harbor where ships were being built. This period in Lansky’s life is portrayed in the novel “The Devil Himself” by author Eric Dezenhall.
Lansky’s Later Years
As Lansky’s influence in the mafia grew so did his wealth. By the 1960’s his empire included shady dealings with gambling, narcotics smuggling and pornography in addition to legitimate holdings in hotels, golf courses and other business ventures. Lansky’s worth was widely believed to be in the millions by this time, a rumor that no doubt led to his being brought up on charges of income tax evasion in 1970. He fled to Israel in the hopes that the Law of Return would prevent the US from trying him. However, though the Law of Return allows any Jew to settle in Israel it does not apply to those with a criminal past. As a result, Lansky was deported to the US and brought to trial. He was acquitted in 1974 and resumed a quiet life in Miami Beach, Florida.
Though Lansky is often thought of as a mafia man of considerable wealth, biographer Robert Lacey dismisses such ideas as “sheer fantasy.” To the contrary, Lacey believes that Lansky’s investments didn’t see him into his retirement years, which is why his family didn’t inherit millions when he died of lung cancer on January 15, 1983.
Meyer Lansky’s Character in "Boardwalk Empire"
In addition to Arnold Rothstein and Lucky Luciano, the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” features Meyer Lansky as a recurring character. Lansky is played by actor Anatol Yusef and first appears Season 1 Episode 7.
References:
Lacey, Robert. "Little Man: Meyer Lansky & the Gangster Life." Random House: New York, 1993.
History.com (Meyer Lanksy article on History.com is no longer available.)
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What is the World’s largest bird of prey? | Ten of the Largest Birds of Prey in the World - Rodent Pro
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Ten of the Largest Birds of Prey in the World
In ornithology, the term “ bird of prey ” is defined as any bird that has a keen sense of vision, strong talons and a strong curved beak capable of tearing flesh. These vicious characteristics frighten many people and establish an inherent terror that these birds will attack their pets or even them. Regardless of this fear, birds of prey or raptors are fascinating creatures that continue to be at the top of the food chain due to their amazing traits and capabilities.
In order to showcase some of the mightiest raptors on earth, we decided to pull together the top 10 largest birds of prey in the world. While this list encompasses some of the largest raptors on earth, it is important to note that our definition of a bird of prey includes condors and vultures. Many ornithologists and biologists dispute on classifying vultures and condors as birds of prey. However, we determined to include these species into our list because of their raptor-like characteristics. Nevertheless, prepare to be astonished by this amazing list of the largest birds of prey on earth.
1. Eurasian Eagle Owl
The Eurasian Eagle Owl is found in the mountains and forests of Europe and Asia weighing up to 4.2 kgs with a wingspan of 2 meters. This bird of prey is among the largest and most powerful owls in the world. While many owls have similar size credentials, this bird of prey deserves to be mentioned because it is the only owl known to indirectly kill a human being. However, this raptor primarily feeds on rodents, feeder rabbits and small foxes.
2. Martial Eagle
The Martial Eagle is known as Africa’s largest eagle with a wingspan of 2.6 meters and weighing up to 6.2 kgs. This raptor is so large and aggressive that it has been sited catching a variety of large animals including antelopes, lions and even baboons. Many farmers are actually frightened of this bird of prey because it occasionally attacks their livestock.
3. Steller’s Sea Eagle
Found in Russia and Japan, the Steller’s Sea Eagle is the heaviest eagle in the world weighing up to 9 kgs with a wingspan of 2.5 meters. This bird primarily feeds on fish but is known to attack other large birds and baby seals. Unfortunately, this raptor is labeled as an endangered species because of lead poisoning. They are poisoned when the eagles ingest lead when scavenging on animal remains left by human hunters.
4. Philippine Eagle
The Philippine Eagle is so magnificent that it has become a national symbol in the Philippines. This bird of prey has adapted to hunt in forested habitats and is incredibly agile even though it weighs up to 7 kgs and has a 2 meter wingspan. The raptor is known to feed on monkeys, large bats, lemurs, pigs and dogs. In fact, there are rumors that this bird of prey has snatched up multiple children.
5. Harpy Eagle
Harpy Eagles are the most powerful eagles in world weighing 9 kgs with a wingspan of 2 meters. Their wingspan length is much shorter than other large birds because they need to maneuver in densely forested habitats. These raptors have extremely long talons and such a strong grip capable of breaking a human’s arm or piercing through a human skull! The Harpy Eagle mostly preys on sloths, monkeys and large birds. They are also known to snatch up children.
6. African Crowned Eagle
The African Crowned Eagle is a powerful and aggressive raptor residing in the rainforests of tropical Africa. Although this bird of prey only has a wingspan of 2 meters, it can hunt animals weighing up to 35 kgs! In fact, its talons are so strong that it is known to crush the skulls of monkeys. What’s even more disturbing is the skulls of human infants have been found in their nests. The Crowned Eagle also preys on Guinea fowl, hyraxes, agwantibos, chevrotains and small antelopes.
7. Bearded Vulture
Also known as the Lammergeyer, this bird of prey is one of the largest raptors in the world with a weight up to 8 kgs and wingspan measuring over 3 meters. Bearded vultures can be found in Asia, Europe and Africa and are mostly scavengers. They are known to swipe up dead animal carcasses and drop them from great heights over hard surfaces to break the animal’s bones. Once broken, the Bearded Vulture feeds on the marrow. These birds have also been seen attacking live prey as well by knocking the animal off the side of a cliff.
8. Lappet Faced Vulture
Lappet Faced Vultures are as large as American Condors with an impressive wingspan of 3 meters and weight up to 14 kgs. Found in African savannahs and in Arabia, these birds of prey commonly kill gazelles, antelopes and flamingo. It is also know to steal eggs and the young of other birds. In fact, this raptor is so aggressive that it is known to attack other predatory animals to keep them away from carrion.
9. California Condor
The California Condor is considered to be the largest bird in North America with an impressive wingspan of 3 meters and weight up to 12 kgs. Its diet mainly consists of large dead animal carcasses or carrion of dear, cattle and sheep. The also feed on rodent and rabbit carrion as well.
10. Andean Condor
The Andean Condor is considered the largest bird of prey with an enormous wingspan of 3 meters and weight up to 15 kgs. They primarily live in mountainous regions where there is an abundant amount of wind to help their massive body in flight. The Andean Condor is considered a vulture, so they mostly feed on large carrion. This species is considered engendered but they are in much better shape than the California Condor.
Many of these birds eat rodents and other small animals. So, if you own one of these large raptors ensure you feed them quality frozen feeders including frozen mice , frozen rats , frozen rabbits and more! Contact us today if you have any questions about our frozen feeders.
| Andean condor |
Which is the fastest running British bird? | Birds: Top 10 Birds With the Largest Wingspans - Birds of Prey and Scavengers - YouTube
Birds: Top 10 Birds With the Largest Wingspans - Birds of Prey and Scavengers
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Published on Oct 2, 2014
Birds: Top 10 Birds With the Largest Wingspans - Birds of Prey and Scavengers
Enjoy the countdown of the ten birds with the largest wingspans on the planet. Number 1's exceeds 11 1/2 feet! From Condors to the Wandering Albatross, see these amazing birds and their enormous wingspans while learning interesting facts.
A number of amazing still images were used in the making of this video including:
Golden Eagle Soaring: ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmt... )
by Tom Koerner/USFWS which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
'dozing' Grey Crowned Crane: ( https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenny-p... )
by Jenny Downing which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Flying Grey Crowned Cranes:
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_... ) by Andrew Ross which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
California Condor:
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfws_p... ) by Scott Flaherty/USFWS which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Griffin Vulture:
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronmacp... ) by Ronnie Macdonald which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Bearded Vulture - Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus):
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/2923771... ) by Diego Bonafè which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Bearded Vulture Snowy - Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) 6:
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/2923771... ) by Noel Reynolds which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Whooper Swans:
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/4315839... ) by Jans Canon which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Andean Condor of Nogeyama Zoo
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/dakiny/... ) by Toshihiro Gamo which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Maribou Stork
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarah_m... ) by sarahemcc which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Great White Pelican, Etosha National Park, Namibia
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/4224496... ) by Frank Vassen which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Wandering albatross on nest, Prion Island (rat free)
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangr... ) by Brian Gratwicke which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Wandering Albatross
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangr... ) by Brian Gratwicke which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Wandering albatross - over water
( https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangr... ) by Brian Gratwicke which is licensed under CC BY https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... .
Category
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Which birds are classed as strigiformes? | What does Strigiformes mean? definition and meaning (Free English Language Dictionary)
Learn English with... Proverbs of the week
"You can't tell a book by its cover." (English proverb)
"He who laughs last, laughs best." (Bulgarian proverb)
"I taught him archery everyday, and when he got good at it he throw an arrow at me." (Arabic proverb)
"Even the king saves his money." (Corsican proverb)
STRIGIFORMES: related words searches
| Owl |
Who were the two brothers of Zeus? | Are Owls Birds?
Home » Owls » Are Owls Birds?
Are Owls Birds?
Posted by Michael Wall in Owls
ANSWER:
Owls are birds belonging to the class Aves and the order Strigiformes.
What Is a Bird?
In biology, all living things are classified on a rank-based system of nomenclature in which related classes are grouped together based on shared descent from their nearest common ancestor. The common taxonomic rank is kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Using this taxonomy, birds are ranked as thus:
Kingdom: Animalia (animals)
Phylum: Chordata (animals with a spinal cord)
Class: Aves (living and extinct birds)
How Are Owls Classified in the Animal Kingdom?
The class Aves is further divided into order, family, genus, and species. Using this taxonomy, owls are ranked as thus:
Order: Strigiformes (owl)
Family: Strigidae; Tytonidae (owls are divided into two families Strigidae, which are typical owls and Tytonidae, which are barn owls)
There are more than 250 species of owls located across the globe. [Konig]
Characteristics of the Class Aves
There are 9,600 living species in the class Aves. Animals in this class are characterized as warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates with feathers, a four-chamber heart, and forelimbs modified into wings. [ Britannica ]
What Makes an Owl a Bird?
Looking at the characteristics of a bird, we can further understand how an owl easily fits into this category.
Warm Blooded: Owls are warm-blooded, which means they have the ability to maintain a constant body temperature through metabolic means. Owls, in fact all birds, maintain a higher body temperature than mammals do at 1.87°C higher during rest and 2.43°C higher during the active phase. Owls have a normal body temperature of 39-40°C. When exposed to hot environments this body temperature can increase 3-4°C. It also rises during flight. [Taylor]
INTERESTING FACT: A bird keeps its brain cooler than the rest of its body maintaining it at 1°C below the temperature of its body.
Vertebrates: Owls are vertebrates, which means they have a backbone. Unlike the highly flexible, moving thoracic vertebrae of the human, the bird’s thoracic vertebrae is fused to help keep the body stiff during flight. The vertebrae in the neck are highly flexible, the owl being a perfect example. [ HSU ]
The flexible vertebrae in the neck of the owl gives it a great range of motion including the ability to turn the head nearly 270° in either direction. [ John Hopkins ]
Egg-Laying: All birds lay eggs including owls. The number of eggs laid will vary from species to species, but they usually lay more eggs than most diurnal raptors with the snowy owl laying between 3-11 eggs in a season depending on food supply. Owl eggs are also more spherical than any other bird group. [ UM ]
Feathers: Like all birds, owls have feathers. Owl feathers are generally larger than other species and have several unique characteristics that make them inaudible to prey. The noiseless flight of the owl can be credited to three physical attributes of its unique wing structure: the soft serrated edges of its leading wing, the flexible fringe on the trailing edge of the wing, and the soft downy feathers at the top of the wing. [ Jaworski ]
Unlike many birds with showy plumage, owl feathers are usually mottled shades to blend in with their surroundings to help them avoid predators and to make them less visible to their prey.
Resources:
Benoit Dayrat; University of California Merced
Celebrating 250 Dynamic Years of Nomenclatural Debates
http://campillos.ucmerced.edu/~bdayrat/PDF%20of%20Papers/Dayrat%202010%20Systema%20Naturae%20250.pdf
König C, Weick F (2008)
Owls: a guide to the owls of the world.
Second Edition. Robertsbridge: Pica Press.
Britannica Academic Edition
Birds
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/66391/bird/49232/Annotated-classification
Taylor, C. Richard, Kjell Johansen, Liana Bolis, and Knut Nielsen. A companion to Animal physiology: papers from the Fifth International Conference on Comparative Physiology held at Sandbjerg, Denmark, July 22-26, 1980. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. Print.
Henderson State University
Skeletal Adaptations of Birds in Flight
http://www.hsu.edu/pictures.aspx?id=1287
John Hopkins Medicine
OWL MYSTERY UNRAVELED: SCIENTISTS EXPLAIN HOW BIRD CAN ROTATE ITS HEAD WITHOUT CUTTING OFF BLOOD SUPPLY TO BRAIN
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/owl_mystery_unraveled_scientists_explain_how_bird_can_rotate_its_head_without_cutting_off_blood_supply_to_brain
University of Michigan Bio Kids
Snowy Owl
Jaworski, J; American Physical Society
Vortex Noise Reductions from a Flexible Fiber Model of Owl Down
http://absimage.aps.org/image/DFD13/MWS_DFD13-2013-002069.pdf
| i don't know |
In Germanic mythology what sort of monster was Fafnir? | Norse and German Mythology
Craig Chalquist, MS PhD
Myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless pattern, the religious formula to which life shapes itself…Whereas in the life of mankind the mythical represents an early and primitive stage, in the life of an individual it represents a late and mature one. -- Thomas Mann
The following list came from a dozen or so sources, including translations of the Eddas. Where applicable comparisons with Greek and Roman deities appear. For a brief discussion of gods and archetypes see my Celtic Deities page.
Those of us with a German or Norse ethnic background have sometimes felt reluctant to look more deeply into our mythologies. In part this is because they are associated with conquest, and in part because the Nazis trashed them in their attempt to regress to the thought patterns of an earlier time. But these, our stories, were never intended for that; and they need reclaiming and dreaming onward for reasons similar to the need for Christians and Muslims to reclaim their spiritual roots from theocrats who wage wars in the name of the Prophet Muhammad or the Prince of Peace. The river of spirit has gotten polluted, but its headwaters remain clear and nourishing.
Very often seekers who abandon Western culture for Eastern or Native American do not realize the depths of what they leave behind. Our stories examine reincarnation, spiritual energy, gift exchange, the vitality of the soul, and the spirit of place. In the old Nordic worldview everything is in flux and begins, balances out from, and ends with polarities akin to yin and yang. Even the gods are subject to this, undergo transformation, and often pay for what they gain with a corresponding loss. Our concept of wyrd directly relates one's actions and intentions to personal and intergenerational consequences similar to karma. But our way of understanding these things reflects our own cultural framework and traditions. Coming home to them often increases respect for those of other cultures while eliminating the desperate drive to uproot and appropriate.
The pagan elements surviving in religious observance have often been taken note of. For uncolonized indigenous people--including the indigenous Celts and Germanics--religion as such did not exist. Native views of spirituality wed it to time and place, land and sea and sky, without need of a corporate hierarchy. And so a conqueror might ransack altars or rewrite the calendar, but the original forces live on--for example as Sun's Day, Moon's Day, Tiw's Day, Woden's Day, Thor's Day, Frigga's Day, Saturn's Day, Yule, Eostre, and All Soul's. Our forbears lived in an enspirited world, and that world abides, as do its animated sacred dimensions. As H. R. Ellis Davidson puts it, "The gods never cease their struggle against the creatures of cold and darkness."
Dedication: to my ancestors: my foremothers and forefathers who danced like furies, lived close to Earth, and held back the night in Britain, France, Germania, Holland, Scandinavia, Spain, Ireland, and Scotland. And what a ruckus in Rome: Diwrnod i'r bren!
Aegir ("AY-ear"): the Norse sea god, master brewer of storms, and husband to Ran, with whom he had nine daughters who personify as waves. Similar to the Greek Poseidon.
Aesir (Icelandic "AY-seer," Swedish "ASS-seer"; singular "Asa"): the chief Norse gods. Similar to the Olympians of Greek myth. More associated with the skyward spirit than the earthy Vanir. The word means "pillars."
Alfar ("OWL-var") : male ancestors. See Disir.
Alfheim: world of the elves.
Alvis ("All-Knowing"): clever dwarf outsmarted by Thor in a verbal contest for the hand of Thor's daughter Thruth ("Might"). The contest lasted so long that the sun came up and turned the would-be groom to stone.
Andhrimnir: the cook for the warriors in Valhalla. His name means "soot in the face." The pot he uses is named Eldhrimnir.
Andvaranaut: a magic ring named after the shape-shifting dwarf Andvari ("Andvari's Gift") and forged by Volund. When Loki stole it to pay a ransom, Andvari cursed it to bring trouble on whomever possessed it. This ring played a key role in Wagner's work and in Tolkein's. It was thought lost in the Rhine, but it resurfaces wherever greed trumps reason or peace.
Angurboda: giant lover of Loki. Her name means "Herald of Sorrow." Their children were the wolf Fenris, the serpent Jormungand, and Hel. The gods took them away from her.
Ari: an underworld giant eagle who scares the dead in Niflheim.
Asgard: the stronghold-world of the gods. It includes Alfheim, where the light elves live, and Vanaheim, where the Vanir live. Asgard is surrounded by a wall built by a giant mason tricked by Loki, who changed into a mare to lure away his stallion so he couldn't finish by winter's end. The Aesir breaking of oaths with the giant--he had asked for Freya, the sun, and the moon, and Loki had agreed for them--paved the way for Ragnarok.
Audhumla (Icelandic "oy-THIM-lah," Swedish "audth-HUM-blah"): a cow formed by the convergence of the ten primal rivers in Niflheim. Her milk fed the giant Ymir. From these two ramified all of existence.
Baldur: bright and wise son of Frigga and Odin, master of the hall Breidablik ("Broad Splendor"), killed by a mistletoe arrow and resurrected. Loki tricked the blind god Hodor into firing it. At his funeral it is said that even earth, stones, trees, and metals wept dew for his passage. A god of harmony, light, reconciliation, and sacred wells (compare Apollo). He will survive Ragnarok, as will Hodor.
Bergelmir: the father of all the giants.
Berserkers ("bearshirts"): warriors who in some stories could turn themselves into dangerous bears. (The bear was so highly prized in Finnish lore that it could not be named.) Chieftains often surrounded themselves with such warriors, some of whom went without mail and others who painted themselves and their weapons black before night fighting. Their battle frenzy was thought to come from Odin, whose name refers to ecstacy or frenzy.
Bestla: frost giant mother of Odin and his brothers. Her mate was Bor, son of Buri.
Bifrost ("BAY-vrurst": "Trembling Roadway") : the flaming, three-strand rainbow bridge that joins Asgard to Midgard and keeps away giants until it breaks under Surt's legions at Ragnarok.
Blot ("bloat"): an animal sacrifice ritual to honor ("To Strengthen") the gods.
Bragi ("BRAH-yee"): eloquent god of poetry ("bragr") and husband of Idunna. Unlike clean-shaven Apollo, Bragi wears a long beard. Often shown with a harp. Patron of minstrels. Loki began with him in an incident where the trickster hurled insults at the assembled Aesir during a lengthy bout of self-congratulating.
Brunhild ("Mailed Warrior"): a shape-shifting Valkarie who fell in love with the hero Sigurd and burned herself to death when he died of treachery.
Buri ("BOO-ree"): son of Audhumla, the primal cow who licked him into life from salty rocks. Grandfather of Odin and father of Bor.
Disir ("DEE-seer"; singular "dis"): female ancestors. See Alfar.
Draugr (plural "draugar"): a powerful undead zombie. Runes were sometimes inscribed on tombstones to keep the undead from rising. The haugbui was a draugr who stayed put but attacked anyone who trespassed near the grave site.
Draupnir: "Dropper," the magic gold bracelet of Odin that creates eight new rings of gold every ninth night.
Dwarves: underground beings associated with craftsmanship. They sprung like maggots from Ymir's body, and many live in Nidavellir ("Dark Fields") below ground. The cardinal directions were sky-supporting dwarves named Austri (East), Sudri (South), Vestri (West), and Nordri (North). Dwarves supplied the magical instruments and weapons of the gods.
Eddas: the collections of stories and poems that constitute the primary early record of Norse and Icelandic mythology. They were penned in the 13th century, the Prose Edda by the Icelandic scholar and poet Snorri Sturluson, who used the thirty-four-poem brew of the Poetic Edda as a source, but they belong to a much more ancient oral tradition. Some of their images go back to the Bronze Age. The original calf-skin vellum on which they were written was lost long ago. "Edda" has been thought to mean "poem" but could refer to Oddi, a settlement in southwestern Iceland, home of Sturluson and the legendary scholar Saemund the Wise. From 1100 on lore collected in Iceland like congealing flows of lava.
Einherjar ("EIN-her-yar"): collective name for the dead warriors gathered in Valhalla. They go out into the couryard and battle by day, recover, and feast in the hall at night.
Eir: a goddess of healing. Compare with the Greek Hygeia.
Elivagar ("Stormy Waves"): the eleven rivers whose dripping venom gave the first giants their fierceness through Ymir. Snorri links them to the Milky Way.
Elves: youthful beings living in forests and near springs. They look like humans and sometimes crossbred. Dark elves were thought to cause diseases. They live in Svartalfheim ("Land of Dark Elves"), whereas bright elves live in Alfheim and Vidblain in heaven. In parts of Sweden the custom is to pour a cup of milk for them and leave it near a tomb.
Eostre, Ostara ("East Shining"): Saxon goddess of springtime and rabbits. Celebrated at the spring equinox, her name gave itself to April. Compare with the Roman goddess Aurora and the Greek Eos.
Etins: giants friendly to the gods, unlike the Jotuns, who aren't.
Fafnir: a gold-hoarding dragon killed by the hero Sigurd.
Faining: a god-honoring ritual that does not involve animal sacrifice.
Fensalir: the "Sea Halls" of Frigga in Asgard.
Fenris, Fenrir: the wolf son of Loki bound by the gods with Tyr's help and sacrifice. He will eat Odin at Ragnarok and be slain by Odin's son Vidar. His slaver forms the river Van ("Hope" or "Expectation").
Folde: Anglo-Saxon goddess of Earth. Also called Fira Modor ("Mother of Men").
Forseti: god of law and justice and overseer of civic assemblies. A son of Baldur, he lives in the silver and golden hall Glitnir ("Shining"). An old story tells that he brought a spring from the earth while giving law to the Frisians.
Freya: golden-haired "Lady" and goddess of love and beauty. Compare with Aphrodite and Venus. Freya's chariot, drawn by cats, bears comparison with Aphrodite's (called Pothos, the fantasy component of love), and she sometimes takes the form of a dove. Both goddesses are connected to sea swells. Freya's fire-jewel necklace Brisingamen ("Fiery Belt") was forged by four dwarves after she spent one night with each. She has eight sisters and a coat that turns the wearer into a falcon. Her hall is Sessrumnir ("Rich in Seats") at Folkvang, the Field of Warriors, where half the slain in battle go. Her disguised lover Hildisvini's name means "Battle Boar"; his human name is Ottar. She taught magic (divinatory witchcraft: see "Seidr" below) to other goddesses and gods. When she cries her tears make red gold. Her daughter with lost Od is Hnoss ("Treasure"). She was one of the Vanir sent to the Aesir to bring peace to both. She can be thought of as the archetypal principle that attracts every opposite, from the cohesion of matter to the gravity between galaxies. Through her intercourse became sacred and healing and ceremonial.
Freyr (Icelandic: pronounce the final "r"): Vanir "Lord" of the elves, husband of the giant Gerd ("Enclosure" or "Field"), and brother of Freya. A god of peace and lusty pleasure and good crops. He sails in the foldable portable ship Skidbladnir ("Wooden-Bladed") and rides the luminously golden boar Gullinbursti ("Golden Bristles"). His magic sword wielded itself until he gave it away to marry Gerd, so he killed the giant Beli with an antler. Brings happiness and is kind to women but is prone to depression. He resembles a mixture of Saturn and Dionysus, with Gerd an echo of Arachne. The legendary Danish king Frodi might be a byform of Freyr. The Anglo-Saxons called him Ing. His messenger is Skirnir ("Bright One").
Frigga ("FREE-yuh"): the Allmother of the Norse and wife of Odin. Goddess of peacemaking, weaving the threads of cosmic order, and holding and keeping political and domestic power. She knows everyone's fate but does not speak it. Her name means "Spinner." Compare with Hera or Juno or the Celtic Morrigan. Her handmaids were Fulla, Gna, and Lin. Friday was considered a good day to get married because it was named after her (for the Germanics, Frija's Day).
Frith: peaceful accord. Arranging a peace is "frith-weaving."
Fulla, Volla: long-haired virgin sister of Frigga and guardian of her treasure. Her name means "Bounty."
Fylgja ("FEEL-gyah"; plural "Fylgjur"): a part of the soul that sometimes shows up as an animal and can live outside the body. The form it takes depends on the inner character of the person it visits. The word means "she who follows."
Garm: the underworld hound of Hel. He is chained in Gnipahellir, the cave entrance of Niflheim, and will die with Tyr at Ragnarok. Similar to Cerberus.
Gefion ("GEF-yon": "She Who Gives"): Vanir crop and field goddess. Compare Demeter/Ceres. When King Gylfi of Sweden mocked the apparently homeless woman before him by giving her all of Zealand she could plow, she turned her giant-sired sons into oxen and plowed the entire expanse. She overlooks agriculture, acquisition, and material wealth. Women who die as virgins accompany her.
Geirröth: the king who unwittingly bound Odin between two fires (he had thought him a common wanderer whom his dogs refused to attack) to torture him for eight nights. His ten-year-old son Agnar was kind to the disguised god and gave him a horn to drink from. When the king realizes his mistake he falls on his sword. Odin teaches his son sacred lore.
Gimli: the gold-roofed hall where the new gods will live after Ragnarok.
Ginungagap: the creative void or chasm from which all things emanated. Within it lie a realm of fire (Muspelheim) and a world of ice (Niflheim) that contained Hvergelmir, the well from which flowed the primal rivers. When the worlds collided into a big bang, the giant Ymir came to be.
Gladsheim ("Place of Joy"): a pleasant dwelling on the plain of Ida and largest building in existence. The twelve gods had seats of honor there.
Gna: messenger of Frigga whose name means "rise high," which she does on the backof Hofvarpnir ("hoof-thrower"). Her name shares roots with "looming."
Grid: the female giant who who loans Thor her staff, iron gloves,and belt of strength so he can kill the giant Geirrod and his two daughters.
Gullinkambi ("Golden Comb"): the cock that awakens the Einherjar warriors of Valhalla to Ragnarok. The cock Fjalar awakens the Giants.
Gullveig ("Gold Might"): the Vanic goddess and seeress whose triple burning by the Aesir offended the Vanir; Odin's casting a spear over their ranks precipitated the war. Gullveig's name might indicate a reason for the burning, but the Aesir might also have feared her powerful magic. She was banished to Ironwood until Ragnarok. Some think her a byform of Freya.
Hamingja: luck, partly inherited from the ancestors and partly modifiable through one's actions.
Heimdal ("HAME-dall," meaning, "One Who Illuminates the World"): the watchful gold-toothed guardian of the rainbow bridge Bifrost. His hall is Himinbjorg ("Heaven's Cliffs") at the end of the bridge Bifrost; his horse is Golltopp ("Gold-Topped"). It is said he gave an ear to Mimir's well to obtain his otherworldly powers of hearing. He successfully fought Loki to regain Freya's necklace after both of them had shapeshifted into seals. His horn Gjall ("Ringing Horn") will announce the final war of Ragnarok, where he and Loki will kill each other. Heimdall's counterpart watchman among the giants is Eggther. Cf. the Greek Argus, who also tangled with a trickster, and shapeshifting Proteus, foreteller of events and guardian of seals.
Hel: the giant goddess of the underworld. She is half black and half white and lives in the hall Eliudnir ("Sprayed with Snowstorms") in Helheim, where she is served by male Ganglati ("Tardy") and female Ganglot ("Tardy"). According to Snorri "her dish is Hunger, her knife is Famine, her slave is Lazy, and Slothful is her woman servant." Her bed is named Sick Bed, and her bed curtains Gleaming Disaster. Compare Persephone.
Helheim: the world of the dead.
Hermod: Asa messenger of the gods. His name means "Fast." It was he who rode Sleipnir to the underworld--leaping over its gate Helgrind--to unsuccessfully plead Hel for Baldur's return. Only the giant Thokk ("Gratitude": Loki in disguise) would not weep for him. Compare Hermes.
Hlin ("Protectress"): she defends and looks after humans liked by Frigga.
Howe: a burial mound. Gateway to the underworld. In Norse and Germanic myth the dead go to one of several places, including the hall of the deity they revered while alive. Kings and poets sometimes sat on the mounds of their dead ancestors for inspiration or dreams.
Hrede: "The Glorious" or "The Victorious" Anglo-Saxon goddess of the chill that falls before spring.
Hreidmar: the farmer whose son Otter was killed by Loki. He trapped Loki, Odin, and Hoenir with magic and demanded a ransom of red gold, which they paid with wealth tricked out of the dwarf Andvari by Loki.
Hrimfaxi ("Frost-Maned"): the horse of Night (Not), which she rides around the world. The horse of Day (Dag, son of Not and Dogling ("Son of the Dew") is Skinfaxi ("Shining-Maned").
Hrungnir: a mountain-sized giant who lost a horse race to Odin and got drunk in Valhalla afterward. He was armed with a magical whetstone that splintered into chunks that buried themselves all over the world for later use by those who seek sharp blades (or sharp minds). Thor cured him of taking Freya for a serving wench by smashing his head.
Huginn ("HYUG-in"): the raven Thought who scouts things out for Odin.
Hugr: soul. The soul was seen as a polycentered, deathless core of selfhood.
Humans: fashioned from an ash and an elm standing on a shoreline into a man (Askr) and woman (Embla) by Odin, who gave breath and soul, silent Hoenir, who gave intelligence, and Lodur, who bestowed senses and form.
Hymir: a giant foolish enough to go fishing with Thor, who was eager for a look at the World Serpent, and still more foolish enough not to share any fishing bait. Thor found his own by ripping the head off Hymir's ox Himinhrjot.
Hyrrokkin: the giant who freed Baldur's stuck boat to carry his dead body out to sea. Four berserkers could not budge it, so the Aesir called for her and she came riding a wolf with a poisonous snake for reins.
Icelandic Sagas: seven hundred prose narratives written down during the thirteenth century by various anonymous authors. Iceland represented a remarkable nexus for Norse and Germanic myth and skaldic poetry from 1000 AD onward.
Innangaro: a sacred social enclosure guarding against the forces of utgaro (destruction). A cultural temenos.
Idunn ("ee-DOO-nuh"): goddess of youth and health, which she bestows on the gods with her apples of immortality kept in a wooden box. Her name means "The Renewer." Loki delivered her to the giant Thjiazi but rescued her again. She is the wife of Bragi. Her Greek counterpart is Hebe the youth goddess.
Iku-turso: an evil Finnish sea monster.
Illmarinen: the Finnish god-smith who forged the dome of heaven and the mysterious Sampo, a kind of horn of plenty. Similar to the Greek Hephaestos and the Roman Vulcan.
Iving: a river that never ices over and marks a boundary between Asgard and the realm of the giants.
Jarnvid: "Ironwood," a land east of Midgard where trolls live.
Jord: Earth, daughter of Night, and mother of Thor. The Norse version of Gaia or Terra. Invoked by women in labor.
Jormungand ("YOR-mun-gand"): the enormous, tail-biting serpent of Midgard. Odin imprisoned it in the sea to get rid of it, but it grew until it embraced all of earth. At Ragnarok it will poison Thor and pollute the sky.
Jötnar ("yötnar"; singular "jötunn): giants. Also called risar (singular "risi"). Those inhabiting icy Niflheim were known as frost giants. Fire giants inhabit Muspelheim.
Jötunheim ("YUR-tun-hame"): the world of the giants. It contains their citadel Utgard and lies somewhere near Midgard, the world of humans.
Kvasir: a wise Vanir formed from the divine spit of the Aesir and Vanir. After two dwarves killed him the mead of poetry was decanted from his blood into the cauldron Odrorir ("Heart-Stirrer") and later stolen by Odin.
Kennings: the naming of people and things with poetic metaphors like "Freya's tears" (gold) and "horse of sea" (ship). Kennings avoided the dull and literal, demonstrated poetic skill, drew on a shared cultural history, exercised the imagination, and kept the images fresh through renewing them with words.
Kobold: a troublesome German sprite or goblin. Some haunt mines or caves.
Lightalfheim: the world of light elves.
Lintukoto: the edge of the world in Finnish mythology. The name means "Home of the Birds."
Lofn ("Comforter"): a giver of hope, she also helps people marry. She and Sjöfn and Snotra bear comparison with the Graces.
Loki: the Trickster god, mother of Odin's horse Sleipnir, and blood brother of Odin. Loki's persuasion after cutting off Sif's hair (to imply promiscuity) resulted in new hair woven of gold, the hammer Mjollnir given to Thor, Odin's deep-piercing spear Gungnir, and Loki's shoes of flight. A trick of his resulted in Baldur's death and resulting survival after Ragnarok. Compare Hermes, Mercury, Prometheus. Loki means "fire." For insulting the Aesir he is bound to three stones by the entrails of his dead son Narfi until Ragnarok. He is disorder personified and shows up whenever things get too ponderous or routine.
Maegen ("MAYG-in"): the vitality aspect of soul. Similar to the Asian "chi" or "ki."
Magni ("Might"): strong son of Thor who with his brother Modi ("Wrath") will receive Thor's hammer after their father dies at Ragnarok.
Mani: the moon god whose chariot is driven by the horse Alsvid ("Very Strong"). A girl (Bil) and boy (Hjuki) go with him.
Merkstave: when a rune drawn for a reading comes up reversed, resulting in a reversal of its meaning. Literally means "dark stick."
Midgard: the world of humans. "Middle Earth."
Mimir ("Remembrer"): god whose head guards the well of wisdom at the base of Yggrasil the World Tree. Possibly uncle to Odin, who gave an eye for a drink. Displeased with Hoenir's silence, the Vanir beheaded Mimir and sent him back to the Aesir, but the peace worked out anyway.
Mjölnir ("MULE-near"): the hammer of Thor, which he needs a metal glove to wield. The dwarves Brokk and Eitri made it. When he throws it the hammer hits its target and comes back into his hand. The word means "masher" and is linked to "milling." The tendency of this flying grindstone to give off lightning also makes it a sort of portable thunderbolt. Lapp shamans struck their drums with hammers that resembled Thor's.
Mundilferi: father of the sun and moon. His name might mean "The Turner."
Muninn: Odin's raven Memory. Given the distortions and gaps of Norse mythology, Odin may have been right to fear losing Memory more than Thought (symbolized by the raven Huginn).
Nanna: wife of Baldur, who threw herself on his funeral pyre in grief as he burned on his ship Ringhorn.
Nehellenia: Dutch goddess comparable to Isis and Demeter; her name might mean "Helpful Coming Close."
Nerthus: Danish goddess of Earth. Similar to the Greek Gaia and the Roman Terra.
Nidhogg: the old dragon who chews on the root of the World Tree. His name means "Dread Biter."
Niflheim ("Misty Hel"): a realm of darkness under one root of the World Tree. At Nastrond ("Shore of Corpses"), the dragon Nidhogg chews on those who were evil in life.
Nine: a key number in Norse myth. Nine worlds, Odin's three triangles and nine magic songs, Heimdall's nine mothers, Hermod's nine-day journey to the underworld, etc. In alchemy the Third referred to a unifying or synthesizing substance derived by combining two others (a duality). In many mythologies nine (three threes) represents the culmination of a cycle.
Njord ("NEEORD"): father of Freya and Freyr and god of ships and trade who lives in Noatun ("Ship's Haven") and calms the seas and winds. His marriage to the giant Skadi failed because she belongs at her father Thjiazi's home Thrymheim ("Home of Thunder") in the mountains and he by the sea.
Nornir: the three wise goddesses, also called the Norns, who sit at the foot of Yggdrasil and weave the web of fate. Urd oversees past actions, Verdandi the present, and Skuld the future. Even the gods must bow to their decisions. Compare with the Greek Fates ("Moira").
Od: lost husband of Freya. When she could not find him she shed tears of gold that turned trees into amber.
Odin ("OHDTH-in"; called Wotan or Woden in Germanic lore): Allfather and shape-shifting husband of Frigga. Lusty god of ecstacy, storm, hunting, poetry, berserk fury, and incantations. His authority is similar to that of Zeus (Greek) and Jupiter (Roman). He sits on the throne Hildskfalf ("hlid-skyalf": "Watch Tower") and likes to go about on Earth disguised as a gray-bearded wanderer in a tall hat and dark blue cloak. It was he whose breath animated the first humans and he who leads the dead on the shamanic Wild Hunt of wandering souls. He subsists on wine and loves knowledge from the depths and will make sacrifices to obtain it, as when he exchanged an eye for a drink from Mimir's well. His seduction of Gunloo to obtain the sacred mead of poetry (Ooroerir) from her Jotun father Suttung resulted in the birth of Bragi, god of poetry. Odin's imagery marks him as a Shaman of shamans. He is unusual in another way: a god actively seeking wisdom and making sacrifices to open pathways to self-development. On memorial stones and urns his emblem appears: the valknut, three interlocked triangles.
Okolnir ("Not Cold"): the warm ground where the hall Brimir will stand after Ragnarok.
Örlög ("UR-lurg") : a person's own strand of fate (wyrd). One's actions can influence its shape.
Ragnarök: often mistranslated as "twilight (rather than "fate") of the gods": an apocalypse in which the old gods and their opposites destroy each other, resulting in heavenly renewal and a new race of human beings. C. G. Jung referred to this mythological dynamic as the transformation of the God-image(s). It begins with a three-year winter (fimbulvetr) and giants storming Asgard by land under Surt and riding in on Naglfar, a ship made of the nails of the dead steered by Hrym and captained by Loki. Odin will be eaten by the wolf Fenris, his wolvish offspring Skoll and Hati will devour the sun and moon, Surt will kill Freyr, the world serpent Jormungand will kill Thor with its breath, the hellhound Garm and Tyr will kill each other, and so will Heimdall and Loki. The World Serpent will turn out the seas onto land and Surt will cast flame over the world that ends, like it began, in a union of fire and water. Afterwards Earth will rise again from the sea and the sun and moon's children Lif and Lifthrasir (Life and Will-to-Live) will repopulate it. Vidar, Vali, Modi, Magni, Baldur, and Hod will come to Idavoll, former site of Asgard, and find the gold playing pieces of the former Aesir.
Axe-time, sword-time, shields are sundered,
Wind-time, wolf-time, ere the world falls;
Nor ever shall men each other spare....
Now do I see the earth anew
Rise all green from the waves again...
Ran ("Robber"): net-wielding wife of Aegir and personification of the sea's danger. The drowned go to her after death.
Rune: a character in a pictographic alphabet held to be of divine origin. The 24-letter Germanic Elder Futhark of the second to the eighth centuries (sometimes simplified into the Younger Futhark of Scandinavia) is often used in rune readings. Runes were often carved into pieces of wood and stained red.
Saga: goddess of history, ancestry, and storytelling (her name means "to tell" or "to speak"). She lives in the hall Sokkvabekk ("Sunken Bank") and often drank there with Odin.
Saehrimnir: the boar eaten by the warriors in Valhalla. They drink mead from the udders of Heithrun, the she-goat who nibbles the leaves of the World Tree.
Seaxnéat/Saxnot: "Sword Friend," a little-known Anglo-Saxon god, possibly a counterpart to Tyr. A seax was a long, single-edged knife.
Seidur ("say-dthur"): magic involving an ecstatic state of divination achieved by a wise woman. A form of witchcraft taught by Freya. This talent, later known as witchcraft, involved ceremony and sometimes erotic practice or imagery.
Sif: seeress wife of Thor and mother of his daughter Thruo ("Strength") and his sons Magni ("Strong") and Modi ("Angry").
Sigyn: wife of Loki; "Woman of Victory." She holds a bowl to catch venom dripped by a poisonous serpent into Loki's face after the giant Skadi and the gods bound him as punishment (compare the story of Prometheus) for arranging Baldur's death. His writhings when she turns away to empty the bowl cause earthquakes.
Sjöfn ("SYUR-fn"): her name means "affection." See Lofn.
Skadi ("Shadow"): the skiing mountain giant who hunted with a bow and could not work things out with Njord, whom she married as compensation for the death of her father Thjiazi. Compare Artemis.
Sleipnir ("SLAYP-near"): the fast steed of Odin, eight-legged and fathered by the stallion Svadilfri, who mated with shapeshifted Loki its mother.
Snotra ("Wise"): the goddess of custom and courtesy. See Lofn.
Sol: the sun goddess whose chariot is pulled by the horses Allsvinn ("Very Fast") and Arvak ("Early Walker").
Surt: "Black" lord giant of fiery Muspelheim, bearer of a flaming sword, and future leader of the forces opposing Odin's at Ragnarok, where he will set the world on fire. Compare Hades/Pluto. His wife may have been Sinmora.
Suttung: the giant from whom Odin tricked the mead of poetry. Suttung pursued Odin back to Asgard as an eagle and almost caught him, but Odin spat the mead into vats. Some of it shot out of his rear as well, and it reappears to stain the air whenever one hears bad poetry.
Svalin: "The Cooling" is a shield that stands in front of the sun. Without its ozone-like protection the world would burn.
Swartalfheim: the world of dark elves.
Syn: gatekeeper of Frigga's hall Fensalir; her name means "Refusal" or "Denial." She is invoked by defendants during trials. Compare Hecate.
Thew: tribal law or custom.
Thor: the mighty red-bearded son of Allfather Odin; the Norse Herakles. Armed with his war hammer Mjollnir and Megingjard the Belt of Strength, he tends to flatten whatever grows inflated beyond natural limits, particularly greedy giants. His chariot is pulled by the goats Tanggniost ("Tooth-Grinder") and Tanngrisnir ("Snarl Tooth"). His hall is named Bilskinir ("bill-skier-near"), "Lightning," and is located in Thrudheim ("Place of Might"). Thor safeguards important demarcations (e.g., the boundaries of Asgard) while breaking open those that unduly block or limit. He recalls the Anglo-Saxon Thunor, the Celtic Tanaros, the Hindu Indra, and the German god Donar.
Thrym: the giant who stole Mjollnir and wouldn't give it back unless the Aesir offered him Freya. Thor showed up for the wedding dressed as her and accompanied by Loki in the guise of a bridesmaid. The disguise wore thin when Thor consumed an ox and eight salmon, but Thrym placed the hammer in "Freya's" lap anyway as a Norse sign of conjugal affection. Mjollnir responded.
Trolls: large, ugly creatures who live in dark or hidden places. Norwegian term for the giant of Sweden or Denmark. Pretty female ones sometimes seduced wayfarers and left them drowned or lost. In stories where Thor is absent sometimes appears a short statement like, "...and Thor was out hammering trolls."
Tuoni: Finnish god of the underworld (called Tuonela).
Tyr ("teer"), Tiwaz: the binder of the wolf Fenris with the deceptively thin dwarf-crafted rope Gleipnir ("Open One"). He bound the wolf (and lost his sword hand to it) because a seeress foretold that the wolf would kill Odin at Ragnarok. He is a god of honorable conduct and direct action and and linked to the arrow-shaped rune Tiewaz. He is sometimes compared to Ares and Mars. His consort may have been Zisa.
Ukko: the Finnish Odin or Zeus; also called the Overgod. His wife was Akka. His weapon was a stone ax.
Ull: archer god of hunting and skiing and duels; his name means "Glory." A son of Sif but not Thor, he lives in Ydalir ("Yew Dale"). A kenning for shields was "ships of Ull."
Urda's ("Urth-ahs") Well: the well of fate at the foot of Yggdrasil. Urda is one of the Norns.
Utgard-Loki: the giant who called himself Skrymir ("Big Fellow") and fooled Thor and his companions Thialfi and Loki by testing them against Elli (Old Age), Logi (Fire), and Hugi (Thought). He and his mansion vanished just before meeting Mjollnir. Such optical tricks are called sjónhverfing ("sight-altering"). Thor having unknowingly drunk up part of the ocean, there are now tides.
Vaettir ("VAY-tear"; singular Vaet): spirits of land and place. Genii loci.
Vafthruthnir: the giant who lost a wisdom contest and his life to Odin.
Valhalla: Odin's great "Hall of the Slain" within Asgard. There he feeds and trains slain heroes for use in the final battle of Ragnarok. The hall is surrounded by the river Thund ("The Roaring"), raftered with spears, roofed with shields, lit by swords, and fitted with benches strewn with breastplates. A wolf and an eagle are carved above the door. A grove of red gold called Glasir stands in front of the doors.
Vali: son of Odin and Rind. He was born to avenge Baldur's death by killing blind Hodor.
Valkaries: the implacable "Choosers of the Slain": warrior women who select who will be slain in battle and transport dead heroes to Valhalla. Descriptions of them often match those of the Furies.
Vanaheim: the world of the Vanir.
Vanir ("VAH-near"; also called the Wanes): an older race of gods similar to the Greek Titans but who continue to interact with the Aesir, with whom they exchanged peace hostages. The earthy Vanir in Norse myth reach far back into pre-Indo-European and indigenous shamanic origins.
Var: goddess of oath-keeping and punisher of those who break promises. Her name means an oath or pledge.
Vidar: Odin's son and avenger of his death at Ragnarok. He wears a shoe assembled from the scraps of all shoes that have ever been, and he uses it to prop open the mouth of Fenriswolf while tearing the beast apart.
Vigrid ("Battle-Shaker"): the 120-league-square Asgard plain where the gods and the giants will destroy each other at time's end.
Vikings: seagoing merchant raiders who sailed and fought between the eighth and eleventh centuries. The name "Rus," or the Swedish Vikings described by Ibn Fadlan, appears in "Russia"; Vikings also founded Dublin, Iceland, Greenland. One of them, Leif the Lucky, not only sighted North America (near Newfoundland) around the year 1001 but stayed there for a few years and might have ventured as far south as New England or Long Island. Their shallow-draft longships allowed them to strike deep inland and made them a terror throughout Europe to as far away as the Mideast. Having witnessed the bloody Christianization of Scandinavia, the Vikings particularly favored attacks on wealthy coastal monasteries. Unlike their enemies they bathed and kept groomed. Their leather and iron battle helmets did not carry horns or wings. An old legend says that goblins originating in France caught a ride with the Vikings to arrive in England.
Vingolf: the goddess' lovely sanctuary in Asgard. "Friendly Quarters."
Vor: a wise, watchful, careful goddess about whom little is known. She investigates things deeply, and nothing can remain hidden from her.
Volsung: the king who gave his name to the saga written down by an unknown author in the thirteenth century. The saga includes Sigmund, the Arthurlike son of Volsung who pulls Odin's sword from the tree Branstock, the sword's breaking and its remaking into sharp Gram, and the story of the dragon-slaying hero Sigurd and his tragic love Brunhild. In the treasure of Fafnir waits the cursed ring of Andvari: "But hearken, for that same gold which I have owned shall be thy bane too." And so it is, dooming him, Brunhild, Sigurd's wife Gudrun, who suffers loss after terrible loss, down to the death of Atli and his clan, when Odin reappears to give their enemies advice. With the theft of the ring Andvaranaut, Loki (and Odin) had set in motion a kind of intergenerational nightmare to bring down a line of proud and once-vital kings who greedily took whatever they wanted by butchery.
NOW MAY ALL EARLS
| Dragon |
Which hero saved Andromeda from the sea monster Celus? | Monsters
Midgard Serpent
The World Serpent. The Midgard Serpent, called Jörmungand (Jormungand) or Jörmungandr, was an offspring of Loki and the giantess Angerboda . Jörmungand symbolised evil.
Not only could Jörmungand kill its victim by crushing constriction, the Midgard Serpent's venom was lethal even against the gods. Jörmungand was Thor's most deadly enemy.
To confine the ever-growing serpent, Odin had Jörmungand thrown into the sea. But, Jörmungand grew so large that his entire body completely encircled the world. See Monster Bound in Ragnarök.
Thor failed to kill Jörmungand, the first time the two met. Thor had hooked Jörmungand like a fish. The thunder-god tried to smash Jörmungand's head in with the Mjollnir, Thor's magic hammer. But the frightened frost-giant Hymir cut off Thor's line, allowing the Midgard Serpent to escape. See Fishing Expedition in Of Thor and Giants.
At Ragnarök (Ragnarok), Jörmungand escaped his underwater confinement. Thor managed to kill the evil serpent with the Mjollnir; but Thor succumbed to the deadly venom from Jörmungand.
Fenrir
Giant wolf. Fenrir was the offspring of Loki and the giantess Angerboda . Fenrir was also called Fenris. Snorri Sturluson had also given Fenrir another name, Vanargand.
Fenrir grew so rapidly and in such gigantic proportion that the gods feared it. The gods pretend to play game of binding the wolf, to see if it could freed itself. Fenrir agreed to play the game if someone would place his or her hand in Fenrir's giant mouth. Only the war-god Tyr was fearless enough to place his hand in its mouth.
The gods found nothing could bind the wolf, until they received a magical silk ribbon called Gleipnir, created by dwarfs. This ribbon was made of noise of a cat, beard of woman, breath of a fish and spittle of a bird. When Fenrir could not escape, he realised he was tricked by the gods, when they refused to release him. In revenge, Fenrir bit off Tyr's hand. Thereafter, Tyr was known as the One-handed God. See Monster Bound in Ragnarök.
When Ragnarök (Ragnarok) arrived, Fenrir broke free from his fetter, and joined the other giants and monsters in a war against the gods. Fenrir fought against Odin , until the wolf killed and devoured Odin. Vidar avenged his father's death, by ripping Fenrir's jaw apart with his bare hands.
According to the Voluspa, Fenrir was a parent of another giant wolf, Moongarm, the wolf that will swallow the moon at Ragnarok. The mother of Moongram was one of the trollwives living in Ironwood, known generally as the Iarnvidiur.
Moongarm
Moongarm was the one of the offspring of one of the Iarnvidiur, the trollwives (giantesses) from Ironwood, east of Midgard. Her sons were all giants, but born in the wolf forms. Moongarm was the largest and the mightiest of these gigantic wolves. According to the Voluspa, Moongarm was an offspring of Fenrir .
According to Snorri Sturluson, Moongarm was filled with blood of all those who had died. He will swallow the heavenly bodies, spattering the sky and heaven with blood. This would cause the sun not to shine, and violent winds would rage unabated. For this reason, Moongarm was known as the sun's snatcher.
Dragon. Fafnir was the son of Hreidmar, and brother of Regin and Otter .
Originally, Fafnir was a human, who was able to shape-shift. Fafnir gain possession of the treasure after killing his father, he drove his brother (Regin) away, by changing himself into a dragon.
The hero Sigurd, killed Fafnir. Since his blood and heart contain magical properties, Sigurd ate his heart, that gave him greater strength, and the blood allowed him to understand language of the birds.
(See Otter's Ransom and Sigurd, Fafnir's Bane in the Völsunga Saga , for the full story).
According to the Norwegian Thidrekssaga and other German epics, the dragon that Sigurd or Siegfried killed was named Regin, while the dragon's human brother was a smith named Mimir. The name Fafnir was ignored in these tales.
Grendel
Grendel and his mother were some sorts of humanoid creatures that had existed since the time of when God punished Cain for murdering his brother Abel, referring to the passages of the Genesis of the Old Testament Bible.
Description of the Grendel (and his mother) varied widely, and was never made clear what they really was. Grendel had been called fiend, demon, giant, sea creature or simply just as monster. Often, modern scholars and artists depicted Grendel as a giant goblin, troll or orge, with long powerful arms.
Grendel and his mother dwelled in the underwater cave of a lake or the fen, near the hall built by the Danish king, Hrothgar , called Heorot. Grendel usually come out of his lair at night, and killed his unsuspecting victims while they slept. Grendel enjoyed the killing and devouring human flesh, and drinking their blood.
Grendel continued to kill and eat Hrothgar's people for twelve years. Though Hrothgar had fought the monster, his weapon were useless against the monster, because of some dark magics that made the creature invulnerable to weapon.
The Geatish hero Beowulf fought Grendel without a weapon, relying on his superhuman strength and powerful grips. Beowulf mortally wounded Grendel by ripping the monster's arm from his shoulder. Grendel fled back to his subterranean lair, where he died.
The next night, Grendel's mother grieved over the death of her son, went to Heorot and killed one of Hrothgar's thanes in revenge. Beowulf went to Grendel's lair in the subterranean vaulted hall, to kill Grendel's mother. Beowulf fought Grendel's mother, killing her with the sword that he had found; the blade was made by a giant. Beowulf had severed her head.
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Who played both the Kray twins in the film Legend? | Tom Hardy confirms he will play BOTH Kray twins in Legend | Daily Mail Online
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Tom Hardy has confirmed he will play both brothers in a new biopic about notorious East End gangsters, The Krays.
The 36-year-old will face the tricky task of simultaneously playing Ronnie and Reggie Kray in the new film titled, Legend.
Confirming the news, Tom said: 'I'm on that right now. I've got to work out how to play both twins, which will be fun. It's another experiment and I'm really looking forward to it.
Twice as fun: Actor Tom Hardy has confirmed he will be play both legendary gangsters, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, in a new biopic
'I’m not going to put too much pressure on myself, I just want to have some fun. The more of a challenge I give myself, the easier it is to take on more projects which are complicated in the future.'
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The Hollywood hunk previously told MailOnline that he was keen to take on the roles as he said: ‘All the plans are on the table.
'There’s a lot of crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s, and there’s a lot of shift and geography to work out.’
Gangster: The actore previously told MailOnline that he would 'absolutely' love to play the criminal brothers
Notorious: LA Confidential writer, Brian Helgeland's script will focus on the Kray twins' wheelings and illegal dealings during the fifties and sixties, with Hardy playing both brothers.
From a screenplay penned by LA Confidential writer, Brian Helgeland, the story will focus on the Kray twins’ wheelings and illegal dealings during the fifties and sixties, with Hardy playing both brothers.
‘It would be difficult,’ Tom said about the mechanics of playing two characters sharing a lot of the same screen time. ‘It’s quite technical and I’m a bit of an anorak.’
He added: ‘There’s a physical transfer; we’d have to shoot one bit, go away come back and shoot it all again with another part. I’ve never dreamt of playing two people on the screen!’
The working title of the film is Legend, and is currently in development with the expectation to begin production in the UK later this year.
And though the Krays might look identical, their characters are far different which will no doubt be a challenge for the actor, as he portrays the struggle of the elder brother Reggie to keep in check the unstable actions of his younger twin, rumoured to have been a paranoid schizophrenic.
As heads of the notorious criminal gang The Firm, the Krays were behind numerous armed robberies, murders, arson attacks and protection rackets up until their arrest on 9th May 1968. Their story was previously told on film in the 1990s, with real life brothers Martin and Gary Kemp playing the title roles.
Challenge: Tom will portray both The Kray twins in the film, which the actor knows will be difficult but exciting
Second time: Martin and Gary Kemp played The Krays in the 1990 movie of their criminal exploits
The Oscar-winning screenwriter’s script doesn’t just concern the criminals that the brothers dealt with, but also the likes of Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland and other celebrities, who frequented their former Knightsbridge nightclub Esmeralda's Barn, which is now the site of the Berkeley Hotel.
It is also said to look at Ronnie’s alleged sexual relationship with two British politicians; Lord Boothby, a UK Conservative Party politician, and, Labour MP Tom Driberg.
Of course, playing a violent former boxer-turned-criminal won’t be too tough a feat for Hardy, who proved his worth as the title character in Nicolas Winding Refn’s biopic Bronson.
He can do hard: Tom previously played 'the most violent prisoner in Britain' in Nicolas Winding Refn's Bronson
Reunited: Tom and Cillian Murphy (far right) starred in Inception and act opposite each other in BBC period crime drama Peaky Blinders
And he continued down the gangster path with his role in BBC period crime drama Peaky Blinders, opposite his Inception co-star Cillian Murphy.
Both actors starred in Christopher Nolan's Inception, and played villains in the director's The Dark Knight trilogy, though they didn't share scenes together.
And with the announcement last year that Ben Affleck will be filling the very big bat boots of Christian Bale in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman movie, Tom had nothing but good words to say.
‘I think it’s awesome,’ Hardy enthused. ‘You got to understand, Ben Affleck is one of the finest directors we’ve got who can act and direct and be in films like The Town and Argo. It’s fantastic.’
Ringing endorsement: Hardy - who played Bane in the last Batman film - has given his full support to Ben Affleck as the new Dark Knight
| Tom Hardy |
Who was the stupidest member of the Bash Street Kids? | ‘Legend’ Review: Tom Hardy Double-Dazzles In Flawed Kray Twins Biopic | Variety
Courtesy of Universal
September 3, 2015 | 02:00PM PT
Hardy's astonishing, award-caliber twin turn as the notorious Kray brothers deepens and darkens Brian Helgeland's biopic.
There are two good reasons to make what might otherwise seem an inessential new biopic of Ronnie and Reggie Kray — and both of them, as it happens, take the formidable form of Tom Hardy . Playing both the infamously savage Cockney crime lords in a dazzling feat of thespian self-splicing to rival Jeremy Irons in “Dead Ringers,” Hardy’s inspired twin turn elevates and complicates the otherwise straightforward terrain of “ Legend ,” in which U.S. writer-helmer Brian Helgeland gives London’s East End gangland a slightly touristic candy-coating of Swinging ’60s glamor. While Helgeland’s script lacks the wit and grit of his Oscar-winning job on “L.A. Confidential,” this lengthy, engrossing underworld saga creditably attempts to work a female perspective — that of Reggie’s innocent wife, Frances — into these laddish proceedings. If the Hardy Boys’ film-swallowing contribution ultimately thwarts the effort, that can’t be helped.
Given an enduring local fascination with the Brothers Kray, business should boom in Blighty, where the pic opens ahead of its international premiere in Toronto. In the U.S., “Legend” may viably be marketed two ways by the currently indomitable Universal: as a lavishly violent genre outing and as a more prestigious awards vehicle for its duplicated leading man. Interestingly, Hardy’s own performance splits along comparable lines. His Reggie is a suave, charismatically volatile antihero calculated to inspire perverse admiration among younger male auds; his playfully eccentric inhabitation of the gay, mentally unstable Ronnie would, on its own, rep the more extravagant bid for thespian kudos. That both these distinct achievements — the work of a vital movie star and a resourceful character actor, respectively — are contained within a single performance is, of course, its true marvel. The illusion is achieved so fluidly and separably that the practicalities of the stunt are soon forgotten.
As a performance showcase, then, “Legend” is more sensational than Peter Medak’s meaner, muddier 1990 biopic “The Krays,” which nonetheless boasted fine work from New Romantic balladeers Gary and Martin Kemp. It’s less satisfying as psychological profile: For all Hardy’s expressive detail and physical creativity, Helgeland’s chewy, incident-packed script offers little insight into what made either of these contrasting psychopaths tick, or finally explode. Where Medak’s film focused extensively on the twins’ warped relationship with their dangerously doting mother, Violet (so vividly drawn by Billie Whitelaw), she’s a peripheral presence here. Rather, it’s Frances Shea — the working-class ingenue who married Reggie in her teens before succumbing to drugs and depression — who acts as the story’s principal female agent. Played by Emily Browning , Frances is even granted the film’s guiding voiceover, narrating the Krays’ antics in disillusioned tones from the outset until, via a cruel structural fillip, her point of view is harshly stymied.
It’s an unexpected way into the legend, but a compromised one. Despite Browning’s sympathetic efforts, Frances remains something of a cipher in the very story she’s telling, as the film dwells only cursorily on the mental and physical abuse she endured at the hands of her husband. On the more central subject of the Krays’ growing criminal empire, her point of view takes on an unconvincing omniscience; in assuming equal narrative authority on their domestic and professional lives, the device winds up selling both a little short.
While the framing is askew, the picture within is still a compelling one. Helgeland has fashioned the Krays’ rearing of London’s underworld from the gutters of Whitechapel to the sequin-lined heart of Soho as a bloodily romanticized evocation of time and place not dissimilar to “Bugsy’s” from-the-ground-up chronicle of the Las Vegas Strip. Dick Pope’s lensing frequently opts for comic-book extremities in its angles and compositions; production designer Tom Conroy revels in mirrored, brandy-tinted surfaces and heedlessly of-the-moment interior kitsch. Costume designer Caroline Harris, meanwhile, races through impeccably contoured, magazine-ready ensembles as recklessly as their freshly wealthy wearers presumably bought them. (Clothes maketh the men rather brilliantly when it comes to distinguishing the Krays themselves: Reggie’s spiv-slick suits are tailored, finished and carried so differently from Ronnie’s more ungainly gear as to denote a different physique entirely.)
If all this lacquered period veneer gives the film a faint air of dress-up — right down to retro-inclined contemporary pop star Duffy turning up as a sultry lounge singer — that’s at least somewhat appropriate to a downfall narrative in which surface prosperity is all too easily stripped away. (Less excusable is a rather literal-minded soundtrack of ’60s jukebox standards that smothers Carter Burwell’s ripe score.) Even viewers unfamiliar with the Krays’ story will swiftly deduce the genre-dictated direction of things, as the film routinely checks in with doggedly trailing police detective Leonard “Nipper” Read (a grimacing Christopher Eccleston) between the boys’ increasingly grisly exploits. Similarly, the meet-cute initiation of Reggie’s relationship with Frances hardly makes the subsequent souring of their marriage (between sporadic jail stints) any less surprising: Hers is a cautionary tale structured along similar, albeit grimmer, lines to “An Education.”
Most intriguing amid Helgeland’s tangle of familiar plot strands is Ronnie’s terse expression of his homosexuality — both to calculated professional ends, as the notorious orgies he hosts at his modest Bethnal Green apartment implicate high-flying political abettors, and more vulnerably private ones. His romantic relationship with young lackey Teddy Smith (a poignant, underused Taron Egerton, in very different gun-toting territory from “Kingsman”) is played in tender fashion, though it’s disappointing that the film, seemingly nervous of offending less liberal male auds, presents it in such coy terms. Still, whether taunting fellow heavies with pre-emptive admissions of his sexual preferences, brutishly declaring his own fragility to his bemused brother or making pie-in-the-sky plans to build an urban utopia in Nigeria, the formerly institutionalized Ronnie is the film’s most fascinating, conflicted figure — and the one whose interior life most eludes Frances’ narration.
Adopting a singularly strange, phlegmy vocal delivery, Hardy gleefully plays up his peculiar sense of etiquette, while locating a slim core of perceptive decency in his madness. Projecting a sense of near-feral bewilderment at the world’s demands, he wears his own skin fretfully; playboy Reggie, on the other hand, slides into his like a broken-in pair of loafers. This fundamental conflict in the Krays’ respective states of being is one Hardy wryly articulates even as the film concerns itself with plottier cops-and-robbers activity; if there’s an upside to “Legend’s” baggy structure and distracted focus, it’s that it allows ample room for this remarkable dual characterization to breathe and bellow.
Film Review: Tom Hardy in 'Legend'
Reviewed at Working Title screening room, London, July 23, 2015. (In Toronto Film Festival — Gala Presentations.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 131 MIN.
Production
(U.K.) A Universal Pictures (in U.S.)/Studiocanal (in U.K.) release of a Studiocanal presentation of a Working Title production in association with Anton Capital Entertainment, Amazon Prime Instant Video. Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Chris Clark, Quentin Curtis, Brian Oliver. Executive producers, Kate Solomon, Amelia Granger, Liza Chasin, Olivier Courson, Ron Halpern, Tom Hardy, Tyler Thompson, Timmy Thompson. Co-producer, Jane Robertson.
Crew
Directed, written by Brian Helgeland, adapted from the book "The Profession of Violence" by John Pearson. Camera (color, widescreen), Dick Pope; editor, Peter McNulty; music, Carter Burwell; music supervisor, Liz Gallacher; production designer, Tom Conroy; art directors, Gareth Cousins, Marco Restivo; set decorator, Crispian Sallis; costume designer, Caroline Harris; sound (Dolby Atmos), Danny Hamsbrook; supervising sound editor, Dominic Gibbs; re-recording mixers, Jeffrey Haboush, Mark Taylor; visual effects supervisor, Adam Rowland; visual effects, Nvizible; stunt coordinator, Julian Spencer; assistant director, Jack Ravenscroft; casting, Lucinda Syson.
With
Tom Hardy, Emily Browning, David Thewlis, Taron Egerton, Christopher Eccleston, Chazz Palminteri, Tara Fitzgerald, Jane Wood, Paul Bettany, Colin Morgan, Paul Anderson, Stephen Lord, Duffy.
| i don't know |
“Make me” is the twentieth bestselling book in which series? | Amazon.com: Make Me: A Jack Reacher Novel (9780804194860): Lee Child: Books
“A superb thriller.”—New York Daily News
“Child’s complete command of the story makes this thriller work brilliantly.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“I’ve read all twenty of Lee Child’s novels. Maybe there’s something wrong with me. But I can’t wait for the twenty-first.”—Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker
“[The Reacher series] is the current gold standard in the genre. . . . In Make Me Lee Child delivers another Jack Reacher specialty; the total knockout.”—Dayton Daily News
“Child serves up wingding plots, pithy dialogue, extraordinary background on intriguing topics, and cunningly constructed suspense. But what keeps us coming back—by the millions—is the chance to walk around in the skin of that big guy in the middle of everything.”—The Oregonian
“A dark thriller . . . Lee Child’s Make Me, the twentieth in his wildly popular Jack Reacher series, delivers exactly what readers have come to expect from the perennial bestselling author: interesting characters, tight plots and page-turning action. . . . Readers won’t be disappointed.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Jack Reacher is back. . . . Readers new to this series will find this book a good starting point, and fans will be pleased to see Jack again.”—LibraryReads (Top Ten Pick)
“The reigning champ ups the ante. . . . Yes, there’s breakneck action, but what gives this one its zing is the multilayered plot. . . . The beguiling Chang offers a new treat for series fans as well, and a surprise at the end will keep readers short of breath until the next installment begins.”—Booklist (starred review)
“This series remains as compulsively readable as ever. Child is a master of pacing, stretching out the mystery through short chapters that give rise to bursts of well-choreographed violence. . . . Of course, the biggest strength is Reacher himself: impassive, analytical, secretly romantic, and relentlessly honorable. It’s impossible not to root for him. . . . Reacher is still going strong. Will satisfy fans—and newcomers, too.”—Kirkus Reviews
By Julia Flyte TOP 500 REVIEWER VINE VOICE on September 2, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition
My life is pretty much like this: I spend 11 months and 28 days of every year looking forward to the new Lee Child book and then 2-3 days devouring it. He is the master of the opening paragraph. Immediate hooks. Short sentences. You don't even notice his writing style after the first page or two but it's effortless to read. And there are many things about this book which make it a strong addition to the series. I read it in two days and it definitely gave me the "Reacher fix" I wanted.
It starts in the usual way with Reacher turning up in a small town and immediately running into a woman in need of assistance (in this case Michelle Chang, a former FBI agent turned private investigator who is looking for her missing colleague), but it turns into a cross-country investigation that touches on issues that are current and very nasty.
And that is one of the issues that I had with the book: it's dark. It goes places that are unpleasant and disturbing. The majority of the book is like a regular Jack Reacher novel, but it changes tone towards the end when it becomes evident what it is that Reacher and Chang are investigating. The villains in this instance aren't just bad guys - they are evil. And I can honestly say that this is one Lee Child book I will never re-read. I didn't like putting those images in my head.
Another thing. It struck me halfway through this book that every woman that Reacher teams up with is exactly the same. Even as I write that it occurs to me that Lee Child would probably protest that it's not true because Chang is in her 40s and Chinese American, but that kind of proves my point: only the superficialities change. The banter - and yes, sexual chemistry - between Reacher and Chang is indistinguishable between what he had with Susan Turner or Elizabeth Deveraux or Theresa Lee or Susan Duffy or...you get the picture. There is nothing distinctive about Chang whatsoever.
So not the best Lee Child book - far from it - but it's hard in this genre to maintain a consistently high standard and when you compare him to his contemporaries he still does a better job of it than most.
By Brian Baker VINE VOICE on September 16, 2015
Format: Hardcover
Over the last several years the Reacher canon has been in a downward spiral and this latest entry in the series is plumbing new and disgusting lows, not only in the antagonists, but in protagonist Jack Reacher, too. After reading it, I felt completely disgusted, and felt as if I needed a scalding hot shower to wash off the filth.
When the series started, Reacher was the knight in slightly tarnished armor who found himself helping out some poor soul whoâd found themselves embroiled in some kind of sticky situation they couldnât handle themselves, and Reacher would step in, like the Lone Ranger, and save the day.
But as time has gone on, and particularly of late, author Child seems to have tired of the formula that made his success, and instead has created these utterly unbelievable situations that border on the surreal, if not outright insane, and the result has been to turn a formerly entertaining and enjoyable series into something beyond dark, almost absurdly gothic.
In this case, a very small town in the middle of nowhere â literally, a place surrounded by flat wheat fields to the visible horizon, so far out that itâs hours to the nearest area with cell phone service â named Motherâs Rest is the locus of events, starting with the disappearance and murder of a former FBI agent cum private investigator.
Reacher gets off the daily train out of curiosity about the townâs name and meets Michelle Chang, a colleague of the missing PI whoâs trying to locate him. Without revealing details that would contain spoilers, I can say that their investigation leads them to a deadly conspiracy based in the Dark Web â that underbelly of the internet that most of us never even access â thatâs located in Motherâs Rest, leading to a final and very deadly confrontation.
As I mentioned earlier, my biggest problem with the book was the nature of the secret upon which the conspiracy is centered. Quite frankly, it was beyond disgusting and disturbing. It was depraved. This was more Stephen King territory than Jack Reacher.
But also problematic is that author Child has once again created an utterly unbelievable locale in which to base the story, in order to create a situation in which Reacher can operate.
Motherâs Rest is so far out in the sticks that it seems to be enclosed in an impenetrable bubble from the outside world, like in the TV series âThe Domeâ. How is it that no cops of any type ever come by? How is it that a whole bunch of townspeople are involved in this conspiracy, but in a town this small no OTHER townsfolk seem to be aware of it, and called the authorities for an investigation? Why is it that Reacher and Chang themselves donât just call the authorities â county, state or federal â once they learn the exact nature of the crimes?
Not only do you have to suspend your disbelief to buy into this story, but you have to shut down all common sense, too.
Further, the character of Reacher himself has changed dramatically from the early days of the series. Gone is the creaky knight, the literary Lone Ranger. This Reacher no longer seems to have any interest in anything much other than blowing the bad guys away. And somehow he manages to do that without ever having to answer or explain anything to anyone anywhere in a position of authority. More of that vacuum I mentioned earlier.
Based on this book, and coupled with my experience with the last few, I have to say that from this point on Iâll be waiting to buy any of these Reacher books until I find out more about them. I canât recommend this one at all.
By Kindle Customer on September 18, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Awful. I don't think Lee Child wrote this. The REAL Jack Reacher would never give us page after page after page of how the internet works. He wouldn't care. Then we have paragraphs of his mental pros and cons discussion with himself and philosophical wanderings. Not the REAL Jack. Then he hits on his partner and then asks her to go to Milwaukee with him. NO NO not the REAL Jack. He would have gone on the train and not looked back. Please give us the REAL Jack or stop putting this Inter for Dummies and Psyc 101 drivel.
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Which Formula 1 Grand Prix takes place on the Marina Bay circuit? | Lee Child - Make Me
Lee Child’s Make Me is the 20th story in the bestselling Jack Reacher series .
The release date of this novel was September 8, 2015.
Make Me book description
“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?”
That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.
Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang… so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be?
But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way — right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.
Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.
Click the book cover to read reviews of Make Me on Amazon
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Which World 1 American general was nicknamed “Black Jack”? | The Reason General John Pershing Was Called “Black Jack” | Positive Infinity
The Reason General John Pershing Was Called “Black Jack”
me 2 Comments
February is Black History Month in the United States. I have never done a specifically black history piece on this site, although I have from time to time suggested, for example, that Anglicans realise that the “Anglican Communion” is now and should be the “African Communion” with the centre of authority appropriately relocated.
But I also have a major interest in World War I, whose centennial is coming up in a couple of years. Combining the two makes for an interesting discovery: the real reason the main U.S. land commander in that war, General John Pershing, was referred to as “Black Jack.” Until recently I always thought, for example, that it was his favourite card game (that gives you an idea of the background I come from!) but the truth is different and much more interesting.
Pershing was born and raised in Laclede, MO. As a young man he taught a group of African-American children. That experience must have had an impact on him because, in his subsequent duty, much of his command was over black soldiers, who had served in the Union army during the Civil War.
In 1892 he took command of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, the so-called “Buffalo Soldiers,” made up of black soldiers. He commanded this regiment in Montana, rounding up Cree Indians and deporting them to Canada (that creates a serious politically incorrect problem which is beyond the scope of this post.) Evidently he was satisfied with his service, but many of his white counterparts were not: as a result of this command, he got the nickname of “N—– Jack,” which was softened to “Black Jack,” probably as his rank rose.
With the Spanish-American War Pershing and the Buffalo Soldiers acquitted themselves with valour on San Juan Hill in Cuba. In a battle better known for Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the 10th Cavalry took much of the brunt of the fighting. It’s interesting to think that Roosevelt, who witnessed the Buffalo Soldiers in action, had that in mind when he invited Booker T. Washington to the White House during his presidency.
Pershing and his cavalry parted company, the former serving in the Philippines and latter hunting for Pancho Villa in northern Mexico. But his most illustrious command was as Commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) in France. Pershing would doubtless have been happy to have Buffalo Soldiers (maybe not a cavalry unit, cavalry did poorly in the trenches of Belgium and France) in the AEF. But President Woodrow Wilson, academic Ivy Leaguer though he was, was still very Southern in his attitude towards black people. One of Pershing’s standing objectives was to keep American forces together under American command, but in the end black units were peeled off to serve under the French, as had many aviators done already.
And the Europeans had no problem with black soldiers in their military forces. The French had many who came from their African colonies serving on the front. And in East Africa, the black troops under German Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck were becoming a military legend that eclipsed the accomplishments of Pershing and the Buffalo Soldiers. But it would take another war (or two or three) before it became conventional wisdom in the U.S. that all who are willing to take lead for Old Glory deserve their rightful place in the most powerful armed force the world has ever known.
But such are the hard lessons of history. The nation which can successfully mobilise the God-given talents and abilities of the widest spectrum of its population will achieve its destiny. In a culture where it’s so easy for one portion of the population to denigrate another, losing sight of that lesson will blunt that goal. And at this point we cannot afford to throw any portion away, now can we?
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Which Formula 1 circuit takes place on the Yas Marina circuit? | How to Stop Islamic Terrorists : snopes.com
How to Stop Islamic Terrorists
Pershing the Thought
U.S. General John J. Pershing did not effectively discourage Muslim terrorists in the Philippines by killing them burying and their bodies along with those of pigs.
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Claim: U.S. General John J. Pershing effectively discouraged Muslim terrorists in the Philippines by killing them and burying their bodies along with those of pigs.
false
Example: [Collected via e-mail, 2001]
HOW TO STOP ISLAMIC
it worked once in our
History . . .
Once in US history an episode of Islamic terrorism was very quickly stopped. It happened in the Philippines about 1911, when Gen. John J. Pershing was in command of the garrison. There had been numerous Islamic terrorist attacks, so "Black Jack" told his boys to catch the perps and teach them a lesson.
Forced to dig their own graves, the terrorists were all tied to posts, execution style. The US soldiers then brought in pigs and slaughtered them, rubbing their bullets in the blood and fat. Thus, the terrorists were terrorized; they saw that they would be contaminated with hogs' blood. This would mean that they could not enter Heaven, even if they died as terrorist martyrs.
All but one was shot, their bodies dumped into the grave, and the hog guts dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp and tell his brethren what happened to the others. This brought a stop to terrorism in the Philippines for the next
50 years.
Pointing a gun into the face of Islamic terrorists won't make them flinch. They welcome the chance to die for Allah. Like Gen. Pershing, we must show them that they won't get to Muslim heaven (which they believe has an endless supply of virgins) but instead will die with the hated pigs of the
devil.
Subject: How to end the war quickly if you have absolutely no respect for pigs!
An Israeli friend recently informed me that the UK fought the Islamic terrorist attacks by burying the criminals with a pig. Apparently the Islamic belief is that if ones' body is buried with a pig (because they are considered unclean) their soul will go to hell. I did a little research into this subject matter and found it to be true. This got me thinking.
If we put a baby pig on every airline flight then all suicide terrorists would abort their missions as they would not want their souls to go to hell. Additionally, if we drop shipped, oh say, 100,000 pigs into Afghanistan I think our recon and assault efforts may be more successful. Apparently Muslims dislike the very sight of pigs A LOT!
They are also adamantly opposed to alcohol, thus we spike their water supply with a few thousand gallons of moonshine, get them drunk and turn the pigs loose. The war would be over in a weekend.
Origin:The idea of subduing militant Muslims by threatening to bury them with pigs has held currency for many years. Just a few weeks before the
September 11
terrorist attacks on America in 2001, Deputy Israeli police minister Gideon Esra suggested in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot that Palestinian suicide bombers be buried in pig skin or blood. In the 1939 film The Real Glory , Gary Cooper portrays
Dr. Bill
Canavan, an American Army doctor in 1906 Manila who "tries to protect the native population from ruthless invaders" (i.e., "Muslim fanatics"). At one point in the film, the
Dr. Canavan
character drapes a captured Muslim in a pigskin and proclaims that henceforth all slain Muslim rebels will be buried in pig skins, thereby discouraging their "savagery" by threatening to prevent their entry into paradise. And, of course, the above-cited anecdote about General Pershing's handling of terrorists in the Philippines has circulated widely on the Internet ever since 9/11 and even made the rounds at the top levels of
U.S. government:
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.) cited as an example a dinner he attended last week with people who work on intelligence issues and have connections to the intelligence community. The dinner conversation ranged in part on how U.S. military commander "Black Jack" Pershing used Islam's prohibition on pork to help crush an insurgency on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao after the Spanish-American War at the turn of the last century.
In one instance, Graham explained in an interview, U.S. soldiers captured
12 Muslims.
They killed six of them with "bullets dipped into the fat of pigs."
After that, Graham said, the U.S. soldiers wrapped the Muslim rebels in funeral shrouds made of pigskin and "buried them face down so they could not see Mecca. Then they poured the entrails of the pigs over them. The other six were forced to watch. And that was the end of the insurrection on Mindanao," Graham noted.
The history of the American administration of the Philippines between the Spanish cession of the islands at the conclusion of the Spanish-American war in 1898 and the attainment of full political independence in 1946 (including American attempts to "pacify" various independence-minded groups through military means) is too long and complicated to explicate here. Suffice it to say that General
John J.
Moro Province
between 1909 and 1913. We found no references to this alleged incident in Pershing biographies, however, nor does it match the way Pershing is generally recorded as having dealt with the Moros in 1911. When they refused to obey Pershing's order banning firearms by surrendering their weapons, his response was to draft a letter to the Moros expressing sorrow that his soldiers had to resort to killing them to enforce the order:
I write you this letter because I am sorry to know that you and your people refuse to do what the government has ordered. You do not give up your arms. Soldiers were sent to Taglibi so that you could come into camp and turn in your guns. When the soldiers went to camp a Taglibi, your Moros fired into camp and tried to kill the soldiers. Then the soldiers had to shoot all Moros who fired upon them. When the soldiers marched through the country, the Moros again shot at them, so the soldiers had to kill several others. I am sorry the soldiers had to kill any Moros. All Moros are the same to me as my children and no father wants to kill his own
children ...
When negotiations stalled and matters came to a head, Pershing was still reluctant to be responsible for any more loss of life than was necessary:
[Pershing] went to his offices on [14 December 1911] only to hear a message from the Sulu district governor: hundreds of hostiles gathered on Jolo's Bud Dajo! The message had dread portent. Mount Dajo, awesomely high and capped with the creater of an extinct volcano, meant sacred things to Moros. It was the refuge against fate, the last bastion of the hopeless, the place where their ancestors stood off great waves of enemies. Once on the mountain, esconced in its big cotta, Moros would die gladly, as
had grimly learned. Retreat to Dajo meant a clear declaration of war.
Sobered and depressed, Jack wrote of an overriding worry: "I am sorry these Moros are such fools,
but ...
I shall lose as few men and kill as few Moros as possible." Memories of Wood's massacre of men and families on Dajo rankled in the army and still bothered the chief of staff. Obviously another such slaughter in the winter of 1911 could adversely influence the 1912 elections in the States.
Pershing's strategy was to surround the Moros and wait them out while attempting to induce them to surrender, a strategy that worked effectively: the Bud Dajo campaign ended with only twelve Moro casualties. But in his report Pershing seemed keenly aware that the best approach was not to take any action that would encourage religious fanaticism:
There was never a moment during this investment of Bud Dajo when the Moros, including women, on top of the mountain, would not have fought to the death had they been given the opportunity. They had gone there to make a last stand on this, their sacred mountain, and they were determined to die
fighting ...
It was only by the greatest effort that their solid determination to fight it out could be broken. The fact is that they were completely surprised at the prompt and decisive action of the troops in cutting off supplies and preventing escape, and they were chagrined and disappointed in that they were not encouraged to die the death of Mohammedan fanatics.
As William Lambers noted, Pershing executed no Muslims. At most, anecdotal accounts attributed Pershing's success to his merely threatening to do as described:
During a campaign rally in South Carolina, [Donald] Trump told his audience a story about General John Pershing executing Muslim prisoners in the Philippines. Trump said Pershing, in the early 1900's, "caught 50 terrorists that did tremendous damage and killed many people and he took the 50 terrorists and he took 50 men and he dipped 50 bullets in pig's blood."
Trump went out to describe a mass execution shooting of 49 of the prisoners, with the last one being sent to tell the others what happened. It was Trump using this "story" to demonstrate that America needed to get tough on terrorism, using brutal methods, and that he would be the man to do it.
But the story is not true. There was no mass execution led by Pershing. That is a rumor created on the Internet.
A Chicago Daily Tribune article from 1927 has a story where Pershing had prisoners from the Moro Rebellion in the Philippines. The Moros were Muslims who resisted American or any other occupying force.
The Moros had swordsmen, called Juramentados, who were killing Christians in this uprising. It had to be stopped. General Pershing was given this difficult task.
The Tribune article says Pershing sprinkled some prisoners with pig's blood, which the Juramentados believed would condemn them for eternity. But then Pershing let the prisoners go. He issued a warning to others about being sprinkled with the pig's blood. The Tribune article said "those drops of porcine gore proved more powerful than bullets."
There were no executions as described by Trump.
In fact, Pershing was more inclined toward peace talks with the Moros rather than violence.
Yet another account, from the 1938 book Jungle Patrol , attributed the deed to someone other than Pershing:
It was Colonel Alexander Rodgers of the 6th Cavalry who accomplished by taking advantage of religious prejudice what the bayonets and Krags had been unable to accomplish. Rodgers inaugurated a system of burying all dead juramentados in a common grave with the carcasses of slaughtered pigs. The Mohammedan religion forbids contact with pork; and this relatively simple device resulted in the withdrawal of juramentados to sections not containing a Rodgers. Other officers took up the principle, adding new refinements to make it additionally unattractive to the Moros. In some sections the Moro juramentado was beheaded after death and the head sewn inside the carcass of a pig. And so the rite of running juramentado, at least semi-religious in character, ceased to be in Sulu. The last cases of this religious mania occurred in the early decades of the century. The juramentados were replaced by the
amucks ...
who were simply homicidal maniacs with no religious significance attaching to their acts.
Nonetheless, the desire for simplistic solutions to complex problems has spawned several widely-circulated notions that seek to transform a fight against terrorism to the easily-manageable level of a horror film or a comic strip. One popular notion is the concept that a pig is to a Muslim as a crucifix is to a vampire: simply arm yourself with a porker, and you can use it to render even the most fanatical terrorist helpless, sending him cowering in fear lest he come into contact with anything porcine.
Such notions reduce an extremely widespread and diverse religion, and the people who follow it, to a monolithic entity with a single set of beliefs and rules to which everyone adheres. Islam has a variety of sects and
sub-sects
just as Christianity has a multiplicity of denominations; assuming that all "Muslims" believe and behave identically is like assuming that all Catholics and Baptists believe and behave identically because both of the latter groups are "Christians." In one sense, messages such as the ones quoted above could be considered as silly as Muslims' proclaiming that a good way to throw the U.S. into disarray would be to "bomb" America with juicy steaks on Fridays, because "Americans are Christians," and "everyone knows Christians who eat meat on Fridays go to Hell." Never mind that not all Americans are Christians, that not all Christians are Catholics, that not all Catholics believe in exactly the same things, that not all Catholics are equally religious or faithful, and that even the "rules" of Catholicism have changed over time.
Also implicit in this type of reasoning is the notion that "terrorist," "Muslim terrorist," "fanatical Muslim" and "devout Muslim" are all synonymous. They aren't: just as not all Muslims are terrorists, not all terrorists are Muslims; and just as the religiously devout are not all fanatical, not all religious fanatics are devout. Religion is unfortunately sometimes wielded by those who use it as a weapon in the arenas of politics and power, and counter-religious behavior is often justified or sanctioned in the service of a "greater cause." The terrorists who hijacked American Airlines
Flight 11
were reportedly seen partaking of alcohol and engaging the services of naked lap dancers in the days before 9/11, activities which should have been anathema to true Muslims. Perhaps they were Muslims in name only, maybe they weren't all that devout, or possibly they rationalized that Allah would overlook their transgressions with booze and women since they were about to die in the service of Islam. Whatever the case, concerns about the afterlife probably wouldn't have dissuaded the hijackers from their plans to crash
Flight 11
into the World Trade Center had a few pigs turned up on board the plane. If their relationship with Allah were a concern to them, well, the hijackers could choose to believe that Allah would understand and make allowances for true warriors of the faith. (After all, the fact that the Quran forbids suicide and consigns those to commit it to Hell wasn't sufficient to deter the 9/11 terrorists.)
Nonetheless, the "discouraging Muslim terrorists by burying them with pigs" concept is still invoked in the modern era, even if the evidence of its use (or success) remains nebulous:
JEWISH settlers have come up with a new way to deter Palestinian suicide bombers — wrapping their corpses in pigskin to deprive them of the fruits of paradise.
The settlers believe that contact with a pig, an unclean animal for Muslims and Jews, will rob the bomber of the reward of martyrdom, traditionally said to be
72 virgins.
Settlers at Gush Katif, in the Gaza Strip, were the first to claim to have defiled the body of a dead Palestinian with "pigskin and lard". Residents of Efrat, a Jewish settlement near Bethlehem, said they did the same to a Palestinian building worker who tried to blow up their supermarket, but was shot dead before most of the explosives detonated.
Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat, defended the practice: "If burial in pigskin will deter suicide bombers, then it is incumbent on us to do this. We should do anything to save life."
There has been no photographic evidence of daubing with lard and no one has come forward as the supplier of the pork, leading some to suspect that the settlers are trying to scare off future suicide bombers, who are mainly impressionable young men.
But the rabbi said: "I truly believe it happened. The pigskin was supplied by someone with a good sense of initiative. The body was lying by the supermarket for three to four hours. There was plenty of time."
Pork is considered an abomination by observant Jews, but is produced at one kibbutz and enjoyed by secular Israelis.
Palestinian Muslims reacted with scorn to the idea, saying the soul went to paradise and was unaffected by any taint to the body.
"The keys to heaven are not in the hands of settlers," said Sheikh Hassan Youssef, for Hamas, whose military wing has sent dozens of suicide bombers into Israel.
Islamic reference books say the body of a martyr who dies for the faith is so pure that it does not need to be washed before burial, in contrast to the usual Muslim practice.
Last updated: 28 April 2016
Originally published: 31 October 2001
sources:
Drogin, Bob and Greg Miller. "Spy Agencies Facing Questions of Tactics."
Los Angeles Times. 29 October 2001.
Hurley, Victor. Jungle Patrol: The Story of the Philippine Constabulary.
New York: E.P. Dutton, 1938.
Matza, Michael. "Suicide Attacks Hinge on Revenge, Martyrdom."
Philadelphia Inquirer. 16 September 2001.
Philps, Alan. "Settlers Use Pigskin to Foil the Martyrs."
The Telegraph 26 February 2002.
Smith, Gene A. Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998. ISBN 0-471-24693-X.
Vandiver, Frank E. Black Jack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing.
Texas A&M University Press, 1977. ISBN 0-89096-024-0 (pp. 464-594).
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What was the Roman name for the city of Paris? | The birth of the french capital - History of Paris city
Home Birth of a capital
BIRTH OF A CAPITAL
Discover the history of Paris through the centuries…
Paris was founded in the 3rd century B.C. on île de la Cité by a community of Celts. They were a group of tribal fishermen called the Parisii who, pushed by emigration towards the banks of the Seine, made a permanent settlement there and profited from the area’s fertility and temperate climate. Furthermore, the islands on the Seine seemed the perfect place for this little community to establish their capital.
At the time of the Parisii’s settlement in the area, there were seven islands on the river between what is now the pont d'Austerlitz and the pont des Arts . . In giving them their modern names, the first was the Ile Louviers (which existed until 1843, when it was reunited with the mainland to become Quai Henri IV), Ile Saint-Louis was divided into three islets which were successively joined to each other, the same was the case for Ile de la Cité, which was originally three separate islets.
The collective name of Lutetia is given to the group of habitations that were constructed on the islands, particularly on Ile de la Cité, but experts have long been divided about the etymology of this name. Some say that Lutetia (in French Lutèce) comes from the celtic word Loulouchezi; meaning “habitation in the middle of the waters”, from luth (water) thouèze (middle) and y (dwelling). In something of an enigma, others claim that it comes from Leug-tec, a Celtic word meaning beautiful stone, although the Parisians of the time built their homes exclusively from wood!
The settlement was given the name Lutetia by the Romans, and the name Lucotecia by the geographer, Ptolemy. In the year 52 BC, Lutetia fell to one of Julius Caesar’s lieutenants, Proconsul Labienus. The title of Civitas Parisorium was then bestowed upon the city, meaning “the city of the Parisii”, the name of Paris was finally adopted in the 5th century AD, so the first people that could really be called Parisians were Gauls. The city was fortified and began to expand on to the left bank of the Seine, it was there that the first Roman baths were built in what is now called Cluny and Arènes de Lutèce. Lutetia had become a commercial axis for the Roman Empire and over the course of time; its inhabitants were progressively Romanised. In the 3rd century they became Christians and citizens of the Holy Roman Empire, bringing an end to their persecution.
Threatened by barbarian invasions, the Parisians resisted an attack in 451 by Attila’s Huns. They attributed their resistance to inspiration from Saint Genvieve and made her the patron saint of the city.
The middle ages is a period of European history that spans from 500-1500 AD. During this millennium, Paris became the capital of France. This resulted from a long and complicated history of kings, to which each succeeding dynasty contributed.
King Clovis took Paris in 486, and in 508 made it the capital of the Kingdom of the Francs (Clovis was King of the Francs, a people who had migrated to the Roman Empire from the East). The city was soon relinquished and the inhabitants abandoned the left bank, where there remained only religious establishments like the powerful abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Près.
In 861 Paris passed into the patrimony of the Capetians, who acceded to the throne of France with Hugues Capet in 987. Paris was originally the capital of a tiny kingdom, which the Capetians forced into expansion by imposing their will on outlying lords.
To find out more about the city of Paris and its history, click on one the links below.
| Lutetia |
Who wrote the play “Racing Demon”? | francofiles Paris City of Light Ville Lumiere
The “Le ft Bank” and the “Right Bank”.
Which one is which?
The Left and Right banks are determined by the way the river flows to the sea, so you have to face the direction of the flow. When you do this, you will discover the Left Bank is on your left!
Rive Gauche means the Left bank and Rive Droite means Right bank.
On the map and picture above, the river flows from East to West. Thus La Tour Eiffel is on the Left Bank, (rive gauche) and Le Louvre on the Right Bank (rive droite).
Traditionally, the Left Bank (rive gauche) was the cheaper, student area, while the Right Bank (rive droite) was larger, and housed the more affluent. These days, the differences between the two are much less marked.
The Right Bank houses more of the tourist attractions. It contains 14 arrondissements against 6 on the Left Bank.
How many peopl e live in Paris?
During the peak of the Roman Occupation, 80,000 - a very big city for that time! After the Romans left, during the Viking invasions, just before Hugh Capet made it the capital in 1,000AD, about 30,000 (it was no longer a desirable place to be!)
In the 1300's, the population reached 250,000; however, about 20% died during the time of the Black Death.
By 1835, the population had reached one million.
By 1885, the city's inhabitants numbered three million!
Paris was a boom city due to its make-over by Baron Haussmann, its many Great Exhibitions, attractions like the Eiffel Tower, its shops and its theatres and café concerts like the Moulin Rouge.
From the early twentieth century, people began to move out of the city; and the First and Second World Wars continued the population decline.
Now, the population of the city is about 2.2million, and the immediate urban area around Paris has about 10 million inhabitants.
Why is Paris called the City of Light?
Paris is known as the City of Light. How did it get this nickname? There seems to be two reasons.
During the Age of Enlightenment in the Eighteenth century it became a centre of education, learning and philosophy. So it was seen as an "enlightened" place to be.
In the nineteenth century, Paris was one of the first cities to adopt street lighting, gas lamps in the Champs Elysées in 1829 and electric lights for its Great Exhibition of 1889. So it really was a city of light among all the other cities that were still in the dark!
Having the city lit at night was a great innovation. It meant that people were now able to undertake leisure activities after dark. It made the streets safer. Instead of staying at home, people began to use the time after night fell in a productive way. The Expo stayed open until midnight. It marked the beginning of modern urban life.
This picture shows how the top of the Eiffel Tower looked for the 1889 Expo, which really showed the ordinary person how useful electricity could be. Electric lights were used to illuminate not only the Eiffel Tower, but also bridges, parks and pavilions.
A Little History of Paris.
V ery early Paris - Lutetia
The ancient name for France is Gaul. More than two thousand years ago, a tribe of Gauls called the Parisii settled on two little islands in the Seine in what is now the centre of Paris and founded a little fishing village. We know this area today as the Ile de la Cité, and it is where Notre Dame is located.
The Romans, led by Julius Caesar, conquered the area in 52BC, They made the Parisii fishing settlement into a regional centre and called it "Lutetia" (or Lutèce in French.) They also created a a suburb on the Left Bank in the “Latin Quarter”. Today you can visit the Musée de Cluny and see the remains of a Roman bathhouse and its "frigidarium" or cold bath. You can also see many Roman artefacts including fishing and trading canoes in the Musée Carnavalet (or Museum of Paris).
Paris of the Middle Ages
During the 5th to 10th centuries Paris must have been a dangerous place to live. Its residents had to endure fires, continuous Viking raids, and seiges. King Clovis renamed the Roman Lutetia, Paris, after the tribes who originally lived there and made the city his capital. It became the capital of France just before the year 1000 when Hugh Capet, the Count of Paris, became the King of France.
The Ile de la Cité gradually became too small for the city, as the number of its inhabitants grew, and its area expanded on both sides of the river. The original centre, on the islands, was the government and religious centre, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris was begun just after 1100. The Left Bank became the centre for learning, and it was here that in the 13th century, the Sorbonne University was founded, one of the earliest Universities in the world.
The marshes on the Right Bank were drained and the land was reclaimed. The centre for commerce and finance was located there. Today, this area is still called "Les Marais" which means "marshes" in French.
About this time, the Louvre was built, as a fortress by the River Seine. By the 15th Century, Paris had become one of the major cities in Europe.
Paris of the 19th century
Paris as we know it today was created by Baron Haussmann during the mid-nineteenth century. He decided that the slum areas of the city needed to be removed so that the city could be modernised.
Baron Haussmann deliberately destroyed the old houses and slums dating back to the middle ages. He had a vision that the Arc de Triomphe should be focus point for his new, modern city. Consequently he designed twelve main avenues to radiate outwards from the Arc. He called the square "Place de l'étoile" which means "Star Square." On the right is a diagram of the the avenues that surround the Arc de Triomphe in the 8th arrondissement.
Today we know this as "Place Charles de Gaulle." The Avenue des Champs Elysées is the best known street in the world. The Avenue de la Grande Armée is the widest road in all Paris!
Source: lebrunf9.free.fr
The Gallic heroes, Asterix and Obelix had adventures in Lutèce. Here is a drawing from one of their stories to show what the settlement would have looked like.
Even in those days, there may have been bridges across from the Right and Left Banks.
Notre Dame de Paris took over 200 hundred
years to build. It fell into disuse during the Revolution and was saved by a campaign
led by author Victor Hugo in his book,
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame".
A peaceful inner court in Les Marais.
The famous pyramid at Le Louvre
Twelve grand avenues radiate outwards from the Arc de Triomphe to create a visual focus point from many parts of Paris.
| i don't know |
Which secret establishment was known ‘Station X’ during the Second World War? | Facts about Bletchley Park – the WW2 code-breaking centre that made the D-Day landings possible and spawned the computer age | History Extra
BBC History Magazine - 5 issues for £5
The registration room in hut 6 at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire. (Getty Images)
Here, writing for History Extra, Sinclair McKay, the author of The Lost World Of Bletchley Park (Aurum Press) and The Secret Listeners, tells you everything you need to know about the famous decryption centre.
Q: What role did Bletchley Park play during the Second World War?
A: Bletchley Park was the Buckinghamshire house and estate that played host to Britain’s code-breaking triumphs – from the success in breaking the ‘insoluble’ Nazi Enigma codes to its incredible work on Japanese cryptology.
Its role was so secret – everyone who worked there signed the Official Secrets Act for life – that we only really started to learn about its achievements decades afterwards. And there is still much to emerge.
Q: When and how was the code-breaking centre established?
A: Before it was evacuated to Bletchley, the Government Code and Cypher School – as it was then known – operated from a building near Westminster. There had been a special code-breaking department since the First World War – then, it was referred to as ‘Room 40’.
In the interwar years, they analysed Soviet traffic, among other things. When it seemed obvious that war was coming once more, many of the expert cryptanalysts of Room 40 set up the new establishment at Bletchley in 1938. They recruited crucial new blood, including brilliant young mathematician Alan Turing, as well as lecturers and undergraduates from universities all over the country.
Q: How many code-breakers worked there? What did an average day consist of?
A: Numbers rose as the war went on; from a relatively small team in 1938 to something like 10,000 people – code-breakers, Wrens, WAAFs, posh debutantes working on the cross-indexing system etc.
Obviously, they didn’t live at the house. All these people, mainly young, were billeted around the town and nearby villages. Bletchley locals were disconcerted by some of the eccentric code-breakers, and they formed a theory that the secret establishment was in fact a special lunatic asylum.
There was no average day. Code-breaking went on round the clock, in a three-shift system, and in different huts – very often the work was done in plain wooden huts. There could either be months of agonising paralysis (as there was in the battle to crack the nightmarishly complex Naval Enigma) or nights of giddying triumph, as when 20-year-old Mavis Batey broke the code that led to British victory in the Battle of Cape Matapan.
Bletchley Park pictured in 1926. (Evening Standard/Getty Images)
Q: Roughly how many ciphers and codes were decrypted in total?
A: It is simply impossible to know – largely because Bletchley was so mind-bogglingly successful. They read messages from the German army, navy, air force, secret service… even messages from the desk of Hitler himself. Countless thousands upon thousands of communications.
They cracked Italian and Japanese cyphers, and the operation was spread across the whole wide world. In posts from Cairo to Murmansk, dedicated secret listeners for the Y Service intercepted all the secret coded radio messages – and relayed them back to England, and ultimately back to this incredible code-breaking factory.
The other miracle was the secrecy; the fact that the Germans never really guessed adds to this astonishing success.
Q: Is it true that the 'Ultra' intelligence produced at Bletchley Park shortened the war by two to four years?
A: President Eisenhower credited the work of ‘BP’, as it was called, with having shortened the war by two years. Think for a moment of how many lives those two years might represent; the countless people saved simply by the ending of the conflict.
Bletchley veteran and distinguished historian, Professor Sir Harry Hinsley, reckoned it was three years. Apart from anything else, without Bletchley’s absolutely crucial intelligence, the D-Day landings in 1944 might never have worked, and in the extra time it would have taken the Allies to get a foothold in Europe, who knows how many more victims the Nazis would have murdered? And what sort of new and terrible weapons the Nazis could have developed?
Bear in mind the other great element of the Bletchley story: thanks to a brilliant engineer called Tommy Flowers, the computer age was brought into being there. He developed a code-breaking machine – the Colossus – that was in effect a proto-computer. Engineers at Google and Apple recognise and pay tribute to the Park’s importance.
Q: When was Bletchley Park decommissioned?
A: It was never decommissioned. Its work – and in some ways, its spirit and ethos – still goes on today. After the war, the work of the Park was packed up (all decrypts carefully destroyed) and first moved to Eastcote, in north-west London.
Some of the code-breakers stayed on. The need for their brilliance was still there – the war had simply turned Cold. After several years, new premises for the increasingly sophisticated technological operation were found, in the pleasant town of Cheltenham. They are still there now, and the organisation is better known as GCHQ.
| Bletchley Park |
What colour overalls are worn by caddies during the US Masters golf tournament? | Milestones:Code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, 1939-1945 - Engineering and Technology History Wiki
Milestones:Code-breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, 1939-1945
Date Dedicated
Code-Breaking at Bletchley Park during World War II, 1939-1945
Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, UK - Dedication: 1 April 2003 - IEEE UKRI Section
On this site during the 1939-45 World War, 12,000 men and women broke the German Lorenz and Enigma ciphers, as well as Japanese and Italian codes and ciphers. They used innovative mathematical analysis and were assisted by two computing machines developed here by teams led by Alan Turing : the electro-mechanical Bombe developed with Gordon Welchman, and the electronic Colossus designed by Tommy Flowers. These achievements greatly shortened the war, thereby saving countless lives.
The plaque can be viewed in the Bletchley Park Museum, in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, U.K.
Image:Code_breaking_at_Bletchley_Park.jpg
The History of Bletchley Park
By Michael Smith
The arrival of "Captain Ridley's Shooting Party" at a mansion house in the Buckinghamshire countryside in late August 1938 was to set the scene for one of the most remarkable stories of the Second World War.
They had an air of friends enjoying a relaxed weekend at a friend's country house. They even brought with them one of the best chefs at the Savoy Hotel to cook their food.
But the small group who turned up at Bletchley Park were far from relaxed. They were members of the Government Code and Cypher School, a secret team of scholar turned code breakers. Their mission: to crack the Nazi codes.
The most famous of the code and cyphers to be broken at Bletchley Park was the enigma machine cypher. But there were also a large number of lower-level German systems to break, not to mention those of Hitler's allies.
The Poles had broken Enigma in 1932, when the encoding machine was undergoing trials with the German Army. But when the Poles broke Enigma, the cypher altered only once every few months. With the advent of war, it changed at least once a day, giving 150 million possible settings to choose from. The Poles decided to inform the British in July 1939 once they were unable to break Enigma any longer. As more and more people arrived to join the code breaking operations, the various sections began to move into large pre-fabricated wooden huts set up on the lawns of the Park. For security reasons, the various sections were known only by their hut numbers. You can see the five surviving huts on your tour of the grounds of Bletchley Park.
The first break in Enigma came on 20th January 1940, when the team working under Dilly Knox, with the mathematicians John Jeffreys and Alan Turing, unravelled the German Army administrative key that became known at Bletchley Park as "The Green". Encouraged by this success, the code breakers managed to crack the "Red" Enigma used by the Luftwaffe liaison officers coordinating air support for army units.
Gordon Welchman, soon to become head of the Army and Air Force section, devised a system whereby his code breakers were supported by a group of Army and RAF officers, based in a neighbouring hut, who turned the de-cyphered messages into intelligence reports.
Secrecy shrouded the fact that Enigma had been broken. To hide this information, the reports were given the appearance of coming from an M16 spy, code named Boniface, with a network of imaginary agents inside Germany.
While this was pure fiction, there was a real network monitoring the Germans' very move. The 'Y' Service, a chain of wireless intercept stations across Britain and in a number of countries overseas, listened in to the enemy's radio messages. Thousands of wireless operators, many of them civilians but also Wrens, WAAF personnel and members of the ATS, tracked the enemy radio nets up and down the dial, carefully logging every letter or figure.
The messages were then sent back to Station X to be decoded and fitted together like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle to produce as complete a picture as possible of what the enemy was doing.
The system was first put to the test in April 1940 when the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway. The Phoney War had come to an end. But the code breakers were ready. Within a week, Bletchley Park had broken the invaders' Enigma 'Yellow' cypher.
The intercepted messages told the code breakers virtually every detail of what the advancing Germans were doing. Nothing had prepared them for this amount of material. The intelligence officers in Bletchley Park were overwhelmed with trying to make sense of the mass of new code names, titles of German units, etc. with which they were suddenly presented. And in any case no provision had been made for the dissemination of their intelligence information to British commands with the degree of security that was essential in dealing with such a sensitive source. So no use could be made of the decrypts during the Norwegian campaign.
The code breakers began working around the clock to send the intelligence they were producing to London. Special Liaison Units were set up to feed the Bletchley Park intelligence to commanders in the field, first briefly in France in May 1940 and then in North Africa and elsewhere from March 1941onwards.
Unfortunately, the generals did not trust M16 or its spies and, unaware that the news of what the enemy was doing was coming straight from the enemy's mouth, they ignored it. Nor was this the only problem faced by Bletchley Park. Despite the code-breakers' success in Norway, they had lost the all-important Red cypher. But in May 1940, using a brilliant system devised by a young student called John Herivel, they succeeded in breaking it again.
This was one of the most important points of the war. The air liaison nets that used the Red cypher gave an exceptionally good insight into the major German plans and operations but little use could be made of it during the fighting in France. The process of breaking Enigma was aided considerably by a complex electro-mechanical device, designed by Turing. The Bombe, as it was called, ran through every possible permutation in order to try to determine the settings in use. The Bombes were operated by Wrens, many of whom lived in requisitioned country houses such as Woburn Abbey. The work they did in speeding up the code breaking process was indispensable.
In de-cyphering the Naval Enigma, Turing was joined by, among others, Hugh Alexander, a British chess grandmaster, who was to become one of the most brilliant code breakers at Bletchley Park. The intelligence they produced was passed to the Admiralty via the Z Watch in the Naval Section. But in the early days, they struggled to get the naval commanders to take it seriously.
However, a series of spectacular successes turned things around for the code breakers. Throughout the First Battle of the Atlantic, they helped the Admiralty to track the U-Boat wolf packs, considerably reducing the German Navy's ability to sink the merchant navy ships bringing vital supplies to Britain from America.
Nor were the Germans the only targets for Station X -- the code breakers were able to monitor the Japanese preparations for war. The suggestion that they knew of the imminent attack on Pearl Harbor but kept quiet in order to ensure America joined the war is nonsense. But their expertise undoubtedly gave great assistance to the American code breakers.
The German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 brought some of the most distressing messages Station X was to break: the details of the massacre of tens of thousands of Jews. It is not true, as has been suggested, that nothing was done about this for fear of giving away the Enigma secret. Churchill actually risked giving the secret away by publicly denouncing the killings as "a crime without a name". He also ordered Station X to assign someone to collect evidence from the broken messages for use as evidence in the war crimes trials that were to follow the German defeat.
The code breakers' many successes also included the North Africa Campaign, when they enabled the Royal Navy to cut Rommel's supply lines and kept Montgomery informed of the Desert Fox's every move.
One time when they were in serious difficulties was in early 1942 with the U-Boats' introduction of a far more complex Enigma cypher. By the end of 1942 they had again broken the code. Yet Bletchley Park's greatest success was still to come, with the construction by Tommy Flowers of Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer to help to break the Germans' teleprinter cyphers. Flowers and his team of Post Office engineers built Colossus in December 1943, allowing Station X to provide the officials planning for the invasion of Europe with unprecedented detail of the German defences.
The code breakers made a vital contribution to D-Day in other ways. The breaking of the cyphers of the German Secret Intelligence Service allowed the British to confuse Hitler over where the Allies were to land.
His decision to divert troops away from the Normandy beaches undoubtedly ensured the invasion's success. But even as the Allied troops waded ashore, a new threat was looming and attention was being given to the role of the code breakers in the post-war era.
After the war finally came to an end, a number of staff continued elsewhere to use the remarkable expertise they had built up at Bletchley Park to break other countries' cyphers, but under a new name, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
The country house atmosphere had gone for good to be replaced by a highly efficient intelligence-gathering machine aided by the fact that the wartime alliance with the Americans continued through the Cold War and beyond.
The 12,000 people who worked at Station X did not win the war, but they certainly shortened it, saving countless lives on both sides of the conflict and their legacy lives with us today with the computer technology that dominates our lives.
Their work must surely never be forgotten.
Michael Smith is the Defence Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. He is author of the number one best-seller Station X: The Code Breakers of Bletchley Park, and The Emperor"s Codes: Bletchley Park and the Breaking of Japan"s Secret Cyphers.
| i don't know |
Which Asian nation was the first to make it illegal to smoke in public or to sell tobacco? | Critics say jailing smokers for lighting up is a violation of their rights [Gayatri Parameswaran/Al Jazeera]
By
Gayatri Parameswaran
In downtown Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, Sonam Dema - who requested her real name not be used - owns a small corner shop in a quiet alleyway. Packaged food, drinks, confectionaries and pastries are on display. On a busy afternoon, a Bhutanese man walks into the shop and orders cigarettes in a hushed tone. Dema looks around cautiously. She leans down to her handbag and pulls out a pack of 10 cigarettes. "One hundred ngultrum (about $1.87)," Dema says.
The transaction happens under the counter. The buyer slides the pack of cigarettes under his jacket and leaves in no time. "It’s illegal to sell cigarettes here. I don’t sell them to anyone I don’t know," Dema says after her customer leaves.
Bhutan, a small Himalayan nation often called the Land of the Thunder Dragon, is the only country in the world that completely bans the sale and production of tobacco and tobacco products. Under the law, any individual found selling tobacco can face imprisonment for a period of three to five years.
But the youngster confesses that she is only doing it for financial reasons. "Look at everything in the store. Cigarettes bring more profit than anything else. I have to pay rent for this place and if I stop selling cigarettes my profits will plummet," she says.
Tough laws
Bhutan, with a population of 700,000, has used an index called "Gross National Happiness" as a measure of progress. The government emphasises improving people’s happiness while relying on four pillars of development - good governance, natural environment, sustainable growth and cultural values.
The Himalayan nation has a long history of tobacco control. In 1729, it perhaps became the first country in the world to have any kind of tobacco regulation, when the supreme leader Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal passed a law against tobacco use.
"I can’t afford to pay the fine. And I don’t want to pay import duties either. Why can’t I smoke cigarettes at a normal price if I am not selling them to anyone else"
- Tsering Zam
In the 1990s, many of the 20 districts of Bhutan began autonomously declaring themselves smoke-free zones. By 2004, the national assembly of Bhutan (which was then a monarchy), banned the sale of tobacco throughout the country as well as smoking in public places, private offices and even recreation centres like bars and pubs. It was lauded for being the first country in the world to go entirely smoke-free.
However, the implementation of the ban remained weak. As a response, the government passed the Tobacco Control Act in 2010, under which smoking cigarettes or chewing tobacco became a non-bailable offence. Anybody in possession of tobacco could be imprisoned for a minimum of three years if the person is unable to produce a receipt declaring payment of import duties for the products.
Last year, more than 80 people were booked under the new law and nearly half of them were sent to prison. The first one to be imprisoned was Sonam Tshering, a Buddhist monk, who was caught with 180 grams of chewing tobacco worth 120 ngultrum (about $2.25).
This resulted in a public outcry, and a Facebook group was created called "Amend the Tobacco Control Act" . The group had over 2,900 members, and was the first show of dissent in a country that adopted democracy in 2008 after 100 years of absolute monarchy.
Tashi Dorji, who participated in the online protest, says the law took away his individual right as a smoker. "Putting people behind bars for smoking or chewing tobacco is a violation of their rights. The other crimes that get a similar three-year sentence are human trafficking, abduction, rape, arson, robbery, impersonating a uniformed personnel, torture, and riot. What are we trying to say here?"
Under public pressure, the parliament amended the act and passed the Tobacco Control (Amendment) Act in January 2012. The amended Act has increased the permissible amounts of tobacco that can be imported for personal consumption. One can now import 300 cigarettes, 400 bidis, 50 cigars and 250 grams of other tobacco products. However, one has to produce receipts for import duties if caught with these products or face hefty fines.
Many displeased
On a bus from the border town of Phuntsholing to the capital Thimphu, Tsering Zam - who requested his name not be used - is nervous. She has purchased three packs of cigarettes without paying import duties.
At the check post, two Bhutanese police personnel enter the bus and check suspicious-looking luggage. Zam pretends to be asleep throughout the checking. If caught, she could end up paying a fine of up to 10,000 ngultrum ($187).
Once past the check post, she opens her eyes and breathes a sigh of relief at not being caught. "I can’t afford to pay the fine. And I don’t want to pay import duties either. Why can’t I smoke cigarettes at a normal price if I am not selling them to anyone else?" she asks angrily.
Monk Karma believes smoking brings bad karmic consequences
[Gayatri Parameswaran / Al Jazeera]
Zam isn’t the only one displeased. The amended act has many critics. Tshering Tobgay, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, is vocal about his opposition to the original law as well as its amended version.
On his blog "Opposition Bhutan" , the non-smoker says, "First, the amendment, like the existing Act, continues to allow people to legally import tobacco. Travellers, and those fortunate to live in bordering towns, can continue to legally import tobacco up to the 'permissible quantity'. The way I see it, if we’re going to allow some people to purchase and consume tobacco legally, we should allow other people to do so too."
The strict laws have given rise to a thriving black market. Most sellers get their supplies of cigarettes and chewing tobacco twice a week from a "dealer", who usually smuggles in the products across the border from India.
Good health
Sonam Tshering is a legal officer at the Bhutan Narcotics Control Agency (BNCA) which is responsible for implementing the amended Act. He defends the law: "It’s proven that consuming tobacco isn’t good for your health. We are making it more and more difficult for smokers to get hold of cigarettes. We are a country that lives by the principles of Gross National Happiness and we believe good health is integral to a citizen."
"I don’t support the criminalisation of smokers, but I am proud that the laws here have made it more difficult to access cigarettes. Especially for young children"
- Tenzing Lamzang
The 28-year-old acknowledges that he has no facts or figures to prove the campaign’s success. But, he adds, "I don’t think there is a huge black market. And the ones who are selling illegally do get caught. Let me ask you something, when you walk in Thimphu, do you see anyone smoking? No? That means we are on the right way to making Bhutan smoke-free," he says.
Tenzing Lamzang is a proud Bhutanese non-smoker. He tried smoking once when he was young, but hated it so much that never lighted another cigarette. "I don’t support the criminalisation of smokers, but I am proud that the laws here have made it more difficult to access cigarettes. Especially for young children."
And it is not only the health concern that holds Bhutanese non-smokers from puffing away - it’s also a social and religious taboo.
Monk Karma (who goes by one name), explains that smoking can have bad karmic consequences. "We believe that even if you touch a cigarette to your lips, it can be harmful for your karma. Guru Rimpoche, our religious leader, strictly denounces smoking," he says.
The monk, who studied at Tamshing Dratshang monastery in central Bhutan, also narrates a legend behind Buddhism’s non-smoking history. "There was a demon who fought with Guru Rimpoche and then cursed the land where his blood was spilled. He said that anything that grows on this land will only destroy those who consume it. Tobacco grew out of that land," Karma explains.
However, the legal, social and religious taboos still don’t stop persistent smokers from lighting up. On a Saturday night in downtown Thimphu, youngsters are partying at a popular club. The dance floor, the rest rooms and the lobbies are filled with smoke. Having had a few drinks, a girl puffs away her cigarette and says, "Who cares about the rules and laws as long as they don’t bother me?"
Source: Al Jazeera
| Bhutan |
The sweet-tasting root of which plant is sometimes known as ‘Spanish’? | Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition -- Proctor 22 (suppl 1): i27 -- Tobacco Control
Why ban the sale of cigarettes? The case for abolition
Correspondence to Dr Robert N Proctor, Department of History, Stanford University, Bldg 200, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; rproctor{at}stanford.edu
Received 25 October 2012
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Abstract
The cigarette is the deadliest artefact in the history of human civilisation. Most of the richer countries of the globe, however, are making progress in reducing both smoking rates and overall consumption. Many different methods have been proposed to steepen this downward slope, including increased taxation, bans on advertising, promotion of cessation, and expansion of smoke-free spaces. One option that deserves more attention is the enactment of local or national bans on the sale of cigarettes. There are precedents: 15 US states enacted bans on the sale of cigarettes from 1890 to 1927, for instance, and such laws are still fully within the power of local communities and state governments. Apart from reducing human suffering, abolishing the sale of cigarettes would result in savings in the realm of healthcare costs, increased labour productivity, lessened harms from fires, reduced consumption of scarce physical resources, and a smaller global carbon footprint. Abolition would also put a halt to one of the principal sources of corruption in modern civilisation, and would effectively eliminate one of the historical forces behind global warming denial and environmental obfuscation. The primary reason for abolition, however, is that smokers themselves dislike the fact they smoke. Smoking is not a recreational drug, and abolishing cigarettes would therefore enlarge rather than restrict human liberties. Abolition would also help cigarette makers fulfil their repeated promises to ‘cease production’ if cigarettes were ever found to be causing harm.
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Six reasons to ban
The cigarette is the deadliest object in the history of human civilisation. Cigarettes kill about 6 million people every year, a number that will grow before it shrinks. Smoking in the twentieth century killed only 100 million people, whereas a billion could perish in our century unless we reverse course. 1 Even if present rates of consumption drop steadily to zero by 2100, we will still have about 300 million tobacco deaths this century.
The cigarette is also a defective product, meaning not just dangerous but unreasonably dangerous, killing half its long-term users. And addictive by design. It is fully within the power of the Food and Drug Administration in the US, for instance, to require that the nicotine in cigarettes be reduced to subcompensable, subaddictive levels. 2 , 3 This is not hard from a manufacturing point of view: the nicotine alkaloid is water soluble, and denicotinised cigarettes were already being made in the 19th century. 4 Philip Morris in the 1980s set up an entire factory to make its Next brand cigarettes, using supercritical fluid extraction techniques to achieve a 97% reduction in nicotine content, which is what would be required for a 0.1% nicotine cigarette, down from present values of about 2%. 5 Keep in mind that we're talking about nicotine content in the rod as opposed to deliveries measured by the ‘FTC method’, which cannot capture how people actually smoke. 5
Cigarettes are also defective because they have been engineered to produce an inhalable smoke. Tobacco smoke was rarely inhaled prior to the nineteenth century; it was too harsh, too alkaline. Smoke first became inhalable with the invention of flue curing, a technique by which the tobacco leaf is heated during fermentation, preserving the sugars naturally present in the unprocessed leaf. Sugars when they burn produce acids, which lower the pH of the resulting smoke, making it less harsh, more inhalable. There is a certain irony here, since these ‘milder’ cigarettes were actually far more deadly, allowing smoke to be drawn deep into the lungs. The world's present epidemic of lung cancer is almost entirely due to the use of low pH flue-cured tobacco in cigarettes, an industry-wide practice that could be reversed at any time. Regulatory agencies should mandate a significant reduction in rod-content nicotine, but they should also require that no cigarette be sold with a smoke pH lower than 8. Those two mandates alone would do more for public health than any previous law in history. 5
Death and product defect are two reasons to abolish the sale of cigarettes, but there are others. A third is the financial burden on public and private treasuries, principally from the costs of treating illnesses due to smoking. Cigarette use also results in financial losses from diminished labor productivity, and in many parts of the world makes the poor even poorer. 6
A fourth reason is that the cigarette industry is a powerful corrupting force in human civilisation. Big tobacco has corrupted science by sponsoring ‘decoy’ or ‘distraction research’, 5 but it has also corrupted popular media, insofar as newspapers and magazines dependent on tobacco advertising for revenues have been reluctant to publish critiques of cigarettes. 7 The industry has corrupted even the information environment of its own workforce, as when Philip Morris paid its insurance provider (CIGNA) to censor the health information sent to corporate employees. 8 Tobacco companies have bullied, corrupted or exploited countless other institutions: the American Medical Association, the American Law Institute, sports organisations, fire-fighting bodies, Hollywood, the US Congress—even the US presidency and US military. President Lyndon Johnson refused to endorse the 1964 Surgeon General's report, for instance, fearing alienation of the tobacco-friendly South. Cigarette makers managed even to thwart the US Navy's efforts to go smoke-free. In 1986, the Navy had announced a goal of creating a smoke-free Navy by the year 2000; tobacco-friendly congressmen were pressured to thwart that plan, and a law was passed requiring that all ships sell cigarettes and allow smoking. The result: American submarines were not smoke-free until 2011. 9
Cigarettes are also, though, a significant cause of harm to the natural environment. Cigarette manufacturing consumes scarce resources in growing, curing, rolling, flavouring, packaging, transport, advertising and legal defence, but also causes harms from massive pesticide use and deforestation. Many Manhattans of savannah woodlands are lost every year to obtain the charcoal used for flue curing. Cigarette manufacturing also produces non-trivial greenhouse gas emissions, principally from the fossil fuels used for curing and transport, fires from careless disposal of butts, and increased medical costs from maladies caused by smoking 5 (China produces 40 percent of the world's cigarettes, for example, and uses mainly coal to cure its tobacco leaf). And cigarette makers have provided substantial funding and institutional support for global climate change deniers, causing further harm. 10 Cigarettes are not sustainable in a world of global warming; indeed they are one of its overlooked and easily preventable causes.
But the sixth and most important reason for abolition is the fact that smokers themselves do not like their habit. This is a key point: smoking is not a recreational drug; most smokers do not like the fact they smoke and wish they could quit. This means that cigarettes are very different from alcohol or even marijuana. Only about 10–15% of people who drink liquor ever become alcoholics, versus addiction rates of 80% or 90% for people who smoke. 11 As an influential Canadian tobacco executive once confessed: smoking is not like drinking, it is rather like being an alcoholic. 12
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The spectre of prohibition
An objection commonly raised is: Hasn't prohibition already been tried and failed? Won't this just encourage smuggling, organised crime, and yet another failed war on drugs? That has been the argument of the industry for decades; bans are ridiculed as impractical or tyrannical. (First they come for your cigarettes.…) 13
The freedom objection is weak, however, given how people actually experience addiction. Most smokers ‘enjoy’ smoking only in the sense that it relieves the pains of withdrawal; they need nicotine to feel normal. People who say they enjoy cigarettes are rather rare—so rare that the industry used to call them ‘enjoyers’. 14 Surveys show that most smokers want to quit but cannot; they also regret having started. 15 Tobacco industry executives have long grasped the point: Imperial Tobacco's Robert Bexon in 1984 confided to his Canadian cotobacconists that ‘If our product was not addictive we would not sell a cigarette next week’. 12 American cigarette makers have been quietly celebrating addiction since the 1950s, when one expressed how ‘fortunate for us’ it was that cigarettes ‘are a habit they can't break’. 16
Another objection commonly raised to any call for a ban is that this will encourage smuggling, or even organised crime. But that is rather like blaming theft on fat wallets. Smuggling is already rampant in the cigarette world, as a result of pricing disparities and the tolerance of contraband or even its encouragement by cigarette manufacturers. Luk Joossens and Rob Cunningham have shown how cigarette manufacturers have used smuggling to undermine monopolies or gain entry into new markets or evade taxation. 17 , 18 And demand for contraband should diminish, once the addicted overcome their addiction—a situation very different from prohibition of alcohol, where drinking was a more recreational drug. And of course, even a ban on the sale of cigarettes will not eliminate all smoking—nor should that be our goal, since people should still be free to grow their own for personal use. Possession should not be criminalised; the goal should only be a ban on sales. Enforcement, therefore, should be a trivial matter, as is proper in a liberal society.
Cigarette smoking itself, though, is less an expression of freedom than the robbery of it. And so long as we allow the companies to cast themselves as defenders of liberty, the table is unfairly tilted. We have to recognise that smoking compromises freedom, and that retiring cigarettes would enlarge human liberties.
Of course it could well be that product regulation, combined with taxation, denormalisation, and ‘smoke-free’ legislation, will be enough to dramatically lower or even eliminate cigarette use—over some period of decades. Here, though, I think we fail to realise how much power governments already have to act more decisively. From 1890 to 1927 the sale of cigarettes was banned virtually overnight in 15 different US states; and in Austin v. Tennessee (1900) the US Supreme Court upheld the right of states to enact such bans. 19 Those laws all eventually disappeared from industry pressure and the lure of tax revenues. 20 None was deemed unconstitutional, however, and some localities retained bans into the 1930s, just as some counties still today ban the sale of alcohol. Bhutan in 2004 became the first nation recently to ban the sale of cigarettes, and we may see other countries taking this step, especially once smoking prevalence rates start dropping into single digits.
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Helping the industry fulfil its promises
One last rationale for a ban: abolition would fulfil a promise made repeatedly by the industry itself. Time and again, cigarette makers have insisted that if cigarettes were ever found to be causing harm they would stop making them:
In March 1954, George Weissman, head of marketing at Philip Morris, announced that his company would ‘stop business tomorrow’ if ‘we had any thought or knowledge that in any way we were selling a product harmful to consumers’. 21
In 1972, James C Bowling, vice president for public relations at Philip Morris, asserted publicly, and in no uncertain terms, that ‘If our product is harmful…we'll stop making it’. 22
Helmut Wakeham, vice president for research at Philip Morris, in 1976 stated publicly that ‘if the company as a whole believed that cigarettes were really harmful, we would not be in the business. We are a very moralistic company’. 23
RJ Reynolds president Gerald H Long, in a 1986 interview asserted that if he ever ‘saw or thought there were any evidence whatsoever that conclusively proved that, in some way, tobacco was harmful to people, and I believed it in my heart and my soul, then I would get out of the business’. 24
Philip Morris CEO Geoffrey Bible in 1997, when asked (under oath) what he would do with his company if cigarettes were ever found to be causing cancer, said: ‘I'd probably…shut it down instantly to get a better hold on things’. 25 Bible was asked about this in Minnesota v. Philip Morris (2 March 1998) and reaffirmed that if even one person were ever found to have died from smoking he would ‘reassess’ his duties as CEO. 26
The clearest expression of such an opinion, however, was by Lorillard's president, Curtis H Judge, in an April 1984 deposition, where he was asked why he regarded Lorillard's position on smoking and health as important:
A: Because if we are marketing a product that we know causes cancer, I'd get out of the business…I wouldn't be associated with marketing a product like that.
Q: Why?
A: If cigarettes caused cancer, I wouldn't be involved with them…I wouldn't sell a product that caused cancer.
Q: …Because you don't want to kill people? … Is that the reason?
A: Yes.
Q: …If it was proven to you that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer, do you think cigarettes should be marketed?
A: No…No one should sell a product that is a proven cause of lung cancer. 27
Note that these are all public assurances, including several made under oath. All follow a script drawn up by the industry's public relations advisors during the earliest stages of the conspiracy: On 14 December 1953, Hill and Knowlton had proposed to RJ Reynolds that the cigarette maker reassure the public that it ‘would never market a product which is in any way harmful’. Reynolds was also advised to make it clear that
If the Company felt that its product were now causing cancer or any other disease, it would immediately cease production of it. 28
To this recommendation was added ‘Until such time as these charges or irresponsible statements are ever proven, the Company will continue to produce and market cigarettes’.
What is remarkable is that we never find the companies saying privately that they would stop making cigarettes—with two significant exceptions. In August 1947, in an internal document outlining plans to study ‘vascular and cardiac effects’ of smoking, Philip Morris's director of research, Willard Greenwald, made precisely this claim: ‘We certainly do not want any person to smoke if it is dangerous to his health’. 29 Greenwald had made a similar statement in 1939, reassuring his president, OH Chalkley, that ‘under no circumstances would we want anyone to smoke Philip Morris cigarettes were smoking definitely deleterious to his health’. 30 There is no reason to believe he was lying: he is writing long before Wynder's mouse painting experiments of 1953, and prior even to the epidemiology of 1950. Prior to obtaining proof of harm, Philip Morris seems honestly not to have wanted to sell a deadly product.
Abolition is not such a radical idea; it would really just help the industry fulfil its long-standing promises to the public. The cigarette, as presently constituted, is simply too dangerous—and destructive and unloved—to be sold.
Summary points
The cigarette is the deadliest object in the history of human civilisation. It is also a defective product, a financial burden on cash-strapped societies, an important source of political and scientific corruption, and a cause of both global warming and global warming denial.
Tobacco manufacturers have a long history of promising to stop the production of cigarettes, should they ever be proven harmful.
The most important reason to ban the sale of cigarettes, however, is that most smokers do not even like the fact they smoke; cigarettes are not a recreational drug.
It is not in principle difficult to end the sale of cigarettes; most communities–even small towns–could do this virtually overnight. We actually have more power than we realize to put an end this, the world's leading cause of death and disease.
Competing interests The author has served as an expert witness for plaintiffs in tobacco litigation.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode
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What is the title of the 45-minute extended edition of QI? | QI : Quite Interesting
Contact QI
United Kingdom
On TV: New series of QI are broadcast on BBC Two, usually beginning in the autumn, along with the extended 45 minute-long 'XL' versions. QI is also repeated (very) regularly on Dave.
Online: Several series of QI are available to stream on Netflix, and we're working to get more up soon. Episodes broadcast on the BBC are usually available to watch on iPlayer for a short period after broadcast.
On DVD: Series A, B and C are available to purchase. See the QI shop for more information. Due to a number of copyright issues there are difficulties releasing further series of QI on DVD - but any developments will be announced on the QI website and on Twitter.
The QI Genesis documentary is not currently available to purchase, but is occasionally aired on the BBC.
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In 2015, who replaced Dara Ó Briain as the presenter of The Apprentice: You’re Fired? | FATCA – FAQs General
FATCA – FAQs General
Qualified Intermediaries/Withholding Foreign Partnerships/Withholding Foreign Trusts
Q9. If an entity submits an application for WP or WT status on or after April 1 and is approved for such status, what will the effective date of its WP or WT agreement be?
IGA Registration
Q8. Announcement 2014-38 provides that a jurisdiction that is treated as if it has an IGA in effect, but that has not yet signed an IGA, retains such status beyond December 31, 2014, provided that the jurisdiction continues to demonstrate firm resolve to sign the IGA that was agreed in substance. Given this additional time to sign the IGA, does a reporting Model 1 FFI in such a jurisdiction need to register and obtain a GIIN before January 1, 2015 ?
Expanded Affiliated Groups
Q4. Is a limited FFI who is a member of an Expanded Affiliated Group subject to Chapter 4 withholding?
Sponsoring/Sponsored Entities
Q6. Additional questions related to: Part 4 of the online registration system*
Financial Institutions
Q3. How does a FFI apply for a EIN if it does not already have one?
Exempt Beneficial Owners
Q2. We are a foreign pension plan. Will we be subject to FATCA withholding if we do not register?
NFFEs
Q7. What is the Office of Foreign Asset Control's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list?
FFI/EAG Changes
Q6. What steps does a registrant need to complete if it has dissolved?
Branch/Disregarded Entity
Q5. How does a branch described in Q-2 or Q-3 of this heading that has registered as a separate entity rather than as a branch of its owner correct its registration?
General Compliance
Q2. When is Form 8966 due for reporting with respect to calendar year 2014 for participating FFIs and Reporting Model 2 FFIs?
Request for Additional Extension of Time to File Form 8966 for Tax Year 2014
Q1. How do I submit a request for additional extension of time to file Forms 8966 for tax year 2014?
Request for Waiver from Filing Form 8966 Electronically for Tax Year 2014
Additional Support
Qualified Intermediaries/Withholding Foreign Partnerships/Withholding Foreign Trusts
Q1 . How does a Financial Institution that is not currently a Qualified Intermediary (“QI”), a Withholding Foreign Partnership (“WP”), or a Withholding Foreign Trust (“WT”) register to become one?
The process to become a QI, WP or WT has not been modified by the provisions of FATCA.
The application for Qualified Intermediary, Withholding Foreign Partnership or Withholding Foreign Trust status can be found here: QI/WP/WT Application
Updated: 09-09-2016
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Q2 . How do FIs that are currently QIs, WPs and WTs renew their agreements?
Existing QIs, WPs and WTs are required to renew their QI agreements through the FATCA registration website as part of their FATCA registration process.
All QI, WP, or WT agreements that would otherwise expire on December 31, 2013 will be automatically extended until June 30, 2014. (Notice 2013-43; 2013-31 IRB 113).
Q3 . I am not currently a QI/WP/WT. Can I use the LB&I registration portal to register for FATCA and become a new QI/WP/WT?
No.
QI/WP /WT status can only obtained by completing and submitting a Form 14345 (“QI Intermediary Application”) and Form SS-4 (“Application for Employer Identification Number”) directly to the QI Program. Interested QIs/WPs/WT should submit the required paperwork to the QI program and separately use the FATCA registration portal to obtain a GIIN for FATCA purposes. FFIs can not become a new QI/WP/WT through the FATCA portal.
Applications for QI/WP/WT status can be made to:
IRS-Foreign Intermediary Program
290 Broadway, 12th floor
New York City, New York 10007
Note: Form 14345 (“QI Intermediary Application”) should be used for WPs and WTs in addition to QIs.
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Q4 . Must an FI become a QI/WP/WT in order to register under FATCA?
An FI is not required to obtain QI/WP or WT status to register under FATCA. If at the time of FATCA registration, the FI does not have in effect a withholding agreement with the IRS to be treated as a QI, WP or WT, the FI will indicate “Not applicable” in box 6 and will continue with the registration process.
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Q5 . If an FFI has a QI/WP/WT agreement in place, does the Responsible Party for purposes of the QI/WP/WT Agreement also have to the serve as the FFI’s Responsible Officer?
No, the FFI’s Responsible Party for purposes of a QI/WP/WT Agreement does not have to be the Responsible Officer chosen by the FFI for purposes of certification under the regulations or for FATCA Registration purposes.
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Q6 . If a member of the Expanded Affiliated Group is a Qualified Intermediary/Withholding Trust/Withholding Partnership, does the Lead Financial Institution renew the Qualified Intermediary/Withholding Trust/Withholding Partnership agreement on behalf of the member or does the member renew its own agreement?
Each Member FI with a Qualified Intermediary/Withholding Trust/Withholding Partnership (“QI/WP/WT”) agreement will renew its own agreement on the registration system. When a Member is completing its registration it will be asked about whether it maintains and seeks to renew a QI/WP/WT agreement with the Service. If the Member indicates it has one of these agreements and would like to renew the agreement, the Member will do so in Part 3 of the registration system in addition to claiming status as a participating FFI or registered-deemed compliant FFI (and obtaining its required GIINs).
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Q7 . How will Withholding Foreign Partnerships (WP) and Withholding Foreign Trusts (WT) renew their WP and WT agreements, if the revised WP and WT agreements will not be published before June 30, 2014?
Treasury and the IRS anticipate publishing the revised withholding agreements for Withholding Foreign Partnerships (WPs) and Withholding Foreign Trusts (WTs) in July 2014. Because an existing agreement for an entity acting as a WP or WT expires after June 30, 2014 unless renewed before then, a WP or WT that seeks to renew its status as a WP or WT is required to do so by June 30, 2014 by submitting a registration form through the FATCA registration website. See Notice 2013-43, 2013-31 I.R.B. 113 for the automatic extension provided for certain WP and WT agreements until June 30, 2014. Notwithstanding this requirement, the IRS will permit a WP or WT to represent itself as a WP or WT to a withholding agent for a payment received before August 1, 2014 provided that the WP or WT continues to comply with its obligations under a WP or WT agreement in effect as of June 30, 2014. The allowance provided in the preceding sentence does not extend to a WP or WT that is a foreign financial institution (FFI) that does not obtain a chapter 4 status required of a WP or WT that is an FFI by the date of the payment. See §1.1441-5(c)(2)(ii) and (e)(5)(v) for the chapter 4 status required of a WP or WT that is an FFI. Apart from this chapter 4 status requirement, an entity that wishes to renew its status as a WP or WT and obtain the benefit of this transitional treatment will have until July 31, 2014 to register with the IRS to renew its WP or WT status and will not be required to assume the requirements of an updated agreement before August 1, 2014 (regardless of whether the entity registers for WP or WT status before or after the publication date of the revised agreement). Because the revised WP and WT agreements will require these entities to assume primary chapter 4 withholding responsibilities with respect to their partners, beneficiaries and owners (as applicable) under sections 1471 and 1472 in addition to their existing withholding requirements under the WP and WT agreements, a WP or WT that makes a distribution for which withholding is required under chapter 4 before August 1, 2014 with respect to a partner, beneficiary or owner and does not withhold may apply the procedures referenced in §1.1474-2(b) to satisfy any underwithholding. See the instructions to Form 8957, Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration, for further information regarding the registration of an entity seeking to renew a WP or WT agreement.
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Q8 . When will the terms of the revised QI Agreement set forth in Revenue Procedure 2014-39 be effective for: (a) entities seeking QI status, and (b) entities seeking renewal of their QI Agreements?
On June 27, 2014, Treasury and the IRS published a revised qualified intermediary (QI) agreement in Revenue Procedure 2014-39, 2014-29 I.R.B. 151. Section 1 of the Revenue Procedure provides that an entity seeking QI status (other than a renewal) that submits an application to the IRS before July 31, 2014 and that is approved by the IRS during the calendar year may, for the period beginning on January 1, 2014 and ending on June 30, 2014, act as a QI in accordance with the QI agreement set forth in Notice 2000-12, 2001-1 C.B. 387, as if the QI agreement were effective during that period. With respect to an entity that applies the allowance described in the preceding sentence, the entity’s QI agreement set forth in Rev. Proc. 2014-39 will be effective on June 30, 2014, regardless of whether the entity’s QI status is approved later during the calendar year, subject to the allowance provided in the next paragraph for how a QI may apply the QI agreement before August 1, 2014. Additionally, the IRS will require that the entity register on the FATCA registration website with respect to its chapter 4 status (if applicable) by the date is that is 90 days from the date the entity is approved for QI status.
With respect to an entity with a QI agreement in effect before June 30, 2014, the Revenue Procedure provides that its agreement expired on June 30, 2014 and further provides that an entity that has submitted a renewal application/request in the manner described in the Revenue Procedure has a revised QI agreement is effective on June 30, 2014. For purposes of this requirement, the IRS will permit a QI to renew its status as a QI (including on the FATCA registration portal when required) on or before July 31, 2014, to be eligible to act as a QI beginning June 30, 2014. A QI will not be required to assume the further requirements of the updated agreement in the Revenue Procedure before August 1, 2014 (regardless of whether the QI registered to renew its QI status before June 30, 2014), and may apply the provisions of the QI agreement set forth in Notice 2000-12 between June 30, 2014 and July 31, 2014. A renewal of QI status after July 31, 2014, will be effective on the date of renewal (and will not be retroactive). Therefore, QIs are encouraged to renew their agreement by July 31, 2014.
Because a QI is a withholding agent for chapter 4 purposes, a QI that receives a payment for which withholding is required under chapter 4 after June 30, 2014 and before August 1, 2014 with respect to an account holder may apply the procedures referenced section 9.05 of the QI Agreement to satisfy any under withholding. See the instructions to Form 8957, Foreign Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Registration, for further information regarding the registration of an entity seeking to renew a QI agreement.
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Q9 . If an entity submits an application for WP or WT status on or after April 1 and is approved for such status, what will the effective date of its WP or WT agreement be?
Section 12.01(B) of the WP and WT agreements (Rev. Proc. 2014-47, 2014-35 I.R.B. 393) provides that, for calendar years after 2014, if WP’s or WT’s application for WP or WT status is submitted on or after April 1, the effective date of the agreement is January 1 of the calendar year following the year in which the application was submitted.
If an entity submits an application to be a WP or WT on or after April 1 and does not receive any reportable amounts between January 1 of the calendar year in which the WP or WT application is submitted and the date of approval, the entity will have a WP or WT agreement with an effective date of the date it is issued a WP-EIN (provided that it obtains a GIIN within 90 days of such approval, unless it is a retirement fund). All other entities applying for WP or WT status on or after April 1 that are approved during the calendar year will have a WP or WT agreement with an effective date of January 1 of the following calendar year.
Added: 10-07-2015
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IGA Registration
Q1 . Please provide a link that lists the jurisdictions treated as having in effect a Model 1 or Model 2 IGA.
The U.S. Department of Treasury’s list of jurisdictions that are treated as having an intergovernmental agreement in effect can be found by clicking on the following link: IGA LIST
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Q2 . How do Foreign Financial Institutions in Model 1 jurisdictions register on the FATCA registration website?
Financial Institutions that are treated as Reporting Financial Institutions under a Model 1 IGA (see the list of jurisdictions treated as having an IGA in effect at IGA LIST ) should register as Registered Deemed-Compliant Foreign Financial Institutions.
More information on registration can be found in the FATCA Registration Online User Guide: FATCA Registration Resources Page (See Section 2.4 “Special Rules for Registration”)
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Q3 . How do Foreign Financial Institutions in Model 2 jurisdictions register on the FATCA registration website?
Financial Institutions that are treated as Reporting Financial Institutions under a Model 2 IGA (see the list of jurisdictions treated as having an IGA in effect at IGA LIST ) should register as Participating Foreign Financial Institutions.
More information on registration can be found in the FATCA Registration Online User Guide: FATCA Registration Resources Page (See Section 2.4 “Special Rules for Registration”)
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Q4 . We are an FFI in a country that has not signed an IGA, and the local laws of our country do not allow us to report U.S. accounts or withhold tax. What is our FATCA classification?
Unless the Treasury website provides that your country is treated as having an IGA in effect, then, because of its local law restrictions, this FFI should register as a Limited FFI provided it meets the definition shown directly below. See FATCA - Archive for a list of countries treated as having an IGA in effect.
A Limited FFI means an FFI that, due to local law restrictions, cannot comply with the terms of an FFI Agreement, or otherwise be treated as a PFFI or RDCFFI, and that is agreeing to satisfy certain obligations for its treatment as a Limited FFI.
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Q5 . In a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction, does the FFI need to fill out Question 10 about Responsible Officers?
Yes, if an FFI treated as a reporting Model 1 FFI wishes to have a GIIN, a Responsible Officer must be designated in Part 1, line 10 of Form 8957. Please see the FAQs on Responsible Officers for further information.
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Q6 . Does an FFI in a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction need to register before July 1, 2014, if the FFI is part of an EAG?
No. The chapter 4 regulations generally provide that, in order for withholding not to apply, a withholding agent must obtain the GIIN of a PFFI or an RDCFFI for payments made after June 30, 2014. A special rule in these regulations, however, provides that a withholding agent does not need to obtain a reporting Model 1 FFI’s GIIN for payments made before January 1, 2015. As a result, a reporting Model 1 FFI will have additional time beyond July 1, 2014, to register and obtain a GIIN in order to ensure that it is included on the IRS FFI list before January 1, 2015. Additionally, a reporting Model 1 FFI is not required to register prior to December 31, 2014, in order for its expanded affiliated group to meet the requirements of Treas. Reg. §1.1471-4(e)(1).
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Q7 . Does an entity in a Model 1 jurisdiction that, relying on the definition of a nonreporting financial institution under the applicable IGA, qualifies as a deemed-compliant FFI or an exempt beneficial owner under relevant U.S. Treasury Regulations, need to register on the FATCA registration website?
A nonreporting financial institution in a Model 1 jurisdiction is treated as a certified deemed-compliant FFI and is not required to register unless it (1) is subject to a registration requirement under its QI Agreement (see Rev. Proc. 2014-39) or its WP or WT Agreement (see Rev. Proc. 2014-47), (2) will act as a sponsoring entity, (3) will act as a lead FI for one or more related entities, (4) is explicitly required to register under the applicable IGA, or (5) has a financial account on which to report to the Model 1 jurisdiction under the requirements of the applicable IGA.
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Q8 . Announcement 2014-38 provides that a jurisdiction that is treated as if it has an IGA in effect, but that has not yet signed an IGA, retains such status beyond December 31, 2014, provided that the jurisdiction continues to demonstrate firm resolve to sign the IGA that was agreed in substance. Given this additional time to sign the IGA, does a reporting Model 1 FFI in such a jurisdiction need to register and obtain a GIIN before January 1, 2015?
Announcement 2014-38 does not change the requirement in the chapter 4 regulations that for payments made on or after January 1, 2015, in order for withholding not to apply, a withholding agent may treat a reporting Model 1 FFI as a registered deemed-compliant FFI only if the withholding agent has a withholding certificate identifying the payee as a registered deemed-compliant FFI and the withholding certificate contains a GIIN for the payee that is verified in the manner described in those regulations. Thus, to avoid withholding on certain payments made on or after January 1, 2015, a reporting Model 1 FFI should register and obtain a GIIN to properly certify its status to a withholding agent required to document the FFI for chapter 4 purposes. A reporting Model 1 FFI that has registered but not yet obtained a GIIN should indicate to its withholding agent that its GIIN is "applied for," and in such case, the withholding agent will have 90 days from the date it receives the Form W-8 to obtain a GIIN and to verify the accuracy of the GIIN against the published IRS FII list before it has reason to know that the payee is not a registered deemed-compliant FFI.
Announcement 2014-38 similarly does not change the timing of any other due diligence and reporting requirements in the chapter 4 regulations.
Added: 12-22-2014
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Expanded Affiliated Groups
Q1 . For registration purposes, can an EAG with a Lead FI and 2 Member FIs be divided into: (1) a group with a Lead FI and a member FI, and (2) a member FI that will register as a Single FI?
Yes. An EAG may organize itself into subgroups, so long as all entities with a registration requirement are registered. An FI that acts as a Compliance FI for any members of the EAG is, however, required to register each such member as would a Lead FI for such members.
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Q2 . What is required for an entity to be a Lead FI?
A Lead FI means a USFI, FFI, or a Compliance FI that will initiate the FATCA Registration process for each of its Member FIs that is a PFFI, RDCFFI, or Limited FFI and that is authorized to carry out most aspects of its Members’ FATCA Registrations. A Lead FI is not required to act as a Lead FI for all Member FIs within an EAG. Thus, an EAG may include more than one Lead FI that will carry out FATCA Registration for a group of its Member FIs. A Lead FI will be provided the rights to manage the online account for its Member FIs. However, an FFI seeking to act as a Lead FI cannot have Limited FFI status in its country of residence. See Rev. Proc. 2014-38 to review the revised FFI agreement for other requirements of a Lead FI that is also a participating FFI.
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Q3 . Can a Member FI complete its FATCA registration and obtain a GIIN if the Lead FI for that Member FI has not yet registered under FATCA?
No, a Member FI can only register after its Lead FI has registered. When the Member FI does register, it should indicate in Part 1, line 1, that it is a member of an expanded affiliated group.
In Part 2 of the Lead FI’s registration, the Lead FI will add basic identifying information for each Member, and the system will create the Member FATCA accounts. Each Member FI will then be required to log into the system and complete its registration.
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Q4 . Is a limited FFI who is a member of an Expanded Affiliated Group subject to Chapter 4 withholding?
Yes. A limited FFI (regardless of whether it is a member of an Expanded Affiliated Group) must identify itself to withholding agents as a nonparticipating FFI and, as a result, is subject to Chapter 4 withholding. Thus, while limited FFIs are generally required to register, they will not be issued GIINs.
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Sponsoring/Sponsored Entities
Q1 . We are a Sponsoring Entity, and we would like to register our Sponsored Entities. How do we register our Sponsored Entities?
The Sponsoring Entity that agrees to perform the due diligence, withholding, and reporting obligations of one or more Sponsored Entities pursuant to Treas. Reg. §1.1471-5(f)(1)(i)(F) should register with the IRS via the FATCA registration website to be treated as a Sponsoring Entity. To allow a Sponsoring Entity to register its Sponsored Entities with the IRS, the Sponsoring Entity must register its Sponsored Entities using the FATCA registration website see FATCA Online Registration User Guide for additional instructions on how to add Sponsored Entities.
While a Sponsoring Entity is required to register its Sponsored Entities for those entities to obtain GIINs, the temporary and proposed regulations provide a transitional rule that, for payments prior to January 1, 2016, permit a Sponsored Entity to provide the GIIN of its Sponsoring Entity on withholding certificates if it has not yet obtained a GIIN. Thus, a Sponsored Entity does not need to provide its own GIIN until January 1, 2017 and is not required to register before that date.
Updated: 02-02-2016
Responsible Officers and Points of Contact
Q1 . What is a Point Of Contact (POC)?
The Responsible Officer listed on line 10 of Form 8957 (or the online registration system) can authorize a POC to receive FATCA-related information regarding the FI, and to take other FATCA-related actions on behalf of the FI. While the POC must be an individual, the POC does not need to be an employee of the FI. For example, suppose that John Smith, Partner of X Law Firm, has been retained and been given the authority to help complete and submit the FATCA Registration on behalf of an FI. John Smith should be identified as the POC, and in the Business Title field for this POC, it should state Partner of X Law Firm.
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Q2 . Is the Responsible Officer required to be the same person for all lines on Form 8957 or the online registration (“FATCA Registration”)?
No, it is not required that the Responsible Officer (“RO”) be the same person for all lines on Form 8957 or the online registration. It is possible, however, that the same person will have the required capacity to serve as the RO for all FATCA Registration purposes.
The term “RO” is used in several places in the FATCA Registration process. In determining an appropriate RO for each circumstance, the Financial Institution (“FI”) or direct reporting NFFE should review the capacity requirements and select an individual who meets those requirements. This will be a facts and circumstances determination.
Please note that the responsible officer used for registration purposes may differ from the certifying responsible officer of an FFI referenced in Treasury Regulation §1.1471-1(b)(116). (See, however, below regarding “Delegation of RO Duties.”)
Below is a description of the required RO capacity per line:
Part 1, Question 10 (FATCA RO for the Financial Institution)
Language from the Form 8957 Instructions and the FATCA Online Registration User Guide specifies that the RO for question 10 purposes is a person authorized under applicable local law to establish the statuses of the entity's home office and branches as indicated on the registration form. (See FAQ below for what it means to "establish the FATCA statuses" of the FI's home office and branches or direct reporting NFFE.)
Part 1, Question 11b (Point of Contact authorization)
The RO identified in question 11b must be an individual who is authorized under local law to consent on behalf of the FI or direct reporting NFFE (“an authorizing individual”) to the disclosure of FATCA-related tax information to third parties. By listing one or more Points of Contact (each, a “POC”) in question 11b and selecting “Yes” in question 11a, the authorizing individual identified at the end of question 11b (to the right of the checkbox) is providing the IRS with written authorization to release the entity’s FATCA-related tax information to the POC. This authorization specifically includes authorization for the POC to complete the FATCA Registration (except for Part 4), to take other FATCA-related actions, and to obtain access to the FI’s (or direct reporting NFFE’s) tax information. Once the authorization is granted, it is effective until revoked by either the POC or by an authorizing individual of the FI or direct reporting NFFE.
Part 4
The authority required for an individual to be an RO for purposes of Part 4 is substantially similar to the authority required for RO status under Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-1(b)(116).
The RO designated in Part 4 must be an individual with authority under local law to submit the information provided on behalf of the FI or direct reporting NFFE. In the case of FIs or FI branches not governed by a Model 1 IGA, this individual must also have authority under local law to certify that the FI meets the requirements applicable to the FI status or statuses identified on the registration form. This individual must be able to certify, to the best of his or her knowledge, that the information provided in the FI’s or direct reporting NFFE’s registration is accurate and complete. In the case of an FI, the individual must be able to certify that the FI meets the requirements applicable to the status(es) identified in the FI’s registration. In the case of a direct reporting NFFE, the individual must be able to certify that the direct reporting NFFE meets the requirements of a direct reporting NFFE under Treas. Reg. § 1.1472-1(c)(3).
An RO (as defined for purposes of Part 4) can delegate authorization to complete Part 4 by signing a Form 2848 “Power of Attorney Form and Declaration of Representative” or other similar form or document (including an applicable form or document under local law giving the agent the authorization to provide the information required for the FATCA Registration).
Note: While the certification in Part 4 of the online registration does not include the term “responsible officer,” the FATCA Online Registration User Guide provides that the individual designated in Part 4 must have substantially the same authority as the RO as defined for purposes of Form 8957, Part 4.
Delegation of RO Duties
While the ROs for purposes of Question 10, Question 11b, and Part 4 of the FATCA Registration may be different individuals, in practice it will generally be the same individual (or his/her delegate)). The regulatory RO is responsible for establishing and overseeing the FFI’s compliance program. The regulatory RO may, but does not necessarily have to, be the registration RO for purposes of 1) ascertaining and completing the chapter 4 statuses in the registration process; 2) receiving the GIIN and otherwise interacting with the IRS in the registration process; and 3) making the Part 4 undertakings. Alternatively, the regulatory RO, or the FFI (through another individual with sufficient authority), may delegate each of these registration roles to one or more persons pursuant to a delegation of authority (such as a Power of Attorney) that confers the particular registration responsibility or responsibilities to such delegate(s). The scope of the delegation, and the delegate’s exercise of its delegated authority within such scope, will limit the scope of the potential liability of the delegate under the rules of agency law , to the extent applicable. The ultimate principal, whether that is the regulatory RO or the FFI, remains fully responsible in accordance with the terms and conditions reflected in the regulations, and other administrative guidance to the extent applicable under FATCA, the regulations
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Q3 . The Instructions for Form 8957 state that for purposes of Part 1, question 10, “. . . RO means the person authorized under applicable local law to establish the statuses of the FI’s home office and branches as indicated on the registration form.” What does it mean for an RO to have the authority to “establish the statuses of the FI’s home office and branches as indicated on the registration form”?
To have the authority to “establish the statuses” for purposes of question 10, an RO must have the authority to act on behalf of the FI to represent the FATCA status(es) of the FI to the IRS as part of the registration process. This RO must also have the authority under local law to designate additional POCs.
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Q4 . My FI plans on employing an outside organization (or individual) solely for the purpose of assisting with the registration process. Once registration is complete, or shortly thereafter, my FI intends to discontinue its relationship with this organization. Is this permissible under the FATCA registration system? How should my FI use the registration system to identify this relationship?
Yes, the FI or direct reporting NFFE may employ an outside organization to assist with FATCA registration and discontinue the relationship with the outside organization once registration is complete. As part of the registration process, an FI or direct reporting NFFE may appoint up to five POCs who are authorized to take certain FATCA-related actions on behalf of the entity, including the ability to complete all parts of the FATCA Registration (except for Part 4), to take other appropriate or helpful FATCA-related actions, and to obtain access to the entity’s FATCA-related tax information. The POC authorization must be made by an RO within the meaning of Part 1, question 10. Part 4 must be completed by the RO or a duly authorized agent of the RO. (See FAQ 1 for a discussion of the process for delegating authorization to complete Part 4.)
Once the services of a POC are no longer needed, the RO may log into the online FATCA account and delete the POC. This process revokes the POC’s authorization. At this point, the Responsible Officer can input a new POC, or leave this field blank if they no longer wish to have any POC other than the RO listed on Line 10.
If a third-party adviser that is an entity is retained to help the FI or direct reporting NFFE complete its FATCA registration process, the name of the third-party individual adviser that will help complete the FATCA registration process should be entered as a POC in Part 1, question 11b, and the “Business Title” field for that individual POC should be completed by inserting the name of the entity and the POC’s affiliation with the entity. For example, suppose that John Smith, Partner of X Law Firm, has been retained and been given the authority to help complete the FATCA Registration on behalf of FI Y. John Smith should be identified as the POC, and in the Business Title field for this POC, it should state Partner of X Law Firm.
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Q5 . For each of the following FATCA classifications (i.e. Participating Foreign Financial Institution “PFFI”, PFFI that elects to be part of a consolidated compliance program, Registered Deemed-Compliant Foreign Financial Institution “RDCFFI”, Reporting Model 1 FFI, Limited FFI and US Financial Institution “USFI”) what type of individual may serve as a Responsible Officer for purposes of Part 1, Question 10 of the FATCA Registration?
With respect to a PFFI, an RO is an officer of the FFI (or an officer of any Member FI that is a PFFI, Reporting Model 1 FFI or Reporting Model 2 FFI) with sufficient authority to fulfill the duties of a Responsible Officer described in a FFI Agreement.
With respect to a PFFI that elects to be part of a consolidated compliance program, an RO is an officer of the Compliance FI with sufficient authority to fulfill the duties of a Responsible Officer described in the FFI Agreement on behalf of each FFI in the compliance group (regardless of whether the FFI is a Limited FFI or treated as a Reporting Model 1 FFI or Reporting Model 2 FFI).
With respect to a RDCFFI, other than a RDCFFI that is a Reporting Model 1 FFI, an RO is an officer of the FI (or an officer of any Member FFI that is a PFFI, Reporting Model 1 FFI, or Reporting Model 2 FFI) with sufficient authority to ensure that the FFI meets the applicable requirements to be treated as a RDCFFI.
With respect to a Reporting Model 1 FFI, an RO is any individual specified under local law to register and obtain a GIIN on behalf of the FFI. If, however, the Reporting Model 1 FFI operates any branches outside of a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction, then the RO identified must be an individual who can satisfy the requirements under the laws of the Model 1 IGA jurisdiction and the requirements relevant to the registration type selected for each of its non-Model 1 IGA branches.
With respect to a Limited FFI, an RO is an officer of the Limited FFI (or an officer of any Member FI that is a PFFI, Reporting Model 1 FFI, or Reporting Model 2 FFI) with sufficient authority to ensure that the FI meets the applicable requirements to be treated as a Limited FFI.
With respect to a USFI that is registering as a “Lead FI”, an RO is any officer of the FI (or an officer of any Member FI) with sufficient authority to register its Member FIs and to manage the online FATCA accounts for such members.
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Q6 . Part 4 of the online registration system* states:
By checking this box, I, _________, [(the responsible officer or delegate thereof (herein collectively referred to as the “RO”)], certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the information submitted above is accurate and complete and I am authorized to agree that the Financial Institution (including its branches, if any) will comply with its FATCA obligations in accordance with the terms and conditions reflected in regulations, intergovernmental agreements, and other administrative guidance to the extent applicable to the Financial Institution based on its status in each jurisdiction in which it operates.
*Note: Part 4 of Form 8957 contains a substantially similar certification.
Can this statement be broken down into two declarations of the RO, as follows?
(i) The RO certifies that, to the best of its knowledge, the information submitted above is accurate and complete.
(ii) The RO agrees that the FI (including its branches, if any) will comply with its FATCA obligations in accordance with the terms and conditions reflected in regulations, intergovernmental agreements, and other administrative guidance to the extent applicable to the FI based on its status in each jurisdiction in which it operates.
Yes.
Does the first declaration above mean that the RO certifies that, to the best of its knowledge, the FI meets the requirements of its claimed status?
Yes.
Does the second declaration above apply to an FI treated as a reporting Model 2 FFI?
Yes.
Does the second declaration above (relating to a Participating FFI) require the signing party to ensure that the FFI and its member FFIs (including its branches, if any) comply with its respective obligations under the terms of its FFI Agreement or any applicable intergovernmental agreement and any such applicable local law?
The second declaration requires the signing party to be able to certify that, to the best of the signing party’s knowledge at the time the FATCA registration is signed, the FI and its member FFIs intend to comply with their respective FATCA obligations.
A Participating FFI will have its certifying responsible officer (as defined in Treasury Regulation §1.1471-1(b)(116)) periodically certify to the IRS regarding the FFI's compliance with its FFI agreement. As noted in FAQ 1, the RO identified in Part 4 will normally be an individual with sufficient authority to be eligible for RO status under Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-1(b)(116). (See, however, above regarding “Delegation of RO Duties.”)
How do the certifications in Part 4 apply to FIs treated as reporting Model 1 FFIs?
The first declaration above applies to FIs treated as reporting Model 1 FFIs and, as such, the RO of an FI treated as a reporting Model 1 FFI certifies that, to the best of the RO’s knowledge, the information submitted as part of the FATCA Registration process is accurate and complete. The second declaration, however, has limited applicability to FIs treated as reporting Model 1 FFIs because the FI does not have ongoing FATCA compliance obligations directly with the IRS. Instead, the compliance and reporting obligations of an FI treated as a reporting Model 1 FFI are to its local authority. However, a reporting Model 1 FFI that has branches (as identified in Part 1, line 9 of Form 8957) that are located outside of a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction will also agree to the terms applicable to the statuses of such branches. Additionally, an FI (including an FI in a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction) that is also registering to renew its QI, WP, or WT Agreement will agree to the terms of such renewed QI, WP, or WT Agreements by making the second declaration.
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Financial Institutions
Q1 . Are U.S. Financial Institutions (USFIs) required to register under FATCA? If so, under what circumstances would a USFI register? Does it matter whether the USFI has a branch in an IGA jurisdiction?
A USFI is generally not required to register under FATCA, regardless of whether it maintains a foreign branch. However, a USFI must register if the USFI chooses to become a Lead FI and/or a Sponsoring Entity, or if the USFI seeks to maintain QI status with respect to one or more of its foreign branches. Also, a USFI with a foreign branch that is a reporting Model 1 FFI must register (and identify each such branch when registering).
A USFI with a foreign branch that is a non-QI branch and that is a reporting Model 2 FFI is not required to register with the IRS solely because it maintains a branch in the Model 2 jurisdiction. A USFI does not execute an FFI agreement with respect to the chapter 4 requirements of such a branch, but is subject to the withholding and reporting requirements under chapter 4 applicable to a U.S. withholding agent. Notwithstanding that the USFI does not execute an FFI agreement with respect to the chapter 4 requirements of such a branch, the USFI may, for accounts maintained by the branch, use the procedures set forth in Annex I of the applicable Model 2 IGA to determine which of the branch’s account holders are NPFFIs or NFFEs for which withholding or reporting under section 1472 may apply.
See Treas. Reg. § 1.6049-5(c) regarding the extent to which the documentation permitted under an IGA (including for identifying U.S. accounts (or U.S reportable accounts maintained by a reporting Model 1 FFI)) may be used to satisfy the documentation rules of chapter 61 for a payor.
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Q2 . Is a Foreign Financial Institution (“FFI”) required to obtain an EIN?
If the FFI has a withholding obligation and will be filing Forms 1042 and Forms 1042-S with the Internal Revenue Service, it will be required to have an EIN. Please see publication 515 (“Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities”) for further information about U.S. Withholding requirements. See Pub. 515 . An FFI is also required to obtain an EIN when it is a QI, WP, or WT (through the application process to obtain any such status) or when the FFI is a participating FFI that elects to report its U.S. accounts on Forms 1099 under Treas. Reg. §1.1471-4(d)(5).
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Q3 . How does a FFI apply for a EIN if it does not already have one?
If a FFI does not have an EIN, it may apply for one using Form SS-4 (“Application for Employer Identification Number”) or the online registration system. See Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online for more information.
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Exempt Beneficial Owners
Q1 . We are a foreign central bank of issue. Will we be subject to FATCA withholding if we do not register?
You will generally be exempt from FATCA Registration and withholding if you meet the requirements to be treated as an exempt beneficial owner (e.g. as a foreign central bank of issue described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-6(d), as a controlled entity of a foreign government under Treas. Reg. §1.1471-6(b)(2), or as an entity treated as either of the foregoing under an applicable IGA). A withholding agent is not required to withhold on a withholdable payment to the extent that the withholding agent can reliably associate the payment with documentation to determine the portion of the payment that is allocable to an exempt beneficial owner in accordance with the regulations. However, an exempt beneficial owner may be subject to withholding on payments derived from the type of commercial activity described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-6(h).
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Q2 . We are a foreign pension plan. Will we be subject to FATCA withholding if we do not register?
You will be exempt from FATCA Registration and withholding if you meet the requirements to be treated as a retirement fund described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-6(f), or under an applicable IGA. A withholding agent is not required to withhold on a withholdable payment to the extent that the withholding agent can reliably associate the payment with documentation to determine the portion of the payment that is allocable to an exempt beneficial owner (in this case, a retirement fund) in accordance with the regulations.
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NFFES
Q1 . How should an entity seeking the FATCA status of “direct reporting NFFE” (other than a sponsored direct reporting NFFE) register for this status to obtain a GIIN in order to avoid FATCA withholding?
A direct reporting NFFE is eligible to register for this status and when registering should complete an online registration (or, alternatively, submit a paper Form 8957) based on the instructions provided in this FAQ. For registrations occurring in years after 2014, it is anticipated that both the online registration user guide and the Instructions for Form 8957 will be updated to incorporate instructions for registering direct reporting NFFEs.
In general, for purposes of completing the registration of a direct reporting NFFE, substitute the words “direct reporting NFFE” for the words “financial institution” wherever they appear in the online registration user guide (or in the Instructions for Form 8957). Unless specific instructions for a registration question are described here in this FAQ, please use the generally applicable instructions provided in the online registration user guide (or in the Instructions for Form 8957).
Part 1
Question 4 - - Select “None of the above”.
Question 6 - - Select “Not applicable”.
Question 7 - - Select “No”. (If using the portal online, selecting “no” will automatically skip Questions 8 and 9.)
Question 8 - - Skip this question (which relates to branches)
Question 9 - - Skip all parts (a) through (c) of this question (which relate to branches).
Question 10 - - Enter the information of the individual who will be responsible for ensuring that the direct reporting NFFE meets its FATCA reporting obligations and will act as a point of contact with the IRS in connection with its status as a direct reporting NFFE.
Part 2 - - It is not necessary for a direct reporting NFFE to complete this section. (If using the portal online, selecting Single in question 1 will automatically skip Part 2.)
Part 3 - - It is not necessary for a direct reporting NFFE to complete this section. (If using the portal online, selecting “Not Applicable” in question 6 will automatically skip Part 3.)
Part 4 - - The individual who completes this part must have the authority to provide the certification.
Please note the following for a NFFE that is a Qualified Intermediary (QI), a Withholding Foreign Partnership (WP), or a Withholding Foreign Trust (WT):
A NFFE that registers and obtains a GIIN should renew its QI/WP/WT agreement (as applicable) through the portal and generally follow the instructions above. However, Part 1, Question 6 should be answered to reflect the NFFE’s appropriate QI/WP/WT status. NFFEs that obtain GIINs include (i) NFFEs that are acting as QIs with respect to their owners (which are required to register as direct reporting NFFEs), and (ii) QI/WP/WT NFFEs that are also Sponsoring Entities for chapter 4 purposes.
A NFFE cannot execute a QI/WP/WT agreement through the portal (other than a renewal of an existing agreement). A NFFE that is registered on the portal for its chapter 4 status as either a direct reporting NFFE or Sponsoring Entity and is seeking initial QI/WP/WT status must execute a QI/WP/WT agreement through the existing traditional paper processes for those entities. Once the NFFE receives the appropriate EIN to act as a QI/WP/WT through that process, the NFFE should amend Part 1, Question 6 of its FATCA registration on the portal to reflect its new status as a QI/WP/WT and add its EIN to its registration.
Note that an entity that wishes to renew its status as a WP or WT will have until July 31, 2014, to register with the IRS to renew its WP or WT status and will not be required to assume the requirements of an updated agreement before August 1, 2014
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Q2 . How should a sponsor of a sponsored direct reporting NFFE register itself for this status and obtain a GIIN?
A sponsor of a sponsored direct reporting NFFE is a sponsoring entity (see Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-1T(b)(124)) and should complete an online registration (or, alternatively, submit a paper Form 8957) as a sponsoring entity, based on the instructions provided in this FAQ. A sponsoring entity need only complete one registration to act as the sponsor for both sponsored FFIs and sponsored direct reporting NFFEs. For registrations occurring in years after 2014, it is anticipated that both the online registration user guide and the Instructions for Form 8957 will be updated to incorporate this information, including by incorporating the definition of sponsoring entity provided in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-1T(b)(124).
In general, for purposes of having a sponsor register a sponsored direct reporting NFFE, substitute the words “sponsor of a direct reporting NFFE” for the words “sponsoring entity” wherever they appear in the online registration user guide (or in the Instructions for Form 8957). Unless specific instructions for a registration question are described here in this FAQ, please use the generally applicable instructions provided in the online registration user guide (or in the Instructions for Form 8957).
Part 1
Question 1 - - Select “Sponsoring Entity”.
Question 4 - - Select “None of the above”.
Question 6 - - Select “Not applicable”.
Question 7 - - Select “No”. (If using the portal online, selecting “no” will automatically skip Questions 8 and 9)
Question 8 - - Skip this question (which relates to branches)
Question 9 - - Skip all parts (a) through (c) of this question (which relate to branches).
Question 10 - - Enter the information of the individual who will be responsible for ensuring that the direct reporting NFFE meets its FATCA reporting obligations and who will act as a point of contact with the IRS in connection with its obligations as a sponsoring entity.
Part 2 - - It is not necessary for a sponsor of a direct reporting NFFE to complete this section. (If using the portal online, selecting Sponsoring Entity in question 1 will automatically skip Part 2.)
Part 3 - - It is not necessary for a sponsor of a direct reporting NFFE to complete this section. (If using the portal online, selecting “Not Applicable” in question 6 will automatically skip Part 3.)
Part 4 - - The individual who completes this part must have the authority to provide the certification.
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Q3 . Can a direct reporting NFFE be registered as a Member FI?
Yes. For Part 2, Question 12, select “None of the above” as the Member Type. See above for additional information on how to register a direct reporting NFFE. As noted in the FAQs on Expanded Affiliated Groups, the use of Lead FIs is elective. Therefore, a NFFE that is part of an EAG is not required to be registered as a Member FI.
Q4 . Does a direct reporting NFFE have to separately register its branches when it completes its FATCA registration?
No. The direct reporting NFFE should register itself only and will be issued a single GIIN.
Registration Update
Q1 . Why did my registration status change to Registration Incomplete? What can I do?
If your registration status is Registration Incomplete, it is because the IRS has identified an issue with your registration. Please review your registration for any of the following errors and update it accordingly. After you have updated your registration, you must resubmit in order for your registration to be processed.
The FFI has identified itself as a Qualified Intermediary with a QI-EIN of which the IRS has no record. (If you have QI, WP or WT Agreement signed with the IRS, please contact the Financial Intermediaries Team for further assistance.)
The RO has been identified with initials only and no specific name has been provided.
The RO does not appear to be a natural person.
Notice 2013-43 stated that after January 1, 2014 the FI will need to submit a final registration. If an FI submitted a registration prior to this date, the registration status was systemically updated to Registration Incomplete on December 31, 2013.
To update and resubmit your registration, login to your FATCA account, and select “Registration – Edit/Complete/Submit” under the Available Account Options on your home page. You will be asked if you want to change your status to Initiated. Select yes, and review each page of the registration, making any necessary updates, and clicking the “next” button at the bottom of each page to continue. When you get to Part 4 of the registration, complete the information, and click on the Submit button. Your registration status will then be updated to Registration Submitted. You can go back at any time to update information.
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Q2 . For each of the following FATCA classifications (i.e. Participating Foreign Financial Institution “PFFI” for Reporting Model 2 FFI, Registered Deemed Compliant Foreign Financial Institutions “RDCFFI” (for both Model 1 and non-Model 1 FFIs), Sponsoring Entity, Limited FFI or Limited Branch, Renewing QI/WP/WT, US Financial Institution “USFI” treated as a Lead FI and Direct Reporting NFFE) what is the impact of completing Part IV of the FATCA Registration?
PFFI Status for Reporting Model 2 FFI
Reporting Model 2 FFIs are registering to obtain a GIIN, provide authorization for individuals named in Part 1, Line 11 of the FATCA Registration to receive information related to FATCA registration, and to confirm that they will comply with the terms of an FFI Agreement in accordance with the FFI agreement, as modified by any applicable Model 2 IGA.
Notwithstanding the paragraph above, Reporting Model 2 FFIs operating branches outside of Model 1 or 2 IGA jurisdictions are agreeing to the terms of an FFI Agreement for such branches, unless the branches are treated as Limited Branches or are U.S. branches that are treated as U.S. persons. Additionally, Reporting Model 2 FFIs requesting renewal of a QI, WP or WT Agreement are entering into the renewed Model QI, WP, or WT Agreements, as applicable.
RDCFFI Status for Reporting Model 1 FFI
Reporting Model 1 FFIs are not entering into FFI Agreements via the FATCA registration process. Reporting Model 1 FFIs are registering to obtain a GIIN and to provide authorization for individuals named in Part 1, Line 11 of the FATCA Registration to receive information related to FATCA registration. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, Reporting Model 1 FFIs operating branches outside of Model 1 or 2 IGA jurisdictions are agreeing to the terms of an FFI Agreement for such branches, unless the branches are treated as Limited Branches. Additionally, Reporting Model 1FFIs requesting renewal of a QI, WP or WT Agreement are entering into such renewed Model QI, WP, or WT Agreements, as applicable.
RDCFFI Status for FFI (other than a Reporting Model 1 FFI)
An FFI that is registering as an RDCFFI, other than a Reporting Model 1 FFI, is agreeing that it meets the requirements to be treated as an RDCFFI under relevant Treasury Regulations or is agreeing that it meets the requirements to be treated as a RDCFFI pursuant to an applicable Model 2 IGA.
Sponsoring Entity Status
An entity that is registering as a Sponsoring Entity is agreeing that it will perform the due diligence, reporting and withholding responsibilities of one or more Sponsored FFIs or Sponsored Direct Reporting NFFEs.
Limited FFI or Limited Branch Status
An FFI that is registering as a Limited FFI is confirming that it will comply with the terms applicable to a Limited FFI. A branch of a PFFI that is registering as a Limited Branch is confirming that it will comply with the terms applicable to a Limited Branch. GIINs will not be issued to a Limited FFI or Limited Branch.
Renewing QI/WP/WT
An FFI, including a foreign branch of a USFI, requesting renewal of a QI Agreement is agreeing to comply with the relevant terms of the renewed Model QI Agreement with respect to its branches that are identified as operating as a QI. The obligations under the renewed Model QI Agreement are in addition to any obligations imposed on the FFI to be treated as a PFFI, Reporting Model 2 FFI, RDCFFI, or Reporting Model 1 FFI.
An FFI that is applying to renew its WP or WT Agreement is agreeing to comply with the relevant terms of the renewed Model WP or WT Agreement. The obligations under the renewed Model WP or WT Agreement are in addition to any obligations imposed on the FFI to be treated as PFFI, Reporting Model 2 FFI, RDCFFI, or Reporting Model 1 FFI. Additionally, a QI, WP, or WT is also certifying that it has in place and has implemented written policies, procedures, and processes for documenting, withholding, reporting and depositing tax with respect to its chapters 3 and 61 withholding responsibilities under its QI, WP, or WT Agreement.
USFI treated as a Lead FI
A USFI that is part of an EAG and registering its Members FIs is agreeing to manage the online FATCA account for each such Member FI.
Direct Reporting NFFE
A direct reporting NFFE is agreeing to comply with the terms and obligations described under Treas. Reg. § 1.1472-1(c)(3).
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Q3 . How do Trustees of Trustee-Documented Trusts register?
Trustees needing to register Trustee-Documented Trusts (a certified deemed-compliant status for FFIs under the Model 1 and Model 2 IGAs) should use the same procedures Sponsors use to register Sponsored Entities. The trustee should select “Sponsoring Entity” as its FI Type, and select “None of the above” in Part 1, Question 4. More information on how to register a Sponsoring Entity can be found in the FATCA Registration Online User Guide.
Please note that if a trustee is required to register itself based on its own applicable status as an FFI, it will do so on a separate registration, and thus will have two separate GIINs, one for such use and another for use in its capacity as a trustee of a Trustee-Documented Trust.
The Trustee-Documented Trust itself will not be registered and does not need to obtain a GIIN.
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Q4 . Does an FFI registering to become a PFFI (including a reporting Model 2 FFI) need to complete a paper version of the FFI Agreement?
No. An FFI does not execute a paper version of the FFI Agreement. When a PFFI in a non-IGA jurisdiction completes its FATCA registration, the PFFI is agreeing to comply with the terms of the FFI Agreement set forth (as revised) in Rev. Proc. 2014-38 . When a Reporting Model 2 FFI completes its FATCA registration, it is agreeing to comply with the terms of the FFI Agreement, as modified by the applicable Model 2 IGA. A PFFI in a non-IGA jurisdiction or a reporting Model 2 FFI may also register on the FATCA registration website on behalf of one or more of its branches located in a non-IGA or Model 2 jurisdiction to obtain a GIIN and to agree to comply with the terms of the FFI agreement, as applicable.
In general, the FFI agreement does not apply to a reporting Model 1 FFI, or any branch of such an FFI, unless the reporting Model 1 FFI has registered a branch located outside of a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction seeking to be treated as a PFFI or reporting Model 2 FFI.
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Q5 . What action should a FATCA registrant take if it improperly completes multiple FATCA registrations?
In general, an entity (or branch) with a FATCA registration obligation should not be registered more than once. There are certain exceptions to this rule. For example, an FFI that will also act as a Sponsoring Entity for one or more Sponsored Entities for chapter 4 purposes is required to submit one FATCA registration to obtain status as a PFFI and a second FATCA registration to act as a Sponsoring Entity. If an entity has improperly registered itself more than once, then the entity should either delete or cancel its duplicate FATCA registration(s), as appropriate. The proper course of action will depend on whether the duplicate FATCA registration(s) have been processed. If the status of a duplicate FATCA registration is “Approved” or “Limited Conditional,” then the duplicate registration should be cancelled. See Section 5.3.6 of the FATCA Registration Online User Guide for instructions for cancelling a registration. If the status of a duplicate FATCA registration is neither “Approved” nor “Limited Conditional,” then the duplicate FATCA registration should be deleted. See Section 5.3.5 of the FATCA Registration Online User Guide for instructions for deleting a FATCA registration.
The regulations treat all units, businesses, offices and disregarded entities of a PFFI located in a single country as a single branch of the FFI. Therefore, an FI generally should not register more than one branch in the same jurisdiction. (However, see the Branch/Disregarded Entity FAQs for a special rule for registering disregarded entities in Model 1 IGA jurisdictions.) Thus, duplicate branch registrations in a single jurisdiction with respect to an FFI must be deleted. See Section 5.7 of the FATCA Registration Online User Guide for instructions for deleting a branch registration.
If a registrant has been issued multiple GIINs because it has improperly completed multiple FATCA registrations, then the registrant must choose one GIIN and use it consistently for all chapter 4 purposes. The registrations or FFI Agreements connected with the improper multiple GIINs should be deleted or cancelled as provided above.
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Q6 . The entity I represent is on the Office of Foreign Asset Control's Specially Designated Nationals list. Is the entity eligible to register and receive a GIIN?
No. For more information, please contact the Office of Foreign Asset Control at 1-800-540-6322, or refer to the OFAC website .
Added: 07-31-2015
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Q7 . What is the Office of Foreign Asset Control's Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list?
As part of its enforcement efforts, OFAC publishes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries. It also lists individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers designated under programs that are not country-specific. Collectively, such individuals and companies are called "Specially Designated Nationals" or "SDNs." Their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with them.
Added: 07-31-2015
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FFI/EAG Changes
Q1 . We are the common parent of an EAG. If we sell our interest in a wholly-owned FFI that is registered as a Member FI, what impact will the sale have on the Member FI’s FATCA registration?
If the Member FI is no longer part of the EAG, it may change its type from Member to Single or Transfer to a new EAG if it is becoming a Member of a new EAG. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide to change FI Type. If the member is Transferring to a new EAG see the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for instructions on how to complete a Transfer.
Please note that the cancellation or deletion of the former Member FI’s registration will cancel its original GIIN. That GIIN will no longer appear on the FFI list.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q2 . Can a FATCA registrant change its FI Type—which is selected at the beginning of the FATCA registration process—without re-registering?
Yes, an FI can edit their type without cancelling their current registration agreement by selecting the “Change FI Type” link on the home page and updating the registration form.
The following FI Type changes are allowed within the FATCA Registration system:
Member to single
Single to member (transfer to an expanded affiliated group)
Lead to member (transfer to an expanded affiliated group).
See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for additional information.
Updated: 02-02-2016
Q3 . If a registrant has changed its name but not its FI Type, does it need to re-register?
No. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for general instructions for editing registration information.
Please note that you may need to provide updated information to your withholding agents.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q4 . How can an FFI that is registered as a Single FI change its FATCA registration to become a Lead FI?
An FI can edit their type without cancelling their current registration agreement by selecting the “Change FI Type” link on the home page and updating the registration from Single to Lead. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for additional information.
Once the FI has completed its update to “Lead” it may then begin to add Member FI’s. See FATCA Online Registration User Guide for additional information on how to add members.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q5 . How can an FFI that is registered as a Lead FI of an EAG change its FATCA registration to become a Single FI?
The FI must register again—this time as a Single FI—to obtain a new FATCA ID and a new GIIN.
In addition to re-registering, the FFI must cancel or delete its original registration. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for instructions for deleting or cancelling a FATCA registration. Before a Lead FI can cancel its registration, it must first ensure that all of its Member FIs have cancelled their FATCA registrations, and those Member FIs register to continue their applicable FATCA statuses.
Please note that cancelling or deleting the FFI’s original registration will cancel its original GIIN. That GIIN will no longer appear on the FFI list.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q6 . What steps does a registrant need to complete if it has dissolved?
If a registrant dissolves before its FATCA registration is approved, then it should delete its registration. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for instructions for deleting a FATCA registration.
If a registrant dissolves after its FATCA registration is approved, then it should cancel its registration. See the FATCA Online Registration User Guide for instructions for cancelling a registration.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Branch/Disregarded Entity
Q1 . How does a disregarded entity (DE) in a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction satisfy its FATCA registration requirements?
A DE in a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction must register as an entity separate from its owner in order to be treated as a reporting Model 1 FFI, provided that the DE is treated as a separate entity for purposes of its reporting to the applicable Model 1 jurisdiction. Select either a “Single” FFI or “Member” FFI in Part 1, Question 1 of the FATCA Registration (as appropriate). Select “Registered Deemed-Compliant Financial Institution (including a Reporting Financial Institution under a Model 1 IGA)” in Part 1, Question 4. When the owner of the DE registers on its own behalf, it should not report the DE as a branch.
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Q2 . How does a branch in a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction satisfy its FATCA registration requirements?
In general, a branch (as defined in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-4(e)(2)(ii)) must be registered as a branch of its owner and not as a separate entity. Thus, the branch will be registered by the FI of which the branch is a part (including an appropriate lead FI or Sponsoring Entity) when the FI completes Part 1 of its own FATCA registration. The online registration user guide provides further instructions on how to register branches. In general, a branch is a unit, business, or office of an FFI that is treated as a branch under the regulatory regime of a country or is otherwise regulated under the laws of such country as separate from other offices, units, or branches of the FI.
Updated 8-25-15: Q2 has been updated to clarify that, unless a specified exception applies, a branch must register as a branch of its owner and not as a separate entity.
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Q3 . How does a branch or a disregarded entity (DE) in a jurisdiction that does not have an IGA, or that is in a Model 2 IGA jurisdiction, satisfy its FATCA registration requirements?
A branch (including a DE) that is in a Model 2 IGA jurisdiction, or a jurisdiction without an IGA, must be registered as a branch of its owner (rather than as a separate entity). As such, the branch will be registered by the FI of which the branch is a part (including an appropriate Lead FI or Sponsoring Entity) when that FI completes Part 1 of its own FATCA registration. The branch will not have a separate registration account, but will be assigned a separate GIIN, if eligible. When the FI completes its FATCA registration and registers its branches by answering Questions 7, 8, and 9, GIINs will be assigned with respect to the registered branches, where appropriate. The online registration user guide provides further instructions on how to register branches. A separate GIIN will be issued to the FI to identify each jurisdiction where it maintains a branch that is participating or registered deemed-compliant.
All branches (and, except in Model 1 IGA jurisdictions, disregarded entities) of an FI located in a single jurisdiction are treated as one branch and, as a result, will share a single GIIN. U.S. branches and limited branches are not eligible to receive their own GIINs. A branch of an FFI located in the FFI’s home country will use the GIIN of the FFI. For example, suppose FI W (located in Country X) has one branch in Country X, two branches in Country Y and owns a DE in Country Z. Country Z is a Model 1 IGA jurisdiction. FI W will receive a Country X GIIN. FI W’s Country X branch will use W’s GIIN. The two branches in Country Y will be treated as a single branch, and so FI W will be issued a single Country Y GIIN for these two branches to share. The Country Z DE will register as an entity separate from its owner, in order to be treated as a reporting Model 1 FFI, and will receive its own GIIN.
Updated 8-25-15: Q3 has been updated to clarify that, unless a specified exception applies, a branch must register as a branch of its owner and not as a separate entity.
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Q4 . How can a withholding agent find the name and GIIN of a branch on the FFI list?
To locate a branch on the FFI list, you search using the financial institution name followed by the phrase “ – branch”. There must be a space between the financial institution name and the dash and a space between the dash and the word branch.
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q5 . How does a branch described in Q-2 or Q-3 of this heading that has registered as a separate entity rather than as a branch of its owner correct its registration?
A branch that has incorrectly registered separately from the FI that maintains such branch rather than as part of the FI’s registration is required to cancel its separate registration and the FI must revise its own registration to include such branch by the end of the 2015 calendar year. See the FACTA Online Registration User Guide for instructions on deleting a FATCA registration. For example, a branch that is in a Model 2 IGA jurisdiction, or a jurisdiction without an IGA, must be registered as a branch of its owner and therefore must correct its registration if it has registered as a separate entity. An FI revising its registration to include its branch should provide updated documentation to withholding agents and to foreign financial institutions required to document the status of an account held by the branch of the FI under chapter 4 or an applicable Model 1 or Model 2 IGA (including, as applicable, the GIIN of the FI applicable to its country of residency and the new GIIN of the branch). See the Instructions for Form W-8BEN-E, Part II.
A withholding agent that knows or has reason to know that a Form W-8BEN-E has been provided by a branch of an FI that has incorrectly registered as a separate entity may rely on such form (if otherwise valid) for payments made by the end of the 2015 calendar year. Thus, the withholding agent should not withhold on payments to the branch made before such date solely because the branch has incorrectly registered on the IRS Portal.
Updated: 02-02-2016: Q5 has been added to instruct branches registered as separate entities on how to correct their registration.
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General Compliance
Q1 . How will Certified-Deemed Compliant FFIs, Owner-documented FFIs, or Excepted FFIs certify to U.S. withholding agents that they are not subject to Chapter 4 withholding given that they are not required to register with the IRS?
Certified-Deemed Compliant FFIs, Owner-documented FFIs, and Excepted FFIs will demonstrate their Chapter 4 withholding status to U.S. withholding agents by providing a withholding certificate and documentary evidence that complies with the requirements of Treas. Reg. 1.1471-3(d).
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Q2 . We are an FFI in a non-IGA country. Will we be subject to Chapter 4 withholding if we do not register with the IRS?
Yes, to the extent that you receive withholdable payments and are not subject to an exemption from the registration requirement. Under FATCA, to avoid being withheld upon, FFIs that are not subject to an exemption from the registration requirement must register with the IRS and agree to report to the IRS certain information about their U.S. accounts, including accounts of certain foreign entities with substantial U.S. owners. An FFI that fails to satisfy its applicable registration requirements will generally be subject to 30% withholding on withholdable payments that it receives.
Categories of FFIs that are exempt from registration include:
Certified deemed-compliant FFIs (including any entities treated as certified deemed-compliant);
Exempt beneficial owners;
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Q3 . What are the consequences of terminating the FFI agreement for a Participating Foreign Financial Institution?
If the FFI agreement is terminated by either the IRS or the FFI pursuant to the termination procedures set forth in Section 12 of the FFI agreement, the FFI will be treated as a nonparticipating FFI and subject to 30% withholding on withholdable payments made after the later of (i) the date of termination of the FFI agreement, or (ii) June 30, 2014, except to the extent that the withholdable payments are exempt from withholding (e.g. under the rules related to grandfathered obligations) or the FFI qualifies for a chapter 4 status other than a nonparticipating FFI (such as a certified deemed-compliant FFI). See Revenue Procedure 2014-38, for the terms of the revised FFI agreement.
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Q4 . What happens if an FFI is not registered by May 5th, 2014?
As set forth in Announcement 2014-17, released April 2, 2014, to ensure inclusion on the first IRS FFI List (which is expected to first be electronically available on June 2, 2014) prior to the date FATCA withholding goes into effect, an FFI must finalize its registration by May 5, 2014. The regulations generally provide that, in order for withholding not to apply, a withholding agent must obtain an FFI’s GIIN for payments made after June 30, 2014, though it need not confirm that the GIIN appears on the IRS FFI List until 90 days after the FFI provides a withholding certificate or written statement claiming status as a participating FFI or registered deemed-compliant FFI. A special rule, however, provides that a withholding agent does not need to obtain a reporting Model 1 FFI’s GIIN for payments made before January 1, 2015. See Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(d)(4)(iv)(A). As a result, while a reporting Model 1 FFI is currently able to register and obtain a GIIN, it will have additional time beyond July 1, 2014, to register and obtain a GIIN in order to ensure that it is included on the IRS FFI list before January 1, 2015. See Announcement 2014-17 for revised FATCA registration deadlines to ensure inclusion on the first FFI List (which is expected to be electronically available on June 2, 2014).
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Q5 . Are Forms W-8 still required to be renewed by the appropriate beneficial owners?
Generally, a Form W-8BEN will remain in effect for purposes of establishing foreign status for a period starting on the date the form is signed and ending on the last day of the third succeeding calendar year, unless a change in circumstances makes any information on the form incorrect. For example, a Form W-8BEN signed on September 30, 2015, remains valid through December 31, 2018.
However, under certain conditions a Form W-8BEN will remain in effect indefinitely until a change of circumstances occurs. To determine the period of validity for Form W-8BEN for purposes of chapter 4, see Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(c)(6)(ii). To determine the period of validity for Form W-8BEN for purposes of chapter 3, see Teas. Reg. § 1.1441-1(e)(4)(ii).
Withholding certificates and documentary evidence obtained for chapter 3 or chapter 61 purposes that would otherwise expire on December 31, 2013, will not expire before January 1, 2015, unless a change in circumstances occurs that would otherwise render the withholding certificate or documentary evidence incorrect or unreliable.
Please note that various Forms in the W-8 series were revised in 2014 to incorporate the certifications required for FATCA purposes and can now be found at the following link: Form & Pubs. See Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(c) for rules regarding reliance on a pre-FATCA Form W-8.
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Q6 . What should a withholding agent do if an entity account holder indicates that box 9a of Form W–8BEN–E is too small to accommodate the entity’s GIIN?
Box 9a generally accommodates 19 characters, and instructing the entity to use of a smaller font should solve any potential difficulty entering 19 characters. In addition, please note that a substitute form may be used in place of Form W–8BEN–E if the substitute form is substantially similar to Form W–8BEN–E. See Treas. Reg. § 1.1441-1(e)(4)(vi). Additionally, as provided in the Instructions for the Requester of Forms W–8BEN, W–8BEN–E, W–8ECI, W–8EXP, and W–8IMY, a withholding agent “may accept a GIIN that is indicated and clearly identified on the form rather than provided as required in box 9a or another box permitted in the Instructions for Form W–8BEN–E if the GIIN is clearly identified as being furnished with respect to the box.” A hand-written GIIN located just outside of box 9a with a corresponding arrow pointing to box 9a is one example of a properly-provided GIIN for purposes of box 9a.
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Q7 . Notice 2014-33, 2014-21 I.R.B. 1033, provides that a withholding agent or FFI may treat an obligation as a preexisting obligation if the obligation (i) is issued, opened, or executed on or after July 1, 2014, and before January 1, 2015, and (ii) is held by an entity. How does this provision of Notice 2014-33 apply when the recipient of a payment made under the obligation is a flow-through entity or intermediary?
A withholding agent may treat an obligation held by an entity (including an entity acting as an intermediary with respect to the obligation or a flow-through entity) as a preexisting obligation to the extent permitted in Notice 2014-33. Therefore, an obligation held by an intermediary or flow-through entity is treated as a preexisting obligation if it is issued, opened, or executed before January 1, 2015. In such a case, the withholding agent may rely on a pre-FATCA Form W-8 to document the holder of the obligation throughout 2014. If the flow-through entity or intermediary provides the withholding agent with a withholding statement allocating a portion of a payment to a chapter 4 withholding pool of recalcitrant account holders or NPFFIs (or payee-specific information for such persons), then the withholding agent is required to apply chapter 4 withholding to the portion of the payment allocated to each such pool of payees (or each such payee), even though it is not yet required to document the chapter 4 status of the flow-through entity or intermediary. However, a withholding agent must determine the chapter 4 status of a flow-through entity or intermediary as a PFFI or RDCFFI when provided with a withholding statement allocating a portion of a payment to a chapter 4 withholding rate pool of U.S. payees that the withholding agent reports on Form 1042-S as made to the pool rather than requiring payee-specific documentation for each payee in the pool or withholding and reporting in accordance with the applicable presumption rules.
If the withholding agent receives documentation from a flow-through entity with respect to an interest holder in the entity or from an intermediary with respect to its account holder and confirms (in writing) that the intermediary or flow-through entity treats the obligation as a preexisting obligation (including under Notice 2014-33, if applicable), the withholding agent may treat the obligation as a preexisting obligation provided that the withholding agent does not have documentation showing the interest holder or account holder to be an NPFFI. The preceding sentence would apply, for example, to documentation provided with respect to a passive NFFE that is an account holder in an intermediary and that does not provide the information or certification described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(d)(12)(iii) with respect to its owners.
Q8 . Annex I of the IGA provides that, for certain purposes, a self-certification may be made on an IRS Form W-8 or other “similar agreed form.” What would be considered a similar agreed form?
Substitute Withholding Certificate: In General
A similar agreed form may include, for example, a substitute Form W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, W-8ECI, W-8EXP, or W-8IMY if its content is substantially similar to the IRS’s official Form W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, W-8ECI, W-8EXP, or W-8IMY (see the instructions to the requestor of Forms W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, W-8ECI, W-8EXP, and W-8IMY), and the partner jurisdiction does not decline such treatment. You may develop and use a substitute form that is in a foreign language, provided that you make an English translation of the form and its contents available to the IRS upon request. You may combine Forms W-8BEN, W-8BEN-E, W-8ECI, W-8EXP, and W-8IMY into a single substitute form.
You may choose to provide a substitute form that does not include all of the chapter 4 statuses provided on the Form W-8, but the substitute form must include any chapter 4 status for which withholding may apply, such as the categories for a nonparticipating FFI or passive NFFE. See Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(c)(6)(v)(A). You may also provide with the form an alternative certification that reflects the requirements under an applicable IGA instead of the certification of chapter 4 status otherwise required by the form. See the Instructions for the Requester of Forms W–8BEN, W–8BEN–E, W–8ECI, W–8EXP, and W–8IMY and the Instructions for Form W-8BEN-E for the requirements to use alternative certifications with respect to Form W-8BEN-E, which also apply to a substitute version of the form.
You are also required to furnish instructions for the substitute form to the extent and manner provided in the official instructions for the official form.
You may incorporate a substitute Form W-8 into other business forms you customarily use, such as account signature cards, provided the required certifications are clearly set forth. However, you may not:
Use a substitute form that requires the payee, by signing, to agree to provisions unrelated to the required certifications, or
Imply that a person may be subject to 30% withholding or backup withholding unless that person agrees to provisions on the substitute form that are unrelated to the required certifications.
A substitute Form W-8 is generally valid only if it contains the same penalties of perjury statement and certifications as the official forms and the required signature. However, if the substitute form is contained in some other business form, the words “information on this form” may be modified to refer to that portion of the business form containing the substitute form information, including any alternative certification under an applicable IGA provided with the substitute form. The design of the substitute form must be such that the information and certifications that are being attested to by the penalties of perjury statement clearly stand out from any other information contained on the business form.
Substitute Withholding Certificate: Non-IRS Form for Individuals
A similar agreed form may also include a non-IRS form used in place of a Form W-8BEN (for individuals). The substitute form must include the information required in Treas. Reg. § 1471-3(c)(6)(v), and the form must be signed, dated, and also certified under penalties of perjury unless the form is accompanied by documentary evidence that supports the individual’s claim of foreign status. For a case in which a withholding certificate is required to be associated with a payment subject to chapter 3 withholding or reportable amount under Treas. Reg. § 1.1441-1(e)(3)(vi), however, see the requirements for a beneficial owner withholding certificate under Treas. Reg. § 1.1441-1(e)(2).
Documenting an Entity’s Chapter 4 Status with a Written Statement
You may use a written statement described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(c)(4) to document an entity account holder or payee. Such a written statement is valid only to the extent that it is permitted to be used based on the requirements of Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(d). Also see Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(d) for when a written statement must be supported by documentary evidence of the payee’s foreign status. The written statement may incorporate, rather than a chapter 4 status described in Treas. Reg. § 1.1471-3(d), a certification of status as determined under the requirements of an applicable IGA.
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Q9 . What is an acceptable self-certification for purposes of the Annex I due diligence procedures for preexisting and new accounts? Does the self-certification form have to be agreed with the United States?
In addition to a self-certification described in General Compliance Q8, a self-certification would be an acceptable self-certification for purposes of the Annex I due diligence procedures for preexisting and new accounts and would not need to be agreed between an IGA jurisdiction and the United States if it (i) is signed (or otherwise positively affirmed), (ii) is dated (at the latest at the date of receipt), and (iii) solicits, at a minimum, the following information:
(i) name;
(ii) residence address for tax purposes;
(iii) jurisdiction(s) of residence for tax purposes (note that a U.S. citizen is considered a U.S. tax resident even if the person is also a tax resident of another jurisdiction);
(iv) taxpayer identification number (If taxpayer has both a U.S. TIN and a foreign TIN, the U.S. TIN must be provided, and the foreign TIN may be provided);
(v) in the case of an entity, the entity’s status (an entity’s FATCA status would include its status as a Nonparticipating FFI, Participating FFI, Reporting Model 1 FFI, Reporting Model 2 FFI, Nonreporting IGA FFI, Active NFFE, Passive NFFE, etc.); and
(vi) in the case of a Passive NFFE, the name, residence address for tax purposes, and taxpayer identification number with respect to any Controlling Person that is a Specified U.S. Person.
For purposes of enforcement and administration with respect to the implementation of FATCA by withholding agents, FFIs, and other entities with chapter 4 responsibilities, the IRS will take into account the transition period for calendar years 2014 and 2015. See Notice 2014-33 for additional information.
An IGA jurisdiction planning to implement the OECD Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters (the Common Reporting Standard) may want the self-certification form to also require date of birth. With this additional information, the self-certification form would be consistent with the Common Reporting Standard and the multilateral understanding of a valid self-certification.
This FAQ does not address what would be an acceptable beneficial owner withholding certificate for purposes of chapter 3. For an acceptable beneficial owner withholding certificate for purposes of chapter 3 reporting and withholding responsibilities, see §1.1441-1(e)(2)(ii).
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Q10 . If a Reporting Model 1 FFI or a Reporting Model 2 FFI that is applying the due diligence procedures in section III, paragraph B, of Annex I of the IGA cannot obtain a self-certification upon the opening of a New Individual Account, can the FFI open the account and treat it as a U.S. Reportable Account?
No. Pursuant to section III, paragraph B, of Annex I of the IGA, the FFI must obtain a self-certification at account opening. If the FFI cannot obtain a self-certification at account opening, it cannot open the account.
Added: 02-02-2015
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Q11 . Has a Form W-8 that has been completed and signed by a payee, scanned into an image or portable document format (PDF), and uploaded to a third-party repository been scanned and received electronically by a withholding agent for purposes of sections 1.1441-1(e)(4)(iv)(C) and 1.1471-3(c)(6)(iv) if the payee, upon request from the withholding agent for a Form W-8 to document its status for purposes of chapters 3 and 4, sends the withholding agent an email with a link to the third-party repository site that allows the withholding agent to download the image or PDF of the form that is stored on the repository for such purpose (or the payee otherwise authorizes the withholding agent to access the specific form from the third-party repository in a similar manner).
Yes. The Form W-8 will be considered to have been scanned and received electronically by the withholding agent, provided that the withholding agent does not know that the email containing the link to the third-party repository has been transmitted by someone other than the payee or an agent of the payee. Also, because the withholding agent has obtained the form at the payee’s direction, the form will be treated as having been furnished by/provided by the payee (see sections 1.1441-1(e)(1)(ii)(A)(1) and 1.1471-3(c)(1)). A withholding agent is still required to determine whether the form is valid and may be relied upon for purposes of chapter 3 or 4 and whether a change in circumstances affects its continuing reliance on the form.
Added: 08-14-2015
Ogden - Internal Revenue Submission Processing Center
1973 Rulon White Blvd., Ogden, UT 84201
Added: 12-07-2015
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Q13 . I am an American citizen living abroad and my foreign bank is requesting my social security number, do I have to comply and if so, why?
Due to the implementation of FATCA, foreign banks are required to document all U.S. persons and report certain financial information to the Internal Revenue Service. A U.S citizen choosing not to provide their Tax Identification Number ("TIN") (often a Social Security number) may result in the foreign bank closing their accounts or applying withholding on any payments made to the U.S. Person.
Added: 12-07-2015
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Q14 . How do I submit a request for an initial or additional extension of time to file Forms 8966 for tax year 2015?
Use Form 8809-I to request an initial or additional extension of time to file Form 8966 for the current tax year. File Form 8809-I as soon as you know an extension of time to file is necessary, but not before January 1 of the filing year. Form 8809-I must be filed by the Form 8966 due date (generally, March 31 of the year following the reporting year of the return). If you are requesting an additional hardship extension, Form 8809-I must be filed by the first extended due date of Form 8966.
Note: Under the terms of their applicable IGAs, reporting Model 2 Foreign Financial Institutions (FFI) aren't entitled to an extension of time for aggregate reporting on non-consenting U.S. accounts or non-consenting non-participating FFIs. Entities that are located in a Model 1 jurisdiction and reporting on behalf of themselves (or any entities that are reporting on behalf of another entity that is located in a Model 1 Jurisdiction) may not request an additional extension of time to file Form 8966 from the IRS because they must report directly to the Model 1 jurisdiction's tax authority.
The automatic extension of time to file Form 8966 is 90 days from the original due date. The IRS may grant an additional 90-day extension of time to file Form 8966 under the hardship exception. Requests for an additional extension of time to file Form 8966 aren't automatically granted. Generally, requests for additional time are granted only where it is shown that extenuating circumstances will prevent filing by the date granted by the first request.
Filers may be subject to a late filing penalty if Form 8966 is filed late and you haven't applied for and received an approved extension of time to file.
Where To File
Mail a paper Form 8809-I to:
Internal Revenue Service
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Q15 . How do I submit a request to waive the requirement to file Forms 8966 electronically for tax year 2015?
Filers who are requesting a waiver from filing Form 8966 electronically should file Form 8508-I. You should file Form 8508-I at least 45 days before the due date of the Form 8966. Form 8966 is due March 31 of the year following the reporting year, unless you are an FFI reporting under a Model 2 IGA with a different reporting date specified in the applicable Model 2 IGA. Waiver requests will be processed beginning January 1st of the calendar year the return is due.
Note: See Treasury regulations section 301.1474-1(a) for additional information.
If you are required to file electronically but fail to do so and you do not have an approved waiver on record, penalties under Code sections 6721 through 6724 may apply.
Where To File
Mail a paper Form 8508-I to:
Internal Revenue Service
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Q16 . What title should the RO include when indicating their business title in the RO information section of the registration?
The RO should indicate their corporate business title such as President, Vice-President, Treasurer etc., and not the name of the business.
Added: 12-07-2015
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Q17 . How many Global Intermediary Identification Numbers (GIINs) should a single FI have?
A Single FI that is not a sponsoring entity should only have one GIIN. Duplicate or Multiple Registrations attempting to correct errors should be cancelled by the appropriate RO.
Added: 12-07-2015
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Q18 . What are the registration and GIIN requirements for bulk acquisition and merger events?
In general, the Registration User Guide contains guidance on registration. Specific guidance on some common bulk acquisition and merger scenarios are provided below:
B acquires A, A’s operations are subsumed into B, and B retains name.
Under this fact pattern, Entity B would not need to change its existing registration or acquire a new GIIN. If Entity A had previously registered for FATCA, it would need to terminate its registration.
B acquires A, A’s operations are subsumed into B, and B alters/changes its name
Under this fact pattern, Entity B would need to update its registration for the name change, but would not need a new GIIN. If Entity A had previously registered for FATCA, it would need to terminate its registration.
B acquires A, and A wishes to become a member entity
There are different ways for Entity A to become a member of Entity B. For example, Entity A can terminate its existing registration, and Entity B can update its registration to include Entity A as its member. Upon this registration, Entity A would be issued a new GIIN. Alternatively, if Entity B is a Lead FI, Entity A may initiate a transfer and become a member of Entity B. Upon the transfer, Entity A would be issued a new GIIN. Under this scenario, Entity A would not need to terminate its registration. For more information on the transfer function please see the user guide.
Added: 05-03-2016
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Q19 . What do I need to do if I haven’t received a response to my submission of Form 8809-I when I requested an additional 90 Day Extension to file Form 8966?
You should wait 45 days from the date you mailed your Form 8809-I to contact the IRS about your additional extension to file Form 8966. If it has been over 45 days please call the IRS at 1-267-941-1000 (not a toll-free number) for information about your request.
Added: 07-01-2016
Reporting
Q1 . Are filers of Form 8966 required to file a nil report?
A direct reporting NFFE (and a sponsoring entity of a direct reporting NFFE) is required to file a Form 8966 to declare that it has no substantial U.S. owners for the calendar year.
For additional information, please read FAQ C20 on the IDES FAQ page .
Updated: 02-02-2016
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Q2 . When is Form 8966 due for reporting with respect to calendar year 2014 for participating FFIs and Reporting Model 2 FFIs?
Under an FFI Agreement, the Form 8966 is due on or before March 31 of the year following the end of the calendar year to which the form relates. Under the Instructions for Form 8966, for reporting with respect to calendar year 2014 only, an automatic 90-day extension of time to file Form 8966 is provided to filers of Form 8966 (paper and electronic). This automatic extension of time is provided without the need to file any form or take any action. The Instructions for Form 8966 state that the automatic 90-day extension of time is not available for Reporting Model 2 FFIs reporting on a Non-Consenting U.S. Account. Accordingly, a filer (other than Reporting Model 2 FFIs reporting on a Non-Consenting U.S. Account) with a filing deadline of March 31, 2015, has until June 29, 2015, to submit Forms 8966.
Reporting Model 2 FFIs reporting on a Non-Consenting U.S. Account should refer to the applicable Model 2 IGA for the due dates for those filings. The IRS recognizes that FFIs will be using the IDES system for the first time and FFIs are currently testing and adapting to the new system. Therefore, with respect to calendar year 2014, Reporting Model 2 FFIs filing Form 8966 with respect to Non-Consenting U.S. Accounts will not be treated as being in significant non-compliance under their applicable Model 2 IGAs as long as such FFIs are making good faith efforts to comply with their reporting obligations and reporting is completed within 90 days after the applicable filing deadline (taking into account any other extensions already provided).
Up-to-date answers to frequently asked questions as well as links to useful information relating to using IDES is available on the IRS website at FATCA IDES Technical FAQs . Additional information can be found on the IDES support page , and sample data preparation files can be found on GitHub .
Added: 03-24-2015
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Request for Additional Extension of Time to File Form 8966 for Tax Year 2014
Q1 . How do I submit a request for additional extension of time to file Forms 8966 for tax year 2014?
Follow the instructions to use the template entitled Request for Additional Extension of Time to File Form 8966 for Tax Year 2014 . The deadline for submitting your request is June 29, 2015. Note: You must submit a separate request for each filer (for example, if you are requesting an additional extension of time to file Form 8966 both on behalf of yourself and with respect to reporting on behalf of a sponsored entity, you must submit two requests). Further, for tax year 2014 only, an additional 90-day extension of time will be automatically approved for eligible filers who submit a request. You will not receive a response from the IRS.
Added: 06-9-2015
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Request for Waiver from Filing Form 8966 Electronically for Tax Year 2014
Q1 . How do I submit a request to waive the requirement to file Forms 8966 electronically for tax year 2014?
Follow the instructions to use the template entitled Request for Waiver From Filing Form 8966 Electronically for Tax Year 2014 . The deadline for submitting your request is August 13, 2015. However, if you need an additional extension of time to file, you must submit a separate request for the extension by June 29, 2015. Note: You must submit a separate request for each filer (for example, if you are requesting a waiver from electronic filing of Form 8966 both on behalf of yourself and with respect to reporting on behalf of a sponsored entity, you submit two requests). Further, if you do not receive a response from the IRS within 45 days of the date you mail your request, you may treat the request as granted.
Added: 06-9-2015
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The FATCA Registration System support team cannot respond to questions regarding FATCA regulations, your FATCA Registration account, or FATCA Related Forms.
For guidance on FATCA regulations and requirements, refer to FATCA Regulations .
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The theme music to which 1960s TV series was based on the folk song Johnny Todd? | Edinburgh-born composer of Z-Cars theme dies - Edinburgh Evening News
Edinburgh-born composer of Z-Cars theme dies
John Keating. Pic: comp
Have your say
THE man behind two of the most iconic TV themes of all times, Z-Cars and The Onedin Line, has died at the age of 87.
Born in Bakehouse Close, off the Royal Mile, the son of Jock Keating, a local bookmaker, John “Johnny” Keating would go on to be one of the Capital’s best respected musicians, songwriters and arrangers.
In a career that took him to Hollywood and back, Keating also wrote and produced hits for 60s pop stars such as Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Anthony Newley, Sammy Davis Jr and heart-throb Eden Kane.
His film scores included the 1967 movies Hotel and Robbery and Innocent Bystanders in 1972. Most recently, his song Bunny Hop was featured in the 1994 Tim Burton movie, Ed Wood.
Hibs fans were also paying tribute to Keating, seen by many as part of the history of the club. A life-long fan, in 1973 he was asked by then Hibs chairman Tom Hart to produce two songs sung by the Hibs team, Turnbull’s Tornados and Hibernian (Give us a Goal) – still sung by fans today. His son Martin said his father had never lost his passion for the Edinburgh club – and had insisted on being buried with his Hibs tie.
Martin said: “He was such an inspiration because to go from the poor area where he grew up and make it all the way to Hollywood was incredible. It was one thing that always made me sad, that he never really got the recognition he deserved.”
Evening News veteran John Gibson said: “Johnny was an absolutely brilliant musician. He went to Hollywood, was a big hit over there and scored a number of movies. He was huge but he never forgot his Old Town roots.”
Keating, with a natural ability for arrangement and composition, joined the Ted Heath Swing Band in 1952 as a trombone player. Within two years, however, it was his skills as an arranger that were in greater demand. But it is for his theme from the TV series crime show Z-Cars, based on the traditional folk song Johnny Todd, that he will be best remembered – it reached No 5 in the charts and was adopted by Everton as their theme song 35 years ago, and remains so to this day.
Keating also founded the Johnny Keating School of Music in the city, while his album Space Experience, recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra, spent 14 weeks in the charts.
Mr Keating, who passed away on Thursday, is survived by his sons Martin and Kevin and his daughter Jill.
[email protected]
| Z-Cars |
Which brand of spirit uses a black bat in its logo? | Edinburgh-born composer of Z-Cars theme dies - Edinburgh Evening News
Edinburgh-born composer of Z-Cars theme dies
John Keating. Pic: comp
Have your say
THE man behind two of the most iconic TV themes of all times, Z-Cars and The Onedin Line, has died at the age of 87.
Born in Bakehouse Close, off the Royal Mile, the son of Jock Keating, a local bookmaker, John “Johnny” Keating would go on to be one of the Capital’s best respected musicians, songwriters and arrangers.
In a career that took him to Hollywood and back, Keating also wrote and produced hits for 60s pop stars such as Adam Faith, Petula Clark, Anthony Newley, Sammy Davis Jr and heart-throb Eden Kane.
His film scores included the 1967 movies Hotel and Robbery and Innocent Bystanders in 1972. Most recently, his song Bunny Hop was featured in the 1994 Tim Burton movie, Ed Wood.
Hibs fans were also paying tribute to Keating, seen by many as part of the history of the club. A life-long fan, in 1973 he was asked by then Hibs chairman Tom Hart to produce two songs sung by the Hibs team, Turnbull’s Tornados and Hibernian (Give us a Goal) – still sung by fans today. His son Martin said his father had never lost his passion for the Edinburgh club – and had insisted on being buried with his Hibs tie.
Martin said: “He was such an inspiration because to go from the poor area where he grew up and make it all the way to Hollywood was incredible. It was one thing that always made me sad, that he never really got the recognition he deserved.”
Evening News veteran John Gibson said: “Johnny was an absolutely brilliant musician. He went to Hollywood, was a big hit over there and scored a number of movies. He was huge but he never forgot his Old Town roots.”
Keating, with a natural ability for arrangement and composition, joined the Ted Heath Swing Band in 1952 as a trombone player. Within two years, however, it was his skills as an arranger that were in greater demand. But it is for his theme from the TV series crime show Z-Cars, based on the traditional folk song Johnny Todd, that he will be best remembered – it reached No 5 in the charts and was adopted by Everton as their theme song 35 years ago, and remains so to this day.
Keating also founded the Johnny Keating School of Music in the city, while his album Space Experience, recorded with The London Symphony Orchestra, spent 14 weeks in the charts.
Mr Keating, who passed away on Thursday, is survived by his sons Martin and Kevin and his daughter Jill.
[email protected]
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Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ was the 1973 debut album of which artist? | Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ by Bruce Springsteen : Napster
Jan 1973
Label: Columbia
Springsteen's debut firmly established him as a potent songwriter and a talent to watch. As songs such as "Growin' Up and "Spirit In the Night" demonstrate, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ bubbles with all the hunger and enthusiasm befitting a young, newly signed artist. Greater things would follow, but Greetings
certainly set some high standards.
Linda Ryan
Twitter
About This Album
Springsteen's debut firmly established him as a potent songwriter and a talent to watch. As songs such as "Growin' Up and "Spirit In the Night" demonstrate, Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ bubbles with all the hunger and enthusiasm befitting a young, newly signed artist. Greater things would follow, but Greetings
certainly set some high standards.
Linda Ryan
| Bruce Springsteen |
Which nerve is the longest and widest in the human body? | antiMusic.com: Bruce Springsteen Month: Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ Review
.
Bruce Springsteen - Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ (1973) Album Reflection
Kicking off with a lyrical tongue twisting barrage of lyrics that one would assume were derided from dropping acid (but weren't), Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ is an absorbing and nostalgic album that introduced the world to Bruce Springsteen. Now from the perspective of history, if Springsteen had given up on music after its release, one wonders if anyone would have given this album a second listen? My thoughts are no, but that doesn't make the album any less endearing to me or my ears. While wonderfully wistful and romantic, I don't feel the album is essential. But that doesn't mean that it is not without great songs. Further proof of this is the number of people who have covered these songs over the years. Both Manfred Mann and David Bowie recorded three songs a piece from this record shortly after its release and the songs have continued to endear themselves through covers, repeated listens and most importantly, potent live performances.
After playing around the Jersey shore for years in bands like Earth, Child, Steel Mill, Dr. Zoom and the Sonic Boom and The Bruce Springsteen Band he approached this album unlike any of the music he had created up to this point. Those who were familiar with Springsteen were surprised by the album's sound and others viewed him as a Dylan wannabe, but the truth is that while the album is far from perfect, it is far better debut album than it should have been due to the high level of songwriting. Springsteen created these nine songs from a vast wonderland of imagination that channel Dylan, Van Morrison and the Band. "Blinded By The Light" (yes, that "Blinded" which was covered by Manfred Mann) kicks off the festivities in a spastic start. This one track has 514 words in it (not a typo) and that's just the tip of the ice burg. Throughout all of Greetings Springsteen had lyrical diarrhea in a way that would never reappear in his career ever again ("Some silicone sister with her manager's mister told me I got what it takes"). This was the only record where Springsteen wrote the lyrics first and went back and wrote the accompanying music later. The rapid fire with which he spews forth the lyrics leaves you drained merely by listening to it, let alone trying to memorize and decipher them. It's no wonder that many of these songs went unperformed for decades. I would dare anyone to try and say some of these lines five-times super fast without screwing them up and putting themselves into a hysterical fit. Songs like these are why teleprompters were created.
"Growing Up" may be his finest and most endearing track from this album of his mystical and mature journey. ("I was open to pain and crossed by the rain"). Beginning with a lullaby piano, the album's magnum opus takes the listener on a Forrest Gump passage of adolescence into adulthood. To this day, it remains the starting point of Springsteen's internal expedition and largely where I start mine as well. "Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?" finds the band revving their engines for a song that is musically more fascinating than lyrically while "It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City" has lyrical depth ("I had skin like leather and the diamond-hard look of a cobra) and a brushing beat to match it. The romantic and pleading anthem "For You" is wondrous (although I prefer the beefed up live version) and the urban "Lost in the Flood" proves to be a hint at the ambitious nature of lyrics and arrangements that Springsteen would perfect two albums later on "Jungleland". Today, these songs are welcomed in any concert performance and in most instances, the live version easily surpass these album renditions. Springsteen's live legacy has been greatly enhanced by the live versions of these songs.
Ironically, one of the biggest discussions around this debut record was whether it should be a solo or band album. Springsteen wanted a band record, but John Hammond (who signed Springsteen, plus Aretha Franklin and Bob Dylan as well) and manager Mike Appel wanted more of a solo project. Eventually an agreement is made to do half and half, covering five songs on each side. After the album was handed over to CBS, in a rare display of brilliance, Clive Davis commissions two more band songs which wound up being "Blinded By The Light" and the crowd favorite "Spirit In The Night", both of which will feature Clarence Clemmons first appearance with Springsteen. "Spirit" would be a staple in concert for Springsteen for decades. It has a lingering groove so engaging, it still evokes zealous and feverish reactions in concert today. Sadly, the four songs cut from the record, "Bus Driver", "Jazz Musician", "Arabian Nights" and "Visitation At Fort Horn" has yet to receive any kind of official release by Springsteen. However, they have been heard on some unofficial releases (notably The Early Years and Before The Fame). These recordings were fought over for decades until they were rightfully rewarded to Springsteen in a UK court ruling in late 1998. This instance is notable as it may prove to be the only time that the advice of Clive Davis truly made a better record.
The album's two glaring blemishes are solo songs; "Mary Queen of Arkansas" and "The Angel". These are two completely forgettable tracks and until the release of Human Touch were viewed as the weakest songs in Springsteen's cannon. Now, it's not so much that these two songs diminish Greetings legacy, but the overall production of the album proves to be its biggest hindrance. Even by 1970's standards, this album has a tiny and flat sound. Springsteen's management at the time, Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos produced the first two records and their lack of studio expertise shows. In the hands of more secure and confident hands, these songs may have become true classics, alas, every step in one's life is part of the larger journey and Springsteen's is no different. In concert, these songs soared to heights no one deemed possible. Springsteen and the E Street Band delivered devastating performances that left the audience mouths agape, something this record did not accomplish. Time has been relatively kind to this record and in the last fifteen-years; the album has been resurrected in the minds of many Springsteen fans, including myself. The album takes you back to a place and time that was more innocent and pure. The songs to my great surprise, despite their lacking production, remain fresh. Time has been kind to this album and it even made the cut of Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums" a few years back (something I don't completely agree with). However, the cryptic lyrics, buoyant charm and studious performances make this a damn indelible album that despite its flaws is largely irresistible.
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
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Where in the human body is the anatomical snuffbox? | Mapping the body: the anatomical snuff box | Life and style | The Guardian
Mapping the body: the anatomical snuff box
The first of a new series examining the wonders of the human body
The snuff box can be used to detect fractures. Photograph: David Levene for the Guardian
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Doctors are drawn into their profession for all sorts of reasons. Some follow in the footsteps of a relative or friend. Others excel at science at school. In my case, the decision was made one morning, out of the blue, as I looked into an open body.
While studying English literature as an undergraduate I had a friend whose father was a surgeon. When introduced to him, I badgered this man so relentlessly about his job that he asked if I would like to visit his operating theatre.
Over the course of a day, I watched him remove a cancer from a man's jaw, then repair it. I will never forget the way I felt seeing someone's face being dissected, layer by layer, then rebuilt. I made the decision then and there that I wanted to go to medical school.
It's been nearly 20 years since that day, and now I'm a surgeon myself. But I have never lost my sense of wonder at the human body. This column is about the details of the body that have fascinated me; parts as big as a leg, or as small as a cell. I don't aim to be comprehensive, but to convey something of what continues to fascinate me about the wonderful subject of human anatomy.
The hand's early-warning system
Get into position to shake someone's hand, and look at where the base of your thumb meets your wrist. Between the two tendons you will find the anatomical snuff box. In bygone times, this pretty dip was just the right size for snorting snuff from, but today it is known as a hazard-zone by any doctor who has been through training in emergency medicine.
I did mine at The Royal London Hospital and still remember how important I felt turning up to a department which had its own helicopter. Less glamorous was the lecture I received on my first day about all the ways a junior doctor in A&E could end up being sued. One of these involved the anatomical snuff box.
If a person falls on their outstretched hand, they are most likely to break the radius, one of the two main bones supporting the forearm. The most common type of fracture in these circumstances is known as a Colles fracture, where a fragment of bone is broken off the end of the radius and pushed backwards. This is usually detectable on the two routine X-rays requested for any serious wrist injury, and is often correctable under local anaesthetic in the A&E department.
What is much easier to miss, is a break in the scaphoid – one of the bones within the hand – which is also vulnerable to damage from a fall on to the palm. These fractures may be undetectable on routine images from the radiographer. Even special x-rays, showing the wrist from different angles, may appear normal for days after an injury. And scaphoid fractures often result in compromise to the bone's blood supply from the radial artery, one of the main two arteries in the forearm, until the substance of the bone is deprived of essential nutrients. If this occurs a patient can have life-long problems with arthritis of the wrist.
One should never forget to press in the anatomical snuff box of someone who has fallen on their outstretched hand. Eliciting pain from so doing raises a strong suspicion of a scaphoid fracture, which can then be treated, saving both patient and doctor a great deal of trouble further down the line.
Gabriel Weston
| Hand |
Who is the only man to have captained England at both cricket and football? | anatomical snuff-box
Interpretation Translation
anatomical snuff-box
a triangular depression on the dorsum of the wrist at its radial border formed between the tendon of the extensor pollicis longus medially and the tendons of the extensor pollicis brevis and abductor pollicis longus laterally, formed when the thumb is abducted and extended.
Medical dictionary. 2011.
brain box
Look at other dictionaries:
Anatomical snuff box — Infobox Anatomy Name = Anatomical snuff box Latin = GraySubject = GrayPage = Caption = anatomical snuff box Caption2 = The mucous sheaths of the tendons on the back of the wrist. (Anatomical snuff box not labeled, but visible at right.) MapPos =… … Wikipedia
Snuff — For other uses, see Snuff (disambiguation). Snuff is a product made from ground or pulverised tobacco leaves. It is an example of smokeless tobacco. It originated in the Americas and was in common use in Europe by the 17th century. In recent… … Wikipedia
Decorative box — 18th century German gold and mother of pearl snuffbox … Wikipedia
List of muscles of the human body — Skeletal muscles homo sapiens Muscles of the human body: Overview Head | Neck |&# … Wikipedia
Radial artery — Infobox Artery Name = PAGENAME Latin = A. Radialis GraySubject = 151 GrayPage = 592 Caption = Palm of left hand, showing position of skin creases and bones, and surface markings for the volar arches. Caption2 = Ulnar and radial arteries. Deep… … Wikipedia
Hand — For other uses, see Hand (disambiguation). Hand Palmar and Dorsal aspects of human left hand Latin manus Vein … Wikipedia
tabatiиre anatomique — ta·ba·tiиre ana·to·mique (tah bah″te ārґ ah nah to mēkґ) [Fr. “anatomical snuff boxâ€] anatomical snuff box; see under box … Medical dictionary
Thumb — For other uses, see Thumb (disambiguation). Thumb The Thumb. Latin pollex, digitus primus, digitus I Artery … Wikipedia
Arm — This article is about the upper part of the human upper limb. For other uses, see Arm (disambiguation). Arm The human arm … Wikipedia
Scaphoid bone — Bone: scaphoid bone Shown is the right hand, palm down (left) and palm up (right). Proximal: A=Scaphoid, B=Lunate, C=Triquetral, D=Pisiform Distal: E=Trapezium, F=Trapezoid, G=Capitate, H=Hamate 1 … Wikipedia
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