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The village of Cheddar is in which English county? | Cheddar village, Somerset, UK
Cheddar village, Somerset, UK
Local Community and Tourist Information
Welcome to the original Cheddar Village web site – for everything regarding things to see and do in and around Cheddar village itself, the Gorge and Caves, getting about, community projects and local events – with links to businesses, jobs, properties, and more besides. Visit the noticeboard page for news of the latest events, classes, clubs etc. Add this site to your bookmarks or favourites – make it your first port of call for local news, events and information.
About Cheddar
Cheddar is a parish in Somerset known throughout the world as the origin of Cheddar Cheese, which has been produced here since the 12th Century and to this day is still stored in the Cheddar Caves to mature.
Cheddar has a number of distinct aspects; the main village with everyday shops, banks, and historic buildings including the Market Cross (pictured here); the tea rooms and gift shops of the Lower Gorge area which also includes the Cheddar Cheese factory; the Caves and Gorge tourist attraction owned and run by Longleat (part of the estate of Lord and Lady Weymouth of TV fame); and the open countryside above and around the Gorge, which is part owned by the National Trust and is within the boundary of the Mendip Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There is also a wide expanse of flat moorland to the south of the village which is ideal cycling country. Find out more by following the links in the menu above.
CHEDDAR WALKING
Cheddar is part of the national Walkers are Welcome scheme which provides a national framework for all locations wanting to attract visiting walkers. We have a number of walks in and around the village and also organise individual walks as well as an annual festival. Many local businesses support our membership by providing walker-specific services. Find out more on the Cheddar Walking web site .
LOCAL EVENTS AND NOTICES
To share your notices here, just double click on the corkboard area and start typing, it’s as simple as that. New notices will be usually be reviewed within 48 hours and old notices deleted after their dates have passed. Do also make sure you send them to the editor of the printed Cheddar Challenger .
| Somerset |
Fashion company Benetton is based in which European country? | The County of Somerset, England
Discover Britain - Provincial Life
The County of Somerset
The County of Somerset - land of the summer people - is located in the south-west of England, and is, perhaps, the most quintessentially English of English counties. It is a rural area extending from the hills of Exmoor in the west to Bruton Forest in the east, from the Mendip hills in the north to the Blackdown Hills in the south. It is bordered by the counties of Devon, Dorset, and Wiltshire, and a long coastline looking out into the Bristol Channel and across to South Wales. It is a land of history, myth and legend. Although it is a sparcely populated region and has only one city of more than 100,000 people: Bath , it has several small, but flourishing towns: Taunton, Weston-super-mare, Yeovil, Minehead and Glastonbury. The economy is centered on agriculture and food production, with service industries such as insurance and retailing. It is a county famous for producing Cider (an alcoholic drink made from apples) and Cheddar Cheese (named after a small town in the Mendip hills). A recipe from the county can be found on our 'Discover Britain' food and drink page.
The photographs below, from left to right, top to bottom feature the following:
A typical thatched cottage. This one is located in the village of Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset.
A quiet corner of Dunster in west Somerset on the edge of the Exmoor national park.
The village of Porlock in north-west Somerset
Dunster castle is one of England's finest castles.
Minehead station, terminus of the preserved West Somerset Railway.
Tarr steps, near Simonsbath. Legend tells us that this bridge was built by the Devil for his own personal use. He returns to tear apart people crossing without his permission now and again!
A summer's day in the one of the parks of the town of Minehead.
Part of the tiny harbour in Porlock Weir, Somerset.
A country cottage in the village of Kingston St. Mary, near Taunton.
The coastal region of Exmoor national park. The romantic novel 'Lorna Donne' by R.D. Blackmore is set in these hills.
Porlock Weir. Location of one of the steepest roads in England.
The centre of the village of Dunster in west Somerset. In the foreground is the old 'yarn' market, and in the background the Norman castle.
Glastonbury Abbey. reputed burial site of King Arthur and Guinnevere.
The Somerset levels, close to Athelney. King Alfred is supposed to have hidden close to this spot from the invading Danes. Willow trees are to be seen all over Somerset.
The cathedral complex at Wells. Wells is the smallest city in England.
The town of Crewkerne in South Somerset.
Cottages in a picturesque village, near Ilminster, Somerset.
House and garden at Hestercombe, near Taunton, Somerset.
A thatched cottage in the village of Mulcheney, Somerset.
Cattle resting in the field of a smallholding in Drayton, near Langport, Somerset
'Jack the Treacle Eater' Folly, Barwick Park, Yeovil. Legend tells that someone called Jack moved here in the nineteenth century after a quarrel with his wife. He spent the rest of his life here eating nothing but Treacle, brought by his ever dutiful wife!
Traditional 'morris' dancers at the annual midsummer festival in the town of South Petherton, Somerset
The Stanton Drew stone circle in north Somerset. The stones of this prehistoric stone circle are said to be wedding guests turned to stone for dancing on a Sunday!
The Municipal Hall in Taunton, Somerset
Looking across the fields towards the small town of Wiveliscombe.
The centre of the county town of Taunton, Somerset.
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Roentgen Rays, named after Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, are better known by what name? | Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
The Nobel Prize in Physics 1901
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen
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Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen - Biographical
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep in the Lower Rhine Province of Germany, as the only child of a merchant in, and manufacturer of, cloth. His mother was Charlotte Constanze Frowein of Amsterdam, a member of an old Lennep family which had settled in Amsterdam.
When he was three years old, his family moved to Apeldoorn in The Netherlands, where he went to the Institute of Martinus Herman van Doorn, a boarding school. He did not show any special aptitude, but showed a love of nature and was fond of roaming in the open country and forests. He was especially apt at making mechanical contrivances, a characteristic which remained with him also in later life. In 1862 he entered a technical school at Utrecht, where he was however unfairly expelled, accused of having produced a caricature of one of the teachers, which was in fact done by someone else.
He then entered the University of Utrecht in 1865 to study physics. Not having attained the credentials required for a regular student, and hearing that he could enter the Polytechnic at Zurich by passing its examination, he passed this and began studies there as a student of mechanical engineering. He attended the lectures given by Clausius and also worked in the laboratory of Kundt. Both Kundt and Clausius exerted great influence on his development. In 1869 he graduated Ph.D. at the University of Zurich, was appointed assistant to Kundt and went with him to Würzburg in the same year, and three years later to Strasbourg.
In 1874 he qualified as Lecturer at Strasbourg University and in 1875 he was appointed Professor in the Academy of Agriculture at Hohenheim in Württemberg. In 1876 he returned to Strasbourg as Professor of Physics, but three years later he accepted the invitation to the Chair of Physics in the University of Giessen.
After having declined invitations to similar positions in the Universities of Jena (1886) and Utrecht (1888), he accepted it from the University of Würzburg (1888), where he succeeded Kohlrausch and found among his colleagues Helmholtz and Lorenz. In 1899 he declined an offer to the Chair of Physics in the University of Leipzig, but in 1900 he accepted it in the University of Munich, by special request of the Bavarian government, as successor of E. Lommel. Here he remained for the rest of his life, although he was offered, but declined, the Presidency of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt at Berlin and the Chair of Physics of the Berlin Academy.
Röntgen's first work was published in 1870, dealing with the specific heats of gases, followed a few years later by a paper on the thermal conductivity of crystals. Among other problems he studied were the electrical and other characteristics of quartz; the influence of pressure on the refractive indices of various fluids; the modification of the planes of polarised light by electromagnetic influences; the variations in the functions of the temperature and the compressibility of water and other fluids; the phenomena accompanying the spreading of oil drops on water.
Röntgen's name, however, is chiefly associated with his discovery of the rays that he called X-rays. In 1895 he was studying the phenomena accompanying the passage of an electric current through a gas of extremely low pressure. Previous work in this field had already been carried out by J. Plucker (1801-1868), J. W. Hittorf (1824-1914), C. F. Varley (1828-1883), E. Goldstein (1850-1931), Sir William Crookes (1832-1919), H. Hertz (1857-1894) and Ph. von Lenard (1862-1947), and by the work of these scientists the properties of cathode rays - the name given by Goldstein to the electric current established in highly rarefied gases by the very high tension electricity generated by Ruhmkorff's induction coil - had become well known. Röntgen's work on cathode rays led him, however, to the discovery of a new and different kind of rays.
On the evening of November 8, 1895, he found that, if the discharge tube is enclosed in a sealed, thick black carton to exclude all light, and if he worked in a dark room, a paper plate covered on one side with barium platinocyanide placed in the path of the rays became fluorescent even when it was as far as two metres from the discharge tube. During subsequent experiments he found that objects of different thicknesses interposed in the path of the rays showed variable transparency to them when recorded on a photographic plate. When he immobilised for some moments the hand of his wife in the path of the rays over a photographic plate, he observed after development of the plate an image of his wife's hand which showed the shadows thrown by the bones of her hand and that of a ring she was wearing, surrounded by the penumbra of the flesh, which was more permeable to the rays and therefore threw a fainter shadow. This was the first "röntgenogram" ever taken. In further experiments, Röntgen showed that the new rays are produced by the impact of cathode rays on a material object. Because their nature was then unknown, he gave them the name X-rays. Later, Max von Laue and his pupils showed that they are of the same electromagnetic nature as light, but differ from it only in the higher frequency of their vibration.
Numerous honours were showered upon him. In several cities, streets were named after him, and a complete list of Prizes, Medals, honorary doctorates, honorary and corresponding memberships of learned societies in Germany as well as abroad, and other honours would fill a whole page of this book. In spite of all this, Röntgen retained the characteristic of a strikingly modest and reticent man. Throughout his life he retained his love of nature and outdoor occupations. Many vacations were spent at his summer home at Weilheim, at the foot of the Bavarian Alps, where he entertained his friends and went on many expeditions into the mountains. He was a great mountaineer and more than once got into dangerous situations. Amiable and courteous by nature, he was always understanding the views and difficulties of others. He was always shy of having an assistant, and preferred to work alone. Much of the apparatus he used was built by himself with great ingenuity and experimental skill.
Röntgen married Anna Bertha Ludwig of Zürich, whom he had met in the café run by her father. She was a niece of the poet Otto Ludwig. They married in 1872 in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. They had no children, but in 1887 adopted Josephine Bertha Ludwig, then aged 6, daughter of Mrs. Röntgen's only brother. Four years after his wife, Röntgen died at Munich on February 10, 1923, from carcinoma of the intestine.
From Nobel Lectures , Physics 1901-1921, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1967
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel . It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures . To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
| X-ray |
What is the name of the convenience store in the tv cartoon show ‘The Simpsons’? | The Discovery of X-Rays
The Discovery of X-Rays
After reading this section you will be able to do the following:
Summarize how Roentgen discovered the X-ray.
Discuss the impact Roentgen's discovery had on the world at that time (1895), and then compare it to the impact it still has today.
First, the discovery of X-rays
In late 1895, a German physicist, W. C. Roentgen was working with a cathode ray tube in his laboratory. He was working with tubes similar to our fluorescent light bulbs. He evacuated the tube of all air, filled it with a special gas, and passed a high electric voltage through it. When he did this, the tube would produce a fluorescent glow. Roentgen shielded the tube with heavy black paper, and found that a green colored fluorescent light could be seen coming from a screen setting a few feet away from the tube. He realized that he had produced a previously unknown "invisible light," or ray, that was being emitted from the tube; a ray that was capable of passing through the heavy paper covering the tube. Through additional experiments, he also found that the new ray would pass through most substances casting shadows of solid objects on pieces of film. He named the new ray X-ray, because in mathematics "X" is used to indicated the unknown quantity.
In his discovery Roentgen found that the X-ray would pass through the tissue of humans leaving the bones and metals visible. One of RoentgenÂs first experiments late in 1895 was a film of his wife Bertha's hand with a ring on her finger (shown below on right). The news of RoentgenÂs discovery spread quickly throughout the world. Scientists everywhere could duplicate his experiment because the cathode tube was very well known during this period. In early 1896, X-rays were being utilized clinically in the United States for such things as bone fractures and gun shot wounds.
Take a look at these early x-rays.
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X-rays were discovered by William Roentgen while experimenting with a cathode radiation .
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In which year was the first London to Brighton veteran car run in the UK? | Motul - What's up ? - London to Brighton Veteran Car Run - UK
London to Brighton Veteran Car Run - UK
16.11.2011
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, a must-see, atypical event!
For the second consecutive year, Motul was one of the official partners of the famous London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, a most atypical event between London and Brighton, reserved for pre-1905 vehicles!
Traditionally organised during the first weekend of November, the run brought together on 5 and 6 November no less than 550 vehicles from all over the world. Their owners came along, as on a pilgrimage, to relive during the weekend the emancipation race that took place in 1896 to celebrate the enactment of a new law authorising cars to drive at the amazing speed of 14 mph (22.5 km/h) compared with the previous 4mph (6.5 km/h).
This year, at the end of the 54 miles (87 km) from London to Brighton, no fewer than 420 cars made it to the arrival line for the greatest pleasure of their owners and also the public massed along the resort's roads. Even if the organisers wish to recall that the event is not a race – the average speed is moreover limited to 20mph (32 km/h) – we can nevertheless hail Matt Roberts' performance. At the wheel of his Marot Gardon tricycle dating from 1897, Matt was the first to pass under the arrival arch three hours twenty-five minutes after departing from London.
As a partner of the event, various representatives of Motul England and Motul Corporate were present to hand a certain number of trophies and to accompany a French TV channel that had come to report on the event.
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Which US actor has children named Rumer, Scout and Tallulah? | London to Brighton Veteran Car Run - The History Page
See History '2' - for year by year information.
(Click on the name to open the page)
"Owners and drivers should remember that motor cars are on trial in England
and that any rashness or carelessness might injure the industry in this country."
Why is the Run, run on a November Sunday rather than a Sunday in the summer or when it is warmer? This is the question that is most asked.
It all dates back to November 14th 1896, from just pass midnight that day, the "Locomotives on the Highway Act" came into force. Saturday 14th saw the first Run and it is now known as a red-letter day in the history of British motoring.
The Emancipation Run from London to Brighton celebrates the passing into law of the "Locomotives on the Highway Act", which raised the speed limit for 'Light Locomotives' from 4 miles per hour to 14 mph. This was reduced to 12 mph before the act come into force. The act abolished the requirement for the car to be preceded by a man on foot.
The need for the man on foot to carry a red flag had actually been abolished in 1878, but the Locomotive Act was still widely known as the 'Red Flag Act'. At the start of the 1896 Run, a red flag was symbolically destroyed by Lord Winchilsea. In 1996 a re-enactment of the start saw a red flag destroyed by the current Lord Winchilsea. It was repeated in 2007 by the Run's Steering Committee and is likely to be a part of all future Runs. The act of destroying a red flag had been undertaken on a few Runs before 1996 and being either before the Run or after.
The Run on Saturday 14th 1896 was a demonstration that the automobile had come to stay. The organisers' instructions stated: "Owners and drivers should remember that motor cars are on trial in England and that any rashness or carelessness might injure the industry in this country."
The Run from the Metropole Hotel in London to the Metropole Hotel in Brighton had 58 vehicles listed to start but 25 dropped out before the day. (The numbers do vary from one publication to another as no true report seems to be made.)
Only 13 or 14 reached Brighton, although it was hinted that one car or possible more had been taken down to Brighton by train and covered with mud before crossing the finishing line!
In 1897 (29 November) the Motor Car Club drove 44 cars to Sheen House, West London. In 1898 on a November day the Motor Car Club took 135 entrants for a run to Brighton. The following day, the Automobile Club organised a run with over 50 cars on a revisit to Sheen House. The Automobile Club had a Run in 1900 to Southsea. A rerun was made in 1901 with 174 cars that started in Whitehall Place, London. 1902 saw a Run to Oxford with 193 cars.
In 1903 the speed limit was raised to "the lightning velocity of 20mph" and with no further need to celebrate a 12mph limit the Runs stopped.
In 1927 the Run, keeping as close to the original 1896 day as possible, was reintroduced by the DAILY SKETCH and the SUNDAY GRAPHIC. The Run has been run annually ever since with the exception of the war years (1939~45) and petrol rationing (1947). It has been reported that one car did the Run in 1947 using his precious petrol ration.
In some publications it has been reported that not all of the Runs started in Central London or finished in Brighton, it seems that they were correct if you take in the years before 1927. All Runs from 1927 to the present day, according to the official programmes, started in London and finished in Brighton and kept almost to the A23 the main London to Brighton road.
From the Runs official programmes, most Runs started around the City of Westminster or just to the west and for two years a garage in the City of London. The exit from Hyde Park was via The Grand Entrance (Apsley Arch) or the eastern gate, what is now known as the Queen's Gate. The road on the east side of Hyde Park that was once used is now the north bound carriageway of Park Lane.
All Runs, except one, crossed the River Thames by Westminster Bridge and for some of the early Runs the bridge was the official timing start.
Between 1927~1964 the route used the Croydon by-pass (Purley Way). In 1965 the route was changed on the advice of the Police to go through Croydon. In 2010 the route through Croydon was again changed this time to avoid the Town Centre.
Procession or Parade: - In 1896, when the cars arrived in Brighton they assembled at Preston Park and then in procession made their way to the Metropole Hotel on the seafront. From 1927 and up to 1962 with a few missing years, a procession or parade of the cars took place. Wherever the official finish was located all the processions ended on Madeira Drive or very close by.
Where the official finish was on Madeira Drive, the parade took the cars on a tour to Regency Square (near the Metropole Hotel) and back. The routes either being back along Madeira Drive to the pier, along the seafront to and around Regency Square and then back or up Duke's Mound, along Marine Parade to the Aquarium then on to Regency Square and back to the finishing point and assembling area on Madeira Drive. This procession/parade route ended in 1954.
In 1956, with no procession/parade taking place in 1955, it changed to a shorter circular route, this being: - Carrying on Madeira Drive from the assembling area, up Duke's Mound, along Marine Parade to the start of Madeira Drive and back to the assembling area. The last procession/parade took place in 1962. See History '2' - "Route Items" .
For a year by year list of information that includes: - Where they started, where they finished, numbers of entries, etc., can be found on History '2' . The information is from the official programmes or as to the 1896 Run, written reports after the Run.
In 1930, The Royal Automobile Club - as Britain's senior motoring club - took over the organisation of the Run. It was King Edward VII who, in 1907, commanded that The Automobile Club of Great Britain & Ireland should be known as The Royal Automobile Club. The Royal Automobile Club is the governing body for motor sport in Britain.
More interest than usual was aroused in 1971, when Her Majesty the Queen entered (but alas did not drive) a 70-year-old Daimler originally owned by her great grandfather King Edward VII and once driven by her father, King George VI. The car has been on many a Run since 1971 and completed the 56 odd miles driven by HRH Prince Michael of Kent and staff from the Royal household.
HRH Prince Michael of Kent, President of The Royal Automobile Club, is a regular participant. He has driven a variety of vehicles, including the royal 1900 Daimler, the RAC's 1900 Simms (left) and the VCC's 1902 Wolseley (right). Other vehicles include a 1903 De Dion Bouton, an 1899 Wolseley, a 1903 De Dietrich, a 1904 Mercedes and a 1903 Napier Racing car.
For Prince Michael's other activities - visit his Web site at http://www.princemichael.org.uk
In 1927, the first re-enactment, the Run was called "RUN TO BRIGHTON". The following two years the name changed to "OLD CROCKS' RUN TO BRIGHTON". From 1930 to 1956 the name changed to "COMMEMORATION RUN OF VETERAN CARS" with "LONDON - BRIGHTON" placed either before or after, also with either "-" or "TO".
From 1957 to 1999 it seemed to change almost every year being: - LONDON TO BRIGHTON, RAC COMMEMORATION RUN, RAC VETERAN CAR RUN, KENCO RAC VETERAN CAR RUN, BENSON & HEDGES RAC VETERAN CAR RUN, TINDLE NEWSPAPERS RAC VETERAN CAR RUN or just VETERAN CAR RUN. Over the period there have been changes to where "LONDON TO BRIGHTON" was put, before or after. From 2000 to 2014 it had been the "LONDON TO BRIGHTON VETERAN CAR RUN". 2014 and 2015 it became "BONHAMS LONDON TO BRIGHTON VETERAN CAR RUN". In the 2016 the name changed again to "Bonhams Veteran Car Run supported by Hiscox"
The Run throughout the old car movement is just known as "THE BRIGHTON" or "THE RUN".
This year's BLBVCR partners along with The Royal Automobile Club are: -
Over the years there have been many sponsors or as they are now known "Partners", the first in 1927 was a joint sponsorship or as written on the program "Organized and Promoted by", the DAILY SKETCH and the SUNDAY GRAPHIC.
The most major sponsor since 1930 has been The Royal Automobile Club. Major partners/sponsors over the years have included: - THE AUTOCAR, UNIPART, CASTROL, RENAULT UK, KENCO, BENSON & HEDGES, TINDLE NEWSPAPERS, THE BRITISH LEGION, KENT MESSENGER, THE MAIL ON SUNDAY, the DAILY MAIL, from 2014 BONHAMS and in 2016 Hiscox has been added as an supporter.
There have been many, too many to name, smaller partners/sponsors that have added their support over the years
In 1927 the Brighton and Hove Motor Club undertook the marshaling in Brighton and the Club is still undertaking the marshaling duties today.
2003 saw the first Saturday Concours for some of the cars that are due to run in the following day's Run. For the first two years it was held in Waterloo Place near the Royal Automobile Club's clubhouse in Pall Mall. In 2005 it moved to Regent Street.
In the first year about 50 cars took part that rose to about 100 when it moved to Regent Street.
In 2012 the organisation of the run was by taken over by Goose Communications Ltd.
Since 1930 when the Royal Automobile Club took over the running of the event and making it their own, the event has been organised by the RAC, RAC Motor Services, RAC Motor Sports Association (RACMSA), Motor Sports Association (MSA), International Motor Sports (IMS) and Motion Works (LBVCR) Ltd.
The RAC, RAC Motor Services, RACMS, MSA and the IMS are all or have been part of the Royal Automobile Club.
Please note the RAC mentioned on these pages refers to the Royal Automobile Club not the RAC breakdown service. The breakdown service split from the Royal Automobile Club in 1999.
The RAC breakdown service is the official back-up service for the Run.
The BLBVCR is organised by Goose Communications Ltd.
This Web site is part of the VCC of GB's web site
and is published by Veteran Car Company Limited.
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How many drivers are awarded points at the end of a Formula One Grand Prix race? | Points, classification and race distance
Points, classification and race distance
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What the sporting regulations say:
Formula One races are of near identical distance, calculated in the regulations as the least number of laps required to exceed 305 kilometres. Some races invariably take longer than others however due to the differing average speeds of circuits.
The Formula One World Championship driver's title will be awarded to the driver who has scored the highest number of points.
Article 6.1 of the 2017 FIA Sporting Regulations
The only exception is Monaco, where the race distance is calculated as the minimum number of laps exceeding 260 kilometres.
However, a two-hour cut-off applies to all Grands Prix. If this is exceeded, the leading driver will be shown the chequered flag on the lap during which the two-hour mark elapsed.
At the conclusion of each Grand Prix, the top ten finishers will score points towards both the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships, according to the following scale:
1st : 25 points
9th : 2 points
10th : 1 point
The only exception to this is when a race is suspended and cannot be restarted. In that instance half points will be awarded if less than 75 percent of the race distance has been completed, while no points will be awarded if less than two laps have been completed.
Any driver who completes over 90 percent of the race will be classified as a finisher, regardless of whether they were running as the winner took the chequered flag.
The drivers' and constructors' championship titles are awarded to the driver and constructor who score the most points over the course of the season.
In the event of any ties for position, the driver with superior race results (based on descending order, from number of wins to numbers of second-places down) will gain precedence.
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What type of foodstuff is gelato? | Russian Grand Prix enters Vladimir Putin's playground as Formula One juggernaut rolls into Sochi - Telegraph
Formula One
Russian Grand Prix enters Vladimir Putin's playground as Formula One juggernaut rolls into Sochi
This weekend's race has been orchestrated to boost President Vladimir Putin's prestige at home and abroad. All major sporting events have a political overtone, but few are as blatant as this
Controversial: Vladimir Putin has had very direct involvement in the Russian Grand Prix Photo: EPA
By Daniel Johnson , F1 Correspondent, Sochi
6:00PM BST 10 Oct 2014
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In 1787, Catherine the Great, accompanied by a gaggle of courtiers, made an unprecedented six-month trip to Novorossia – literally 'New Russia’ – now the much disputed and fought-over territories of eastern Ukraine. As governor of the region, Grigory Potemkin, a favourite and lover of the empress, was tasked with impressing Russia’s allies along the journey.
The tale goes that Potemkin’s men would assemble mobile villages, dressing up as peasants, before moving the settlement down the Dnieper River overnight for inspection by Catherine the next day. The notion of a 'Potemkin village’, a facade concocted to hide an undesirable reality, was born.
The Sochi Autodrom, more than 300 miles away on the shores of the Black Sea, has all the hallmarks of a modern-day Potemkin village. The only difference – apart from the millions of tonnes of concrete – is that Russia has barely an ally left to woo. Formula One, driven by a compelling business argument, given the booming luxury car market in Russia, has willingly filled the void.
In a press conference when asked any questions of a political leaning, the promoter and the local vice-governor would speak among themselves for a few moments, before deciding upon an answer: the organisers admitted they had not attracted as many international visitors as they would have liked. It is hardly surprising.
Since the world last descended upon this industrial-estate-cum-theme-park for the Winter Olympics in February, events have moved on rapidly. The economic sanctions imposed after the Ukraine crisis have left Russia severely wounded, and a persona non grata on the international stage. In response, the government banned western food imports, leaving Muscovite chefs to import Parmigiano-Reggiano via Belarus.
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Many Russians do not seem to have noticed there is a race going on. There were little more than a handful of spectators in the sparkling grandstand for practice on Friday morning.
A capacity crowd of 55,000 is expected on race day, and several of the drivers have spoken warmly of the reception. “I am amazed at how many fans are here,” Jenson Button said. “There are so many people with Union Jacks, McLaren hats and shirts.” Lewis Hamilton , who packed out a television show open to the public, added: “I’m massively impressed with Russia. They are enthusiastic about motor racing and I didn’t expect that.”
The organisers have been helped no end by Daniil Kvyat’s recent promotion to Red Bull, putting a Russian driver at the apex of the sport for years to come.
The current crop of drivers spoke warmly about the circuit after Friday’s practice, although the best they had to say in the build-up was that it resembled Valencia and South Korea: two often derided tracks which have fallen by the wayside. Others spoke of the thrill of navigating an Olympic Park. From appearances, at least, a car park better fits the bill.
The venue is pristine, immaculately finished and brilliantly built, apart from a few rogue grey cobbles in the paddock which would annoy McLaren boss Ron Dennis no end. But even from above, the backdrop of the mountains to one side and the sea to the other is not enough to make this an eye-catching proposition. There is an enormous theme park next to the circuit, not to mention an ice musical show. According to the PR machines, you can witness “a story of love, friendship and passion” performed by Russia’s finest figure-skaters, circus performers, actors and singers.
But the only story here is hard cash. Bernie Ecclestone, F1’s impresario, shares a remarkably close relationship with President Putin, considering the language barrier. His good friend was more than happy to pay £120 million for the privilege of hosting a race for five years. “Sochi holds a symbolic importance for Putin,” according to Dr Andrew Foxall, director of the Russian Studies Centre at the Henry Jackson Society think tank. “It was the leading health resort in the Soviet Union and the place where members of the Soviet elite holidayed. Almost as soon as he became president in 2000, Putin set about restoring Sochi to its Soviet-era glory.”
This whole endeavour to make Sochi a destination, not just for Russians, has taken a serious blow in recent months. As Richard Cregan, a consultant for the organisers who helped get the Abu Dhabi race off the ground, concedes: “There was a lot of last-minute bookings. We saw that in hospitality. People were waiting to see if the race would happen.” Plans for an ice skating academy and a young-driver school may enjoy more success in the long term.
But even with the political fallout, there was no onus on Ecclestone or even Jean Todt, the FIA president, to cancel the race. Unlike in Bahrain, the sport’s last PR disaster, no senior politicians – barring Nick Clegg, in search of a 'differentiation’ issue – have told Formula One it should not go. The normally-cautious German government did not command Mercedes to keep both cars at home.
As you would expect, security is phenomenally tight – the staff rigorously check there is charge on both your laptop and your phone, and almost refused to allow a photographer in on Thursday because of a faded picture on his media pass – but there are no protests in sight. The BBC and Sky have even be warned they could face a blackout before the start of Sunday's race, as Russian security forces scramble radio frequencies to thwart any potential bomb activated by such means, or an assassination attempt on Putin.
But there was no persuasive argument for why the sport should independently have called the whole jamboree off. The pressure from sponsors, fierce in Bahrain, never came. Even in the wake of the Malaysian airlines disaster over Ukraine, Petronas, Malaysia’s state oil company, is still happy to have its logo emblazoned on the side of the Silver Arrows.
As Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant have been beheading hostages in Syria and Iraq, Russia has understandably slipped off politicians’ agendas. It may be thrust right back to centre stage when they see President Putin in Sochi.
The president who has presided over economic ruin, with approval ratings of 86 per cent – his 62nd birthday this week was celebrated with an exhibition depicting him as Hercules – will be everywhere. He was here for the official signing of the contract four years ago, and is on T-shirts in racing driver overalls. To top it off, he is expected to be on the grid tomorrow afternoon.
Ecclestone and Todt’s favourite refrain, that F1 is not a political sport, has been blown into oblivion by Putin’s very direct involvement. The thorn in the West’s side has made it shameless political theatre. The Toro Rosso team principal even personally thanked Putin.
Back in February, it was the Olympic hotels which were unfinished, naked power cables hanging off the walls. Now it is the political argument for being here which remains incomplete: it was never F1’s job to articulate it. Those in Russia’s F1-shaped Potemkin village this weekend will not mind one jot, as long as the money keeps pouring in.
| i don't know |
A ‘Cockle’ is English slang for what amount of money? | Money Slang : Cockney Rhyming Slang
Follow @CockneyRabbit
Money Slang
There is scads of Cockney slang for money. Much of it derives from the designs on the notes - five pounds, ten pounds, twenty pounds.
The first things you gotta learn are that five pounds is a fiver, and ten pounds is a tenner. Then you gotta know the key money values: £20 is a Score, £25 is a Pony, £100 is a Ton, £500 is a Monkey, and £1000 is a Grand.
Here's our list of terms from the dictionary that are money-related. If you've got any more, sling 'em over!
| ten |
Who was elected President of the European Parliament in July 2009? | 50 Slang Terms for Money
50 Slang Terms for Money
By Mark Nichol
I find very little about money to be interesting, other than counting my own, but I’ve noted that there’s a rich fund of slang terms for money that can help enliven both casual and more serious content about currency and finance. Here’s a roster of slang synonyms in plural form for words for US currency in particular, many of which are useful for playful references to money or as options for evoking a historical period in fiction by using contemporary idiom:
1. Bank: money
2. Benjamins: a one-hundred-dollar bill (in reference to the portrait of Benjamin Franklin that distinguishes it)
3. Big ones: multiples of one thousand dollars
4. Bills: multiples of one hundred dollars
5. Bones: dollars (origin unknown)
6. Bread: money in general (on the analogy of it being a staple of life)
7. Bucks: dollars (perhaps from a reference to buckskins, or deerskins, which were once used as currency)
8. Cabbage: paper money (from its color)
9. Cheddar (or chedda): money (origin unknown, but perhaps from the concept of cheese distributed by the government to welfare recipients)
10. Clams: dollars (perhaps from the onetime use of seashells as currency)
11. Coin: money, either paper or coinage
12-13. Cs (or C-notes): multiples of one hundred dollars (from the Roman symbol for “one hundred”)
14. Dead presidents: paper money (from the portraits of various former US presidents that usually distinguish bills of various denominations)
15. Dime: ten dollars (by multiplication of the value of the ten-cent coin)
16. Dough: money in general (akin to the usage of bread)
17-18. Doubles (or dubs): twenty-dollar bills
19. Ducats: money (from the Italian coin)
20. Fins: five-dollar bills (perhaps from the shared initial sound with fives)
21. Five-spots: five-dollar bills
23. Folding stuff: paper money
24. Greenbacks: paper money (from the color of the ink)
25. Gs: thousand-dollar bills (an abbreviation for grand)
26. Grand: one thousand dollars (as in “three grand” for “three thousand dollars”)
27. Large: thousand-dollar bills
28. Lettuce: paper money (from its color)
29. Long green: paper money (from its shape and color)
30. Loot: money (originally denoted goods obtained illicitly or as the spoils of war)
31. Lucre: money or profit (from the biblical expression “filthy lucre,” meaning “ill-gained money”)
32. Moola (or moolah): money (origin unknown)
33. Nickel: five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the five-cent coin)
34. Ones: dollars (also, fives for “five-dollar bills,” tens for “ten-dollar bills,” and so on)
35. Quarter: twenty-five dollars (by multiplication of the value of the twenty-five-cent coin)
36. Sawbucks: ten-dollar bills (from the resemblance of X, the Roman symbol for ten, to a sawbuck, or sawhorse)
37. Scratch: money (perhaps from the idea that one has to struggle as if scratching the ground to obtain it)
38. Shekels: dollars (from the biblical currency)
39. Simoleons: dollars (perhaps from a combination of simon, slang for the British sixpence and later the American dollar, and napoleon, a form of French currency)
40. Singles: one-dollar bills
41. Skrilla: money (origin unknown)
42. Smackers: dollars (origin unknown)
43. Spondulix: money (either from spondylus, a Greek word for a shell once used as currency, or from the prefix spondylo-, which means “spine” or “vertebra”; these have a common etymology)
44. Stacks: multiples of a thousand dollars
45. Tenners: ten-dollar bills
46. Ten-spots: ten-dollar bills
47. Two bits: twenty-five cents (a reference to pieces of eight, divisible sections of a Mexican real, or dollar)
48. Wad: a bundle of paper money
49. Wampum: money (from the Native American term wampumpeag, referring to native currency)
50. Yards: one hundred dollars
There are, of course, many other terms, dated or current, including borrowings of foreign terms like dinero. What did I miss (or omit)?
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25 Responses to “50 Slang Terms for Money”
David Nicholls
on October 27, 2012 10:14 am
Missing: From England: Swag, Dosh, Lolley
From Australia: Brick a $20 note
Razoo – a worthless coin (also “brass razoo”)
Green stuff
Quid: 1 pound (UK and Oz)
T A McNeil
on October 27, 2012 4:37 pm
I would add juice, chips and commish (commision) to the list. There is also the expression related to one’s personal investment in a venture – skin, as in – skin in the game.
Sybil Jackson
on October 27, 2012 7:44 pm
And if you’re Canadian you have Loonies and Toonies. We used to amuse our chat room friends in the U.S. talking about them. We convinced them that we are indeed Looney Tunes up here. There were plans for a $5 coin but nobody has figured out what to call it yet. I enjoy what I receive from you. I learn something new almost every day. ~ Sybil Jackson (in Central Ontario).
Ron
| i don't know |
In the UK tv series ‘Rising Damp’, what was the first name of Rigsby’s estranged wife? | LeonardRossiter.com: Rigsby Online - Rigsbyisms
Rigsby Online: The Authorised Rising Damp web site
Rigsbyisms
The Collected Wisdom Of Rupert Rigsby, being a thematic dictionary of opinions and witticisms from the series.
Click on a thumbnail image to view full size
All text is copyright Eric Chappell
Africa & culture
Rigsby tells Philip what he's heard about African women. (The New Tenant).
- You're very hard on your women aren't you, making them walk for miles with pots on their heads?
Alan tells Rigsby that Philip has got ten wives. (Black Magic).
- Ten wives? Bloody hell! Of course, marriage doesn't mean the same to that lot, does it? They get married whenever there's a hurricane.
Philip insists Rigsby's suit has no flair. (A Night Out).
- I suppose you'd improve it with a few beads and a shrunken head.
Philip tells Rigsby that in his country the 'skinning men' deal with prowler types, by skinning them alive. (The Prowler).
- I bet they don't feel like sliding down the drainpipes after that!
Philip jokes that losers in African elections are torn apart between two trees. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- Well that's one way of losing your deposit.
Rigsby gives Philip his description of Africa. (Food Glorious Food).
- Lovely climate, clear skies, blue sea. The only trouble is, the beach goes back 500 miles.
Rigsby tells Alan why the Africans weren't very industrious. (Food Glorious Food).
- They just laid out under the palms and read the Kama Sutra.
Rigsby tells Alan that half of Africans won't eat the 'sacred cow', while some believe in reincarnation. (Food Glorious Food).
- They won't eat anything, in case it's someone they knew.
- That's why they won't do any digging. If they put a spade through a worm, they think they've cut granny in half.
Rigsby says Miss Jones could be useful to Philip in Africa, but Alan asks how, as he's got ten (black) wives already. (A Body Like Mine).
- Well... as a marker.
Rigsby tells Philip to be grateful to Seymour, an ex-African missionary. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- He stopped you shrinking heads and eating each other.
Rigsby advises the gas man against cutting off his supply. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- We've got an African chief upstairs. You cut his gas off, it could be a diplomatic incident.
Rigsby tells Alan that Philip's race are very superstitious. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- You know, when they first had petrol stations out there, they spent three years worshipping the pumps.
Rigsby thinks Philip's girlfriend Lucy is Philip's present to Rigsby from Africa, although she is from Northampton. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- You'll find things easier here. No walking for miles with a pot on your head.
- It's the same with the washing - no need to hump it down to the river.
- There's no need to walk ten paces behind me when we go to Tesco's.
- There's no need to call me 'Bwana'.
Rigsby tells Philip that a car is essential in this country. (Clunk Click).
- You can't travel by jungle creeper round here, you know.
Rigsby tells Philip that climbing onto the roof is not easy. (The Good Samaritan).
- This is going to be a bit more difficult than shinning up a coconut tree, you know.
Rigsby comments on Philip's expert handling of uncorking a champagne bottle. (Hello Young Lovers).
- You wouldn't think, a few years, ago, he was pounding coconuts with a sharp stone.
Philip says men shouldn't advertise for a woman, but should find one in the 'normal' way. (Pink Carnations).
- What do you know about the �normal way�? When you want a woman, you just go out and give a quick burst on the drums.
Philip says his peoples' way of attracting women is to paint themselves white and leap out at them from the bushes. Rigsby compares this with the newspaper advert. (Pink Carnations).
- He's a company director! I can just see him at his company: 'Excuse the stripes, gentlemen, I'm just off to the laundrette to jump on a few women'.
Rigsby tells Philip the difference between British and African engagement rituals. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- We don't tap them over the head with a war club and drag them off into the bushes.
Alan
Alan says his room is too cold to study in. (The New Tenant).
- The only thing you study is your navel. You even shave lying down.
Alan tries to justify his long hair by comparing himself to Jesus. (The New Tenant).
- He didn't have a hairdryer though, did he? Didn't give himself blow-waves.
Ruth says she thinks Alan is a bit shy, not a troublemaker as Rigsby thinks. (The New Tenant).
- So was Crippen.
Rigsby wants Alan's table but Alan is eating off it. (The New Tenant).
- I've never seen anyone clear a plate as fast as you. It's as if you're feeding something under the table.
Rigsby is talking to Philip about Alan. (The New Tenant).
- He only goes out after dark.
Alan tells Rigsby that his 'detached, cynical expression' gets him quite a few looks. (Black Magic).
- I'm not surprised. They're probably waiting for someone to throw a net over you.
Alan tells Rigsby he's decided to change his image. (Black Magic).
- I'm glad to hear it. Hey, is this new image going to clean the bath out after him?
Rigsby denounces Alan's boasts of experiences with women. (Charisma).
- The only thing you've taken to bed with you is your Mickey Mouse hot water bottle.
Rigsby says Alan's trousers are too tight. (A Night Out).
- You keep wearing those, mate, and in a few years you'll be singing soprano.
Rigsby tells Alan his appearance is androgynous. (A Night Out).
- The blokes outside The Blue Ram were taking bets on what sex you were.
Rigsby has a go at Alan about his manner at the dinner table. (A Night Out).
- Your choppers are the nearest thing to perpetual motion I've ever seen.
- You're the only person I know who sandwiches his peas.
Rigsby thinks Alan ought to bathe more regularly. (The Prowler).
- You've been here six months, the name hasn't gone off your soap yet.
Alan tells the inspector he didn't hear Ruth's scream. (The Prowler).
- I'm not surprised with all that foliage. He can hardly see, let alone hear. He's like a bloody sheepdog.
Alan has his overcoat draped around his shoulders. Rigsby picks up an empty sleeve. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- Oohh, been biting your nails again?
Alan says to Rigsby he ought to remember 'The Depression'. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- I don't need to. I get it every time I come up here.
Rigsby chastises Alan for hogging the bathroom. (The Permissive Society).
- Once you get in front of that full-length mirror you lose all track of time.
Rigsby compares Alan to film star Veronica Lake. (The Permissive Society).
- You're a lot like her, except she wore less jewellery.
After finding him in Miss Jones' room, Alan is about to go out when an angry Rigsby enters. (The Permissive Society).
- You can't go out, the sun's up. You should be resting in your coffin, you bloody vampire.
Alan says he needs a regular food supply, as he's still growing. (Food Glorious Food).
- Yes, like a big black cloud.
Alan tells Rigsby he is weigtlifting to 'develop his body'. Rigsby say he'll never keep it up. (A Body Like Mine).
- The only thing you'll develop is a hernia.
- You get tired brushing your hair.
- And what's going to happen when all that muscle turns to fat? You'll look like something left out of the fridge all night.
Alan reassures Rigsby that at the first sign of blood, the boxing match will be stopped. (A Body Like Mine).
- Don't give me that - the first sign of blood, and you'll faint.
Alan is fantasising and dancing around the room singing 'A Room With A View', as Rigsby enters. (Moonlight and Roses).
- 'Room With A View'? You go on like that, you'll have a room alright, but it won't have a view, it'll be made of rubber.
Rigsby questions Alan's sensitivity when he discovers Ruth's belongings packed. (Moonlight and Roses).
- You're about as sensitive as a rubber kosh.
Cut scene: Alan says Rigsby should let the tears come, as it would make him feel better.
- The only thing that'll make me feel better is shaking hands with your windpipe.
Alan tells Rigsby he has a complaint. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- I'm not surprised. You should eat more fresh vegetables.
Alan tells Rigsby he has a 'delicate' problem. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- It's not bedwetting is it?
Rigsby says it's his duty to keep Alan 'on the straight and narrow'. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- You've already knocked off Holy Communion and the scouts. Where's it going to end?
Rigsby laughs at Alan's fear of horror films. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- You get frightened watching Scooby Doo.
- Look what happened when we watched 'Psycho' - you went to the toilet 14 times.
Alan is babysitting and trying to hide the baby from Rigsby. Rigsby sees the rusk and baby's bottle of milk. Alan says they're his. (That's My Boy).
- My God, I've heard of being retarded, but this is ridiculous.
- If you get a sudden urge to roll onto your back and suck your big toe - resist it.
After discovering the baby, Alan insists that the infant likes him. (That's My Boy).
- You can see why - all that hair, he thinks you're his mother.
Alan says he has a lot in common with 'resting' actor Hilary. (Stage Struck).
- Yes, the same crippling fear of manual labour.
Alan says he's just washed his hair, and he can't do a thing with it. (Stage Struck).
- You can't do a lot with the sink now, either.
Alan insists Hilary's decision to cast him as the lead in his play will give him his break as an actor. (Stage Struck).
- Act? You can't even speak properly.
Alan says his acting experience will improve his virility. (Stage Struck).
- Virility? You've got about as much virility as a wooden rocking horse.
Philip asks what is troubling Alan as he passes him on the stairs. (Stage Struck).
- Nothing. He gets this sudden yearning for culture. He burns all his pin-ups and starts playing classical records.
Rigsby laughs when Alan says his 'special skills' would be welcomed abroad. (The Good Samaritan).
- Since when has the ability to lie on your back and blow smoke rings been a 'special skill'?
Alan says to Rigsby that 'No man is an island'. (The Good Samaritan).
- I wish you were. Somewhere off in the North Sea, preferably.
Alan insists the snake swallows its prey whole. (Fawcett's Python).
- Well he couldn't have swallowed you, not with those feet.
Rigsby derides Alan's old trousers. (The Cocktail Hour).
- They've got more creases than an elephant's backside.
Alan refutes the accusation from Rigsby that he slurps his tea. (The Cocktail Hour).
- Yes you do, you're like a buffalo at a waterhole.
Alan says he keeps having giddy turns. (Suddenly At Home).
- Only when I mention the rent.
Animals
Rigsby says the birds never appreciate his offerings of food. (Food Glorious Food).
- They just sit in a line, waiting for me to wax the Cortina.
- You'd think, if I was going to feed one end they'd show a bit of respect at the other.
Rigsby tells Marilyn her pet snake has got to go, after tenants' complaints. (Fawcett's Python).
- They don't fancy him knotting himself round their windpipes.
Rigsby tells Marilyn the snake must go, as he is still growing. (Fawcett's Python).
- If he gets any bigger, we're not going to be able to get up the stairs without a machete.
When the snake disappears, Rigsby can't understand why Marilyn had took him into the garden. (Fawcett's Python).
- It's not as if you can throw sticks for him, is it? Watch video
Alan identifies the bundle in the corner of Rigsby's room as the snake. (Fawcett's Python).
- Well of course it's the snake. What did you think it was, a draught excluder?
Rigsby is talking to Welsh tenant Gwyn about his nationality. (Fire and Brimstone).
- If you get homesick, they've got a Welsh collie down at No.12. Perhaps they'll let you take it for walks.
Rigsby tells the councillor about the rat problem, using his neighbour with a wooden leg as an example. (Great Expectations).
- He hears this gnawing sound, stands up - and collapses in a pile of sawdust.
Body, Human
Rigsby laughs at Alan's claim that the human body is 70% water. (The Prowler).
- We'd ooze all over the floor!
Rigsby makes a comment about streakers, and Alan says there's nothing shameful about the human body. (The Prowler).
- Yes, but we don't want it in the middle of bloody Woolworth's, do we?
Rigsby says he was harpooned by a Lifeboat Institute flagseller, causing an infection. (Food Glorious Food).
- They owe me a few deep-sea rescues, that lot do.
Rigsby objects to the fluoride in the water, the only drink he's allowed during his fast. Alan says it would harden his teeth. (Food Glorious Food).
- I don't want my teeth hardening, I'm not going to be eating anything, am I?
Rigsby's fed up with his fast. Alan asks where's his backbone? (Food Glorious Food).
- If I go on like this, you'll be able to see it.
Rigsby offers to split the prize money with Alan, but Alan says it wouldn't be honest. (Food Glorious Food).
- Listen, my teeth are loose and my hair's dropping out - this is no time to turn honest!
Rigsby excuses his being carried home from the supermarket. (A Body Like Mine).
- I went down a bit too quick for a tin of dried peas, and just locked.
Rigsby is disgusted to hear Brenda's tales of perversion during her nude modelling sessions. (Moonlight and Roses).
- I can admire the perfection of the female form without having to throw my leg over it.
Rigsby advises Osborne against a vasectomy. (Suddenly At Home).
- One day, you might want to settle down and have children - you won't be able to do that if you've had your firing pin removed.
Rigsby gives his opinions on freezing sperm. (Suddenly At Home).
- Someone's only got to leave the fridge door open, and you lose your son and heir along with the kippers.
Osborne shows Rigsby the disc he has to wear because of his rare blood group. (Suddenly At Home).
- What does it say - 'Do Not Drain'?
Rigsby comments to Philip on Africans' dentistry. (Suddenly At Home).
- I've never seen one of your lot with a bad set of teeth - filed to a point sometimes, but...
Rigsby has found Osborne rigid, presumed dead. He is in mourning. (Suddenly At Home).
- The only thing that'll improve him now is embalming fluid.
Philip tells Rigsby his belief in dead bodies helping to enrich the soil. (Suddenly At Home).
- Is that your theory of 'life after death' - coming back as a bowl of cornflakes ?
Alan says he might have his body frozen after death. (Suddenly At Home).
- My God. Who's going to be in charge of the funeral arrangements, Bird's Eye?
- What's going to happen on Judgement Day, when we're all supposed to stand up and be counted - you'd look ridiculous between a leg of lamb and a packet of fishfingers.
Food and Drink
Rigsby sees what's in Alan's saucepan. (The New Tenant).
- You're not eating those dried peas again? They get everywhere. They come drumming down the stairs like grapeshot.
Alan says to Rigsby he ought to remember the 'hunger marches', but he reminds Alan that he himself doesn't. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- The only hunger march you ever go on is when you go downstairs for one of Miss Jones' custard creams.
Rigsby is talking to a hungry Vienna about the lack of food. (Food Glorious Food).
- I've got nothing. I've been chewing my pyjama cord all night.
Rigsby claims Alan is wafting cooking smells down the stairs on purpose. (Food Glorious Food).
- At least you could have had a salad, shown some respect.
Alan says Rigsby needs a distraction from his food fast and suggests TV. (Food Glorious Food).
- Nah, there's just Fanny Craddock on one side, and the Galloping Gourmet on the other.
Alan asks Rigsby what the food was like on the Costa Brava. (That's My Boy).
- Greasy. (Alan: "And the people?") About the same.
Alan plagues Rigsby that he doesn't know what a moussaka is. (Stage Struck).
- Of course I know - you all join hands and dance round in a circle.
Rigsby gives Alan an example of the speed of his car (Clunk Click).
- You could go fifty miles for a bag of chips in this car and they'd still be warm when you got home.
After inviting Ruth for a fish supper, Rigsby decides against Ruth's idea of inviting Philip as well. (Fire and Brimstone).
- I think he'd find cod a bit boring. He'd prefer fish with two sets of teeth - perhaps if it was piranha.
Ruth suggests laying on some buttered scones for Aunt Maud. (Great Expectations).
- No, I think we'd be courting disaster with her teeth.
After annoying the barman by insisting on ice in his drink, a cherry and a slice of lemon, the barman sarcastically asks him if he wants anything else as well. (Pink Carnations).
- Yes, I want one of those little plastic swords.
Rigsby thanks the woman for getting him a drink, which he identifies incorrectly. (Pink Carnations).
- Oh. Those cheese and onion crisps play havoc with your taste buds.
Rigsby is after rent from Ambrose. Ambrose is toasting a crumpet, but pretends to be meditating when he hears Rigsby approaching. He tells Rigsby he was about to enter Nirvana. (Under The Influence).
- You'd be the first one to arrive there toasting a crumpet.
Rigsby tells Ruth how much he adores Indian food. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- You can certainly tell it's doing you good by the way the sweat breaks out on your back.
Rigsby tells Ruth he is an expert on exotic cuisine. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- I particularly like the Vindaloo. Mind you, afterwards, it's normally a case of 'Where's the loo?' !
Ron tries to get Rigsby to have a drink before the wedding, to calm him down. Rigsby declines. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- I don't want to give the vicar a blast of Highland Magic every time I respond, do I?
Genetic Engineering
Alan has given Rigsby some tablets to take to calm him down. Rigsby asks if they contain hormones. (Charisma).
- What about that bloke down the road, the one who had the cheap turkey at Christmas? That was full of hormones. Three days later, his wife had got a deeper voice than he'd got.
Rigsby is surprised that his wish over his turkey's wishbone has come true. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- It's never worked before. It must be all those hormones they keep feeding them.
House, The
Alan disputes the £6 rent for the empty room, saying it's too small for the price. (The New Tenant).
- I know it looks small. That's the heavy wallpaper.
Rigsby tries to extol the virtues of Alan being in the attic room. (The New Tenant).
- There's nothing between this house and the Urals. You're breathing the same air as the Tartars - I should charge you extra.
Philip starts packing, as he can't stand the interruptions and can't find the time to study. (The New Tenant).
- Just because you're the son of a chief, you needn't look down your nose at this place. This is a very fashionable area. We had the manager of the co-op drapery staying here last year, he never complained.
Rigsby is trying to sell the vacant room to Brenda. (Moonlight and Roses).
- It's quite a nice view, now they've painted the gasometer.
They bailiffs tell Rigsby his date (Brenda) won't even know they are there. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- She'll have a bloody good idea when the furniture starts to disappear, won't she?
Rigsby says the paperboy won't get a Christmas gift from him. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- Have you seen what he's written on that front gate? 'Martin Borman Lives Here'.
New tenant Mr. Gray remarks on the water running down the walls of his room. (The Good Samaritan).
- What did you expect, champagne?
- Just don't lean against the wallpaper, unless you want to be covered in Regency stripes.
The new tenant says he's reached the lowest of the low when he accepts Rigsby's vacant room. (The Good Samaritan).
- You haven't seen the basement - loose-fitting windows. The last fella down there woke up every Autumn covered in dead leaves.
Rigsby tries not to think of depressed Mr. Gray cutting his throat in the room downstairs. (The Good Samaritan).
- Anyway, I've just shampooed the carpet in there.
Alan suggests Mr. Gray might be about to electrocute himself. (The Good Samaritan).
- This is my house - it could play havoc with the wiring.
Rigsby warns suicidal Mr. Gray not to look down from his position on the roof. (The Good Samaritan).
- It's a long drop - you won't stop rolling till you get to the Town Hall.
Alan is horrified when Rigsby shows him a coffin stored in a cupboard. (Suddenly At Home).
- Well of course it's a coffin. What did you think it was, a cocktail cabinet?
Religious tenant Gwyn says he doesn't want a room with luxury. (Fire and Brimstone).
- Yes, you don't want a carpet with a thick pile, you'd tire yourself out crossing the room.
Rigsby is talking to new tenant Gwyn about the abbatoir, visible from the window. (Fire and Brimstone).
- If you hear the occasional bang, don't worry, that's the humane killer.
Ruth wonders why Gwyn was heard singing hymns in the bathroom. (Fire and Brimstone).
- Oh, that's because the bolt's gone on the door again.
Ruth shows Rigsby a carpet catalogue, hoping to replace her coconut matting. The picture of the carpet she would like has a young couple lying across it in their underwear. (Great Expectations).
- They certainly couldn't do that on coconut matting. They'd get red rings everywhere.
- They're full of static. Why do you think they're sprawled out like that? Probably been electrocuted.
Philip wants Rigsby to buy new fittings for the bathroom. (Great Expectations).
- What do you want a sepia-tinted mirror for? You'd never see yourself in it.
- Heated towel rail? Why, have you burned your bum on the paraffin stove again?!
Rigsby coaxes Ruth into imitating his ex-wife, with the promisse of a new carpet if she does. (Great Expectations).
- I'll make it wall-to-wall in shag. What do you say?
Rigsby explains why he wants Ruth to stop her skipping exercises in the room above his. (The Movie).
- I'm getting plaster on my fishfingers.
Jones, Miss
Rigsby insists Miss Jones is a respectable woman. (Black Magic).
- Have you seen that woman's washing? She still wears 'harvest festivals' - all is safely gathered in.
Rigsby is chatting up Miss Jones, telling her she has good taste. (Charisma).
- Look at your cups - willow pattern, lovely theme. And your table mats - scenes from the ballet. How many people round here eat off Scenes From The Ballet? You're lucky if you get a beer mat.
Rigsby tries to calm Ruth down after she has seen the intruder. (The Prowler).
- You'd better sit down. Shall I loosen your clothing?
The Liberal candidate tells Rigsby he thought 'she [Ruth] was weakening', ie. to vote Liberal. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- Hmmm, I've thought that for years. Probably another false dawn.
A depressed Miss Jones tells Rigsby she felt like throwing herself into the canal. (The Permissive Society).
- You wouldn't get much of a splash out of that canal, it's too full of prams.
- If you were thinking of doing anything like that, it'd be better to drink it.
Miss Jones is on a fitness kick. She tells Rigsby she was shocked when she took an inventory of her body. (A Body Like Mine).
- Nothing missing, was there?
When Ruth says she never learned to drive because of drivers' "bad temper and swearing",
Rigsby thinks she's talking about herself. (Clunk Click).
- You could always try counting up to ten, Miss Jones.
Rigsby tries to reassure Ruth that her fox-fur stole is right for the occasion. (Clunk Click).
- It'll be fine, as long as Peter Scott doesn't turn up.
Ruth is happy because "grass is greener and the flowers are brighter". She asks Rigsby if he knows why. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Horse manure, Miss Jones!
Rigsby describes the nightgown Ruth has lent to Lorna. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Provocative, and yet perfectly acceptable in the event of a fire.
After Rigsby lights a cigar, Ruth tells him she loves them (meaning the fragrance). (Fire and Brimstone).
- Oh, I'm sorry Miss Jones, I've only got the one.
Rigsby tells Philip how he hinted to Ruth that he was after 'an older, more mature woman' (meaning her). (Pink Carnations).
- She offered to put me in touch with the over-sixties.
Literature
Rigsby tells Alan what he thinks of the murder mystery paperback he is reading. (The Prowler).
- That's hard porn, that is. Handed over at midnight under a plain wrapper.
Alan is shocked to learn the police are in the house. (The Prowler).
- What's the matter, your library book overdue?
Alan reads out the synopsis from Hilary's new play. (Stage Struck).
- Oh my God, sounds like another 'Play For Today'.
During play rehearsals, Hilary instructs Ruth that she is 'consumed with passion' for Alan. (Stage Struck).
- Is this a comedy?
Rigsby is on the phone to his blind date. They have arranged to meet at The George public house and Rigsby says he loves poetry. His date asks if he is familiar with Betjeman. (Pink Carnations).
- Oh, I don't know him. Does he drink at The George?
Magic
Philip insists he is a God to his people, with special powers. (Black Magic). Watch video
- If you're a God, what are those dirty pots doing in the sink? I'd have thought you'd have had them washed and stacked.
Ambrose says the mystic contortionists of India don't perform for money. (Under The Influence).
- Of course they do it for money! You don't push a rusty nail through your hooter just to see it come out the other side.
Marriage
Rigsby regrets his wartime marriage. (The Permissive Society).
- It was a military blunder on the scale of Anzio.
Rigsby says he always wanted to marry a woman like Greer Garson, as he'd seen all the films in which she'd appeared with Walter Pidgeon. Alan asks if his wife was like Greer Garson. (The Permissive Society).
- No - she was more like Walter Pidgeon.
The Samaritan asks Rigsby if he is saddened by Mrs. Rigsby having left him. (The Good Samaritan).
- Why, do you think she might come back?
Ruth tells Rigsby how the newlywed bride tenant wept when her husband went to fetch a paper. (Hello Young Lovers).
- It's early days. What's she going to do when he wants to go for a game of darts? She'll probably be in hysterics.
Ruth talks about Rigsby's marriage break-up as 'a bad experience'. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Oh, that wasn't a bad experience, that was the good bit.
Rigsby describes his attempts to hug his new wife on his wedding day. (Hello Young Lovers).
- It was like trying to get hold of a detached barrage balloon.
When Rigsby tells Ruth he 'got married for security', Ruth asks him if he means her father had money. (Hello Young Lovers).
- No, a shotgun.
Rigsby's father-in-law said he'd been 'tampering with her', so he forced them to marry. (Hello Young Lovers).
- I'd have sooner tampered with a Rugby League forward.
Ruth says the 'wounds' of a failed marriage never heal. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Mine did eventually - I had stitches.
Rigsby says first-night honeymooners are sometimes surprised. (Hello Young Lovers).
- The unexpected sight of a set of false gnashers in a glass by the bed.
- The sudden removal of a cork leg.
Referring to the newlyweds, Rigsby compares British courtship with Philip's African ones. (Hello Young Lovers).
- We're not polygamous. He didn't get her with a bag of salt.
Rigsby tells Philip of Britain's monogamous culture. (Hello Young Lovers).
- You only get one chance here, you know. It's like 'The Golden Shot'.
Rigsby says most of his wedding was second-hand because of wartime. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Even the confetti had heelmarks.
Rigsby says Lorna and Robin must get married, if only for security. (Hello Young Lovers).
- What if he goes out for a loaf of bread, and never comes back again?
- The father knows nothing about it. The first he's going to hear is when he's invited to the christening.
Rigsby says he had an inkling that Robin and Lorna weren't married. (Hello Young Lovers).
- I thought they were too happy.
Ruth reminds Rigsby he was married by a vicar who made him promise to love, honour and cherish. (Fire and Brimstone).
- It's alright for him, he didn't have to live with her.
Rigsby agrees when Mr. Snell says his late Uncle George Rigsby was a happily married man. (Great Expectations).
- Yes, his wife had been dead for years.
Ruth tells Rigsby he is supposed to be happily married. (Great Expectations).
- We are happily married - she lives in Cleethorpes, I live here.
Rigsby tries to think of a word to describe his estranged wife. Ruth warns him not to be horrible. (Great Expectations).
- 'Horrible' - that's it!
Rigsby tells Ruth how his estranged wife always talked with a cigarette in the corner of her mouth. (Great Expectations).
- I remember she took it out during the Service.
Rigsby describes his estranged wife's laugh. (Great Expectations).
- Something like a cross between a pneumatic drill and someone shooting crows.
Philip says Rigsby needs police protection from his battleaxe wife Veronica. (Great Expectations).
- Police protection? I need the Argylle & Sutherland Highlanders.
Philip asks Rigsby what it's like to be finally divorced. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- Can't you see the difference? I'm walking erect for the first time in years.
Rigsby compares his freedom of divorce to having his leg plaster cast off in hospital. Philip asks how it can possibly compare. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- Well, it was always a dead weight, and it prevented me from enjoying myself.
Rigsby admits he and his estranged wife always celebrated their wedding anniversary by going away. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- Mind you, we did stay at separate hotels.
Rigsby rubbishes the 'marriage is wonderful' brigade. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- They all said 'Come on in, the water's lovely' - I didn't know I'd have to swim the Channel.
Rigsby is worried his voice will give out at the altar. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- She'll be expecting a firm response, not 'Can we have that again, Mr. Rigsby?'
Rigsby is extremely depressed when they return home after going to the wrong church. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- I said St. Luke's, perpendicular with a rood screen - not St. Mark's, early gothic with a vicar to match.
- My God, I should have realised we were in the wrong church when they started wheeling that coffin down the aisle.
Rigsby's brother says they should have played along with the ceremony, even though it was a funeral. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- What did you expect me to do, spend the honeymoon with the deceased?
Rigsby tells Ruth about his wedding night coinciding with VJ Night. (The Movie).
- She surrendered the same night as Japan. We resumed hostilities a week later.
Rigsby compares his marriage to a war. (The Movie).
- Long periods of boredom followed by short bursts of violence.
Medicine & Health
Alan says his training skeleton is to help him in setting broken bones. (The New Tenant).
- They never let you set bones? Look what happened when you examined Vienna. He only had a slight limp, by the time you'd finished with him, he had a dislocated hip.
Alan tells Rigsby he sees medical miracles every day on the hospital wards. (Black Magic).
- I remember that bloke in the basement. You had a look at him, pronounced life extinct. Three hours later he starts snoring.
Rigsby is telling Alan about a previous hypochondriacal tenant. (Charisma).
- We had that bloke down stairs. He was convinced his shoulder blades were deformed. He spent hours looking at them in the mirror. By the time he'd finished, they were deformed.
The Liberal candidate says he's been doing the usual amount of kissing babies. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- The mothers don't do that round here. You could catch anything from chicken pox to beri beri.
Alan tells Rigsby he's been to see the film 'Doctor Zhivago'. Rigsby thinks he's a real doctor. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- Oh. What did he say?
Rigsby has been scared by Alan's appearance as The Grey Lady, and thinks his mind is playing tricks. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- I knew I shouldn't have had that Double Gloucester.
Miss Jones tells Rigsby that a few words of admiration to a baby keeps them regular. (That's My Boy).
- We always had syrup of figs.
Alan says when he qualifies as a doctor, he could emigrate to anywhere in the world. (The Good Samaritan).
- When you start cutting people up, we'll all be emigrating.
Rigsby derides the state of the Health Service but says in-patients waste their time complaining. (The Good Samaritan).
- You wake up to find them holding a union meeting over your appendix.
Alan says depressed Mr. Gray is just trying to draw attention to himself. (The Good Samaritan).
- If he was just trying to draw attention to himself, he'd get a tie that lights up.
Alan says depressed Mr. Gray is just trying to get preferetial treatment. (The Good Samaritan).
- The only preferential treatment he's going to get is a free ride in the ambulance.
Rigsby says hypochondriac tenant Osborne is always at the doctor's. (Suddenly At Home).
- They've even consulted him on the new colour scheme.
- He's got his own chair down there.
- He's only missed once since he's been here, and that was when he was ill.
- The only thing he hasn't got is anthrax and Dutch elm disease.
Rigsby says medical care only used to be for those with money. (Suddenly At Home).
- If you couldn't pay, you got the Order of the Blunt Needle.
- If you didn't pay your bills, you came out of hospital on a set of stumps.
Osborne says he has to go in hospital, so they can have a godo look at him. (Suddenly At Home).
- I'd have thought they'd seen enough of you by now.
- That place has never been the same since they lost the key to the poison cupboard.
Rigsby tells Ruth how difficult it is to get doctors to come out at night, especially if they're playing Bridge. (Suddenly At Home).
- The other night - terrible choking fit. He was onto a Grand Slam - refused to come out. And that was his mother.
Rigsby remarks on how well-made the coffin is he has bought. (Suddenly At Home).
- It's worth going, just for a ride in one of these.
Rigsby rubbishes Ambrose's medicine for supposedly curing lethargy. Ambrose says it must be swallowed. (Under The Influence).
- You couldn't swallow that stuff, it'd take the stripes off a zebra.
While hypnotised, Rigsby recalls his childhood game of Doctors and Nurses, albeit short-lived. (Under The Influence).
- I was struck off. I had to go and sit in the ambulance.
Money
With Brenda expecting a night out on Rigsby, Philip says he'll have to raid his piggybank. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- I can't take her out with a hundredweight of copper in my pockets. Suppose she sits on my lap, I'll cut her to ribbons.
Rigsby suggests singing to the baby to stop him crying. Alan and Philip ask why should they? (That's My Boy).
- Because I'll put your rent up if you don't, that's why.
Philip
Rigsby relates to Alan his first impressions of Philip. (The New Tenant).
- Probably never had a pair of shoes on till he came here.
- What's going to happen when he hears the drums?
- You wait till the next full moon, we'll all be locking our doors.
- You wait till we get the 'washing of spears'.
Rigsby is talking about Philip again, particularly his shoes. (Black Magic).
- They're pinching his feet. He has to get them off as soon as he can. He has to feel the ground under his toes.
Rigsby denounces Philip's boast that he's the son of a chief. (Black Magic).
- All that means is his mud hut is bigger than all the other mud huts.
In answer to Rigsby's enquiry, Philip tells him he is studying Town and Country Planning. (Black Magic).
- I bet there's a real demand for that in the jungle. One thing they're crying out for is a regular dustbin collection!
Alan tries to justify his ear-ring by saying that 'Philip thinks it's alright'. (Charisma).
- Oh, he would - he thinks a bone through the nose is alright.
Philip has told Rigsby his suit is 'dull' and Rigsby says Philip is used to bright colours. (A Night Out).
- Give you a bale of coloured cloth, and you'll dance till sunset.
While discussing fashion, Philip tells Rigsby his favourite colour is black. (A Night Out).
- You couldn't wear black, you'd disappear.
Rigsby dislikes Philip's style of dancing. (A Night Out).
- Look at him! He'll be arching his back and passing under the table in a minute.
- He couldn't do a slow waltz, his feet are all wrong. If he tried a reverse turn, he'd be arse over elbow.
Rigsby suspects Philip may be the prowler, and remembers Miss Jones' words. (The Prowler).
- She said she couldn't see any distinguishing features. Well she wouldn't would she? As long as he remembered not to smile.
Miss Jones introduces Philip to the inspector, saying 'he's from Africa'. (The Prowler).
- Well, you didn't think he was from the Arctic, did you?
Seymour tells Rigsby that Philip has been giving him some very black looks. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- He couldn't give you any other kind, could he?
Alan has asked Rigsby to lend him some money. Rigsby suggests he ask Philip. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- I'm sure he could run to a few bags of salt and an elephant's tusk.
Rigsby agrees with Philip that Brenda is the sort of girl who could �bleed Alan white�. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- Mind you, you've got a definite advantage there.
Rigsby tells Philip why he nearly hit him driving at night, although avoiding Vienna. (Clunk Click).
- I could see him better.
Rigsby indicates Philip while relating one of his dreams. (Fawcett's Python).
- I could have been one of the 'Great White Hunters', which is more than I can say for him.
Gwyn says he didn't realise his room-mate Philip was black. (Fire and Brimstone).
- Of course he's black, he comes from Africa. What colour did you expect him to be - sky blue?
Rigsby has spotted Philip on the rugby pitch, and asks Ruth if it is him, as he is unsure. (The Movie).
- Is that our black friend? I know they all look the same at this distance.
Police & Crime
Philip tells Rigsby that he can't tell him his real name because his people believe if someone knows your real name 'they can harm you, work evil with it'. (Black Magic).
- We've got people like that in this country. We call them the police.
After Rigsby's interruptions while the inspector talks to Philip, the inspector reminds Rigsby that he is conducting the interview. (The Prowler).
- Interview? It's more like a diplomatic exchange.
The inspector tells the group they are more likely to be murdered by someone they know. (The Prowler).
- You're a real bundle of fun, you are, aren't you?
Alan tells Rigsby of how he ran off after accidentally pushing a policeman over at a demonstration. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- I don't think Lenin would have left it like that.
Talking about thieves, Philip reminds Rigsby about his brother and the sports jacket he pinched. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- He took it out of the shop to see how it looked in the daylight.
- He might have had a blackout. My mate came-to outside Marks & Spencer's clutching a black chiffon nightie.
Politics & Officialdom
Alan insists he's not a Marxist. Rigsby points out a poster of Che Guevara over Alan's bed. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- Who's that on the wall, then? It's not your granny, is it?
Alan tells Rigsby he's not a Marxist, but a Maoist. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- Oh yes? I've noticed your eyes are getting quite horizontal these days.
- Must be all those crispy noodles you keep eating.
- Unless they put someone up (for election) from The Lotus House, your vote's going to be wasted.
Alan tells Rigsby he is against Labour because of its enforcement of the 'three-day week'. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- The five-day one never suited you.
Rigsby shouts at Alan for putting a Labour banner on Vienna. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- That cat's Conservative! At least, he is during the day.
Rigsby jokes about the rather limp-wristed Labour candidate. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- He shouldn't be with you, he should be with the Gay Liberation Front.
Rigsby tells Mr. Platt how his neighbours vote. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- They're all Communists. They don't believe in private property - unless it's theirs, of course.
Alan laughs off the existence of vampires by asking Rigsby if he's ever seen one. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- Get down the tax office.
Alan says homosexuality is no longer taboo, as the government has made it legal. (Stage Struck).
- I'm not surprised with that lot. It's a wonder they didn't make it compulsory.
Rigsby says modern Britain is sinking like the Titanic. (The Good Samaritan).
- Confused orders from the bridge, water swirling round our ankles. The only difference is, they had a band.
Ruth suggests the new female tenant has 'a job she must be ashamed of'. (Fawcett's Python).
- You don't mean she's from the Tax Office?
Philip asks Rigsby how he knows that a man he is convinced is from the Council is such a person. (Great Expectations).
- He's got those hunched shoulders from crouching over figures all day, and those long bony fingers from trying to get blood out of a stone.
Rigsby thinks Mr. Snell is after Rigsby for unpaid finances. (Great Expectations).
- What have you got in that bag, a thumbscrew?
Popularity
Rigsby tells Alan the extent of his popularity at the Conservative Club. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- There's only one bloke who ever speaks to me at that club... and he washes the glasses.
Rigsby is having a miserable Christmas - on his own. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- I can't even find anyone to pull my cracker.
Rigsby blames the editor for the lack of replies to his personal ad. (Pink Carnations).
- Well I told them not to put it among 'Surgical Appliances'. I mean, you're not looking for a new husband among the body belts, trusses and hair transplants, are you? You're looking for a replacement, not spare parts.
Ruth tells Rigsby that some men have 'got it', and that he's one of them. (Pink Carnations).
- Trouble is, I don't get much chance to use it, Miss Jones.
Race & Racism
Rigsby insists ethnic tenants are trouble. (The New Tenant).
- What about that Indian we had here? All that cooking and bringing his friends in. Used to arrive with twenty-four of them in the back of a taxi. I never complained, and what happened? Left, owing a month's rent. (Alan: I bet you squeezed him out). No I didn't! He went on a day trip to Bolougne - they wouldn't let him back in again.
Ruth tells Philip he is 'a natural dancer'. (A Night Out).
- Dance? Is that what you call it? I thought he was trying to bring rain.
Rigsby is talking to Alan and Philip about race issues. (All Our Yesterdays).
- Look at Enid Blyton. She got into trouble because Big Ears didn't like Gollywog.
Rigsby tells Alan how he differs socially from Philip. (All Our Yesterdays).
- If there's any trouble, you'd be the one to go. He's fireproof.
Rigsby gives Alan another example of why blacks are not the same as white people. (The Prowler).
- Why do they always break down on the M1? ...Standing on the hard shoulder, staring with childlike bewilderment at their steaming radiators.
Rigsby tells Philip his version of China's theory of ethnicity. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- They believe that when God made us, He put us all in the oven to bake. He took us out before we were ready, the Chinese were done to a golden turn, and your lot were burnt to a bloody crisp.
Rigsby tells Philip why he's glad he's not black. (Food Glorious Food).
- There are certain disadvantages with your pigmentation - like a dimly-lit street and a ten-ton lorry.
Philip says that the ingredients of cat food should go to feed people. (Food Glorious Food).
- It does. Pakistanis love it. Goes down very nice with a touch of curry powder.
- You drop a Pakistani from any height, he'll always land on his feet.
Rigsby is jealous that Philip managed to unscrew Ruth's jam jar lid. (A Body Like Mine).
- Did you see the look of superiority on his face? That was a definite setback for the white races.
Philip asks if Rigsby is watching the England v. West Indies cricket match on TV. (A Body Like Mine).
- I happen to be the proud owner of a colour television. I'm not watching something that looks the same in black and white.
Rigsby voices his dislike of German arrogance, after they won a recent football game. (A Body Like Mine).
- After that second goal, I thought they were going to break in to the goose-step.
Philip says the baby looks 'plain'. (That's My Boy).
- I suppose he would to you. If he had half a dozen rings round his neck and was covered in warpaint, he'd look marvellous.
Philip's peering into the cot has started the baby crying again.Rigsby reassures the baby. (That's My Boy).
- It's alright, The dark gentleman didn't mean it. He that colour because he comes from where the sun's very hot, and he needs to be heat-resistant like a non-stick pan.
- It's alright, he won't eat you. His Dadda might, but he won't.
Philip talks to Rigsby about 'cultural evenings'. (Stage Struck).
- Before you came here, your idea of a 'cultural evening' was running round with someone's head on a pole.
Rigsby is after Philip's bottle of champagne. Philip says he is saving it for a special occasion. (Hello Young Lovers).
- What 'special occasion' - first black couple to win 'Come Dancing'?
Religion
Rigsby suggests the Grey Lady may have been a Salvation Army officer, but his description of a wailing sound puzzles Philip. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- Mind you, you should hear them on Sundays.
The vicar suggests the curate, a cricket fan, would be better to conduct Rigsby's requested exorcism. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- I don't want him coming round here hitting The Devil for six and playing a straight bat.
Rigsby tells Philip how the local vicar saved the life of a former depressed tenant, even though he'd jumped off the roof. (The Good Samaritan).
- He landed on the vicar.
- Mind you, he had a grievance, he was self-employed.
Ruth says the local Curate will be visiting tonight, singing hymns. (Fawcett's Python).
- I must remember to put the cat out.
Rigsby says the Curate's singing is acceptable, on the whole. (Fawcett's Python).
- It's just the high notes, when he sounds afflicted with a strangulated hernia.
Ruth asks Rigsby to imagine the Curate's reaction to seeing Marilyn in her negligee. (Fawcett's Python).
- Oh, a bit of scourging and a couple of hours in a hair shirt, he'll be as right as rain.
Ruth asks what was Osborne's religion, but Rigsby is unsure. (Suddenly At Home).
- As long as he wasn't Indian. I don't fancy pushing a flaming pyre up the Humber.
Rigsby agrees with Gwyn that the country needs 'a fresh moral attitude'. (Fire and Brimstone).
- I was only saying the other day in the bookies, 'what we need is a fresh moral attitude'.
Rigsby is smooth-talking religious tenant Gwyn into staying. (Fire and Brimstone).
- You looked just like Billy Graham when you said that!
Religious convert Rigsby tells Philip he is cancelling the Sunday papers. (Fire and Brimstone).
- You can make do with The War Cry from now on.
Restaurant, The Grange
At The Grange, Miss Jones comments on the torture instruments decorating the wall. (A Night Out). Watch video
- Yes, that's in case you can't pay. They don't make you do the washing up here, they just screw you up in an iron boot.
Alan says it cost him 10p to get out of the toilets at The Grange. (A Night Out).
- You should have shown him your Barclaycard.
- What did you expect? You won't get it for a penny here, you know.
Alan is worried about being thrown out of The Grange after Spooner has pinched his bow-tie back. (A Night Out).
- They won't throw you out - they'll just give you a couple of turns on the rack, that's all.
Rigsby, lifestyle etc.
Alan tells Rigsby he needs charisma if he's going to gain the affections of Miss Jones. (Charisma).
- I'm not spraying myself with that stuff, mate.
Philip asks Rigsby if he's ever thought of growing sideburns. (Charisma).
- Yes. I don't think I've got the strength.
Rigsby tells the boys why he can't wear his demob suit any more. (A Night Out).
- The linings of the pockets have gone, from carrying too much small change.
- If you put your hand in the pockets, you'd find yourself clutching your kneecaps.
- It's too shiny. If I stand in a strong light, I start shimmering.
Alan suggests a pink-lapelled tuxedo for Rigsby to wear for his dinner date. (A Night Out).
- Look, I'm going there to eat, not play in the band.
With Rigsby's desperation to get food, Alan reminds him that Miss Jones has dressed the bird table. (Food Glorious Food).
- Oh, thank you. I suppose you'd like to see me hanging upside down, chewing on a piece of bacon rind?
Seymour invites Rigsby back to his manor. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- Ooh I shall have to put the old cord back in the pyjamas now!
Rigsby imagines himself finally accepted into upper class society. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- I can just see myself swanning down the golf club in my chunky sweater, with two matching terriers like bookends.
Rigsby says society has put paid to his dream of retiring to the coast. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- I'll probably end up down the local library, clinging to the radiators.
Alan is surprised to see Rigsby in his room, as he was supposed to be spending Christmas at his brother's. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- Who did you think it was, The Ghost Of Christmas Past?
Alan has given Rigsby some bath salts. Rigsby thinks he's implying something. Alan says 'It's the thought that counts'. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- It's the thought that worries me.
Alan comments on the large amount of city labels on Rigsby's suitcase. (That's My Boy).
- Yes, that'll raise a few eyebrows when I take the washing down the laundrette.
- I got them off a bloke's case at London airport.
- You know what they're like round here. You've got to cross the Sahara on a camel before they'll take any notice of you.
Rigsby tells Miss Jones of his fondness for children. (That's My Boy).
- I was Father Christmas every year down the British Legion, until one of them set fire to my beard.
Ruth says Rigsby has something of a Philistine about him. Rigsby is oblivious. (Fawcett's Python).
- Oh, that's very nice of you, Miss Jones.
Gwyn coaxes Rigsby into praying with him, and tells God about Rigsby�s failings. (Fire and Brimstone).
- Yes, alright. We can leave the 'half-inching' from Woolworths till later, can't we?
After telling her his first name, Ruth says he doesn't look like a 'Rupert'. (Great Expectations).
- Well of course I don't look like a 'Rupert'! He's a little woolly bear with a checked scarf.
Rigsby tells Philip about how British men in India used to get women. (Pink Carnations).
- They'd write home - give them all his requirements. She'd come up-river with a grand piano and a roll of lino.
Ambrose tries to give Rigsby a fake diamond instead of his rent. (Under The Influence).
- No thank you. I've got all the glass I need in the greenhouse.
Sex & Romance
Rigsby tells the inspector of his wartime marriage. (The Prowler).
- We were on ration then. I've been 'on ration' ever since.
Alan tells Rigsby he has a blind date fixed up. (The Permissive Society).
- You mean she hasn't seen you? God, she's in for a shock then.
Rigsby says Alan's only experience of women was from adult magazines. (The Permissive Society). Watch video .
- It must have come as a great surprise to find they hadn't got staples across their stomachs.
Philip says in his country they don't read adult magazines. (The Permissive Society).
- You don't have time... you're too busy doing it.
Alan jokes with Philip that Rigsby doesn't know where the erogenous zones are. (The Permissive Society).
- Of course I do - somewhere near the equator aren't they?
Alan says he believes in 'love without fear'. (The Permissive Society).
- The last time you indulged in love without fear, you spent three days under that bed hiding from her father.
Rigsby recalls how 'the purity of a woman' was the most important gift a woman could give to a man on his wedding night. (The Permissive Society).
- Now he has to make do with a set of cufflinks.
Rigsby reminds the boys on his rule about bringing women back to the house. (The Permissive Society).
- Just remember the permissive society stops at that front door - we don't want any of it in here.
Miss Jones says the man who has rejected her stopped taking her his dirty laundry for her to wash, a sure sign that 'it's over'. (The Permissive Society).
- You don't know that. He mght be using a laundrette.
Alan compares a woman to a finely-tuned piano, but admits that last night he did experience some resistance. (The Permissive Society).
- You mean you couldn't get the lid up?
Rigsby wonders if Miss Jones would submit to a few French phrases, but remembers her recent depression. (The Permissive Society).
- I don't think she's in the mood for 'factory chimneys'.
Alan describes the previous night's scene at a girl's flat, including 'Tchaikovsky in the background'. (The Permissive Society).
- Oh, he was there as well, was he?
Rigsby says 'the permissive society' doesn't exist. (The Permissive Society).
- I should know, I've looked for it.
Rigsby says romanticism doesn't work in the local vicinity. (Moonlight and Roses).
- It's alright for Noel Coward. I bet he didn't try it with any of the women round here.
- If he crept up behind them in a silk dressing gown, he'd find his fag-holder shoved down the back of his throat.
Rigsby gives his opinion on romance. (Moonlight and Roses).
- You end up in some expensive restaurant, with a glass full of chopped fruit and eating meat off a flaming sword. And then up come the 'genuine gypsy violinists' - day workers from Ford's.
Rigsby argues with the bailiffs about his impending night in with Brenda. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- She's expecting an unbridled night of luxury, not a roll on the lino.
Rigsby accuses milkman Fred of spending mornings with one of his female customers, his milk float always parked in the road. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- The Council have been waiting three months to clean that gutter.
Rigsby thinks Brenda's appearance in her negligee was for Rigsby's benefit. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- I did want something warm for Christmas. It certainly beats stringback gloves and a chunky sweater.
Rigsby tells Alan about his success with women on V. J. night at the end of the war. (For The Man Who Has Everything).
- Japan weren't the only ones who surrended that night, I'll tell you.
Rigsby finds the kiss between Alan and Ruth's characters hilarious. (Stage Struck).
- You're supposed to be kissing her, not licking an envelope.
Alan asks Rigsby what he can do to allay the homosexual advances of Hilary. (Stage Struck).
- There's only one thing you can do - keep your hand on your ha'penny.
Alan asks Rigsby what happened regarding his sexual adventures in a brothel in wartime France. (Fawcett's Python).
- Nothing happened! The Germans scored a direct hit on the bedroom. I thought 'If this is sex, you can stuff it'.
Rigsby warns Alan against trying to chat up new tenant Marilyn. (Fawcett's Python).
- You'll have to take up something else. Try brass rubbing.
Rigsby tells Alan how sex was different when he was young. (The Cocktail Hour).
- Our idea of a 'dirty weekend' was cleaning out the coal shed.
Alan says his girlfriend has opened his eyes to all the good things in life. (The Cocktail Hour).
- You mean she's on 'the pill' ?
Rigsby tells Alan all that he could offer a girl in his room. (The Cocktail Hour).
- A bag of cheese and onion crisps and a bottle of Cyprus sherry.
Rigsby tells Philip about the taboo of sex in Edwardian times. (Hello Young Lovers).
- You were lucky if you saw a bare leg before you got married. Probably didn't see much after, either.
- They even used to cover the piano legs.
- Doctors had to deliver babies with bags over their heads.
Lorna's father is shocked to see the bed in his daughter's room has collapsed. (Hello Young Lovers).
- It won't take the strain. One false move, you get a spring up your winceyette.
Rigsby says there's no point being too modest when you're advertising for a partner. (Pink Carnations).
- If you're selling pork pies, you don't put them in the back of the shop, you put them out on display.
Rigsby says he is looking for a 'spiritual, cultured' woman. Philip apologises for laughing and says he didn't know he was looking for those qualities in a woman. (Pink Carnations).
- Of course I am - that, and a decent pair of knockers.
- Well, culture's alright. But you can't discuss Etruscan vases all night, can you?
The bride's mother demands Rigsby's attention. He thinks his blind date has finally arrived, but is surprised to see how old she is. (Pink Carnations).
- When you said 'early twenties', I didn't know you meant 1920s.
- I'm not surprised you're late. It's a wonder you didn't wait for it to go dark.
- Still, they say the best wine comes out of old bottles.
After Ruth's pretended hypnotised passion for Rigsby, Rigsby says it got out of hand. (Under The Influence).
- I wanted love and affection, not Rent-A-Storm.
Spooner
As Alan fetches clothes form Spooner the wrestler's wardrobe, Rigsby tells him to be careful. (A Night Out).
- He knocked a bloke down two flights of stairs once, just for wearing his hat.
At The Grange, Rigsby overhears Spooner refer to him as 'the old skinflint'. (A Night Out).
- 'Skinflint', eh? Just wait till he wants to take a bath. There's going to be a sudden absence of hot water.
When Spooner starts to sing, Alan tells Rigsby to 'show him what you're made of'. (All Our Yesterdays).
- I won't need to, it'll be all over the floor.
Sport
Ruth is surprised to hear that Rigsby was a tennis player, and tells her of his prowess. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- I was never off the court, before my strings went.
Ruth talks about the Conservative candidate's liking for 'blood sports'. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- I don't know about that. I know he watches Leeds United.
Rigsby gives his opinions on today's footballers. (A Body Like Mine).
- Have you seen them? Prancing round the field like a bunch of male models.
- In my day when you scored a goal, all you got was a brisk handshake - now you get covered in lovebites.
- The fullbacks used to come at you like butcher's dogs. If they caught you right, you could end up at the back of the stand.
Rigsby says Mohammed Ali only wins because he talks his opponents into submission. (A Body Like Mine).
- He engages them in some witty repartee then, as they're trying to think of an answer, he clouts them round the back of the ear.
Rigsby's boxing past re-emerges, as he dons a pair of boxing gloves. (A Body Like Mine).
- What do you think these are? They weren't to stop me biting my nails, you know.
Rigsby admits to never having played golf, although he says he has a feeling for the game. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- I did very well one year on 'the front' at Skegness, until I got stuck in one of those little wooden windmills.
Rigsby tells Seymour how his golf practice is coming on. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- I can put seven into the downstairs lav from the landing.
Alan tells Rigsby he has never been interested in football. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- Yes, it's always been karate or kung-fu, or something else from the land of the bandy legs with you, hasn't it?
Rigsby says the Soviets only won so many Olympic medals because they were all on cattle steroids. (The Good Samaritan).
- They shouldn't have given them medals, they should have pinned blue rosettes behind their ears.
Alan says the Soviets won so many Olympic medals because of their hard training. (The Good Samaritan).
- They don't need training. All they need is to hear the magic word 'Siberia' and they're off like the wind.
Strangers
Rigsby ponders with Miss Jones on the reason for the prowler's intrusion. (The Prowler).
- He didn't come up here just to leave a box of Milk Tray, did he?
Rigsby tells the young Liberal candidate his opinions of his recent speech in the park. (Stand Up And Be Counted).
- I was riveted. I couldn't take my eyes off you. Your flies were undone.
Philip suggests The Grey Lady may be trying to contact Rigsby. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- Well I wish she'd give me a ring, instead of leaping out and frightening me to death.
Brenda says The Grey Lady might manifest herself during their seance. (Things That Go Bump In The Night).
- She won't be the only one.
Rigsby says a former self-employed tenant who went out on the window ledge won't be alone soon. (The Good Samaritan).
- If things go on like this, we'll all be at it. He'd have a job to find a ledge.
- You won't be able to walk through the streets without the self-employed dropping on you.
Rigsby wonders why Ruth and the Curate are standing on the settee (they have seen the snake). (Fawcett's Python).
- I thought it might be the Curate's way of getting a high note.
Rigsby decides to make the place presentable for Alan's influential girlfriend. (The Cocktail Hour).
- I'd better dash round with the air freshener, the wind's off the abbatoir again.
- I wish I'd known she was coming, I'd have bought a fluffy toilet seat cover.
- I'll get the blue towels out, they've still got a bit of tread left on them.
Rigsby remarks on Alan's girlfriend's father's reputation for 'property developing'. (The Cocktail Hour).
- He's cleared more ground for car parks than the might of the German Luftwaffe. They tried to hit that Town Hall for two years, he got it down in a week with six Irishmen.
Caroline is surprised to hear that Rigsby knows her mother, Lady Armitage. (The Cocktail Hour).
- Oh yes, I think I've brushed against her a few times in Tesco.
- I think our trolleys have locked once or twice at the frozen food counter.
Rigsby's ignorance shows through when Caroline mentions going to Glyndebourne (for the opera). (The Cocktail Hour).
- Ah yes, the Three-Day Event, no doubt?
Rigsby explains why his granddad looked well while lying in state. (Suddenly At Home).
- He'd been at Skegness the week before. It did him the world of good.
Lorna's tyrannical father is coming over after learning about her relationship with Robin. Rigsby is worried. (Hello Young Lovers).
- As long as he doesn't let him have both barrels.
- We don't want to spend all night picking pellets out of the furniture.
Rigsby reminds Ambrose about the woman who lost her hair from taking his medicine - and what her husband did to him. (Under The Influence).
- He's bound to be distressed - he goes to bed with a flaming redhead and wakes up next to a billiard ball.
Rigsby tells Ambrose about the man who tells fortunes from women's breast prints. (Under The Influence).
- He had a nice pair through the post the other day. A woman had made them with a couple of oranges. Turns out he'd advised a couple of Jaffas to invest in gilt-edged.
Rigsby explains to Philip that his future mother-in-law was raised in India, and had servants. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- It must have been very difficult for her - learning to dress herself and mastering the complexities of the twin-tub.
Rigsby has a photo of his future mother-in-law. He tries to explain her strange facial expression to Philip. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- It looks like she's got the Bombay Crut...It's like Delhi Belly or the Rangoon Runs, only worse.
Rigsby is lamenting the fact that Ruth's mother, raised in India, will be living with them. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- I wish she'd followed that Indian custom - the one where the widow jumps on the bonfire with her husband.
Rigsby gives his criminal brother some orders for after the ceremony. (Come On In, The Water's Lovely).
- On the photographs, tilt your hat over your eyes. We might make The Tatler, I don't want them recognising you.
Tenants, other
Alan tells Rigsby that Hilary just missed out on a part in �Oh, Calcutta!� (Stage Struck).
- What happened, didn't he measure up?
Alan tells Rigsby that Hilary has written a play. (Stage Struck).
- It's all he can do to leave a note for the milkman.
Alan says Hilary's play tackles violence in modern society. (Stage Struck).
- Violence? He's only got to break a nail, he takes to his bed for the rest of the day.
Hilary says all the cat-calls during his last nude scene 'left a scar'. (Stage Struck).
- What happened then, did you get a splinter up your carte-blanche?
Rigsby tells Miss Jones she'd be wasting her time chatting up the camp Hilary. (Stage Struck).
- Like an empty slot machine - you put your money in, but nothing comes out.
Mr. Gray asks if the waiting crowd in the street is shouting for him to come down from the roof. (The Good Samaritan).
- No, it's more likely 'Jump!'. They're starting to sell hot dogs down there.
After earlier overhearing Robin and Lorna talking 'sweet nothings', Rigsby starts to give Robin some advice. (Hello Young Lovers).
- Now, Robin... Do you mind if I call you Robin, or do you prefer 'Squirrel Nutkin' ?
Ambrose insists he is from a Romany 'caravan'. Rigsby is ignorant of the term. (Under The Influence).
- The only time you've been in a caravan was when you had that week in Cleethorpes - and then you came back on the Thursday.
Transport
Rigsby tells Alan why he decided against buying a Mini motor car. (Clunk Click).
- They're too small. You could lose them in a pile of dead leaves.
Cut scene: Rigsby tries to justify overtaking a man at traffic lights. (Clunk Click).
- I thought you were training for a funeral.
Cut scene: An angry driver derides Rigsby's driving, claiming it has made his dog ill. (Clunk Clink).
- I'm not surprised. You should get in the back window and let him drive.
Alan asks what Mr. Gray is doing up on the roof. (The Good Samaritan).
- Well, he's not waiting for the last bus, is he?
Taking Ruth for a drive in the country, a souped-up open-top car passes them, with the youths inside gesturing. Rigsby replies. (The Movie).
- Take the wheels off and keep chickens in it !
The canvas roof of Rigsby's sports car peels itself off as they drive along. Ruth tells Rigsby, who pretends not to have noticed. (The Movie).
- That's alright, Miss Jones. I was going to let the top down anyway.
Vienna
Philip asks Rigsby why his cat is called Vienna. (The New Tenant).
- If you take this cat to the door - on a night when you'd have to kick a polar bear out, never mind a cat - if he sees another pair of eyes out there, it's 'Goodnight Vienna'.
Rigsby puts the cat down before entering Spooner's room. He has broken his leg falling over him. (All Our Yesterdays).
- Go on, Vienna. I don't think Uncle Spooner wants to see you at the moment. In fact, I think he'd have your tripes out.
- It's not his fault you didn't see him. I can't put lights on him, can I?
Rigsby is calling Vienna to come in for the night. (The Prowler).
- Come on, this is the night the cat men come. You don't want to end up stretched across a tennis racket, do you?
While discussing food, Philip asks Rigsby if he would eat Vienna if he were starving. Rigsby picks up the cat. (Food Glorious Food).
- I shall have to cover his ears if you carry on like this.
Rigsby chastises Vienna for only ever wanting to be fed, and nothing more. (Food Glorious Food).
- If you could handle a tin opener, we wouldn't see you for smoke, would we?
Seymour has promised Rigsby to invite the mayor round, and warns his cat Vienna. (The Perfect Gentleman).
- Don't go doing anything in any dark corners.
Brenda admires Rigsby's cat Vienna. (Last Of The Big Spenders).
- I must get after him with the powder, he's been scratching himself silly all day.
Philip says the Fawcett's Python eats anything. (Fawcett's Python).
- I'll have to keep an eye on Vienna. He might end up as a bulge in his stomach.
After their fish supper, Rigsby gives Ruth his plan for washing up. (Fire and Brimstone).
- We'll let Vienna take the rough off the plates. He's a little marvel at getting the tomato sauce out of the cracks.
Rigsby has strong words for Vienna as he picks his shirt free of cat hairs. (Great Expectations).
- If you don't stop moulting, I'm going to give you a coat of varnish.
With Ruth 'hypnotised', she throws Rigsby onto the kitchen table and lies on top of him. (Under The Influence).
- What about the cat? I should put him out, this sort of thing disturbs him - his fur'll be coming out again.
Rigsby is trying to hypnotise the cat with a swinging watch chain. Philip asks if it is working. (Under The Influence).
- I'm not sure - he looks dozy at the best of times.
War, The
Rigsby tells Philip about his old Captain. (The New Tenant).
- I never saw him ruffled. Whenever 'Gerry' opened up he'd just lean on his stick and say "Where d'you think that's coming from, Sergeant?" Everyone would dive for cover, but not the Captain. (Philip: What happened to him?). He got blown up by a shell.
Rigsby denounces the Royal Air Force. (All Our Yesterdays).
- Brylcreem boys. They were a shower that lot. Fought the war in carpet slippers.
- None of them could stand heights. You couldn't get most of them up a ladder.
- Those mysterious objects standing at the end of the runway, held together with canvas and string? They never went near them. Went everywhere by luxury coach.
Alan mentions the RAF in 1940. Philip asks what happened in 1940. (All Our Yesterdays).
- The Battle of Britain! You must have heard about that, even in your remote outpost. They must have beat that out on the drums - 'the battle of the great iron birds'?.
Rigsby is reminiscing about the war. (All Our Yesterdays).
- They don't even stand still for the two minutes silence any more. They'd rather hold a pop festival any day.
- I didn't take any notice of Chamberlain, mate. "In my hand I have a piece of paper". We all knew what he could do with that.
- There were no flags up welcoming me home when I got back. They hoped I wasn't coming.
- That bloke down the road, he was the first to take his railings down for scrap iron. Mind you, he was the first to put them back up again as well - he kept them in his garage.
Rigsby thinks he's shot Spooner when a gun from his war mementoes box goes off. (All Our Yesterdays).
- I didn't do it on purpose. I could never hit a barn door.
Alan claims Rigsby's mistrust of him is based on him having long hair. (The Prowler).
- Look, I didn't trust Hitler, but it wasn't because of his moustache.
Rigsby insists that during the war he and comrades went without food for a whole week. (Food Glorious Food).
- We were the only battalion that didn't eat the mascot.
Rigsby tells Alan of soldiers' wartime tendency towards fellow soldiers. (Stage Struck).
- It wasn't only the Africa Korps you had to watch out for then, mate.
Rigsby has an analogy for Alan's terror after seeing Marilyn's python. (Fawcett's Python).
- I haven't seen panic like that since twelve of us tried to get into the same lifejacket at Dunkirk.
Rigsby tells Ruth about the Army's sympathy for a soldier with bad eyesight and flat feet. (Suddenly At Home).
- They put him in a forward trench - he saw the Germans before any of us.
- His flat feet didn't stop him breaking the United Services record for the half-mile, either.
| Veronica |
The Gardiner Dam is in which country? | IMDb: Most Popular People With Biographies Matching "Wanted"
Most Popular People With Biographies Matching "Wanted"
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The Pretty Reckless
Who You Selling For
Between 2013 and 2015, The Pretty Reckless traveled the globe touring in support of their second album, the raucous, roaring, Catholic guilt-inspired Going To Hell. A bruising blend of ferocious rock and roll and inky blues, the album debuted in the Top 5 on the Billboard Top 200 and spun off three No. 1 Mainstream Rock singles, "Fucked Up World," "Follow Me Down" and 2014's most successful song at the format, "Heaven Knows," which spent a total of 18 weeks in the top spot. Going to Hell's success meant strong live demand for the New York City band, which is anchored by its songwriters, singer-guitarist Taylor Momsen and guitarist Ben Phillips, who have been making music together in partnership for ten years, and rounded out by bassist Mark Damon and drummer Jamie Perkins. The Going To Hell Tour sent The Pretty Reckless off on four separate jaunts across North America and three trips to Europe. Their explosive shows earned them legions of new fans at home and overseas.
Despite feeling physically and emotionally spent after returning from their two-year odyssey, Momsen and Phillips jumped right into writing the songs for their third album, the scorching yet soulful Who You Selling For, which will be released by Razor & Tie in October. "We had so much we wanted to say, it was like shaking a can of soda on tour, then when we started writing we cracked the seal," says Momsen. "The touring life is very isolating. You look at the world through a bus or airplane window. But music is the healing factor. It's the one thing that is grounding and a true companion through the forest. It saved us - again."
The necessity of music as a balm for the soul is a theme that threads its way through Who You Selling For, which finds Momsen and Phillips dealing with emotions ranging from confusion and frustration to depression and despair. "I think we felt a dire need to express those thoughts," says Phillips. "And they're things I think most humans feel on a daily basis but don't always have an outlet to express. In the end we're saying, 'Don't give up, your soul is all you have, so you've got to hang onto that.'" The album's opening track, "Hangman" (which was inspired by a poem by Chidiock Tichborne written on the eve of his execution), tells a story of having control over your own mind and soul no matter what is happening to you. From there, Who You Selling For delves deep into the psyche of Momsen and Phillips - two artists who believe very much in the fiery redemptive power of rock and roll.
The album's first single, "Take Me Down," is a story of desperation, with Momsen delivering such lyrics as "I spend all night and day / How much harder can I play? / You know I gave my life to rock and roll?" "It's about wanting something so much you'd sell your soul for it," Momsen says, adding that she and Phillips were inspired by blues artist Robert Johnson's song "Crossroads," which some have interpreted as Johnson singing about selling his soul to the Devil in exchange for his musical ability. "Back To The River" is about the desire to get away from everything, to go where no one can reach you, while the strutting "Wild City" is influenced by being young and on your own in New York ("We wrote it while walking down Rivington Street on the Lower East Side," Momsen says). The most aggressive song on the album is "Oh My God," which Momsen describes as "self-confession right out of a journal. I think it speaks for itself." And finally "Who You Selling For" testifies to music being a form of salvation and describes how the rest of the album reaches into all forms of rock and roll looking for "The Answer." The song inspired the album's title, asking listeners to take a look at their own lives with its provocative query. "For me, it's a question that challenges what I'm doing with my life," Momsen says. "It questions the meaning of my actions whatever they are. It also defines the record in a grander way by asking the listener to look into the meaning of each song past the obvious."
Sonically, Who You Selling For alternates between blistering hard rock ("Oh My God," "Prisoner," "Wild City," "Living In The Storm") and gentler, more downtempo moments ("The Walls Are Closing In," "Take Me Down," "Back To The River," "Who You Selling For," acoustic ballad "Bedroom Window," and closing track "The Devil's Back"), giving Momsen a platform to showcase the power and versatility of her voice. She is one of rock's most compelling contemporary frontpersons, capable of being both brash and confrontational and sultry and seductive, daring listeners to ignore her at their own peril with a fiery swagger that has only grown more fascinating as Momsen gets older. (She was 15 when The Pretty Reckless wrote and recorded their rock-grunge-blues debut album Light Me Up, which was released in 2010.)
Momsen's voice sounds all the more intimate thanks to the unvarnished way that she and Phillips, along with their long-time producer Kato Khandwala, recorded the songs. "It's the most natural recording possible," says Phillips. "It's all performance-based, nothing was fixed. If Taylor walked in and sang the song and it didn't work, she'd walk right out." When more than just guitar, bass, and drums were needed, additional musicians were invited in, including guitarist Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers), guitarist Tommy Byrnes (Billy Joel), and keyboardist Andy Burton (Ian Hunter), as well as backing vocalists Janice Pendarvis (David Bowie), Jenny Douglas-Foote (P!nk), and Sophia Ramos (Rod Stewart). "It was so great having that many musicians in a room playing together and just hitting the record button," Momsen says. "It's very gratifying to feel the players and singers represented as they are. It gave life to these songs that were written tucked away in a bedroom and it enabled us to really deliver the most honest performances possible. What you hear is what it sounded like, no frills. That's it."
It's the band's willingness to bare their souls that has earned them such a passionate fan base - people who identify with the raw candor of the lyrics and fearless way they are expressed. "I've had such a strange life," Momsen says. "I've always felt on my own, running around the world on some mission that I barely understood. Our fans have been the ones who were really there for us. They have supported us through the good times and the bad. I owe them gratitude. They are the inspiration when things look too bleak to keep going. I know it's been said a million times, but it's true, I wouldn't be here today without them. They make this all possible."
###
Ashley Benson
Ashley Victoria Benson was born on December 18, 1989 in Anaheim Hills, California, to Shannon (Harte) and Jeff Benson. She has Irish, English, and German ancestry. She has been dancing competitively since she was 2 with hip hop, jazz, ballet, tap and lyrical. She has been singing since she was about 5 and she hopes to pursue that, along with her acting. Ashley started modeling at the age of 5 for dance catalogs. Ashley was then pursued by The Ford Modeling Agency at the age of 8. She worked steadily in print and is still with the Agency. At the age of 10, she wanted to pursue acting. Ashley went on to do 35 commercials, and then on to theatrical roles. Acting was now Ashley's passion. Ashley put all her focus into acting, which left little time for modeling and dancing, anymore. Ashley's most recent role is "Hanna Marin" on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars . Ashley also had a cameo in Romeo Miller (aka Lil Romeo) and Solange Knowles 's music video for the song "True Love". She did a photo shoot with Britney Spears for Vogue Magazine. She is in NLT's music video, "That Girl".
Kaitlyn Dever
Kaitlyn Dever was born in Phoenix, Arizona. She knew she wanted to act at just six years old, and incessantly asked her parents to send her to acting school. Instead, they enrolled her in gymnastics, ballet and ice skating, but her passion didn't lie within any of these activities. At nine years of age, Dever enrolled at the Dallas Young Actors Studio, where she learned set etiquette, how the entertainment business works, and what would be expected of her as a professional actress. She was quickly signed with a respected Los Angeles based talent agent. Shortly thereafter, Dever was booking commercials and was on her way to the quality projects that now support her strong body of work.
She showcased her versatility working with Shailene Woodley in the critically acclaimed coming-of-age comedic drama The Spectacular Now . Soon thereafter, she was given the opportunity to truly shine in the dark drama Short Term 12 alongside Brie Larson, where she plays the supporting lead Jayden, a teenager living in a group home for troubled youths. Short Term 12 premiered at SXSW 2013, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative as well as the Audience Award. Kaitlyn was coined as Summer 2013's indie "It" girl and was highlighted as a SXSW breakout.
Kaitlyn has been fortunate to have worked with some of the industries top and up and coming directors including Clint Eastwood , Jason Reitman , Destin Daniel Cretton , James Ponsoldt , and Lynn Shelton.
Macaulay Culkin
Macaulay Carson Culkin, one of the most famous American child stars, was born on August 26, 1980 in New York City, New York, USA, as the third of seven children of his father Christopher Culkin (a former stage and child actor and also Macaulay's former manager) and mother Patricia Brentrup . He is the brother of Shane Culkin , Dakota Culkin , Kieran Culkin , Quinn Culkin , Christian Culkin , and Rory Culkin , most of whom have also acted. Macaulay's mother, who is from North Dakota, is of German and Norwegian descent. Macaulay's father, from Manhattan, has Irish, German, English, Swiss-German, and French ancestry.
"Mack", as he's known to his close friends and family, first came into showbiz at the age of 4, appearing in a string of Off-Broadway shows such as the New York City Ballet's The Nutcracker and, by 8 years-old, the films Rocket Gibraltar and See You in the Morning , which included him in the rare company of kids who have received rave reviews from The New Yorker and The New York Times.
By the age of 9, the young actor had nearly upstaged star John Candy in Uncle Buck (his deadpan interrogation of Candy was Buck's funniest scene). Then, in 1990, writer John Hughes turned his finished Home Alone script over to director Chris Columbus with a suggestion to consider Culkin for the lead. Though Macaulay was the first kid Columbus saw, he was skeptical about having him in the lead and saw over 200 other possible actors and he admitted that no one came as close to being as good as Culkin. By the callback interview, Mack had memorized two scenes, and Columbus was sure he found his "Kevin McCallister". The movie grossed more than $285 million in the US alone, becoming one of the highest grossing movies of all time and making Macaulay Culkin one of the biggest movie stars of the time.
His next big project was My Girl in which he played "Thomas J. Sennett", a boy who seems to be allergic to everything. Despite some controversy over the ending, the film was released anyway and proved to be another hit film for Mack (and featured his very first kiss). In 1992 came Home Alone 2: Lost in New York , which grossed more than $172 million in the US alone. In 1993 came The Good Son , which was the first role to depart from his cute kid comedies. He played a murderous little demon named Henry. He got the role when his powerhouse negotiator/manager/father Kit Culkin said that he would pull Mack out of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York unless he was given the psychotic boy lead in The Good Son . He was also given a salary of $5 million for the film.
In 1994, at the age of 14, came a string of duds, The Pagemaster , Getting Even with Dad and Ri¢hie Ri¢h . He was paid $8 million for the last two, the highest salary ever paid for a child star. Many people believed Mack had lost his touch, though, because he was no longer that cute tiny kid they saw in Home Alone . In 1995 his parents, who were never married, separated and started a greedy legal battle over the custody of their kids and Mack's fortune. In 1996, the young actor had reportedly said he wouldn't accept any roles until his parents settled their custody dispute. That case would not be resolved until April 1997 when Kit Culkin relinquished control to Brentrup.
In 1998, Macaulay married actress Rachel Miner , but separated in 2000 because Rachel wanted to start a family and Mack wanted to get back into acting. There has been a gap of eight years since 1994's Ri¢hie Ri¢h , and although he made a 'comeback' on stage in 2001, appearing in a London production of "Madame Melville", and also portrayed Michael Alig in Party Monster ; with an estimated fortune of $17 million he clearly never has to work again - if the roles don't appeal to him.
Alexandra Daddario
Alexandra Anna Daddario was born on March 16, 1986 in New York City, New York, to Christina, a lawyer, and Richard Daddario, a prosecutor. Her brother is actor Matthew Daddario , and her grandfather was congressman Emilio Daddario (Emilio Q. Daddario), of Connecticut. She has Italian, Irish, Hungarian, German, and English ancestry. She wanted to be an actress when she was young. Her first job came at age 16, when she got the role of "Laurie Lewis" on All My Children . Alex co-starred, with Logan Lerman & Brandon T. Jackson , in the role of 'Annabeth Chase" in the "Percy Jackson" movies, which were based on Rick Riordan 's best-selling teen books. Also, she played the main character in Texas Chainsaw 3D , which was released in 2013. At the end of 2012, Alex starred in the music video, Imagine Dragons 's "Radioactive".
Emma Stone
Emily Jean "Emma" Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Krista (Yeager), a homemaker, and Jeffrey Charles Stone, a contracting company founder and CEO. She is of Swedish (from her paternal grandfather), English, German, Scottish, and Irish descent. Stone began acting as a child as a member of the Valley Youth Theatre in Phoenix, Arizona, where she made her stage debut in a production of Kenneth Grahame 's "The Wind in the Willows". She appeared in many more productions through her early teens until, at the age of 15, she decided that she wanted to make acting her career.
The official story is that she made a PowerPoint presentation, backed by Madonna 's "Hollywood" and itself entitled "Project Hollywood", in an attempt to persuade her parents to allow her to drop out of school and move to Los Angeles. The pitch was successful and she and her mother moved to LA with her schooling completed at home while she spent her days auditioning.
She had her TV breakthrough when she won the part of Laurie Partridge in the VH1 talent/reality show In Search of the Partridge Family which led to a number of small TV roles in the following years.
Her movie debut was as Jules in Superbad and, after a string of successful performances, her leading role as Olive in Easy A established her as a star.
Eva Green
French actress and model Eva Gaëlle Green was born on July 6, 1980, in Paris, France. Her father, Walter Green , is a dentist who appeared in the 1966 film Au Hasard Balthazar . Her mother, Marlène Jobert , is an actress turned children's book writer. Eva's mother was born in Algeria, of Sephardi Jewish heritage (during that time, Algeria was part of France), and Eva's father is of Swedish, French, and Breton descent. She has a fraternal twin sister, Joy. Eva left French school at 17. She switched to English in Ramsgate, Kent, and went to the American School in France for one year. She studied acting at Saint Paul Drama School in Paris for three years, then had a 10-week polishing course at the Weber Douglas Academy of dramatic Art in London. She also studied directing at the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She returned to Paris as an accomplished young actress, and played on stage in several theater productions: "La Jalousie en Trois Fax" and "Turcaret". There, she caught the eye of director Bernardo Bertolucci . Green followed a recommendation to work on her English. She studied for two months with an English coach before doing The Dreamers with Bernardo Bertolucci . During their work, Bertolucci described Green as being "so beautiful it's indecent".
Green won critical acclaim for her role in The Dreamers . She also attracted a great deal of attention from male audiences for her full frontal nudity in several scenes of the film. Besides her work as an actress, Green also composed original music and recorded several sound tracks for the film score. After "The Dreamers", Green's career ascended to the level where she revealed more of her multifaceted acting talent. She played the love interest of cult French gentleman stealer, Arsène Lupin , opposite Romain Duris . In 2005, she co-starred, opposite Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson , in Kingdom of Heaven , produced and directed by Ridley Scott . The film brought her a wider international exposure. She turned down the femme fatale role in The Black Dahlia , that went to Hilary Swank , because she didn't want to end up typecast as a femme fatale after her role in "The Dreamers". Instead, Eva accepted the prestigious role of "Vesper Lynd", one of three Bond girls, opposite Daniel Craig , in Casino Royale and became the 5th French actress to play a James Bond girl, after Claudine Auger in Thunderball , Corinne Cléry in Moonraker , Carole Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only and Sophie Marceau in The World Is Not Enough . She achieved international recognition for the film, one of the highest-grossing Bond movies ever.
Since then, Green has starred in the films Dark Shadows , 300: Rise of an Empire , Sin City: A Dame to Kill For , and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children . She also starred as Vanessa Ives in Showtime's horror drama "Penny Dreadful" (2014)_. Her performance in the series earned her a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series - Drama at the 73rd Golden Globe Awards.
Since her school years, Green has been a cosmopolitan multilingual and multicultural person. Yet, since her father always lived in France with them and her mother, she and her twin sister can't speak Swedish. She developed a wide scope of interests beyond her acting profession and became an aspiring art connoisseur and an avid museum visitor. Her other activities, outside of acting, include playing and composing music, cooking at home, walking her terrier, and collecting art. She shares time between her two residencies, one is in Paris, France, and one in London, England.
Jared Leto
In the vein of musicians-turned-actors, Jared Leto is a very familiar face in recent film history. Although he has always been the lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and songwriter for American band 30 Seconds to Mars , Leto will always be remembered as an accomplished actor for the numerous, challenging projects he has taken in his life. He is known to be selective about his film roles.
Jared Leto was born in Bossier City, Louisiana, to Constance "Connie" (Metrejon) and Anthony L. "Tony" Bryant. The surname "Leto" is from his stepfather. His ancestry includes English, Cajun (French), as well as Irish, German, and Scottish. Jared and his family traveled across the United States throughout his childhood, living in such states as Wyoming, Virginia and Colorado. Leto would continue this trend when he initially dropped a study of painting at Philadelphia's University of the Arts in favor of a focus on acting at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.
In 1992, Leto moved to Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, intending to take acting roles on the side. Leto's first appearances on screen were guest appearances on the short-lived television shows Camp Wilder , Almost Home and Rebel Highway . However, his next role would change everything for Leto. While searching for film roles, he was cast in the show, My So-Called Life (TV Series 1994-1995). Leto's character was "Jordan Catalano", the handsome, dyslexic slacker, the main love interest of "Angela" (played by Claire Danes ). Leto contributed to the soundtrack of the film, and so impressed the producers initially that he was soon a regular on the show until its end.
Elsewhere, Leto began taking film roles. His first theatrically released film was the ensemble piece, How to Make an American Quilt , based on a novel of the same name and starring renowned actresses Winona Ryder , Anne Bancroft , Ellen Burstyn , Jean Simmons and Alfre Woodard . The film was a modest success and, while Leto's next film, The Last of the High Kings , was a failure, Leto secured his first leading role in Prefontaine , based on long-distance runner Steven Prefontaine. The film was a financial flop, but was praised by critics, notably Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert . He also took a supporting role in the action thriller, Switchback , which starred Dennis Quaid , but the film was another failure.
Leto's work was slowly becoming recognized in Hollywood, and he continued to find work in film. In 1998, everything turned for the better on all fronts. This was the year that Leto founded the band, 30 Seconds to Mars , with his brother, Shannon Leto , as well as Matt Wachter (who later left the group), and after two guitarists joined and quit, Tomo Milicevic was brought in as lead guitarist and keyboardist. As well as the formation of his now-famous band, Leto's luck in film was suddenly shooting for the better. He was cast as the lead in the horror film, Urban Legend , which told a grisly tale of a murderer who kills his victims in the style of urban legends. The film was a massive success commercially, though critics mostly disliked the film. That same year, Leto also landed a supporting role in the film, The Thin Red Line . Renowned director Terrence Malick 's first film in nearly twenty years, the film had dozens of famous actors in the cast, including Sean Penn , Woody Harrelson , John Travolta , Nick Nolte and Elias Koteas , to name a few. The film went through much editing, leaving several actors out of the final version, but Leto luckily remained in the film. The Thin Red Line was nominated for seven Oscars and was a moderate success at the box office. Leto's fame had just begun. He had supporting roles in both James Mangold 's Girl, Interrupted , and in David Fincher 's cult classic, Fight Club , dealing with masculinity, commercialism, fascism and insomnia. While Edward Norton and Brad Pitt were the lead roles, Leto took a supporting role and dyed his hair blond. The film remains hailed by many, but at the time, Leto was already pushing himself further into controversial films. He played a supporting role of "Paul Allen" in the infamous American Psycho , starring Christian Bale , and he played the lead role in Darren Aronofsky 's Requiem for a Dream , which had Leto take grueling measures to prepare for his role as a heroin addict trying to put his plans to reality and escape the hell he is in. Both films were massive successes, if controversially received.
The 2000s brought up new film opportunities for Leto. He reunited with David Fincher in Panic Room , which was another success for Leto, as well as Oliver Stone 's epic passion project, Alexander . The theatrical cut was poorly received domestically (although it recouped its budget through DVD sales and international profit), and though a Final Cut was released that much improved the film in all aspects, it continues to be frowned upon by the majority of film goers. Leto rebounded with Lord of War , which starred Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer who ships weapons to war zones, with Leto playing his hapless but more moral-minded brother. The film was an astounding look at the arms industry, but was not a big financial success. Leto's flush of successes suddenly ran dry when he acted in the period piece, Lonely Hearts , which had Leto playing "Ray Fernandez", one of the two infamous "Lonely Hearts Killers" in the 1940s. The film was a financial failure and only received mixed responses. Leto then underwent a massive weight gain to play "Mark David Chapman", infamous murderer of John Lennon , in the movie, Chapter 27 . While Leto did a fantastic job embodying the behavior and speech patterns of Chapman, the film was a complete flop, and was a critical bomb to boot. It was during this period that Leto focused increasingly on his band, turning down such films as Clint Eastwood 's World War 2 film, Flags of Our Fathers .
In 2009, however, Leto returned to acting with Mr. Nobody . Leto's role as "Nemo Nobody" required him to play the character as far aged as 118, even as he undergoes a soul-searching as to whether his life turned out the way he wanted it to. The film was mostly funded through Belgian and French financiers, and was given limited release in only certain countries. Critical response, however, has praised the film's artistry and Leto's acting.
He made his directorial debut in 2012 with the documentary film Artifact .
Leto remains the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and main songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars. Their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars (2002), was released to positive reviews but only to limited success. The band achieved worldwide fame with the release of their second album A Beautiful Lie (2005). Their following releases, This Is War (2009) and Love, Lust, Faith and Dreams (2013), received further critical and commercial success.
After a five years hiatus from filming, Leto returned to act in the drama Dallas Buyers Club (2013), directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and co-starring Matthew McConaughey. Leto portrayed Rayon, a drug-addicted transgender woman with AIDS who befriends McConaughey's character Ron Woodroof. Leto's performance earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Supporting Actor. In order to accurately portray his role, Leto lost 30 pounds, shaved his eyebrows and waxed his entire body. He stated the portrayal was grounded in his meeting transgender people while researching the role. During filming, Leto refused to break character. Dallas Buyers Club received widespread critical acclaim and became a financial success, resulting in various accolades for Leto, who was awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture, Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and a variety of film critics' circle awards for the role.
In 2016, he played the Joker in the supervillain film Suicide Squad .
Leto is considered to be a method actor, known for his constant devotion to and research of his roles. He often remains completely in character for the duration of the shooting schedules of his films, even to the point of adversely affecting his health.
Katie Holmes
Born two months premature at four pounds, Kate Noelle Holmes made her first appearance on December 18, 1978, in Toledo, Ohio. She is the daughter of Kathleen Ann (Craft), a philanthropist, and Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr., a lawyer. She is of German, Irish, and English ancestry. Her parents have said that her strong-willed personality is probably from being born premature. Being the youngest in the Holmes clan, completing the family of three other sisters and one brother, Katie was always the baby.
As a teenager, she began attending modeling school. When she was sixteen, her teacher invited her to go to a modeling competition with other girls from her class. She competed in the International Modeling and Talent Association by singing, dancing, and reciting a monologue from To Kill a Mockingbird . By the end of that time in New York, Katie won many awards. But she said she didn't want to model because it wasn't challenging enough. So when she was seventeen, Katie went to Los Angeles to audition for movies. Luckily, on her second audition, she was cast in the movie, The Ice Storm , directed by Ang Lee . Katie's character was Libbets Casey, a rich New Yorker, who is pursued by two of the main characters. It was a small part, but it marked the beginning of her professional acting career.
After the excitement of her first movie, Katie began sending in audition tapes for pilot shows. During that time, she was also starring in her all-girls Catholic high school musical, Damn Yankees, as Lola. After Kevin Williamson received her audition tape for his new show, Dawson's Creek , the producers wanted her to come to Hollywood right away and read live for them. But because they wanted her to come on the opening night for Damn Yankees, Katie had to tell them she couldn't make it. Fortunately, the show's producers wanted her so much for that role, they rescheduled her callback and the result was she got the part as Joey Potter. During her first year with Dawson's Creek , Katie was able to do two movies, Disturbing Behavior and Go , and, for the former, she won Best Breakthrough Female Performance in the 1999 MTV Movie Awards.
The following year, she starred next to Michael Douglas in Wonder Boys , playing Hannah Green, a published author and a boarder at her teacher's (Douglas) house, who has a crush on him, and tries to seduce him. Her first leading role came in 2002, with Abandon . She played a college student named Katie Burke, who is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of her boyfriend who vanished two years prior. With Dawson's Creek coming to a close after six years in May of 2003, it was a bittersweet thing for all the cast. Accustomed to being in North Carolina filming ten months out of a year, the cast members now had the opportunity to make more movies.
Katie demonstrated this in October, when she had two new movies, Pieces of April and The Singing Detective , coming out in that month alone. Pieces of April is a charming Thanksgiving movie about April (Holmes), the black sheep of her family, who wants to give her family the perfect dinner before her mother passes on. The Singing Detective is a dark musical where the main character ( Robert Downey Jr. ) is a writer in a hospital for skin conditions who writes a dark world of seduction and murder in his mind. Katie Holmes plays the kind Nurse Mills who tends to his every need. She also gets to lip sync and dance in this movie. In 2004, she starred in the romantic movie First Daughter , in which she played the President's ( Michael Keaton ) daughter, Samantha, who wants to go to college without any Secret Service tagging along. In 2005, Holmes co-starred in Batman Begins , where she played Rachel Dawes, a childhood sweetheart and love interest to Batman/Bruce Wayne.
Leonardo DiCaprio
Few actors in the world have had a career quite as diverse as Leonardo DiCaprio's. DiCaprio has gone from relatively humble beginnings, as a supporting cast member of the sitcom Growing Pains and low budget horror movies, such as Critters 3 , to a major teenage heartthrob in the 1990s, as the hunky lead actor in movies such as Romeo + Juliet and Titanic , to then become a leading man in Hollywood blockbusters, made by internationally renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan .
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born November 11, 1974 in Los Angeles, California, the only child of Irmelin DiCaprio (née Indenbirken) and former comic book artist George DiCaprio . His father is of Italian and German descent, and his mother, who is German-born, is of German and Russian ancestry. His middle name, "Wilhelm", was his maternal grandfather's first name. Leonardo's father had achieved minor status as an artist and distributor of cult comic book titles, and was even depicted in several issues of American Splendor, the cult semiautobiographical comic book series by the late 'Harvey Pekar', a friend of George's. Leonardo's performance skills became obvious to his parents early on, and after signing him up with a talent agent who wanted Leonardo to perform under the stage name "Lenny Williams", DiCaprio began appearing on a number of television commercials and educational programs.
DiCaprio began attracting the attention of producers, who cast him in bit part roles in a number of television series, such as Roseanne and The New Lassie , but it wasn't until 1991 that DiCaprio made his film debut in Critters 3 , a low-budget horror movie. While Critters 3 did little to help showcase DiCaprio's acting abilities, it did help him develop his show-reel, and attract the attention of the people behind the hit sitcom Growing Pains , in which Leonardo was cast in the "Cousin Oliver" role of a young homeless boy who moves in with the Seavers. While DiCaprio's stint on Growing Pains was very short, as the sitcom was axed the year after he joined, it helped bring DiCaprio into the public's attention and, after the show ended, DiCaprio began auditioning for roles in which he would get the chance to prove his acting chops.
Leonardo took up a diverse range of roles in the early 1990s, including a mentally challenged youth in What's Eating Gilbert Grape , a young gunslinger in The Quick and the Dead and a drug addict in one of his most challenging roles to date, "Jim Carroll", in The Basketball Diaries , a role which the late River Phoenix originally expressed interest in. While these diverse roles helped establish Leonardo's reputation as an actor, it wasn't until his role as "Romeo" in Baz Luhrmann 's Romeo + Juliet that Leonardo became a household name, a true movie star. The following year, DiCaprio starred in another movie about doomed lovers, Titanic , which went on to beat all box office records held before then, as, at the time, Titanic became the highest grossing movie of all time, and cemented DiCaprio's reputation as a teen heartthrob. Following his work on Titanic , DiCaprio kept a low profile for a number of years, with roles in The Man in the Iron Mask and the low-budget The Beach being some of his few notable roles during this period.
In 2002, he burst back into screens throughout the world with leading roles in Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York , his first of many collaborations with director Martin Scorsese . With a current salary of $20 million a movie, DiCaprio is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, he has not limited his professional career to just acting in movies, as DiCaprio is a committed environmentalist, who is actively involved in many environmental causes, and his commitment to this issue led to his involvement in The 11th Hour, a documentary movie about the state of the natural environment. As someone who has gone from bit parts in television commercials to one of the most respected actors in the world, DiCaprio has had one of the most diverse careers in cinema. DiCaprio continued to defy conventions about the types of roles he would accept, and with his career now seeing him leading all-star casts in action thrillers such as The Departed , Shutter Island and Christopher Nolan 's Inception , DiCaprio continues to wow audiences by refusing to conform to any cliché about actors.
In 2012, he played a mustache-twirling villain in Django Unchained , and then tragic literary character Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby .
DiCaprio is passionate about environmental and humanitarian causes, having donated $1,000,000 to earthquake relief efforts in 2010, the same year he contributed $1,000,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Will Smith
Willard Carroll "Will" Smith, Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, comedian, producer, rapper, and songwriter. He has enjoyed success in television, film, and music. In April 2007, Newsweek called him "the most powerful actor in Hollywood". Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.
In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the popular television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The show ran for six seasons (1990-96) on NBC and has been syndicated consistently on various networks since then. After the series ended, Smith moved from television to film, and ultimately starred in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office, eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally, and eight consecutive films in which he starred open at the number one spot in the domestic box office tally.
Smith is ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes. As of 2014, 17 of the 21 films in which he has had leading roles have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million each, five taking in over $500 million each in global box office receipts. As of 2014, his films have grossed $6.6 billion at the global box office. He has received Best Actor Oscar nominations for Ali and The Pursuit of Happyness.
Smith was born in West Philadelphia, the son of Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith, Sr., a refrigeration engineer. He grew up in West Philadelphia's Wynnefield neighborhood, and was raised Baptist. He has three siblings, sister Pamela, who is four years older, and twins Harry and Ellen, who are three years younger. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000.
Smith attended Overbrook High School. Though widely reported, it is untrue that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); he never applied to college because he "wanted to rap." Smith says he was admitted to a "pre-engineering [summer] program" at MIT for high school students, but he did not attend. According to Smith, "My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college."
Smith started as the MC of the hip-hop duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, with his childhood friend Jeffrey "DJ Jazzy Jeff" Townes as producer, as well as Ready Rock C (Clarence Holmes) as the human beat box. The trio was known for performing humorous, radio-friendly songs, most notably "Parents Just Don't Understand" and "Summertime". They gained critical acclaim and won the first Grammy awarded in the Rap category (1988).
Smith spent money freely around 1988 and 1989 and underpaid his income taxes. The Internal Revenue Service eventually assessed a $2.8 million tax debt against Smith, took many of his possessions, and garnished his income. Smith was nearly bankrupt in 1990, when the NBC television network signed him to a contract and built a sitcom, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, around him.
The show was successful and began his acting career. Smith set for himself the goal of becoming "the biggest movie star in the world", studying box office successes' common characteristics.
Smith's first major roles were in the drama Six Degrees of Separation (1993) and the action film Bad Boys (1995) in which he starred opposite Martin Lawrence.
In 1996, Smith starred as part of an ensemble cast in Roland Emmerich's Independence Day. The film was a massive blockbuster, becoming the second highest grossing film in history at the time and establishing Smith as a prime box office draw. He later struck gold again in the summer of 1997 alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the summer hit Men in Black playing Agent J. In 1998, Smith starred with Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State.
He turned down the role of Neo in The Matrix in favor of Wild Wild West (1999). Despite the disappointment of Wild Wild West, Smith has said that he harbors no regrets about his decision, asserting that Keanu Reeves's performance as Neo was superior to what Smith himself would have achieved, although in interviews subsequent to the release of Wild Wild West he stated that he "made a mistake on Wild Wild West. That could have been better."
In 2005, Smith was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records for attending three premieres in a 24-hour time span.
He has planned to star in a feature film remake of the television series It Takes a Thief.
On December 10, 2007, Smith was honored at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Smith left an imprint of his hands and feet outside the world-renowned theater in front of many fans. Later that month, Smith starred in the film I Am Legend, released December 14, 2007. Despite marginally positive reviews, its opening was the largest ever for a film released in the United States during December. Smith himself has said that he considers the film to be "aggressively unique". A reviewer said that the film's commercial success "cemented [Smith's] standing as the number one box office draw in Hollywood." On December 1, 2008, TV Guide reported that Smith was selected as one of America's top ten most fascinating people of 2008 for a Barbara Walters ABC special that aired on December 4, 2008.
In 2008 Smith was reported to be developing a film entitled The Last Pharaoh, in which he would be starring as Taharqa. It was in 2008 that Smith starred in the superhero movie Hancock.
Men in Black III opened on May 25, 2012 with Smith again reprising his role as Agent J. This was his first major starring role in four years.
On August 19, 2011, it was announced that Smith had returned to the studio with producer La Mar Edwards to work on his fifth studio album. Edwards has worked with artists such as T.I., Chris Brown, and Game. Smith's most recent studio album, Lost and Found, was released in 2005.
Smith and his son Jaden played father and son in two productions: the 2006 biographical drama The Pursuit of Happyness, and the science fiction film After Earth, which was released on May 31, 2013.
Smith starred opposite Margot Robbie in the romance drama Focus. He played Nicky Spurgeon, a veteran con artist who takes a young, attractive woman under his wing. Focus was released on February 27, 2015. Smith was set to star in the Sci-Fic thriller Brilliance, an adaptation of Marcus Sakey's novel of the same name scripted by Jurassic Park writer David Koepp. But he left the project.
Smith played Dr. Bennet Omalu of the Brain Injury Research Institute in the sports-drama Concussion, who became the first person to discover chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a football player's brain. CTE is a degenerative disease caused by severe trauma to the head that can be discovered only after death. Smith's involvement is mostly due to his last-minute exit from the Sci-Fi thriller-drama Brilliance. Concussion was directed by Peter Landesman and-bead filmed in Pittsburgh, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. It received $14.4 million in film tax credits from Pennsylvania. Principal photography started on October 27, 2014. Actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw played his wife. Omalu served as a consultant.
As of November 2015, Smith is set to star in the independent drama Collateral Beauty, which will be directed by David Frankel. Smith will play a New York advertising executive who succumbs to an deep depression after a personal tragedy.
Nobel Peace Prize Concert December 11, 2009, in Oslo, Norway: Smith with wife Jada and children Jaden and Willow Smith married Sheree Zampino in 1992. They had one son, Trey Smith, born on November 11, 1992, and divorced in 1995. Trey appeared in his father's music video for the 1998 single "Just the Two of Us". He also acted in two episodes of the sitcom All of Us, and has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on the David Blaine: Real or Magic TV special.
Smith married actress Jada Koren Pinkett in 1997. Together they have two children: Jaden Christopher Syre Smith (born 1998), his co-star in The Pursuit of Happyness and After Earth, and Willow Camille Reign Smith (born 2000), who appeared as his daughter in I Am Legend. Smith and his brother Harry own Treyball Development Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company named after Trey. Smith and his family reside in Los Angeles, California.
Smith was consistently listed in Fortune Magazine's "Richest 40" list of the forty wealthiest Americans under the age of 40.
Marion Cotillard
Academy Award-winning Actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard , an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud , an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is Breton and her mother has Kabyle ancestry.
Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans. After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in TV series such as Highlander and Extrême limite , but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut at the age of 18 in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse , and had small but noticeable roles in films such as Arnaud Desplechin 's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument and Coline Serreau 's comedy La belle verte .
In 1996, she had her first lead role in the TV film Chloé , playing the title role - a teenage runaway who is forced into prostitution. Cotillard co-starred opposite Anna Karina , the muse of the Nouvelle Vague.
In 1997, she won her first film award at the Festival Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Istres in France, for her performance as the young imprisoned Nathalie in the short film Affaire classée .
Her first prominent screen role was Lilly Bertineau in Gérard Pirès 's box-office hit Taxi , a role which she reprised in two sequels: Taxi 2 and Taxi 3 , this role earned her first César award nomination (France's equivalent to the Oscar) for Most Promising Actress in 1999.
In 1999, Cotillard starred as Julie Bonzon in the Swiss war drama War in the Highlands . For her performance in the film, she won the Best Actress award at the Autrans Film Festival in France.
In 2001, Marion starred in Pretty Things as the twin sisters Marie and Lucie, and was nominated for her second César award for Most Promising Actress.
Cotillard's breakthrough in France came in 2003, when she starred in Yann Samuell 's dark romantic comedy Love Me If You Dare , in which she played Sophie Kowalsky, the daughter of Polish immigrants who lives a love-hate relationship with her childhood friend. The film was a box-office hit in France, became a cult film abroad and led Cotillard to bigger projects.
Her first Hollywood movie was Tim Burton 's Big Fish , in which she played Joséphine, the wife of William Bloom (played by Billy Crudup ). A few years later, Marion starred in Ridley Scott 's A Good Year playing Fanny Chenal, a French café owner who falls in love with Russell Crowe 's character.
In 2004, she won the Chopard Thophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2005, Cotillard won the César award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance of Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet 's A Very Long Engagement .
In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose . Director Olivier Dahan cast Cotillard to play the legendary French singer because to him, her eyes were like those of "Piaf". The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's. The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César, a Lumière Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren ( Two Women ). Only two male performers ( Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful and Robert De Niro for The Godfather: Part II ) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts. Trevor Nunn called her portrayal of "Piaf" "one of the greatest performances on film ever". At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. When she won the César, Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), he also praised her at the stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about".
Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann 's Public Enemies , and later that year played Luisa Contini in Rob Marshall 's musical Nine and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. Time magazine ranked her as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009. The following year, she took on the main antagonist role, Mal, in Christopher Nolan 's Inception , and in 2011 she had memorable parts in Midnight in Paris and Contagion and reteamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises .
In 2011 and 2012 respectively, Cotillard appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France, it was the first time in nine years that a female topped the list. Cotillard was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood.
In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread critical acclaim for her role as the legless orca trainer Stéphanie in Rust and Bone . The film was a box office hit in France and received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Cotillard won the Globe de Cristal (France's equivalent to the Golden Globe), the Étoile d'Or award and was nominated for the Golden Globes, SAG, BAFTA, Critics' Choice and César Awards for her performance in the film. Cate Blanchett wrote an op-ed for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in "Rust and Bone", the two actresses competed for the Academy Awards for Best Actress in 2008, Cate was nominated for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Marion for her performance in La Vie en Rose and Cotillard won the Oscar.
She had her first leading role in an American movie in 2013, in James Gray 's The Immigrant , in which she played Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant who wants to experience the American dream. Cotillard received wide-spread acclaim for her performance in the film at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered, and also won several critics awards.
In 2014, Cotillard played Sandra in the Belgian film Two Days, One Night by the Dardenne brothers. Her performance was unanimously praised at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, earned several critics awards, Cotillard won her first European Award for Best Actress and also received her second Oscar nomination and her sixth César award nomination.
In 2015, she played Lady Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender in Justin Kurzel 's Macbeth and voiced two animated movies: The Little Prince in which she voiced The Rose, and April and the Extraordinary World , in which she voiced the lead role, Avril.
Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe , who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her father was Richard Beckinsale , born in Nottingham, England. He starred in a number of popular British television comedies during the 1970s, most notably the series Rising Damp , Porridge and The Lovers . He passed away tragically early in 1979 at the age of 31.
Kate attended the private school Godolphin and Latymer School in London for her grade and primary school education. In her teens she twice won the British bookseller W.H. Smith Young Writers' competition - once for three short stories and once for three poems. After a tumultuous adolescence (a bout of anorexia - cured - and a smoking habit which continues to this day), she gradually took up the profession of acting.
Her major acting debut came in a TV film about World War II called One Against the Wind , filmed in Luxembourg during the summer of 1991. It first aired on American television that December. Kate began attending Oxford University's New College in the fall of 1991, majoring in French and Russian literature. She had already decided that she wanted to act, but to broaden her horizons she chose university over drama school. While in her first year at Oxford, Kate received her big break in Kenneth Branagh 's film adaptation of William Shakespeare 's Much Ado About Nothing . Kate worked in three other films while attending Oxford, beginning with a part in the medieval historical drama Royal Deceit , cast as Ethel. The film was shot during the spring of 1993 on location in Denmark, and she filmed her supporting part during New College's Easter break. Later in the summer of that year she played the lead in the contemporary mystery drama Uncovered . Before she went back to school, her third year at university was spent at Oxford's study-abroad program in Paris, France, immersing herself in the French language, Parisian culture and French cigarettes.
A year away from the academic community and living on her own in the French capital caused her to re-evaluate the direction of her life. She faced a choice: continue with school or concentrate on her flourishing acting career. After much thought, she chose the acting career. In the spring of 1994 Kate left Oxford, after finishing three years of study. Kate appeared in the BBC/Thames Television satire Cold Comfort Farm , filmed in London and East Sussex during late summer 1994 and which opened to spectacular reviews in the United States, grossing over $5 million during its American run. It was re-released to U.K. theaters in the spring of 1997.
Acting on the stage consumed the first part of 1995; she toured in England with the Thelma Holts Theatre Company production of Anton Chekhov 's "The Seagull". After turning down several mediocre scripts "and going nearly berserk with boredom", she waited seven months before another interesting role was offered to her. Her big movie of 1995 was the romance/horror movie Haunted , starring opposite Aidan Quinn and John Gielgud , and filmed in West Sussex. In this film she wanted to play "an object of desire", unlike her past performances where her characters were much less the siren and more the worldly innocent. Kate's first film project of 1996 was the British ITV production of Jane Austen 's novel Emma . Her last film of 1996 was the comedy Shooting Fish , filmed at Shepperton Studios in London during early fall. She played the part of Georgie, an altruistic con artist. She had a daughter, Lily, in 1999 with actor Michael Sheen .
Juliette Lewis
Juliette Lewis has been recognized as one of Hollywood's most talented and versatile actors of her generation since she first stunned audiences and critics alike with her Oscar-nominated performance as "Danielle Bowden" in Cape Fear . To date, she has worked with some of the most revered directors in the industry, including Martin Scorsese , Woody Allen , Lasse Hallström , Oliver Stone and Garry Marshall . Whether lending dramatic authenticity or a natural comedic flair to her roles, Lewis graces the screen with remarkable range and an original and captivating style.
Lewis was born in Los Angeles, Californa, to Glenis (Duggan) Batley, a graphic designer, and Geoffrey Lewis , an actor. By the age of six, she knew she wanted to be a performer. At twelve, Lewis landed her first leading role in the Showtime miniseries Home Fires . After appearing in several TV sitcoms including The Wonder Years , she made her move to film, starring with Chevy Chase in National Lampoon's National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and with Jennifer Jason Leigh in the drama Crooked Hearts . At 16, Lewis starred opposite Brad Pitt in the critically acclaimed television movie Too Young to Die? , catching the attention of Martin Scorsese , who cast her in his thriller Cape Fear . Her powerful scenes with Robert De Niro captured the quiet complexities of adolescence and earned her an Oscar nomination and Golden Globe nomination for "Best Supporting Actress". Her auditorium scene with De Niro went down in movie history as one of cinema's classic scenes.
Mara Wilson
Mara Elizabeth Wilson was born on Friday, July 24th, 1987 in Los Angeles, California. She is the oldest daughter of Michael and Suzie Wilson , with three elder brothers - Danny (b. 1979), Jon (b. 1981) and Joel (b. 1983) - and a younger sister Anna (b. 1993). When Mara was 5 years old, her eldest brother Daniel Ben Wilson (Danny) started acting in television commercials and she wanted to follow in his footsteps. Her parents refused to let her act at first. After her continuous persistence from Mara Elizabeth, her parents reluctantly agreed to let her give acting a try. She went on to appear in a number of commercials, including those advertising Texaco and the Bank of America. She also appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire , starring Robin Williams and Sally Field , as the divorced parents. In her role, Mara proved herself to be a talented young actress, who was mature for her tender years, and her acting career went from strength-to-strength as she quickly became a favorite among cinema-goers. The following year, Mara played a small girl whose mother had suffered a major stroke in A Time to Heal . But her big break came with the remake of Miracle on 34th Street , as the little, intelligent, cynical girl who learned the magic of Santa Claus. Ironically, Mara was not raised to believe in Santa Claus but this was a bonus in some ways since she was able to empathize with her character's stance that there was no Santa. At the age of nine, Mara was cast in the lead role in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl s book, Matilda . Sadly, during filming, Mara lost her beloved mother to breast cancer but she bravely pushed ahead with the film, much to the amazement and admiration of her adult co-stars. Mara starred in three films over the following three years, the last of which was in Thomas and the Magic Railroad . Unfortunately, the film did not do well in the theaters of American box office, but it did very well in the UK box office. This signaled an end to Mara's film career, as she wanted to focus on school and to enjoy her teenage years. In June 2005, Mara graduated from Idyllwild School of Music & Arts and went on to attend New York University. In a March 2012 blog post, she revealed she has no desire to return to acting in films. Today, Mara Wilson is a stage actress, a voice actress, a writer, and a playwright. Mara now lives a quiet life in "The Big Apple", a nickname of New York City, New York.
Ben Affleck
American actor and filmmaker Benjamin Géza Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California, and was raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His mother, Chris Anne (née Boldt), is a school teacher, and his father, Timothy Byers Affleck, is a social worker; the two are divorced. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck , who was born in 1975. He is of mostly English, Irish, German, and Scottish ancestry. His middle name, "Géza", is after a family friend.
Affleck wanted to be an actor ever since he could remember, and his first acting experience was for a Burger King commercial, when he was on the PBS mini-series, The Voyage of the Mimi . It was also at that age when Ben met his lifelong friend and fellow actor, Matt Damon . They played little league together and took drama classes together. Ben's teen years consisted of mainly TV movies and small television appearances including Hands of a Stranger and The Second Voyage of the Mimi . He made his big introduction into feature films in 1993 when he was cast in Dazed and Confused . After that, he did mostly independent films like Kevin Smith 's Mallrats and Chasing Amy which were great for Ben's career, receiving renowned appreciation for his works at the Sundance film festival. But the success he was having in independent films didn't last much longer and things got a little shaky for Ben. He was living in an apartment with his brother Casey and friend Matt, getting tired of being turned down for the big roles in films and being given the forgettable supporting ones. Since Matt was having the same trouble, they decided to write their own script, where they could call all the shots. So, after finishing the script for Good Will Hunting , they gave it to their agent, Patrick Whitesell , who showed it to a few Hollywood studios, finally being accepted by Castle Rock. It was great news for the two, but Castle Rock wasn't willing to give Ben and Matt the control over the project they were hoping for. It was friend Kevin Smith who took it to the head of Miramax who bought the script giving Ben and Matt the control they wanted and, in December 5, 1997, Good Will Hunting was released, making the two unknown actors famous. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt. The film marked Ben's breakthrough role, in which he was given for the first time the chance to choose roles instead of having to go through grueling auditions constantly.
Affleck chose such roles in the blockbusters Armageddon , Shakespeare in Love , and Pearl Harbor . In the early years of the 2000s, he also starred in the box office hits Changing Lanes , The Sum of All Fears , and Daredevil , as well as the disappointing comedies Gigli and Surviving Christmas . While the mid 2000s were considered a career downturn for Affleck, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland . In the several years following, he played supporting roles, including in the films Smokin' Aces , He's Just Not That Into You , State of Play , and Extract . He ventured into directing in 2007, with the thriller Gone Baby Gone , which starred his brother, Casey Affleck , and was well received. He then directed, co-wrote, and starred in The Town , which was named to the National Board of Review Top Ten Films of the year. For the political thriller Argo , which he directed and starred in, Affleck won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Picture (Affleck's second Oscar win).
In 2014, Affleck headlined the book adaptation thriller Gone Girl . He starred as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , briefly reprised the character in Suicide Squad , and will do so again in Justice League , and other sequels.
Affleck married actress Jennifer Garner in 2005. The couple has three children.
Keira Knightley
Keira Christina Knightley was born in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond on March 26th 1985. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald . An older brother, Caleb Knightley , was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born mother is of Scottish and Welsh origin. Brought up immersed in the acting profession from both sides - writing and performing - it is little wonder that the young Keira asked for her own agent at the age of three. She was granted one at the age of six and performed in her first TV role as "Little Girl" in Royal Celebration , aged seven.
It was discovered at an early age that Keira had severe difficulties in reading and writing. She was not officially dyslexic as she never sat the formal tests required of the British Dyslexia Association. Instead, she worked incredibly hard, encouraged by her family, until the problem had been overcome by her early teens. Her first multi-scene performance came in A Village Affair , an adaptation of the lesbian love story by Joanna Trollope . This was followed by small parts in the British crime series The Bill , an exiled German princess in The Treasure Seekers and a much more substantial role as the young "Judith Dunbar" in Giles Foster 's adaptation of Rosamunde Pilcher 's novel Coming Home , alongside Peter O'Toole , Penelope Keith and Joanna Lumley . The first time Keira's name was mentioned around the world was when it was revealed (in a plot twist kept secret by director George Lucas ) that she played Natalie Portman 's decoy "Padme" to Portman's "Amidala" in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace . It was several years before agreement was reached over which scenes featured Keira as the queen and which featured Natalie!
Keira had no formal training as an actress and did it out of pure enjoyment. She went to an ordinary council-run school in nearby Teddington and had no idea what she wanted to do when she left. By now, she was beginning to receive far more substantial roles and was starting to turn work down as one project and her schoolwork was enough to contend with. She reappeared on British television in 1999 as "Rose Fleming" in Alan Bleasdale 's faithful reworking of Charles Dickens ' Oliver Twist , and travelled to Romania to film her first title role in Walt Disney 's Princess of Thieves in which she played Robin Hood's daughter, Gwyn. Keira's first serious boyfriend was her Princess of Thieves co-star Del Synnott , and they later co-starred in Peter Hewitt 's 'work of fart' Thunderpants . Nick Hamm 's dark thriller The Hole kept her busy during 2000, and featured her first nude scene (15 at the time, the film was not released until she was 16 years old). In the summer of 2001, while Keira studied and sat her final school exams (she received six A's), she filmed a movie about an Asian girl's ( Parminder Nagra ) love for football and the prejudices she has to overcome regarding both her culture and her religion). Bend It Like Beckham was a smash hit in football-mad Britain but it had to wait until another of Keira's films propelled it to the top end of the US box office. Bend It Like Beckham cost just £3.5m to make, and nearly £1m of that came from the British Lottery. It took £11m in the UK and has since gone on to score more than US$76m worldwide.
Meanwhile, Keira had started A-levels at Esher College, studying Classics, English Literature and Political History, but continued to take acting roles which she thought would widen her experience as an actress. The story of a drug-addicted waitress and her friendship with the young son of a drug-addict, Pure , occupied Keira from January to March 2002. Also at this time, Keira's first attempt at Shakespeare was filmed. She played "Helena" in a modern interpretation of a scene from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" entitled The Seasons Alter . This was commissioned by the environmental organisation "Futerra", of which Keira's mother is patron. Keira received no fee for this performance or for another short film, New Year's Eve , by award-winning director Col Spector . But it was a chance encounter with producer Andy Harries at the London premiere of Bridget Jones's Diary which forced Keira to leave her studies and pursue acting full-time. The meeting lead to an audition for the role of "Larisa Feodorovna Guishar" - the classic heroine of Boris Pasternak 's novel Doctor Zhivago , played famously in the David Lean movie by Julie Christie . This was to be a big-budget TV movie with a screenplay written by Andrew Davies . Keira won the part and the mini-series was filmed throughout the Spring of 2002 in Slovakia, co-starring Sam Neill and Hans Matheson as "Yuri Zhivago". Keira rounded off 2002 with a few scenes in the first movie to be directed by Blackadder and Vicar of Dibley writer Richard Curtis . Called Love Actually , Keira played "Juliet", a newlywed whose husband's Best Man is secretly besotted with her. A movie filmed after Love Actually but released before it was to make the world sit up and take notice of this beautiful fresh-faced young actress with a cute British accent. It was a movie which Keira very nearly missed out on, altogether. Auditions were held in London for a new blockbuster movie called Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl , but heavy traffic in the city forced Keira to be tagged on to the end of the day's auditions list. It helped - she got the part. Filming took place in Los Angeles and the Caribbean from October 2002 to March 2003 and was released to massive box office success and almost universal acclaim in the July of that year.
Meanwhile, a small British film called Bend It Like Beckham had sneaked onto a North American release slate and was hardly setting the box office alight. But Keira's dominance in "Pirates" had set tongues wagging and questions being asked about the actress playing "Elizabeth Swann". Almost too late, "Bend It"'s distributors realised one of its two stars was the same girl whose name was on everyone's lips due to "Pirates", and took the unusual step of re-releasing "Bend It" to 1,000 screens across the US, catapulting it from no. 26 back up to no. 12. "Pirates", meanwhile, was fighting off all contenders at the top spot, and stayed in the Top 3 for an incredible 21 weeks. It was perhaps no surprise, then, that Keira was on producer Jerry Bruckheimer 's wanted list for the part of "Guinevere" in a planned accurate telling of the legend of "King Arthur". Filming took place in Ireland and Wales from June to November 2003. In July, Keira had become the celebrity face of British jeweller and luxury goods retailer, Asprey. At a photoshoot for the company on Long Island New York in August, Keira met and fell in love with Northern Irish model Jamie Dornan. King Arthur was released in July 2004 to lukewarm reviews. It seems audiences wanted the legend after all, and not necessarily the truth. Keira became the breakout star and 'one to watch in 2004' throughout the world's media at the end of 2003.
Keira's 2004 started off in Scotland and Canada filming John Maybury 's time-travelling thriller The Jacket with Oscar-winner Adrien Brody . A planned movie of Deborah Moggach 's novel, "Tulip Fever", about forbidden love in 17th Century Amsterdam, was cancelled in February after the British government suddenly closed tax loopholes which allowed filmmakers to claw back a large proportion of their expenditure. Due to star Keira and Jude Law in the main roles, the film remains mothballed. Instead, Keira spent her time wisely, visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the "Comic Relief" charity, and spending summer at various grandiose locations around the UK filming what promises to be a faithful adaptation of Jane Austen 's classic novel Pride & Prejudice , alongside Matthew Macfadyen as "Mr. Darcy", and with Donald Sutherland and Judi Dench in supporting roles. In October 2004, Keira received her first major accolade, the Hollywood Film Award for Best Breakthrough Actor - Female, and readers of Empire Magazine voted her the Sexiet Movie Star Ever. The remainder of 2004 saw Keira once again trying a completely new genre, this time the part-fact, part-fiction life story of model turned bounty hunter Domino (2005). 2005 started with the premiere of The Jacket (2005) at the Sundance Film Festival, with the US premiere in LA on February 28th. Much of the year was then spent in the Caribbean filming both sequels to Pirates Of The Caribbean. Keira's first major presenting role came in a late-night bed-in comedy clip show for Comic Relief with presenter Johnny Vaughan. In late July, promotions started for the September release of Pride & Prejudice (2005), with British fans annoyed to learn that the US version would end with a post-marriage kiss, but the European version would not. Nevertheless, when the movie opened in September on both sides of the Atlantic, Keira received her greatest praise thus far in her career, amid much talk of awards. It spent three weeks at No. 1 in the UK box office.
Domino (2005) opened well in October, overshadowed by the death of Domino Harvey earlier in the year. Keira received Variety's Personality Of The Year Award in November, topped the following month by her first Golden Globe nomination, for Pride & Prejudice (2005). KeiraWeb.com exclusively announced that Keira would play Helene Joncour in an adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novella Silk (2007). Pride & Prejudice (2005) garnered six BAFTA nominations at the start of 2006, but not Best Actress for Keira, a fact which paled soon after by the announcement she had received her first Academy Award nomination, the third youngest Best Actress Oscar hopeful. A controversial nude Vanity Fair cover of Keira and Scarlett Johansson kept the press busy up till the Oscars, with Reese Witherspoon taking home the gold man in the Best Actress category, although Keira's Vera Wang dress got more media attention. Keira spent early summer in Europe filming Silk (2007) opposite Michael Pitt , and the rest of the summer in the UK filming Atonement (2007), in which she plays Cecilia Tallis, and promoting the new Pirates movie (her Ellen Degeneres interview became one of the year's Top 10 'viral downloads'). Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) broke many box office records when it opens worldwide in July, becoming the third biggest movie ever by early September. Keira sued British newspaper The Daily Mail in early 2007 after her image in a bikini accompanied an article about a woman who blamed slim celebrities for the death of her daughter from anorexia. The case was settled and Keira matched the settlement damages and donated the total amount to an eating disorder charity. Keira filmed a movie about the life of Dylan Thomas, The Edge Of Love (2008) with a screenplay written by her mother Sharman Macdonald . Her co-star Lindsay Lohan pulled out just a week before filming began, and was replaced by Sienna Miller .
What was announced to be Keira's final Pirates movie in the franchise, Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End (2007), opened strongly in June, rising to all-time fifth biggest movie by July. Atonement (2007) opened the Venice Film Festival in August, and opened worldwide in September, again to superb reviews for Keira. Meanwhile, Silk (2007) opened in September on very few screens and disappeared without a trace. Keira spent the rest of the year filming The Duchess (2008), the life story of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, based on Amanda Foreman's award-winning biography of the distant relation of Princess Diana. The year saw more accolades and poll-topping for Keira than ever before, including Women's Beauty Icon 2007 and gracing the covers of all the top-selling magazines. She won Best Actress for Atonement (2007) at the Variety Club Of Great Britain Showbiz Awards, and ended the year with her second Golden Globe nomination. Christmas Day saw - or rather heard - Keira on British TV screens in a new Robbie The Reindeer animated adventure, with DVD proceeds going to Comic Relief. At the start of 2008, Keira received her first BAFTA nomination - Best Actress for Atonement, and the movie wins Best Film: Drama at the Golden Globes. Seven Academy Award nominations for Atonement soon follow. Keira wins Best Actress for her role as Cecilia Tallis at the Empire Film Awards. In May, Keira's first Shakespearean role is announced, when she is confirmed to play Cordelia in a big-screen version of King Lear, alongside Naomi Watts and Gwyneth Paltrow, with Sir Anthony Hopkins as the titular monarch. After two years of rumours, it is confirmed that Keira is on the shortlist to play Eliza Doolittle in a new adaptation of My Fair Lady. The Edge Of Love opens the Edinburgh Film Festival on June 18th, and opens on limited release in the UK and US. A huge round of promotions for The Duchess occurs throughout the summer, with cast and crew trying to play down the marketers' decision to draw parallels between the duchess and Princess Diana. Keira attends the UK and US premieres and Toronto Film Festival within the first week of September. The Duchess opens strongly on both sides of the Atlantic. Two more movies were confirmed for Keira during September - a tale of adultery called Last Night , and a biopic of author F Scott Fitzgerald entitled The Beautiful and the Damned .
Keira spent October on the streets of New York City filming Last Night alongside Sam Worthington and Guillaume Canet . Keira helped to promote the sixtieth anniversary of the UN's Declaration of Human Rights, by contributing to a series of short films produced to mark the occasion. In January 2009 it was announced Keira had signed to play a reclusive actress in an adaptation of Ken Bruen's novel London Boulevard , co-starring Colin Farrell . Keira continues her close ties with the Comic Relief charity by helping to launch their British icons T-shirts campaign. In the same week King Lear was revealed to have been shelved, it was announced that Keira would instead star alongside her Pride & Prejudice co-star Carey Mulligan in an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Never Let Me Go . A new short film emerges in March, recorded in the January of 2008 in which Keira plays a Fairy! The Continuing and Lamentable Saga of the Suicide Brothers was written by Keira's boyfriend Rupert Friend and actor Tom Mison . It went to be shown at the London Film Festival in October and won Best Comedy Short at the New Hampshire Film Festival. Keira continued to put her celebrity to good use in 2009 with a TV commercial for WomensAid highlighting domestic abuse against women. Unfortunately, UK censors refused to allow its broadcast and it can only be viewed on YouTube. May and June asw Keira filming Never Let Me Go and London Boulevard back-to-back. In October, a new direction for Keira's career emerged, when it was announced she would appear on the London stage in her West End debut role as Jennifer, in a reworking of Moliere's The Misanthrope, starring Damian Lewis and Tara Fitzgerald . More than $2m of ticket sales followed in the first four days, before even rehearsals had begun! The play ran from December to March at London's Comedy Theatre.
Emma Watson
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to English parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years, she trained at the Oxford branch of Stagecoach Theatre Arts, a part-time theatre school where she studied singing, dancing and acting. By the age of ten, she had performed and taken the lead in various Stagecoach productions and school plays.
In 1999, casting began for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers (2001), the film adaptation of British author J.K. Rowling's bestselling novel. Casting agents found Emma through her Oxford theatre teacher. After eight consistent auditions, producer David Heyman told Emma and fellow applicants, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, that they had been cast for the roles of the three leads, Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) was Emma's cinematic screen debut. The film broke records for opening-day sales and opening-weekend takings and was the highest-grossing film of 2001. Critics praised the film and the performances of the three leading young actors. The highly distributed British newspaper, 'The Daily Telegraph', called her performance "admirable". Later, Emma was nominated for five awards for her performance in the film, winning the Young Artist Award for Leading Young Actress in a Feature Film.
After the release of the first film of the highly successful franchise, Emma became one of the most well-known actresses in the world. She continued to play the role of Hermione Granger for nearly ten years, in all of the following Harry Potter films: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). Emma acquired two Critics' Choice Award nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for her work in Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. The completion of the seventh and eight movies saw Emma receive nominations in 2011 for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award, and for Best Actress at the Jameson Empire Awards. The Harry Potter franchise won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema in February 2011.
2011 saw Emma in Simon Curtis's My Week With Marilyn (2011), alongside a stellar cast of Oscar nominees including Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe and Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, in addition to Eddie Redmayne, Dame Judi Dench, Dougray Scott, Zoe Wanamaker, Toby Jones and Dominic Cooper. Chronicling a week in Marilyn Monroe's life, the film featured Emma in the supporting role of Lucy, a costume assistant to Colin Clark (Redmayne). The film was released by The Weinstein Company and was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical. In 2012 Emma was seen in Stephen Chbosky's adaptation of his coming-of-age novel The Perks Of Being A Wallflower (2012), starring opposite Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller. This independent drama centered around Charlie (Lerman), an introverted freshman who is taken under the wings of two seniors (Watson and Miller) who welcome him to the real world. The film premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and received rave reviews. The film won the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie and Emma also picked up the People's Choice Award for Favourite Dramatic Movie Actress. Emma was awarded a second time for this role with the Best Supporting Actress Award at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards where the film also won the Best Ensemble Performance Award.
In summer 2013, Emma starred in Sofia Coppola's American satirical black comedy crime film, The Bling Ring (2013). The film took inspiration from real events and followed a group of teenagers who, obsessed with fashion and fame, burgled the homes of celebrities in Los Angeles. The film opened the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Emma also appeared in a cameo role as herself in Seth Rogen's apocalypse comedy This Is The End (2013). The film tells the story about what happens to some of Hollywood's best loved celebrities when the apocalypse strikes during a party at James Franco's house.
Emma was most recently seen in Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014) opposite Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ray Winstone, Douglas Booth, Logan Lerman and Anthony Hopkins. The film told the epic, biblical tale of Noah and the ark. Emma plays the role of Ila, a young woman who develops a close relationship with Noah's son, Shem (Booth). Noah has made an outstanding $300m since its release in March. Emma has completed filming her next project, Regression, written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. Emma will star in the thriller opposite Oscar nominated Ethan Hawke. Set in Minnesota 1990, Regression tells the story of Detective Bruce Kenner (Hawke) who investigates the case of young Angela, played by Emma, who accuses her father of sexual abuse. The film is expected to be released in 2015. Emma will next play Kelsea Glynn in the film adaptation of The Queen Of The Tearling, Erika Johansen's page-turner of a novel about a young woman raised by foster parents in a cottage hidden away in a remote forest. On her 19th birthday, Kelsea is removed from her home to take her rightful place as sovereign of a fictional post-Utopian country that hides dark secrets and is menaced by a neighboring monarch. The screenplay for The Queen Of The Tearling has been written by Mark L. Smith. David Heyman will be producing the film and Emma will also serve as an executive producer. David and Emma worked together on all the Harry Potter films. The producer snapped up the rights to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series very early, before publication; and he and Warner Bros have done the same thing with the Tearling trilogy. Filming is due to commence next year.
In 2012, Emma was honored with the Calvin Klein Emerging Star Award at the ELLE Women in Hollywood Awards. In 2013, Emma was awarded the Trailblazer Award at the MTV Movie Awards in April and was honored with the GQ Woman of the Year Award at the GQ Awards in September. Further to her acting career, Emma is a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN, promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. Emma graduated from Brown University in May 2014.
Mila Kunis
The talented Milena "Mila" Markovna Kunis was born to a Jewish family in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, USSR (now independent Ukraine). Her mother, Elvira, is a physics teacher, her father, Mark Kunis, is a mechanical engineer, and she has an older brother named Michael. After attending one semester of college between gigs, she realized that she wanted to act for the rest of her life. She started acting when she was just 9 years old, when her father heard about an acting class on the radio and decided to enroll Mila in it. There, she met her future agent. Her first gig was in 1995, in which she played a character named Melinda in Make a Wish, Molly . From there, her career skyrocketed into big-budget films. Although she is mostly known for playing Jackie Burkhart in That '70s Show , she has shown the world that she can do so much more. Her breakthrough film was Forgetting Sarah Marshall , in which she played a free-spirited character named Rachel Jensen.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Alison Swift is a multi-Grammy award-winning American singer/songwriter who, in 2010 at the age of 20, became the youngest artist in history to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2011 Swift was named Billboard's Woman of the Year. She also has been named the American Music Awards Artist of the Year, as well as the Entertainer of the Year for both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, among many other accolades. As of this writing, she is also the top-selling digital artist in music history.
Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989, in Reading, Pennsylvania, to Andrea (Finlay), a one-time marketing executive, and Scott Kingsley Swift, a financial adviser. Her ancestry includes German and English, as well as some Scottish, Irish, Welsh and 1/16th Italian. She was named after James Taylor , and her mother believed that if she had a gender neutral name it would help her forge a business career. Taylor spent most of her childhood on an 11-acre Christmas tree farm in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. When she was nine years old the family moved to Wyomissing, PA, where she attended West Reading Elementary Center and Wyomissing Area Junior/Senior High School. Taylor spent her summers at her parents' vacation home at the Jersey shore. Her first hobby was English horse riding. Her mother put her in a saddle when she was nine months old and Swift later competed in horse shows. At the age of nine she turned her attention to musical theatre and performed in Berks Youth Theatre Academy productions of "Grease", "Annie", "Bye Bye Birdie" and "The Sound of Music". She traveled regularly to New York City for vocal and acting lessons. However, after a few years of auditioning in New York and not getting anything, she became interested in country music. At age 11, after many attempts, Taylor won a local talent competition by singing a rendition of LeAnn Rimes ' "Big Deal", and was given the opportunity to appear as the opening act for Charlie Daniels at a Strausstown amphitheater. This interest in country music isolated Swift from her middle school peers.
At age 12 she was shown by a computer repairman how to play three chords on a guitar, inspiring her to write her first song, "Lucky You". She had previously won a national poetry contest with a poem entitled "Monster in My Closet", but now began to focus on songwriting. She moved to Nashville at age 14, having secured an artist development deal with RCA Records. She left RCA Records when she was 15--the label wanted her to record the work of other songwriters and wait until she was 18 to release an album, but she felt ready to launch her career with her own material. At an industry showcase at Nashville's The Bluebird Café in 2005, Swift caught the attention of Scott Borchetta , a Dreamworks Records executive who was preparing to form his own independent record label, Big Machine Records. Taylor was one of the new label's first signings.
Taylor released her debut album, "Taylor Swift", in October of 2006 and received generally positive reviews from music critics. The New York Times described it as "a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift's firm, pleading voice". Her single "Our Song" made her the youngest solo writer and singer of a #1 country song. The album sold 39,000 copies during its first week. In 2008 she released her second studio album, "Fearless". The lead single from the album, "Love Story", was released in September 2008 and became the second best-selling country single of all time, peaking at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Four more singles were released throughout 2008 and 2009: "White Horse", "You Belong with Me", "Fifteen" and "Fearless". "You Belong with Me" was the album's highest-charting single, peaking at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart. It was the top-selling album of 2009 and brought Swift much crossover success.
In September 2009 she became the first country music artist to win an MTV Video Music Award when "You Belong with Me" was named Best Female Video. Her acceptance speech was interrupted by rapper Kanye West , who had been involved in a number of other award show incidents. West declared Beyoncé Knowles 's video for "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)", nominated in the same category, to be "one of the best videos of all time". When Beyoncé later won the award for Video of the Year, she invited Taylor onstage to finish her speech. In November 2009 Taylor Swift became the youngest ever artist, and one of only six women, to be named Entertainer of the Year by the Country Music Association.
She released her third studio album in October 2010, "Speak Now", and wrote all the songs herself. She originally intended to call the album "Enchanted" but Scott Borchetta, her record label's CEO, felt the title did not reflect the album's more adult themes. Swift toured throughout 2011 and early 2012 in support of "Speak Now". As part of the 13-month, 111-date world tour, Swift played seven shows in Asia, 12 in Europe, 80 in North America and 12 in Australasia (three dates on the US tour were rescheduled after she fell ill with bronchitis). The stage show was inspired by Broadway musical theatre, with choreographed routines, elaborate set-pieces, pyrotechnics and numerous costume changes. Swift invited many musicians to join her for one-off duets during the North American tour. Appearances were made by James Taylor, Jason Mraz , Shawn Colvin , Johnny Rzeznik , Andy Grammer , Tal Bachman , Justin Bieber , Selena Gomez , Nicki Minaj , Nelly , B.o.B. , Usher Raymond , Flo Rida , T.I. , Jon Foreman , Jim Adkins , Hayley Williams , Hot Chelle Rae , Ronnie Dunn , Darius Rucker , Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney . In May 2012 Taylor featured in B.o.B's song "Both of Us".
Swift's fourth studio album, "Red", was released on October 22, 2012. She wrote nine of the album's 16 songs alone; the remaining seven were co-written with Max Martin , Liz Rose , Dan Wilson , Ed Sheeran and Gary Lightbody . Nathan Chapman served as the album's lead producer but Jeff Bhasker , Butch Walker , Jacknife Lee , Dann Huff and Shellback (aka Shellback) also produced individual tracks. Chapman has said he encouraged Swift "to branch out and to test herself in other situations". She has described the collaborative process as "an apprenticeship" that taught her to "paint with different colors". "Red" examines Swift's attraction to drama-filled relationships; she believes that, since writing the record, such relationships no longer appeal to her. Musically, while there is some experimentation with "slick, electronic beats", the pop sheen is limited to a handful of tracks sprinkled among more recognizably Swiftian fare. "Rolling Stone" enjoyed "watching Swift find her pony-footing on Great Songwriter Mountain. She often succeeds in joining the Joni/ Carole King tradition of stark-relief emotional mapping . . . Her self-discovery project is one of the best stories in pop." The Guardian described Swift as a "Brünnhilde of a rock star" and characterized "Red" as "another chapter in one of the finest fantasies pop music has ever constructed". "USA Today" felt that the "engaging" record saw Swift "write ever-more convincingly--and wittily and painfully--about the messy emotions of a young twenty something nearing the end of her transition from girl to woman". The "Los Angeles Times" noted the exploration of "more nuanced relationship issues" on "an unapologetically big pop record that opens new sonic vistas for her".
As part of the "Red" promotional campaign, representatives from 72 worldwide radio stations were flown to Nashville during release week for individual interviews with Swift. She made television appearances on Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show , Good Morning America , The View , Late Show with David Letterman , ABC News Nightline and All Access Nashville with Katie Couric . She performed at Los Angeles' MTV VMAs and London's Teen Awards, and will also perform at Nashville's CMA Awards, Frankfurt's MTV Europe Music Awards, Los Angeles' AMA Awards and Sydney's ARIA Music Awards. Swift offered exclusive album promotions through Target, Papa John's and Walgreens. She became a spokesmodel for Keds sneakers, released her sophomore Elizabeth Arden fragrance and continued her partnerships with Cover Girl, Sony Electronics and American Greetings, as well as her unofficial brand tie-ins with Ralph Lauren and Shellys. The album's lead single, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", was released in August 2012. The song became Swift's first #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, recording the highest ever one-week sales figures for a female artist. Two further singles have since been released: "Begin Again" (country radio) and "I Knew You Were Trouble" (pop and international radio).In her career, as of May 2012, Swift has sold over 23 million albums and 54.5 million digital tracks worldwide.
Taylor Swift is only beginning to emerge as an acting talent, having voiced the role of Audrey in the animated feature The Lorax . She also made appearances in the theatrical release Valentine's Day and in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation . She contributed two original songs to The Hunger Games soundtrack: "Safe & Sound featuring The Civil Wars" and "Eyes Open". Taylor released her fifth album, titled "1989", on October 27, 2014. This album is when she finally made the complete transition from country to pop. She says that she will not be going to any Country Music Award shows. The album is named after the year she was born, and is a sort of '80s-sounding album, in the sense that it's more electronic.
In March 2015 she began dating Scottish Disc Jockey Calvin Harris after having met at the Brit Awards in February.
Rebecca Ferguson
Rebecca Ferguson was born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in its Vasastaden district. Her father is Swedish, and her mother, Rosemary, is British, and moved to Sweden from England at the age of 25. Rebecca attended an English-speaking school in Sweden and was raised bilingual, speaking Swedish and English. As a student, she attended the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm and graduated in 1999.
She came into prominence with her breakout role of upper-class girl Anna Gripenhielm in the soap-opera Nya tider , when she was 16 years old.
She lives in the seaside town of Simrishamn, on the Swedish south coast. Ferguson has said she wanted to get away from city life and the public spotlight following her soap opera success. Swedish director Richard Hobert , spotted her at the town market in 2011, which led to her starring in his film A One-Way Trip to Antibes .
Ferguson taught Argentinian Tango at a dance company in Sweden for a few years.
In 2013, Rebecca played Queen Elizabeth Woodville in the BBC historical drama The White Queen , for which she got a Golden Globe nomination.
In 2015, Ferguson played Ilsa Faust, the female lead in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation . Her co-star, Tom Cruise , chose her for the film after having seen her in the mini-series The White Queen . Her performance in the movie was highly praised and Rebecca will reprise her role in the sixth Mission: Impossible film.
Karen Gillan
Karen was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland, the daughter of Marie (Paterson) and John Gillan, who is a singer and recording artist. She developed a love for acting very early on, attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at her school, Charleston Academy.
At age 16, Karen decided she wanted to pursue her acting career further and, studied under the renowned theatre director Scott Johnston at the Performing Arts Studio Scotlond. She later attended the prestigious Italia Conti academy in London. During her first year, she landed a role in Rebus and soon appeared in a variety of programs including Channel 4's Stacked and The Kevin Bishop Show , as well as a two-year stint in the long-running series Doctor Who . Karen also stars in the film Outcast , starring James Nesbitt . Her most recent starring role is as Eliza Dooley in "Selfie" (2014),
When she's not acting, Karen likes to play the piano and loves rummaging through vintage clothes shops.
Alice Krige
Alice Maud Krige was born on June 28, 1954 in Upington, South Africa where her father, Dr. Louis Krige, worked as a young physician. The Kriges later moved to Port Elizabeth where Alice grew up in what she describes as a "very happy family", a family that also included two brothers (both of whom became physicians) and her mother, Pat, a clinical psychologist. Interestingly, Alice also grew up without television, something which the actress calls a "huge black hole in my education" (South Africa did not start getting television until 1976, a year after Alice left the country to pursue an acting career in London).
While growing up, she had no dreams or aspirations of pursuing an acting career, in fact as a child she had wanted to become a dancer, but her father disapproved. Instead, she prepared to follow in the footsteps of her mother by attending Rhodes University in Grahamstown where she pursued an undergraduate degree in psychology and literature (graduating in 1975). However, as luck or fate would have it, Alice decided to "take up a bit of timetable" by enrolling in a drama class in order to make use of a free credit. This decision would prove to be a life-altering one, resulting in an honors degree in drama from Rhodes, a move to London and a new career path. As Alice explains, "I really got into it and it took over my life... it became my life-calling, all consuming."
After arriving in England, she began three years of study at London's Central School of Speech and Drama. Her first professional acting performance was a tiny television role in a 1979 BBC Play for Today. In 1980, Alice made her feature film debut as Sybil Gordon in the Academy Award winning Best Picture, Chariots of Fire . She then appeared in the television adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities , which was followed by her memorable, dual role as the avenging spirit in Ghost Story . Also in 1981, she debuted in a West End theatre production of Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man, for which she received the honors of both a Plays and Players Award and a Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Newcomer. It was this early success in theatre that she decided to focus her career on next by spending some time working with the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company.
During her two seasons with the RSC (1982-83), Alice performed in such productions as "King Lear", "The Tempest", "The Taming of the Shrew" and "Cyrano de Bergerac". After her stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, she returned to work in film and television. Her career could best be described as an eclectic mix of both mediums. She appeared in a diverse range of films, such as King David , Barfly , Haunted Summer , Spies Inc. and See You in the Morning . Her work in television included critically acclaimed miniseries, such as Ellis Island and Wallenberg: A Hero's Story , as well as a healthy dose of what Alice herself calls, "kitchen sink dramas".
This eclectic trend continued into the 1990s. In addition to numerous roles in television (including appearances on Beverly Hills, 90210 and Becker , Alice also appeared in the films Sleepwalkers , Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream That One Calls Human Life , Donor Unknown , Amanda , Twilight of the Ice Nymphs , Habitat , The Commissioner and Molokai . However, one notable standout was the film Star Trek: First Contact for which she won a 1997 Saturn Award for her portrayal of the Borg Queen. This is without a doubt the most commercial, mainstream film with which she has been involved. However, due to the amount of make-up and prosthetics that the role required, Alice claims that even today she is still most recognized from her role in Ghost Story .
One obvious and lasting impact of her experience with Star Trek: First Contact has been her initiation into the world of Star Trek/sci-fi conventions. These weekend-long conventions take place all over the United States and Europe (primarily in the United Kingdom and Germany). They feature "guests", such as Alice, who give presentations, sign autographs, etc. The new millennium finds her with several new projects to her credit, which include such works as The Little Vampire , the Star Trek: Voyager series finale "Endgame", Attila , Dinotopia , Reign of Fire , Children of Dune , The Mystery of Natalie Wood and a recurring guest role in the HBO series Deadwood . Current projects include a film about the life of Julius Caesar, the horror film Silent Hill , Lonely Hearts and The Contract . In addition, she continues to make sporadic convention appearances and was recently awarded an honorary doctorate in literature from Rhodes University.
Alice Krige is married to writer/director Paul Schoolman, and lives what she describes as an "itinerant" lifestyle. Although she and her husband maintain a permanent home in the United States, they spend much of their time living and working abroad.
Lauren Graham
Lauren Graham was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Donna Grant and Lawrence Graham, a candy industry lobbyist. Her father was from New York and her mother was from the American South, and Lauren has Irish, English, and Scottish ancestry. She grew up in Northern Virginia, USA (Fairfax, Arlington, and Great Falls, VA) Graduate of Langley High School, McLean, VA Graduate of Barnard College with a Bachelor's Degree in English. Graduate of Southern Methodist University with a Master's Degree in Acting. She was raised by a single parent, her father. Her parents divorced when she was 5. Growing up she wanted to be a jockey but her height precluded it. She traveled extensively with her father during her childhood and discovered acting while in elementary school. Her resume includes theatre, film and television.
Alexander Skarsgård
Sweden may not have a large population but it has gifted the world with bounty of astonishing directors and actors. Greta Garbo , Ingmar Bergman , Max von Sydow and Ingrid Bergman are just the tip of the iceberg of Nordic actors and filmmakers who have enchanted and engaged cinemaphiles across the globe: Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård is poised to join their ranks. As the eldest son of famed actor Stellan Skarsgård , the handsome actor/director comes by his talent honestly; however, Alexander did not grow up in the glitzy world of international cinema.
Alexander was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Among his siblings are actors Gustaf Skarsgård , Bill Skarsgård , and Valter Skarsgård . For most of his formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor both on stage, TV and in movies but had not yet achieved the international fame that came after his star turn in Breaking the Waves . Young Alexander was raised under modest circumstances in a working-class Swedish neighborhood as his parents wanted their children to have as normal an upbringing as possible. He began his acting career at the age of eight and continued working in films and on Swedish television until he turned sixteen and decided acting was not the career for him. Life under a microscope lost its charm and perhaps due to the influence of My Skarsgård , his physician mother, he stopped working as an actor, to continue his education.
Alexander was a bit of a rebel as a teen and, instead of continuing college, at the age of nineteen, he entered compulsory military service (military conscription). He used the time to contemplate his future. He studied at the Leeds Metropolitan University then moved to New York where he enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College to study theatre. After six months in New York, a romantic entanglement lured him back to Sweden but the relationship was short-lived. Despite having a broken heart, Alexander decided to stay in Sweden and, with a bit of life experience under his belt, began his acting career again. He appeared in a number of Swedish productions and became a star in his native country but was interested in broadening his horizons and working outside of Sweden. A visit to Los Angeles landed him both an agent and a part in the Ben Stiller movie, Zoolander . After Zoolander , Alexander returned to Sweden where he continued honing his acting in film and theatrical productions including "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and "Bloody Wedding". He also co-wrote and co-directed an award-winning short, Att döda ett barn , (To Kill a Child), which was shown at both the Tribeca and Cannes Film Festivals; unfortunately, stardom in Sweden doesn't bring international recognition and Skarsgård found himself flying back and forth to Los Angeles, auditioning for roles that he had no real interest in.
Finally, parts in two different HBO series came his way. His first big break was with the miniseries Generation Kill . Alexander spent seven months broiling in the desert of Namibia but it was well worth it. His portrayal of Marine Sgt. Brad "Iceman" Colbert astonished critics and audiences, alike. Thanks to the writer's strike, after completing Generation Kill , he was cast in the role of "Eric Northman", a 1,000-year-old Viking vampire on the hit series, True Blood . The series was created by Alan Ball , the man behind Six Feet Under . True Blood was adapted from the "Sookie Stackhouse" novels by Charlaine Harris and rode to success on quality scripts, great acting and the public's obsession with the vampire genre. In addition to True Blood , which begins its third season in 2010, Alexander has a number of film projects in the works including the remake of Straw Dogs , Melancholia , written and directed by Lars von Trier , action Sci-Fi film, Battleship , and The East , directed by Zal Batmanglij . There is no doubt with Alexander's rising popularity and amazing talent, we will be seeing great things from him in the future.
Paz Vega
Actress Paz Campos Trigo was born in Seville, Spain, to a bullfighter father. She has been based in Los Angeles since 2008.
She has starred in dozens of films in Europe and North America. After six successful seasons as Laura in "Seven Lives" (Telecinco,) one of Spain's longest running sitcoms, the young Seville born actress makes her leap to the big screen, attracting the attention of Spanish and European audiences in 2001 when she won the Goya for Best New coming Actress with her performance as Lucia in "Sex and Lucia" by Julio Medem, as well as the prestigious Chopard Award for Best Actress at the Cannes International Film Festival. The film, as well as the actress, went on to receive several other important awards in Spain and across its borders.
Also in 2001, Paz starred in "Solo Mia/ Only Mine" by Javier Balaguer, opposite Sergi López and was nominated for yet another Goya Award, this time for Best Actress, marking a milestone in the history of the prestigious awards. For the first time, an actress was nominated twice for two different roles in one edition.
In 2002, Paz appears in "Talk to Her" by Pedro Almodóvar. The film received over thirty international awards, including the Academy Award for the Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe for best foreign language film, along with seven Goya Awards nominations. The same year, the actress starred in "El Otro Lado de la Cama" by Emilio Martínez Lázaro, one of the highest grossing Spanish comedies of all time.
In 2003, she was Carmen in Vicente Aranda's film, based on the homonymous novel by Prosper Mérimée, opposite Leonardo Sbaraglia. That same year, she pairs up with Santi Millán in the romantic comedy, "Dí Que Sí/Say I Do," for Columbia Pictures in Spain. Both films went on to have very successful box office careers in 2004. As a result of her collaboration with Columbia Pictures in "Dí Que Sí", James L. Brooks invited her to co-star in "Spanglish" opposite Adam Sandler. For her role, Paz won the Best Female Newcomer of the Phoenix Film Critics Society.
Since "Spanglish," Paz Vega has been directed by acclaimed filmmakers such as Frank Miller, Danis Tanovic, Oliver Parker, Michelle Placido and the Taviani brothers and shared billboard with fellow actors such as, Scarlett Johansson, Andie McDowell, Eva Mendes, Colin Farrell, not to mention the legendary Christopher Lee and Morgan Freeman, among others. Paz also starred in the first film directed by Jada Pinkett Smith, produced by Will Smith: "The Human Contract."
Most recently, Paz repeated her collaboration with Spain's emblematic Director, Almodovar, in "I'm So Excited," released in 2013 and has lended her voice to the Andalusan horses in "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted."
Paz Vega has performed in English, Spanish, French and Italian, in the United States, several European countries as well as Latin America. Recently, she has played the lead on Alfonso Pineda Ulloa's "Espectro" in Mexico.
The province of Andalucía and the city of Seville have repeatedly recognized the actress for her tireless work representing her native region and city throughout the world. Paz has, thus, been awarded the Medal of Andalucía, the Seville Medal and the prestigious Seville Gold Medal.
Emma Roberts
Emma Roberts is the daughter of Oscar-nominated actor Eric Roberts , and the niece of Oscar-winner Julia Roberts . She was born in Rhinebeck, New York. Emma was a baby when her parents separated, and she grew up living with her mother, Kelly Cunningham. She was educated at Archer School for Girls in Los Angeles, California.
As a child she spent some time on the sets of movies with her aunt Julia. This helped Emma decide that she wanted to follow a career in acting. Her first movie role came in Blow , where she played the daughter of Johnny Depp 's character. Various small parts followed, until she was cast in the lead role of Addie Singer in Nickelodeon's "Unfabulous" (2004). Her performance lead to many award nominations as well as a foray into the music industry, including the release of an album, "Unfabulous and More".
More roles followed in various projects, including the eponymous heroine in Nancy Drew , Hotel for Dogs , 4.3.2.1. and Scream 4 . In 2011, Emma began attending Sarah Lawrence College in New York, studying English Literature.
Cate Blanchett
Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten years old, her 40-year-old father died of a sudden heart attack. Her mother never remarried, and her grandmother moved in to help her mother. Cate graduated from Australia's National Institute of Dramatic Art in 1992 and, in a little over a year, had won both critical and popular acclaim. On graduating from NIDA, she joined the Sydney Theatre Company's production of Caryl Churchill 's "Top Girls", then played Felice Bauer, the bride, in Tim Daly 's "Kafka Dances", winning the 1993 Newcomer Award from the Sydney Theatre Critics Circle for her performance. From there, Blanchett moved to the role of Carol in David Mamet 's searing polemic "Oleanna", also for the Sydney Theatre Company, and won the Rosemont Best Actress Award, her second award that year. She then co-starred in the ABC Television's prime time drama Heartland , again winning critical acclaim. In 1995, she was nominated for Best Female Performance for her role as Ophelia in the Belvoir Street Theatre Company's production of "Hamlet". Other theatre credits include Helen in the Sydney Theatre Company's "Sweet Phoebe", Miranda in "The Tempest" and Rose in "The Blind Giant is Dancing", both for the Belvoir Street Theatre Company. In other television roles, Blanchett starred as Bianca in ABC's Bordertown , as Janie Morris in G.P. and in ABC's popular series Police Rescue . She made her feature film debut in Paradise Road . She also married writer Andrew Upton in 1997. She had met him a year earlier on a movie set, and they didn't like each other at first. He thought she was aloof, and she thought he was arrogant, but then they connected over a poker game at a party, and she went home with him that night. Three weeks later he proposed marriage and they quickly married before she went off to England to play her breakthrough role in films: the title character in Elizabeth for which she won numerous awards for her performance, including the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama. Cate was also nominated for an Academy Award for the role but lost out to Gwyneth Paltrow . 2001 was a particularly busy year, with starring roles in Bandits , The Shipping News , Charlotte Gray and playing Elf Queen Galadriel in the "Lord Of The Rings" trilogy. She also gave birth to her first child, son Dashiell, in 2001. In 2004, she gave birth to her second son Roman. Also, in 2004, she played actress Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's film "Aviator" (2004), for which she received an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actress. Two years later, she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress for playing a teacher having an affair with an underage student in "Notes on a Scandal" (2006). In 2007, she returned to the role that made her a star in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (2007). It earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Actress. She was nominated for another Oscar that same year as Best Supporting Actress for playing Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There" (2007). In 2008, she gave birth to her third child, son Ignatius. She and her husband became artistic directors of the Sydney Theatre Company, choosing to spend more time in Australia raising their three sons. She also purchased a multi-million dollar home in Sydney, Australia and named it Bulwarra and made extensive renovations to it. Because of her life in Australia, her film work became sporadic, until Woody Allen cast her in the title role in Blue Jasmine , which won her the Academy Award as Best Actress. She ended her job as artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company, while her husband continued there for two more years before he too resigned. In 2015, she adopted her daughter Edith in her father's homeland of America. That same year, she and her husband sold their multi-million dollar home in Australia at a profit and moved to America. Reasons varied from her wanting to work more in America to wanting to familiarize herself with her late father's American heritage. She played the title role of Carol , a 1950s American housewife in a lesbian affair with a younger woman. She won rave reviews for the role, and may again be an Oscar contender.
Charmian Carr
Charmian Carr was born Charmian Farnon on December 27, 1942. She got her name because, supposedly, her father liked the name after reading William Shakespeare 's "Antony and Cleopatra". Charmian was the name of one of Cleopatra's maids. She was the second of three daughters. Her mother, Rita Oehmen , had been a vaudeville actress with her brother Eddy, and her father, Brian Farnon , was a musician. She remembers her childhood as very nice, because her older sister Shannon Farnon was always there to watch out for her and their younger sister, Darleen Carr . She moved from Chicago to California when she was 13 and her father left her mother a few years after that. The girls hardly saw their father after that.
She wanted to travel and to visit Europe, little knowing that a movie she would make would be partially shot in Europe. She worked as a doctor's assistant for awhile until a friend of her mother's asked her to audition for the part of "Liesl Von Trapp" in the movie, The Sound of Music . Her fictional family became part of her real family and she considers Nicholas Hammond (who played her brother "Freidrich Von Trapp") her real brother. After she made the movie, she spent much of the next several years promoting the movie around the world.
During a lull in the touring, she met and married Jay Brent and became the mother of two girls. She continued acting for a while, but decided that she wanted to stay home and raise her children. After her children were grown, she began a decorating company and met Michael Jackson , who became one of her clients. Other clients included members of her "Sound of Music" family, including Heather Menzies-Urich and her husband Robert Urich and Ernest Lehman .
She got divorced from Jay in 1991. In the late 1990s, she wrote a book about her life and her experiences being "Liesl" called "Forever Liesl".
Renée Zellweger
Renée Kathleen Zellweger was born on April 25, 1969, in Katy, Texas, USA. Her mother, Kjellfrid Irene (Andreassen), is a Norwegian-born former nurse and midwife, of Norwegian, Kven (Finnish), and Swedish descent. Her father, Emil Erich Zellweger, is a Swiss-born engineer. The two married in 1963. Renée has a brother named Drew Zellweger, a marketing executive born on February 15, 1967. Renée got interested in acting in high school while working on the drama club. She also took an acting class at the University of Texas (Austin), where she began looking towards acting as a career. After graduation, she wanted to continue acting, but Hollywood is a tough town to break into, so Renée decided to stay in Texas, and auditioned for roles around Houston, where she managed to grab roles in such films as Reality Bites and Empire Records .
While on the set for the sequel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation , she befriended Matthew McConaughey , another Hollywood up-and-comer. He was working on a project at the time that Renée was interested in, auditioned for, and won the role in the film Love and a .45 , which earned her enough critical praise that she decided to move to Los Angeles. Another role in The Whole Wide World followed which led to her big break. Cameron Crowe was busy casting his next film, Jerry Maguire , starring Tom Cruise . Crowe was considering such actresses as Cameron Diaz , Bridget Fonda , Winona Ryder , and Marisa Tomei , when he heard of Zellweger's performance in The Whole Wide World . He auditioned Zellweger and was sure he'd found his Dorothy Boyd.
Renée followed her huge success with a few small independent films and after receiving further critical praise, she felt confident enough to reenter the world of big-budget Hollywood films. She starred opposite Meryl Streep in the tear-jerker One True Thing . She also took a role in Me, Myself & Irene , opposite Jim Carrey , and soon after began dating Carrey. The two denied their relationship at first, but finally gave in and admitted it; today they are no longer together. Also in 2000, she starred in the title role in Nurse Betty , where she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical. In 2001, she received even more critical and commercial success in the title role in Bridget Jones's Diary . She received her first Academy Award nomination for her role, which was followed by her second Oscar-nominated role in the musical Chicago . She then again wowed audiences with her fierce yet warm portrayal of Ruby Thewes in the film adaptation of Cold Mountain , which won Zellweger an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, which was her first Academy Award.
Johnny Galecki
John Mark Galecki was born in Belgium where his dad was stationed while serving in the U.S. Air Force. When he was 3 years old, his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up along with his sister Allison (1980) and brother Nick (1982). His father then became a teacher for blind veterans in a VA hospital outside of Chicago. When Galecki was 16, his father died in an accident.
His mom, Mary Lou, recalled in an interview with People magazine that Galecki was a very artistic kid; at only 4 years old, he told her: "Mom, I'm gonna be on T.V., and I don't mean when I grow up." Two years later, when their attempts to distract him with sports failed, Galecki's parents took him to open auditions at local theaters in Chicago. He landed his first role in "Fiddler on the Roof," and more parts in other productions followed. By age 11, he was already known as an excellent actor in Chicago's theater scene evidenced by him receiving a Joseph Jefferson Citation nomination for portraying John Henry in "The Member of the Wedding."
In 1989 he was cast in his first movie, a holiday film called Prancer , but his big break was in another Christmas movie as Chevy Chase 's son Rusty Griswold, in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation . On the set, Chase took a liking to him, and Galecki recalled in a later interview that Chevy Chase showed him some tricks for comedic timing.
By that time, his whole family had moved from Chicago to L.A. to support his career. But within 10 months they realized they missed Chicago too much, and moved back home. Galecki, still just 14, was under contract on a show with Robert Urich called " American Dreamer ", so he stayed in L.A. Although he was living alone in a studio apartment, he never got into trouble and admitted himself that he was a good kid. He recalled living alone in L.A. without adult supervision as "not fun" and "quite intimidating and lonely, to be honest. But I've always been happiest when I'm working, so..." He bought a motorcycle with a mirrored helmet so he could get to work and back, at Paramount studios.
In 1991 Galecki was picked by Roseanne Barr to play her son in the made for T.V. movie Backfield in Motion . She liked him so much she asked him to come on her sitcom for what started as a one-off appearance, but soon turned into the important recurring role of David Healy. His family was religious viewers of the show and he was somewhat intimidated at first to be working with his television heroes. However, before long, it was his heroes that praised him: Roseanne said he showed "great vulnerability." John Goodman said: "If he was one of those little stuffed bears at a carny, he'd have a Wuv me t-shirt on. People just want to take care of him." Galecki also became very close friends with co-star Sara Gilbert and the show's executive producer Eric Gilliland .
After Roseanne he worked on a number of diverse roles, from funny Ira alongside Christopher Walken in the 1997 dark-comedy Suicide Kings to a drug-addicted student in 2003's Bookies , and he played gay characters in Don Roos 's Bounce and The Opposite of Sex . He never stayed far from the television industry as he made guest appearances such as Laurie Freeman's younger lover in Norm (where he once again worked with Laurie Metcalf , his former Roseanne cast mate), as a golfer in My Name Is Earl , as Hope & Faith 's younger brother in the sitcom of the same name, and as hilarious party-boy Trouty on My Boys . In 2006 he returned to his theater roots as he took on the role of conflicted but sweet male escort Alex in Douglas Carter Beane's play "The Little Dog Laughed," for which he received a 2007 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Browdway Debut.
In 2007 he was back on the small screens, starring as Leonard Hofstadter in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory . Not only was Chuck Lorre , a former producer for Roseanne, a producer of the new show, but Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf both made guest appearances.
Galecki is a self-admitted motorcycle "nerd," and drives a Harley Davidson Softail Deluxe. Although he never went to college, he has said: "I'm not dead! We should never stop learning. We should never stop absorbing," and so he learned how to play the cello in his early twenties. He likes traveling around the world, painting, music (he also plays bass), and hiking with his dog Vera.
He always has been very private about his personal life and little is known about past relationships. It has only been confirmed that he dated actresses Laura Harris and Kaley Cuoco . He isn't on twitter, and Galecki once said, "I don't understand the current frame of mind in our society that seems to say that any action is not of value until it's broadcast somehow."
He still lives in Los Angeles but is often spotted in Chicago, where his siblings still live.
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Russian Jewish and Romanian Jewish. She grew up in a ranch commune in Northern California which had no electricity. She is the goddaughter of Timothy Leary . Her parents were friends of Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and once edited a book called "Shaman Woman Mainline Lady", an anthology of writings on the drug experience in literature, which included one piece by Louisa May Alcott . Winona Ryder was later to star as Jo March in this author's Little Women .
Ryder moved with her parents to Petaluma, California when she was ten and enrolled in acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater. At age 13, she had a video audition to the film Desert Bloom , but did not get the part. However, director David Seltzer spotted her and cast her in Lucas . When telephoned to ask how she would like to have her name appear on the credits, she suggested Ryder as her father's Mitch Ryder album was playing the background. Ryder was selected for the part of Mary Corleone in The Godfather: Part III , but had to drop out of the role after catching the flu from the strain of doing the films Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael and Mermaids back to back. She said she did not want to let everyone down by doing a substandard performance. She later made The Age of Innocence , which was directed by Martin Scorsese , whom she believes to be "the best director in the world".
Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque
Joanna Levesque was born in Brattleboro, Vermont, to Diana (Blagden) and Joel Levesque. She has French-Canadian (father) and Polish, English, Irish, and Scottish (mother) ancestry. Her mother, a church soloist and theatre performer, would sing hymns when Joanna was a baby. She grew up being a big fan of Whitney Houston , Etta James , Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald . A few years later she wanted to show her talent to the world and found an audition for Kids Say the Darndest Things . She appeared at the audition and was allowed into the episode on the spot. Then, at Bill Cosby 's request, she performed "Respect" for the audience, and got an amazing response from Cosby. That's when the calls started pouring in. First Oprah Winfrey asked her to appear on her super-popular talk show, followed by the Republican National Convention, the Boston Celtics, and Rosie O'Donnell . However, it was at the 2001 Gospelfest that she brought an entire crowd to its feet. Next she auditioned for America's Most Talented Kids competition. She didn't win, but she met a man named James Womack , who introduced her to an executive at Da Family Entertainment. She signed with them, and was offered two contracts before finding her match with Blackground Records. Before her single "Leave (get out)" came out she toured with the prince of R'n'B, Mr Usher Raymond himself. Finally her single came out and went directly to the top of the American charts.
Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott was born in South Shields, Tyne and Wear (then County Durham) on 30 November 1937. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the UK and Europe before they eventually returned to Teesside.
Scott wanted to join Army (his elder brother Frank had already joined the Merchant Navy) but his father encouraged him to develop his artistic talents instead and so he went to West Hartlepool College of Art and then London's Royal College of Art where he helped found the film department.
He joined BBC in 1962 as trainee set designer working on several high profile shows. He attended a trainee director's course while he was there and his first directing job was an episode of the prestigious BBC series Z Cars , Error of Judgement .
More TV work followed until, frustrated by the poor financial rewards at the BBC, he went into advertising. With his younger brother, Tony Scott , he formed the advertising production company RSA (Ridley Scott Associates) in 1967 and spent the next 10 years making some of the best known and best loved TV adverts ever shown on British television, including a series of ads for Hovis bread set to the music of Dvorak's New World Symphony which are still talked about today ("'e were a great baker were our dad.")
He began working with producer David Puttnam in the 1970s developing ideas for feature films. Their first joint endeavour, The Duellists won the Jury Prize for Best First Work at Cannes in 1977 and was nominated for the Palm d'Or, more than successfully launching Scott's feature film career.
The success of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope inspired Scott's return to sci-fi (he had been a production designer on the cult series Doctor Who while he was at the BBC) and he accepted the offer to direct Dan O'Bannon 's low budget sci-fi horror movie Alien , a critical and commercial success that firmly established his worldwide reputation as a movie director.
Blade Runner followed in 1982 to, at best, a lukewarm reception from public and critics but in the years that followed, its reputation grew - and Scott's with it - as one of the most important sci-fi movies ever made.
Scott's next major project was back in the advertising world where he created another of the most talked-about advertising spots in broadcast history when his "1984"-inspired ad for the new Apple Macintosh computer was aired during the Super Bowl on 22 January 1984.
Scott's movie career has seen a few flops (notably Legend and 1492: Conquest of Paradise ), but with successes like Thelma & Louise , Gladiator and Black Hawk Down to offset them, his reputation remains solidly intact.
Sir Ridley was knighted in 2003 for his "substantial contribution to the British film industry".
Kristen Bell
Kristen Anne Bell (born 1980) is an American actress and singer. She was born and raised in Huntington Woods, Michigan, and is the daughter of Lorelei (Frygier), a nurse, and Tom Bell, a television news director. Her ancestry is Polish (mother) and German, English, Irish, and Scottish (father). Kristen found her talent in entertainment at an early age. In 1992, she went to her first audition and won a role in Raggedy Ann and Andy. Bell's mother established her with an agent before she was 13, and she was cast in newspaper advertisements and television commercials. At this time, she also began private acting lessons. Bell had an uncredited role in the film Polish Wedding in 1998.
Bell attended Shrine Catholic High School, where she took part in drama and music club. She won the starring role of Dorothy in her high school's production of The Wizard of Oz. After graduation Bell moved to New York City to attend prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied musical theater. In 2001, Bell left university to play the role of Becky in Tom Sawyer. That same year, she made her first credited debut in Pootie Tang , but her scene was cut and her appearance exists only in the credit sequence. In 2002, Bell appeared in the Broadway revival of The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Angela Bettis. She then moved to Los Angeles, California, and appeared in a handful television shows as a special guest, finding trouble gaining a recurring role in a television series.
In 2004, Bell appeared in the Lifetime's television film, Gracie's Choice, which received high ratings. At the age 24, Bell won the title role in Veronica Mars , which started broadcasting in the fall of 2004, created by Rob Thomas . Bell starred as a seventeen-year-old detective, which put her alongside actors Enrico Colantoni who played her father, Percy Daggs III , Jason Dohring and Ryan Hansen . This series received very positive reviews, and Bell received much attention for her performance. Bell and the cast of Veronica Mars were nominated for two Teen Choice Awards.
In 2005, Bell starred in Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical in the role of Mary Lane. Reefer Madness debuted on the Showtime network on April 16, 2005. The following year, Bell won the Saturn Award for 'Best Actress on Television' for her performance in Veronica Mars.
In 2013, Bell voiced the main character, Princess Anna of Arendelle, in the Walt Disney Pictures animated movie, Frozen , which received the 'best animated feature' award at the 86th Academy Awards. She performed the songs: 'For the First Time in Forever', 'Love is an Open Door', 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman', and 'For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)'. Frozen , which was released on November 22, 2013, was hugely successful worldwide.
On March 13, 2013, it was confirmed that a Veronica Mars movie would finally be coming to fruition. Bell and creator, Rob Thomas , launched a fund raising campaign to produce the film through Kickstarter and attained the $2 million goal in few hours. The movie was released on March 14, 2014.
Bell married Dax Shepard in October, 2013.
Gina Carano
Gina Joy Carano was born under a tornado warning in Dallas, Texas, to parents Dana Joy (Cason) and Glenn Thomas Carano. Her father played for the Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys as a backup quarterback for Roger Staubach and Danny White from 1977-1983. In 1984, he was the starting quarterback for the USFL Pittsburgh Maulers. Gina's parents divorced when she was a child, but her father remained involved in her upbringing and is her biggest fan. Gina is of three sixteenths Italian descent, and her other roots include English, Scottish, Dutch, and German.
The middle child of three close-knit girls, Casey being a year older and Christie, the youngest, Gina is their self-proclaimed bodyguard and highly protective of them. All three girls were star athletes in high school. Growing up in Las Vegas, Gina, a natural born athlete and rambunctious tomboy, studied gymnastics, jazz, tap, ballet, rode horses, whooped up on her male cousins for fun at family gatherings, and wrestled and played football with the neighborhood boys. She graduated from Trinity Christian High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she excelled in the volleyball, softball and basketball teams, the latter she helped secure a state title. Her collegiate studies include the University of Nevada, Reno where she attended one year, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas for three where she was offered positions on both the softball and basketball teams. Her academic goal was a degree in psychology, but with only a few credits remaining she dropped everything in order to help her older sister through a crisis. At the age of 21, Gina began training in Muay Thai, a form of Kickboxing, with Master Toddy at the suggestion of then boyfriend Kevin Ross . In pursuit of a life-changing experience he ended up at a local Las Vegas Muay Thai Gym and she tagged along. A trainer approached her, telling her point blank that she was fat and needed to lose weight. She weighed around 175 lbs. and had no direction at that point in her life. She began training and became addicted. Master Toddy saw potential in the way Gina handled herself. She took naturally to fighting with strong punches, deadly elbows and knees, a impressive overhand right, and rib-cracking hard kicks. Immersing herself completely in the sport, she advanced quickly. Months later she found herself in a "fight club" situation in San Francisco where she took on any female fighter plopped down in front of her. Since then, she hasn't looked back.
Initially, because of her pretty face, spectators refused to take her seriously as a fighter. It is a bias that has haunted her throughout her fighting career. Gina, who is openly laughed at, insulted, and ridiculed in front of crowds before fights, realizes she will have to cowgirl up in order to silence her taunters and she lets her fists do the talking. Her Muay Thai career is comprised of an impressive 12 wins, 1 loss, and 1 draw and she becomes the first American woman to win a title in Thailand. The 2005 cult film Ring Girls follows Gina and her trainer, Master Toddy during her early Muay Thai career. Because of her beauty, spunk, and tenacity she developed a significant fan following. In June 2006, Gina's success in Muay Thai brings her to the attention of Jamie Levine of World Extreme Fighting in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. He offers her a fight against Leiticia Pestova who holds a MMA record of 11 wins and 2 losses. It is to be the first-ever sanctioned female MMA bout in the state of Nevada. Levine is impressed with Gina's statuesque size. Standing at 5'8" and 155 lbs., which is the starting weight class for men, she isn't a frail little girl and has power in her kicks comparable to a man. Still in its infancy, and because of its vicious nature, a lot of people were teetering on the fence about women fighting in MMA. Levine believed gender didn't matter and he wanted to give the two women a nationwide platform to show what they could do. Gina, under the moniker "Conviction", trained relentlessly for the history-making bout, weighing in at a muscular 135 pounds. She does not disappoint her fans, winning the fight in explosive ground-and-pound action in the 38th second of the first round. Critics begin to whine that Gina is receiving preferential treatment based on her striking good looks and that her talents as a fighter are less than stellar. She uses these criticisms as fuel for her next bout against British fighter Rosi Sexton. in September 15, 2006. Sexton, a cerebral fighter with a mathematics degree from Cambridge and over 10 years of martial arts experience, possesses a 6-0 MMA record. Many believe Carano will go down in flames but, with six seconds left to go in the second round, Gina knocks Sexton out with a jaw dropping and show stopping overhand right. In December 2006, she faced Elaina Maxwell in what was their second fight against each other, the first time being in a Muay Thai bout. The fight went 3 rounds and showcased Gina's powerful overhand right and improved grappling skills. She won the unanimous decision.
February 10, 2007 -- In what is billed the "Fight of the Night" and the first televised female fight on Showtime, she faced Julie Kedzie . Kedzie, who was once arrested with a group of 300 nuns at a protest, is a feisty brawler known for overpowering her opponents in the clench. She has a record of 8 wins and 4 losses. The exciting fight, an amazing stand-up brawl, goes the distance with Gina knocking Kedzie flat at the end of the second round. Kedzie, a scrappy fighter, refused to give in, taking Carano down in the third round in a submission attempt. Carano rallied, winning the unanimous decision. The appreciative crowd gave both fighters a roaring standing ovation. Julie and Gina became training partners and good friends and remain so to this day. Gina's popularity skyrockets and she is crowned "The Face of Women's MMA" a title she doesn't particularly care for since it detracts from other women in the sport. Her image is everywhere. Critics, some of them other female fighters, complain that she is using sex appeal to further her career, that she is compensating for something she is lacking in the ring, that what she is doing is disrespectful to the sport, but fans can't seem to get enough of the imposing brunette. Men fall in love with her. Little girls and women find her an inspirational combination of beauty, strength, and power. Everyone is taken in by her shy smile and laid back, good-natured personality. Gina, who believes the image of a powerful, feminine woman is something to be celebrated, is baffled by the criticisms and humbled by the attention and support from her fans. She wins her next two fights -- In September 2007 against Tonya Evinger, a wrestling champion, via rear naked choke -- Gina's first submission -- and in May 2008 against Kaitlin Young although Gina had to forfeit a little over 12% of the purse to keep the fight on the card. She failed to make EliteXC's newly created 140 lb. weight class. Most MMA organizations have the featherweight division at 145 lbs. (65.8 kg.) Coming into the fight with only a three-week training camp, Carano weighed in at 144.5 lbs. (65.5 kg.) In spite of everyone's dire predictions, she dominates and the fight is stopped at the end of the second round. Gina wins by TKO. June 2008. More criticism : A sportswriter reporting on the Carano vs. Young fight voices his suspicion that Gina's opponents must be handpicked to make sure of the outcome and that she is too pretty to fight. He finds women fighting in the MMA an unpleasant experience but concludes that she is quite the asset. 2008 -- Gina reluctantly joins the cast of American Gladiators . She had reservations about running around in itty-bitty superhero spandex, but the show's producers pursued her and finally convinced her to sign on. She becomes known as "Crush" and cultivates a whole new fan base. She also appears as "Natasha", a Soviet Commando and Sniper, in the video game "Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3". MMA Legend Randy Couture , who Gina trains with, also appears. Critics are oddly silent on Couture 'going Hollywood', using his sex appeal, or being 'too pretty' to be in the video game. October 2008 -- Gina causes an unintentional frenzy at the weigh-in for the fight against Kelly Kobold. She has only fought once in the past year and there is speculation that she will not be able to make weight. Gina had hired a nutritionist to help with her diet, but at the weigh-in, she failed to make weight on her first two attempts. Gina, who has stated she will never pose naked for "Playboy" or any publication, boldly strips off all her clothes for the third attempt. Photographers shoved and tripped over each other trying to obtain the Holy Grail of photos, a bare naked Gina Carano. Severely dehydrated and towel-shielded from the cameras, she successfully makes weight at 141 pounds. Her father is one of the men holding up towels. October 5, 2008 -- With a 16-2-1 record, 6 wins by knockout and 8 by submission, Kelly Kobold vows to make Gina Carano the broken, bruised and bloodied face of MMA. Instead, it is Gina who bloodied Kobold's face with a severe gash over the right eye. Gina unleashed killer kicks and knees and wins the fight. She remained undefeated and lovingly dedicated the win to her grandfather. 2009 --
She and fellow MMA athletes Kevin 'Kimbo Slice' Ferguson and Maurice Smith dabbled in the Hollywood scene with small but memorable cameos in the Michael Jai White film Blood and Bone . Gina also appears on the cover of "ESPN The Magazine - The Body Issue". Posing mostly topless she shows off an impressive set of abdominals, amazing legs, and invokes more criticism. August 15, 2009 -- Gina makes history again by becoming the first female fighter to earn $100,000 for a fight. She faced Brazilian Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos in the first Women's Championship. The championship was scheduled for 5 rounds, each lasted 5 minutes -- Another first. In a hard fought battle, she loses in a heartbreaker by TKO at the bell at the end of the first round. But on January 6, 2012, revelations come to light. The California State Athletic Commission announced that Santos had tested positive for steroids after a December 2011 fight. It throws suspicion on the legitimacy of all of Cyborg's wins, including her win against Gina. Cyborg is suspended for one year, received a $2,500 fine. Gina, though hurt and disappointed, remained gracious and supportive of her sister fighter. A Carano vs. Cyborg rematch would be a huge MMA event but it is unlikely that Gina will ever return to the sport that made her a superstar. Classified by the Unified Women's MMA Rankings as the third best 145 lb (66 kg.) female fighter in the world, her current MMA record stands at 7 wins and 1 loss.
It was after that devastating loss, black eye and all, that a deflated Gina met with Academy Award winning director Steven Soderbergh for lunch in San Diego. He had seen her fight earlier on CBS and dreamed of building a film around her. Immediately he was struck with her presence and intriguing mix of muscular power and eye-catching femininity. Inspired, he wrote the role of Mallory Kane specifically for her although she is nothing like the unsmiling, structured, alpha female character. Soderbergh assembled an impressive cast and all heaped praise on the fighter and aspiring actress. Channing Tatum , a huge fan of Gina's and the MMA, immediately signed on when he learned she was involved in the project. Ewan McGregor , having no clue who Gina Carano was, studied many of her fights on YouTube. Initially horrified by the violence of the sport, he with met with her and was taken with how quiet, gentle and thoughtful she was out of the ring. He recalls hurting his hand when he accidentally punched Gina in the head during the film's final climatic fight scene. Gina, completely unaffected by the punch and worried she had injured the actor, immediately popped to her feet and asked if he was okay. Antonio Banderas found Gina to be beautiful, natural and real and believes she has a career in front of her. Michael Fassbender , who Gina now considers a mentor, thought her extraordinary and was impressed with her work ethic. Michael Douglas , who topped out the A-list cast, heralded Gina's self-control.
Gina is proud to have been a pioneer in Women's MMA, for kicking down barriers and inspiring and paving the way for the next wave of female fighters. She recently joined the 87Eleven Stunt team, the same team that propelled her to star status with their work on Haywire . With film projects like Fast & Furious 6 , In the Blood and rumors of Wonder Woman flying around, Gina Carano has found her niche in the Action Heroine film market. Her newest challenge as an athlete -- To cross over into film successfully.
Viggo Mortensen
Since his screen debut as a young Amish Farmer in Peter Weir 's Witness , Viggo Mortensen 's career has been marked by a steady string of well-rounded performances.
Mortensen was born in New York City, to Grace Gamble (Atkinson) and Viggo Peter Mortensen, Sr. His father was Danish, his mother was American, and his maternal grandfather was Canadian. His parents met in Norway. They wed and moved to New York, where Viggo, Jr. was born, before moving to South America, where Viggo, Sr. managed chicken farms and ranches in Venezuela and Argentina. Two more sons were born, Charles and Walter, before the marriage grew increasingly unhappy. When Viggo was seven, his parents sent him to a a strict boarding school, isolated in the foothills of the mountains of Argentina. Then, at age eleven, his parents divorced. His mother moved herself and the children back to her home state of New York.
Viggo attended Watertown High School, and became a very good student and athlete. He graduated in 1976 and went on to St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. After graduation, he moved to Denmark - driven by the need for a defining purpose in life. He began writing poetry and short stories while working many odd jobs, from dock worker to flower seller. In 1982, he fell in love and followed his girlfriend back to New York City, hoping for a long romance and a writing career. He got neither. In New York, Viggo found work waiting tables and bar tending and began taking acting classes, studying with Warren Robertson . He appeared in several plays and movies, and eventually moved to Los Angeles, where his performance in "Bent" at the Coast Playhouse earned him a Drama-logue Critic's Award.
He made his film debut with a small part in Witness . He appeared in Salvation!: Have You Said Your Prayers Today? and married his co-star, Exene Cervenka . The two had a son, Henry Mortensen . But after nearly eleven years of marriage, the couple divorced.
In 1999, Viggo got a phone call about a movie he did not know anything about: The Lord of the Rings. At first, he didn't want to do it, because it would mean time away from his son. But Henry, a big fan of the books, told his father he shouldn't turn down the role. Viggo accepted the part and immediately began work on the project, which was already underway. Eventually, the success of Lord of the Rings made him a household name - a difficult consequence for the ever private and introspective Viggo.
Vin Diesel
Vin Diesel was born Mark Sinclair in Alameda County, California, along with his fraternal twin brother, Paul Vincent . He was raised by his astrologer/psychologist mother, Delora Sherleen (Sinclair), and adoptive father, Irving H. Vincent, an acting instructor and theater manager, in an artist's housing project in New York City's Greenwich Village. He never knew his biological father. His mother is white (with English, German, Scottish, and Irish ancestry), and his adoptive father is African-American; referring to his biological father's background, Diesel has said that he himself is "definitely a person of colour".
His first break in acting happened by chance, when at the age of seven he and his friends broke into a theatre to vandalize it. A woman stopped them and offered them each a script and $20, on the condition that they would attend everyday after school. From there, Vin's fledgling career progressed from the New York repertory company run by his father, to the Off-Off-Broadway circuit. At age seventeen and already sporting a well-honed physique, he became a bouncer at some of New York's hippest clubs to earn himself some extra cash. It was at this time that he changed his name to Vin Diesel.
Following high school, Vin enrolled as an English major at Hunter College, but dropped out after three years to go to Hollywood to further his acting career. Being an experienced theatre actor did not make any impression in Hollywood and after a year of struggling to make his mark, he returned to New York. His mother then gave him a book called "Feature Films at used Car Prices" by Rick Schmidt. The book showed him that he could take control of his career and make his own movies. He wrote a short film based on his own experiences as an actor, called Multi-Facial , which was shot in less than three days at a cost of $3,000. Multi-Facial was eventually accepted for the 1995 Cannes Film Festival where it got a tumultuous reception.
Afterwards, Vin returned to Los Angeles and raised almost $50,000 through telemarketing to fund the making of his first feature, Strays . Six months after shooting, the film was accepted for the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and although it received a good reception, it did not sell as well as hoped. Yet again Vin returned disappointed to New York only to receive a dream phone call. Steven Spielberg was impressed by Multi-Facial and wanted to meet Vin, leading him to be cast in Saving Private Ryan . Multi-Facial earned Vin more work, when the director of The Iron Giant saw it and decided to cast Vin in the title role. From there, Vin's career has steadily grown, with him securing his first lead role as Richard B. Riddick in the sci-fi film Pitch Black . The role has earned him a legion of devoted fans and the public recognition he deserves.
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh Moore was born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on April 10, 1984, to Stacy (Friedman), a former news reporter, and Don Moore, an airline pilot. During her childhood, her family moved to Orlando, Florida, where she was raised. She has Russian Jewish (from her maternal grandfather), English, and some Scottish and Irish, ancestry.
After seeing the musical "Oklahoma!", she decided that she wanted to pursue a career in singing. As a child, she performed the National Anthem at several athletic events around her hometown of Orlando, Florida, and became known as the "National Anthem girl".
At the ripe age of 14, while she was recording in a studio in Orlando, a Fed-Ex worker who happened to be passing through heard her and was interested in her talent. He happened to know someone at Sony as well. Moore worked on cutting a demo and shortly thereafter signed a record deal with Sony 550 Music. At 15, her first record "So Real" was released. Her first tour was with the Backstreet Boys.
As her touring and recording schedule demanded more of her time, Moore withdrew from Bishop Moore Catholic High School in Orlando and opted for a tutor/correspondence. She has stated that her education is important to her and says that the fact that she wants to go to college motivates her to continue with her schooling.
Though Moore's record sales were not up in the ranks of Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera , she has proved to be a formidable talent both in singing and in acting, and snagged an MTV Movie Award in June 2002 for her first feature film role in A Walk to Remember . Her biggest dream, though, is to perform on Broadway someday.
Jen Lilley
The daughter of a judge and a director of marketing/event planner, Jen Lilley was born in Roanoke, Virginia. She had wanted to become a singer since childhood, and in 2001 she garnered the National Educators award in Guatemala by giving multiple concerts for underprivileged Guatemalan youth. In the late summer of 2007, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Lilley devotes her spare time to charities focusing on children, homelessness, and the world water crisis.
Shia LaBeouf
Shia Saide LaBeouf was born in Los Angeles, California, to Shayna (Saide) and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf, and is an only child. His mother is from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, while his father has Cajun (French) ancestry. His parents are divorced. He started his career by doing stand-up comedy around places in his neighborhood, such as coffee clubs. One day, he saw a friend of his acting on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman , and wanted to become an actor. Shia and his mother talked it over, and the next day, he started looking for an agent. He searched in the yellow pages, called one up, and did a stand-up routine in front of him. They liked him and signed him, and then he started auditioning. He is well known for playing Louis Stevens on the popular Disney Channel series Even Stevens and has won a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance. His best known role is as Sam Witwicky, the main protagonist of the first three installments of the Transformers series: Transformers , Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Transformers: Dark of the Moon .
Sigourney Weaver
Sigourney Weaver was born Susan Alexandra Weaver in Leroy Hospital in Manhattan, New York City. Her father, TV producer Sylvester L. Weaver Jr. , originally wanted to name her Flavia, because of his passion for Roman history (he had already named her elder brother Trajan). Her mother, Elizabeth Inglis (née Desiree Mary Lucy Hawkins), was an English actress who had sacrificed her career for a family. Sigourney grew up in a virtual bubble of guiltless bliss, being taken care of by nannies and maids. By 1959, the Weavers had resided in 30 different households. In 1961, Sigourney began attending the Brearley Girls Academy, but her mother moved her to another New York private school, Chapin. Sigourney was quite a bit taller than most of her other classmates (at the age of 13, she was already 5' 10"), resulting in her constantly being laughed at and picked on; in order to gain their acceptance, she took on the role of class clown.
In 1962, her family moved to San Francisco briefly, an unpleasant experience for her. Later, they moved back east to Connecticut, where she became a student at the Ethel Walker School, facing the same problems as before. In 1963, she changed her name to "Sigourney", after the character "Sigourney Howard" in F. Scott Fitzgerald 's "The Great Gatsby" (her own birth name, Susan, was in honor of her mother's best friend, explorer Susan Pretzlik). Sigourney had already starred in a school drama production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream", and, in 1965, she worked during the summer with a stock troupe, performing in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and "You Can't Take It With You" (she didn't star in the latter because she was taller than the lead actor!). After graduating from school in 1967, she spent some months in a kibbutz in Israel. At that time, she became engaged to reporter Aaron Latham , but they soon broke up.
In 1969, Sigourney enrolled in Stanford University, majoring in English Literature. She also participated in school plays, especially Japanese Noh plays. By that time she was living in a tree house, alongside a male friend, dressed in elf-like clothes! After completing her studies in 1971, she applied for the Yale School of Drama in New Haven. Despite appearing at the audition reading a Bertolt Brecht speech and wearing a rope-like belt, she was accepted by the school but her professors rejected her, because of her height, and kept typecasting her as prostitutes and old women (whereas classmate Meryl Streep was treated almost reverently). However, in 1973, while making her theatrical debut with "Watergate Classics", she met up with a team of playwrights and actors and began hanging around with them, resulting in long-term friendships with Christopher Durang , Kate McGregor-Stewart and Albert Innaurato .
In 1974, she starred in such plays as Aristophanes ' "Frogs" and Durang's "The Nature and Purpose of the Universe" and "Daryl and Carol and Kenny and Jenny", as "Jenny". After finishing her studies that year, she began seriously pursuing a stage career, but her height kept being a hindrance. However, she continued working on stage with Durang (in "Titanic" [1975]) and Innaurato (in "Gemini" [1976]). Other 1970s stage works included "Marco Polo Sing a Song", "The Animal Kingdom", "A Flea in Her Ear", "The Constant Husband", "Conjuring an Event" and others. However, the one that really got her noticed was "Das Lusitania Songspiel", a play she co-wrote with Durang and in which she starred for two seasons, from 1979 to 1981. She was also up for a Drama Desk Award for it. During the mid-70s, she appeared in several TV spots and even starred as "Avis Ryan" in the soap opera Somerset .
In 1977, she was cast in the role Shelley Duvall finally played in Annie Hall , after rejecting the part due to prior stage commitments. In the end, however, Woody Allen offered her a part in the film that, while short (she was on-screen for six seconds), made many people sit up and take notice. She later appeared in Madman and, of course, Alien . The role of the tough, uncompromising "Ripley" made Sigourney an "overnight" star and brought her a British Award Nomination. She next appeared in Eyewitness and The Year of Living Dangerously , the latter being a great success in Australia that won an Oscar and brought Sigourney and co-star Mel Gibson to Cannes in 1983. The same year she delivered an honorary Emmy award to her father, a few months before her uncle, actor Doodles Weaver , committed suicide. That year also brought her a romance with Jim Simpson , her first since having broken up two years previously with James M. McClure . She and Simpson were married on 1 October 1984. Sigourney had, meanwhile, played in the poorly received Deal of the Century and the mega-hit Ghostbusters . She was also nominated for a Tony Award for her tour-de-force performance in the play "Hurly Burly". Then followed One Woman or Two , Half Moon Street and Aliens . The latter was a huge success, and Sigourney was nominated for both a Golden Globe and an Oscar.
She then entered her most productive career period and snatched Academy Award nominations, in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories, for her intense portrayal of Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist and her delicious performance as a double-crossing, power-hungry corporate executive in Working Girl . She ended up losing in both, but made up for it to a degree by winning both Golden Globes. After appearing in a documentary about fashion photographer Helmut Newton , Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge , and reprising her role in the sequel Ghostbusters II , she discovered she was pregnant and retired from public life for a while. She gave birth to her daughter, Charlotte Simpson , on 13 April 1990, and returned to the movies as a (now skinhead) Ripley in Alien³ and a gorgeous "Queen Isabella of Spain" in 1492: Conquest of Paradise , her second film with director Ridley Scott . She starred in the political comedy Dave alongside Kevin Kline , and then a Roman Polanski thriller, Death and the Maiden .
In 1995, she was seen in Jeffrey and Copycat . The next year, she "trod the boards" in "Sex and Longing", yet another Durang play. She hadn't performed in the theater in many years before that play, her last stage performances occurring in the 1980s in "As You Like It" (1981), "Beyond Therapy" (1981), "The Marriage of 'Bette and Boo'" (1985) and "The Merchant of Venice" (1986). In 1997, she was the protagonist in Grimm's Snow White: A Tale of Terror , The Ice Storm and Alien: Resurrection . Her performance in The Ice Storm got her a BAFTA prize and another Golden Globe nod. She also gave excellent performances in A Map of the World and the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest . Her next comedy, Company Man , wasn't quite so warmly welcomed critically and financially, however. She next played a sexy con artist in Heartbreakers and had a voice role in Big Bad Love . Her father died at the age of 93. Sigourney herself has recently starred in Tadpole and is planning a cinematic version of The Guys , the enthralling September 11th one-act drama she played on stage on late 2001. At age 60, she played a crucial role in Avatar , which became the top box-office hit of all time. The film reunited her with her Aliens director James Cameron . Her beauty, talent, and hard-work keeps the ageless actress going, and she has continued to win respect from her fans and directors.
David Tennant
David Tennant was born David John McDonald in West Lothian, Scotland, to Essdale Helen (McLeod) and Sandy McDonald , who was a Presbyterian minister. He is of Scottish and Ulster-Scots descent. When he was about 3 or 4 years old, he decided to become an actor, inspired by his love of Doctor Who .
He was brought up in Bathgate, West Lothian and Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland and was a huge fan of the band The Proclaimers . He attended Paisley Grammar school and while there he wrote about how he wanted to become a professional actor and play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who .
He made his first television appearance (which was also his first professional acting job) when he was 16, after his father sent some photos of him to a casting director at Scottish television. He also attended a youth theatre group at weekends run by the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD - now renamed the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland [RCS]). When he was 16 he auditioned for and won a place at the RSAMD; the youngest student to ever do so, and started as a full time drama student when he was 17.
He worked regularly in theatre and TV after leaving drama school, and his first big break came in 1994 when he was cast in a lead role in the Scottish drama Takin' Over the Asylum . He then moved to London where his career thrived. Amongst other things, he spent several years as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and became famous from his lead roles in TV dramas Blackpool and Casanova .
In 2005, his childhood wish came true. David was cast to play the role of the Doctor in Doctor Who alongside Billie Piper , after Christopher Eccleston decided to leave. Playing the Doctor made him a household name. Since leaving the series in 2010 his career has continued to rise, with lead roles in films, TV series and theatre.
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her love of animals, Julia originally wanted to be a veterinarian, but later studied journalism. When her brother, Eric Roberts , achieved some success in Hollywood, Julia decided to try acting. Her first break came in 1988 when she appeared in two youth-oriented movies Mystic Pizza and Satisfaction . The movies introduced her to a new audience who instantly fell in love with this pretty woman. Julia's biggest success was in the signature movie Pretty Woman , for which Julia got an Oscar nomination, and also won the People's Choice award for Favorite Actress. Even though Julia would spend the next few years either starring in serious movies, or playing fantasy roles like Tinkerbell, the movie audiences would always love Julia best in romantic comedies. With My Best Friend's Wedding Julia gave the genre fresh life that had been lacking in Hollywood for some time. Offscreen, after a brief marriage, Julia has been romantically linked with several actors, and married cinematographer Daniel Moder in 2002; the couple has three children together.
Julia has also become involved with UNICEF charities and has made visits to many different countries, including Haiti and India, in order to promote goodwill. Julia Robert remains one of the most popular and sought-after talents in Hollywood.
Gerard Butler
Gerard James Butler was born in Paisley, Scotland, to Margaret and Edward Butler, a bookmaker. His family is of Irish origin. Gerard spent some of his very early childhood in Montreal, Quebec, but was mostly raised, along with his older brother and sister, in his hometown of Paisley. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he and his siblings were raised primarily by their mother, who later remarried. He had no contact with his father between the ages of two and 16 years old, after which time they became close. His father passed away when Gerard was in his early 20s. Butler went on to attend Glasgow University, where he studied to be a lawyer/solicitor. He was president of the school's law society thanks to his outgoing personality and great social skills.
His acting career began when he was approached in a London coffee shop by actor Steven Berkoff , who later appeared alongside Butler in Attila , who gave him a role in a stage production of "Coriolanus". After that, Butler decided to give up law for acting. He was cast as Ewan McGregor 's character "Renton" in the stage adaptation of [i]Trainspotting[/i]. His film debut was as Billy Connolly 's younger brother in Mrs Brown . While filming the movie in Scotland, he was enjoying a picnic with his mother near the River Tay when they heard the shouts of a young boy, who had been swimming with a friend, who was in some trouble. Butler jumped in and saved the young boy from drowning. He received a Certificate of Bravery from the Royal Humane Society. He felt he only did what anyone in the situation would have done.
His film career continued with small roles, first in the "James Bond" movie, Tomorrow Never Dies , and then Russell Mulcahy 's Tale of the Mummy . In 2000, Butler was cast in two breakthrough roles, the first being "Attila the Hun" in the USA Network mini-series, Attila . The film's producers wanted a known actor to play the part but kept coming back to Butler's screen tests and decided he was their man. He had to lose the thick Scottish accent, but managed well. Around the time "Attila" was being filmed, casting was in progress for Wes Craven 's new take on the "Dracula" legacy. Also wanting a known name, Butler wasn't much of a consideration, but his unending tenacity drove him to hounding the producers. Eventually, he sent them a clip of his portrayal of "Attila". Evidently, they saw something because Dracula 2000 was cast in the form of Butler. Attila's producers, thinking that his big-screen role might help with their own film's ratings, finished shooting a little early so he could get to work on Dracula 2000 . Following these two roles, Butler developed quite a fan base, an Internet site and began appearing on lists everywhere.
Since then, he has appeared in Reign of Fire as "Creedy" and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life as "Terry Sheridan", alongside Angelina Jolie . The role that garnered him the most attention from both moviegoers and movie makers, alike, was that of "Andre Marek" in the big-screen adaptation of Michael Crichton 's novel, Timeline . Butler played an archaeologist who was sent back in time with a team of students to rescue a colleague. Last year, he appeared in Andrew Lloyd Webber 's musical, The Phantom of the Opera , playing the title character in the successful adaptation of the stage musical. It was a role that brought him much international attention. Other projects include Dear Frankie , The Game of Their Lives and Beowulf & Grendel .
In 2007, he starred as Spartan "King Leonidas" in the Warner Bros. production 300 , based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, and Shattered , co-starring Pierce Brosnan and Maria Bello , which aired on network TV under the title, "Shattered". He most recently starred in P.S. I Love You , with Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank .
Christian Serratos
Born and raised in Southern California, Christian knew from an early age that she wanted to be an actress. As a toddler, she was already a compulsive performer. She would entertain her family nightly by re-enacting television shows. Christian put all that passion into dance and studied ballet along with ice-skating. Christian competed frequently in ice-skating competitions. She enjoyed dance and ice-skating so much that she decided to study multiple dance styles. Christian started as a Ford model. Later, she landed the role of "Suzie Crabgrass" on Nickelodeon's Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide then Cow Belles . More of Christian's credits include 7th Heaven , Hannah Montana and Zoey 101 .
Eleanor Parker
Eleanor Jean Parker was born on June 26, 1922, in Cedarville, Ohio, the last of three children born to a mathematics teacher and his wife. Eleanor caught the acting bug early and began performing in school plays. She was was so serious about becoming a thespian, she attended the Rice Summer Theatre on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts beginning when she was 15 years old. She was offered her first screen-test by a 20th Century-Fox talent scout while attending Rice, but turned the opportunity down to gain professional stage experience in Cleveland after graduating from high school.
She moved on to California to continue her acting studies at the Pasadena Playhouse. It was there, while sitting in the audience of a play being put on at the Playhouse, she was again offered a screen-test -- this time from a Warner Brothers' scout -- and again declined, wanting to finish her first year at the Playhouse. When the year was up, Eleanor contacted Warner Brothers to take them up their offer of a screen-test, and was signed as a contract player two days after it was shot.
She was cast in Raoul Walsh 's They Died with Their Boots On , but her performance was left on the cutting room floor. She was then cast in short-subjects and given other assignments typically of tyro movie actors to enable them to learn their craft, such as voice-overs and appearing in other actors' screen tests. Finally, she was promoted to the B-picture unit, making her feature debut in Busses Roar .
Her beauty meant she was not forgotten, and she was cast in one of Warner Brothers' biggest productions for the 1943 season, the pro-Soviet Mission to Moscow directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Walter Huston as the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. Eleanor played his daughter in the film, which became notorious in the McCarthy era for its glorification of "Uncle Joe" Stalin. The film proved significant to Eleanor as she met a future husband on the set, Navy Lieutenant. Fred L. Losse, Navy dentist. The marriage was a brief war-time affair, lasting from March 21, 1943, to December 5, 1944.
She went back to the Bs with The Mysterious Doctor , then bounced back to the A-list for Between Two Worlds , a remake of the Leslie Howard vehicle Outward Bound in which she played Paul Henreid 's fiancé. (Both were dead from suicide, but in Hollywood logic, that didn't mean they couldn't gambol together on the silver screen.) Eleanor then made two more "B" quickies in 1944, Crime by Night , and The Last Ride before graduating to the A-list for good with Pride of the Marines with John Garfield .
In a Warner Brothers remake, she took over the role Bette Davis had made good in (ironically, at rival R.K.O.) in the 1946 remake Of Human Bondage . Though Parker would be gaining kudos and Oscar nominations by the beginning of the next decade, her portrait of Mildred was weak in comparison with Davis' dynamic performance.
Parker received the first of her three Best Actress Oscar nominations playing a prisoner in Caged , for which she won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival. She was also nominated the next year playing the cop's wife who shared a secret with the neighborhood abortionist in William Wyler 's Detective Story . Her third and last Oscar nod came for Interrupted Melody , playing an opera singer struck down by polio. She could easily have been nominated that same year for her portrayal of Frank Sinatra 's faux crippled wife in Otto Preminger 's brooding masterpiece The Man with the Golden Arm adapted from the novel by Nelson Algren .
Parker proved herself to be a supremely talented and very versatile lead actress. The versatility was likely one of the reasons why she never quite became a major star. Audiences attending a movie which starred Parker never knew quite what to expect of her; if they even remembered she was the same actress, they had seen before in a different type of role in another picture. Her turns in Detective Story and The Man with the Golden Arm could not have been more different. Parker's stardom and subsequent fame (and remembrance) suffered from her focusing on being a serious actress and creating a character who fit the motion picture she was in, rather than playing a character again and again and again as most movie stars do. She is probably best remembered for the relatively tame part as the Baroness in The Sound of Music .
She received an Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy nomination in 1963 for her appearance in The Eleventh Hour episode "Why Am I Grown So Cold?" Despite the success of The Sound of Music which was completely attributed to #1 Box Office sensation Julie Andrews is probably Parker's best remembered role. Her appearances in such fare as The Oscar (the cast of which the Playboy Magazine reviewer derided as "has-beens and never-will-bes") and the movie adaptation of Norman Mailer 's indescribable existential-potboiler See You in Hell, Darling with fellow Oscar-nominee Stuart Whitman signaled that Miss Parker, indeed, was now inscribed on the list of the has-beens.
She had one last hurrah, winning a Golden Globe nomination in 1970 as Best Lead Actress for her role in the TV series Bracken's World but unfortunately, times had changed during the tumultuous 1960s. Her last film was in a Farrah Fawcett bomb, Sunburn . Subsequently, she appeared very infrequently on TV, most recently in Dead on the Money .
Eleanor Parker retired far too soon for those who were her fans and those who appreciated a superb actress. Although she received only half as many Oscar nominations as the great Deborah Kerr , surely like Kerr, an honorary Oscar recognizing one of the movies' great talents wouldn't be out of line, but remains improbable due to the lack of recognition that great talent engendered.
Al Pacino
One of the greatest actors in all of film history, Al Pacino established himself during one of film's greatest decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.
Pacino was born on April 25, 1940, in the Bronx, New York, to an Italian-American family. His parents, Rose (Gerardi) and Sal Pacino , divorced when he was young. His mother moved them into his grandparents' house. Pacino found himself often repeating the plots and voices of characters he had seen in the movies, one of his favorite activities. Bored and unmotivated in school, the young Al Pacino found a haven in school plays, and his interest soon blossomed into a full-time career. Starting on the stage, he went through a lengthy period of depression and poverty, sometimes having to borrow bus fare to make it to auditions. He made it into the prestigious Actors Studio in 1966, studying under legendary acting coach Lee Strasberg , creator of the Method Approach that would become the trademark of many '70s-era actors. After appearing in a string of plays in supporting roles, he finally hit it big with "The Indian Wants the Bronx", winning an Obie award for the 1966-67 season. That was followed by a Tony Award for "Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie?". His first feature films made little departure from the gritty realistic stage performances that earned him respect: he played a junkie in The Panic in Needle Park after his film debut in Me, Natalie . What came next would change his life forever. The role of Michael Corleone in The Godfather was one of the most sought-after of the time: Robert Redford , Warren Beatty , Jack Nicholson , Ryan O'Neal , Robert De Niro and a host of others either wanted it or were mentioned for it, but director Francis Ford Coppola had his heart set on the unknown Italian Pacino for the role, although pretty much everyone else--from the studio to the producers to some of the cast members--didn't want him. Though Coppola won out through slick persuasion, Pacino was in constant fear of being fired during the hellish shoot. Much to his (and Coppola's) relief, the film was a monster hit that did wonders for everyone's career, including Pacino's, and earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Instead of taking on easier projects for the big money he could now command, however, Pacino threw his support behind what he considered tough but important films, such as the true-life crime drama Serpico and the tragic real-life bank robbery film Dog Day Afternoon . He opened eyes around the film world for his brave choice of roles, and he was nominated three consecutive years for the "Best Actor" Academy Award. He faltered slightly with Bobby Deerfield , but regained his stride with ...and justice for all. , for which he received another Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. This would, unfortunately, signal the beginning of a decline in his career, which produced such critical and commercial flops as Cruising and Author! Author! . He took on another vicious gangster role and cemented his legendary status in the ultra-violent cult hit Scarface , but a monumental mistake was about to follow. Revolution endured an endless and seemingly cursed shoot in which equipment was destroyed, weather was terrible, and Pacino became terribly ill with pneumonia. Constant changes in the script also further derailed a project that seemed doomed from the start anyway. The Revolutionary War film is considered one of the worst films ever, not to mention one of the worst of his career, resulted in his first truly awful reviews and kept him off the screen for the next four years. Returning to the stage, Pacino has done much to give back and contribute to the theatre, which he considers his first love. He directed a film, The Local Stigmatic , but it remains unreleased. He lifted his self-imposed exile with the striking Sea of Love as a hard-drinking cop. It marked the second phase of Pacino's career, being the first to feature his now famous dark, owl eyes and hoarse, gravelly voice. Returning to the Corleones, he made The Godfather: Part III and earned raves for his first comedic role in the colorful Dick Tracy . This earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and two years later he was nominated for Glengarry Glen Ross . He went into romantic mode for Frankie and Johnny . In 1992 he finally won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his amazing performance in Scent of a Woman . A mixture of technical perfection (he plays a blind man) and charisma, the role was tailor-made for him, and remains a classic. The next few years would see Pacino becoming more comfortable with acting and movies as a business, turning out great roles in great films with more frequency and less of the demanding personal involvement of his wilder days. Carlito's Way proved another gangster classic, as did the epic crime drama Heat directed by Michael Mann and co-starring Robert De Niro , although they only had a few scenes together. He returned to the director's chair for the highly acclaimed and quirky Shakespeare adaptation Looking for Richard . City Hall , Donnie Brasco and The Devil's Advocate all came out in this period. Reteaming with Mann and then Oliver Stone , he gave two commanding performances in The Insider and Any Given Sunday .
In the 2000s, Pacino starred in a number of theatrical blockbusters, including Ocean's Thirteen , but his choice in television roles (the vicious Roy Cohn in HBO's miniseries Angels in America and his sensitive portrayal of Jack Kevorkian, in the television movie You Don't Know Jack ) are reminiscent of the bolder choices of his early career. Each television project garnered him an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie.
In his personal life, Pacino is one of Hollywood's most enduring and notorious bachelors, having never been married. He has a daughter, Julie Marie, with acting teacher Jan Tarrant, and a new set of twins with longtime girlfriend Beverly D'Angelo . His romantic history includes a long-time romance with "Godfather" co-star Diane Keaton . With his intense and gritty performances, Pacino was an original in the acting profession. His Method approach would become the process of many actors throughout time, and his unbeatable number of classic roles has already made him a legend among film buffs and all aspiring actors and directors. His commitment to acting as a profession and his constant screen dominance has established him as one of the movies' true legends.
Pacino has never abandoned his love for the theater, and Shakespeare in particular, having directed the Shakespeare adaptation Looking for Richard and played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice .
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William Hiddleston was born in Westminster, London, to English-born Diana Patricia (Servaes) and Scottish-born James Norman Hiddleston. His mother is a former stage manager, and his father, a scientist, was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company.
He started off at the preparatory school, The Dragon School in Oxford, and by the time he was 13, he boarded at Eton College, at the same time that his parents were going through a divorce. He continued on to the University of Cambridge, where he earned a double first in Classics. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2005.
Whilst at University of Cambridge, he was seen by the agency 'Hamilton Hodell' in the play 'A Streetcar named Desire' and was signed. Following this, he was cast in his first television role in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby . Hiddleston won his first film role as Oakley in Joanna Hogg's award-winning first feature, Unrelated . His breakthrough role came when he portrayed Loki in the 2011 Marvel Cinematic Universe feature film Thor . He reprised the character in The Avengers , and Thor: The Dark World .
He has also appeared in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), The Deep Blue Sea (2011), Woody Allen's romantic comedy Midnight in Paris (2011), the 2012 BBC series Henry IV, Henry V, and the romantic vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive (2013). In theatre, he has been in the productions of Cymbeline (2007) and Ivanov (2008). In December 2013 he starred as the title character in the Donmar Warehouse production of Coriolanus which played until February 2014. He won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Play for his role in Cymbeline while also being nominated for the same award the same year for his role as Cassio in Othello.
In 2011 he won the Empire Award for Best Male Newcomer and was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award for his role in Thor. On television in 2012 Hiddleston appeared in the BBC Two series The Hollow Crown, portraying Prince Hal opposite Jeremy Irons as Henry IV in the adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I and Part II. He later as appeared as King Henry V in the television film Henry V. In 2013, Hiddleston played Loki again in Thor: The Dark World, following which he played a vampire, Adam, in Jim Jarmusch's film Only Lovers Left Alive with Tilda Swinton as Eve and Mia Wasikowska. He had a cameo in the 2014 film Muppets Most Wanted, as the Great Escapo. Hiddleston replaced Benedict Cumberbatch in the gothic horror film Crimson Peak, directed by Guillermo Del Toro. The film started filming in Toronto in February 2014, and was released in October 2015. He then played Robert Laing in the film adaptation of J. G. Ballard's novel High Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley. The film started shooting in Northern Ireland in July 2014.
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The Cagayan River is the largest river in which country? | 5 Longest River in the Philippines | Philippine Attractions
5 Longest River in the Philippines
by marvelynquiobe22
Philippine Longest Rivers
1.) Cagayan River – 505 kmRio Grande de Cagayan or simply Cagayan River, with a total length of 505 kilometers, is the longest and widest river in the Philippines. This great river of great economic importance bisects the Cagayan Valley from north to south. Also considered as the mightiest watercourse, Cagayan River sources its water from smaller rivers and streams in the 3 most popular mountain ranges in the country namely; Sierra Madre, Caraballo and Cordillera.
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As already mentioned above, Cagayan River is the country’s largest and longest river. It is situated in the most prominent and productive valley in the archipelago – the Cagayan Valley. The headwaters of Cagayan River are at the Caraballo Mountains in Central Luzon more than 1,500 meters above sea level. Cagayan River has a drainage area of about 27,300 km².
2.) Mindanao River – 373 km
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Mindanao River or Rio Grande de Mindanao is the country’s second largest river system. The river is Mindanao’s 2nd largest river and has a drainage area of 23,169 km². It is also the second longest Philippine river with a length of 373 km.
3.) Magat River – 353 km
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Magat River is one of the most popular rivers in the Philippines. It is located in Luzon and is the largest tributary of Cagayan River, the country’s longest and largest river system. Magat River has an estimated drainage area of 5, 110 km² and the Magat River Integrated Irrigation System Project is one of the largest irrigation projects in the Philippines. It is 353 km in length.
4.) Agusan River – 350 km
Agusan River in Mindanao’s eastern part has a total drainage area of 10,921 km² and an estimated length of 350 kilometers from its origin. The headwaters of the Agusan River are found in the mountains of Compostela Valley.
5.)Pampange River
Pampanga River, which is formerly known as Rio Grande de Pampanga or Great River of Pampanga, is the Philippines 2nd largest river. Pampanga River‘s headwaters are located at the Sierra Madre and has a total length of 260 km and has a river’s basin that covers an area of 10,540 km².
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson married which future world leader in 1992? | Cagayan River - The Full Wiki
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Rio Grande de Cagayan, Ilog ng Kagayan
River
The Pinacanauan River, seen just below the Callao Caves, is one of the major tributaries of the Cagayan River.
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Mouth of the Cagayan River
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25,649 km2 (9,903 sq mi )
Drainage area of the Cagayan River and its tributaries on the island of Luzon , Philippines
The Cagayan River is the longest and largest river in the Philippine Archipelago . [1] It is located in the Cagayan Valley region in northeastern part of Luzon island and traverses the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya , Quirino , Isabela and Cagayan .
Contents
8 External links
Topography
The river's headwaters are at the Caraballo Mountains of the Central Luzon at an elevation of approximately 1,524 meters. The river flows north for some 505 kilometers [2] to its mouth at the Babuyan Channel near the town of Aparri , Cagayan . The river drops rapidly to 91 meters above sea level some 227 kilometers from the river mouth. Its principal tributaries are the Chico, Siffu, Mallig, Magat and Ilagan Rivers.
Magat River is the largest tributary with an estimated annual discharge of 9,808 million cubic meters. It lies in the southwestern portion of the basin, stretching approximately 150 kilometers from Nueva Vizcaya down to its confluence with Cagayan River about 55 kilometers from the river mouth.
Both Magat and Chico Rivers have extensive drainage areas which comprise about 1/3 of the whole basin.
The Ilagan River originates from the western slopes of the Sierra Madre and drains the eastern central portion of the Cagayan River basin with an estimated yearly discharge of 9,455 million cubic meters. It flows westward and joins the Cagayan River at Ilagan, Isabela , 200 kilometers from the mouth.
The Siffu-Mallig system lies on the slope of the Central Cordillera ranges flowing almost parallel to the Magat River. Marshes and swamps are found in some parts of its lower reaches.
Cagayan River and its tributaries have deposited sediments of Tertiary and Quaternary origin, mostly limestone sands and clays, throughout the relatively flat Cagayan Valley which is surrounded by the Cordillera Mountains in the west, Sierra Madre in the east and the Caraballo Mountains in the south.
The river has a drainage area of about 27,300 km². in the provinces of Apayao , Aurora , Cagayan, Ifugao , Isabela, Kalinga , Mountain Province , Nueva Vizcaya, and Quirino.
The estimated annual discharge is 53,943 million cubic meters with a groundwater reserve of 47,895 million cubic meters.
Flooding
The Cagayan River and its tributaries are subject to extensive flooding during the monsoon season in Southeast Asia from May to October.
The average annual rainfall in 1,000 mm in the northern part and 3,000 mm in the southern mountains where the river's headwaters lie. Water from the mountains flow down very slowly because of surface retention over the extensive flood plain, the gorges in the gently-sloping mountains and the meandering course of the river.
The inundation of the Cagayan River and its tributaries have caused great loss of life and property and substantial losses to the local and national economies. The Philippine government has established several flood warning stations along the river. Experts are specifically monitoring the lower reaches from Tuguegarao to Aparri and the alluvial plain from Ilagan to Tumauini, Isabela .
Flora and fauna
The Cagayan River passes through one of the few remaining primary forests in the Philippines.
It supports the lives of numerous endemic and endangered species, like the Luzon bleeding-heart pigeon ( Gallicolumba luzonica ), Philippine eagle ( Pithecophaga jefferyi ) and a rare riverine fish, locally called ludong (Cestreaus plicatilis).
The ludong spawns in Cagayan River's upper reaches in Jones, Isabela . In late October until mid-November, the fish travel down the river to release their eggs at the river mouth near Appari.
In February, ludong fry by the millions are again caught in fine nets as these travel upstream.
Due to the dwindling number of ludong caught yearly, local governments have imposed a ban on catching the fish and its fry, but the ban has failed.
People
The river traverses four provinces: Nueva Vizcaya , Quirino , Isabela and Cagayan . These provinces have an approximate population of two million people, mostly farmers and indigenous tribesmen.
The Ibanag people derive their tribe's name from Cagayan River's ancient name, Bannag. The Gaddang tribe lived in the upper riches of the Cagayan River and its tributaries.
An old drawn geographical description of Cagayan River (Juan Luis de Acosta, Circa 1720)
Economic importance
The river drains a fertile valley that produces a variety of crops, including rice, corn, bananas, coconut, citrus and tobacco.
There are dams in two of the river's tributaries, the Magat and Chico Rivers, and there are also several mining concessions in the mineral-rich Cordillera Mountains near the headwaters of the two tributary rivers.
The provincial governments along the river have also developed tourism programs that offer activities on the river, particularly whitewater rafting.
References
^ Kundel, Jim (June 7, 2007). "Water profile of Philippines" . Encyclopedia of Earth. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Water_profile_of_Philippines#River_Basins_and_Water_Resources . Retrieved 2008-09-30.
^ "Principal River Basins of the Philippines", Published by the National Water Resources Board, October 1976 (p. 12)
Further reading
Wernstedt, F. L., and J. E. Spencer (1967). The Philippine Island World. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
External links
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During World War II, which spiritual leader addressed letters to Adolph Hitler as ‘My Friend’, requesting him to stop the war which Germany had started? | WWII Timeline of Events - World War II History
Jan 04, 1944
In a conference attended by German leaders Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer, and Fritz Sauckel, it was decided that four million people were to be conscripted from occupied territories as forced laborers for war production. One million were to be drafted from France between 1... 02.and 31 Dec 1944. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
SS Garrison Doctor Eduard Wirths notified SS Medical Officers in the sub camps belonging to Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp that as of January 4, following identification and a number check, the corpses of prisoners should be sent every day before noon directly to crematorium, bypassing the morgues in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The death reports of the prisoners and the protocols of the corpse examination were to be sent, as before, to the orderly room of prisoners' hospital in Auschwitz I camp by noon on the day the corpses were delivered to the crematorium. ( ... )
Jan 14, 1911
USS Arkansas (BB 33) was launched. She served with the British Grand Fleet in World War I. In WWII, she participated in the Normandy Invasion, then relocated to the Pacific in 1944. After WWII, Arkansas was a target ship during Bikini Atoll Atomic bomb tests, where she was engulfed in a column of water and sunk on 25 July 1946. ( ... )
May 25, 1911
USS Wyoming (BB 32) was launched. Commissioned in September 1912, she later participated in the Veracruz Intervention and WWI. Following the 1930 London Treaty, Wyoming was "demilitarized" in early 1931 and became a training ship, receiving the hull number (AG 17). During WWII, she took on the mission of training thousands of sailors in the art and science of gunnery and operated in the Chesapeake Bay area. Decommissioned in August 1947, Wyoming was scrapped that October. ( ... )
Jan 05, 1919
Germans Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart, Karl Harrer, and 20 others formally named their small political group the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) in Munich, Germany. The party aimed to support middle-class citizens of the Aryan race. This party was the forerunner of the Nazi Party. ( ... )
Mar 24, 1919
The battleship USS Idaho (BB 42) was commissioned and spent the next ten years in the Pacific. Following conversion, she was sent to the Atlantic during the beginning of WWII in Europe and returned to the Pacific following the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor and participated in gunfire support of the Aleutian, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa Campaigns. After the end of WWII, Idaho was decommissioned in Jun 1946 and sold for scrapping in Nov 1947. ( ... )
May 23, 1939
USS Squalus (SS-192) suffered a catastrophic main induction valve failure during a test dive off the New Hampshire coast and partially flooded. The submarine sank to the bottom and came to rest keel down in over 200 feet of water. 26 lives were lost. ( ... )
May 24, 1939 - May 25, 1939
Vice Admiral Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber was first used to rescue the 33 men from the sunken USS Squalus (SS-192). Four Navy divers received the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions on 24-25 May to rescue the trapped men. Squalus was decommissioned, repaired and renamed Sailfish, then recommissioned in May 1940. Sailfish successfully served in the Pacific during World War II and was sold for scrapping in 1948. ( ... )
Jul 30, 1939
Reacting to German anti-Jewish policies and reflecting the attitude of many other officials in Great Britain and Western Europe, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain writes: "No doubt Jews aren't a lovable people; I don't care about them myself. But that is not sufficient to explain the pogrom." ( ... )
Aug 10, 1939
SS Officer Alfred Naujocks gave this sworn affidavit on the incident which triggered the war: "On or about August 10, 1939, [Reinhard] Heydrich personally ordered me to simulate an attack on the radio station near Gleiwitz, near the Polish border, and to make it appear as if the attacking forces consisted of Poles. Heydrich said, 'Practical proof is needed for these attacks of the Poles for the foreign press as well as German propaganda.' I was ordered to go to Gleiwitz with five or six Security Service men wand wait until I would receive the code words (CANNED GOODS) for the attack from Heydrich. My instructions were to seize the radio station and to hold it long enough to permit a Polish-speaking German, who would be put at my disposal, to broadcast a speech in Polish." The orders were carried out in every detail. ( ... )
Sep 01, 1939
Germany invaded Poland and touched off WWII. The Germans had arranged a series of elaborate pretexts for launching the attack. Berlin claimed Polish army regulars started firing on Germans along the frontier and that the fire was returned beginning at 4:45am. Hitler addressed the Reichstag, declaring "I am determined to eliminate from the German frontiers the element of insecurity, the atmosphere which permanently resembles that of civil war." German forces slammed into Poland from Silesia, East Prussia, and Slovakia, 1,500,000 men (52 divisions) against a Polish army a third that size. Germany unveiled the blitzkrieg--highly mobile armor and tactical aircraft leading the ground forces through and around the Polish defenses. Large scale pincers movements were executed to perfection. Britain and France notified Germany that unless military action ceased, they would have to come to Poland's aid. Britain and France ordered total mobilization. Danzig was proclaimed to be a part of Germany by Gauleiter Forster. Italy proclaimed its nonbelligerent status. Norway, Switzerland, and Finland declares their neutrality. Russia mobilized and lowered its draft age from 21 to 19. ( ... )
Jan 08, 1940
Finnish 9th division takes possession of Raate Road at dawn, as the last dug-in Soviet troops surrender around Lakes Kuivasjarvi and Kuomasjarvi (near Captain M?kinen?s original roadblock). Mopping up stragglers in the woods will take several days. Finns capture 43 tanks, 70 field guns, 278 trucks and other vehicles, 300 machine guns, 6,000 rifles & 1,170 horses. Another entire Soviet division is gone, estimated at 10-15,000 dead (not even the Soviet know how many men went onto the Raate Road; the Finns do not bother to count the frozen bodies). Finns take only 1000 prisoners and another 700 make it back to USSR. Many of those retreating are shot by NKVD and when Finland returns the prisoners, they are also executed for ?treason?. Finnish casualties in the Battle of Raate Road are 2,700 dead, missing and wounded. ( ... )
Apr 27, 1940
Following a number of inspections at various sites, Heinrich Himmler, Commander of the SS, gave out the order to establish a concentration camp in the former artillery barracks in Oświęcim, known at the time as Auschwitz. The basis for Auschwitz consisted of 22 prewar brick barracks buildings. Over time, the camp exp...anded steadily in both organizational and spatial terms. At its peak in the summer of 1944, Auschwitz covered about 40 sq. km. in the core area, and more than 40 branch camps dispersed within a radius of several hundred kilometers. At this time, there were about 135 thousand people (105 thousand registered prisoners and about 30 thousand unregistered) in the Auschwitz complex, which accounted for 25% of all the people in the entire concentration camp system (525 thousand). ( ... )
May 24, 1940
Hitler ordered German armored units to halt mop-up operations and continue toward Paris. If the panzers had continued they would have wiped out the Allied troops caught in ever-smaller pockets. Hitler overruled his commanders on the scene because he was sticking to the original plan of a southward thrust after the breakthrough to the English Channel. ( ... )
May 26, 1940
Hitler after a critical two-day delay, ordered German troops to attack Dunkirk. The first units could not advance until late in the day, but the main force could not be organized until the following day. "By then," said General Guderain, "it was too late to achieve a great victory." ( ... )
May 26, 1940 - Jun 04, 1940
Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied troops at Dunkirk began. In one of the most dramatic withdrawls in military history, a hastily assembled fleet of 861 ships and boats began pulling what was left of the trapped Allied armies off the beaches of Dunkirk. In a week, 224,585 British and 112,546 French and Belgians were taken to safety. About 40,000 Frenchmen were left behind. A total of 231 of the rescue vessels were sunk, mostly by the Luftwaffe, but German air strikes were restricted by bad weather and the tenacious fighters of the RAF. For all the glory that accompanied the gallant retreat, Dunkirk represented the nadir of the war for Britain. ( ... )
Sep 28, 1940
Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles outlined US policy in Asia toward Japan. He said Tokyo's intention to create a new order in Asia had resulted in Japan's reliance "upon the instrumentality of armed force, and it has made it very clear that it intents that it alone shall decide to what extent the historic interests of the United States and the treaty rights of American citizens in the Far East are to be observed." Welles called for "complete respect" for US rights, "equality of opportunity for the trade of all nations," and "respect" for all treaties and international agreements to which the US had agreed. "Modifications" through "peaceful negotiations" would be considered. ( ... )
Dec 25, 1940
German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper attacks British troop convoy WS 5A consisting of 20 MS and escorted by RN CA Berwick, and CLs Bonaventure and Dunedin with CV Furious loaded with crated aircraft about 700 nm W of Cape Finisterre. Spots Berwick while still unseen herself. Closes Benwick opening fire with her main battery at 0639. Benwick replies two minutes later. Hipper engages the other cruisers and some mercantile targets with her 105mm secondary battery. The conditions hampered sighting efforts, but at 0705 she hits Benwick's X turrent and at 0708 scores again with a hit below Berwick's waterline causing flooding. She got two more hits before breaking off action at 0714 in a rainsquall. Benwick's fire is ineffective. Hipper also damages two of the convoy's merchant ships, principally the 13,994 ton transport Empire Trooper. She fired 174 main battery rounds in this action. ( ... )
Sep 28, 1941 - Sep 29, 1941
SS troops massacred nearly 34,000 Jews from the Kiev area in the nearby Babi Yar ravine. In its official report, Einsatzgruppe C related: "The Jewish population was invited by poster to present themselves for resettlement. Although initially we had only counted on 5,000-6,000 Jews reporting, more than 30,000 Jews appeared; by a remarkably efficient piece of organization they were led to believe in the resettlement story until shortly before their execution." It had been suggested the Jews were killed in reprisal for the bombing of a Kiev hotel used as a German headquarters, but the SS had been systematically killing Jews in Russia in the wake of the advancing Wehrmacht. Babi Yar stands as perhaps the most horrible single example of vengeful genocide. ( ... )
Nov 05, 1941
Secret instructions (Combined Fleet Ultasecret Operation Order I) were issued to the Japanese navy for the attack on Pearl Harbor. An imperial conference resulted in agreement to continue negotiations with the U.S. but to go to war if they failed to produce a settlement. The military was thus ordered to prepare for the worst. ( ... )
Nov 06, 1941
While on Neutrality Patrol, USS Omaha and USS Somers intercepted the German blockade runner Odenwald disguised as U.S. freighter and boarded her. While approaching, the crew attempted to scuttle the ship, but the damaged was stopped by the boarding party. Odenwald was then brought to San Juan, Puerto Rico by the Navy ships. ( ... )
Nov 28, 1941
USS Enterprise (CV-6) sailed from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to the island due to �War Warning� issued the previous day. Vice Admiral William Halsey approved �Battle Order No.1� that declared Enterprise was operating �under war conditions.� Following the land ing of the aircraft on 4 December, Enterprise made her way back to Pearl Harbor but was caught in storm that delayed her return. On 5 December, USS Lexington (CV-2) would subsequently leave with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine Aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor. This departure was also due to the �War Warning� of 27 November. ( ... )
Dec 02, 1941
London announced the formation of a new and expanded Eastern FLeet. Britain in the past had maintained a cruiser squadron, but its naval presence in Asia would now be led by more powerful men-of-war. The battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse arrived in Singapore on this date. This announced action indicated the concern of Britain as it viewed Japan's southward penetration. ( ... )
Dec 02, 1941
Roosevelt - in a personal note to the Japanese envoys in Washington - asked Tokyo for an explanation of the Japanese troop build-up in Indochina. The President said, "The stationing of thee increased Japanese forces in Indochina would seem to imply the utilization of these forces by Japan for purposes of further aggression, since no such number of forces could possibly be required for the policing of that region..." ( ... )
Dec 07, 1941
09:00 Crew of the Dutch liner JAGERSFONTEIN opens up with her guns, the first Allies to join the fight. Radios throughout the island crack out urgent messages "Get off roads and stay off.. Don't block traffic. Stay at home. This is the real McCoy". ( ... )
Dec 07, 1941
09:15 - In a note delivered to Secretary Hull at 2:15 PM (EST) in Washington, the Japanese said, "Obviously it is the intention of the American Government to conspire with Great Britain and other countries to obstruct Japan's efforts toward the establishment of peace through the creation of a new order in East Asia, and especially to preserve Anglo-American rights and interests by keeping Japan and China at war." This declaration of war notice was delivered over an hour after the attack had begun. ( ... )
Feb 03, 1942 - Feb 04, 1942
Anticipating an imminent attack on the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Navy, USS TROUT (SS-202) rendezvoused with a torpedo boat in Manila Bay and moored at South Dock. TROUT supplied over 3,500 rounds of ammunition to the marine defenders and loaded fuel and two torpedoes. Requiring ballast and with the intent of evacuating the wealth of the Philippine government, TROUT also loaded over 20 tons of gold bars, silver pesos and State Department dispatches. With sunset fast approaching, TROUT submerged to the bottom of Manila Bay. After nightfall TROUT loaded more mail and was escorted through the defensive minefields to sea. ( ... )
Mar 25, 1942
In one of the greatest "trading with the enemy" scandals of the war, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold announces that William Stamps Farish Sr. has pled "no contest" to charges of criminal conspiracy with the Nazis. Arnold discloses that Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon) of which Farish is president and CEO has agreed to stop hiding patents from the U.S. for synthetic rubber, which the company has in its possession. Missouri Sen. Harry Truman later roasts Farish in front of his committee investigating home front wrongdoing, an event that raises Truman's profile and makes him a plausible running mate for FDR in 1944. The exposure of the scandal is widely believed to have contributed to Farish's sudden death from a heart attack in November of 1942. ( ... )
Jun 06, 1942
The Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles in naval history, marks the turning point of the Pacific War. The decisive defeat administered to the Japanese put an end to their successful offensive and effectively turned the tide of the Pacific War. Japanese losses totaled four fleet carriers, one heavy cruiser, 258 aircraft, and a large percentage of their experienced carrier pilots. United States losses were 40 shore-based and 92 carrier aircraft, and the destroyer Hammann and the carrier Yorktown, the result of a single submarine attack. The significance of the victory was not completely recognized at the time. ( ... )
Jul 10, 1942
While returning from a routine patrol, PBY from (VP 41) sights Mitsubishi A6M2 type 0 carrier fighter (Zero) upside down in a bog on Akutan Island, Aleutians, where it had been since its forced landing on 3 June during the attack on Dutch Harbor. On the 12th, a salvage party from VP 41, began salvage of the Zero which last until mid month. The find was vital as the Allies gained a lot of knowledge to fight the aircraft in future battles. ( ... )
Jul 15, 1942
USS Terror (CM 5), the first minelayer built as such, was commissioned. During World War II, she participated in Operation Torch, the Battle for Iwo Jima, and the Okinawa Invasion, where she was struck by a kamikaze on 1 May 1945. During the Korean War, she was placed in the reserve fleet and was redesignated (MM 5) then to (MMF 5) in 1955. Decommissioned in 1956, Terror was sold for scrapping in 1971. ( ... )
Jul 30, 1942
The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. government established the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, program. Though Navy women would not be allowed to serve outside the continental U.S., or even to go to sea, the military hoped that the recruitment of 10,000 women, who would work in onshore bases, would free sufficient numbers of men to fight overseas. Although women had served as nurses in the navy as early as the Spanish-American War, and officially in the Navy Nurse Corps since 1908, the WAVES program was by far the largest-scale effort to recruit women to active duty in the Navy. In the WAVES program, thousands of women performed nearly every possible job at over 500 naval stations through the Second World War. As military leaders had hoped, they enabled male officers and enlisted men to staff the ships that were responsible for the Allied victory in the Pacific theatre. Among the earliest group of women to enlist in the WAVES was Miriam Miller. Although her parents felt that military nursing "wasn't the life for a nice Jewish girl," Miller enlisted soon after her graduation from the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital School of Nursing, in Pennsylvania. She was assigned first to the Great Lakes Naval Station and then to the San Diego Naval Hospital. Later, when the Navy relaxed its prohibition on women serving outside the continental U.S., she worked in Guam, where she cared for soldiers injured in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Active in veterans' affairs after the war, Miller was elected President of the Jewish War Veterans National Ladies Auxiliary in 1961. ( ... )
Oct 22, 1942
The Allies met to discuss Operation Torch. Operation Torch was to be the first Allied amphibious landing of World War II (North Africa), mainly as an induction of US ground forces against the Germans. Operation Torch takes place 8 Nov 1942. ( ... )
Oct 22, 1942
US General Mark Clark arrived in Algiers by submarine for a secret meeting with pro-Allied French officers to discuss Operation Torch. Operation Torch was to be the first Allied amphibious landing of World War II (North Africa), mainly as an induction of US ground forces against the Germans. Operation Torch takes place 8 Nov 1942. At the end of this meeting, being chased by Vichy French police, Clark lost his trousers while jumping into a rowboat waiting to take him to the submarine. The first of the cargo ships left British ports. ( ... )
Nov 08, 1942
Operation Torch, American and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria. The U.S. Navy saw most of its action around Casablanca and elsewhere on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Local French resistance was fierce, but short, and an armistice on 11 November ended the fighting. This ambitious trans-oceanic amphibious operation gave the Allies bases for future operations. In six more months, all of North Africa was cleared of Axis forces, opening the way for an invasion of Italy. ( ... )
Nov 10, 1942
In response to Mahatma Gandhi's demand that India be granted independence from Britain immediately, Prime Minister Churchill, in a speech at Mansion House, says "I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." ( ... )
Dec 30, 1942
USS Greenling attacked a Japanese convoy 180 miles northeast of Manus, Admiralty Islands and sank Army cargo ship Hiteru Maru and damaged cargo ship Ryufuku Maru while USS Thresher (SS 196) sank the Japanese freighter Hachian Maru west of Mata Siri Island, off the southern tip of Borneo. ( ... )
Dec 31, 1942
The squadron finds the convoy and attacks it on 31 Dec. German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper makes visual contact at 0720. At 0939 she engages Achates and obtains one non-vital hit with five salvos before turning to engage Onslow and Orwell. These destroyers manage to keep Hipper occupied until 1020 when Hipper scores four hits from 48 main battery shells fired at a range of 8,500 meters, seriously damaging Onslow and forcing the destroyers to turn away. Hipper next encounters the MMS Bramble and fatally damages her with her third salvo from 5,500 meters. She closed the convoy and takes Achates under fire once again, hitting her with her first salvo, leaving her on fire and listing seriously. Obedient, Obdurate and Orwell counterattack, forcing Hipper to turn away from the anticipated torpedo attack. The time is now 1130 and the cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica finally arrive surprising Hipper with their first salvos from 10,500 meters. Hipper is hit shortly thereafter and suffers a flooded boiler room. She takes the cruisers under fire at 1134, but is hit twice more a minute latter, with more flooding and a fire in her aircraft hanger resulting. Hipper turns away in consideration of her orders to avoid action with enemy forces nearly equal to her in strength and because of the damage sustained. The British destroyers chase the Germans and more shots are exchanged until 1400 when contact is definitively broken off. Achates and Bramble sink, but the British rightly claim victory in this action, saving their convoy from a vastly superior force and sinking a German destroyer in the bargain. Hipper is seriously damaged, suffering more flooding and a series of engine failures before she manages to limp back to Kaafjord at 0542 on 1 Jan 43. ( ... )
Jan 29, 1943
The Battle of Rennell Island began when Japanese shore-based aircraft attacked TF 18 covering transports heading towards Guadalcanal. USS Chicago was damaged and sank the next day. Aircraft from USS Enterprise turned away the attackers on the 30th. TF 18 bore the brunt of this attack, and the transports reached Guadalcanal without any damage. ( ... )
Feb 02, 1943
The Japanese destroyer Makigumo was damaged by one of the mines laid by light minelayers USS Tracy (DM 19), USS Montgomery (DM 17), and USS Preble (DM 20) off Cape Esperance the previous night. Makigumo was later scuttled by Japanese destroyer Yugumo. ( ... )
Feb 22, 1943
USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, was commissioned. After serving in WWII, she was decomissioned but reactivated in 1951 for the Korean War. Decommissioned in 1958, she was again recommissioned in 1984, serving until Oct 1990. Iowa is currently in the reserve fleet awaiting to become a museum ship. ( ... )
Feb 28, 1943
A group of wives of Jewish men gather in Berlin to stop the deportation of their husbands to concentrations camp. The group of women will grow to 1,000 by March 8 and will succeed in forcing Joseph Goebbels to order the release of 1,500 men. ( ... )
Mar 02, 1943 - Mar 04, 1943
Fifth Air Force Air Apaches and other aircraft smashed a 16-ship Japanese troop convoy in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. This ended the enemy�s effort to reinforce Lae. The aircraft sank over 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping, including eight troop-laden transports and four of eight escorting warships, and between 50-60 planes. Modified B-25s used low-level skip bombing and .50 cal guns. ( ... )
Mar 05, 1943
USS Bogue (ACV 9) began the first anti-submarine carrier operations in the Atlantic. In July of that year, she was reclassified as an escort carrier, (CVE 9). While in the reserves in 1955, Bogue was reclassified as a Escort Helicopter Aircraft Carrier (CVHE 9) and was sold for scrapping in 1960. ( ... )
Mar 08, 1943
A PBY-5 aircraft piloted by Lieutenant J.E. Dryden from Patrol Squadron Fifty Three (VP 53) sank German submarine, U 156, east-northeast of Trinidad. Before being sunk, U 156 sank 24 allied and merchant vessels, including USS Blakeley (DD 150) on 25 May 1942. ( ... )
May 20, 1943
The Tenth Fleet was established in Washington D.C., under the command of Admiral Ernest J. King, USN, to coordinate U.S. anti-submarine operations in the Atlantic. Disbanded after WWII, the Tenth Fleet was reactivated in January 2010 as U.S. Fleet Cyber Command. ( ... )
May 22, 1943
During the battle to protect ON 184 in the North Atlantic, TBFs from (VC 9) based on board USS Bogue (ACV 9) sank German submarine U 569 and damaged U 305. Before being sunk, U 569 sank two British merchant vessels. ( ... )
May 23, 1943
USS New Jersey (BB 62) was commissioned. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Battle of the Leyte Gulf and supported the Iwo Jima and the Okinawa Campaigns in the Pacific theatre. Decommissioned in 1948, she was recommissioned for the Korean War and served until 1957. Recommissioned for the Vietnam War in April 1968, she provided gunfire support until decommissioned the following year. New Jersey was then recommissioned in 1982 and served until Sep 1991. New Jersey currently serves as a museum ship at Camden, New Jersey. ( ... )
Jul 13, 1943
TBF (VC 13) based on board USS Core (ACV 13) sank German submarine U 487, 720 miles south-southwest of Fayal, Azores, 27º 15�N, 34º 18�W. During her service U 487 served on two war patrols but did not sink any Allied vessels. ( ... )
Jul 18, 1943
The airship K-74, while on a night patrol off the Florida coast, attacked a surfaced U-boat. In the gun duel that followed, she was hit and brought down -- the only airship lost to enemy action in World War II. The German submarine, U 134, was damaged enough to force her return to base, and after surviving two other attacks on the way, was finally sunk by British Wellington aircraft on 24 August, near Vigo, Spain. ( ... )
Oct 04, 1943
Operation Leader - aircraft from USS Ranger (CV-4) attacked two German convoys in the harbor of Bodø, Norway and caused "appreciable losses" to the vessels. This mission was the only Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II. USS Corry (DD-463) provided escort support. ( ... )
Oct 05, 1943 - Oct 06, 1943
Task Force 14 (TF-14) began a two-day raid on Wake Island. Rear Admiral Sakaibara Shigematsu, the Japanese island commander, then ordered the execution of the 98 remaining civilian prisoners captured on 23 December 1941, due to his fear they would escape and communicate about the weak garrison. ( ... )
Oct 06, 1943
In the night Battle of Vella Lavella, USS O�Bannon (DD 450), USS Chevalier (DD 451), and USS Selfridge (DD 357) intercepted 9 Japanese destroyers en route to Rabaul after evacuating the garrison on Vella Lavella Island. During the battle, the Japanese destroyer Yugumo was sunk. All the U.S. destroyers were damaged, with Chevalier being scuttled by USS LaVallette (DD-488) due to damage. ( ... )
Nov 02, 1943
USS Halibut (SS 232), USS Seahorse (SS 304), and USS Trigger (SS 237), all operating independently of each other, attacked a Japanese convoy south of Honshu. Halibut sank army cargo ship Ehime Maru, Seahorse sank transport Chihaya Maru, and Trigger sank transport Delagoa Maru. ( ... )
Nov 03, 1943
USS Oklahoma (BB-37), which was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, was refloated after months of laborious effort. Too old and badly damaged, she was formally decommissioned in Sept. 1944. Sold for scrapping in Dec. 1946, Oklahoma sank while under tow from Hawaii to California in May 1947. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
In a conference attended by German leaders Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer, and Fritz Sauckel, it was decided that four million people were to be conscripted from occupied territories as forced laborers for war production. One million were to be drafted from France between 1... 02.and 31 Dec 1944. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
SS Garrison Doctor Eduard Wirths notified SS Medical Officers in the sub camps belonging to Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp that as of January 4, following identification and a number check, the corpses of prisoners should be sent every day before noon directly to crematorium, bypassing the morgues in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The death reports of the prisoners and the protocols of the corpse examination were to be sent, as before, to the orderly room of prisoners' hospital in Auschwitz I camp by noon on the day the corpses were delivered to the crematorium. ( ... )
Jan 30, 1944
PB2Ys (VP 13 and VP 102) from Midway Island carryout nocturnal bombing raid on Wake Island to neutralize Japanese airfield installations. Motor torpedo boats Gyoraitei No.5 and Gyoraitei No.6 are sunk during the raid. The strike marked the first time Coronados are used a bombers. ( ... )
Jan 31, 1944
31 January 1944, the Marshall Island Invasion began with US Marine and Army troops landing at Kwajalein and Majuro atolls and then on Roi and Namur the following day. Within two weeks, the island chain would be under Allied control and �mopping-up� operations soon began. The landing force was commanded by Major General Holland M. Smith, USMC. Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Task Force 50, commanded the overall operation. ( ... )
Feb 23, 1944
USS PLUNGER (SS-179) was underway during her tenth war patrol. Having sighted a puff of smoke on the horizon, PLUNGER gave chase. She tracked the smoke for two hours before her diligence paid off. PLUNGER sighted a convoy consisting of three large merchant ships and two escorts. PLUNGER selected the two largest ships as her intended victims. The first ship, dubbed "PAPA," was engaged using PLUNGER�s final forward torpedo. This shot struck PAPA amidships, setting her aflame. Before PLUNGER could engage her next target, named "MAMA," she was subjected to a vigorous depth charging. ( ... )
Feb 24, 1944
The US submarine, Rasher, sinks the Japanese troopship Tango Jaru in the Java sea. The vessel is carrying Allied prisiners of war and 3,500 Javanese slave labourers, more than 3,000 of whom perish. The Rasher then sinks the Ryusei Maru which is packed with 6,600 Japanese troops. Nearly 5,000 of them are killed. ( ... )
Feb 24, 1944
24 Feb 1944, PBY-5As (VP 63) employing Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) gear, and a PV-1 (VB 127), together with an RAF Catalina (No. 202 Squadron) and British destroyers HMS Anthony and Wishart, bombed German submarine U 761 as she attempted to transit the Straits of Gibraltar. U 761 was the first U-boat destroyed through the use of MAD equipment. The destroyers rescued the U-boat survivors. ( ... )
Mar 29, 1944
USS Tunny (SS 282) torpedoed the Japanese battleship Musashi off Palau, which necessitated repairs in Japan, during which her anti-aircraft firepower was enhanced. Note, Musashi would be later sunk by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944. ( ... )
Mar 30, 1944
TF 58 began bombing of Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations at Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in the Caroline Islands. TBFs and TBMs from USS Lexington (CV 16), USS Bunker Hill (CV 19), and USS Hornet (CV 12) extensively bombed the minefields in and around the channels and approaches to the Palaus in the first tactical use of mines laid by carrier aircraft. ( ... )
May 05, 1944
USS Comfort (AH-6) was commissioned at San Pedro, California. She was the first ship to be manned jointly by US Army and US Navy personnel. Serving in the Pacific during WWII, she was hit by a kamikaze on 29 April, which killed 28 (including six nurses), wounded 48, and caused considerable damage. Following repairs and return visits to the Pacific, Comfort was decommissioned in 1946 and transferred to the U.S. Army. After service in the Maritime Commission and Administration, Comfort was sold for scrap in October 1967. ( ... )
May 07, 1944
USS Buckley (DE 51) was damaged when she intentionally rammed German submarine U 66, which had been harassed by TBMs (VC 55) from USS Block Island (CVE 21) about 390 miles west of Cape Verdes. Echoing the close-quarter battles of sail, Buckley�s crew employed small arms, hand grenades, fists, and even a coffee mug. U 66 sank as a result of the multifaceted pounding. Before being sunk, U 66 sank 37 Allied merchant ships, which included 8 American vessels. ( ... )
May 11, 1944
About 30 minutes before sunset USS CREVALLE (SS-291) surfaced off Negros Island in the Philippines to bring supplies to guerillas fighting the Japanese and pick up refugees. CREVALLE�s commanding officer, Frank Walker remembers, "My orders stated that we would bring out twenty five passengers and no baggage." The second canoe, carrying sixteen more refugees, was a total surprise. As many of the second group were women, children, and also included four American and Filipino soldiers who had survived the Bataan Death March, had made their escape and desperately needed medical treatment. Walker could not turn them away�CREVALLE took everyone aboard. Among the refugees was American missionary Paul Lindholm and his wife and four children. Lindholm made sure his family was safe aboard the boat and then, in Walker�s words, "returned ashore at the last minute to continue his ministry among the guerillas�much to the astonishment of his wife who expected him to accompany them to safety." The entire family would survive to be reunited at war�s end. ( ... )
May 18, 1944
Following gunfire support from US Army gunners (who landed on Insoemanai island the previous day), USS Wilkes (DD 441) and USS Roe (DD 418), the 1st Battalion, 163rd Infantry landed on Wakde, off Dutch New Guinea. Rear Admiral William M. Fechteler commanded the naval attack force. On 21 May, the island was declared secure, and Army engineers immediately began to make the airstrip operational. Wakde became a key airfield in the Southwest Pacific offensive, as it supported two heavy bomber groups, two fighter groups, a B-25 reconnaissance squadron and part of a Navy PB4Y squadron. ( ... )
May 19, 1944
USS Niblack (DD 424), USS Ludlow (DD 438), and British aircraft sank German submarine U 960 off Oran, Algeria. Before being sunk, U 960 sank 3 Allied merchant vessels, including the United States steam merchant Sumner I. Kimball on 16 January 1944. ( ... )
May 21, 1944
During preparations for the invasion of Saipan, an accidental ordnance blast on LST 353 set off cataclysmic ammunition explosions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 163 and injuring 396. Six tank landing ships (LST-39, LST-43, LST-69, LST-179, LST-353, LST-480), three tank landing craft (LCT-961, LCT-963, LCT-983), and 17 track landing vehicles (LVTs) are destroyed in explosions and fires. We remember and salute the lives of the service members killed and wounded. ( ... )
May 29, 1944
USS Block Island (CVE-21) was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-549. During this attack, USS Barr (DE 576) was also damaged. Block Island was the only US Navy aircraft carrier lost in the Atlantic during the Second World War. U-549 was later sunk that night by USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) and USS Ahrens (DE 575). ( ... )
May 31, 1944
USS Barb (SS 220) and USS Herring (SS 233) planned an attack Japanese shipping in the Sea of Okhotsk about 150 miles west of Matsuwa Island, Kuril Islands. Next, Herring attacked convoy NE and sank escort vessel Ishigaki and army cargo ship Hokuyo Maru west of Matsuwa Island. Barb came across the convoy NE and sank army cargo ship Madras Maru and transport Koto Maru, southest of Paramushir. ( ... )
Jun 07, 1944
Early in the morning while cruising through a swept channel off Normandy, Susan B. Anthony struck a mine which exploded under her number 4 hold. Immediately, she lost all power, and her rudder went hard left and stuck. The commanding officer, Commander T. L. Gray, USNR, with Pinto and two destroyers alongside, efficiently effected the evacuation of troops expeditiously and without resorting to fireboats and rafts. Anthony's crew followed closely behind the soldiers. No one was killed, and few of the 45 wounded were seriously hurt. The sinking of the Susan B. Anthony listed was the largest rescue of people without loss of life; all 2,689 people aboard were saved. ( ... )
Jun 09, 1944
Fifth Air Force B-24's bomb Peleliu airfield. A-20's bomb shipping in Manokwari harbor. B-24's, A-20's, B-25's, and P-39's, along with RAAF planes, drop about 140 tons of bombs on various targets in Wewak area. B-24's of Thirteenth Air TF bomb Alet air field and T/Os in Truk. ( ... )
Jun 10, 1944
More than 600 people are massacred by German troops in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. While the men are shot immediately, the women and children are locked in a church the alter of which is set on fire; those who try to escape the flames are shot. ( ... )
Jun 16, 1944
Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard was serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company A, Fourth Tank Battalion, Fourth Marine Division as they fought against the Japanese at the Battle of Saipan, Marianas Islands. With his tank destroyed by enemy 77-mm. gun fire, he persisted with the attack until he was forced to abandon the tank, exposing himself while covering his evacuating men. Wounded and with the grenade supply diminished, he dismantled a tank machine gun and attacked the enemy positions, destroying 16 enemy soldiers before sacrificing his life to save his men. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, McCard was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 17, 1944
TBF aircraft from Composite Squadron Ninety Five (VC 95) from USS Croatan (CVE 25) damaged German submarine U 853 in the North Atlantic. On 6 May 1945, USS Atherton (DE 169) and USS Moberly (PF 63) sank U 853 off Block Island, 41º 13�N, 71º 27�W. During her service, U 853 sank two US vessels: USS Eagle (PE 56), 23 Apri 1945 and merchant Black Point on 5 May 1945. ( ... )
Nov 16, 1944
The 332d Fighter Group escorted B-24 bombers of the 304th Bombardment Wing to and from Munich West marshaling yards. During the mission, the group encountered several Me-109 enemy fighters that attempted to shoot down the bombers. Captain Luke J. Weathers of the 302d Fighter Squadron shot down 2 of the 43 enemy fighters. The 52d Fighter Group also escorted the 304th Bombardment Wing that day. Lt. Roger Romine died in an aircraft accident after the aircraft of another escort pilot crashed into his. Capt. Luke J. Weathers of the 302nd Fighter Squadron earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroic actions on this day. ( ... )
Nov 19, 1944
The 332d Fighter Group conducted a strafing mission against enemy railway, highway, and river traffic targets in the Gyor-Vienna-Esztergom area of Austria. 1st Lieutenant Roger B. Gaiter of the 99th Fighter Squadron was seen to bail out of his P-51 after it was hit by enemy antiaircraft fire (flak). 1st Lieutenant Quitman Walker, also of the 99th Fighter Squadron, was also reported missing after also being hit by flak. Both were lost near Lake Balaton, Hungary. For this mission, Fifteenth Air Force commander Major General Nathan F. Twining commended the 332d Fighter Group. For their heroic actions on this day, the following four members of the 332d Fighter Group each earned the Distinguished Flying Cross: Capt. Albert H. Manning (99th Fighter Squadron); Capt. John Daniels (99th Fighter Squadron); 1st Lt. William N. Alsbrook (99th Fighter Squadron); and 1st Lt. Norman W. Scales (100th Fighter Squadron). ( ... )
Dec 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins. It the last major German counteroffensive, as allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name (see MAP). Two weeks of intense fighting in brutal winter weather follow before the German offensive is stopped. ( ... )
Dec 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins. It the last major German counteroffensive, as allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name (see MAP). Two weeks of intense fighting in brutal winter weather follow before the German offensive is stopped. ( ... )
Jan 05, 1945
Japanese kamikaze attacks continued against the Lingayen Gulf bound U.S. Navy force. Some of the ships damaged were: USS Louisville (CA 28), USS Helm (DD 388), USS Manila Bay (CVE 61), USS Savo Island (CVE 78), and USS Stafford (DE 411). ( ... )
Jan 05, 1945
The last session of the Police summary court of the Kattowitz Gestapo took place in block 11 in Auschwitz I camp. Around 100 Polish prisoners, men and women, were condemned to death. They were shot to death the following day in crematorium V in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The court meeting was chaired by Johannes Thuemmler. ( ... )
Jan 06, 1945
Four female Jewish prisoners were hanged in the female camp of Auschwitz: Ella Gartner, R?za Robota, Regina Safir and Estera Wajsblum (in the pre-war picture). They were condemned to death because theyassisted in the uprising that broke out on October 7, 1944 in the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. They provided the Sonderkommando with explosives and munition from the depots of the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, where three of the women worked. The execution had two stages. Two of the women were hanged during the evening roll call in the presence of the male and female prisoners who worked the night shift at Weichsel-Union. Two others were hanged after the return of the squad that worked the dayshift. The reason for the sentence was read by the Auschwitz camp commander SS-Hauptsturmf?hrer Franz H?ssler. He screamed that all traitors will be destroyed in this manner. It was the last execution in Auschwitz. ( ( ... )
Jan 06, 1945
Japanese kamikaze attacks intensified on the Lingayen Gulf inbound US Navy force. USS Walke's (DD 723), CO, Cdr. G.F. Davis, posthumously received the Medal of Honor for remaining at the conn and leading his men though gravely wounded. Radm T.E. Chandler is seriously wounded on board USS Louisville (CA 28) and dies the next day. ( ... )
Jan 14, 1945
The 357th Fighter Group flew bomber escort duty to the German town of Derben in what was to become known as 'Big Day.' The 'Yoxford Boys' downed 56.5 enemy aircraft. It was the highest single day total of any US fighter group in the ETO. The 357th lost only three Mustangs and the three pilots were made POWs. ( ... )
Jan 17, 1945
67,012 male and female prisoners of Auschwitz camps complex were present at the last evening roll-call. Evacuation of the camp was about to start. Camp doctor Josef Mengele liquidated his experimental station at sector BIIf in Birkenau camp taking all the documentation of his experiments on twins, dwarfs and disabled people with him. Burning of documents continued, including Auschwitz I camp hospital archive. On this day prisoners of two sub-camps started the evacuation: Sosnowitz and Neu-Dachs. The commandant of Auschwitz camp Richard Baer gave an order to the leaders of the evacuation columns chosen from among the members of the guard companies to liquidate ruthlessly all prisoners who attempt to escape during the evacuation or drag their feet. It is estimated that at least 9 thousand, and more probably 15 thousand Auschwitz prisoners paid with their lives for the evacuation operation. ( ... )
Mar 07, 1945
The commanding officer at Coast Guard Air Station (CGAS) Floyd Bennett Field, New York, reported successful testing of a dunking sonar unit on board an XHOS-1 helicopter. The XHOS-1, a follow-on design to the HNS-1 Hoverfly, entered naval service in September 1944, with a total of 3 experimental versions and 36 production models acquired for service in the Navy and Coast Guard. ( ... )
Mar 07, 1945
The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen�the last standing on the Rhine�was captured by soldiers of the U.S. 9th Armored Division during Operation Lumberjack. The 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann, from West Point, Nebraska, approached the bridge, and found it standing. The first American soldier across the bridge was Sergeant Alex Drabik; Lt. Timmermann was the first officer across. ( ... )
Mar 16, 1945
On Iwo Jima, a month-long struggle comes to an end, as U.S. forces capture the 8-square-mile island. Possessing Japan's last line of radar defense to warn against American air attacks, Iwo Jima is a strategically significant prelude to the invasion of Okinawa. ( ... )
Mar 19, 1945
As Task Force 58 planes bombed airfields at Kyushu and Kure and Kobe Harbors, Japanese aircraft singled out the US Navy carriers for attack. USS Wasp (CV 18) and USS Franklin (CV 13) were hit by enemy bombs. After being hit by two bombs, Franklin suffered subsequent explosions on the flight and hangar decks. Heroic work by her crew, assisted by nearby ships, brought the fires and flooding under control. For their action during this occasion, both CDR Joseph T. O� Callahan, ChC, and LTJG Donald A. Gary received the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
Germany surrenders unconditionally to General Eisenhower at Rheims, France, and to the Soviets in Berlin. President Truman pronounces the following day, May 8, V-E Day. The U.S., Russia, England, and France agree to split occupied Germany into eastern and western halves. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) at Reims in northeastern France. The surrender was signed by Colonel General Afred Jodl, Chief of the German General Staff, who had alone been authorized to sign the surrender document by German President Karl Doenitz. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
While serving as a flame thrower operator with Headquarters Company, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, Fifth Marine Division during the Okinawa Campaign, Private First Class Albert E. Schwab�s company was pinned down in a valley and suffering heavy casualties. He scaled the cliff, alone and under fire, to the enemy position and skillfully used his flame thrower to destroy the hostile emplacement. After his company occupied the ridge, a second enemy machine gun killed and wounded several Marines. Though low on flame thrower fuel, he quickly determined to advance alone against the enemy fire. Schwab destroyed the second gun emplacement but was mortally wounded at the end of his assault. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 07, 1945
During the Okinawa Campaign, while serving with the Third Marine Battalion, Twenty-Ninth Marines, Sixth Marine Division, Private Robert M. McTureous�s company suffered casualties after capturing a hill on Oroku Peninsula, and the wounded could not be evacuated due to heavy Japanese fire. Waging a one-man assault to redirect enemy fire away from the wounded, McTureous attacked numerous times and suffered severe wounds in the process. He crawled 200 yards back to safety before asking for aid. His actions disorganized the enemy and enabled his company to complete its mission. Evacuated to USS Relief, he succumbed to his wounds on 11 June. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, McTureous was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 09, 1945
In coordination with Navy surface and air forces attacking in the Kurils, 6 B-24's and 8 B-25's of the Eleventh AF fly extensive armed weather recon and anti-shipping sweeps over Kurabu and Otomari Capes, Ichinowatashi, and Asahigawa. The B-24's score no results, half of them jettisoning their bombs. The B-25's then fly a diversionary bombing mission over Araido where they are attacked by 8 fighters. To evade them, the B-25's fly over Kamchatka where Soviet AA fire shoots down one, killing its crew. Another damaged B-25 crashlands in Petropavlovsk. This is the first time Soviet AA hits a US aircraft. ( ... )
Aug 06, 1945
The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed. http://link.history.com/services/player/bcpid18808667001?bctid=1209892717 "Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima," History.com, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6542 (accessed Aug 6, 2009). ( ... )
Aug 06, 1945
The U.S B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese industrial city of Hiroshima. The city is leveled, and an estimated 100,000 people are killed immediately (another 100,000 will die later from radiation sickness and burns). On August 9, a second bomb will be dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. ( ... )
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Who was Britain’s Prime Minister before Winston Churchill’s first term in office? | WWII Timeline of Events - World War II History
Jan 04, 1944
In a conference attended by German leaders Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer, and Fritz Sauckel, it was decided that four million people were to be conscripted from occupied territories as forced laborers for war production. One million were to be drafted from France between 1... 02.and 31 Dec 1944. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
SS Garrison Doctor Eduard Wirths notified SS Medical Officers in the sub camps belonging to Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp that as of January 4, following identification and a number check, the corpses of prisoners should be sent every day before noon directly to crematorium, bypassing the morgues in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The death reports of the prisoners and the protocols of the corpse examination were to be sent, as before, to the orderly room of prisoners' hospital in Auschwitz I camp by noon on the day the corpses were delivered to the crematorium. ( ... )
Jan 14, 1911
USS Arkansas (BB 33) was launched. She served with the British Grand Fleet in World War I. In WWII, she participated in the Normandy Invasion, then relocated to the Pacific in 1944. After WWII, Arkansas was a target ship during Bikini Atoll Atomic bomb tests, where she was engulfed in a column of water and sunk on 25 July 1946. ( ... )
May 25, 1911
USS Wyoming (BB 32) was launched. Commissioned in September 1912, she later participated in the Veracruz Intervention and WWI. Following the 1930 London Treaty, Wyoming was "demilitarized" in early 1931 and became a training ship, receiving the hull number (AG 17). During WWII, she took on the mission of training thousands of sailors in the art and science of gunnery and operated in the Chesapeake Bay area. Decommissioned in August 1947, Wyoming was scrapped that October. ( ... )
Jan 05, 1919
Germans Anton Drexler, Gottfried Feder, Dietrich Eckart, Karl Harrer, and 20 others formally named their small political group the German Workers' Party (Deutsche Arbeiterpartei) in Munich, Germany. The party aimed to support middle-class citizens of the Aryan race. This party was the forerunner of the Nazi Party. ( ... )
Mar 24, 1919
The battleship USS Idaho (BB 42) was commissioned and spent the next ten years in the Pacific. Following conversion, she was sent to the Atlantic during the beginning of WWII in Europe and returned to the Pacific following the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor and participated in gunfire support of the Aleutian, Marianas, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa Campaigns. After the end of WWII, Idaho was decommissioned in Jun 1946 and sold for scrapping in Nov 1947. ( ... )
May 23, 1939
USS Squalus (SS-192) suffered a catastrophic main induction valve failure during a test dive off the New Hampshire coast and partially flooded. The submarine sank to the bottom and came to rest keel down in over 200 feet of water. 26 lives were lost. ( ... )
May 24, 1939 - May 25, 1939
Vice Admiral Allan McCann's Rescue Chamber was first used to rescue the 33 men from the sunken USS Squalus (SS-192). Four Navy divers received the Medal of Honor for their heroic actions on 24-25 May to rescue the trapped men. Squalus was decommissioned, repaired and renamed Sailfish, then recommissioned in May 1940. Sailfish successfully served in the Pacific during World War II and was sold for scrapping in 1948. ( ... )
Jul 30, 1939
Reacting to German anti-Jewish policies and reflecting the attitude of many other officials in Great Britain and Western Europe, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain writes: "No doubt Jews aren't a lovable people; I don't care about them myself. But that is not sufficient to explain the pogrom." ( ... )
Aug 10, 1939
SS Officer Alfred Naujocks gave this sworn affidavit on the incident which triggered the war: "On or about August 10, 1939, [Reinhard] Heydrich personally ordered me to simulate an attack on the radio station near Gleiwitz, near the Polish border, and to make it appear as if the attacking forces consisted of Poles. Heydrich said, 'Practical proof is needed for these attacks of the Poles for the foreign press as well as German propaganda.' I was ordered to go to Gleiwitz with five or six Security Service men wand wait until I would receive the code words (CANNED GOODS) for the attack from Heydrich. My instructions were to seize the radio station and to hold it long enough to permit a Polish-speaking German, who would be put at my disposal, to broadcast a speech in Polish." The orders were carried out in every detail. ( ... )
Sep 01, 1939
Germany invaded Poland and touched off WWII. The Germans had arranged a series of elaborate pretexts for launching the attack. Berlin claimed Polish army regulars started firing on Germans along the frontier and that the fire was returned beginning at 4:45am. Hitler addressed the Reichstag, declaring "I am determined to eliminate from the German frontiers the element of insecurity, the atmosphere which permanently resembles that of civil war." German forces slammed into Poland from Silesia, East Prussia, and Slovakia, 1,500,000 men (52 divisions) against a Polish army a third that size. Germany unveiled the blitzkrieg--highly mobile armor and tactical aircraft leading the ground forces through and around the Polish defenses. Large scale pincers movements were executed to perfection. Britain and France notified Germany that unless military action ceased, they would have to come to Poland's aid. Britain and France ordered total mobilization. Danzig was proclaimed to be a part of Germany by Gauleiter Forster. Italy proclaimed its nonbelligerent status. Norway, Switzerland, and Finland declares their neutrality. Russia mobilized and lowered its draft age from 21 to 19. ( ... )
Jan 08, 1940
Finnish 9th division takes possession of Raate Road at dawn, as the last dug-in Soviet troops surrender around Lakes Kuivasjarvi and Kuomasjarvi (near Captain M?kinen?s original roadblock). Mopping up stragglers in the woods will take several days. Finns capture 43 tanks, 70 field guns, 278 trucks and other vehicles, 300 machine guns, 6,000 rifles & 1,170 horses. Another entire Soviet division is gone, estimated at 10-15,000 dead (not even the Soviet know how many men went onto the Raate Road; the Finns do not bother to count the frozen bodies). Finns take only 1000 prisoners and another 700 make it back to USSR. Many of those retreating are shot by NKVD and when Finland returns the prisoners, they are also executed for ?treason?. Finnish casualties in the Battle of Raate Road are 2,700 dead, missing and wounded. ( ... )
Apr 27, 1940
Following a number of inspections at various sites, Heinrich Himmler, Commander of the SS, gave out the order to establish a concentration camp in the former artillery barracks in Oświęcim, known at the time as Auschwitz. The basis for Auschwitz consisted of 22 prewar brick barracks buildings. Over time, the camp exp...anded steadily in both organizational and spatial terms. At its peak in the summer of 1944, Auschwitz covered about 40 sq. km. in the core area, and more than 40 branch camps dispersed within a radius of several hundred kilometers. At this time, there were about 135 thousand people (105 thousand registered prisoners and about 30 thousand unregistered) in the Auschwitz complex, which accounted for 25% of all the people in the entire concentration camp system (525 thousand). ( ... )
May 24, 1940
Hitler ordered German armored units to halt mop-up operations and continue toward Paris. If the panzers had continued they would have wiped out the Allied troops caught in ever-smaller pockets. Hitler overruled his commanders on the scene because he was sticking to the original plan of a southward thrust after the breakthrough to the English Channel. ( ... )
May 26, 1940
Hitler after a critical two-day delay, ordered German troops to attack Dunkirk. The first units could not advance until late in the day, but the main force could not be organized until the following day. "By then," said General Guderain, "it was too late to achieve a great victory." ( ... )
May 26, 1940 - Jun 04, 1940
Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of Allied troops at Dunkirk began. In one of the most dramatic withdrawls in military history, a hastily assembled fleet of 861 ships and boats began pulling what was left of the trapped Allied armies off the beaches of Dunkirk. In a week, 224,585 British and 112,546 French and Belgians were taken to safety. About 40,000 Frenchmen were left behind. A total of 231 of the rescue vessels were sunk, mostly by the Luftwaffe, but German air strikes were restricted by bad weather and the tenacious fighters of the RAF. For all the glory that accompanied the gallant retreat, Dunkirk represented the nadir of the war for Britain. ( ... )
Sep 28, 1940
Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles outlined US policy in Asia toward Japan. He said Tokyo's intention to create a new order in Asia had resulted in Japan's reliance "upon the instrumentality of armed force, and it has made it very clear that it intents that it alone shall decide to what extent the historic interests of the United States and the treaty rights of American citizens in the Far East are to be observed." Welles called for "complete respect" for US rights, "equality of opportunity for the trade of all nations," and "respect" for all treaties and international agreements to which the US had agreed. "Modifications" through "peaceful negotiations" would be considered. ( ... )
Dec 25, 1940
German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper attacks British troop convoy WS 5A consisting of 20 MS and escorted by RN CA Berwick, and CLs Bonaventure and Dunedin with CV Furious loaded with crated aircraft about 700 nm W of Cape Finisterre. Spots Berwick while still unseen herself. Closes Benwick opening fire with her main battery at 0639. Benwick replies two minutes later. Hipper engages the other cruisers and some mercantile targets with her 105mm secondary battery. The conditions hampered sighting efforts, but at 0705 she hits Benwick's X turrent and at 0708 scores again with a hit below Berwick's waterline causing flooding. She got two more hits before breaking off action at 0714 in a rainsquall. Benwick's fire is ineffective. Hipper also damages two of the convoy's merchant ships, principally the 13,994 ton transport Empire Trooper. She fired 174 main battery rounds in this action. ( ... )
Sep 28, 1941 - Sep 29, 1941
SS troops massacred nearly 34,000 Jews from the Kiev area in the nearby Babi Yar ravine. In its official report, Einsatzgruppe C related: "The Jewish population was invited by poster to present themselves for resettlement. Although initially we had only counted on 5,000-6,000 Jews reporting, more than 30,000 Jews appeared; by a remarkably efficient piece of organization they were led to believe in the resettlement story until shortly before their execution." It had been suggested the Jews were killed in reprisal for the bombing of a Kiev hotel used as a German headquarters, but the SS had been systematically killing Jews in Russia in the wake of the advancing Wehrmacht. Babi Yar stands as perhaps the most horrible single example of vengeful genocide. ( ... )
Nov 05, 1941
Secret instructions (Combined Fleet Ultasecret Operation Order I) were issued to the Japanese navy for the attack on Pearl Harbor. An imperial conference resulted in agreement to continue negotiations with the U.S. but to go to war if they failed to produce a settlement. The military was thus ordered to prepare for the worst. ( ... )
Nov 06, 1941
While on Neutrality Patrol, USS Omaha and USS Somers intercepted the German blockade runner Odenwald disguised as U.S. freighter and boarded her. While approaching, the crew attempted to scuttle the ship, but the damaged was stopped by the boarding party. Odenwald was then brought to San Juan, Puerto Rico by the Navy ships. ( ... )
Nov 28, 1941
USS Enterprise (CV-6) sailed from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to the island due to �War Warning� issued the previous day. Vice Admiral William Halsey approved �Battle Order No.1� that declared Enterprise was operating �under war conditions.� Following the land ing of the aircraft on 4 December, Enterprise made her way back to Pearl Harbor but was caught in storm that delayed her return. On 5 December, USS Lexington (CV-2) would subsequently leave with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine Aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor. This departure was also due to the �War Warning� of 27 November. ( ... )
Dec 02, 1941
London announced the formation of a new and expanded Eastern FLeet. Britain in the past had maintained a cruiser squadron, but its naval presence in Asia would now be led by more powerful men-of-war. The battleship Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser Repulse arrived in Singapore on this date. This announced action indicated the concern of Britain as it viewed Japan's southward penetration. ( ... )
Dec 02, 1941
Roosevelt - in a personal note to the Japanese envoys in Washington - asked Tokyo for an explanation of the Japanese troop build-up in Indochina. The President said, "The stationing of thee increased Japanese forces in Indochina would seem to imply the utilization of these forces by Japan for purposes of further aggression, since no such number of forces could possibly be required for the policing of that region..." ( ... )
Dec 07, 1941
09:00 Crew of the Dutch liner JAGERSFONTEIN opens up with her guns, the first Allies to join the fight. Radios throughout the island crack out urgent messages "Get off roads and stay off.. Don't block traffic. Stay at home. This is the real McCoy". ( ... )
Dec 07, 1941
09:15 - In a note delivered to Secretary Hull at 2:15 PM (EST) in Washington, the Japanese said, "Obviously it is the intention of the American Government to conspire with Great Britain and other countries to obstruct Japan's efforts toward the establishment of peace through the creation of a new order in East Asia, and especially to preserve Anglo-American rights and interests by keeping Japan and China at war." This declaration of war notice was delivered over an hour after the attack had begun. ( ... )
Feb 03, 1942 - Feb 04, 1942
Anticipating an imminent attack on the Philippine Islands by the Imperial Japanese Navy, USS TROUT (SS-202) rendezvoused with a torpedo boat in Manila Bay and moored at South Dock. TROUT supplied over 3,500 rounds of ammunition to the marine defenders and loaded fuel and two torpedoes. Requiring ballast and with the intent of evacuating the wealth of the Philippine government, TROUT also loaded over 20 tons of gold bars, silver pesos and State Department dispatches. With sunset fast approaching, TROUT submerged to the bottom of Manila Bay. After nightfall TROUT loaded more mail and was escorted through the defensive minefields to sea. ( ... )
Mar 25, 1942
In one of the greatest "trading with the enemy" scandals of the war, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thurman Arnold announces that William Stamps Farish Sr. has pled "no contest" to charges of criminal conspiracy with the Nazis. Arnold discloses that Standard Oil of New Jersey (later Exxon) of which Farish is president and CEO has agreed to stop hiding patents from the U.S. for synthetic rubber, which the company has in its possession. Missouri Sen. Harry Truman later roasts Farish in front of his committee investigating home front wrongdoing, an event that raises Truman's profile and makes him a plausible running mate for FDR in 1944. The exposure of the scandal is widely believed to have contributed to Farish's sudden death from a heart attack in November of 1942. ( ... )
Jun 06, 1942
The Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles in naval history, marks the turning point of the Pacific War. The decisive defeat administered to the Japanese put an end to their successful offensive and effectively turned the tide of the Pacific War. Japanese losses totaled four fleet carriers, one heavy cruiser, 258 aircraft, and a large percentage of their experienced carrier pilots. United States losses were 40 shore-based and 92 carrier aircraft, and the destroyer Hammann and the carrier Yorktown, the result of a single submarine attack. The significance of the victory was not completely recognized at the time. ( ... )
Jul 10, 1942
While returning from a routine patrol, PBY from (VP 41) sights Mitsubishi A6M2 type 0 carrier fighter (Zero) upside down in a bog on Akutan Island, Aleutians, where it had been since its forced landing on 3 June during the attack on Dutch Harbor. On the 12th, a salvage party from VP 41, began salvage of the Zero which last until mid month. The find was vital as the Allies gained a lot of knowledge to fight the aircraft in future battles. ( ... )
Jul 15, 1942
USS Terror (CM 5), the first minelayer built as such, was commissioned. During World War II, she participated in Operation Torch, the Battle for Iwo Jima, and the Okinawa Invasion, where she was struck by a kamikaze on 1 May 1945. During the Korean War, she was placed in the reserve fleet and was redesignated (MM 5) then to (MMF 5) in 1955. Decommissioned in 1956, Terror was sold for scrapping in 1971. ( ... )
Jul 30, 1942
The WAVES were created by legislation signed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The members of the Women's Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service were a part of the U.S. Navy. The U.S. government established the Navy WAVES, or Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service, program. Though Navy women would not be allowed to serve outside the continental U.S., or even to go to sea, the military hoped that the recruitment of 10,000 women, who would work in onshore bases, would free sufficient numbers of men to fight overseas. Although women had served as nurses in the navy as early as the Spanish-American War, and officially in the Navy Nurse Corps since 1908, the WAVES program was by far the largest-scale effort to recruit women to active duty in the Navy. In the WAVES program, thousands of women performed nearly every possible job at over 500 naval stations through the Second World War. As military leaders had hoped, they enabled male officers and enlisted men to staff the ships that were responsible for the Allied victory in the Pacific theatre. Among the earliest group of women to enlist in the WAVES was Miriam Miller. Although her parents felt that military nursing "wasn't the life for a nice Jewish girl," Miller enlisted soon after her graduation from the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital School of Nursing, in Pennsylvania. She was assigned first to the Great Lakes Naval Station and then to the San Diego Naval Hospital. Later, when the Navy relaxed its prohibition on women serving outside the continental U.S., she worked in Guam, where she cared for soldiers injured in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Active in veterans' affairs after the war, Miller was elected President of the Jewish War Veterans National Ladies Auxiliary in 1961. ( ... )
Oct 22, 1942
The Allies met to discuss Operation Torch. Operation Torch was to be the first Allied amphibious landing of World War II (North Africa), mainly as an induction of US ground forces against the Germans. Operation Torch takes place 8 Nov 1942. ( ... )
Oct 22, 1942
US General Mark Clark arrived in Algiers by submarine for a secret meeting with pro-Allied French officers to discuss Operation Torch. Operation Torch was to be the first Allied amphibious landing of World War II (North Africa), mainly as an induction of US ground forces against the Germans. Operation Torch takes place 8 Nov 1942. At the end of this meeting, being chased by Vichy French police, Clark lost his trousers while jumping into a rowboat waiting to take him to the submarine. The first of the cargo ships left British ports. ( ... )
Nov 08, 1942
Operation Torch, American and British forces landed in Morocco and Algeria. The U.S. Navy saw most of its action around Casablanca and elsewhere on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Local French resistance was fierce, but short, and an armistice on 11 November ended the fighting. This ambitious trans-oceanic amphibious operation gave the Allies bases for future operations. In six more months, all of North Africa was cleared of Axis forces, opening the way for an invasion of Italy. ( ... )
Nov 10, 1942
In response to Mahatma Gandhi's demand that India be granted independence from Britain immediately, Prime Minister Churchill, in a speech at Mansion House, says "I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire." ( ... )
Dec 30, 1942
USS Greenling attacked a Japanese convoy 180 miles northeast of Manus, Admiralty Islands and sank Army cargo ship Hiteru Maru and damaged cargo ship Ryufuku Maru while USS Thresher (SS 196) sank the Japanese freighter Hachian Maru west of Mata Siri Island, off the southern tip of Borneo. ( ... )
Dec 31, 1942
The squadron finds the convoy and attacks it on 31 Dec. German Heavy Cruiser Admiral Hipper makes visual contact at 0720. At 0939 she engages Achates and obtains one non-vital hit with five salvos before turning to engage Onslow and Orwell. These destroyers manage to keep Hipper occupied until 1020 when Hipper scores four hits from 48 main battery shells fired at a range of 8,500 meters, seriously damaging Onslow and forcing the destroyers to turn away. Hipper next encounters the MMS Bramble and fatally damages her with her third salvo from 5,500 meters. She closed the convoy and takes Achates under fire once again, hitting her with her first salvo, leaving her on fire and listing seriously. Obedient, Obdurate and Orwell counterattack, forcing Hipper to turn away from the anticipated torpedo attack. The time is now 1130 and the cruisers Sheffield and Jamaica finally arrive surprising Hipper with their first salvos from 10,500 meters. Hipper is hit shortly thereafter and suffers a flooded boiler room. She takes the cruisers under fire at 1134, but is hit twice more a minute latter, with more flooding and a fire in her aircraft hanger resulting. Hipper turns away in consideration of her orders to avoid action with enemy forces nearly equal to her in strength and because of the damage sustained. The British destroyers chase the Germans and more shots are exchanged until 1400 when contact is definitively broken off. Achates and Bramble sink, but the British rightly claim victory in this action, saving their convoy from a vastly superior force and sinking a German destroyer in the bargain. Hipper is seriously damaged, suffering more flooding and a series of engine failures before she manages to limp back to Kaafjord at 0542 on 1 Jan 43. ( ... )
Jan 29, 1943
The Battle of Rennell Island began when Japanese shore-based aircraft attacked TF 18 covering transports heading towards Guadalcanal. USS Chicago was damaged and sank the next day. Aircraft from USS Enterprise turned away the attackers on the 30th. TF 18 bore the brunt of this attack, and the transports reached Guadalcanal without any damage. ( ... )
Feb 02, 1943
The Japanese destroyer Makigumo was damaged by one of the mines laid by light minelayers USS Tracy (DM 19), USS Montgomery (DM 17), and USS Preble (DM 20) off Cape Esperance the previous night. Makigumo was later scuttled by Japanese destroyer Yugumo. ( ... )
Feb 22, 1943
USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, was commissioned. After serving in WWII, she was decomissioned but reactivated in 1951 for the Korean War. Decommissioned in 1958, she was again recommissioned in 1984, serving until Oct 1990. Iowa is currently in the reserve fleet awaiting to become a museum ship. ( ... )
Feb 28, 1943
A group of wives of Jewish men gather in Berlin to stop the deportation of their husbands to concentrations camp. The group of women will grow to 1,000 by March 8 and will succeed in forcing Joseph Goebbels to order the release of 1,500 men. ( ... )
Mar 02, 1943 - Mar 04, 1943
Fifth Air Force Air Apaches and other aircraft smashed a 16-ship Japanese troop convoy in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea. This ended the enemy�s effort to reinforce Lae. The aircraft sank over 40,000 tons of Japanese shipping, including eight troop-laden transports and four of eight escorting warships, and between 50-60 planes. Modified B-25s used low-level skip bombing and .50 cal guns. ( ... )
Mar 05, 1943
USS Bogue (ACV 9) began the first anti-submarine carrier operations in the Atlantic. In July of that year, she was reclassified as an escort carrier, (CVE 9). While in the reserves in 1955, Bogue was reclassified as a Escort Helicopter Aircraft Carrier (CVHE 9) and was sold for scrapping in 1960. ( ... )
Mar 08, 1943
A PBY-5 aircraft piloted by Lieutenant J.E. Dryden from Patrol Squadron Fifty Three (VP 53) sank German submarine, U 156, east-northeast of Trinidad. Before being sunk, U 156 sank 24 allied and merchant vessels, including USS Blakeley (DD 150) on 25 May 1942. ( ... )
May 20, 1943
The Tenth Fleet was established in Washington D.C., under the command of Admiral Ernest J. King, USN, to coordinate U.S. anti-submarine operations in the Atlantic. Disbanded after WWII, the Tenth Fleet was reactivated in January 2010 as U.S. Fleet Cyber Command. ( ... )
May 22, 1943
During the battle to protect ON 184 in the North Atlantic, TBFs from (VC 9) based on board USS Bogue (ACV 9) sank German submarine U 569 and damaged U 305. Before being sunk, U 569 sank two British merchant vessels. ( ... )
May 23, 1943
USS New Jersey (BB 62) was commissioned. During WWII, she participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Battle of the Leyte Gulf and supported the Iwo Jima and the Okinawa Campaigns in the Pacific theatre. Decommissioned in 1948, she was recommissioned for the Korean War and served until 1957. Recommissioned for the Vietnam War in April 1968, she provided gunfire support until decommissioned the following year. New Jersey was then recommissioned in 1982 and served until Sep 1991. New Jersey currently serves as a museum ship at Camden, New Jersey. ( ... )
Jul 13, 1943
TBF (VC 13) based on board USS Core (ACV 13) sank German submarine U 487, 720 miles south-southwest of Fayal, Azores, 27º 15�N, 34º 18�W. During her service U 487 served on two war patrols but did not sink any Allied vessels. ( ... )
Jul 18, 1943
The airship K-74, while on a night patrol off the Florida coast, attacked a surfaced U-boat. In the gun duel that followed, she was hit and brought down -- the only airship lost to enemy action in World War II. The German submarine, U 134, was damaged enough to force her return to base, and after surviving two other attacks on the way, was finally sunk by British Wellington aircraft on 24 August, near Vigo, Spain. ( ... )
Oct 04, 1943
Operation Leader - aircraft from USS Ranger (CV-4) attacked two German convoys in the harbor of Bodø, Norway and caused "appreciable losses" to the vessels. This mission was the only Navy carrier operation in northern European waters during World War II. USS Corry (DD-463) provided escort support. ( ... )
Oct 05, 1943 - Oct 06, 1943
Task Force 14 (TF-14) began a two-day raid on Wake Island. Rear Admiral Sakaibara Shigematsu, the Japanese island commander, then ordered the execution of the 98 remaining civilian prisoners captured on 23 December 1941, due to his fear they would escape and communicate about the weak garrison. ( ... )
Oct 06, 1943
In the night Battle of Vella Lavella, USS O�Bannon (DD 450), USS Chevalier (DD 451), and USS Selfridge (DD 357) intercepted 9 Japanese destroyers en route to Rabaul after evacuating the garrison on Vella Lavella Island. During the battle, the Japanese destroyer Yugumo was sunk. All the U.S. destroyers were damaged, with Chevalier being scuttled by USS LaVallette (DD-488) due to damage. ( ... )
Nov 02, 1943
USS Halibut (SS 232), USS Seahorse (SS 304), and USS Trigger (SS 237), all operating independently of each other, attacked a Japanese convoy south of Honshu. Halibut sank army cargo ship Ehime Maru, Seahorse sank transport Chihaya Maru, and Trigger sank transport Delagoa Maru. ( ... )
Nov 03, 1943
USS Oklahoma (BB-37), which was sunk during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, was refloated after months of laborious effort. Too old and badly damaged, she was formally decommissioned in Sept. 1944. Sold for scrapping in Dec. 1946, Oklahoma sank while under tow from Hawaii to California in May 1947. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
In a conference attended by German leaders Heinrich Himmler, Wilhelm Keitel, Albert Speer, and Fritz Sauckel, it was decided that four million people were to be conscripted from occupied territories as forced laborers for war production. One million were to be drafted from France between 1... 02.and 31 Dec 1944. ( ... )
Jan 04, 1944
SS Garrison Doctor Eduard Wirths notified SS Medical Officers in the sub camps belonging to Auschwitz III-Monowitz camp that as of January 4, following identification and a number check, the corpses of prisoners should be sent every day before noon directly to crematorium, bypassing the morgues in Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The death reports of the prisoners and the protocols of the corpse examination were to be sent, as before, to the orderly room of prisoners' hospital in Auschwitz I camp by noon on the day the corpses were delivered to the crematorium. ( ... )
Jan 30, 1944
PB2Ys (VP 13 and VP 102) from Midway Island carryout nocturnal bombing raid on Wake Island to neutralize Japanese airfield installations. Motor torpedo boats Gyoraitei No.5 and Gyoraitei No.6 are sunk during the raid. The strike marked the first time Coronados are used a bombers. ( ... )
Jan 31, 1944
31 January 1944, the Marshall Island Invasion began with US Marine and Army troops landing at Kwajalein and Majuro atolls and then on Roi and Namur the following day. Within two weeks, the island chain would be under Allied control and �mopping-up� operations soon began. The landing force was commanded by Major General Holland M. Smith, USMC. Vice Admiral Raymond A. Spruance, Task Force 50, commanded the overall operation. ( ... )
Feb 23, 1944
USS PLUNGER (SS-179) was underway during her tenth war patrol. Having sighted a puff of smoke on the horizon, PLUNGER gave chase. She tracked the smoke for two hours before her diligence paid off. PLUNGER sighted a convoy consisting of three large merchant ships and two escorts. PLUNGER selected the two largest ships as her intended victims. The first ship, dubbed "PAPA," was engaged using PLUNGER�s final forward torpedo. This shot struck PAPA amidships, setting her aflame. Before PLUNGER could engage her next target, named "MAMA," she was subjected to a vigorous depth charging. ( ... )
Feb 24, 1944
The US submarine, Rasher, sinks the Japanese troopship Tango Jaru in the Java sea. The vessel is carrying Allied prisiners of war and 3,500 Javanese slave labourers, more than 3,000 of whom perish. The Rasher then sinks the Ryusei Maru which is packed with 6,600 Japanese troops. Nearly 5,000 of them are killed. ( ... )
Feb 24, 1944
24 Feb 1944, PBY-5As (VP 63) employing Magnetic Anomaly Detection (MAD) gear, and a PV-1 (VB 127), together with an RAF Catalina (No. 202 Squadron) and British destroyers HMS Anthony and Wishart, bombed German submarine U 761 as she attempted to transit the Straits of Gibraltar. U 761 was the first U-boat destroyed through the use of MAD equipment. The destroyers rescued the U-boat survivors. ( ... )
Mar 29, 1944
USS Tunny (SS 282) torpedoed the Japanese battleship Musashi off Palau, which necessitated repairs in Japan, during which her anti-aircraft firepower was enhanced. Note, Musashi would be later sunk by U.S. Navy carrier aircraft during the Battle of the Sibuyan Sea on 24 October 1944. ( ... )
Mar 30, 1944
TF 58 began bombing of Japanese airfields, shipping, fleet servicing facilities, and other installations at Palau, Yap, Ulithi, and Woleai in the Caroline Islands. TBFs and TBMs from USS Lexington (CV 16), USS Bunker Hill (CV 19), and USS Hornet (CV 12) extensively bombed the minefields in and around the channels and approaches to the Palaus in the first tactical use of mines laid by carrier aircraft. ( ... )
May 05, 1944
USS Comfort (AH-6) was commissioned at San Pedro, California. She was the first ship to be manned jointly by US Army and US Navy personnel. Serving in the Pacific during WWII, she was hit by a kamikaze on 29 April, which killed 28 (including six nurses), wounded 48, and caused considerable damage. Following repairs and return visits to the Pacific, Comfort was decommissioned in 1946 and transferred to the U.S. Army. After service in the Maritime Commission and Administration, Comfort was sold for scrap in October 1967. ( ... )
May 07, 1944
USS Buckley (DE 51) was damaged when she intentionally rammed German submarine U 66, which had been harassed by TBMs (VC 55) from USS Block Island (CVE 21) about 390 miles west of Cape Verdes. Echoing the close-quarter battles of sail, Buckley�s crew employed small arms, hand grenades, fists, and even a coffee mug. U 66 sank as a result of the multifaceted pounding. Before being sunk, U 66 sank 37 Allied merchant ships, which included 8 American vessels. ( ... )
May 11, 1944
About 30 minutes before sunset USS CREVALLE (SS-291) surfaced off Negros Island in the Philippines to bring supplies to guerillas fighting the Japanese and pick up refugees. CREVALLE�s commanding officer, Frank Walker remembers, "My orders stated that we would bring out twenty five passengers and no baggage." The second canoe, carrying sixteen more refugees, was a total surprise. As many of the second group were women, children, and also included four American and Filipino soldiers who had survived the Bataan Death March, had made their escape and desperately needed medical treatment. Walker could not turn them away�CREVALLE took everyone aboard. Among the refugees was American missionary Paul Lindholm and his wife and four children. Lindholm made sure his family was safe aboard the boat and then, in Walker�s words, "returned ashore at the last minute to continue his ministry among the guerillas�much to the astonishment of his wife who expected him to accompany them to safety." The entire family would survive to be reunited at war�s end. ( ... )
May 18, 1944
Following gunfire support from US Army gunners (who landed on Insoemanai island the previous day), USS Wilkes (DD 441) and USS Roe (DD 418), the 1st Battalion, 163rd Infantry landed on Wakde, off Dutch New Guinea. Rear Admiral William M. Fechteler commanded the naval attack force. On 21 May, the island was declared secure, and Army engineers immediately began to make the airstrip operational. Wakde became a key airfield in the Southwest Pacific offensive, as it supported two heavy bomber groups, two fighter groups, a B-25 reconnaissance squadron and part of a Navy PB4Y squadron. ( ... )
May 19, 1944
USS Niblack (DD 424), USS Ludlow (DD 438), and British aircraft sank German submarine U 960 off Oran, Algeria. Before being sunk, U 960 sank 3 Allied merchant vessels, including the United States steam merchant Sumner I. Kimball on 16 January 1944. ( ... )
May 21, 1944
During preparations for the invasion of Saipan, an accidental ordnance blast on LST 353 set off cataclysmic ammunition explosions at West Loch, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, killing 163 and injuring 396. Six tank landing ships (LST-39, LST-43, LST-69, LST-179, LST-353, LST-480), three tank landing craft (LCT-961, LCT-963, LCT-983), and 17 track landing vehicles (LVTs) are destroyed in explosions and fires. We remember and salute the lives of the service members killed and wounded. ( ... )
May 29, 1944
USS Block Island (CVE-21) was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-549. During this attack, USS Barr (DE 576) was also damaged. Block Island was the only US Navy aircraft carrier lost in the Atlantic during the Second World War. U-549 was later sunk that night by USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) and USS Ahrens (DE 575). ( ... )
May 31, 1944
USS Barb (SS 220) and USS Herring (SS 233) planned an attack Japanese shipping in the Sea of Okhotsk about 150 miles west of Matsuwa Island, Kuril Islands. Next, Herring attacked convoy NE and sank escort vessel Ishigaki and army cargo ship Hokuyo Maru west of Matsuwa Island. Barb came across the convoy NE and sank army cargo ship Madras Maru and transport Koto Maru, southest of Paramushir. ( ... )
Jun 07, 1944
Early in the morning while cruising through a swept channel off Normandy, Susan B. Anthony struck a mine which exploded under her number 4 hold. Immediately, she lost all power, and her rudder went hard left and stuck. The commanding officer, Commander T. L. Gray, USNR, with Pinto and two destroyers alongside, efficiently effected the evacuation of troops expeditiously and without resorting to fireboats and rafts. Anthony's crew followed closely behind the soldiers. No one was killed, and few of the 45 wounded were seriously hurt. The sinking of the Susan B. Anthony listed was the largest rescue of people without loss of life; all 2,689 people aboard were saved. ( ... )
Jun 09, 1944
Fifth Air Force B-24's bomb Peleliu airfield. A-20's bomb shipping in Manokwari harbor. B-24's, A-20's, B-25's, and P-39's, along with RAAF planes, drop about 140 tons of bombs on various targets in Wewak area. B-24's of Thirteenth Air TF bomb Alet air field and T/Os in Truk. ( ... )
Jun 10, 1944
More than 600 people are massacred by German troops in the French town of Oradour-sur-Glane. While the men are shot immediately, the women and children are locked in a church the alter of which is set on fire; those who try to escape the flames are shot. ( ... )
Jun 16, 1944
Gunnery Sergeant Robert H. McCard was serving as a Platoon Sergeant with Company A, Fourth Tank Battalion, Fourth Marine Division as they fought against the Japanese at the Battle of Saipan, Marianas Islands. With his tank destroyed by enemy 77-mm. gun fire, he persisted with the attack until he was forced to abandon the tank, exposing himself while covering his evacuating men. Wounded and with the grenade supply diminished, he dismantled a tank machine gun and attacked the enemy positions, destroying 16 enemy soldiers before sacrificing his life to save his men. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, McCard was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 17, 1944
TBF aircraft from Composite Squadron Ninety Five (VC 95) from USS Croatan (CVE 25) damaged German submarine U 853 in the North Atlantic. On 6 May 1945, USS Atherton (DE 169) and USS Moberly (PF 63) sank U 853 off Block Island, 41º 13�N, 71º 27�W. During her service, U 853 sank two US vessels: USS Eagle (PE 56), 23 Apri 1945 and merchant Black Point on 5 May 1945. ( ... )
Nov 16, 1944
The 332d Fighter Group escorted B-24 bombers of the 304th Bombardment Wing to and from Munich West marshaling yards. During the mission, the group encountered several Me-109 enemy fighters that attempted to shoot down the bombers. Captain Luke J. Weathers of the 302d Fighter Squadron shot down 2 of the 43 enemy fighters. The 52d Fighter Group also escorted the 304th Bombardment Wing that day. Lt. Roger Romine died in an aircraft accident after the aircraft of another escort pilot crashed into his. Capt. Luke J. Weathers of the 302nd Fighter Squadron earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroic actions on this day. ( ... )
Nov 19, 1944
The 332d Fighter Group conducted a strafing mission against enemy railway, highway, and river traffic targets in the Gyor-Vienna-Esztergom area of Austria. 1st Lieutenant Roger B. Gaiter of the 99th Fighter Squadron was seen to bail out of his P-51 after it was hit by enemy antiaircraft fire (flak). 1st Lieutenant Quitman Walker, also of the 99th Fighter Squadron, was also reported missing after also being hit by flak. Both were lost near Lake Balaton, Hungary. For this mission, Fifteenth Air Force commander Major General Nathan F. Twining commended the 332d Fighter Group. For their heroic actions on this day, the following four members of the 332d Fighter Group each earned the Distinguished Flying Cross: Capt. Albert H. Manning (99th Fighter Squadron); Capt. John Daniels (99th Fighter Squadron); 1st Lt. William N. Alsbrook (99th Fighter Squadron); and 1st Lt. Norman W. Scales (100th Fighter Squadron). ( ... )
Dec 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins. It the last major German counteroffensive, as allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name (see MAP). Two weeks of intense fighting in brutal winter weather follow before the German offensive is stopped. ( ... )
Dec 16, 1944
The Battle of the Bulge begins. It the last major German counteroffensive, as allied troops are pushed back in Belgium's Ardennes Forest. As Allied lines fall back, a "bulge" is created in the center of the line, giving the battle its familiar name (see MAP). Two weeks of intense fighting in brutal winter weather follow before the German offensive is stopped. ( ... )
Jan 05, 1945
Japanese kamikaze attacks continued against the Lingayen Gulf bound U.S. Navy force. Some of the ships damaged were: USS Louisville (CA 28), USS Helm (DD 388), USS Manila Bay (CVE 61), USS Savo Island (CVE 78), and USS Stafford (DE 411). ( ... )
Jan 05, 1945
The last session of the Police summary court of the Kattowitz Gestapo took place in block 11 in Auschwitz I camp. Around 100 Polish prisoners, men and women, were condemned to death. They were shot to death the following day in crematorium V in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. The court meeting was chaired by Johannes Thuemmler. ( ... )
Jan 06, 1945
Four female Jewish prisoners were hanged in the female camp of Auschwitz: Ella Gartner, R?za Robota, Regina Safir and Estera Wajsblum (in the pre-war picture). They were condemned to death because theyassisted in the uprising that broke out on October 7, 1944 in the Sonderkommando in Auschwitz II-Birkenau. They provided the Sonderkommando with explosives and munition from the depots of the Weichsel-Union-Metallwerke, where three of the women worked. The execution had two stages. Two of the women were hanged during the evening roll call in the presence of the male and female prisoners who worked the night shift at Weichsel-Union. Two others were hanged after the return of the squad that worked the dayshift. The reason for the sentence was read by the Auschwitz camp commander SS-Hauptsturmf?hrer Franz H?ssler. He screamed that all traitors will be destroyed in this manner. It was the last execution in Auschwitz. ( ( ... )
Jan 06, 1945
Japanese kamikaze attacks intensified on the Lingayen Gulf inbound US Navy force. USS Walke's (DD 723), CO, Cdr. G.F. Davis, posthumously received the Medal of Honor for remaining at the conn and leading his men though gravely wounded. Radm T.E. Chandler is seriously wounded on board USS Louisville (CA 28) and dies the next day. ( ... )
Jan 14, 1945
The 357th Fighter Group flew bomber escort duty to the German town of Derben in what was to become known as 'Big Day.' The 'Yoxford Boys' downed 56.5 enemy aircraft. It was the highest single day total of any US fighter group in the ETO. The 357th lost only three Mustangs and the three pilots were made POWs. ( ... )
Jan 17, 1945
67,012 male and female prisoners of Auschwitz camps complex were present at the last evening roll-call. Evacuation of the camp was about to start. Camp doctor Josef Mengele liquidated his experimental station at sector BIIf in Birkenau camp taking all the documentation of his experiments on twins, dwarfs and disabled people with him. Burning of documents continued, including Auschwitz I camp hospital archive. On this day prisoners of two sub-camps started the evacuation: Sosnowitz and Neu-Dachs. The commandant of Auschwitz camp Richard Baer gave an order to the leaders of the evacuation columns chosen from among the members of the guard companies to liquidate ruthlessly all prisoners who attempt to escape during the evacuation or drag their feet. It is estimated that at least 9 thousand, and more probably 15 thousand Auschwitz prisoners paid with their lives for the evacuation operation. ( ... )
Mar 07, 1945
The commanding officer at Coast Guard Air Station (CGAS) Floyd Bennett Field, New York, reported successful testing of a dunking sonar unit on board an XHOS-1 helicopter. The XHOS-1, a follow-on design to the HNS-1 Hoverfly, entered naval service in September 1944, with a total of 3 experimental versions and 36 production models acquired for service in the Navy and Coast Guard. ( ... )
Mar 07, 1945
The Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen�the last standing on the Rhine�was captured by soldiers of the U.S. 9th Armored Division during Operation Lumberjack. The 27th Armored Infantry Battalion, led by Lieutenant Karl H. Timmermann, from West Point, Nebraska, approached the bridge, and found it standing. The first American soldier across the bridge was Sergeant Alex Drabik; Lt. Timmermann was the first officer across. ( ... )
Mar 16, 1945
On Iwo Jima, a month-long struggle comes to an end, as U.S. forces capture the 8-square-mile island. Possessing Japan's last line of radar defense to warn against American air attacks, Iwo Jima is a strategically significant prelude to the invasion of Okinawa. ( ... )
Mar 19, 1945
As Task Force 58 planes bombed airfields at Kyushu and Kure and Kobe Harbors, Japanese aircraft singled out the US Navy carriers for attack. USS Wasp (CV 18) and USS Franklin (CV 13) were hit by enemy bombs. After being hit by two bombs, Franklin suffered subsequent explosions on the flight and hangar decks. Heroic work by her crew, assisted by nearby ships, brought the fires and flooding under control. For their action during this occasion, both CDR Joseph T. O� Callahan, ChC, and LTJG Donald A. Gary received the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
Germany surrenders unconditionally to General Eisenhower at Rheims, France, and to the Soviets in Berlin. President Truman pronounces the following day, May 8, V-E Day. The U.S., Russia, England, and France agree to split occupied Germany into eastern and western halves. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
The unconditional surrender of the German Third Reich was signed in the early morning hours at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) at Reims in northeastern France. The surrender was signed by Colonel General Afred Jodl, Chief of the German General Staff, who had alone been authorized to sign the surrender document by German President Karl Doenitz. ( ... )
May 07, 1945
While serving as a flame thrower operator with Headquarters Company, First Battalion, Fifth Marines, Fifth Marine Division during the Okinawa Campaign, Private First Class Albert E. Schwab�s company was pinned down in a valley and suffering heavy casualties. He scaled the cliff, alone and under fire, to the enemy position and skillfully used his flame thrower to destroy the hostile emplacement. After his company occupied the ridge, a second enemy machine gun killed and wounded several Marines. Though low on flame thrower fuel, he quickly determined to advance alone against the enemy fire. Schwab destroyed the second gun emplacement but was mortally wounded at the end of his assault. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 07, 1945
During the Okinawa Campaign, while serving with the Third Marine Battalion, Twenty-Ninth Marines, Sixth Marine Division, Private Robert M. McTureous�s company suffered casualties after capturing a hill on Oroku Peninsula, and the wounded could not be evacuated due to heavy Japanese fire. Waging a one-man assault to redirect enemy fire away from the wounded, McTureous attacked numerous times and suffered severe wounds in the process. He crawled 200 yards back to safety before asking for aid. His actions disorganized the enemy and enabled his company to complete its mission. Evacuated to USS Relief, he succumbed to his wounds on 11 June. For his "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" on this occasion, McTureous was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. ( ... )
Jun 09, 1945
In coordination with Navy surface and air forces attacking in the Kurils, 6 B-24's and 8 B-25's of the Eleventh AF fly extensive armed weather recon and anti-shipping sweeps over Kurabu and Otomari Capes, Ichinowatashi, and Asahigawa. The B-24's score no results, half of them jettisoning their bombs. The B-25's then fly a diversionary bombing mission over Araido where they are attacked by 8 fighters. To evade them, the B-25's fly over Kamchatka where Soviet AA fire shoots down one, killing its crew. Another damaged B-25 crashlands in Petropavlovsk. This is the first time Soviet AA hits a US aircraft. ( ... )
Aug 06, 1945
The American B-29 bomber, known as the Enola Gay, dropped the first atomic bomb on an inhabited area. The bomb named "Little Boy" was dropped over the center of Hiroshima, Japan. An estimated 140,000 people were killed. http://link.history.com/services/player/bcpid18808667001?bctid=1209892717 "Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima," History.com, http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=Article&id=6542 (accessed Aug 6, 2009). ( ... )
Aug 06, 1945
The U.S B-29 Superfortress, Enola Gay, drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese industrial city of Hiroshima. The city is leveled, and an estimated 100,000 people are killed immediately (another 100,000 will die later from radiation sickness and burns). On August 9, a second bomb will be dropped on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. ( ... )
| i don't know |
In the 1988 film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’, what is the name of the town in which Roger Rabbit lives? | Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)
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Background
Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) is a technically-marvelous film blending animated, ink-and-paint cartoon characters and flesh-and-blood live actors, in a convincing comedy/mystery noir thriller, set in Los Angeles in 1947. Earlier efforts to combine humans and ink-and-paint cartoon characters side-by-side in a film [Disney's Song of the South and Mary Poppins, for example] are considered primitive next to this film.
The film is a delightful spoof of the hard-boiled Sam Spade films and reminiscent of the recent Chinatown (1974) , (complete with a sultry, femme fatale humanoid Toon named Jessica Rabbit (Jessica Turner, uncredited, with singing voice by Amy Irving, executive producer Steven Spielberg's wife at the time), and a case involving alleged marital infidelity ("pattycake"), murder, a missing will, blackmail, and a conspiracy hatched by evil, Toon-hating Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) (of Cloverleaf Industries). Doom's plan is to bring freeways to LA, thereby ruining the existing Pacific & Electric Red Car public transport electric trolley system. [There was, in fact, a real-life corporate conspiracy to 'doom' the trolley system and encourage automobile use, orchestrated by General Motors, Firestone, and Standard Oil of California.]
The film revolves around the murder of Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye), a gag-gift promoter and props supplier (Acme Novelty Co.) for all Toon productions and the owner of the ghetto-ized Toon-town where the Toons, regarded as a segregated minority group, live just outside Hollywood. Framed for the murder, zany Maroon Cartoon Studios actor Roger Rabbit (voice of Charles Fleischer), a stuttering, disaster-prone 'Toon,' solicits help from reluctant, hard-boiled, boozing private eye Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) to clear his name. Valiant is still grief-stricken over the death of brother Ted by a falling cartoon piano, but is financially - and emotionally - supported by girlfriend Dolores (Joanna Cassidy), as he solves the case. A poster capsulized the film's plot:
It's the story of a man, a woman, and a rabbit in a triangle of trouble.
The film was a milestone in animation history, one of the top-grossing films of its year, and it received four Academy Awards, one of which was a Special Achievement Award for Animation Direction (Richard Williams). Director Robert Zemeckis must be credited for piecing together the production that involved hundreds of animators, and the special visual effects of George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic, Amblin Entertainment, Walt Disney and other studios. As a result, it was the most expensive film of its decade, at $70 million.
It was filmed as a tribute to the entire pantheon of cartoon characters from Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM, and other studios in the 1940s. Famous cartoon voices were used (Mel Blanc for Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, and Porky Pig and Charles Fleischer for Roger, Greasy, Psycho, and Benny the Cab), and the live-action characters were coordinated with cartoon characters - the animations were drawn and inserted after the live photography was shot. Its revolutionary animation: (1) used light and shadows in new ways to produce remarkably realistic, 3-D effects; (2) extensively panned and moved the camera to reduce a static look; and (3) had the car'toon' characters interact flawlessly with real-world objects and flesh-and-blood people as much as possible.
The title of the film was derived from the plot: "Who framed (the cartoon character) Roger Rabbit" for a murder. It was also derived by screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman from the title of Gary Wolf's 1981 novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit? - an allegorical tale with comic-book and newspaper strip characters who spoke with word ballons instead of voices. In a less sanitized version, Wolf's novel portrayed Hollywood's Golden Age 1940s car-"Toon" characters as minority contract workers subjugated by the animation studios' system of apartheid. The down-and-out, underpaid fantasy-toon players must live in a segregated ghetto named "Toontown" as victims of human bigotry. The sub-human, exploited, underpaid and oppressed creatures were monitored there and kept under control.
Although Wolf's book had a lot of the same-named characters (with their basic character traits), there were significant differences between it and the film: (1) the book had comic strip actors, not cartoon actors, who were photographed - in action - to produce comic strips, (2) Roger Rabbit, a popular toon comic strip star, was found mysteriously murdered in his Hollywood home, (3) the book had a complicated, plot twisting, noirish atmosphere, (4) Jessica Rabbit was a much cruder character who traded sexual favors for what she wanted, and (5) when the 'Toons spoke, they made word balloons that could be physically manipulated. Wolf's 1991 sequel book to the film (not to his previous book) was titled Who P-P-Plugged Roger Rabbit?: A Hare-Raising Mystery. In this book, Roger hired Eddie Valiant to investigate whether his sexy wife Jessica was having an affair with Clark Gable, one of Roger's rivals (another rival is Baby Herman) for the lead role of Rhett in the musical comedy version of Gone With the Wind. Gable also hired Eddie to find out who had been planting tabloid stories about him being gay.
In this landmark film, the Toons include appearances and cameos by Donald and Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety Bird and Sylvester, Woody Woodpecker, the Weasels - from Disney's The Wind in the Willows, Mickey Mouse, three hummingbirds from Disney's Song of the South, the Road Runner and the Coyote, the black Crows and Dumbo from Disney's Dumbo, Betty Boop, Droopy Dog, and many more. Unprecedented cooperation from Warner Brothers and Disney allowed for classic cartoon characters to be seen together for the first time, such as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny parachuting together, having both Tinkerbell and Porky Pig end the movie, and, of course, the famous piano duel between Daffy and Donald Duck in a Cotton Club-style nightclub, the Ink & Paint Club.
Other animated and live-action mixed films would be released soon after with the same technically sophisticated human/cartoon interaction, including Joe Pytka's Space Jam (1996), Des McAnuff's The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000), Henry Selick's Monkeybone (2001), and Joe Dante's Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), but none of them could recapture the same sense of awe or feature the same level of acting and writing.
The Story - "Somethin's Cookin'"
The film begins with a manic, four-minute "Maroon Cartoon" entitled Somethin's Cookin' that is being filmed on the Maroon Cartoon Studios set and directed by Raoul J. Raoul. An animated Baby Herman, an innocent looking baby, is left under the care of babysitter Roger Rabbit, a lop-eared cartoon rabbit. As the mother leaves her child to go to the beauty parlor, she ominously warns of dire consequences: "I'm leaving you with your favorite friend Roger. He's going to take very, very good care of you...because if he doesn't, he's going back to the science lab." Roger responds characteristically: "P-p-p-p-please!" and confusedly assures her and himself that he will take care of Baby Herman as if he were his own brother, or his own sister, or his brother's sister, or his second cousin, or his ninth cousin nine times removed, or as he vows: "Or like my seventeenth cousin who is a hundred and fifty-six times removed from any side."
Meanwhile, Baby Herman leaves his play pen and in the kitchen admires and giggles at the Cookies jar sitting high atop the refrigerator. Aghast with his eyeballs telescoping out from their sockets, Roger spies in horror how Baby Herman has slipped out of his crib in a hazardous attempt to get a cookie - he has used the kitchen drawers as a ladder, climbed onto the kitchen counter, and crawled across the gas stove - lighting the burners behind him. To heroically save him, Roger dashes into the kitchen, rolls around perilously trying to keep his balance on a wooden rolling pin that Baby Herman has knocked off the counter. More mishaps - a teapot falls on Roger's head, and he lands in the Hotternell stove - Baby Herman's foot accidently slips on the top of the gas stove and turns the heat up to "Volcano Heat." The baby continues on his way to the top of the refrigerator, cooing "Cookie" and crawling across a sink-full of dishes - he focuses on the swinging pendulum of the clock and happens to turn the water faucet to full-power, unleashing a torrent of water from the sink.
After being roasted at high heat in the oven, Roger races three circles around the kitchen, leaving trails of black smoke. Baby Herman balances uneasily atop a box of Acme Deadly Mouse Poison while stretching for the Cookie jar, sending a slippery bar of soap into Roger's path. Baby Herman swings from the stack of boxes on the pendulum, while Roger has his whole body electrocuted by two wall sockets. His convulsions create a crack in the wall that unhinges a shelf above, hurling pots and pans to tumble down on Roger's head - rendering him unconscious.
A bottle of Extra Hot Acme Chili Sauce lands in the spout of one of the teapots and directs the hot sauce directly into Roger's mouth. It heats him up to the boiling point, exploding him across the room in the air, hurtling him mouth-first into the end of an ironing board. Baby Herman catapults from the pendulum to the shelf next to the refrigerator - it breaks, causing him to land on a toilet plunger. A jar of pickles falls from the shelf onto the edge of a drainer tray of sharp knives, sending them flying across the room, where the ironing board has opened up to reveal Roger Rabbit - he is pinned against the wall by the fusilade of knives. The plunger hurls Baby Herman to the top of the refrigerator, then lands in an activated toaster, which falls and shoots the plunger onto Roger's face.
In order to get to the cookies, Baby Herman kicks off slices of bread, while Roger is desperately trying to remove the suction plunger from his face. He frees himself mid-air - grins and looks into the camera - just before crashing face-first into an Acme Suck-O-Lux vacuum cleaner that is activated. His body is inflated by the vacuum cleaner and when he finally frees himself, he spins around like a deflating balloon. He smashes into the bottom of the refrigerator and struggles to free himself, jarring Baby Herman from the top of the refrigerator where he has finally attained his goal - a cookie. Baby Herman tumbles down along the front of the refrigerator and falls onto Roger Rabbit's stomach giving Roger strength to lift the refrigerator off his head. It falls on him again when he tries to pick up Baby Herman. The refrigerator door opens to reveal Roger's head poking up through a hole in the bottom - little blue birds tweet and circle around it.
The Story - The Film
On a live sound stage, the Tex Avery-style human director Raoul Raoul (Joel Silver) yells "Cut" to stop the action, complaining that Roger, the successful star of Maroon Cartoons, "keeps blowin' his lines." The director scolds a sheepish Roger who has a ring of cartoon birds flying around his head:
Director: Look what it [the script] says. It says, 'Rabbit gets clunked. Rabbit sees stars!' Not birds, STARS!...
Baby Herman: Aw, for cryin' out loud, Roger! How the hell many times do we have to do this damn scene?
The camera slowly pulls back to reveal the equipment and crew of the sound stage, as the lecherous Toon "child" star Baby Herman storms off the set. After a break is ordered for lunch, Roger pleads for another chance: "Please, Raoul. I can give you stars. Just drop the refrigerator on my head one more time." But Raoul will not listen after twenty-three takes. The indestructible cartoon character Roger grabs a frying pan and hits himself repeatedly on the head to produce stars - BONG, BONG, BONG - but only exclamation points, golden bells, a cuckoo clock, and more birds spring from his head.
In the shadows of the set after witnessing the flawed take with the zany rabbit is a brown-suited man [in the next scene identified as Eddie Valiant, played by Bob Hoskins] with a beat-up fedora (and looking like a composite of Peter Falk of TV's Columbo and cartoon character Elmer Fudd). He mutters disgustedly before taking a swig from a pint bottle of Wild Turkey whiskey: "Phew. 'Toons." He slips the bottle back into his shoulder holster where a .38 should be positioned.
In the large, art-deco office of studio boss R. K. Maroon (Alan Tilvern), [a subtitle identifies the scene in "Hollywood 1947"], the chief looks over the shoulder of his editor (working on a Movieola machine) and orders changes in the cutting of the latest Maroon cartoon starring Roger: "Wait until he gets to his feet, then hit him with the boulder." Eddie Valiant is ushered in by a red-haired receptionist to listen to Maroon's complaints about the cost of show business. The Toon can take any kind of punishment - except being heartbroken over his sweetheart:
Maroon: ...There's no business more expensive. I'm 25 grand over budget on the latest Baby Herman cartoon. You saw the Rabbit blowin' his lines. He can't keep his mind on his work. You know why?
Valiant: One too many refrigerators dropped on his head?
Maroon: Nah, he's a Toon. You can drop anything you want on his head. He'll shake it off. But break his heart, he goes to pieces just like you or me.
Maroon presents Valiant with the latest issue of The Toontown Gossip, and Valiant reads part of the front-page article outloud. The possible cause of the hare-brained Roger's distractedness and forgetfulness is that his sexy cartoon-animated wife named Jessica Rabbit (with the speaking voice of Kathleen Turner) may be unfaithful, but Roger think's she's an angel. Maroon offers to hire him to take compromising photographs of Jessica, hoping to get Roger to wise up, forget his problems and concentrate on his lines instead:
Valiant: (reading outloud) 'Seen Cooing Over Calamari with Notsonew Sugar Daddy was Jessica Rabbit, wife of Maroon Cartoon star, Roger.' What's this gotta do with me?
Maroon: You're the private detective. You figure it out.
Valiant: Look (handing back the paper), I don't have time for this.
Maroon: Look, Valiant. His wife's poison, but he thinks she's Betty Crocker. I want you to follow her. Get me a couple of nice juicy pictures I can wise the rabbit up with.
Valiant: (shuddering) Forget it. I don't work Toontown.
Maroon: What's wrong with Toontown? Every Joe loves Toontown.
Valiant: Then get Joe to do the job, cause I ain't goin'.
Maroon: (pulling Valiant back) Whoa, fella. You don't wanna go to Toontown, you don't have to go to Toontown. Nobody said you had to go to Toontown, anyway...The rabbit's wife sings at a joint called The Ink & Paint Club. Toon revue. Strictly humans only. OK?
For a moment, Valiant considers the offer of becoming a Peeping Tom for Toons. He walks to the studio window, and then proposes to take the job - for a hundred bucks - plus expenses. Maroon protests: "That's ridiculous!" Valiant replies: "So's the job." Down on the studio backlot, a typical view of a Hollywood cartoon studio, workmen from the Acme company drop a crate and out tumbles Gag Musical Chairs - an animated orchestra of Toon chairs playing musical instruments. Suddenly, Valiant jumps back as a gray figure with two large eyes appears in the window. Maroon explains that he got Dumbo on loan from Disney: "I got him on loan from Disney - him and half the cast of Fantasia. The best part is - they work for peanuts." The grey elephant with large floppy ears flies away from R.K. Maroon's office window after being thrown some peanuts, while they settle the deal. Maroon presents Valiant with a check for fifty bucks, holding back the balance as "a carrot to finish the job." Valiant responds: "You been hangin' around rabbits too long."
As Valiant departs from the studio, he studies his check and nearly runs into an indignant ostrich and a dancing hippo from Fantasia - a green jumping frog also meets him on the stairs. The broomsticks from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" sweep up the garbage in the soundstage doorway across the street. A saxophonist plays "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." The US Mail postman, a pelican, delivers mail on a bicycle. Many more cartoon characters - including a studio sound stage audition, literally a 'Cattle Call' of singing cows, Bugs Bunny (racing the Tortoise) and Bozo the Clown - appear momentarily, among others.
Across the street, down-and-out Valiant tries to board Los Angeles' Pacific Electric "Red Car" electric trolley bound for Sunset Blvd., but is denied entry by the conductor (James O'Connell) when all he can come up with is his paper check. He joins a group of young boys already hitching a free ride on the back of the Red Car. [Valiant's comment to one of the dirty-faced boys is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to a vast system of electric trolleys that once criss-crossed the LA Basin: "Who needs a car in LA? We got the best public transportation system in the world."] At the trolly terminal, a cheap cardboard sign reading "Now a Cloverleaf industry" (a dark green sign emblazoned with a four-leaf clover insignia, symbolic of the coming freeway system) is hauled up over the existing "Pacific Electric - The World's Finest Public Transportation System" sign to replace it.
Valiant leaves the trolley across the street from the trolley terminal, and finds his way into the entrance to "The Terminal Station Bar." The red neon sign malfunctions, blinking only the word "Terminal." Inside, it is decorated in the motif of a trolley car - popular in its heyday at the turn of the century when the new public transportation system was first built. When a trolley passes by underneath, the entire building shakes and the lights flicker. One of the trolley conductors, named Earl, is passed out drunk at one of the tables - Valiant is 'told' by a deaf-mute cabbie at the bar and a Soldier named Sarge (Lindsay Holiday) that Earl has been "LAID OFF" because a "new outfit bought the Red Car. Some big company called Cloverleaf."
The bar waitress Dolores (Joanna Cassidy), Valiant's girlfriend, tells him that he's behind on his payments and bills and that she will lose her job the next day if the money she lent him isn't "back in the till." Valiant calmly but proudly shows off the studio's paper check from R. K. Maroon for fifty bucks, and then asks to borrow Dolores' camera for a "snoop job." She hands it over - with some film still in it, left over from their trip to Catalina island together "a long time ago." When another trolley rumbles through, all the drinkers at the bar ritualistically lift their glasses to avoid spilling any of their drinks. A dirty laborer named Angelo (Richard Ridings) chides Valiant about his new contract for Maroon:
Angelo: So who's your client - Mr. Detective to the Stars? Chilly Willy or Screwy Squirrel?...So what happened, huh? Somebody kidnap Dinky Doodle?...Hey wait a minute, wait a minute, I know. You're workin' for Little Bo Peep. She's lost her sheep and you're gonna help her find them.
Valiant: (after kicking out Angelo's stool) Get this straight, greaseball. I DON'T WORK FOR TOONS! (Valiant jams a hard-boiled egg into Angelo's mouth, and then storms out of the bar.)
Angelo (to Dolores): So what's his problem?
Dolores: Toon killed his brother...dropped a piano on his head.
Earlier in Valiant's life, things were darkened when, as a private eye dedicated to working for Toons, his brother was killed by a falling piano in Toontown. Eddie has had a long-standing grudge against Toons and against venturing into Toontown ever since.
In a dark, run-down alley, the seedy, Raymond Chandleresque Valiant knocks on the exterior side door of a building. A speakeasy-style peephole slides open and out peers the large red eye of a big Toon Gorilla acting as a hairy bouncer. Valiant offers the proper password to enter The Ink & Paint Club, an inside joke:
Valiant: Walt sent me. (The peep hole door slides shut and the door opens. The Toon Gorilla is dressed in a tux and gives Valiant the once-over.) Nice monkey suit.
Gorilla: Wise ass...
In the segregated, cabaret-style nightclub where Toons entertain humans [a take-off of the original Cotton Club in New York City where disenfranchised blacks entertained whites], white tablecloths adorn the tables and Toon penguin waiters (anachronistically from Disney's Mary Poppins (1964)!) carry trays and serve drinks to the exclusive human guests. A many-armed Toon octopus (with the goofy face of Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) tends the bar, mixing, stirring, pouring, and serving numerous drinks simultaneously and lighting a woman's cigarette with one of his free hands.
On stage to provide entertainment in the opening act are two Toon ducks: a tuxedoed Donald Duck and Daffy Duck. They are seated back to back at opposite keyboards of two pianos (playing Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2). They play with their elbows, make wisecrack jokes, and compete and feud at the keyboards. Donald's piano is a grand-style piano - Daffy's piano is a white, upright rinky-dink one. [This is the first on-screen appearance of Disney and Warner Bros.' cartoon characters together.] They poke fun at each other at dueling pianos, while the crowd howls with laughter:
Daffy Duck: I've worked with a lot of wisequackers, but you are des-picc-able.
Donald Duck: Doggone stubborn nitwit! That did it!
Daffy Duck: This is the last time I work with someone with a s-s-speech impediment!
Donald hurls Daffy inside the grand piano and slams the lid down on his beak. Daffy retaliates: "This means war!"
Valiant finds an empty seat at the table of one of the guests [soon identified as local gagman Marvin Acme, played by Stubby Kaye] who wears a loud, garish plaid suit-jacket adorned with a red carnation. After shaking his dried-up fountain pen, he sprays the ink from it all over Valiant's shirt, causing Eddie to ask: "You think that's funny?" The prankster giggles at the sight ("It's a panic!") and is unperturbed by Valiant's anger: "Now, calm down, son, will ya? Look, the stain's gone. It's disappearing ink. No hard feelings.." Valiant looks down at his spotless shirt - he already knows the silly geezer with the urge to play practical jokes: "Marvin Acme, the guy that owns Toontown - the Gag King." [Acme had bought Toontown with the fortune he had made selling gags and novelties to the cartoon studios.] Acme responds: "If it's Acme, it's a gasser." To disperse hard feelings, Acme shakes Eddie's hand - with an electric hand buzzer that shocks Eddie all the way up his arm. "It's still our biggest seller," he boasts.
Donald's tail feathers play across the keyboard of the upright piano while his hands play the grand piano. Daffy plays frenetically on the grand piano with gag props including a boxing glove, a hammer, and a pair of chickens. To conclude the piano playing of the two ducks after Donald fires a cannon shot at his opponent, two long Toon hooks appear and abruptly end their act.
Betty Boop (voice of Mae Questel, who was also the voice of Popeye's Olive Oyl, and Little Lulu), a black-and-white cigarette girl, offers her wares behind Valiant and then recognizes him:
Betty Boop: Long time, no see.
Valiant: What are you doin' here?
Betty Boop: Well, it's been kinda slow since cartoons went to color. But I still got it, Eddie. (singing and squeaking) 'Boop boop be-doop.'
Valiant: Yeah, you still got it.
As they both watch Acme expectantly primping himself with a spray bottle of misty perfume with anticipation for the next performance, she tells Valiant: "Mr. Acme never misses a night when Jessica performs." Eddie replies: "Got a thing for rabbits, eh?"
In one of the high points of the film, out from behind a spotlight on blue curtains emerges the throaty, smokey blues sound of Jessica Rabbit singing [voice of Amy Irving]: "Why Don't You Do Right?" First, her sexy leg and ample breasts appear from behind the curtain as she begins her song and steps out. Eddie is transfixed and entranced by the beautiful Toon. [Her bright pink, slinky, high-cut gown sparkles and shimmers brilliantly due to ILM's special effects.] Looking very little like a rabbit and more like a cartoon-animated movie star, a combination Playboy bunny, Lauren Bacall and 40's peek-a-boo blonde actress Veronica Lake, the buxom, red-haired chanteuse sweeps out onto the stage and soon slinks into the audience singing - the patrons hoot and whistle. [The scene was revisited a year later in The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), with sexy Michelle Pfeiffer performing the same kind of number - "Makin' Whoopee" - in a red dress atop a piano.]
(Jessica singing)
| Toontown |
Who played waitress Maggie Fitzgerald in the 2004 film ‘Million Dollar Baby’? | Who Framed Roger Rabbit Movie - The 80s Movies Rewind
More Trivia from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
What can you not love about an existence where humans and cartoons live side by side and where playing pattycake is synonomous with making love?
Based on the novel "Who Censored Roger Rabbit?" by Gary K. Wolf, this film directed by Robert Zemeckis is a four-time Academy Award winner which has become a contemporary classic of our time.
...And why is it a classic?
All you have to do is consider the facts that no other "good" film has been made since, which incorporates Disney, Warner Bros; and many other new cartoons alongside human beings and the fact that this film has an entire land dedicated to it called Toontown in Disneyland.
When push comes to shove, the main character of this film, which is set in Hollywood 1947, is Judge Doom played by Christopher Lloyd. It's because of Doom that Roger Rabbit gets framed for murdering Mr. Acme (the owner of Toontown) in the first place. He's also the reason Detective Eddie Valiant is a drunk. Since the death of his brother, Valiant has become a bit of a lush and has lost his credibility. Doom was the person, or rather the toon, who murdered Valiant's brother. He also murdered R.K. Maroon, owner of the Maroon's Cartoons Corporation.
All of these murders tie into the main premise of this film. Mr. Acme has written his will, in which he decides who gets to own Toontown after his death. Toontown is wanted by a lot of people, including Judge Doom. Dooms intentions for Toontown, however, don't look so great for the toons. He wants to destroy Toontown by coating the whole land and all of its inhabitants with a potion he's invented called "The Dip" (a mixture of Turpentine, Acetone, and Bincene) He then plans to put up freeways, which of course didn't exist yet in 1947, and become rich making a name for himself.
The end of Toontown would mean the end of many zany but lovable toons. Roger Rabbit is one of the most hip, but flawed, of these toons. Charles Fleischer provides the voice of this gregarious rabbit, who is married to the voluptuous Jessica Rabbit, who's a singer at "The Ink & Paint Club" and is played by the sultry voice of Kathleen Turner. There is even a "50 year old in a 3 year olds body" named Baby Herman and a talking cab named Benny. These are just a few of the toons whose lives are at risk, including Mickey, Daffy and Betty Boop, to name a few more.
The main "human" character is this film is Detective Valiant played by Bob Hoskins. Although he sounds like a 1940's wiseguy, in true life he is British but does an excellent job at impersonating an American accent. Valiant gets talked into helping all the toons out, which he is very reluctant to do because of the murder of his brother by a toon. However, the Detective steps up to the plate and becomes something of a hero to Toontown.
This film paved the way for other films like "Cool World" and "MonkeyBone" which were not nearly as successful or enjoyable to watch. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" takes the world of make believe and puts it in an adult world of cussing, sex and booze (but in a tasteful, rated P.G. way). It was a prototpe of its kind and continues to be a favorite of both children and adults alike.
Think you're too old for cartoons?...Think again..!
Verdict?
I cannot forget how huge this film was when it was first released.
All of the guys in my second grade class at the time wanted to be Roger Rabbit for Halloween. We all thought he was "so cool".
It was a breakthrough for films and equated cartoons with human beings, showcasing them in a light we had never seen them in before.
Notice any mistakes? Review
Strengths: Great animation, cute music, good acting. A genuine prototype.
Weaknesses? Hmmm... maybe everybody's seen this movie too many times?
Our rating: 9 out of 10
| i don't know |
In which year was the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, otherwise known as The Proms, founded? | The Proms
The Proms
2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection . Related subjects: Musical genres, styles, eras and events
A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. The bust of Henry Wood can be seen in front of the organ
The Proms (also more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC) is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in South Kensington, London , United Kingdom . Founded in 1895, each season now consists of over 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of eight chamber concerts and four Saturday Matinees at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the Last Night and associated educational and children's events. It is the biggest classical music festival in the world.
Proms is short for promenade concerts. The term promenade concert arose from the original practice of audience members promenading, or strolling, in some areas of the concert hall during the concert. Promming now refers to the use of the standing areas inside the hall (the arena and gallery) for which ticket prices are much lower than for the reserved seating. Single concert promming tickets can be purchased, with few exceptions, only on the day of the concert, which can give rise to long queues for well-known artists or works. Prommers can purchase full or half season tickets instead for guaranteed entry, although not guaranteed standing position. A number of Prommers are particularly keen in their attendance, and see it as a badge of honour to achieve the "Grand Slam" of attending every concert of the season. In 1997 one programme in the BBC documentary series "Modern Times" covered this dedicated following.
History
Although earlier promenade concert series had previously existed, the first Proms concert was held on 10 August 1895 in the Queen's Hall in Langham Place and was arranged by Robert Newman. Newman's idea was to encourage an audience who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and more informal atmosphere (in addition to promenading, eating, drinking and smoking were all allowed).
However, it is the conductor Henry Joseph Wood whose name is most closely associated with the concerts. As conductor from that first concert, Wood was largely responsible for expanding the repertoire heard in later concerts, such that by the 1920s the concerts had grown from being made up of largely more popular, less demanding works, to presenting music by contemporary composers such as Claude Debussy, Richard Strauss and Ralph Vaughan Williams . A bronze bust of Wood, belonging to the Royal Academy of Music, is placed in front of the Organ for the whole season. While now known as BBC Proms, the text on the tickets (along with the headline BBC Proms next to the BBC Logo), still says BBC Music presents the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts.
In 1927, the BBC — later based at Broadcasting House opposite the hall — took over the running of the concerts, and when the BBC Symphony Orchestra was formed in 1930 it became the main orchestra for the concerts. At this time the season consisted of nights dedicated to particular composers; Mondays were Wagner , Fridays were Beethoven with other major composers being featured on other days. There were no Sunday performances.
However, with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the BBC withdrew its support. The Proms continued though, under private sponsorship, until the Queen's Hall was gutted by an air raid in 1941 (its site is now the St George's Hotel and BBC Henry Wood House). The following year, the Proms moved to their current home, the Royal Albert Hall, and the BBC took over once more. In 1944 however increased danger to the Royal Albert Hall from bombing meant that the Proms moved again to the Bedford Corn Exchange. This venue had been the home of the BBC Symphony Orchestra since 1941 and played host to the Proms until the end of the war.
From the 1950s, the number of guest orchestras giving concerts in the season began to increase, with the first major international conductors ( Leopold Stokowski, Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giulini) performing in 1963, and the first foreign orchestra, the Moscow Radio Orchestra, performing in 1966. Since that time, almost every major international orchestra, conductor and soloist has performed at the Proms. In 1970, Soft Machine's appearance led to press attention and comment as the first "pop" band to perform there.
The other major conductor associated with the Proms was Sir Malcolm Sargent who was Chief Conductor between 1948 to 1966. He was noted for his immaculate appearance (evening dress, carnation) and his witty addresses where he good-naturedly chided the noisy prommers. Sir Malcolm championed choral music, classical and British composers especially the brilliant black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The charity founded in his name continues to hold a special 'Promenade Concert' each year shortly after the main season ends. The charity also benefits (along with the Musicians' Benevolent Fund and a third "musical" charity, chosen each year) by many thousands of pounds from a collection made by the prommers after most concerts. (The Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund for Children merged with CLIC in early 2005 forming CLIC - Sargent).
The Proms continue today, and still present newly commissioned music alongside pieces more central to the repertoire and early music. Innovations continue, with pre-Prom talks, lunchtime chamber concerts, children's Proms, Proms in the Park either appearing, or being featured more heavily over the past few years. In the UK , all concerts are broadcast on BBC Radio 3, an increasing number are shown on BBC4 with some also broadcast on BBC1 and BBC2. It is also possible to hear the concerts live from the BBC Proms website. The Last Night is also broadcast in many countries around the world.
In 1996 a related series of eight lunchtime chamber concerts was started, taking place on Mondays during the Proms season. In their first year these were held in the Britten Hall of the Royal College of Music (just across Prince Consort Road from the Albert Hall). The following year they moved slightly further afield, to the Henry Cole Lecture Theatre at the V & A. In 2005 they moved further again, to the new Cadogan Hall, just off London's Sloane Square. These allow the Proms to include music which is not really suitable for the vast spaces of the Albert Hall.
Since 1998, the Blue Peter Prom, in partnership with long-running BBC television programme Blue Peter , has been an annual fixture. Aimed at children and families, the Prom is informal, including audience participation, jokes, and popular classics. High demand for tickets - which are among the lowest priced in the season - saw this Prom be split in 2004 into 2 Proms with identical content.
The 2004 season also featured the Hall's newly rebuilt pipe organ, now again the largest in the British Isles. It took two years to complete the task (2002–2004) and was the work of Noel Mander, Ltd., of London. It was the first complete restoration of the instrument since Harrison and Harrison's work in 1936.
The Proms today
The Proms 2005. Most people sit, while Promenaders stand in front of the orchestra. The Royal Albert Hall Organ is in the background.
2008 season
The 2008 season will run from 18 July- 13 September 2008. The BBC has indicated that it will release details of the season as usual during April 2008.
2007 season
The 2007 season ran from 13 July– 8 September 2007, with the first concert beginning with Walton's Portsmouth Point and included Elgar's Cello Concerto performed by Paul Watkins and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Following the previous year's Voice day, brass instruments were specially featured with two concerts on 28 July 2007. Early press coverage focused heavily on the fact that musical theatre star Michael Ball would be the central performer in a concert on 27 August and a concert of British film music on 14 July. This led to media accusations of " dumbing down", despite Nicholas Kenyon's defence of the programme. Anniversaries marked in this Proms season included the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Edward Elgar , the 100th anniversary of the death of Edvard Grieg and the 50th anniversary of the death of Jean Sibelius as well as marking 80 years since the first BBC sponsorship of the Proms.
In February 2007 it was announced that the 2007 season would be Nicholas Kenyon's last as controller of the BBC Proms as he would take up the position of Managing Director at the Barbican Centre from October 2007. He will be succeeded by Roger Wright who will also retain responsibility for BBC Radio 3 and take up a broader role controlling the BBC 's classical music output across all media.
2006 season
Details of the 2006 season (the 112th) were announced on 27 April 2006. As expected they marked the 250th birthday celebrations of Mozart and the centenary of Shostakovich's birth. New initiatives for the year included four Saturday matinee concerts at the Cadogan Hall and the chance for audience members to get involved with The Voice, a collaborative piece performed in two Proms on 29 July. On 3 September 2006, a concert was cancelled due to a fire which damaged the hall's electrical system.
Last Night of the Proms
Most people's perception of the Proms is taken from the 'Last Night', although this concert is very different from the others. In the UK, it is usually broadcast on BBC2 (first half) and BBC1 (second half) and usually takes place on the second Saturday in September. The concert is traditionally in a lighter, 'winding-down' vein, with popular classics being followed by a series of British patriotic pieces in the second half of the concert. This sequence begins with Edward Elgar 's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 ( Land of Hope and Glory ), and continues with Sir Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs which culminates in Thomas Arne’s Rule Britannia. The concert concludes with Hubert Parry's Jerusalem (a setting of a poem by William Blake ), and the British national anthem. The Prommers have made a recent tradition of singing Auld Lang Syne but it is not in the programme.
Tickets are highly sought after. Promming tickets are no more expensive than for other concerts throughout the season, but tickets for seats are more expensive. It is usually necessary to attend several other Proms in the season to have a chance of getting a Last Night ticket. In the post-War period, with the growing popularity of the "Last Night", the only way to obtain tickets was through a postal ballot system where prospective buyers submitted an application well in advance, along with a stamped and addressed reply envelope. The lucky ones received their tickets by return.
Prommers with tickets are likely to queue up much earlier than usual (even overnight) in order to ensure a good place to stand in the hall. The resulting cameraderie adds to the atmosphere. Fancy dress is an optional extra: from dinner jackets to patriotic T-shirts. Many use the occasion for an exuberant display of Britishness. Union Flags are carried and waved by the Prommers, especially during Rule Britannia. Flags (mostly national flags and regional flags), balloons and party poppers are all welcome. Sir Henry Wood's bust is crowned with a laurel chaplet by representatives of the Promenaders, who often wipe an imaginary bead of sweat from his forehead or make some similar gentle visual joke. Near the end, the conductor makes a speech thanking the musicians and audiences, and mentioning the main themes covered through the season.
The Royal Albert Hall could be filled many times over with people wishing to attend the Last Night. To accommodate these people, and to cater for those who are not near London, the Proms in the Park concerts were started in 1996. Initially there was only one, in London 's Hyde Park adjacent to the Hall. More locations have been added in recent years, and in 2005, Belfast , Glasgow , Swansea and Manchester hosted a Last Night Prom in the Park which was broadcast live from each venue. 2007 saw Manchester's prom being replaced by one in Middlesbrough. Each location has its own live concert, typically playing the country's respective national anthems, before joining in a live big screen video link up with the Royal Albert Hall for the traditional finalé.
Leonard Slatkin, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra until recently, expressed a desire to tone down the nationalism of the Last Night somewhat, and since 2002 Rule Britannia has only been heard as part of Henry Wood's Fantasia on British Sea Songs (another piece traditional to the last night) rather than separately. Slatkin's first Last Night was in 2001, just days after 9/11 attacks : it was more restrained than normal. He was the first non- Commonwealth citizen to conduct the final night. A heavily revised programme saw Beethoven's 9th replacing the Sea Songs etc and also included Samuel Barber's melancholy Adagio for Strings.
Last Night Conductors
The following table lists by year the people who have acted as conductor at the Last Night of the Proms. This duty is normally undertaken by the Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, but the role has on occasion been undertaken by a number of guest conductors. Where appropriate, the table indicates such guest status.
Year
| 1895 |
The Saudi Arabian port of Jeddah stands on the shore of which sea? | Monday Night at the Theater: London Does Broadway (BBC Proms featuring Sierra Boggess)
Monday Night at the Theater: London Does Broadway (BBC Proms featuring Sierra Boggess)
Monday Mar 24, 2014 · 5:00 PM PDT
2014/03/24 · 17:00
12
Boggess begins to sing at the 2:57 mark:
The Proms, more formally known as The BBC Proms, or The Henry Wood Promenade Concerts presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in London. Founded in 1895, each season currently consists of more than 70 concerts in the Albert Hall, a series of chamber concerts at Cadogan Hall, additional Proms in the Park events across the United Kingdom on the last night, and associated educational and children's events. In 2009 the total number of concerts reached 100 for the first time. In the context of classical music festivals, Jiří Bělohlávek has described the Proms as "the world's largest and most democratic musical festival".
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
The Proms seem to favor Sierra Boggess. Here's what I found:
Sierra Boggess made her Broadway debut in The Little Mermaid, then returned to Broadway as an opera student in Master Class. She has played Andrew Lloyd Webber’s heroine Christine Daae in the Las Vegas and Broadway productions of The Phantom of the Opera and in the West End premiere of the hit musical’s sequel, Love Never Dies.
| i don't know |
Fitch fur comes from which animal? | What Is Fitch?
What Is Fitch?
April 24, 2010
By: Elaine Riot
A fitch is a polecat, found commonly in Eurasia, Africa and Europe, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. The albino, domestic version of the polecat is known as a ferret.
A ferret is a domesticated albino fitch or polecat.
Polecat
The term "fitch," usually used in the fur trade, refers to a polecat, a weasel-like carnivore and mustelid. The mustelidae family includes weasels and minks, among others.
Characteristics
The fitch or polecat is also called a foul marten for its smell. The common polecat has long, coarse brown and black fur, with yellow spots on the face, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. It has a long bushy tail, its torso ranges from 14 to 21 inches long and it usually weighs from one to three pounds.
Habitat
The fitch is found in the wooded areas and steppes of Eurasia and North Africa.
Natural Prey
The fitch hunts its prey at night. Since it does not usually climb trees like other mustelids, its main diet consists of birds and small mammals it can catch on the ground. It also feeds on eggs, lizards, snakes, frogs and fish.
Breeding
Fitches, which usually produce litters of three to eight babies, are born in the spring. The gestation period is two months.
Fur
According to Furs.com, fitch fur is similar to mink but with more distinctive markings. Most of the pelts, also referred to as fitches, originate in Scandinavia or Russia. A coat made from fitch sells for between $4,000 and $7,000.
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| Polecat |
Which former US airline, founded in 1927, ceased to operate in 1991? | Ranch Fitch 3X Fur Hide - Cased - Professionally Tanned - Game Changer Taxidermy, LLC
Ranch Fitch 3X Fur Hide - Cased - Professionally Tanned
This item is currently out of stock. Please contact us for more information.
Description
Legally obtained by Licensed Missouri Hunter and Trapper
during the 2010-2011 Season Lic # 143840809
First American to use Fitch for Designed Apparel
Mountain Man Seth Kinman - Was the first American hunter/trapper to use this fur pelt as part of his apparel in a "designed" fashion. He is the sole person who originated the "Mountain Man" appearance. He traded regularly with Native Americans and in doing so, learned how valuable fur was not only for warmth but for use as part of his own personal touch to his appearance. He would have never known what kind of trend he would set for more than 200 years! Seth Kinman was a delightful California 49er. You will see him in photograph on a 2-cent revenue stamp on verso taken in California in 1865. Kinman, in his regular buckskins and fur hat, sits with his rifle and knife.
SPECIFIC DETAILS & INFORMATION ABOUT THE FITCH
This is known as a Paradise Yellow Ranch Fitch. This is a case cut fur pelt that has been professionally tanned. This listing is for ONE of the 2 that we have available. If you are seeking a pair, please contact us. This particular pelt is considered top of the line for this species due to it's size and length. It is rated 3X. This is not farm-raised Fitch. It is wild and found in Mongolia. Fitch fur is the fur of the polecat, not actually cat but a carnivorous mammal of the weasel family. The polecat is similar to a mink but larger and it has much longer fur. The polecat may also be known as a ferret in the USA (slightly confusing as this is a similar though different animal to the British ferret). Fitch comes in several natural colors. White Fitch, which is native to Siberia, has distinctive flank markings. It's the best Fitch and is the most expensive. Fitch also comes from Germany, Austria, and Poland. Fitch which is dark in color, with the best Polish Fitch has distinctive stripes. The Fitch fur must not be confused with the density of fox or beaver. It is a much lighter and thinner fur. The guard hair is not nearly as dense as other wild animal species. This is relative to the hide of the weasel. It is more pliable for universal use for garments and accent pieces. It is also seen as part of the more elaborate Native American headdress. If you have any additional questions about this item, please feel free to ask.
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NOTES
We have others of these types of items. We are all hunters, trappers and have a bone & skull beetle cleaning service. We will be posting some very interesting items in the next few weeks. Come back and see us again.
We supply Native American items of all kinds. We supply dried feet and claws of all species. We can also make something upon request. Our Native American Artisan is a direct descendant of the Indians so the work is authentic using only materials supplied by mother nature.
Our history on Ebay:
We have been selling on ebay since early 20031with a 100% rating and have never had a returned item in our entire history. However, due to consistent problems with Pay Pal (on their part) we had to close the old account and open a new one in 2009. We are sorry you can't view all of our great feedback. We try hard to please and pay special attention to shipping. It is important to us that our customers get what they are paying for-on time and in one piece!
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Which cricketer won Pipe Smoker of the Year Award in 1986? | The Joy of Six: smoking sports stars | Sport | The Guardian
The Joy of Six: smoking sports stars
From equality in tennis to the pipe smokers of the year, the relationship between sport and snout
Cesar Luis Menotti enjoys a salmon. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Bob Thomas/Getty Images
Friday 6 December 2013 06.32 EST
First published on Friday 6 December 2013 06.32 EST
1. Tennis
Rosie Casals in Virginia Slims branded dress. Photograph: Colorsport/REX
The Marlboro Man was one of the 20th century's most enduring icons of old-school machismo: the granite jaw, the muscles of steel, the iron lung. But it's often forgotten that the wheezing old bugger did a little bit for the feminist movement too. In 1968, Phillip Morris - that's the real name of the Marlboro Man, and a rather disappointing one at that, big-leggy cowboys simply shouldn't be called Pip - launched a brand of cigarettes called Virginia Slims. Marketed at young women, the accompanying advertising campaign - "You've come a long way, baby / To get where you've got to today / You've got your own cigarette now, baby / You've come a long, long way" - didn't quite manage to distil all the philosophies and ideologies driving Emmeline Pankhurst, Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan's century-long struggle against oppression into one catchy 30-second jingle. It's also questionable whether equal-opportunity health hazards are desirable in anything other than strict theoretical terms. But Pip and his pals weren't just cynical bandwagon-hitching opportunists: Virginia Slims would also play a small but significant part in a genuine advance.
Pip's wares. Photograph: Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images
1968 was also the year in which tennis went open, and prize money for professionals went through the roof. If you were a man. The women were ludicrously under-valued, and when Jack Kramer - a former Wimbledon and US Open champion turned promoter - refused to pony up more than 15% of the prize purse he was paying the men in a 1970 tournament, Billie Jean King led a walkout. The United States Lawn Tennis Association, she reasoned, could go whistle. King, along with eight other players - Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Julie Heldman, Kerry Reid and Judy Dalton - formed a rebel tour. With the help of magazine publisher Gladys Heldman, who prized a sponsorship deal from Pip Morris, the Virginia Slims Circuit was born.
The circuit - the first professional women's tour - was a glorious success. Within three years of its launch, it led to the formation of the Women's Tennis Association, the main overseers of the game today. And three months after the ink had dried on that deal, the 1973 US Open became the first major event to offer women and men equal prize money. The Australian Open followed suit in 2001, before the French Open and Wimbledon finally did the decent thing in 2007.
Old-fashioned attitudes at Wimbledon clearly took a while to shift, then. They may or may not have become entrenched in 1972, when Casals opted to wear a mauve and white dress for her semi-final against King that was patterned with a series of VS motifs. She lost the match 2-6, 4-6, but was still in the running for the mixed doubles with Ilie Nastase, and so a letter arrived on her doorstep the morning after from referee Captain Mike Gibson, ordering her to desist with the sly advertising.
Given that Virginia Slims were involved in tennis in the first place only because the likes of Wimbledon were refusing to pay the women anything close to equal money, it could be argued that the Captain was being a cheeky bastard. Happily, Casals was having none of his sorry nonsense. She dismissed the Captain's morning log as "the biggest laugh I have had for a long time", and came onto No1 court for her mixed-doubles appointment sporting another VS-inspired outfit. This one, in red, yellow and green, pictured a woman, 18 inches high, holding a tennis racquet in one hand and a cigarette holder in the other. A slogan read: "You've come a long way, baby."
The Captain - either interested in crisp, clear, traditional costume design or hell-bent on reinforcing the patriarchy, you make the call - ordered Casals to return to the dressing room and slip into something a little more comfortable for him. The player protested that she had already worn the dress twice at the championships. "I said it must have been on a back court and had not been drawn to my attention," sniffed the Captain later, "because had it been, I would have ordered her to change it." He clearly wasn't in the habit of looking very hard, because on the other side of the net Betty Stove of Holland was wearing a similar design, but with Casals in the firing line, she slipped under the Captain's radar.
Casals changed costume, but a little victory in the bigger war had been won: her VS dress, its unsubtle advertising, and the point it was rather more subtly making, made the front of several national newspapers for two days running. ("A star's choice of dress when she goes onto court is a personal matter," noted its designer, the former player-turned-fashion guru, Teddy Tinling. "It is entirely her own business.") Casals also went on to win the tournament with Nastase, and if her profile in the Observer back in 1968 was anything to go by, celebrated well that evening: "Sometimes I drink a rum and coke, or a Bloody Mary. Oh, and Creme de Menthe, that's my favourite drink. And I like a beer after dinner, when I have the one cigarette of the day."
2. Golf
Before we go any further, and so our consciences are clear, it'd be remiss of us not to hammer home the obvious: the devil weed can be extremely injurious to your health. Here's Tony Lazzeri, one of the star names in the legendary New York Yankees team from the 1920s that also boasted Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, shilling tabs from the impossibly glamorous pages of a magazine. "After a tough day at the ball park one needs mental as well as physical relaxation. I get mine through smoking Lucky Strike cigarettes. I smoke one of them; two of them; three of them; and I like 'em. They never bother my throat." Sure enough, a heart attack did for Lazzeri at the tragically young age of 42.
Then there's the winner of the 1946 US Open golf tournament, Lloyd Mangrum. One of the greatest players of the immediate post-war era, Mangrum recorded another 25 top-ten finishes in the majors. Usually seen with a cigarette hanging from his lip mid-swing, Mangrum was said to chain his way through several packs a day. He was once bollocked by a spectator, who shouted from the gallery that "athletes shouldn't smoke". His pat response? "I'm no athlete, lady, I'm a golfer." Mangrum died of a heart attack - his 12th(!) - aged only 59.
So those are the dangers writ large. But in the interests of balance, here's the morally problematic flipside: some people really do look darn wonderful when they've got a fag on. Here's Mangrum, the Rhett Butler of the fairways, making his way round Augusta National at his own pace during the late 1940s.
Lloyd Mangrum lights up a smoke during a 1940s Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Photograph: Augusta National/Augusta National/Getty Images
The fags also helped this smoothie smooth out his game. Not only was his swing one of the most effortless on tour, each gentle draw helping to shape each gentle draw, he was also a super-sharp cherooter on the greens: he put down his nerveless putting stroke to his habit of taking the edge off beforehand with a long, deep, rich, calming drag. He won the 1946 US Open by rattling in a very missable snaky seven-footer which, like the smoke, didn't even touch the sides.
Mangrum, of course, picked up his habit in an era before the true dangers of smoking were scientifically proven, and everyone was merely in thundering denial regarding the root cause of that persistent hack. But plenty of golfers have nevertheless since used cigarettes or cigars as both relaxant and emotional crutch. "There are some players that have sports psychologists," explained Angel Cabrera upon winning the 2007 US Open. "I smoke." Add Mangrum and the carefree Argentinian to the following list, illustrative rather than definitive, of golfers who have been spotted sucking them down on the links at one time or another: Lee Trevino, Tony Jacklin, Brian Barnes, John Daly, Darren Clarke, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Ian Woosnam, Jumbo Ozaki, Thomas Bjorn, Sam Torrance, Fuzzy Zoeller, Ben Hogan, Walter Hagan, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus.
Total majors between that little lot: 66. And if we throw in the majors won by a certain modern superstar rumoured to enjoy the odd equilibrium-enhancing snout: 80. You do the math.
Miguel Angel Jimenez enjoys a burn. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
3. The Olympic Games
Having established that tobacco can be good for you - well, OK, but y'know - here's a stash of the stuff getting one of the 20th century's most legendary sports stars into a whole heap of trouble. Ricardo Zamora is remembered as one of the greatest players to ever have played for Spain. He kept goal for both Barcelona and Real Madrid. He won a silver medal with Spain at the 1920 Olympics. He starred in Spain's famous 4-3 win over England in 1929, the first time the English national team had been defeated by a team from the continent. The trophy which is given to the keeper of the season in La Liga is named in his honour.
And yet despite it all, he's arguably best remembered as something of a bon viveur. As Sid Lowe reports in Fear and Loathing in La Liga - if you haven't done so already, get on it in time for Christmas - Zamora was "a friend of the tango singer Carlos Gardel, consumer of three packets of cigarettes a day and countless cognacs" and "a famous night bird during the 1920s when Barcelona became the most fashionable city in Spain".
Ricardo Zamora and his little friend. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty Images
Zamora lived life to the full, though he would take it too far in the wake of Spain's aforementioned success at the 1920 Olympics. Spain were knocked out by the hosts and eventual champions Belgium in the quarter finals, but the tournament's bizarre structure (no point asking, life's too short) gave them a second chance at the silver and bronze medals. Spain made it through to the final of the consolation round - Zamora had been sent off against Italy en route, having planted one on an Italian opponent - and they beat the Netherlands to the silver medal. (In a pleasing symmetry, Spain's crowning goal in a 3-1 win was scored by Rafael Moreno, aka Pichichi, whose name, like the man guarding the Spanish net, would later adorn a memorial trophy handed out for La Liga excellence in his position .
Zamora, along with the rest of the team, celebrated their silver medal with extreme prejudice. The rest of the team, however, did not decide to purchase several cases of contraband Havana cigars to take back home with them. Zamora stashed the lot under his train seat, and would probably have got away with it, had he not decided to light up a fat one in the carriage and hang out of the window puffing it in a fashion popularised years later by Charles Kennedy . The fact that he was sucking it down right by the border, when a customs officer was sniffing around, further complicated matters, but did at least illustrate his devil-may-care attitude. Zamora was fined 500 pesetas and thrown in the jug for the night, the customs officer making off with his smokes. Ah well, at least he still had something to show for the trip, with his medal.
4. Cricket
Tennis is not the only sport to have benefitted from an injection of tobacco. Formula One has been fuelled by smoke, overtly or otherwise, for most of its existence. Rugby league's big day out was known for years as the Silk Cut Challenge Cup. The World Snooker Championship will always be known to a certain generation as the Embassy, and hasn't been the same since legislation spirited away its yellow-stained glamour. While darts is, well, darts: Embassy gave each competitor in the very first world championship, held in Nottingham in 1978, a carton of 200 fags, or 20 slim panatela cigars. Per day.
Eric Bristow enjoys a brown while throwing a dart. Photograph: Bob Thomas/Bob Thomas/Getty Images
Cricketers too have benefitted from the largesse of the tobacco conglomerates: Benson & Hedges would also regularly dole out free cartons of 200 to participants ahead of matches in their eponymous Cup. As we've seen with the golfers, the benefits to cricketers of such gifts are more psychological than cardiovascular. John Crawley was reckoned to have gone through two packets while waiting to go into bat against the West Indies in 1998. Meanwhile poor Tony Greig, reaping what he'd sown during Grovelgate, as it wasn't known back in 1976, spent lunch chain-smoking after the Windies directed a hurricane of misery towards his noggin - with a little help from his team-mates who were lighting the fags, a job beyond their captain, who was reportedly shaking so much that the simple operation of a box of Swan Vestas was way beyond him.
5. The World Cup
Smoking has not been a barrier to footballing excellence. You'd be able to pick a decent enough XI out of this lot: Dino Zoff, Johan Cruyff, Garrincha, Gérson, Socrates, Zinedine Zidane, Nat Lofthouse, Dixie Dean, Jack and Bobby Charlton, Ossie Ardiles, Paul Gascoigne, Fabien Barthez, Billy Bremner, Jimmy Greaves, Carlo Ancelotti, Gordon Banks, Alfredo Di Stefano and, eh, Jack Wilshere. Cesar Luis Menotti and Enzo Bearzot can fight it out for the right to puff away pensively in the dugout.
Mind you, Gérson's habit could easily have cost football's most famous team their signature World Cup. Every winner, no matter how talented, needs a little bit of luck, and the 1970 Brazil side was fortunate that the World Cup that year was played in Mexico, where the heat and altitude slowed the game right down. That allowed Gérson - the brain behind the team who was on 40 a day and had been comprehensively outpaced against Hungary in England in 1966 - to take things at his own speed, something he would have been unable to do were the tournament being played in cooler climes, at sea level, and against players whose lungs were able to function at their usual, full capacity.
In the final, Gérson kept quiet for the first 50 minutes or so. "He discovered before half-time that he could move up and put Italy in trouble," a highly impressed Bill Shankly told the Observer's Hugh McIlvanney, "but he knew if he did too much of it they would see what was happening and try to find a solution at the interval. So he waited until the second half. Then the Italians had no chance to discuss the problem. They were sunk." Gerson went on to score what was effectively the winner, then dictated terms for the rest of the match. A rope-a-dope masterclass, albeit one for which Shankly had perhaps given Gérson a soupçon too much credit, given that it had been also designed with the purpose of eking out their spluttering midfielder's contribution for as long as possible. It'd be nice to think that Gérson, upon coming up with the fiendish plan beforehand, had scrawled it on the back of a cigarette packet.
6. Bowls (and the Indoor League)
David Bryant wins Westminster International bowls at Paddington Sports Club in 1989, while enjoying a pipe. Photograph: Mike King/taken from picture library
The most distinguished carriage for tobacco product, the pipe has lent gravitas to many a sports star. There's Fred Trueman on Indoor League , oozing effortless authority and poise despite being half-cut on Sid Waddell's Yorkshire Television expense account. Jimmy Greaves was often spotted during his mid-60s pomp with a stem clamped between his teeth. Meanwhile Ian Botham has shilled Hamlet cigars and skinned up once or twice in his day, but it's his 1988 Pipe Smoker of the Year award of which he'll surely be most proud.
However, in the world of sport, and arguably further afield, there is only one true pipe smoker. David Bryant won six world bowls titles - three outdoors, three indoors - between 1966 and 1988, plus five golds in the Commonwealth Games between 1962 and 1978. More often than not, he did it with a pipe sticking out of his ice-cool coupon. Mind you, it was rarely lit during actual competition, and never on the indoor greens, where the carpet would have been ruined by the constant dropping of ash. Bryant was nothing if not a considerate man. (After winning his 1978 Commonwealth title, Frank Keating congratulated the 46-year-old Bryant by "jokingly suggesting his victory was another nice encouragement to the old and ageing ... He remained polite, of course, but he tapped out his pipe on his heel sharply enough to convey that he was momentarily miffed.")
Like Botham, Greaves (1985) and Trueman (1974, the height of Indoor League's popularity), Bryant also picked up the Pipe Smoker of the Year award, in 1986. He's in decent company: other winners of the prize include Harold Wilson, Eric Morecambe, Henry Cooper, and JB Priestley. Also Dave Lee Travis, but let's not cloud the issue here.
| Ian Botham |
In humans, plumbism is chronic poisoning due to the absorption of what into the body? | Ian Botham Biography -Biography Online
About
Ian Botham Biography
Ian Botham is a retired English Test cricketer, who was one of the most entertaining all-rounders of his generation. His flamboyant batting and successful bowling had the capacity to win games and excite the spectators. His greatest moment came in the 1981 Ashes test at Headingley – where Ian Botham led England to the most spectacular and unpredictable recovery against Australia.
Short Biography Ian Botham
Ian Terence Botham OBE, was born November 24, 1955 in Heswall, Cheshire. He later moved to Yeovil, Somerset where he began playing cricket – playing for Somerset under 15s. As a youngster he was also a talented footballer – for a short time he played for Scunthorpe United, before settling on cricket as his chosen sport.
After leaving school early, he played for Somerset, making his first class debut in 1974, aged 18. After 12 seasons of playing for Somerset, he resigned in 1986, in protest at the sacking of his West Indian friends Sir Vivian Richards and Joel Garner. He later played for Worcestershire, Durham and Queensland in Australian cricket.
He gained his Test debut for England in 1977. He went on to an illustrious international career. He took 383 wickets at an average of 28.4 and scored 5,200 runs at an average of 33.54. The figures on their own are not spectacular, but Botham frequently made a big impact in important games. He could also score at a quick rate and some of his innings were memorable, even if didn’t score a century. He had tremendous power and could hit the ball out of the ground, though he also had a good technique. His swing bowling was effective for his ability to move the ball – even when his pace slowed down in later years, he could make a big difference.
Ian Botham was always a big character in the team, he became as famous for his on-field exploits as his off-field exploits. He had quite a few run ins with the more ‘stuffy establishment.’ – especially the members at Lords. For example, he got into trouble for smoking cannabis in 1986. He also fell out with other players, notably Geoff Boycott – who Botham once famously ran out for scoring too slowly.
In 1980, Ian Botham was made captain of England. However, it was not a success. He lost form, England didn’t do well, and not everyone in the dressing room was enamoured of Botham’s style. After first two tests in the Ashes series of 1981, Botham resigned the captaincy, with England trailing 1-0 and struggling to have any hope of winning series. In the second test at Lord’s Botham scored a pair.
In the third test at Headingley, Brearley was made captain. The test got off to a bad start for England. Australia scored a big innings total 401-9. But, in reply, England could only make 174 – with Botham top scoring on 50 not out. In the follow on on Saturday, England’s top order again failed. On Saturday evening, bookmakers offered odds of 500-1 for England to win.
On Sunday, Botham came to the crease when England were 105 for 5. But, England then lost Boycott and Bob Taylor, leaving England on 135-7. Defeat looked inevitable. No-one in the ground expected England to have the faintest chance. But, as Graham Dilley joined Ian Botham in the middle, Botham let fly and played an innings of superb quality and attacking flair. Hitting the ball over the ground, he accelerated to 149 not out. He was ably supported by the England tail (Dilley scored 56) and Chris Old (29).
Still England’s lead was just 129. There was only a feint chance of winning, but Botham had restored England’s pride. However, Bob Willis bowled with exceptional talent to bowl out the Australians for 111. Willis finished with 8 for 43. England had won a classic game by just 18 runs. It was only the second team to win a game after following on. Botham was the hero. It was a huge psychological boost for England. At the time, the economy was in deep recession, and the headlines about England cricket and been unrelentingly critical, but this turned the whole mood of the nation. A packed Headingley celebrated the most unlikely of wins.
In the next test match, England won by 29 runs – helped by a spell of bowling by Botham where he took 5 wickets for 1 run.
England won the ashes in the Old Trafford test, where Botham again was man of the match with a peerless 118, which included six sixes, including two off the fast bowler Lillee. England won the final test at the Oval to take the series 3-1.
Botham was named man of the series, scoring 399 runs and taking 34 wickets. He was awarded BBC Sports Personality of the year in 1981.
As well as his cricketing career, he was a prolific charity fund raiser. To raise funds he undertook gruelling walks. Several times he walked from Lands End to John O Groats. These walks received high publicity and raised substantial funds. His motivation for undertaking charity walks occurred when he went to a hospital in Somerset to receive treatment for a broken toe. By mistake, he took a wrong turn into a terminally ill childrens ward and was moved by the fact many children had only a few weeks to live.
After retiring from cricket he worked as a commentator for Sky Sports, becoming a regular voice on TV.
He married Kathryn Waller (Kathy, now Lady Botham) in 1976. They had three children Becky, Sarah and Liam.
Significant awards include:
1978 – Elected one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year.
1992 – Awarded OBE
2004 – BBC Sports Personality of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ian Botham Career statistics
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Which Roman Emperor was named ‘Little Boots’? | Caligula - Ancient History Encyclopedia
Caligula
by Donald L. Wasson
published on 18 October 2011
Among the great emperors of the Roman Empire stand Augustus and Marcus Aurelius . At the other end of the spectrum is the Emperor Caligula who the historian Suetonius simply calls a monster. In his The Twelve Caesars he further added:
It is difficult to say whether weakness of understanding or corruption of morals were more conspicuous in the character of Caligula. He seems to have discovered from his earliest years an innate depravity of mind, which was undoubtedly much increased by defect of education.
Early Life
Born Gaius Julius Caesar in 12 CE, Caligula was the son of Germanicus (hero of the German campaign) and Agrippina, granddaughter of the Emperor Augustus (her mother was his daughter Julia). The name “Caligula” is actually a nickname meaning “little boots,” derived from the miniature uniform he wore as a child while on campaign with his father. The precocious youth served as the company’s mascot. Shortly after the death of his family, Caligula moved to the isle of Capri where he was raised by the Roman Emperor Tiberius as what some historians consider a prisoner. Although Germanicus's death is suspicious, Tiberius is thought to have been instrumental in the death of Caligula’s mother and brothers.
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Caligula's response to his critics was: “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.”
Since Caligula and his sisters were considered to be of no immediate threat, they were allowed to live. While on the island, Caligula witnessed the brutality and savage behaviour that was Tiberius. On Capri he was surrounded by corruption and excess. Suetonius said:
… even in those days Caligula could not control his natural brutality. He loved watching tortures and executions; and, disguised in wig and robe, abandoned himself nightly to the pleasures of feasting and scandalous living.
Caligula Becomes Emperor
Upon the death of Tiberius on 17 March 37 CE, Caligula became the co-emperor of the Roman Empire with Tiberius’ son Gemellus. Caligula, however, soon came to be the lone ruler with the death of Gemellus. (Caligula is suspected of having a hand in the death of his co-emperor.) Since Tiberius had never been a popular emperor, the citizens of Rome welcomed the young emperor, and Caligula soon earned this admiration: He ended the treason trials instituted by Tiberius, recalled exiles, and gave long over-due bonuses to the Praetorian Guard . He completed a number of building projects started by the former emperor, rebuilt decaying temples, built a lighthouse at Boulogne, began work on new aqueducts and even built a new amphitheatre In Pompeii . There were numerous gladiatorial games and chariot races to entertain the people.
Within six months after assuming power, however, everything changed: After coming close to death (historians are divided on the cause - a possible breakdown or epilepsy), Caligula became a different person. He was more paranoid, and the Caligula some had seen on Capri re-emerged. After having reduced taxes earlier in his reign, he raised them in order to pay for his excesses. He instituted a series of purges against suspected enemies, including even his first wife. He brought back the treason trials of Tiberius. He condemned others in order to confiscate their property. Suetonius adds that he became more sadistic and “showed the keenest interest in witnessing the suffering and torment of those condemned being tortured.” In reference to a series of gladitorial games attended by Caligula, historian Cassius Dio said:
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It was not the large number of those who perished that was so serious, though that was serious enough, but his excessive delight in their death and this insatiable desire for the sight of blood.
His extreme behaviour knew no limits, living a life some historians label as perverse and insane. He gave his beloved horse, Incitatus, jewel-encrusted collars and even threatened to grant him the title of consul . He built a two-and-a-half-mile pontoon bridge across the Bay at Baiae. And his response to his critics: “Let them hate me, so long as they fear me.”
Although he annexed Mauritania, he led meaningless campaigns in Germany only to earn some sense of military glory. During one of his campaigns in the north, a supposed invasion of Britain , he ordered his soldiers to collect sea shells. Historian Dio wrote, "Next he took his seat on a lofty platform and gave the soldiers the signal as if for battle , bidding the trumpeters urge them on, then of a sudden he ordered them to gather up the shells," Caligula took the shells back to Rome where he exhibited his booty.
He also waged a constant war with the Jewish population in Judah who were at odds with the Greeks. When the Jews failed to give him the homage he believed he deserved as a living deity, Caligula threatened to have a statue of himself erected in the Temple of Jerusalem but luckily was convinced otherwise in order to prevent further rioting. Historian Philo who lived the same time as Caligula (sometimes called Philo the Jew or Philo of Alexandria ) said that Caligula
| Caligula |
The Franklin River is in which Australian state? | Caligula 37 AD - Amazing Bible Timeline with World History
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August 18, 2015
Caligula 37 AD
Caligula was a former Roman Emperor who ruled Rome from 37 to 41 A.D. That is where he is listed on the Bible Timeline Chart . He was the third son of a General named Germanicus and a princess named Agrippina. When Caligula was a little boy he used to travel with General Germanicus and his mother to different battlefields. While he was stationed with the troops at the Roman camps he would dress up in a customized Roman uniform and little army boots. Ancient Roman boots were called “caliga” and in his case it meant “little boots”. This name would stick with him for the rest of his life. Sources say that he didn’t like this nickname even though it still remained a major part of his identity.
The Life of Caligula
Caligula was actually born Caesar Augustus Germanicus in 12 A.D. His father Germanicus was a leading Roman general who defeated many rebellious tribes in Germania and conquered Rome’s enemies in Asia. Caligula learned much about warfare and politics from his father and he grew to become a powerful Roman ruler in his own right.
Germanicus eventually died of poisoning and when he did Caligula and his family had to move with their uncle Tiberius who was also a general. Tiberius had adopted Germanicus as his nephew but since Germanicus was so successful on the battlefield he was seen as a threat. Some historians claim that Tiberius had Germanicus poisoned, but no one is certain. Agrippina lived with her uncle for as long as she could before their relationship had completely deteriorated. Eventually, Tiberius had banished Agrippina and his brother Nero from Rome. He claimed that they committed the crime of treason.
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Caligula
Caligula ended up going to Tiberius’ mother’s home to live. She took the boy in since Agrippina could no longer care for him. Her name was Livia and she provided care for Caligula until she died. After her death, he lived with his other grandmother named Antonia. Caligula’s brothers Drusus and Nero had both died while in exile.
For the rest of Caligula’s youth, he lived as a well-kept prisoner of his uncle Tiberius. During his teenage years, Caligula had trained to become a good soldier and he was also educated at the finest Roman schools. His mother had eventually died in one of Tiberius’ prisons and though he wanted to avenge her death he was wise to keep his motives hidden from Tiberius. He was eventually appointed to a high financial office (quaestorship) by Tiberius. He eventually became a joint heir with Tiberius Gemellus (his cousin) to Emperor Tiberius’ estate.
Caligula the Emperor
Emperor Tiberius had died in 37 A.D. and it was at this time that Caligula became the next Roman Emperor. He then manipulated Tiberius’ will and forced Germellus out of his inheritance claiming that the former emperor was insane when he drew up the will. He had a powerful friend named Naevius Marco to validate his false claim about Tiberius’ insanity. He then marched into Rome where he was warmly received by the masses as the new emperor of Rome.
Caligula quickly realized that he had the backing of the Roman people behind him and he performed many public acts as soon as he started to rule. He gave bonus money to soldiers, undid many of Tiberius’ decrees and helped people who had been harmed by the imperial tax system. He put on public spectacles with the gladiator games and he banished well known sexual deviants and perverts from the empire.
When people hear about Caligula one of the things about his character that comes to light is the word insanity. After becoming emperor, he had ruled for six months before becoming gravely ill. This sickness which had affected him did not take his life but when the young emperor had recovered his personality changed. From that point onward, Caligula was seen as a lunatic and monster.
He suddenly started to kill off or exile his allies, family, and friends. When he supposedly had killed some of his closest family members, his grandmother Antonia had committed suicide because her heart was broken from this deed. If he didn’t kill a particular person it was only because he wanted to keep them around for the purpose of humiliating them. He exiled his sisters and slandered the rest of his family that managed to avoid his sword.
By 38 A.D., he had made some public reforms which seemed to go over well with the people. He helped citizens who lost their property to fires, he abolished certain taxes and he appointed new people to different public offices. Once again, he started to do things that the general public did not like such as executing people without giving them a trial. In 39 A.D., he exhausted Rome’s finances on his personal spending. He went up against the Senate and had many of them declared deranged and a few put to death.
The Last Days of Caligula
Emperor Caligula eventually referred to himself as a god. About 40 A.D. he started to pass policies which forced people to acknowledge him as a god. He would then enter into public life dressed as one of the Roman deities. Shortly after these decrees many leaders and high standing Roman public figures had enough of his antics. The Praetorian Guard led by Cassius Chaerea were assassins who were a part of a huge conspiracy to eliminate Caligula. They were finally able to carry out the assassination in 41 A.D.
Caligula’s reign had come to an end and with his demise his uncle Claudius became the next Roman Emperor. Caligula was popular when he became emperor but when he died the people wished he would have never ruled Rome. Claudius had avenged the death of his nephew by murdering or exiling his conspirators.
References:
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John Lennon and Yoko Ono recorded ‘Give Peace a Chance’ at the Hotel La Reine in which city in Canada in 1969? | John Lennon: Give Peace A Chance | The Beatles Bible
Give Peace A Chance
Yoko Ono : vocals
Tommy Smothers: guitar
Allen Ginsberg, Timothy Leary, Petula Clark, Rosemary Woodruff, Derek Taylor , Murray the K, Dick Gregory, Abraham Feinberg, others: vocals
Canadian chapter of Radha Krishna Temple: vocals, drums, finger cymbals
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John Lennon Anthology
John Lennon's first non-Beatles single, the anthemic Give Peace A Chance, was recorded on the penultimate day of his and Yoko Ono's second bed-in for peace, in room 1742 of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, Canada.
It wasn't like 'You have to have peace!' Just give it a chance. We ain't giving any gospel here - just saying how about this version for a change? We think we have the right to have a say in the future. And we think the future is made in your mind.
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Lennon and Ono had arrived in Toronto on 25 May hoping to begin their second bed-in for peace. The next day they checked in to La Hotel Reine Elizabeth in Montreal, where they stayed for a week.
During their stay they gave a succession of interviews to the world's media, and received dozens of visits from friends and well-wishers.
Well, after being interviewed for weeks and weeks and weeks, night and day, with Yoko and me talking about peace from our beds, I had those words coming out of my mouth or Yoko's - wherever the hell they came from - and it became a song.
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Lennon used the phrase "All we are saying is give peace a chance" during an interview on the first day of the bed-in. Over the next few days he worked up a melody and lyrics, and recorded the song during the final day of the event.
The song was intentionally simple, with two chords and a chorus which anyone could join in on. The verses, meanwhile, were largely nonsense, although the third verse contained the word 'masturbation'; this was changed by Lennon to 'mastication' in the published lyrics, as Lennon wished to avoid courting controversy.
On the day of recording Lennon instructed Apple's press officer Derek Taylor to arrange for recording equipment to be brought to the hotel suite. Taylor contacted a local studio owner, André Perry, who brought four microphones and a four-track recorder.
During the recording Lennon and Tommy Smothers of the Smothers Brothers played acoustic guitars. A wardrobe door was repeatedly opened and closed to provide a rhythm, and the various assembled guests sang during the choruses.
The first number of Lennon's "2, 1, 2, 3, 4" count-in was left off the released version, as it was partially obscured by feedback. The entire recording was filmed, and released as two separate promotional films in the subsequent months.
Give Peace A Chance was captured in a single take, although a rehearsal prior to the recording was also taped. The rehearsal was later released on 1998's John Lennon Anthology box set.
The performance featured a range of guests including LSD guru Timothy Leary and his wife Rosemary, the poet Allen Ginsbert, the singer Petula Clark and the US radio DJ Murray the K. Also present were members of the Canadian branch of Radha Krishna Temple, who sang and played percussion.
Although Lennon was delighted with the recording of Give Peace A Chance, Perry worried that it had too much distortion. In the early hours of 2 June more vocals were overdubbed to improve the sound and make it suitable for release as a single.
Because of the condition of the room being bad, it's as if you put big speakers in such a small enclosure. Too much noise and in a small environment, and what was going on was the tape picking this up. So it wouldn't have been usable. Originally there were no intentions to have any over-dubs done. But when I left John, he looked at me and I said, 'Well, I'll go back to the studio and listen to this and see what it's like.' And then I decided upon myself that the background was a bit too noisy and needed a little 'sweeping.' By this I mean, we kept all the original stuff, we just kind of like, improved it a bit by adding if you like, some voices. So we called a bunch of people in the studio that night, I did, actually that was my decision. And that's probably why John gave me such a credit on the single because I think he thought I took the incentive of doing that. And since it was multi-track I dubbed the original 4-track to an 8-track machine and then used the other 4-track to overdub some voices.
The next day I went back to John, made a mix of that I went back to him and they moved everybody out of the room and it was just the three of us, with Yoko, and I played it for him and he thought it was wonderful. Kept it 'as is.' There's another story going around about overdubbing in London, England. Nothing was overdubbed in England. The actual 45 that existed originally is the actual recording. There was also in certain books, references to overdubbing in England, that's not true. The only thing that was overdubbed, like I said, is some of these people, and the reason why I did it, is I wanted to give him some kind of option. You see the point of the matter, it's not that we wanted to cheat anything, it was a question of like, not usable, the condition was absolutely terrible. What we did is by taking the original stuff that was there, and just adding a few voices in a cleaner environment, cleaner recording environment.
André Perry
Beatlology magazine
Another song, Yoko Ono's Remember Love, was also recorded in room 1742, after the guests had left. The tape was then sent to England for mastering, and several weeks later it was issued as a single.
| Montreal |
Pneumoconiosis is a disease of which part of the human body? | John-Lennon.com - Bio, Discography, Lyrics, Photos, Videos and Articles
John-Lennon.com
Unfinished Music, No. 1: Two Virgins
1969
Life with the Lions: Unfinished Music #2
1969
Live in New York City
1986
This Site Is Dedicated To The Greatest Singer Songwriter
And The Most Influential Political Artist Of The 20th Century
JohnWinstonLennon.com
John Winston Ono Lennon has been exhumed in print more than any other popular musical figure, including the late Elvis Presley , of whom Lennon said that he "died when he went into the army". Such was the cutting wit of a deeply loved and sadly missed giant of the twentieth century. As a member of the world's most successful group ever, he changed lives, mostly for the better. Following the painful collapse of The Beatles , he came out a wiser but angrier person. Together with his wife Yoko Ono , he attempted to transform the world through non-musical means.
To many they appeared as naive crackpots; Ono in particular has been victim of some appalling insults in the press. One example shown in the film Imagine depicts the cartoonist Al Capp being both hostile and dangerously abusive. Their bed-in in Amsterdam and Montreal, their black bag appearances on stage, their innocent flirting with political activists and radicals, all received massive media attention. These events were in search of world peace, which regrettably was unachievable. What Lennon did achieve, however, was to educate us all to the idea of world peace. During the Gulf War of 1991, time and time again various representatives of those countries who were initially opposed to war (and then asked for a cease-fire), unconsciously used Lennon's words; "Give Peace A Chance". The importance of that lyric could never have been contemplated, when a bunch of mostly stoned members of the Plastic Ono Band sat on the floor of the Hotel La Reine and recorded "Give Peace A Chance", a song that has grown in stature since its release in 1969. Lennon's solo career began a year earlier with Unfinished Music No 1 - Two Virgins. The sleeve depicted him and Ono standing naked, and the cover became better known than the disjointed sound effects contained within. Three months later Lennon continued his marvellous joke on us, with Unfinished Music No 2 - Life With The Lions. One side consisted of John and Yoko calling out to each other during her stay in a London hospital while pregnant. Lennon camped by the side of her bed during her confinement and subsequent miscarriage. Four months after "Give Peace a Chance", "Cold Turkey" arrived via the Plastic Ono Band, consisting of Lennon, Ono, Eric Clapton , Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White. This raw rock song about heroin withdrawal was also a hit, although it failed to make the UK Top 10. Again, Lennon's incorrigible wit worked when he sent back his MBE to the Queen, protesting about the Biafran war, Britain supporting the American involvement in Vietnam and "Cold Turkey" slipping down the charts.
In February 1970, a freshly cropped-headed Lennon was seen performing "Instant Karma' on the BBC Television programme Top Of The Pops; this drastic action was another anti-war protest. This Phil Spector-produced offering was his most melodic post-Beatles song to date and was his biggest hit thus far in the UK and the USA. The release of John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band in January 1971 was a shock to the system for most Beatles" fans. This stark "primal scream" album was recorded following treatment with Dr. Arthur Janov. It is as brilliant as it is disturbing. Lennon poured out much of his bitterness from his childhood and adolescence, neat and undiluted. The screaming "Mother" finds Lennon grieving for her loss and begging for his father. Lennon's Dylanesque " Working Class Hero " is another stand-out track; in less vitriolic tone he croons: "A working class hero is something to be, if you want to be a hero then just follow me". The irony is that Lennon was textbook middle-class and his agony stemmed from the fact that he wanted to be working-class. The work was a cathartic exorcism for Lennon, most revealing on "God", in which he voiced the heretical, "I don't believe in the Beatles . . . ", before adding, "I just believe in me, Yoko and me, and that's reality." More than any other work in the Lennon canon, this was a farewell to the past. The album was brilliant, and 20 or more years later, it is regarded as his finest complete work.
His most creative year was 1971. Following the album Lennon released another strong single, "Power To The People". After his move to New York, the follow-up Imagine was released in October. Whilst the album immediately went to number 1 internationally, it was a patchy collection. The attack on Paul McCartney in "How Do You Sleep?" was laboured over in the press and it took two decades before another track, "Jealous Guy", was accepted as a classic, and only then after Bryan Ferry's masterly cover became a number 1 hit. Lennon's resentment towards politicians was superbly documented in "Gimme Some Truth" when he spat out, "I'm sick and tired of hearing things from uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites". The title track, however, remains as one of his greatest songs. Musically "Imagine" is extraordinarily simple, but the combination of that simplicity and the timeless lyrics make it one of the finest songs of the century. A Christmas single came in December, " Happy Christmas (War Is Over) ", another song destined for immortality and annual reissue. Again, an embarrassingly simple message: "War is over if you want it".
The following year Sometime In New York City was issued; this double set contained a number of political songs, and was written during the peak of Lennon's involvement with hippie-radical, Jerry Rubin. Lennon addresses numerous problems with angry lyrics over deceptively melodic songs. The lilting and seemingly innocent "Luck Of The Irish" is one example of melody with scathing comment. The album's strongest track is yet another song with one of Lennon's statement-like titles: "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World". Once again he was ahead of the game, making a bold plea for women's rights a decade before it became fashionable. The following year he embarked on his struggle against deportation and the fight for his famous "green card". At the end of a comparatively quiet 1973, Lennon released Mind Games, an album that highlighted problems between him and Yoko. Shortly afterwards, Lennon left for his "lost weekend" and spent many months in Los Angeles in a haze of drugs and alcohol. During a brief sober moment he produced Nilsson's Pussycats. At the end of a dreadful year, Lennon released Walls And Bridges, which contained more marital material and a surprise US number 1, "Whatever Gets You Through The Night", a powerful rocker with Lennon sounding in complete control. That month (November 1974), he made his last ever concert appearance when he appeared onstage at Madison Square Garden with Elton John . That night Lennon was reunited with Ono and, in his words, "the separation failed".
Rock 'N' Roll was released the next year; it was a tight and energetic celebration of many of his favourite songs, including "Slippin' And Slidin'", "Peggy Sue" and a superb "Stand By Me'. The critics and public loved it and it reached number 6 on both sides of the Atlantic. Following the birth of their son Sean, Lennon became a house husband, while Ono looked after their not inconsiderable business interests. Five years later, a new album was released to a relieved public and went straight to number 1 virtually worldwide. The following month, with fans still jubilant at Lennon's return, he was suddenly brutally murdered by a gunman outside his apartment building in Manhattan. Almost from the moment that Lennon's heart stopped in the Roosevelt Hospital the whole world reacted in unprecedented mourning, with scenes usually reserved for royalty and world leaders. His records were re-released and experienced similar sales and chart positions to that of the Beatles" heyday. While all this happened, one could "imagine" Lennon calmly looking down on us, watching the world's reaction, and having a huge celestial laugh.
Lennon had a brilliant sense of humour and a deeply romantic heart. He could be cruel and unbelievably kind; he could love you one minute and destroy you with his tongue a few minutes later. Opinions as to his character are subjective. What is undeniable, is that the body of songs he created with Paul McCartney is the finest popular music catalogue ever known. His composition "Imagine" was voted one of the songs of the millennium, and for many of us has more power and meaning than any national anthem.
Another John Lennon Biography
For me, John is still alive. I believe he's still with us,
looking over Yoko, Sean and Julian. If you are reading this John, remember that I will never loose faith in you,
and say hi to George for us. Even though I'm only 13,
you're forever going to be my hero,
because of giving your life for Love and Peace.
I'm a great fan of The Beatles, and I beleive that they were
the best rock & roll group in music history. Not many people
my age understand me well. They don't understand why I like
The Beatles and why John Lennon is forever going to be my hero.
They don't understand why a 13 year old girl would be into
The Beatles, John Lennon and George Harrison. All I've got to say about this Message Board, is that it helped me in a sort of way,
tell the whole world how I fell about a man, who for no reasons, died.
Remember, War Is Over If You Want It.
Jo, a 13 year old girl from Canada
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Mount Parnassus is in which European country? | Mount Parnassus | mountain, Greece | Britannica.com
Mount Parnassus
Laki
Mount Parnassus, Modern Greek Parnassós, mountain barren limestone spur of the Pindus (Modern Greek: Píndos) Mountains, central Greece , running northwest-southeast on the borders of the nomoí (departments) of Phocis (Fokída), Fthiótis, and Boeotia (Voiotía). Rising to a maximum elevation of 8,061 ft (2,457 m) in Mount Parnassus, within sight of Delphi (Delfoí), it extends to Cape Opus on the Gulf of Corinth (Korinthiakós). In ancient times Parnassus was sacred to the Dorians and in mythology to Apollo and the Corycian nymphs. On a plateau between the summit and Delphi was the Corycian stalactite cave sacred to the nymphs and Pan. For the Roman poets, Parnassus’s Castalian spring was a source of inspiration; they favoured Parnassus over Mount Helicon as the home of the Muses. Parnassus is rich in bauxite , which is mined and converted into alumina and aluminum at nearby factories. A ski centre was opened above Arachova in 1977.
Mount Parnassus, central Greece.
in Greece: Eastern Greece: Thessalía and Attikí
...battle of antiquity). The last (and perhaps the most important) of the four spurs thrusting down into eastern Greece is the one that curves away to the southeast through the twin-peaked mass of Mount Parnassós (Parnassus). This mountain, rising to an elevation of 8,061 feet (2,457 metres), was held to be the home of the Muses. The view from its summit at sunrise, with a broad expanse...
in Central Greece
...Central Greece, three massifs, offshoots of the Pindus, assume a more easterly trend: the Oeta (Oíti), which reaches 7,060 feet (2,152 m); the Gióna, 8,235 feet (2,510 m); and the Parnassus (Parnassós), 8,061 feet (2,457 m). Outliers of the Parnassus are the Helicon (Elikónas), Kithairón, Párnis, and Imittós (Hymettus), the last a great ridge...
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Date Published: April 29, 2009
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Mount-Parnassus
Access Date: January 19, 2017
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| Greece |
What is the name of retired gunslinger, played by Clint Eastwood, in the 1992 film ‘Unforgiven’? | Mount Parnassus, Greece - Review of Mount Parnassus, Delphi, Greece - TripAdvisor
Review of Mount Parnassus
Athens Super Saver: Athens Sightseeing Tour plus Delphi Day Trip
See more tours on Viator
Owner description: A beautiful mountain offering scenic views of the surrounding olive groves and countryside.
There are newer reviews for this attraction
“Mount Parnassus, Greece”
Reviewed January 21, 2008
We were there with my wife in the middle of October. A great site to visit, spectacular views. Requires some physical condition or time to ascende the steep mountain. A trip worth to take it. Skip Olympia, there is not much to see there. Instead head to Meteora.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
162 reviews from our community
Visitor rating
“Half the price of a skiing holiday anywhere else !”
Reviewed April 20, 2004
My family and I had a great skiing holiday in this resort. Ski hire locally is cheap for good ski's and boots. We were there fairly late in the season (mid February) and we had a piste closure on the first day but WOW! we made up for it the rest of the week with skiing in glorious sunshine and pretty good facilities to boot! The downside is the fact that the slopes are VERY busy over the weekend due to the 'Athenian Invasion'. The area seems to be catching up with the more poular skiing resorts with their facilities but perhaps lacks the 'sophistication'?
of the Alps and other places. Local hotel accomodation is typically Greek...I.E. - Basic. but comfortable, with the usual warm, Greek hospitality. Food quality and prices in the local restaurants are average to good with cosmopolitan fare on offer. Prices are VERY reasonable ! Try It! and enjoy.........Although I rate this place as neutral/average, for the money it is Excellent.
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Which actress played nightclub singer Dorothy in the 1986 film ‘Blue Velvet’? | Blue Velvet (1986)
Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) ( 4 )
Background
Blue Velvet (1986) is screenwriter and maverick director David Lynch's artistically bizarre cult film. It is an original look at sex, violence, crime and power under the peaceful exterior of small-town Americana in the mid-80s. Beneath the familiar, peaceful, 'American-dream' cleanliness of the daytime scenes lurks sleaziness, prostitution, unrestrained violence, and perversity - powerful and potentially-dangerous sexual forces that may be unleashed if not contained. A controversial film often criticized for its depiction of aberrant sexual behavior, the surrealistic, psychosexual film was a throwback to art films, 50s B-movies and teenage romances, film noir, and the mystery-suspense genre.
Although highly ridiculed and disdained when released as an extreme, dark, vulgar and disgusting film, it also won critical praise - Best Film of 1986, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Dennis Hopper) and Best Achievement in Cinematography (Frederick Elmes) by the National Society of Film Critics. It also received a sole nomination for Best Director from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The plot line of the nightmarish film, a combination of Marquis De Sade sexual fetishism and a Hardy Boys mystery story, is fairly sketchy. An innocent, small-town college student (MacLachlan) in a sleepy town discovers a severed ear, and then finds himself embroiled on the dark side of town (beyond the white picket fence). He witnesses, first as a voyeur, a sexually-depraved, blackmailing relationship between a monstrous, loathsome, nitrous-oxide sniffing kidnapper (Dennis Hopper) and an abused/brutalized mother and fragile nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini). In some ways, the two male leads represent the two dichotomous sides of life (e.g., light/dark, normalcy/aberration, attraction/repulsion, innocence/experience, perversion/love, virtue/base desires, etc.) that struggle for dominance. After the hideous crime of violated innocence is revealed, the vision of the innocent girl-next-door (Laura Dern) is restored - the "Blinding Light of Love."
The Story
The film's credits (viewed with fluid, scripted type-lettering) play above a slowly undulating blue velvet, fabric backdrop as Angelo Badalamenti's sensual string score floridly plays. The film dissolves into an unnaturally brilliant, visually lush, boldly colorful opening with patriotic hues (bright red, white, and blue) and a nostalgic, dream-like view of a clean, conforming, pastoral America a la Norman Rockwell.
From nearly cloudless, clear aqua-blue skies, the camera tilts and pans slowly down to a clean white picket fence, in front of which are planted perfect, budding blood-red roses and yellow tulips. 60s teen idol/crooner Bobby Vinton sings his rendition of the title song "Blue Velvet" (a song of longing for a woman, written by Lee Morris and Bernie Wayne). Idyllic small-town images are presented in silent slow-motion, with hyper-realistic light and color. A bright-red fire engine truck tranquilly glides down the suburban US street - a friendly fireman on the running board waves with a dalmatian next to him. At a school cross-walk, children are safely allowed to walk across the street by a uniformed, matronly crossing guard holding a Stop sign.
Outside one of the houses [the Beaumont house], a paunchy man effortlessly waters his bright-green lawn with a hose. His wife is inside seated on the couch, watching a daytime mystery/film noir on television (an image of a hand holding a pistol fills the screen). The husband finds that the snake-like hose is kinked and wrapped around some of the shrubbery, causing the hose faucet spigot to hiss loudly and leak water under the increased pressure. Then, the scenes of the superficial, ideal American dream in the green garden (of Eden) suddenly explode. He spasms and grabs his neck as he experiences a heart seizure and stroke, falling on his back to the ground and squirming around in agonizing pain - but still gripping the hose, phallically curled around him. Water wildly sprays from the hose into the air, causing a dog to jump about on his chest and playfully snap and drink at the stream of water shooting upward. An innocent small boy in white diapers (and eating a popsicle) waddles down the driveway to look at the man on the ground, also unaware of what has happened.
With directoral insight, the camera moves from above ground and burrows into the lush, thick green grass for a closer view of a terrifying, diseased underworld within the placid-seeming universe. Penetrating below, it finds a swarm of hungry, ugly black bugs - a metaphor for the perverse, horrible evil that lurks beneath the idyllic surface of picture-perfect life. A few warring, ravenous beetles - ugly insects - are in a ferocious, predatory, and cannibalistic fight for life, amplified aurally and visually.
The next shot is the welcoming billboard of the town: "Welcome to Lumberton," and a slow pan views the waterfront of the logging town. A jingle from the local radio station plays a chorus of "Lumberton," and while the sounds of a chain saw and falling timber play, the radio announcer ominously invites the locals:
It's a sunny, woodsy day in Lumberton, so get those chain saws out. This is the mighty W-O-O-D. At the sound of the falling tree, it's 9:30. There's a whole lot of wood out there, so let's get goin'.
As the radio advertisement plays, the next scene displays a handsome young man dressed in a dark coat jacket casually walking along a road in a woodsy area. He boyishly picks up a rock and throws it into a vacant field. In a hospital sickbed, the man who suffered the seizure - Mr. Tom Beaumont (Jack Harvey) is hospitalized. Unable to speak, he is connected to a oxygen-mask breathing device (a foreshadowing!) and his head is held perfectly still and incapacitated [in sexual terms - he is emasculated]. His son, the clean-cut, all-American boy/trekker Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is ushered into the room to see his father - he grasps his father's hand. Beaumont painfully tries to communicate with his son, but his words are incomprehensible and inhuman and no words are spoken during an awkward silence.
After his short visit to the hospital, Jeffrey walks moodily back along the same route. He returns to the open field near the woods where, as he goes to throw more rocks, he discovers a severed and decaying human ear (covered with crawling ants) in the tall grass.
After plopping the ear in a brown paper bag that he finds, he promptly delivers it to the Lumberton Police Department, specifically to Detective Williams (George Dickerson), one of his neighbors, located in office 221. (A college student, Jeffrey is home from school/college to visit his father, the local hardware store owner, while he recovers from his debilitating stroke.) The ear is taken to the coroner's office for forensic study. In the coroner's office while the ear is examined on a medical dish, the coroner explains what can be determined in a detached, clinical manner:
...Sex, blood type, whether or not the ear came off a dead person. Also, it looks like the ear was cut off with scissors.
The film cuts to the next scene - a sharp pair of scissors cuts a "POLICE LINE - DO NOT CROSS" yellow tape, as officers rope off the wooded area and search for more clues.
That night in his own home, Jeffrey descends down a dark staircase from his brightly lit bedroom at the top of the stairs. He enters the Beaumont living room where his mother (Priscilla Pointer) and Aunt Barbara (Frances Bay), who is knitting, are watching another mystery on television (an ominous image of a man's legs climbing a staircase). There is little communication between Jeffrey and his mother - she is immersed in her own fantasy world. He tells them that he is going out to take a nocturnal walk around the neighborhood, but not "down by Lincoln," after being admonished by his aunt against wandering there - the dark side of town.
As he walks along the dark neighborhood street, sombre music plays as the trees above him display mysterious shadows. The camera zooms in for a gigantic close-up of the severed ear and descends slowly into the disembodied, dirty ear, as if entering a conduit to probe into its depths (like spiraling into a conch shell or into a brain), accompanied by a loud roaring sound on the soundtrack - a visual clue to the impact of sounds and aural observation.
[The camera motion signifies Jeffrey's feverish, dream-like descent into his own subconscious. From this point until the end of the film, Jeffrey takes a psychic, internal journey through his own dark side of desires and fears.]
At Detective Williams' home after knocking on the front door and being greeted by Mrs. Williams, Jeffrey is ushered into the detective's study, where a girl-next-door portrait of the police detective's daughter Sandy (Laura Dern) is on the desk - her first image in the film. Although curious, Jeffrey is stiffly told, in hard-boiled dialogue, to keep quiet and secretive about his grisly anatomical find (is the strangely elusive Detective knowledgeable of the corruption, or only protective of his family and other law-abiding citizens?). He is not to ask any more questions until the confidential case is solved:
Detective Williams: Well now Jeffrey, you found something which is very interesting to us. Very interesting. I know you must be curious to know more. But I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you now not only not to tell anyone about your find but also not to ask more about the case. One day, when it's all sewed up, I'll let you know all the details. Right now, though, I can't.
Jeffrey: I understand. I'm just real curious like you said.
Detective Williams: (confiding) I was the same way myself when I was your age. I guess that's what got me into this business.
Jeffrey: It must be great.
Detective Williams: It's horrible too.
Outside in the darkness, Jeffrey hears a voice from the blackness asking:
Are you the one that found the ear?
Girl-next-door Sandy emerges wearing a billowy pink dress - a true vision of innocence. She comes up to him, remembering him from Central High School where she is a senior and he was a recent graduate. Coyly and without her father's knowledge, she reveals secrets of her father's police affairs to Jeffrey. She tells him "bits and pieces" about what she has learned about the investigation of the severed ear by eavesdropping - using her own ear to learn mysterious details about corruption teeming around them:
Sandy: There are a couple of cases I get mixed up on...but one thing that keeps coming up is this woman singer. She lives in an apartment building that is real close to your house. It's also close to the field where you found the ear.
Jeffrey (naively): It's a strange world, isn't it?
Sandy: Yeah.
Sandy's information urges Jeffrey forward into the mystery. She explains that they had the woman "under surveillance" for a couple of months, but it is presently not her father's case. Sandy offers to show him the woman's apartment building that is close by, further encouraging his curiosity and ultimately leading him into contact with the "woman singer." While leading him to "Lincoln St." (where Jeffrey had earlier promised not to go), a group of rowdy guys in a passing car shout suggestive taunts at them.
Sandy points out the brick building where the singer lives on the 7th Floor. The camera pauses on the street sign. (Their attempts to investigate the underlying mystery, like amateur Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys-style sleuths, confront them with a variety of kinky, nocturnal, repellent, inhuman (insect-like) characters, an unsettling universe inside the head of the ear that is their only piece of evidence.)
In an obvious parallel to Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life (1946) , the scene of George Bailey and Mary walking along together after the school dance, Jeffrey walks along the peaceful night-time sidewalk with Sandy. [The film parodies typical 50s teen romances, portraying Jeffrey's and Sandy's good-natured friendship along suburban sidewalks, in his convertible, and in a local malt shop/diner.] When they pass one of the houses on the street, Jeffrey can only recollect grotesquely about a strange old school friend -
Jeffrey: I used to know a kid who lived there...he had the biggest tongue in the world. (They laugh together)
Sandy: What happened to him?
Jeffrey: I don't know. He moved away. All my old friends are gone.
He also tries to impress Sandy during their walk with his quirky charm by performing a humorous "chicken walk."
Inside Beaumont's Hardware Store the next day where Jeffrey works while his father is hospitalized, Jeffrey is delighted by one of the store employees Double Ed, who can see and has a photographic memory and knows the location of every item in the store - although he is blind and taps with a white cane. He demonstrates his secret method of deducing how many fingers Jeffrey holds up in the air. Jeffrey also yells out to one of the other employees, asking to borrow a bug-spraying rig. Ed tells him: "If you want to spray for bugs Jeffrey, it causes us no pain."
That afternoon in the bright daylight, Jeffrey pulls up in his red convertible outside Central High School as schoolkids leave the area, recognizing Sandy with a group of her girlfriends. Alongside the curb, he calls out to her: "Are you hungry or thirsty or both?" She tells her girlfriends to promise not to tell her football-playing boyfriend Mike because "it's not what you think." Sandy gets into Jeffrey's car to join him and again play out their innocent attitudes, as they fall into unacknowledged love:
Jeffrey: I don't want to cause any trouble.
Sandy: I'm here, aren't I?
Again, Sandy shows her willingness to sneak around, keep secrets, and pursue mysterious things behind other people's backs. The camera is positioned in the back seat of the convertible as the couple drives to the local Arlene's Diner. A large, log-carrying truck roars into view in front of the diner. Seated in one of the restaurant's booths, Jeffrey consults with Sandy, telling her of his strategy to take risks and learn more in life:
Jeffrey: There are opportunities in life for gaining knowledge and experience. Sometimes, it's necessary to take a risk. I got to thinking. I'll bet someone could learn alot by getting into that woman's apartment. You know, sneak in, hide, and observe.
Sandy: Sneak into her apartment?
Jeffrey: Yeah.
Sandy: Are you crazy? Jeffrey, she's possibly involved in murder. This is givin' me the creeps.
Jeffrey convinces her to settle down because he has devised an assaultive plot to get into the woman's apartment on Lincoln St. Disguised as a pest-control exterminator with a bug-spraying rig, he will eventually find a way to open a window that he can crawl into later. Abetted by Sandy who will knock on the door and pose as a Jehovah's Witness carrying 'Awake' magazines, the woman's attention will be diverted while Jeffrey jimmies open the window. Sandy's conscience makes her skeptical and she questions their illegal, risky 'breaking and entering' into the apartment - because "it is too weird." But she is also intrigued by his daring and willingness to sleuth and investigate:
Sandy: I don't know. I mean, it sounds like a good daydream, but actually doing it is too weird. It's too dangerous.
Jeffrey: Sandy, let's just try the first part. No one will suspect us. Because no one would think two people like us would be crazy enough to do something like this.
Sandy: You have a point there.
At the Deep River Apartments on Lincoln St. before Jeffrey (wearing an exterminator's uniform) heads off for the entrance, Sandy tells him the singer's name: "Dorothy Vallens, Seventh Floor. Look on her mailbox for the number, bright boy." After learning her apartment number (#710) in the dark lobby, he notices that there is a cardboard sign pasted on the elevator: "Elevator Out of Order Please use Stairs" - a neon sign hums and blinks. Jeffrey makes the long climb up the stairs and knocks on her door. Opening her chained door only slightly at first, a tired, sultry, glossy red-lipped and red-dressed Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rosselini, daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini) lets him in to spray the baseboards in the creamy white kitchen. The apartment is decorated with a few green houseplants - its walls are a lurid pink color. Other colors are rich dark crimson reds and dirty browns.
Another knock at the door causes Dorothy to comment: "Grand Central Station," but it is not Sandy. A man dressed in a yellow sports coat (a suspicious looking man later called 'The Yellow Man' who wears a Yellow Jacket - a veiled reference to a dangerous flying insect - Fred Pickler) stands there for a moment and eyes him suspiciously. Dorothy identifies the exterminator to him: "It's only the bug man." (Appropriately, Jeffrey is a bug exterminator, presently killing real insects but later choosing to exterminate 'human insects' or criminal underground, nocturnal gangsters.) When she takes the stranger to the door, Jeffrey spies a duplicate spare apartment key hanging in the kitchen and quickly takes it to let himself back in later that evening.
The next step in Jeffrey's plan is to ask Sandy to accompany him at 8 o'clock that night as a decoy date (without boyfriend Mike's knowledge) - to watch Dorothy perform in a sleazy nightclub. They go to the Slow Club on Route 7, decorated on the outside by a pink neon sign and antlers. Sandy and Jeffrey clink glasses of Heineken beer and toast to "an interesting experience." On stage while bathed in the blue fog of stagelights, "The Blue Lady" nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens with painted sensuality (she wears a blue velvet dress, bright aqua-marine blue eye shadow, bright red lipstick, and a black wig) performs a sexy, slow rendition of the title song "Blue Velvet," singing into a 1930s-style Art Deco microphone.
| Isabella Rossellini |
Russia was defeated by which country in the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914? | Blue Velvet (7/11) Movie CLIP - Baby Wants Blue Velvet (1986) HD - YouTube
Blue Velvet (7/11) Movie CLIP - Baby Wants Blue Velvet (1986) HD
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Published on Mar 19, 2015
Blue Velvet movie clips: http://j.mp/19DgjfL
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CLIP DESCRIPTION:
Jeffrey (Kyle MacLachlan) spies on Frank (Dennis Hopper) and Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini) and their "blue velvet" ritual.
FILM DESCRIPTION:
Director David Lynch crafted this hallucinogenic mystery-thriller that probes beneath the cheerful surface of suburban America to discover sadomasochistic violence, corruption, drug abuse, crime and perversion. Kyle Maclachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, a square-jawed young man who returns to his picture-perfect small town when his father suffers a stroke. Walking through a field near his home, Jeff discovers a severed human ear, which he immediately brings to the police. Their disinterest sparks Jeff's curiosity, and he is soon drawn into a dangerous drama that's being played out by a lounge singer, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and the ether-addicted Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). The sociopathic Booth has kidnapped Dorothy's young son and is using the child as a bargaining chip to repeatedly beat, humiliate and rape Dorothy. Though he's drawn to the virginal, wholesome Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), Jeff is also aroused by Dorothy and in trying to aid her, he discovers his dark side. As the film nears its conclusion, our hero learns that many more indivduals are tacitly involved with Frank, including a suave, lip-synching singer, Ben (Dean Stockwell), who is minding the kidnapped boy. Director Lynch explored many similar themes of the "disease" lying just under the surface of the small town, all-American faade in his later television series Twin Peaks (1990-91).
CREDITS:
Cast: Dennis Hopper, Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini
Director: David Lynch
Producers: Fred C. Caruso, Richard A. Roth
Screenwriter: David Lynch
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What is the capital of Sudan? | Sudan Facts, Facts about Sudan capital city, currency, language, population, symbols
Sudan Facts
Where is Sudan?
Situated in northern Africa, Republic of Sudan shares its borders with Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, and Libya to the northwest.
What is the capital of Sudan?
Khartoum is the capital of Sudan. It is a tripartite metropolis and is located where the two Niles, White and Blue Nile, meet. The etymology of its name is uncertain. It was founded in 1821 by Ibrahim Pasha and was an important point for the slave trading.
How big is Sudan?
Sudan is the 16th largest country in the world. It covers an area of 728,215 square miles and has an estimated population of 30,894,000.
What is the currency of Sudan?
The official currency of Sudan is Sudanese Pound. Its ISO 4217 code is SDG and is subdivided into 100 qirish. It is regulated by Bank of Sudan.
Which is the largest city of Sudan?
Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, is the largest city of Sudan. It has an estimated population of 639,598 and covers a total area of 5,274,321.
What is the official language of Sudan?
There are more than hundred languages spoken in Sudan. Arabic and English are the official languages of Sudan.
What is the religion of Sudan?
According to the CIA World Factbook, 97% of the population are Muslims. Remaining 3% of the population adhere to either animist and indigenous beliefs or Christianity.
What is the literacy rate of Sudan?
The total adult literacy rate of Sudan is 69%.
Who is the political leader of Sudan?
Sudan is widely known as an authoritarian state where all powers are vested in President. Officially, it is a federal presidential representative democratic republic, where the President is the head of the state, head of the government, and Commander-in-chief of the Army. Omar al-Bashir is the President of Sudan since 1989. He is also the head of the National Congress Party. Ali Osman Taha is the current and the first Vice President of Sudan. He assumed office on July 9, 2011.
When is the National Day of Sudan celebrated?
National Day of Sudan is celebrated on January 1. On this day in 1956, the first modern Sudanese government was established. The governments of Egypt and Britain agreed on granting Sudan independence by signing a treaty. A special ceremony was held at the People's Palace and the flag of Sudan was hoisted.
What is the economy of Sudan like?
In 2009, the GDP of Sudan was $ 92.83 billion, while its and Per Capita income was $2,300. Approximately 40% of the population live below poverty line. Unemployment rate stands at 18.7%. Services sector accounts for 38.2% of the GDP, followed by agriculture (32.6%), and industry (29.2%). Oil, cotton ginning, textiles, cement, edible oils, sugar, soap and pharmaceuticals are some of the important industries in the country. Major export markets are China, Japan, and Indonesia, while major imports are with China, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, India, and Italy.
| Khartoum |
An oribi is what type of animal? | Sudan - definition of Sudan by The Free Dictionary
Sudan - definition of Sudan by The Free Dictionary
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Sudan
Related to Sudan: Darfur , South Sudan
Sudan
Su·dan
(so͞o-dăn′)
1. A region of northern Africa south of the Sahara and north of the equator. It extends across the continent from the Atlantic coast to the mountains of Ethiopia.
2. A country of northeast Africa south of Egypt. Northern Sudan formed part of the ancient kingdoms of Nubia and Cush. Conquered by Egypt in 1820-1822 and jointly administered by Great Britain and Egypt after 1899, Sudan achieved independence in 1956. Khartoum is the capital and Omdurman is the largest city. In 2011, the southern part of the country seceded, forming the republic of South Sudan.
Su′da·nese′ (so͞od′n-ēz′, -ēs′) adj. & n.
Sudan
(suːˈdɑːn; -ˈdæn)
n
1. (Placename) a republic in NE Africa, on the Red Sea: conquered by Mehemet Ali of Egypt (1820–22) and made an Anglo-Egyptian condominium in 1899 after joint forces defeated the Mahdist revolt; became a republic in 1956; a lengthy civil war between separatists in the mainly Christian south and the government resulted in independence for South Sudan following a referendum in 2011. It consists mainly of a plateau, with the Nubian Desert in the north. Official language: Arabic. Official religion: Muslim; there are Christian and animist minorities. Currency: Sudanese pound or Sudani (replacing the Sudanese dinar in 2007). Capital: Khartoum. Pop: 34 847 910 (2013 est). Area: 1 861 484 sq km (718 723 sq miles). Former name (1899–1956): Anglo-Egyptian Sudan French name: Soudan
2. (Placename) the Sudan a region stretching across Africa south of the Sahara and north of the tropical zone: inhabited chiefly by Negroid tribes rather than Arabs
Su•dan
(suˈdæn)
n.
1. a region in N Africa, S of the Sahara and Libyan deserts, extending from the Atlantic to the Red Sea.
2. Republic of the. Formerly, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. a republic in NE Africa, S of Egypt and bordering on the Red Sea: a former condominium of Egypt and Great Britain; gained independence 1956. 34,475,690; 967,500 sq. mi. (2,505,825 sq. km).Cap.: Khartoum.
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The Aqua Tower, the first tallest building in the world designed by a team led by a woman, Jeanne Gang, is in which US city? | Aqua Tower – the tower that Jeanne Gang built | Jonathan Glancey | Art and design | The Guardian
Architecture
Aqua Tower – the tower that Jeanne Gang built
With its rippling facade and vast green roof, Chicago's Aqua Tower is a revelation. It's also the tallest building in the world to be designed by a woman
Swaggeringly high ... Jeanne Gang's Aqua building. Photograph: Steve Hall/Studio Gang
Tuesday 20 October 2009 16.35 EDT
First published on Tuesday 20 October 2009 16.35 EDT
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Jeanne Gang spent her childhood holidays out on the road with her family, looking at the bold new bridges and roads springing up across America. Her father, a civil engineer, also took her to natural wonders like the Grand Canyon and the towering rock formations of the Great Lakes in Michigan.
Gang grew up to be an architect with her own practice, Studio Gang, and now elements of what she saw on those road trips have come together in her first skyscraper, the Aqua Tower, a $308m (£188m) addition to downtown Chicago's architectural splendours.
The Aqua Tower, rising up in a dance of ever-changing concrete forms, is very different from its neighbours. Seen from the sidewalk, it really does have the look of a multi-layered Lake Michigan rock formation, albeit one that towers above the city. This is a Chicago landmark that has broken out of the city-wide straitjacket of right angles and smooth surfaces – as if Gaudi had taken up skyscraper design, or a spinning ballerina had morphed into a building.
It all began three years ago at a dinner following a Frank Gehry lecture in Chicago. Gang found herself sitting with architect and developer James R Loewenberg, who asked her to take a preliminary design for his Aqua Tower and make it sing. She jumped at the chance. After all, at 819ft, the Aqua Tower would be the world's biggest skyscraper designed by a woman (or, to be more precise, the tallest building in the world designed by a female-run architectural practice).
Skyscrapers are traditionally seen as an expression of overbearing male libido, a sort of mine's-taller-than-yours competition. So, even today, it is a surprise to find a woman building so swaggeringly high. (Zaha Hadid currently has skyscraper projects in five cities, but none completed). Gang politely dismisses such hackneyed assumptions. She is, after all, part of a team. "Our working method is very collaborative. Having said that, at least half, maybe more, of the staff here are women. I just think it's natural. I've always wanted to build. I was encouraged to make and repair things by my parents. But OK, I can't hide the fact that it's great to have done a skyscraper, even if I never do one again."
Gang, who wanted to be an engineer before she decided on architecture, grew up in a small town near Chicago. She says she thinks of the city as a mountain range rising up from the flat Illinois plains that flank Lake Michigan. "When we got the commission, we were partly thinking of building a mountain. But, being steeped in engineering, I also saw the project as a work of urban infrastructure. The tower is a machine plugged into the city – working for people – as well as being a kind of peak, or rock formation."
Behind its weaving balconies, this 82-storey residential and hotel tower is a largely conventional building. Conventional in plan, that is, but unexpected in terms of form, and laced through with amenities and luxuries. Although it opens in the middle of the worst recession to hit the US since the 1930s, most of its 740 flats have been sold.
From its waltzing balconies, the tower offers fabulous views of the city and its other skyscrapers, of the recently completed Millennium Park, and, of course, of Lake Michigan. It also boasts a swimming pool, sky gardens, a library and a billiard room. Meanwhile, an eight-floor terrace projecting over the entrance offers a running track and open-air hot tubs. The tower's garden roof is Chicago's most extensive.
Yet, despite this rippling tower's presence and sparkle, and the fact that it will bring Studio Gang international attention, it is not really the building this young Chicago practice wishes to be judged by. In fact, nearly every other project in its 35-strong office is low-key by comparison. Most are for public clients, none of them underpinned by skyscraper budgets. "I like different types of work," says Gang. "I don't want to be pigeonholed."
After training at the University of Illinois, then in Zurich, then at Harvard, Gang worked for Rem Koolhaas – an architect for whom the extraordinary is commonplace – on several key commissions, including the exquisite Maison à Bordeaux, a three-storey house for a wheelchair-user, crowning a hill that overlooks Bordeaux.
Gang set up on her own in Chicago in 1997, when she was in her early 30s. The fledgling studio's first project was putting a roof over the 1,100-seat bowl-shaped theatre of Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois. Inspired by nature and her knowledge of engineering, Gang came up with a six-piece steel roof that opens, in 40-ft triangular sections, like a giant flower in fine weather.
A tower that's bird-friendly
In Chicago's impoverished south side, her practice has built a much-admired community centre for foster children, and is working on an environmental centre, which rises in a happy weave of recycled materials from a site – part industrial wasteland, part natural wilderness – close to a Ford assembly plant. Gang likes working within an astute economy of means and materials. "Because of the nature of the sites and limited budgets, we're making the building out of what's available locally," she says. "We're like birds making nests."
As it happens, Gang is immensely fond of birds. In the design of the Aqua Tower, she has paid careful attention to the way birds see – or don't see – sheer glass walls, helping them to avoid fatal collisions. (A building with a complex facade is much safer for them, as are irregular window bars; birds pick up on the irregularity.) In her office, Gang has a number of bird's nests lined up on a window sill; she says she admires their spare, essential beauty.
Studio Gang is on to something here: a creative fusion of nature, found materials, inventive engineering, structural economy, and a matter-of-fact environmental awareness. And, of course, style. Even if the Aqua Tower, the glamorous, dancing skyscraper that will make Jeanne Gang an international name, is not typical of her studio's work, it is a mighty bird's nest of sorts, an urban rock face for people with a fondness for heights to nest in. Infused with a big mid-western spirit, Gang's architecture promises to soar in the coming years, whether built close to the ground and down to a budget, or 82 storeys up into the skies above Chicago.
| Chicago |
What is Lake Kinnernet in Israel known as in the Bible? | The Tallest Tower In The U.S. Is Being Built By A Woman | Co.Design | business + design
The Tallest Tower In The U.S. Is Being Built By A Woman
As technical director of 1 World Trade Center, SOM’s Nicole Dosso is the most famous architect you’ve never heard of.
01 /13
Forget about the starchitects--Daniel Libeskind and David Childs--who dueled incessantly over 1 World Trade Center’s formal qualities and its poetic language. The architect who finally got the damned thing built is someone you’ve probably never heard of: Nicole Dosso , a technical director at the New York office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill.
02 /13
From the end of 2006 until the tower’s completion, probably by year’s end, Dosso has been, as she puts it, “the single senior technical coordinator representing SOM on the day-to-day execution of the job.” In other words, North America’s tallest tower--which could easily have been the world’s tallest--is being built by a woman.
03 /13
Dosso is not the kind of architect you’ll find spouting metaphors. She is not likely to get up on stage and compare a superstructure to a child releasing a dove , as Santiago Calatrava did when he presented the design for his WTC Transit Hub.
04 /13
The day I met Dosso at SOM’s offices on Wall Street, the 40-year-old, who runs marathons in her spare time, was effortlessly chic--more Paris than New York--in a brightly patterned Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, steeply pitched white patent leather heels and a string of silvery pearls.
05 /13
With a degree in architecture from Syracuse University, Dosso joined SOM in 1998. “I started my career here as a junior architect and I got thrown into the construction administration side of the project at a very, very young age.”
06 /13
The daughter of a contractor, Dosso has spent much of her career on construction sites, making sure buildings are built as the architects specify. “I knew from my very first project that that was the side of architecture I was most fascinated with," she says. "I really enjoy the craft, working with fabrication, really understanding materials.”
07 /13
It took about three years for 1WTC to rise from the excavation to ground level.
08 /13
Dosso, when asked what she loves about 1WTC, a building with fabulous views from almost every floor, a building she knows intimately from top to bottom, enthuses about the escalator ride to the basement: “The view from the 1 WTC coming down to the B2 lobby--coming down that escalator, you’ll approach the [Calatrava-designed] Transportation Hub concourse, and that’s spectacular."
09 /13
Dosso takes great pride in 1 World Trade Center. She tells me a story about attending a special event at the 9/11 Memorial Museum before it opened in May, pausing on the Memorial plaza on her way out and gazing up at 1WTC from that angle for the first time: “I had to stop in my tracks for a second. I was very moved.”
10 /13
While Dosso doesn’t claim ownership of the project as a whole --the way a design architect, the person generally credited for how a building looks, might–-she enjoys talking about the craftwork that went into it, about going to the quarry in Carrara, Italy, to get the lobby’s Larissa marble cut to specification or running steel components through the fabrication equipment repeatedly to get just the right finish.
11 /13
This attention to detail is what makes her a great technical director, but technical directors don’t win Pritzkers or Gold Medals. Architectural prizes are predicated on the romantic notion that buildings are works of art by lone visionaries. Anyone who knows the first thing about architecture understands that today’s buildings are always collaborative efforts.
12 /13
Given her understated approach, her quiet competence, it seems unlikely that Dosso will soon be acknowledged as architect of a world’s tallest building, or even the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
13 /13
But it’s exciting to realize that there are women, like Dosso, whose names you rarely hear, who know more about how to grow a supertall tower from sub-basement to spire than the famous guys who collect the prizes .
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Karrie Jacobs 09.29.14 7:30 AM
This is the second in a two-part series about the design and construction of 1 World Trade Center. Read the first part here .—Eds
Forget about the starchitects—Daniel Libeskind and David Childs—who dueled incessantly over 1 World Trade Center’s formal qualities and its poetic language. The architect who finally got the damned thing built is someone you’ve probably never heard of: Nicole Dosso , a technical director at the New York office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill. From the end of 2006 until the tower’s completion, probably by year’s end, Dosso has been, as she puts it, "the single senior technical coordinator representing SOM on the day-to-day execution of the job." In other words, North America’s tallest tower—which could easily have been the world’s tallest—is being built by a woman.
That’s kind of ironic, isn’t it? Think back to last year when a group of Harvard students petitioned the Pritzker Prize jury to retroactively include architect Denise Scott Brown in the 1991 Pritzker that had been awarded to her professional partner and husband, Robert Venturi . That effort was unsuccessful. Shortly thereafter, the AIA gave its Gold Medal to a woman for the first time ever. The recipient was California architect Julia Morgan , best known for the Hearst Castle. Very nice, except she’d been dead for over 50 years. In the wake of these events, lots of people made arguments that women in architecture should win more prizes . My thought on this was: fuck medals. Wouldn’t it be so much cooler to have a world’s tallest building designed by a woman? The current record for a woman is the 82-story Aqua , a residential tower/hotel in Chicago, designed by Jeanne Gang .
Celine Grouard for Fast Company
It could have happened at Ground Zero. As originally conceived by Libeskind back in 2002, 1 WTC’s blatantly patriotic 1,776-foot-tall height would have been enough to break records . But because it went up so slowly, 1 WTC missed its moment. It is now merely number four , 1,000 feet shorter than the reigning Burj Khalifa in Dubai, completed in 2010, and marketed as "the tallest building in the western hemisphere." (Note that it wouldn’t even hold the hemispheric record without counting the antenna as building height. The roof of the tower is at 1,335 feet, making it shorter than the Willis Tower and the Trump International Hotel and Tower , both in Chicago.)
Lots of people make arguments that women in architecture should win more prizes. My thought: fuck medals.
Dosso, you understand, is not the kind of architect you’ll find spouting metaphors. She is not likely to get up on stage and compare a superstructure to a child releasing a dove , as Santiago Calatrava did when he presented the design for his WTC Transit Hub. She does not wear severe glasses or talk iterations. The day I met her at SOM’s offices on Wall Street, the 40-year-old Dosso, who runs marathons in her spare time, was effortlessly chic—more Paris than New York—in a brightly patterned Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, steeply pitched white patent leather heels, and a string of silvery pearls.
With a degree in architecture from Syracuse University, Dosso joined SOM in 1998. "I started my career here as a junior architect and I got thrown into the construction administration side of the project at a very, very young age." The daughter of a contractor, she has spent much of her career on construction sites, making sure buildings are built as the architects specify. "I knew from my very first project that that was the side of architecture I was most fascinated with. I really enjoy the craft, working with fabrication, really understanding materials."
Dosso had worked on a number of projects for SOM prior to September 11, including a major rehab of the 1950s office tower by Emery Roth & Sons at 2 Broadway . But within months of September 11, she was assigned to the team working on 7 World Trade Center (where Fast Company is headquartered, incidentally). The original 7 WTC collapsed late in the day on September 11 and had to be rebuilt immediately because it housed an important Con Edison power substation. Because it sits north of Vesey Street from the World Trade Center proper, the 52-story replacement was designed and built without interference from the various stakeholders who were still tussling over exactly what to do south of Vesey. SOM designed 7 WTC as an homage to Lever House , with unusually clear low-iron glass and a slender form . It was completed in 2006.
Dosso is not the kind of architect you’ll find spouting metaphors.
Dosso describes the experience of building 7 WTC as the best of her working life: "That building holds a very precious place in my professional career. The people I met during that project… Everybody was so mindful. Everybody’s heart was in the right place. " She remembers the construction of 7 WTC as "bringing about a positive energy in a midst of despair."
She insists that her next project, the construction of 1 WTC was "equally inspiring," but the story she tells is one of daunting complexity. "My responsibility was representing SOM. There was a design, the one David Childs and SOM created. My responsibility was to insure that [the design] took place." Easier said than done.
By Dosso’s account there were two issues that made her task unusually labyrinthine: the weirdly amorphous nature of the client or clients and the fact that the spot where the building was being erected was not a normal construction site. Generally, a construction project comes with a "clear owner and clear division of responsibility," Dosso explains. "There’s always a point of contact. If something’s not getting solved, or a consultant’s not correcting their issues, there’s typically a person in charge. They’re your client.
"At 1 WTC," she continues, "there were so many people. There was the Port Authority. Within the Port Authority, you’re dealing with multiple entities. On top of that, when I started on the project, the Silversteins were our clients. At some point it transitioned to the Port Authority. The Port Authority created 1 WTC, which was an entity basically to represent them. But that was another layer. And then Durst came into it ."
Anyone who knows the first thing about architecture understands that today’s buildings are always collaborative efforts.
The sometimes scrambled lines of responsibility were small potatoes compared to the condition of the site itself: "The below grade portion of the project is 500,000 square feet," Dosso points out. "Below ground we neighbored the [9/11] Memorial. We neighbored the fan plants [which vent the train tracks that run beneath the tower]. There were the trains. [PATH trains to New Jersey and subways.] We had retail included within our space. We had the Transportation Hub concourse, which we neighbored, that was a whole other group of architects and engineers. If you start to get caught up in all of that, you can become completely overwhelmed."
And then there were the leftovers: "A decision was made very early on to leave these slabs, remnants of the existing WTC site. So when we designed the new 1 WTC tower, we basically had to cantilever and design around existing conditions. There was also the existing slurry wall. To reinforce that wall we had to build a liner wall in front of it, a 30-inch concrete wall to help stabilize it . . . and to reinforce it."
All told, it took about three years for 1 WTC to rise from the excavation to ground level. From there, the next challenge was to build the hardened lobby with 30-inch-thick cast concrete walls and additional blast walls set inside the lobby’s north and south entryways. Once the contractors got beyond 50 feet of lobby and 130 feet of mechanical space—holding the tower’s vital systems—the construction process got much simpler, Dosso says, just "typical office floors." From 186 feet to 1,335 feet was cake. Then came the 420-foot-tall, 720-ton spire that stands atop the building presented. It was delivered in pieces by barge from Quebec and the final section was dramatically hoisted by crane in May of last year.
Oddly, Dosso, when asked what she loves about 1 WTC, a building with fabulous views from almost every floor, a building she knows intimately from top to bottom, enthuses about the escalator ride to the basement: "The view from the 1 WTC coming down to the B2 lobby—coming down that escalator, you’ll approach the [Calatrava-designed] Transportation Hub concourse, and that’s spectacular."
Dosso takes great pride in 1 World Trade Center. She tells me a story about attending a special event at the 9/11 Memorial Museum before it opened in May, pausing on the Memorial plaza on her way out and gazing up at 1 WTC from that angle for the first time: "I had to stop in my tracks for a second. I was very moved."
"Did you look at it and think, 'That’s my building'?" I asked.
Dosso laughs and replies, "No."
While Dosso doesn’t claim ownership of the project as a whole—the way a design architect, the person generally credited for how a building looks, might–-she enjoys talking about the craftwork that went into it, about going to the quarry in Carrara, Italy, to get the lobby’s Larissa marble cut to specification or running steel components through the fabrication equipment repeatedly to get just the right finish. This attention to detail is what makes her a great technical director, but technical directors don’t win Pritzkers or Gold Medals. Architectural prizes are predicated on the romantic notion that buildings are works of art by lone visionaries. Anyone who knows the first thing about architecture understands that today’s buildings are always collaborative efforts.
Dosso has largely moved on to Manhattan West , a cluster of towers over the Westside railyards (just east of Hudson Yards ). Building over the tracks isn’t easy, but there’s only one client, "so the responsibilities are very clear. "
Given her understated approach, her quiet competence, it seems unlikely that Dosso will soon be acknowledged as architect of a world’s tallest building, or even the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. But it’s exciting to realize that there are women, like Dosso, whose names you rarely hear, who know more about how to grow a supertall tower from sub-basement to spire than the famous guys who collect the prizes .
Slideshow Credits: 01 / Celine Grouard for Fast Company; 10 / Celine Grouard for Fast Company;
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Who played Martha Jones in the UK tv series Doctor Who? | Freema __, actress who played Martha Jones in BBC TV series Doctor Who - crossword puzzle clues & answers - Dan Word
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Freema __, actress who played Martha Jones in BBC TV series Doctor Who
Today's crossword puzzle clue is a general knowledge one: Freema __, actress who played Martha Jones in BBC TV series Doctor Who. We will try to find the right answer to this particular crossword clue. Here are the possible solutions for "Freema __, actress who played Martha Jones in BBC TV series Doctor Who" clue. It was last seen in British general knowledge crossword. We have 1 possible answer in our database.
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| Freema Agyeman |
Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in Canada during which month of the year? | A Companion To The Doctor’s Companions: Martha Jones | Anglophenia | BBC America
A Companion To The Doctor’s Companions: Martha Jones
By Fraser McAlpine | 5 years ago
Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones
On-the-rebound relationships are always hard, aren’t they? Especially if you’re not the one who is suffering separation pangs. It doesn’t matter what you do, how hard you work – and let’s be clear on this, Martha works HARD – you’ll never quite match up to the perfect angel who came and went before you.
So, when trainee doctor Martha Jones – played by Freema Agyeman – takes up the offer of a berth on the TARDIS with the handsome stranger who has already kissed her and winked suggestively when she took his pulse, you have to feel a little sorry for her. For all that he’s a garrulous flirt, the Tenth Doctor is not about to risk his feelings like he did with Rose.
At first, she sees this as a challenge, trusting that her natural charm and personality will eventually rub off on him. Her basic mistake is to confuse his desperate loneliness with a need for a physical relationship, and because he shared such an intimate bond with Rose, he’s not about to drop his guard and explain why that can’t happen. So there’s a prolongued period of awkwardness between the two of them, where her feelings bubble and percolate, while he’s still brooding.
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And of course it all ends up getting a bit serious, when she finally realises nothing is going to happen. Her emotions have run away with her and he pretends he doesn’t even know. It’s too complicated, too raw.
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The thing to remember about Martha, who sometimes gets a bad rap from Whovians for simply failing to be either Rose or Donna, is that a lot of the Doctor’s most fondly remembered adventures (of recent years) have happened on her watch. The return of the Master, the Family of Blood, even the Weeping Angels, she saw it all.
And to reiterate that point at the beginning, she works harder than any other companion. When the Master takes over the world, ages the Doctor and locks him in a cage, she spends a year walking all over the planet Earth, urging everyone she meets to focus on the Doctor’s name at just the right time. A YEAR. WALKING. And BIGGING UP THE MAN SHE HAS AN UNREQUITED CRUSH ON.
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When the Doctor hides his true Time Lord identity in the human form of John Smith, it’s Martha who has to bring him back, even though at first he treats her like the hired help, and later, like he’s persecuting him.
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She works so hard she winds up abandoning her medical career in order to retrain as a solder for UNIT. She’s an unstoppable force, and it’s still never quite good enough. Hell, even when she realizes this is the case, Martha has to work harder than anyone else at saying goodbye. Here’s her first go at it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOsbBeobpME&feature=related
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Charles Merivale of Cambridge University and Charles Wordsworth of Oxford University started which annual tradition in 1829? | The annual rowing event - The Boat Race 2010 - between Oxford and Cambridge.
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Rowing Competition - The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race 2010
The annual rowing competition between Oxford University and Cambridge University, sponsored by Xchanging, usually takes place on either the last Saturday of March or the first Saturday of April. The Oxford Cambridge Boat Race 2010 took place on Saturday, 3rd April, during the Easter holiday weekend.
This Boat Race was originally the idea of two Harrow school friends, Charles Merivale, who went to Cambridge University, and Charles Wordsworth, who went to Oxford University. In 1829, Cambridge initiated the move and sent a challenge to Oxford.
After the race in1829 which was competed at Henley-on-Thames, other boat races took place at Westminster in central London. And because of its popularity it quickly became overcrowded. In 1845, the rowing event had to be moved about six miles upstream to Putney, where it stayed to the present day.
This popular rowing event, the 156th Boat Race between the "Light Blues" (Cambridge University) and the "Dark Blues" (Oxford University) has been competed annually since 1856, apart from the years during the two world wars.
It has been the tradition of the boat race that the loser of the previous year’s race challenges the opposition to a re-match.
Over a quarter of a million people lined both banks of the Thames River and the event starts from Putney Bridge and finishes yards before Chiswick Bridge - a distance of 4 miles and 374 yards.
This annual rowing competition was televised by the BBC and watched by over 8 miilion viewers in the UK and many more millions of international audience in 180 countries. The competition is a major international sporting event and makes it the most viewed single day rowing event in the world.
| The Boat Race |
The ‘Vichy Regime’ described the government of which European country during World War II? | A Guide to the Boat Race - UK Net Guide
A Guide to the Boat Race
By Ben Fick
What You Need to Know
The Boat Race is an annual rowing competition between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club.
As of 2012, Cambridge have won the Boat Race 81 times to Oxford’s 76 victories.
The Race sees two teams of five compete along a 4 mile stretch of the River Thames, also known as the Championship Course, in London.
The four-and-a-quarter mile course from Putney to Mortlake will take place on Saturday April 11th 2015. The race itself starts at around 2pm.
The Boat Race has grown to become one of the UK’s major annual sporting events, with thousands of people lining the Thames to watch the action and millions watching live on TV .
Putney Bridge and Hammersmith are prime viewing spots, but you need to arrive early in order to be able to see any of the action.
The Boat Race in the Park events hosted by the event’s sponsors allow spectators to watch the action on big screens in Bishops Park, Furnival Gardens and in Hammersmith.
What is the Boat Race?
The Boat Race is an annual rowing competition between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club.
The event sees two teams of five (four oarsmen and one cox) race along the River Thames in London. While all of the participants are required to be registered students at their respective universities, the event has grown to become much more than a varsity contest, attracting tens of thousands of spectators and a global television audience of millions each year.
As of 2012, Cambridge have won the Boat Race 81 times to Oxford’s 76 victories.
History of the Boat Race
The tradition of an annual boat race between the two prestigious universities goes back to 1829 when students Charles Merivale (Cambridge) and Charles Wordsworth (Oxford) first came up with the idea. Within a few years of being founded, the course had been moved from Henley-on-Thames to London, where it has remained ever since.
Though the Boat Race has changed significantly over the years, some traditions still remain. For instance, the losing university always asks the victors for a re-match the following year and both teams compete in blue, though for Cambridge it is light blue and Oxford dark blue.
The Modern-Day Boat Race
The Boat Race today is one of the UK’s major annual sporting events, with thousands of people lining the Thames to watch the action and millions watching live on TV.
The Course: The modern-day course – known as the Championship Course - is 4 miles and 374 yards long, running from Putney to Mortlake. As is tradition, the teams toss a coin before the race to determine who starts on which side of the river.
Timing: The Boat Race takes place on either the final Saturday of March or the first Saturday of April each year. The race itself starts at around 2pm, since this coincides with the incoming tide and so gives the teams the fastest possible currents.
Where to Watch the Boat Race
It is estimated that as many as 300,000 people can line the banks of the Thames to watch the Boat Race. As such, if you want to watch the action, it’s a very good idea to arrive early and pick a prime spot. Prime viewing locations, that is those that offer the best views but that are also always the most crowded, include:
Putney Bridge : Easily the place to be to watch the start of the race as well as to watch the crews warming up, it’s always standing room only on the bridge and, unless you arrive a few hours in advance, you are unlikely to get a spot. Bishops Park and the length of Putney Embankment are also good places to watch the start of the race from.
Hammersmith: Mid-way through the course, the Hammersmith riverside is a good spot to watch the action in a pub beer garden. However, while there is a good selection of pubs to choose from, they do get full very early, so advance bookings are highly recommended.
Dukes Meadow and Chiswick Bridge: A little bit further out of London, both Dukes Meadow and Chiswick Bridge are good spots to watch the end of the Boat Race. Since many races have been close-run things, it’s very likely you’ll get to see some high drama from these vantage points.
If crowds aren’t your thing or if you don’t want to take the risk of heading to the riverside just to look at the back of other people’s heads, then the Boat Race in the Park events hosted by the event’s sponsors could be for you. Big screens and bars are put up at Bishops Park, Furnival Gardens and in Hammersmith, giving you the chance to see the action unfold while soaking in the atmosphere of the day.
Further Reading
Learn more about the colourful history of the event at the Boat Race’s official website .
Find a good pub to watch the Boat Race from with the help of this guide from Time Out London .
Learn more about the major events on the sporting calendar, such as Wimbledon and the Grand National , with our dedicated sports section .
10/12/2012
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Pato, a game played on horseback, is the national sport of which South American country? | Pato: Argentina’s National Sport ‹ The Argentina Independent
Pato: Argentina’s National Sport
24th February 2010 Daniel Edwards
302
What do you think is Argentina’s national sport? It has to be football surely, hundreds of thousands of people streaming through turnstiles every week to fill the stadiums? Wrong. Ok maybe tennis at a push, very popular again, Argentine players litter the top 100 rankings. No, try again. The more cynical amongst us might say protesting, eating beef or hoarding monedas, but again you would be well off the mark. The actual sport of the nation plays like a cross between polo and basketball, frequently ends in broken bones and used to be played with a live duck.
I am, of course, talking about Pato.
Scoring a goal (Photo: Beatrice Murch)
A Potted History of Pato:
Just as football was popularised in England through mass games between villagers taking a rest from working the fields, the sport was established by gauchos breaking up the tedium of watching their herds in the Argentine pampa. There are written records of pato being played as early as 1610, and complaints of its violence and risk of injury and death dating from 1796.
The name comes from the role played by the aforementioned unfortunate duck (pato in Spanish); instead of a ball, the duck was placed in a basket with handles around it and tossed between mounted players, with the object of scoring in a net at the end of the field. Back in the game’s formative years the definition of field was rather loose; games often were played between neighbouring ranches over miles and miles of empty countryside. And just as football in the middle ages was subject to church and state repression for its perceived immorality, so did pato face the iron fist of the authorities – numerous decrees in the 19th century sought to outlaw the sport, and by the turn of the 20th the sport had largely diminished.
The sport however resurfaced in the 1930s, more regulated and standardised than before. Ducks everywhere breathed a sigh of relief as their role was eliminated from the game, instead modern pato is played with a leather ball resembling a volleyball, surrounded by six wooden handles for easier grip- important when trying to scoop the ball up on a horse at full gallop.
The game slowly gained respect as an organised, proper sport, and was even declared Argentina’s “national sport” in 1953 by President Juan Perón, in an acknowledgement of pato’s role as a symbol of Argentine nationalism and the gaucho spirit which endows its citizens. It was never able however to match either the popular appeal of football or the upper-class allure of polo, and today it remains a sport primarily for aficionados and agricultural workers in the sprawling countryside that surrounds Buenos Aires.
Photo by Jorgelina Tuñon
These Men Can Ride!
After a season ravaged by an unusually wet Buenos Aires spring and many frustrating weekends of cancelled matches, I was able to witness pato first hand on a beautiful December afternoon. Taking place in the “home of pato”, a sports ground located near the Campo de Mayo military complex, two games were played that were to decide who played in the grand finale the following week.
The most striking aspect of the sport is the incredible skill shown by the riders. The players often find themselves hanging off their steeds at high speed to pluck the ball off the ground, and the nerve and steady hand to throw the ball into the basket while galloping and being harassed by opponents is very impressive.
Even more so when you consider none of the players are professional; the majority are farm workers who play the sport in their spare time, directly mirroring the gauchos of old. Sebastian Tuñon, one of three brothers who play the sport professionally, explained that “we don’t have the money in pato that polo has, for instance. None of us can give up work and play professionally; indeed it probably costs us because none of the equipment comes cheap. We do it however because we love the sport and we love playing it.”
The Perils of Pato
Injuries happen to rider and horse alike. (Photos by Beatrice Murch)
A pato team is made up of four players on each side, and eight horses – the horses are rotated constantly to avoid fatigue, an indication of the high intensity the game is played at. The action is fast and furious, with few breaks for the players or audience to catch their breath. An element of danger is implicit in how pato is played as well, as players are permitted to steal the ball from others, and scenes of two riders each with a handle pulling furiously are commonplace.
Injuries are also common, with broken bones a frequent result of falling off a horse awkwardly. The risks however seem part of the attraction for many of the competitors, and certainly add an edge to proceedings. At least however injured players can return; unfortunately on occasion horses will fall and break legs, and in this case they must be destroyed – often on site. My companion informed me that this had occurred at least twice at meetings she had witnessed, and sadly when I was there a horse appeared to be facing the same fate, forlornly limping around the field after a nasty fall. Again though this appears to be part of the game; when I asked some audience members about this aspect a shrug of sad acceptance seemed the most common reaction.
Game’s Over? Let’s Eat!
The games are hard-fought and competitive, with much banter and insults flying between opposing sides. Eventually however at the end of the day the teams that were to compete in the final were revealed. El Siasgo defeated El Relincho Pueblo Chico in the first game of the day 21-13 to book their place, El Relincho being punished despite some skilled horsemanship for poor accuracy in front of the net, while El Siasgo appeared to have a laser guide attached as almost every shot found its target. In the other semi-final El Relincho Mangrullo comfortably saw off the challenge of El Relincho de la Criolla, and indeed went on to lift the championship weeks later beating El Siasgo by the slimmest of margins, in a thrilling 14-13 victory.
Photo by Beatrice Murch
Despite the competitiveness and intensity of the game, however, this doesn’t preclude close friendship and camaraderie between opposing players. As someone more accustomed to the pettiness and spats that are constantly a part of professional football, it was refreshing to see players embrace each other at the final whistle, congratulating or commiserating each other before retiring to the sidelines for a well-earned rest. As Sebastian explained, “yes there is a lot of rivalry between teams, everyone obviously wants to win. But all finishes when the game ends, off the field we chat to each other and help each other out, and at the end of the day we share a massive asado and some beers together, and any bad will disappears.”
Horses, broken bones, hulking great slabs of meat cooking on a barbecue and above quiet respect and camaraderie between men taking a break from life in Argentine agriculture. Much has changed since the days of the gaucho in Argentine society, but through Argentina’s national sport at least the reckless spirit and ignorance of danger so reminiscent of the gaucho spirit continues to survive and thrive.
The pato season returns from its summer break at the end of February. To find out when and where the matches take place visit www.pato.org.ar , the official website of the Federation. It is in Spanish, but click calendario 2010 for an easy to read guide to the pato schedule.
| Argentina |
Which US President died in 1841, on his 32nd day in office? | Argentina: Polo Made Easy! -
May 15, 2009
Polo In Argentina
Sir Winston Churchill is said to have uttered the immortal words – “A polo Handicap is your passport to the world.” Small wonder then that the game has always been considered elitist! Certainly my first contact with the sport was when a friend of a friend of a friend took some lessons with a guy who once taught Prince Charles to play and I only got to see my first game because I was with a film crew.
It is a dazzling sport to watch in the flesh and fun to join the hundreds of other spectators when they invade the pitch between chukkas (periods of play) to stamp down the clods of earth whipped up by the horses’ flying hooves; this is a British eccentricity, not usually found at games outside of the UK – but it is exciting to feel, just for a few minutes, part of the whole polo tradition.
Polo is probably the fastest, most exhilarating and certainly the oldest team sport on earth; once the preserve of royalty, today it is played by millionaire playboys, princes and ordinary people – like rock stars, Hollywood actors and top models! You don’t have to have a double-barrelled surname or the right accent to play anymore; you just need lots of money.
Played on horseback, with two teams of four, the aim is to hit a small white ball, between two goalposts; all each player needs is a horse, a stick, a ball and a nice, flat, preferably grassy field about the size of ten football fields. Of course professional players on the world circuit, need a whole lot more than this….lots more horses, swanky riding boots, white jodhpurs, a few ‘stick chicks’, copious amounts of champagne, and someone to pay for it all!
Those someones are Patrons – and they ‘employ’ high goal players to be in their teams and earn them kudos. For the privilege, they spend thousands if not millions of dollars flying horses and players around the globe to compete in the top tournaments. The late Kerry Packer was so obsessed with winning the coveted Cartier Gold Cup played at Cowdray Park in the south of England that he ‘bought’ an English village nearby in which to base himself for a month or two in preparation for the prestigious tournament. The structure of Patron Polo plays an instrumental role in keeping the sport and the environment surrounding the game more exclusive that it needs to be.
However, there is no doubt that at a certain level….a very high one, it is a game that requires huge amounts of money. Although each chukka, lasts only 7 minutes, (and there are commonly 6 chukkas in a match) because the ponies are galloping at full pelt for most of that time, they have to be changed every chukka; that means each of the four riders in a team, needs a minimum of four ponies each. A good polo pony can cost in excess of $US50,000…so you don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that money and polo are synonymous.
Thought to have originated in China and Persia some 2,000 years ago polo became a national sport played by the nobility and was dubbed ‘The Game of Kings’. It also developed as a training device for horse mounted warriors. The name polo is said to be derived from the Tibetan word ‘pulu’, meaning ‘ball’. The Moguls spread the game from Persia but it was not until the late 19th century that British tea planters discovered the game in India. The British Army quickly took up the sport which developed as essential training for their cavalry units, and in 1863, the Calcutta Polo Club was founded – it is still the oldest active club in the world today.
The British are credited with spreading the game worldwide in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Military officers from the 10th Hussars introduced polo to Britain in 1860, and the first set of formal rules was drawn up in 1874 under the auspices of the Hurlingham Polo Association. Polo arrived in both the USA and Australia in 1876. Today, upwards of 77 countries play the game which was an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1939 and has now been recognised again by the International Olympic Committee.
Argentina is considered to be the undisputed centre of great polo today – 85% of the highest goal players in the world hail from here. English and Irish ranchers introduced the game in the 19th century and the first official match in Argentina took place on 3rd September 1875. A wealthy landowner called John Ravenscroft, started a Hurlingham Polo Club, modelled on the English club of the same name, on the outskirts of the capital Buenos Aires. Hurlingham, as well as being a town in its own right, is one of the most important centres of professional polo in the world. The Argentine Open Championship, also played in Buenos Aires, is considered to be the most exalted tournament on the polo circuit.
There is a common misconception that polo is a way of life in Argentina….it’s not – and it remains as much an elitist game here as it does elsewhere in the world. It is true to say though, that the opportunities for playing polo in Argentina are great. With fabulous horses and masses of land, would-be players can practice, practice, practice. But, not all Argentines are estancia owners and as such a polo aristocracy has been born; to assume that every Argentinian has the opportunity to play this game would be quite wrong.
Gaucho
Argentina is a massive country…11 times bigger than the British Isles and with a climate that ranges from sub-tropical in the north to arctic in the south. A quarter of its 40 million people live in and around Buenos Aires, the Federal Capital. This is where the money is and where the polo is concentrated. The huge ranches or estancias, with their thousands of acres, are what make polo a natural sport here. With plenty of space and grazing, horses are a relatively cheap commodity. Anglo-Argentine settlers brought with them not just the concept of polo, but also their thoroughbred horses, which they crossed with the Argentine cattle horse..the Criollo, to produce the greatest polo ponies in the world. This is where the Patrons come to buy their ponies; this is where the big ‘polo families’ are…the Castongnolas, Pieres, Heguys, Lalors and others, who nurture polo in their children from a young age. This is what gives Argentina its enviable advantage in the world of professional polo.
To say that riding is a way of life in Argentina, would however, be accurate. The horse was not indigenous to South America, but was introduced by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century. An explorer named Mendoza left a handful of his horses behind when he went home to Spain; by the time he returned two years later his horses had settled in, bred and multiplied. The wide and open grasslands provided perfect breeding conditions for these animals, which became instrumental in Argentina’s economic prosperity at this time.
Outside of Buenos Aires, even today, the horse is first and foremost a work tool. In and around San Rafael, way to the west, at the foothills of the monumental Andes mountain range, horses still pull ploughs in the fields, carts through town alongside the Toyota Landcruisers and my next door neighbour rounds up his cattle on horseback. Pretty much everybody rides really, really well; but you will never see a a hard hat, a painful English saddle or a rising trot!. There’s no polo here either; miles and miles of grapevines and fruit trees, but it is not cattle country and the huge estancias typical of the north east do not exist.
The massive cattle estates are hundreds, even thousands of acres in size and the horse is still the best way of getting around, the gaucho the best man for the job. Gauchos are the cowboys of South America, are nomadic and take to the wilderness for weeks at a time, moving from estancia to estancia looking for work herding cattle. A gaucho’s horse is his most important asset; he travels light, he works and plays hard, but gauchos never did and don’t play polo. When your whole life has to fit into a saddlebag, I guess there is no room for sticks and balls and the chances of finding a 300 x 160 yard piece of flat grass in the pampas is probably remote! Even today gauchos will demonstrate their riding skills at their rodeo shows…breaking colts, slalom riding, demonstrating lassoing and playing pato, but you won’t see them playing polo.
Pato has been played by the gauchos since the 1600s. A live duck (pato is Spanish for duck) would be placed in a basket, and participating riders would pick this up by hand. The playing field would often stretch between neighbouring estancias and the first horseman to reach his own casco (ranch house) with the basket would be crowned the winner. During its history pato has been banned several times due to the violence – gauchos were trampled underfoot and knife fights started in the heat of the game led to injury and even death.
In modern pato, a ball with six handles is used and a goal is scored when the ball is thrown through a vertical ring. There are two four men teams and they play six periods of 8 minutes. The player that has the pato in his possession must ride with his arm outstretched thus allowing rival players a chance to tackle.
Pato is similar to buskashi, which is still played by the Afghan horsemen… they use a headless, hoofless goat, no basket and have two teams of up to 200 men….it is a fight to the death as fallen horsemen have little chance of escaping 800 hooves.
Polo has many relatives; Elephant polo, first played in India at the beginning of the 20th century, is still played today, Tiger Tops in Nepal being the headquarters of this gargantuan sport. The pitch is three quarters the length of a standard polo pitch and the sticks are six to nine feet long! Each elephant has two riders, one to hit the ball, the other to steer the elephant, and in 2008 a team from Britain won the yearly championship. However, you are not likely to get lessons for this sport just down the road! Polo is also played in indoor arenas, though with three riders rather than four to a team, and ice and snow polo are other derivatives of the game.
You don’t have to be a good rider to learn to play polo; but if you want to be a good player, you have to be an excellent rider. It is a game of skill and stamina rather than just brute strength, which is why women’s polo is now the fastest growing section of the sport. Even in Argentina, a traditionally male dominated society, women’s polo has become acceptable and they are becoming part of the sport, not just as grooms, but as players, Patronas and even event organisers; polo families encourage their daughters to play, right alongside their brothers.
What you do need to play polo, is to be right handed, have good hand eye coordination, a moderate level of fitness, and some grit and determination. You ride one handed and neck rein the ponies – leaving your right arm free to wield your mallet – which is quite heavy (about the weight of my handbag!) and spend little time in the saddle. The sticks or mallets, are made usually of cane and the mallet head, or cigar, from a hardwood cut from the Tipa tree, an unusually durable, close-grained variety, found only in northern Argentina and parts of Brazil and Paraguay. Fit legs are good, and get used to either standing or galloping full tilt – there’s very little in between. It can be a dangerous game…whilst the ponies may be doing speeds of up to 35mph a well hit ball could be travelling a whole lot faster!! A good hard hat (a face guard is a good idea if you value your teeth) is a must.
In the UK certainly, it is an expensive sport both to play and learn. A 40 minute lesson can run at about 110 pounds per person, slightly less if you have several in a class. If you don’t own your own ponies but want to play one chukka at a club, (and remember, we are talking seven minutes here), you can pay in excess of 250 pounds. Membership of a polo club can run into the thousands of pounds per year and this is in addition to owning your own horses and all accessories.
In comparison, in Argentina, learning to play is a fraction of the cost. Polo Tourism is expanding; even in these credit crunch times, Argentina is proactive in glamorizing a polo lifestyle with multi-million pound real estate and polo complexes attracting heavy investment. The average cost for a day at a polo estancia is between 250 and 400 USD- but this is all inclusive: costs of transfer from your hotel or the airport, all meals and drinks (including wine) accommodation. And wall to wall polo…tuition, stick and ball sessions, and chukkas. Most estancias offering polo can teach you in English, Spanish, Italian or French and you will find that your coach is likely to be a professional high goal player. All the equipment including hats and sticks is provided…you just have to turn up with your comfortable trousers, boots and some enthusiasm. Leave your ego behind!
It’s a far cry from the UK…make your own way, with a nonsensical map downloaded from the internet, get stuck in traffic and have your lesson cut short due to rain! Polo cannot be played in the rain or on wet ground, so Argentina’s generally dry climate affords year round polo.
There are countless polo estancias in and around Buenos Aires, with beautiful lodge houses, plenty of history, rustic ambiance, all modern conveniences and wide open spaces as far as the eye can see; but beyond the borders of the province, you need to dig a bit to find somewhere to play the game.
The sport of polo has a long and illustrious history – though it’s no longer exclusively a pastime for the rich and famous, it is inherently a game that needs money. A polo holiday in Argentina is a good way of getting a taste, but if this is beyond the scope of your bank account, go watch a game. It is a glitteringly gladiatorial spectacle…and a fit guy (or gal) on a galloping horse is always pleasing to the eye!
Some places to play:
There are countless fabulous polo estancias within a 200km radius of Buenos Aires city, but below are three that I have personal experience of:
El Metejon… 20 mins from Ezeiza, Buenos Aires’ international airport. www.elmetejon.com – with beautiful grounds, stunning lodge house, El Metejon offers high class polo playing and tuition. They also have a resident high goal female player/coach and host a Ladies Tournament every year. Diego and Alicia Richini are consummate hosts.
Estancia El Rocio Canada Rica 110 km from Buenos Aires, half an hour from Ezeiza…..beautiful relaxing estancia lodge house with all amenities. Polo clinics for beginners and advanced players. www.estanciaelrocio.com
Estancia Los Potreros… in La Cumbre, just outside Cordoba (about 700km from BA) www.estancialospotreros.com
Despite the fact that polo is more accessible these days and you don’t have to be rich or royal to play, there is still an aura of ‘snobbishness’ around the game, which may put some people off having a go. Things are a whole lot more relaxed in Argentina and the estancias gear themselves to all standards of riding and play….but if you really want to learn in a truly non competitive style there is one estancia that offers ‘country polo’ as an alternative. This is polo without all the trappings that might make you feel outclassed. Los Protreros is a 6000 acre estancia nestled in the Sierra Chicas just north west of Cordoba. ‘Country’ or ‘farm’ polo was popular in the UK until the price of ponies and the cost of keeping them became too high. Keen riders with enough land to keep a few ponies and have a dedicated polo field, would get together and have low key games, taking it in turns to travel to each other’s farms. Los Potreros has been owned by the Begg family (Anglo-Argentines of Scottish descent) for over a century. With their 160 horses bred on the estate, they offer trailriding holidays and, if you are up for it, your first taste of polo. There’s no time to feel nervous. A quick five minute chat on ‘crossing the line’ and the dos and don’ts to keep you and your horse safe, then you mount up and off you go for a game. It is really a fantastic introduction to polo and if you get hooked, which you will, you can have further lessons during your stay, given by a four goal player from the nearby Ascochinga Polo Club. In response to the great interest from their guests they now have dedicated polo weeks; friends and neighbours make up the numbers for practice chukkas and it is like learning with your family it is so laid back…though never at any time is safety compromised.
Sidebars
Some polo rules
The rules of modern polo are complicated and even top professional players will get it wrong.
For the total novice the ‘crossing the line’ rule is of paramount importance. This is an imaginary line that runs from the ball to its destination….once a player is in possession of the ball, the opposition cannot cross the line of the ball in front of him….horses can be travelling at speeds of up to 35mph so this rule is crucial for the safety of the horse and rider.
Polo matches are divided into periods which are called chukkas. Each chukka usually lasts seven minutes. Games can have either four, six or eight although six is the most common number. There are intervals of 3 mins between chukkas, when players will change their horses, and 5 mins at half time. A player can change his horse mid-chukka, but the clock does not stop and his team mates must continue play without him. In big tournaments like the Argentina Open, there can be no draw in the final so the game will continue beyond 8 chukkas until one team is two goals ahead.
There are usually four players per team, or three for arena polo, and two teams play against each other. There are two umpires, also on horseback. After each goal scored, the teams change ends…this is considered fairest when there are adverse conditions such as low sun or high wind. The object of the game is simply to score more goals than the opposing team. Each player is handicapped from -2 up to 10 goals. A ten goal player is a top professional!
The ground is 300 yards long x 160 yards wide if boarded….which means the field has a 12 inch high board surrounding the perimeter which prevents the ball going out of play. If the ground is unboarded, it is 200 yards wide and marked with a white line. The goal posts, positioned at each end, are 8 yards apart.
Obviously, the players are all mounted on polo horses – they are usually referred to as polo ponies though they are fully grown and a good pony accounts for a huge percentage of the talent and skill in a game.
You have to be left-handed to play.
The sticks or mallets, weigh approximately 510-530 grams, but the relationship between the weight of the head (cigar) and the stick itself, if of crucial importance to the performance of a top player.
The ponies wear bandages or guards on their ankles (fetlocks) to protect them from the players’ sticks. Polo ponies are bred and trained exclusively for the game: and they love it!
Polo photos: Matt Green (www.hungryeyeimages.co.uk)
Judy Ives
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The Ferrorie dello Stato is the main railway operator in which European country? | Practical Law
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Resource type: Legal update: archive
Status: Published on 01-Nov-1998
Jurisdiction: European Union
Notification of agreement between Infostrada, a subsidiary of the Olivetti and Mannesmann groups and Ferrovie dello Stato (FS), the main railway operator in Italy, for the purchase of certain rights from FS, notably: the right to access FS's infrastructure in order to deploy cables (the right of way) and the right to use parts of the existing FS dark fiber optic cables (the right of use). Source: OJ No C 283, 12th September, 1998, p. 3.
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French artist, Fernande Olivier, was known primarily for being the model of which painter/artist, who painted over 60 portraits of her? | Catania to Milan Train Tickets by Euro Railways
The trains are composed of 11 wagons - 574 seats in total:
3 Business wagons with Silence Area and two Sitting Rooms with 4 seats
1 Premium (1st class) wagon
5 Standard (2nd class) wagons
1 Restaurant/bar wagon
The trains are provided with: air conditioning, sockets for each seat, led lights, space for big-dimensioned luggage in the wagon vestibules, 6 monitors per wagon to display the pieces of information on the travel, news, videos and other useful news continuously updated.
Freccia TV by Trenitalia, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
Catania Centrale to Milano Centrale by F R E C C I A
Freccia: The Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane offers 86 daily connections for major Italian itineraries. FrecciaRossa are trains that run through the high-speed line with fast and frequent connections. Frecciargento both the high-speed and traditional lines.
Freccia - Classes of Service
The trains are composed of 11 wagons - 574 seats in total:
3 Business wagons with Silence Area and two Sitting Rooms with 4 seats
1 Premium (1st class) wagon
5 Standard (2nd class) wagons
1 Restaurant/bar wagon
The trains are provided with: air conditioning, sockets for each seat, led lights, space for big-dimensioned luggage in the wagon vestibules, 6 monitors per wagon to display the pieces of information on the travel, news, videos and other useful news continuously updated.
Freccia TV by Trenitalia, Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane.
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Use Promo code: PREGO20 to get $20 off your purchase of $401 or more Italian train etickets,
Trenitalia or Italo.
Departures from Milan.: 8:15,
Ticketless - How use your etickets:
As soon as your booking have been processed, you will receive a booking confirmation, including a PNR number (reservation code) by email. Just show it to train's controller when requested.
It's all you need for you trip.
IMPORTANT:
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2) Please double check the train's stations names, trip date/time.
Italo Train Tickets - Fares Conditions:
All Italo train tickets are ticketless (eticket) and must be booked at least 24 hours in advance. The booking confirmation is sent by email. Include the seat reservations.
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a) Base (full fare): Refundable and exchangeable (subject to availability) before travel date. Refund and exchanges are subject to 15% penalty fee The train tickets include the seat reservations.
b) Low Cost Fare: Not Refundable. Not Exchangeable.
c) Early Fare: Requires the booking at least 30 days before travel date. Not Refundable. Not Exchangeable.
d) Children Fare: Children fare are valid for persons under 15 years old with a individual seat. Children under 4 years old travel free, no individual seat.
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f) All fares are per person in US Dollars, subject to to change before the booking processing
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Trenitalia Freccia Train Tickets - Fares Conditions:
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b) Promotional Fare: No refundable. Exchangeable at train station prior the booked trip date.
c) Adult Full Fares and Children Fares: Children fare are valid for persons under 12 years old. Children under 4 years old travel free. 80% refundable up to 3 days before the travel date. The printed tickets should be returned to our office. *Exchangeable at train station.
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c) Seat Reservations, Passholder fare: Requires a valid rail pass. We only can book it for travelers who have purchased their rail passes through our company. No refundable. No exchangeable.
d) All tickets are subject to confirmation. The tickets have a variable horizon for booking, normally 60 to 90 days within trip date. A booking confirmation will be sent as soon as the booking have been processed.
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f) E-tickets: The way for retrieve or use instructions will be sent with the booking confirmation by email. The tickets should be retrieved and printed at train station or printed at home as instructed in booking confirmation.
g) Physical Tickets (optional): The tickets are sent by FedEx, with the selected shipping option to the informed shipping address.
h) Tickets Protection: An good option for you travel in peace in mind. Reimbursement and General rules as described at General Terms and Conditions .
i) Handling fee: all bookings are subject to US$ 8 handling fee (if informed in checkout process).
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Milan Centrale station: is considered to be one of the most beautiful European train stations. This Milan Centraletrain station was originally built in 1864. It is conveniently located in the center of Milan and is not far away from many of Milan’s popular sites such as the Duomo. In addition, the station is a great destination for high end designer shopping, which Milan is synonymous with. The train station serves all domestic Italian trains (Italo and Trenitalia) and international routes to/from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and night train connecting France.
Address: Piazza Duca d'Aosta, 1, 20124 Milano, Italy
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Milan Cathedral
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The Chicago Bears defeated which team 73-0 in the 1940 NFL Championship game? | Bears beat Redskins 73-0 in NFL Championship game - Dec 08, 1940 - HISTORY.com
Bears beat Redskins 73-0 in NFL Championship game
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Bears beat Redskins 73-0 in NFL Championship game
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Bears beat Redskins 73-0 in NFL Championship game
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On this day in 1940, the Chicago Bears trounce the Washington Redskins in the National Football League (NFL) Championship by a score of 73-0, the largest margin of defeat in NFL history. The Bears, coached by George Halas, brought a 6-2 record to their regular-season meeting with the Redskins in Washington on November 17, 1940. After Chicago lost 3-7, the Redskins coach, George Preston Marshall, told reporters that Halas and his team were “quitters” and “cry babies.” Halas used Marshall’s words to galvanize his players, and the Bears scored 78 points in their next two games to set up a showdown with the Redskins in the league’s championship game on December 8, also in Washington.
Less than a minute into the game, the Bears’ running back Bill Osmanski ran 68 yards to score the first touchdown. After the Redskins narrowly missed an opportunity to tie the game, the Bears clamped down and began to dominate, leaving the field at halftime with a 28-0 lead. Things only got worse for the Redskins, and by the end of the second half officials were asking Halas not to let his team kick for extra points, as they were running out of footballs after too many had been kicked into the stands.
The Bears followed their history-making win with two more consecutive championships, including a game against the New York Giants at Chicago’s Wrigley Field just two weeks after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. Many great football players were subsequently drafted into World War II, and Halas himself would leave in 1942 for a tour of duty in the Pacific. In 1946, after the war ended, Halas and a number of former players returned to the team, and the Bears won their fourth NFL Championship in seven years.
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| Washington Redskins |
Which of the Great Lakes is the only one located entirely in the United States of America? | About: 1940 NFL season
About: 1940 NFL season
An Entity of Type : TimePeriod115113229 , from Named Graph : http://dbpedia.org , within Data Space : dbpedia.org
The 1940 NFL season was the 21st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship Game, 73–0. This game still stands as the most one-sided victory in NFL history. The Pittsburgh Pirates were renamed the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 1940 season.
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La saison 1940 de la NFL est la 21e saison de la National Football League. Elle voit le sacre des Chicago Bears.
(fr)
La stagione NFL 1940 fu la 21ª stagione sportiva della National Football League, la massima lega professionistica statunitense di football americano. La stagione iniziò l'8 settembre 1940 e si concluse con la finale del campionato che si disputò l'8 dicembre al Griffith Stadium di Washington e che vide la vittoria dei Chicago Bears sui Washington Redskins per 73 a 0, partita che detiene tuttora il record di maggior scarto di punteggio in una partita della NFL.
(it)
The 1940 NFL season was the 21st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship Game, 73–0. This game still stands as the most one-sided victory in NFL history. The Pittsburgh Pirates were renamed the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 1940 season.
(en)
1940年のNFLは、NFLの21年目のシーズンである。 シーズン開幕前、ピッツバーグ・パイレーツがピッツバーグ・スティーラーズに名称を変更した。 NFLチャンピオンシップで、シカゴ・ベアーズがワシントン・レッドスキンズを73対0で破り、NFLチャンピオンに輝いた。この試合が、NFL史上最大の点差のついた試合である。
(ja)
НФЛ в сезоне 1940 — стал 21-м сезоном Национальной футбольной лиги.
(ru)
La saison 1940 de la NFL est la 21e saison de la National Football League. Elle voit le sacre des Chicago Bears.
(fr)
La stagione NFL 1940 fu la 21ª stagione sportiva della National Football League, la massima lega professionistica statunitense di football americano. La stagione iniziò l'8 settembre 1940 e si concluse con la finale del campionato che si disputò l'8 dicembre al Griffith Stadium di Washington e che vide la vittoria dei Chicago Bears sui Washington Redskins per 73 a 0, partita che detiene tuttora il record di maggior scarto di punteggio in una partita della NFL.
(it)
The 1940 NFL season was the 21st regular season of the National Football League. The season ended when the Chicago Bears defeated the Washington Redskins in the NFL Championship Game, 73–0. This game still stands as the most one-sided victory in NFL history. The Pittsburgh Pirates were renamed the Pittsburgh Steelers before the 1940 season.
(en)
НФЛ в сезоне 1940 — стал 21-м сезоном Национальной футбольной лиги.
(ru)
1940年のNFLは、NFLの21年目のシーズンである。シーズン開幕前、ピッツバーグ・パイレーツがピッツバーグ・スティーラーズに名称を変更した。NFLチャンピオンシップで、シカゴ・ベアーズがワシントン・レッドスキンズを73対0で破り、NFLチャンピオンに輝いた。この試合が、NFL史上最大の点差のついた試合である。
(ja)
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Which district in London is famous for its Royal Hospital for old soldiers? | Royal Hospital Chelsea |
Home of the Chelsea Pensioners
The Royal Hospital Chelsea is the home of the iconic Chelsea Pensioners, who are all retired soldiers of the British Army. Since 1692 we have offered care and comradeship for veterans in recognition of their loyal service to the Nation. Find out more .
| Chelsea |
The Vistula Lagoon is a freshwater lagoon on which sea? | Referaty.sk - London
London
LONDON
Royal London
London is a royal city. The British king or queen has a palace there-Buckingham Palace. Queen Eluzabeth lives there now. Important visitors often go to the palace. They meet Queen Elizabeth and the royal family inside the palace. Tourists go to Buckingham Palace too, but they don´t go inside, and they don´t meet the queen. They stand outside and see the Changing of the Guard. There are always guardsmen outside the palace. Every day a new guard of thirty guardsmen marches to the palace and takes the place of the „old guard“. That is the „changing of the guard“. The changing of the guard is not a big ceremony. London has important royal ceremonies too. The State Opening of Parliament and the Trooping of the Colour are two of these. The queen does not go in a coach to the Trooping of the Colour. She rides there, and she watches the ceremony from her horse. The „colour“ is a flag. The guards „troop“ (march with) the colour for the queen.
Royal occasions
The British people like the queen and the royal family. They like important occasions too.
A royal wedding is always a big occasion. The royal family goes to the weding in a procession, and people love proccesions. The people watch the procession, and they see the royal family in their coaches. Horse guards ride with the coaches, and the procession goes between lines of foot guards along the road.
The Jubilee of Queen Eliabeth II-queen of the UK from 1952 to 1977. The Jubilee is a big ceremony. Important people come to London from every part of the world.
But there are occassions called Street party. The people of this London street are having a good party. The party is on the day of the Jubilee, and it is a Jubilee party. But it is not for important people. It is for the people of the street. The children of this street are going to remember the Jubilee.
Westminster
Tourists in London always want to visit Westminster and see „Big Ben“. They want to see the clock in its tower, and they want to hear the bells.
„Big Ben“ is really a bell. You hear it at every hour. It is the big bell (13,72t) with a deep voice, and it counts the hours. You hear its deep voice on the radio: „This is the BBC. The time is six o´clock.“ And you hear the deep BOOM of Big Ben six times.
The famous clock tower stands beside the Houses of Parliament. The country´s leaders speak in the Houses of Parliament. The men and women there are the voice of the British people.
The people choose 650 men and women for the House of Parliament. The second „House“ is the House of Lords. The men and women in it are the dukes, earls, and lords of the great families, heads of the Church of England, head judges, and some modern „Life Peers“ and „Live Peeresses“. These two „Houses“are Parliament.
Westminstere Bridge is one bridge across the River Thames in London. Big Ben and the House of Parliament stand beside the River Thames. You can go on a boat from Westminster and see London from the river.
The Tower of London
Tower Bridge is one of the famous bridges across the Thames. It is near the Tower of London. You can see the buildings of the Tower from the river.
The Tower is old, and it has a long and cruel history. It is not only one building. The Bloody Tower is near the river. You do not see blood there today, but the Bloody Tower has a history of blood-the blood of men, women and children.
Are the ghosts in the Tower? People say, „The ghosts of famous men and women walk in the Tower of London. You often see the ghosts of Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey in the night“.
The Tower of London is not a place of blood now. It is an interesting place, with its Beefeaters and the Crown Jewels. The Imperial State Crown is one of the Crown Jewels in the Jewel House in the Tower of London. It has 3000 stones in it : diamonds, red rubies, blue sapphires and beautiful pearls. The queen wears it on state occasions. Then it goes back to the Tower. The „Breefeaters“ are soldiers. Their real name is Yeoman Warders of the Tower. Their clothes are the clothes of royal guards of the year 1500. The Beefeaters guard the Tower and the Crown Jewels, and they help visitors. Guardsmen of today, from a regiment of foot guards, are always there too.
London´s ceremonies
London has important ceremonies. Some are every day and some are every year. At the Tower of London is the Ceremony of the Keys. The keys in this ceremony lock the gates of the Tower. This ceremony is at ten o´clock every night. It is a very old ceremony-700 years old.
The Lord Mayor´s Show is an old ceremony too. The people of the City of London choose a Lord Mayor every year. And every year they see him in the Lord Mayor´s Show. The Lords Mayor´s coach takes him to the mansion House in a long procession-that is the show.
London´s churches
You can see a number of London´s famous churches from the river. St Paul´s Cathedral is not very near the river, but it stands at the top of Ludgate Hill. You can see it from the river.
You can go up 627 steps from the floor of the cathedral to the top.
Westminster Abbey is near the Houses of Parliament. It si near the Thames, too, and you can see its two towers from the river. It is old (1042-1065) and very big (158 metres).
Cockneys
A large number of the London churches have bells. The small church of St Mary-le-Bow is between St Paul´s Cathedral and the Bank of England. It is the Cockney church. A „Cockney“ is a Londoner, but not every Londoner is a real Cockney. The real Cockneys can hear Bow bells-the bells of St Marry-le-Bow from their houses.
The UK has only one Royal Family, but the Cockneys have their pearly „kings and queens“. The pearly kings and queens take their name from the pearly buttons on their clothes. They work in London´s street markets, and they are the „kings“ and „queens“ of the market people. But they do not dress in their pearly clothes every day.
Markets
London has its famous shops and big stores. But its street markets are the really interesting places. In Portobello Road they sell old things-old, but interesting. It is a collectors market.
Petticoat Lane, in the City, is the Cockney market. Go there on Sunday morning, and perhaps you can see a Pearly King and a Pearly Queen. The Cockneys of Petticoat Lane sell new things. Perhaps you do not really want those things, but the Cockneys in Petticoat Lane can sell them to you!
Covent Garden is famous. But the very old fruit and vegetable market is not there now. The big trucks take the fruit and the vegetables to a new market near the Thames. Without the trucks and the market, Covent Garden is a different place. But it is a busy place. It has new shops and cafes. You can sit at a cafe table and listen to music. You can meet friends and sit in the sun, or sit out of the rain in the old market buildings.
Meet some Londoners
360 Chelsea pensioners are old soldiers. They live in the Royal Hospital near the Thames at Chelsea.
The buskers are street musicians. They play music in the street and people give money to them.
There are speakers every Sunday in Hyde Park, and every day near the Tower of London.
The commissionaire is an old soldier. He works at the door of the Dorchester hotel.
The taxi driver can take you wherever yuo want.
The street performer...it is nice to stop in the street and watch a street performer.
The City
London is a city, but to Londoners „the City“ is a place in London. St Paul´s Cathedral is in the City, and the banks and big companies have their head offices there.
City offices are in tall modern buildings, or in old buildings on narrow streets. The office people do not live in the City; they come to the City every day, from Monday to Friday. Only 5890 people live in the City;340 000 people work there. They come in trains, on buses, on the Underground, on bicycles, and in cars and taxis. They come in one hour-„rush hour“. Rush hour is from 8.30 to 9.30 in the morning, and the evening rush hour is from 5.00 to 6.00.
St Paul´s Cathedral is near the middle of the City. Perhaps the real middle is „the Bank“. Seven streets meet at the Bank. The Bank of England is there with the British Government´s money in it. The Royal Exchange is there; it is now the British money market, but it is a beautiful building. The Mansion House is there too. The Mansion House is the office and house of the Lord Mayor of London.
A „night out“ in the West End
Five important streets meet at Piccadilly Circus in London´s „West End“. The cars, the tourists coaches, the red London buses, and the taxis go round a statue there.
It is not the statue of a famous man or woman. People do not remember the statue´s real name. They say: „It is Eros, the Greek god of love.“
Under the road, two Underground lines meet. Piccadilly Circus is a very busy place. It is busy day and night. People come here to the shops in the day time, and at night they come for a night out.
Londoners like a night out in the West End. They take the Underground to Piccadilly Circus, and there they are in the middle of the West End.
They can eat in one of the restaurants in the West End near Piccadilly Circus. They can get food from twenty different countries in West End restaurants.
Londoners, and visitors, can go to a theatre in the West End, or to a concert, to an operea or a ballet. And there are fifty cinemas near Piccadilly Circus.
Or they can have a good „night out“ in a pub conservation and a drink or two.
Libraries, museums and art galleries
The British Library has 10 000 000 books in London. The Reading Room of the library is famous. That is only one library. London has hundreds of small libraries. The British Museum is famous, but young people often go to the museum in Kensington. In the British Museum, you look at things, but in Kensington museum you can do things. The National Gallery and the Tate Gallery are the two big London art galleries. They have some very famous pictures in them. You can see the history of British art in the Tate Gallery beside the Thames. London has small galleries too.
They often have exhibitions of famous pictures from galleries in Europe and America.
Exhibitions and shows
You can see a new exhibition or a show every week in London. Some of the London shows are famous. People come to them from many countries (Crufts Dog Show).
Madame Tussaud´s is famous for waxworks. There are waxworks of famous people (good&bad) in the show. You see not only people of the past but famous people of today there: kings, queens, princes and princesses, sportsmen and sportswomen, cinema stars and pop stars.
London´s parks and gardens
Londoners like the parks. Office workers often sit in them and eat their lunch. Band play at lunchtime and in the afternoon. Hyde Park is famous, but it is only one of London´s big parks. Come to London one day and walk in them. The parks are open to the people, but the big parks are really royal parks.
Regent´s Park has the London zoo. With the animals of the world. And in the summer it has an open-air theatre. You can sit in a chair or on the grass, and you see a play between the trees. The play is always by Shakespeare.
London has small parks and gardens too. You can walk in them, sit in them, play in them, take boats on the water in them – on good day in summer.
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If a person is micturating, what are they doing? | Micturating/Voiding Cystourethrogram (MCUG/VCUG) | Health | Patient
Micturating/Voiding Cystourethrogram (MCUG/VCUG)
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A micturating/voiding cystourethrogram (MCUG/VCUG) produces X-ray images of the bladder and urinary tract.
Note: the information below is a general guide only. The arrangements, and the way tests are performed, may vary between different hospitals. Always follow the instructions given by your doctor or local hospital.
What is a micturating/voiding cystourethrogram (MCUG/VCUG)?
A cystourethrogram produces specialised X-ray pictures. These help assess the structure and function of the lower urinary tract, in particular the bladder ('cysto') and the urethra (a tube which takes urine to the outside of your body). Images are also taken while the patient passes urine. Passing urine can be called micturating or voiding, hence the name. This is done to see whether urine flows away correctly from the bladder.
Note: for the rest of this leaflet we will use the short form of 'micturating/voiding cystourethrogram': MCUG/VCUG.
How does the urinary tract work?
There are two kidneys, one on each side of the tummy (abdomen). They make urine which drains down tubes called ureters into the bladder. Urine is stored in the bladder and is passed out through the urethra from time to time when we go to the toilet.
The ureter passes through the wall of the bladder at an angle. So, when the bladder contracts to pass urine, the wall of the bladder squeezes the end of the ureter to prevent urine being passed back up the ureter. In effect, this action works like a valve to stop backflow (reflux) of urine up the ureters. Normally, urine should only flow in one direction.
Muscles under the bladder (called the pelvic floor) create the valve which allows urine to flow out when we go to the toilet. When working correctly, they should stop the urine coming out until we want it to.
What is an MCUG/VCUG used for?
An MCUG/VCUG is most commonly used in children who have repeated urinary tract infections. In some children, a problem with the junction of the ureters and bladder allows urine to flow backwards towards the kidneys instead of away from them. This condition is called vesicoureteric reflux. Usually this valve problem does not cause the urine infections. However, in children who get them, it is important that it is picked up. This is so that action can be taken to protect the kidneys from infected urine, and so prevent kidney damage. This is most often why an MCUG/VCUG is done.
Other reasons an MCUG/VCUG is done:
To find the cause of urinary incontinence .
To look for a cause of repeated urinary tract infections.
To check for structural problems of the bladder and the urethra.
To look for injuries to the bladder or urethra.
How does an MCUG/VCUG work?
Normally, soft, hollow structures such as the bladder and ureters don't show up on X-ray images. In an MCUG/VCUG a special dye called a contrast agent is inserted into the bladder. The contrast agent blocks X-rays so that the areas it fills show up bright white in colour. This shows up the structures being examined by making them stand out against the black background on the X-ray picture.
An MCUG/VCUG also uses fluoroscopy. This is a technique which produces moving live video X-ray pictures on a screen. This allows the doctor to watch as the contrast agent fills the bladder and to observe any problems or defects. Urine should not flow backwards from the bladder so if the images show the contrast agent entering the ureters, this suggests vesicoureteric reflux. Your doctor may be able to assess how much of a problem this is by looking at the X-ray images.
What happens during an MCUG/VCUG?
The test takes about 30 minutes.
For a child
You will be able to stay with your child throughout the scan, unless you are pregnant. If you are pregnant, X-ray exposure during this procedure could harm the unborn child. It will therefore be necessary to arrange for another adult the child knows well to be with them for reassurance. Anyone staying with the child in the X-ray room will be given a lead apron to wear to protect them from X-ray exposure.
You will help your child to put on a hospital gown. They will lie down on the table. It might help distract them if you bring a favourite toy they can play with during the procedure. A very small child may need to be strapped in to stop them moving while the X-ray pictures are being taken.
Your child's genital area will be gently cleaned with an antiseptic solution by the nurse. Then a small, flexible tube (a catheter) will be gently pushed into the urethra and up into the bladder. Once this is in place, the dye (contrast agent) will be injected into the bladder through the catheter. The doctor will watch the pictures on the screen to see where the contrast agent goes. Your child may have to move into different positions so the contrast agent reaches all the relevant places. Finally your child will be asked to pass urine, whilst still on the table, into a jug or pan. The images on screen will show what is happening inside.
After this, your child will be able to get dressed and go home.
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For an adult
The procedure is the same. You will be asked to take off your clothes and wear a hospital gown. You will be asked to lie on the table.
Your genital area will be cleansed and the catheter will be inserted in the same way. You may find this uncomfortable and it may feel uncomfortable as the contrast agent fills the bladder. You may be asked to change positions during the test to obtain different views of the bladder and urinary tract.
Finally, the doctor will take some pictures as you empty your bladder by urinating. You may feel embarrassed about having to urinate in front of other people. However, this is a routine test and the staff will want you to feel as relaxed as possible. You may feel a strong urge to urinate at other times during the test.
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What should I do to prepare for an MCUG/VCUG?
Your hospital should give you information on how to prepare for this test. There is usually very little preparation needed. You/your child may be asked to take antibiotic medication before and/or after the test.
The test would not be done if the person having it has a urinary tract infection, so let the hospital know if you/your child have any of the signs of an infection (see below for a list).
Pregnant women should not have the test. So, let your hospital know if you are, or may be, pregnant. You should also advise the hospital if you are breast-feeding. They will let you know whether any special precautions need to be taken.
What can I expect after an MCUG/VCUG?
You/your child may feel a burning sensation when you urinate and/or need to go to the toilet more often than usual for a short time. It is normal for urine to have a pinkish tinge for a couple of days after the test.
Are there any side-effects or complications from an MCUG/VCUG?
Most people have an MCUG/VCUG without any complications. Rarely, a person may have an allergic reaction to the dye (contrast agent) used. It is also possible, although uncommon, that damage to the bladder or urinary tract could be caused during injection of the contrast agent. The most common complication is a urinary tract infection.
You should contact your doctor if you/your child have any of the following problems:
Blood in the urine after two days.
Pain in the lower part of the tummy (abdomen).
Signs of a urinary tract infection. These signs include:
Pain or burning upon urination.
An urge to urinate frequently but usually passing only small amounts of urine.
Dribbling or leaking of urine.
Urine that is reddish or pinkish, foul-smelling, or cloudy.
Pain in the back just below the rib cage on one side of the body (flank pain).
High temperature (fever) or chills.
Feeling sick (nausea) or being sick (vomiting).
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Further reading & references
Hua L, Linke RJ, Boucaut HA, et al ; Micturating cystourethrogram as a tool for investigating UTI in children - An institutional audit. J Pediatr Urol. 2016 Apr 16. pii: S1477-5131(16)30015-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jpurol.2016.03.009.
| Urination |
The Uffizi Gallery is a museum in which European city? | Urinary tract infections in children - Diagnosis - NHS Choices
Urinary tract infections in children - Diagnosis
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Urinary-tract-infection-children Treatment
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) in children can usually be diagnosed by your GP. They'll carry out a physical examination, ask about your child's symptoms, and request a urine sample.
You may be asked to collect the urine sample yourself, or a doctor or nurse at your GP surgery may help you.
These tests help your GP identify what's causing the infection and determine whether it's in the lower or upper part of the urinary tract.
If your child is less than three months old, your GP may refer you straight to hospital to see a specialist in caring for children (paediatrician) without asking for a urine sample.
Collecting a urine sample
Collecting a urine sample from a child can sometimes be difficult, especially in babies and young children.
If you're not sure what to do or need some help collecting the urine sample, ask a doctor or nurse for advice.
In young children who are toilet trained, you'll usually be asked to collect a urine sample using a sterile bottle provided by your GP surgery.
Collect a sample by holding the bottle in the stream of urine while your child is urinating. Make sure nothing touches the open rim of the bottle, as this could affect the result.
Read about how to collect and store a urine sample .
If you're unable to collect a clean sample, it may be collected using a special absorbent pad that you put in your baby's nappy. A urine sample is then sucked out of the pad using a syringe.
If a urine sample is very difficult to collect at home or in a GP surgery, you may need to go to a hospital.
In such cases, a urine sample can be obtained by inserting a small plastic tube called a catheter into your child's urethra.
Further tests
In most cases, treatment begins soon after a urine sample has been taken and your child won't need any further tests.
However, there are some circumstances where further tests may be carried out, including if:
your child is less than six months old
there's no improvement in your child's symptoms within 24 to 48 hours of treatment
your child has any unusual symptoms, such as reduced urine flow, high blood pressure (hypertension) , or a noticeable lump or mass in their tummy (abdomen) or bladder
your child has repeated UTIs
In these cases, doctors may recommend carrying out some scans to look for any abnormalities.
Scans
There are many different scans that may be carried out to check for problems in your child's urinary tract, including:
an ultrasound scan – where sound waves emitted by a special probe move over your child's skin and are used to build up a picture of the inside of their body
a dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) scan – where your child is injected with a slightly radioactive substance called DMSA that shows up on a special device called a gamma camera, which takes pictures of your child's kidneys; after the scan, the DMSA will pass harmlessly out of your child's body in their urine
a micturating cystourethrogram (MCUG) – where a catheter is used to pass a special type of liquid (contrast agent) that shows up clearly on X-rays into your child's bladder while a series of X-rays are taken; as with the DMSA scan, the contrast agent will pass harmlessly out of your child's body in their urine
The type of scans used and when they're carried out depends on your child's specific circumstances. In some cases, these scans may be carried out a few weeks or months after your child originally developed the infection.
Page last reviewed: 23/05/2016
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Which BBC radio programme introduces a castaway every week? | The week in radio: Desert Island Discs; The Compass; Chris Evans; The Archers | Television & radio | The Guardian
The Observer
The week in radio: Desert Island Discs; The Compass; Chris Evans; The Archers
Castaway Bill Gates impressed – just not with all his music choices. And fond memories of Terry Wogan on the Chris Evans show
‘Far more likable than expected’: Bill Gates joins Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs. Photograph: BBC/PA
Desert Island Discs (Radio 4) iPlayer
The Compass: My Perfect Country (BBC World Service) iPlayer
Chris Evans (Radio 2) iPlayer
The Archers (Radio 4) iPlayer
Bill Gates is on Desert Island Discs . He sounds as you imagine: reedy yet assertive, like he’s so clever he knows what Kirsty Young is going to ask before she says it. (He doesn’t: Kirsty always has a side-swiper question up her sleeve, that’s her USP.) He seems younger than his age (60), and modest, despite the fact that, even among DID alumni, Gates’s successes are impressive. Not just in the computer world, where we hear he was employing people before he could legally drive, but with his charitable foundation. At one point he mentions that in the past 18 months there have been no – that’s zero – incidents of polio in the whole of Africa. “Just Pakistan and Afghanistan to go,” he says. And then polio will be gone, banished from the planet partly due to the efforts and money of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation . He says it in passing. I had to go back to check I’d heard right. What an achievement.
When Young asked him about being ruthless (her side-swiper), Gates said he wasn’t… but then admitted that when he worked in computing he would always go for a “super-low price point”, because he was “betting on volume”, and for his rivals that would definitely be considered ruthless.
Gates started off well, with Queen, Bowie, Hendrix… but then jumped into musical theatre, which is never good
And the music (always the most revealing part)? His taste went skew-whiff as the programme went on: he started off well, with Queen and Bowie’s Under Pressure, Willie Nelson and Jimi Hendrix, but then jumped into musical theatre, which is never good. In the end he was far more likable than I expected, though that might be part of his ruthlessness. There are worries about whether his foundation pays enough taxes. Still, no more polio. Amazing.
Working towards a better world… over on the World Service, they’ve been wondering about the same thing. In The Compass: My Perfect Country , Fi Glover, accompanied by Martha Lane Fox and Professor Henrietta Moore, is taking a look at different countries for what we might consider their assets. Estonia was the first. It’s a digital success story: after breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1991, it “leapfrogged” (Moore’s term), quickly becoming one of the most internet-friendly countries in the world. Free Wi-Fi for everyone, all schools digitally connected. You can file your tax return in two minutes because every governmental department is linked digitally, so it’s all prepared for you. Estonia chose to do this because it’s a largeish country with only 1.3 million people in it, so connection between them is important. An interesting beginning to an interesting series, and lovely to hear Fi Glover’s voice and her light, funny script.
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L-r: Henrietta Moore, Fi Glover and Martha Lane Fox present My Perfect Country. Photograph: Henry Iddon/BBC
Light and funny were Terry Wogan’s thing, and he did them beautifully. I was sad to hear of his death. His Radio 2 breakfast show was never quite my cup of tea – a bit too cosy golf club, and the music was awful – but his voice was a delight, the chuckle in the heart of it always threatening to bubble up and overwhelm the whole studio with giggles. Last Monday morning, Chris Evans ’s chat with Wogan’s friend Father Brian D’Arcy was sweet and revealing. Father Brian told some funny stories and made a good point about Wogan’s Irish accent seeming classless to British listeners. Then he told us about seeing Wogan for that last time. “There’s nothing as sacred as a person’s last few days,” he said. “As soon as I saw Terry, I knew it was the last time I was going to see him, and the shake hands was the last shake hands I would have with him. It was a beautiful day, a day I’ll never forget, and a sad day because it was the end of an incredible friendship.” And oh, the crack in his voice…
Can I mention The Archers ? Come on, Kirsty! Keep pushing! Also, inappropriate Kim Kardashian reference from Rob on Wednesday. Who compares a pregnant woman to Kim K? Honestly, can he get any more evil?
| Desert Island Discs |
Lewis Hamilton was disqualified from which 2009 Formula One Grand Prix? | Radio 2 to air Desert Island Discs special | RadioToday
Posted by Stuart Clarkson
Radio 2 to air Desert Island Discs special
BBC Radio 2 is to air a special Desert Island Discs edition of its Friday Night Is Music Night show this week, which will feature live appearances from former castaways and some of their choices of music.
The programme is part of promotion for a special programme on Radio 4 next month which will feature the music the station’s listeners would take with them if they were cast away.
Radio 4 are inviting listeners to pick their eight Desert Island Discs and submit them via the station’s website. A 90-minute special called ‘Your Desert Island Discs’ will then air on 11 June at 9am. The top listener choices will be compared with the selections made by celebrities over the years. The most picked piece of music has been Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, selected 97 times.
Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young said: “Every castaway is unique, but the one thing they all say to me is how difficult it is to choose their eight discs. Now the nation has a chance to share in the agony and ecstasy of making their very own selection.”
The Desert Island Music Night on Radio 2 will go out this Friday at 8pm.
Hear more radio industry news like this at the top of the hour on inRadio - the radio industry's very own radio station. Listen now in a new window whilst you continue reading RadioToday or press play below.
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Who played Dudley Moore’s butler in the 1981 film ‘Arthur’? | Arthur (1981) - IMDb
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| Comedy , Romance | 17 July 1981 (USA)
Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she ... See full summary »
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Won 2 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 6 nominations. See more awards »
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Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with. Written by John Vogel <[email protected]>
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Taglines:
I race cars, I play tennis, I fondle women, but I have weekends off and I am my own boss! See more »
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17 July 1981 (USA) See more »
Also Known As:
Arturo, el millonario seductor See more »
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Trivia
The scene where Arthur drives his "racing car" around a track was shot at the now defunct Danbury Fair Racearena in Connecticut. The type of car that Arthur drove was never raced there, it was primarily for Modified stock cars and was one of America's great short tracks. Sadly, despite its great success, the land became too valuable and it gave way to a shopping mall. The Danbury Fair Racearena closed on October 12, 1981, shortly after the movie was filmed. See more »
Goofs
When Burt Johnson takes the knife out of the cheese and starts to approach Arthur and Linda, she reaches her right arm under Arthur's right arm to clutch him. In the next close-up, her right arm is draped over Arthur's right shoulder as she clutches him. See more »
Quotes
Arthur : Isn't this fun? Isn't fun the best thing to have? Don't you wish you were me? I know I do.
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Frequently Asked Questions
One of the Funniest Films Ever!
1 September 2006 | by ([email protected])
(United States) – See all my reviews
Let's begin with that theme song sung by Christopher Cross. The song is "If you get caught between the moon and New York City." It's a great theme and song even after all these years, it never gets tiring. It really is a great song about New York City as well. Anyway, the great Dudley Moore CBE stars as a spoiled drunken millionaire who is engaged to Jill Eikenberry's character in the film. Jill would later star on LA Law. Anyway, he is served by his wonderful British butler, Sir John Gielgud OM who won an Academy Award for his performance in the film as Best Supporting Actor. Arthur falls in love with Liza Minnelli's character who is perfect in this film besides her performance in her Oscar winning role in Cabaret. No, Liza doesn't get to sing. She plays a diner waitress. Anyway I love Geraldine Fitzgerald as the Bach matriarch of the family who decides the family's fortune. Anyway, she is fabulous and should have gotten an academy award nomination herself for Best Supporting Actress. Barney Martin best known as Jerry's dad on Seinfeld plays Liza's dad. He's great too. The movie was well-written, acted, and delivered to the audience who wanted more of it.
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| John Gielgud |
In the animal world, nidification is the building of what? | Arthur | Butlersguild
Butlersguild
Visitors » Films » Arthur
THE MOST FUN MONEY CAN BUY
Classic hit comedy starring Dudley Moore as the charmingly witty, perpetually drunken millionaire Arthur Bach. Arthur falls in love with a waitress (Liza Minelli) who doesn't care about his money, but unfortunately Arthur's stern father wants him to marry a Waspy prima donna. The young lush turns to his wise and loyal Butler (Oscar-winner John Gielgud) for assistance and advice.
Arthur was a huge hit when released in 1981, as was its Oscar-winning theme song by Christopher Cross. Few remember that the movie was, sadly, the only one ever made by writer-director Steve Gordon, who died less than a year after the film's release. Consistently funny and heartwarming, Arthur was hailed as a tribute to the great romantic comedies of the 1930s.
Arthur Bock (Dudley Moore) is the quintessential spoiled second generation millionaire. He has never had to work a day in his life. He has his own penthouse suite complete with running trains and butler. Arthur's favorite pastime is getting drunk and embarrassing the upper-class.
We first see Arthur as he is being chauffeured through the red light district. He picks up a profession (her friend gets $50 for coming in second). He takes her to a fancy restaurant, saying she is a princess from a small country (so small that last year the recarpeted the entire country!). The next morning enter Hobson (John Gielguld), an acerbic British butler. He has the perfect one line response to any situation.
Arthur is summoned by his father. The edict is given that Arthur must marry the daughter of dad's business rival or be cut off from his inheritance. Arthur's answer to that is to go shopping and spend more of dad's money. There he spies a quirky shoplifter, Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli). Something about her interests Arthur and he pursues her.
Eventually, reality wins out and Arthur must come to terms with his pending nuptials. Now this leads to the funniest scenes of the film. First is when Hobson realizes that Arthur really loves Linda and goes to her apartment to tell to go to the engagement party. (Best Line: "Please get me two aspirin. You will find them on the second shelf of the medicine cabinet behind the unused shave cream.") Next is when Linda shows up at the engagement party. (Best Line: "I was in the neighborhood, it took two taxi's, a bus and a train. But I was in the neighborhood") Finally, is the wedding that completely falls apart.
This was one of the best written comedies with one liners that are still being repeated. Dudley Moore gives his best performance ever. Unfortunately, it was too good and most people thought that he was like Arthur. Liza showed she inherited her mother's comic timing. But the film was stolen by John Gielguld. Gielguld deservedly won an Oscar for his perfect performance. Also notable is Ted Ross (Tony winner as the Cowardly Lion in The Wiz) as the chauffer and Geraldine Fitzgerald as Arthur's hard as nails grandmother. Oh and don't forget the great theme song!!
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Fashion brand Miu Miu is a subsidiary of which famous Italian fashion house? | 1000+ images about Prada on Pinterest | Granddaughters, UX/UI Designer and Fashion designers
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PRADA is an Italian fashion brand specializing in luxury goods for men and women, founded in 1913 by Mario Prada. Miuccia Prada was born in Milan, the youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, founder of the company. Prada was born in Milan in 1949. In 1985, Miuccia had her first hit when she designed a line of black, finely woven nylon handbags. Miuccia was honored with the prestigious Council of Fashion Designers of American International Award in 1993.
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Prada, S.p.A. is a well-known Italian fashion company (also known as a "label" or "house") with retail outlets worldwide.
The company, originally known in Italy as "Prada Brothers", was founded in 1913 by Mario Prada in Milan. In 1978, Mario's granddaughter Miuccia Prada inherited what was still a leather goods business from her mother, and led the company's expansion into couture with an overall more bohemian style. Miu Miu is a second line of clothing, often simpler and evoking a continual image of high-end vintage items. It was followed by the Prada Sport 'Linea Rossa'
Currently Prada is considered one of the most influential clothing designers in the fashion industry.
Following the lead of other companies in a popular trend to absorb as many other fashion houses as possible, Prada took on large debts when it acquired the financially floundering Rome-based house of Fendi in the early 1990s. Prada assumed shares in Fendi with the LVMH company. Prada was unable to turn around/support the money-losing Fendi label, and sold its Fendi shares to LVMH. Prada is still recovering from this debt. In 1999, the company acquired Church's, the English maker of quality shoes; more recently a 45% stake has been sold to Equinox.
The Prada Group's other notable purchases in the 1990s were the Helmut Lang and Jil Sander labels. By 2006, however, both labels had been sold. Jil Sander was sold to the private equity firm Change Capital Partners, which is headed by Luc Vandevelde, the chairman of Carrefour, while the Helmut Lang label is now owned by Japanese fashion company Link Theory. In May of 2007, Prada joined forces with cell phone maker LG Electronics to create the LG Prada (KE850) phone. It retails for $800.
Prada has 9 boutiques and 3 epicenter/megastores in the U.S., with a 4th epicenter store being built in Boston. (Epicenter stores are much larger than normal boutiques, carry much more merchandise, and usually have numerous floors)
U.S. Boutiques in New Yrok, Chicago, San Francisco, Bal Harbour, Las Vegas, Ala Moana Center, Waikiki, Aspen.
Worldwide Epicenters in New York, Beverly Hills, Tokyo and Boston.
The Look
Fabrics - Miuccia Prada uses a lot of crunchy polyester, parachute nylon and other synthetic fabrics. Colours - she likes Battleship green, browns, white, cream, and black. Simple destructured shapes, knee length skirts, her skinny belts had become the currency of success in the mid 90's. Her clothes are not exactly fashionable. There is no defining accent, just a grouping of desirable useful things in exquisite fabrics. Her clothes, though often deceptively plain looking, have become widely influential. She gives traditional garments a modern handling, like trimming nylon parkas with mink and making trench coats and twin sets out of silk faille. It seems that the whole world craves Prada's ice-cool minimalism and deadpan eroticism.
Who Wears It
Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayak, Maggie Gyllenhall, Rachel Bilson, Angela Lindvall, Eva Longoria, Angie Harmon, Emmy Rossum, Martina Hingis,
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The novels ‘The Shipmaster, ‘The Iron Ships’ and ‘The Trade Winds’ by Cyril Abraham, are based on which 1970’s British tv series? | Pampero (fictional ship) : Wikis (The Full Wiki)
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Onedin Line was a popular BBC television drama series that ran from 1971 to 1980. The series is set in Liverpool in the mid-19th century and deals with the rise of a shipping line, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this central theme are the lives of his family, most notably his brother and 'partner', shop owner Robert, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore (mostly lower and upper middle class). The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steam ships. And it shows the role that ships played in affairs like international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.
The series was created by Cyril Abraham, a native of Liverpool, where the story is set. An article in "Woman" magazine published in July 1973, interviewing Cyril Abraham, tells how he came up with the very unusual family name Onedin.
He wanted something unique, He'd decided to call the male character James, but still had not found a name when the BBC agreed to film the story. Then some inspiration. He said, "One day I stumbled across the word Ondine , a mythological sea creature. By transposing the "e", I had James Onedin, a sea devil."
The music behind the opening credits of the series is an excerpt from the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from the ballet Spartacus by Aram Khachaturian , and other background music includes excerpts from Ralph Vaughan Williams 's Symphony No. 5 , Manuel de Falla 's The Three-Cornered Hat , and Dmitri Shostakovich 's Symphony No. 1 . The programme was recorded in Dartmouth, Devon , as well as certain scenes in Exeter , Falmouth and Gloucester (many of the dock scenes). The last series was filmed in Pembroke Dock , Wales where the 18th Century naval dockyard and surrounding streets became Liverpool and various coastal locations in the Pembrokeshire area substituted for Turkey and Portugal.
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Story outline
James Onedin (played by Peter Gilmore ), the younger son of old Samuel Onedin, a miserly ship chandler , was a penniless sea captain with aspirations to greater things. He married Anne Webster ( Anne Stallybrass ), who was some years his senior (Stallybrass, however, actually was 7 years younger than Gilmore) and the spinster daughter of Captain Joshua Webster, owner of the topsail schooner Charlotte Rhodes. James's only motivation was to get his hands on the ship. A shrewd and often ruthless operator, James soon built up a fleet, assisted by the loyal Mr (later Captain) Baines. His other sailing ships included the Pampero, the Medusa and the Soren Larsen . He also initiated the building of a steamship , the Anne Onedin.
James's volatile sister, Elizabeth ( Jessica Benton ), became pregnant by seafarer Daniel Fogarty ( Michael Billington ) but married wealthy Albert Frazer, developer of steamship technology and heir to the Frazer shipyards, a connection James soon turned to his own advantage. Elizabeth gave birth to a son, William, who later died as a young man in a street accident.
Robert, James's older brother, took after their father and counted coppers in the family shop, though he later expanded it into a profitable department store, urged on by his thrifty and socially ambitious wife, Sarah. They had one son, Samuel, who cared more for the sea and ships than shopkeeping. Robert was elected as a Member of Parliament and he and Sarah moved to a smart new residence, but Robert's life abruptly came to an end when he choked on a bone at a family dinner. His widow Sarah made attempts to contact him through a medium, then, despite her son Samuel's objections, almost married the fortune-hunting Captain Dampier. She was last heard of as having undertaken a tour of the world but at a certain point abandoned its itinerary. Since she did not reappear in Liverpool she may even have settled abroad.
At the end of the second series, Anne, whom James had come to love, died giving birth to a daughter, Charlotte. James considered two possible replacement brides for a while, wealthy widow Caroline Maudslay and the young heiress Leonora Biddulph ( Kate Nelligan ), before settling for his daughter's governess , Letty Gaunt. In due course Letty also died, of diphtheria , and by the last series James was married to a third wife, the exotic Margarita Juarez, and was by then a grandfather.
The eighth and final series ended with news of the death at sea of Daniel Fogarty, whom Elizabeth had finally married after the death of her first husband Albert, and also with the birth, at last, of a son and heir for James. Born aboard ship, the child was named Will after Captain Baines.
Actors
The series made the careers of Peter Gilmore , who played James, and Anne Stallybrass , who played Anne, and Howard Lang who played Captain Baines, as well as being an important break for Jill Gascoine (Letty), Warren Clarke (Josiah Beaumont), Kate Nelligan (Leonora Biddulph) and Jane Seymour (Emma Callon). Other cast members included Jessica Benton (Elizabeth Frazer), Brian Rawlinson and James Garbutt (Robert Onedin), Mary Webster (Sarah Onedin), Michael Billington / Tom Adams (Daniel Fogarty), Philip Bond (Albert Frazer), Edward Chapman (George Callon), James Warwick (Edmund Callon), John Phillips (Jack Frazer), Caroline Harris (Caroline Maudslay), James Hayter (Captain Joshua Webster), Ken Hutchison (Matt Harvey), Laura Hartong (Charlotte Onedin), Marc Harrison (William Frazer), Christopher Douglas (Samuel Onedin), Roberta Iger (Margarita Onedin), Jenny Twigge (Caroline Onedin), Cyril Shaps (Braganza), Hilda Braid (Miss Simmonds), David Garfield ( Samuel Plimsoll ), Robert James (Rowland Biddulph), Sylvia Coleridge (Mrs Salt), Sonia Dresdel (Lady Lazenby), Nicolette Roeg (Ada Gamble), John Rapley (Dunwoody), Stephanie Bidmead (Mrs Darling), John Sharp (Uncle Percy Spendilow), Heather Canning (Mrs Arkwright), Keith Jayne (Tom Arnold), Frederick Jaeger (Max van der Rheede), Edward Judd (Manuel Ortega), Elizabeth Chambers (Miss Gladstone) and Jack Watson (Dr Darling).
Novels
There are six novels based on the series. The first five, The Shipmaster (1972), The Iron Ships (1974), The High Seas (1975), The Trade Winds (1977) and The White Ships (1979) are all by the creator of the series, Cyril Abraham. The books are not straightforward novelisations of the television episodes, since the author introduced additional material and also changed a number of details, though dialogue from the series that Abraham had penned himself is utilised. In print, Elizabeth's child is conceived in a private room above a restaurant, not on the Charlotte Rhodes; George Callon lasted considerably longer and died in bed after suffering a stroke, not in a warehouse fire; Emma was Callon's daughter, not his niece; Captain Webster remarried, his new partner being the irrepressible old crone Widow Malloy, an entertaining character with a repertoire of coarse remarks; Albert did not abscond to Patagonia but died aboard ship following his involvement in retrieving a kidnapped Elizabeth from Daniel Fogarty; Caroline Maudslay and Matt Harvey were omitted altogether (though Matt did appear in a short story - see below); Jack Frazer's life was extended and he lived to see both Emma's death and Daniel's return from Australia, though his television discovery that William was not his grandson never took place.
The sixth novel, The Turning Tide (1980), was written by Bruce Stewart . This deviated even more from the television series and probably from Cyril Abraham's intentions as well. Letty was depicted as a jealous harpy aiming unpleasant remarks at Charlotte; Elizabeth and Daniel ended up emigrating to Australia permanently and James became the owner of the Frazer Line. The book is, nonetheless, an entertaining read with a moving final speech from James.
A series of Onedin short stories by Cyril Abraham, set between Series Two and Series Three, appeared in Woman magazine in 1973. The plots involved Robert's encounter with the attractive Amelia, a social gathering that revolves around the naming of the first Onedin steamship and an appearance by Sarah's destitute sister Constance, who is on the streets. A later tale by Abraham, For Love of the Onedins, appeared in a short-lived magazine called tvlife. This story, covering Leonora Biddulph's wedding, occurs between Series Three and Series Four and features Matt Harvey, who was Elizabeth's love interest during the fourth series. There is a slanging match between Elizabeth and Sarah, who each disparage the circumstances of the other's wedding day until Leonora intervenes to restore peace.
Cyril Abraham had planned to write a whole series of novels that would follow the fortunes of the Onedin Line into the twentieth century, but he died in 1979 after completing The White Ships. The only clue as to where the story might ultimately have led is that Abraham saw James and Elizabeth as eventually becoming two wizened old autocrats, both determined not to relinquish their hold on the shipping business.
Broadcasts
Originally screened as a one-off BBC Drama Playhouse production transmitted on the 7th December 1970. No recording of this now exists, the story and the cast were basically the same (with the exception of Sheila Allen, who played Anne Webster/Onedin. Anne Stallybrass took over the part for the series) as the first episode of series 1 that was later transmitted on the 15th October 1971.
The series was originally aired in the UK by the BBC, from 15 October 1971 to 26 October 1980. In the Netherlands , broadcasts started in 1972. In the early 1990s there was a rerun and in 2007, MAX restarted a broadcast of the first series, with one episode every workday (Monday through Friday), starting 10 July 2007. As of mid-August it is uncertain whether they will also show the other series.
Home Video and DVD releases
Home video versions of the series have been made available in various versions over the years. For series one, edited versions were made available by BBC Video on VHS in the 1990s. These edited masters saw a re-release in the UK on DVD from Universal Playback in 2003. The Australian (from ABC ) and Dutch (from Memphis Belle) DVD versions of series one also derive from these edited versions. In North America , Canadian company BFS Video released the first four episodes uncut on VHS in 2001, with these and the next four episodes arriving on DVD in two double-disc sets two years later.
It wouldn't be until 2007 that all 15 episodes of the first series became available uncut on DVD, in the UK from 2 entertain in a four-disc set.
Series two follows a similar pattern, with edited versions arriving on VHS and DVD in the UK from the same companies listed above. The version from Holland is sourced from the same masters. The Australian version, however, has all 14 episodes uncut on four discs.
Series three through five are available from Holland, and all are reportedly uncut. All episodes up till series six are also available in Germany , with the remainder scheduled for release within the first quarter of 2010.
To summarize, if you'd like to see the first five series uncut and unedited, you'd need to buy the 2 entertain series one set, the ABC series two set, and Dutch sets for series three-five.
Episode list
| The Onedin Line |
The Anatolian Peninsula comprises most of which modern day country? | The Nautical Fiction List (1/5) - Google Groups
The Nautical Fiction List (1/5)
Showing 1-1 of 1 messages
A readers' list of novels, novelettes, short stories, poetry and
drama of the sea. Many of the entries are now out of print, but
most can probably be found by using interlibrary loan or diligent
searching of dark and musty used book stores. Good luck!
No. 24
About 459 Authors and 1400 titles so far
Alphabetical by author's last name, with incidental information, and dates
when first published, if known. There may be errors!
Send contributions and corrections to [email protected]
This list is now available on the World Wide Web at:
Entries preceded by a '+' are available electronically,
see the separate Electronic Nautical Books List:
The Onedin Line series: (1860s British commercial shipping, British TV
series in the 1970s.)
The Shipmaster, 1972 (Elizabeth Onedin bargains everything for a ship,
builds shipping empire.)
The Iron Ships, 1974 (Elizabeth Onedin battles brothers for control of
the Onedin Line.)
A Sailor to the Wheel (Young stowaway proves useful round Cape Horn.)
Adlard, Mark
The Greenlander, 1978 (Young man comes of age at sea, whaling in the
Arctic, as steam overtakes sail in the 19th century.)
Albano, Peter
Carrier "Yonaga" series: (84,000 ton Japanese aircraft carrier frozen in
the Arctic ice since 1941. It breaks free in 1983 and becomes the savior
of the free world.)
The Seventh Carrier, 1983 [1]("Yonaga" breaks free of the arctic ice,
and her Samurai crew is determined to complete its 1941 mission:
destroying Pearl Harbor.)
The Second Voyage of the Seventh Carrier [2] (The Chinese launch a
particle beam satellite that knocks out all modern electronics,
airplanes and ships. The old Japanese carrier "Yonaga" is the only
warship that still works and has planes that fly.)
Return of the Seventh Carrier [3] (The world is still crippled by the
Chinese particle beam, and Libyan terrorists are out to destroy
"Yonaga", last hope of the free world.)
The Quest of the Seventh Carrier, 1989 [4] ("Yonaga" is still the
largest functioning warship in the world. She leads a ragtag group of
WW II airplanes and ships against the Libyan Navy and its bigger
collection of WW II vintage ships.)
Attack of the Seventh Carrier, 1989 [5] (Old US Navy WW II submarine
joins "Yonaga's" fleet as the battle with Libya's navy continues.)
Ordeal of the Seventh Carrier [6] ("Yonaga" fights Arab battle group
off Iwo Jima. It's carrier versus carrier, 1940s style, in the
1980s!)
Trial of the Seventh Carrier [7] (The Arab navy threatens Japan, and
"Yonaga" still carries the banner of the free world.)
Revenge of the Seventh Carrier, 1992 [8](Libyan Navy strike force armed
with poison gas threatens the major cities of the free world, but
"Yonaga's" Samurai crew is still on the job.)
Challenge of the Seventh Carrier, 1993 [9] ("Yonaga", with help from
every corner of the earth, including the battleship "New Jersey",
continues the battle with the Libyan madman.)
Allen, Thomas B. and Polmar, Norman
Ship of Gold, 1987 (Submarines seek a sunken ship, as the CIA, Pentagon,
etc. strive to solve the forty year old mystery surrounding "Osaka
Maru".)
Amado, Jorge 1912- (Author of Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands.)
Home is the Sailor: the whole truth concerning the Redoubtful Adventures
of Captain Vasco Moscoso de Aragao, Master Mariner, 1964 (Old fart
masquerading as a sea captain finds himself in command of a Brazilian
passenger ship.)
Freedom's Rangers: Sink the Armada, 1990 (Silly science fiction about
time travellers who return to 1588 to help the Spanish Armada beat the
Engilsh.)
Apollonius Rhodius 3rd Cent. BC
Argonautica (Epic poem about Jason, the Argonauts, and the quest for the
golden fleece.)
The Final Crossing, 1990 (American agent, escaping Germany with two
important Jewish refugees, one of whom is a protege of Einstein, books
passage on the "Normandie", on its final transatlantic crossing prior
to the outbreak of WWII. Once aboard he discovers that the ship is also
carrying France's gold reserves to the US, and that the Nazis have a
saboteur aboard to sink the ship en route.)
Armstrong, Richard
Cold Hazard, 1955 (Seventeen-year-old Jim Naylor and his four companions
abandon their sinking ship off Newfoundland. Their open boat offers
little solace, and the desolate island where they seek refuge even
less.)
The Big Sea, 1964 (Storm damages the steamship "Kariba" and her crew
abandons ship, leaving one seaman abooard to ride it out.)
Avi 1937-
Captain Grey, 1977 (Following the Revolution, an eleven-year-old boy
becomes the captive of a ruthless man who has set up his own "nation,"
supported by piracy, on a remote part of the New Jersey coast.)
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, 1990 (As the lone "young lady"
on a transatlantic voyage in 1832, Charlotte learns that the captain is
murderous and the crew rebellious. A great young adult book (the
heroine is about 12 years old). It's obviously influenced by Moby Dick,
Huck Finn and other stories.)
Bagley, Desmond 1923-
Wyatt's Hurricane, 1966 (Meteorologist Wyatt knows the hurricane will hit
his Caribbean island. The storm comes just as a rebel leader is massing
his forces. As wind and war near each other only Wyatt can save the
island) .
Golden Keel, 1963 (Mussolini's missing treasure lies hidden in Italy. A
group of adventurers set sail to track down the treasure and smuggle it
out.)
Night of Error, 1984 (On an expedition to a remote Pacific atoll, one
brother dies under suspicious circumstances. The other brother is
forced to investigate. A violent and hazardous expedition follows.)
The Freedom Trap, 1971 (A brilliantly organized gang springs a Russian
double agent from jail. The trail leads to the Mediterranean & Malta.)
Baker, W. Howard
Strike North (Escorting convoys to Murmansk with a spy aboard during
WW II.)
Fighting the Whales, or Doings and Dangers on a Fishing Cruise, 186?
The Red Eric or, The Whaler's Last Cruise, 1863
Gascoyne, The Sandalwood Trader, A Tale of the Pacific, 1865
The World of Ice or the Whaling Cruise of "The Dolphin" and the
Adventures of her Crew in the Polar Regions, 1866
Coral Island, A Tale of the Pacific Ocean, 1867
Ballard, Robert & Chiu, Tony
Bright Shark, 1992 (Undersea techno-thriller.)
Ballenger, Dean W.
Terror at Sea, 1981 (Fictionalized retelling of the aftermath of the loss
of the cruiser "Indianapolis" in the Pacific during WW II, and shark
attacks on the survivors. Author was Navy correspondent, participated
in the rescue and interviewed the survivors. Grisly.)
The Sea Guerillas, 1982 (Wildly improbable tale of a USN PT boat
operating off the Azores in 1942-43 disguised as Portugese fishing
boat. This allows them to stalk and sink the U-boats operating in these
waters, which have chased off every other warship -- but not apparently
Allied merchant shipping. The Nazis had been taking advantage of this
situation to torpedo hospital ships, murder survivors, and rape
captured nurses.)
Liner, 1981 (Passengers and crew aboard an ageing Greek cruise ship,
heading from Tasmania for Singapore, with metal fatigue in the engine
room and lifeboats corroded to the davits, encounter a typhoon.)
Barnitz, Charles
The Deepest Sea (Viking fantasy. Deals with the late 8th Century, a raid
on a monastery in 793 AD and susequent adventures. The events,
conditions and attitudes described have an unerring ring of truth to
them, despite a glib (though highly enjoyable) 20th century style and
sense of humor at places and the fantasy aspects. An top notch read.)
Sabbatical, 1982 (A charming book. A couple take a last sailing cruise
around the Chesapeake before their child is born; sort of a sabbatical
from all sorts of responsibilities, disputes, complications. Including,
will they stay together? Much less convoluted than Barth's other
fiction.)
Tidewater Tales, 1987 (About a writer who's muse has gone mute due to
being privy to secrets from a spook friend and not being able to talk
about them. Much of the action takes place on the Chesapeake Bay.)
The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, 1991 (About a guy on a sailboat
charter vacation who somehow gets transported to the time and place of
Sinbad and the 1001 Nights. The book is quite interesting, though the
sailing takes a backseat to the story-telling.)
Once Upon a Time : A Floating Opera, 1994 (About a guy and his wife
passing through some strange time/space warp in a squall on the
Chesapeake Bay.)
Bartimeus (Lewis Anselm DaCosta Ricci, compare with "Taffrail")
Naval Occasions, 1915 (stort stories about naval life in peace and war.)
Action Stations, 1941 (Factual and fictional sketches of naval events
during WW II, including the exploits of "Orzel", "Altmark",
minesweepers and the "Bismarck".)
Those Who Serve (The story of the Royal Navy submarine "Tamaranth" during
WW II, from the beginning of the war until the sinking of the sub, as
told from the point of view of a man who served on her as First
Lieutenant and Captain.)
Harm's way, 1962 (Aboard USN cruiser "Old Swayback" in the Pacific during
WW II.)
Commander Prince, USN (Naval commander who has served on staff
positions is given command of a destroyer squadron in the Asiatic Fleet
after the outbreak of WWII. He must overcome doubts about his
competence and courage in the Java Sea, then fight an unequal battle
with a Japanese cruiser and his former flagship -- captured by the IJN
-- off the Solomons.)
The Tinfish Run, 1942 (Ancient British destroyer hunts subs, fights
German aircraft in the Arctic. Bassett served in the Arctic aboard a
British cruiser. Many incidents in the novel are based on true events.)
The Guns of Evening, 1980 (Aboard the battle-cruiser "Invincible at the
Battle of Jutland.)
The White Sail, 1944 (Old-fashioned romance set on Cape Cod in the summer
amidst sailing and fishing boats.)
Bates, H. E. 1905-1974
The Cruise of the Breadwinner, 1947 (WW II English fishing boat on
patrol.)
The Black Yacht, 1982 (A tale of intrigue and suspense surrounding the
America's Cup (12-meter style), complete with international assassins,
Japanese challengers utilizing the latest in high-tech boat building
techniques, and old 12-meters being used for Columbian drug running.
The book is high on the mystery content and not-so high on the sailing
aspects. Enjoyable if somewhat over the top in certain areas.)
Beach, Edward 1918- (Submarine officer from WWII to nuclear era, Captain
of the Triton on the round-the-world-submerged run, and a good writer.)
Run Silent, Run Deep, 1955 (WW II Pacific submarine action. Best sub
novel ever written, some say.)
Dust on the Sea, 1972 (American sub "Eel" in Japan's tightly guarded
inland sea during WW II.)
Cold is the Sea, 1978 (15 years after WW II a nuclear submarine "Cushing"
goes on a secret mission to the arctic to test fire missiles from under
the ice, collides with Russky sub, causing no end of trouble.)
(Beach has also some good nautical non-fiction.)
Becklund, Jack
Golden Fleece, 1990 (Murder mystery involving disappearance of a sailboat
in Lake Superior.)
Sail A Crooked Ship, 1960 (An aimless young man and his debutant fiancee
end up shanghaied on a stolen, clapped-out, reserve fleet freighter
that had been moored in New York Harbor. They find themselves held by
an improbable collection of incompetent criminals, who take the ship to
sea for use as a getaway vehicle for bank robberies. Instead they prove
to be a seagoing gang that could not shoot straight. Set in the late
1950s. A real howler!)
The Off-Islanders, 1961 (Russian nuclear submarine runs aground off a
New England island the night that the island's High School football
team wins its first game in years. Madcap farce. Basis of the movie
"The Russians Are Coming!")
The Deep, 1976 ("A young couple go to Bermuda on their honeymoon. They
dive on the reefs offshore, looking for the wreck of a sunken ship.
What they find lures them into a strange and increasingly terrifying
encounter with past and present, a struggle for salvage and survival,
along the floor of the sea, in the deep." [From the dust jacket])
The Island, 1979 (Descendants of Caribbean pirates cause trouble in
the present.)
White Shark, 1994 (Off modern-day Massachusetts, a freak accident revives
a hideous Nazi experiment that had been entombed in the sea since WWII.
A cross between SS storm trooper and a mechanized shark, the creature
goes on the rampage (sort of) and a beleaguered marine scientist is the
only one who realizes something unusual is going on.)
Bengtsson, Frans Gunnar 1894-
The Long Ships: a saga of the Viking age, 1942 (Red Orm in the original
Swedish. Adventures of Red Orm, son of a pirate, master of his own ship
and afraid of no man. Bengtsson uses a rather dry style, like that of
the Icelandic sagas, to describe very exciting events, and gives a
vivid portrayal of the time and places without resorting to much
description. A ripping yarn. Made into a movie in 1963.)
Benjamin, Helen Mina Purvis and Benjamin, Lewis Saul, 1874-1932 (Editors)
Full Fathom Five, A Sea-Anthology in Prose & Verse. By Helen and Lewis
Melville (pseudonym), 1910
Marianne and the Privateer, 1971 (Fiery temptress is rescued, resumes her
affair with American privateer. Set in the early 1800s. Originally in
French.)
To Build a Ship, 1963 (Building a ship in the wilderness on Tillamook Bay
in the early pioneer days.)
Berry, Erick 1892-
Go and Find Wind, 1939 (On board a clipper ship in the 1850s.)
Biggins, John
Otto Prohaska series: (Czech officer in the Austrian navy. He's brave,
capable, loyal, and well aware of the looniness of it all.)
Tomorrow the World (Loosely based on the round-the-world voyage in
1900-1902 of the steam frigate "Donau", which was the last wooden
sailing warship to make an ocean cruise.)
The Emperor's Coloured Coat (Covers 1913 to 1915, during which time
Otto serves as deck officer, seaplane pilot, Naval Aide to the
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and captain of a Chinese junk.)
A Sailor of Austria (Otto's account, recollected at age 101, of his
service as a submarine captain from 1915 to 1918. According to the
bookjacket blurbs, Biggins has produced a page-turner that has been
compared favorably to the work of Patrick O'Brian. A ripping yarn.)
Binns, Archie 1899- (Most of Binns' books are set at least partly on and
around the waters of the Northwest, even if they are not primarily
nautical.)
Lightship, 1934 (Lives of the crew of a lightship off the northwest
coast.)
You Rolling River, 1947 (Astoria around the turn of the century.)
Bissell, Richard Pike 1913- (Harvard grad, seaman, river pilot and author of
the book that became the musical comedy The Pajama Game (and co-author of
the script.))
A Stretch on the River, 1950 ("Picaresque" novel about towboating on the
upper Mississippi. Simultaneously hailed by the newspaper in Dubuque
and banned by the Dubuque Catholic Mothers Purity Association.)
High Water, 1954 (Trials of the mate of a diesel towboat trying to push
too many barges from St. Louis to St. Paul during a record breaking
Mississippi flood.)
Goodbye Ava, 1960 (Most of the action takes place on houseboats. "A
boisterous fable..." NY Times, "Uproariously funny... the characters
are racy..." NY Times, "This book should be burned..." Mound Ill.
Weekly Gazette, "I wish Richard would get a steady job." The author's
mother.)
The Coal Queen (Short story in Atlantic Monthly about towboat life on
the Monongahela River in West Virginia. The first piece of writing
Bissell ever sold.)
Also non-fiction My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain,
1973.
The Capture of the Swordray (Russkies take over a US nuclear sub but
heroic US crewman gets it and himself sunk.)
Blair, Clay 1925- and Joan 1929-
Scuba, 1977 (Adventurers, sinners and lovers, lured by a fortune in gold
dive in the Caribbean.)
Mission Tokyo Bay, 1979 [1] (US submarine "Shark" is sent to find out
why the Japanese are gathering submarines. Before WW II?)
Swordray's First Three Patrols, 1980 (WW II sub adventure. "The sneak
attack on Pearl Harbor was barely finished when Commander Hunter
Holmes began some of the most savage underwater attacks of the war.")
Blake, George 1893-
The Shipbuilders, 1931 (Study of a Glasgow shipyard hit by the
shipbuilding bust in late 1920s, as seen through the eyes of the owner,
and a riveter who served as the owner's batman when both were in the
British Army in WW I. Never gets to sea, but a fascinating portrait of
a vital support maritime industry during the worst of times.)
Blunden, Godfrey 1906-
Charco Harbour: A novel of unknown seas and a fabled shore passaged with
coral reefs and magnetical islands, of shipwreck and a lonely haven; the
true story of the last of the great navigators, his bark, and the men in
her, 1968 (Based on James Cook's voyage of exploration 1768-1771 in the
Endeavor.)
Blue Sloop at Dawn, 1979 (Small boat sailing off Long Island, from
duckboats to the "sloop of dreams.")
Bonham, Frank
War Beneath the Sea, 1962 (Adventures of the US sub "Mako" in the Pacific
during WW II.)
Storm Tide, 1965 (1880s whaling voyage to Alaska in a steam whaleship.)
Boulle, Pierre 1912-1994
The Whale of the Victoria Cross, 1983 (During the Falkland Islands war,
a British ship takes a whale,first mistaken for a submarine, as a
mascot. An admiral recommends the whale for a medal and the Home Office
thinks the entire fleet has gone bonkers. An odd novel.)
Brady, Cyrus Townsend 1861-1920
The Quiberon Touch; a romance of the days when "The Great Lord Hawke" was
king of the sea, 1901 (Lieutenant Philip Grafton fights the French
navy in 1754 under the command of "The Great Lord Hawke". Good sea
battles, and a little romance, too.)
In the Wasp's nests, the story of a sea waif in the war of 1812, 1902
Woven With the Ship, a novel of 1865, 1902 (American Civil War tale.)
The Two Captains: a romance of Bonaparte and Nelson, 1905
On the Old Kearsarge, a story of the civil war, 1909
Bray, Donald
The Captain's Wife, 1985 (Captain Ned davy and his tough little wife,
Genevieve, sail to India in the 1780s to rescue a British spy.)
Brinkley, William 1917-
Don't Go Near the Water, 1956 (WW II comedy.)
The Ninety and Nine, 1966 (US LST "1826" supports the allied landings in
Italy during WW II. A best-seller in its day, with great reviews.)
The Last Ship, 1988 (The guided missile destroyer "Nathan James", the
last US ship afloat after a nuclear holocaust, heads for a Pacific
island haven.)
Proud Waters, 1954 (Mine sweepers, on English Channel, in WW II.)
The Curse of the Trawler Charon, 1955 (Jinxed ship on rescue duty in the
North Atlantic during WW II.)
Nor On What Seas, 1956 (Tug salvaging a broken tanker; drunken captain,
attractive wife, devil-may-care tug mate boards ship to attach tow. Not
as bad as it sounds!)
Brooks, Kenneth F.
Run to the Lee, 1965 (Chesapeake oyster schooner; a blizzard.)
Buchheim, Lothar Gunther
The Boat, 1975 (Das Boot, WW II German submarine; very authentic. The
author sailed as a photographer in German U-boats, his non-fiction
U-Boat War, 1978 contains many of his pictures.)
Buffett, Jimmy
Tales of Margaritaville: Fictional Facts and Factual Fiction, 1989
(Stories set on the Gulf coast, Florida Keys and Caribbean, the nautical
ones seem to be more factual, but considering the title...)
Where is Joe Merchant?, 1992 (A rock star committed suicide, or did he?
According to the tabloid headlines, he's very much on the move. Follow
a fictional gumbo of dreamers, wackos, pirates, and sharks on a wild
chase for the truth through the Caribbean. A fun read.)
Buffett, Jimmy and Buffett, Savanah Jane (Jimmy's daughter)
The Jolly Mon, 1988 (Childrens picture book about a Bob Marley-esque
sailing singer.)
Trouble Dolls, 1991 (A girl searches for her missing scientist father.)
Bullen, Frank T. 1857-1915
The Cruise of the Cachalot: Round the World After Sperm Whales by Frank T.
Bullen First Mate, 1897 (Bullen drew on his youthful experiences as a
whaler for this novel about a cruise to the South Pacific whaling
grounds.)
Deep Sea Plunderings, 1901 (Stories of the sea - Some whaling.)
A Sack of Shakings, 1901 (Odds and ends of sea stories.)
A Whaleman's wife, 1902
A Bounty Boy: Being Some Adventures of a Christian Barbarian on an
Unpremeditated Trip Round the World, 1907? (South Pacific whaling
adventure for young readers.)
Detective Dave Robicheaux series: (Robicheaux's father was killed on an
oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico and the stories always involve the sea and
its characters in and around the Louisiana coast.)
Dixie City Jam, 1994 [7] (Dave finds a wrecked U-boat off the Louisiana
coast. It has sufficient positive buoyancy to drift around. The
discovery starts off a chain of events when various vested interests
attempt to force Robicheaux into revealing its whereabouts. Well
above the usual murder/mystery genre.. beautiful writing.)
Burns, Walter Noble 1872-1932
A Year with a Whaler, 1913 (Whaling in Alaska from San Francisco.
Fiction?)
Burton, Sir Richard Francis 1821-1890
The book of The Thousand Nights and a Night: A plain and literal
translation of the Arabian Nights Entertainments; made and annotated by
Richard F. Burton, 1885 (Sinbad the Sailor's Adventures, other trans-
lations and many abridgements of Burton's and others exist.)
Bushnell, Oswald A. 1913-
The Return of Lono: a novel of Captain Cook's last voyage, 1951
(Reconstructs the momentous visit to Hawaii by Captain Cook. Told from
the point of view of midshipman Forrest of the "Resolution". Hawaiian
history and customs are accurately portrayed. Author is the foremost
Hawaiian historical novelist.)
Lusitania, 1981 (Epic novel about the doomed liner and the people
involved with her. "...Rich historical thriller, moving pschological
profile, satisfying romance...")
The Outcast: The Griffin Saga Volume 1, 1981 (Roger Griffin, banished
from the court of Charles II, builds trading empire.)
Bywater, Hector C.
The Great Pacific War: A History of the American-Japanese Campaign of
1931-33, 1925 (A British naval corespondent, author of many books on
naval affairs and a friend of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bywater caused a
sensation with the publication of this novel. In fact the first
American edition was printed in England and shipped across to the
States for the Houghton Mifflin Company of New York and Boston. The
story's feasibility and likelihood were rubbished by Bywater's
contemporaries and the navies of America and Great Britain alike. After
all it was a bit far-fetched! The Japanese striking a surprise blow on
the American Pacific Fleet, attacking the Philippines, someone from the
Philippines taking command of the American counter-attack and island
hopping towards the Japanese mainland, a naval battle in mid-ocean the
turning point of the war, American industrial power eventually
redressing the naval balance etc. Whatever next! Obviously he was not
totally correct: he was ten years out and he had the Japanese surrender
after leaflets were dropped on Tokyo!)
(See Honan, William H. for biography. Bywater: The Man Who Invented The
Pacific War, 1990)
Gideon's Band, 1914 (Based on the author's experiences on the
Mississippi River. Intriguing rival steamboat owners, and the cholera
epidemics of the late 1840s.)
Caidin, Martin 1927-
Aquarius Mission, 1978 (US submarine investigates the disappearance of
two nuclear subs, discovers a strange world miles deep.)
Calin, Harold
Black Cargo, 1969 (Sexual tension aboard ship during the darkest days of
the slave trade.)
Slave Ship, 1977 (Young idealist from New England ships out on a slaver,
learns about the evil trade first hand.)
Callison, Brian
A Flock of Ships, 1970
A Plague of Sailors, 1971
The Dawn Attack, 1972 (Fictional account of a British Commando raid on a
Norwegian port during WW II, based on a number of actual raids.)
A Web of Salvage, 1973 (Battered old salvage tug "Tactician" is on her
final voyage home when a mayday call during a force 10 storm leads them
into a dangerous mystery.)
A Ship is Dying, 1976 (The last minutes of a sinking ship, very evocative
and very "real-time", and to set it apart from other disaster novels
it's not five hundred pages long and is illuminated by the hell-red
glow of Callisons wit. Very recommended by J. Hoyland. Watch out for
the parrot!)
An Act of War, 1977 (A Frenzy of Merchantmen in UK. The Soviet Navy in
the 1980s blockades the Baltic Sea to British shipping. In retaliation,
a Royal Navy ship provokes the Soviets into an act of war. Soon nukes
and Nazis are flying around.)
The Judas Ship, 1978 (Merchantman attacked and damaged by German surface
raider seeks the shelter of a narrow river harbor in Brazil for
repairs, only to discover that the Raider is moored up-river of the
ship, repairing damage done to it by the merchantman. The Germans
cannot attack the merchantman while it is in the river because the
raider would be trapped if the merchantman sank in the channel.)
The Auriga Madness, 1980 (A terrible disease drives a ship's crew mad
with disasterous results.)
Sextant, 1981 (In 1941 the MV Highlander was torpedoed and sunk with all
hands. In 1981 the captain's sextant is discovered as part of a thief's
loot. The captain's son sets off to find out what really happened forty
years ago. This leads him to a small community (in N Scotland?) where
the other loot was from. Although the community is close-mouthed, he
slowly comes to discovered what happened to his father.)
Spearfish, 1983 (Captain Crofts is called on to board and capture a ship
full of present-day mercenaries.)
The Trojan Hearse, 1990 (WW II action as the Germans plot to revenge the
St. Nazaire raid. U-boat Captain Reitz gets do do the honours. The plot
is a bit stretched but this is more than made up for by Callisons
writing -and the pace at which it is forced on. Recommended by J.
Hoyland.)
The Bone Collectors (The name given by U-Boat crews to the ships assigned
to pick up seamen who had abandoned ship. It is a novel of ordinary
Merchant Navy convoy men seen through the eyes of the chief officer of
the "Olympian", one of the Bone Collectors.)
Edward Trapp series:
Trapp's War, 1976 (Edward Trapp, smuggler and captain of the rust
bucket "Charon", the only ship able to sneak in and out through the
German blockade of Malta, is called back to active service in the RN,
and inveigled into helping relieve the siege of Tobruk during the
African campaign in WW II.)
Trapp's Peace, 1980 (The sequel to Trapp's War. Further adventures of
Captain Trapp and his merry men. After smuggling illegal immigrants
across the English Channel, Trapp gets involved in nefarious
activites in the Mediterranean. Was he really being paid to ship used
construction equipment from Port Said to Malaga? Or was he expected
to scuttle it en route?)
Trapp & WWIII, 1988 (Trapp returns to muddle through another adventure
with thieves, psychopaths, armies, navies, and air forces of several
nations all adding to the fireworks. Set in the 1980s.)
Crocodile Trapp, 1993 (Trapp and his team must be getting a little long
in the tooth by now, considering that Trapp was supposed to be an RN
Midshipman in WW I. Whatever, this time they are involved in the
usual illegal, dangerous cross and double cross, this time it
involves a Chinese triad, mad professors, crocodiles, buried treasure
and the jungles of Papua New Guinea.)
Cameron, Ian 1924-
The Midnight Sea, 1958 (The aircraft carrier HMS Viper is escorting a
convoy to Russia and has to fight the weather and the Germans all the
way. The Captain's son joins the ship off Scotland, as batsman (officer
in giving directions to aircraft pilots by means of hand-held "bats").
The story matter-of-factly unfolds. The characters do not seem to be
fleshed out, the loss of a ship or aircraft takes few words. In spite
of this by the end of the book you have the whole picture of the sea
war as fought by the Royal Navy and in this particular case the Fleet
Air Arm in those inhospitable latitudes. Strangely enough the enormous
effort and sacrifice made by the convoy to reach Russia and by the
Germans to prevent them doing so is convincingly demonstrated.)
The White Ship, 1975 (A Spanish treasure ship goes aground in the South
Shetland Islands in 1818. In 1974 an expedition searching for golden
seals finds the treasure ship, and unquiet ghosts that give them more
then they bargained for.)
Omega Sub Series: (USS Liberator, a USN SSN survives a nuclear war, and
the crew spends its efforts trying to rebuild the world.)
Omega Sub, 1991 [1] (On top secret manuevers beneath the polar ice cap,
the USS Liberator surfaces to find the Earth in flames from a global
thermonuclear war -- a war so complete that they do not know what
started it. The crew then begins seeking out survivors to forge a new
future.)
Omega Sub: Command Decision, 1991 [2] ("Liberator" comes across a
Japanese trawler fleet that has survived the war, but had its crew
destroyed after the shooting stopped.)
Omega Sub: City of Fear [3]
Omega Sub: Blood Tide, 1991 [4] ("Liberator" cruises the South Pacific
saving survivors of the nuclear war from a lunatic and an army of
sadistic killers, but bad guys kidnap the captain and demand the sub
for ransom.)
Omega Sub: Death Dive, 1992 [5]
Omega Sub: Raven Rising [6]
Cameron, Lou 1924-
The Amphorae Pirates, 1970 (Diving for ancient treasures off Greece.)
Carin, Michael 1951-
Five Hundred Keys, 1980 (A student tries for a quick buck on a 38' boat
carrying drugs from Morocco to Newfoundland with deadly results.)
Carlisle, Henry 1926-
Voyage to the First of September, 1972 (Novel based on the true events
surrounding the attempted mutiny on board the USN brig "Somers" in
1842, for which the son of the Secretary of War was hanged.")
The Jonah Man, 1984 (Fictional biography of Capt. George Pollard,
commander of the whaleship Essex which was sunk by a sperm whale in the
Pacific, the survivors ate their shipmates to stay alive. Told in his
own fictional words.)
Carpenter, Scott (Malcom Scott) 1925- (The astronaut)
The Steel Albatross, 1991 (One of the techno-thriller genre. Our Hero is
a misfit US Navy pilot who joins the SEALs and is sent to command a new
class of submarine -- one that soars in the ocean currents. With his
super vessel, he protects the world from the Soviet bad guys.)
Carr, Philippa 1906-
The Lion Triumphant, 1974 (Heroine meets jake the ship captain, is
kidnaped by Spanish pirates, and winds up in the Canary Islands just
before the defeat of the Spanish Armada.)
Carse, Robert, 1903-
The Fabulous Buccaneer, 1957 (Novel about Alexander Selkirk, the early
18th century privateer whose marooning on Juan Fernandez, off the coast
of Chile, was the real-life inspiration for Robinson Crusoe.)
Morgan the Pirate, 1961 (Henry Morgan is sold as a slave in Panama,
returns as pirate captain to plunder and destroy.)
Carter, Peter
The Sentinels, 1980 (HMS "Sentinel" tries to snuff out the slave trade
on the African coast. Our heroes are midshipman John Spencer and Lyapo,
a slave.)
Spartina, 1989 (Modern novel about a grumpy Rhode Island fisherman
struggling to build a fishing boat in his back yard and get ahead.)
Cassell, Stephen
The Last Voyage of the SSN Skate, 1988 (Old US nuclear attack sub is
caught in a CIA intrigue.)
Castlemon, Henry 1842-1915
Frank Nelson in the Forecastle, or, the Sportsman's Club Among the
Whalers, 1876
Tugboat "Bulldog" series (Set around the adventures of a seagoing salvage
tug, the "Bulldog", which is owned by 18-year-old Jack Frobisher, and
commanded by Husky Hudson, six-foot, tow-headed and tough. Young adult)
Sea Wolves, 1959 (Dutch tanker runs aground in Souruba harbor. When
"Bulldog" responds to the call before her rivals, one of them
attempts to steal the ship aided by the eruption of a volcano long
believed to be extinct.)
Dangerous Cargo, 1960 ("Bulldog" attempts salvage of the "Sulu Prince",
an aged freighter on fire off the Little Laut Islands in the Macassar
Straits. Unknown to Bulldog, the "Sulu Prince" is gunrunning for
Indonesian rebels, who bribe the "Bulldog's" rival salvors to SINK
the "Sulu Prince".)
China Sea Jigsaw, 1961 ("Bulldog" attempts to salve the 7,000 ton
passenger ship "Tai Lung", but Karmey, a rival tugboat captain sends
a false report that the "Tai Lung" has sunk and "Bulldog" was found
abandoned. To transform it into an accurate report, and settle the
score for past encounters, Karmey rams the "Tai Lung".)
Catto, Max 1909-
Murphy's War, 1968 (In the final days of WWII in Europe, a U-Boat off the
coast of southern Africa torpedos an Australian armed merchant cruiser
and the hospital ship it is escorting, machine guns the survivors, then
sails up a jungle river to wait out the war's end. A survivor from the
AMC, a disreputable petty officer, salvages a Swordfish floatplane from
the wreck, and hunts the U-boat with it. Filmed in 1971.)
Causley, Charles 1917- (Editor)
The Puffin Book of Salt Water Verse, 1978 (Poems about sailors,
fishermen, ships, storms dreams, treasures and above all the ocean.)
Chalker, Jack L. 1944-
The Devil's Voyage, 1981 (The sinking of USS Indianapolis during WW II.)
Challoner, Robert
Jamaica Passage, 1982 (Piracy and passion in the 1820s aboard the 8 gun
"Argo", fastest ship afloat.)
Run Out the Guns, 1984 (Quite a lively tale with some potential. This
novel's hero is Commander Lord Charles Oakshott and is set during the
Napoleonic era.)
Chamier, Frederick 1796-1870 (Captain, RN. Fiction works in the vein of
Captain Marryat.)
Ben Brace, The Last of Nelson's Agamemnons, 1836
Arethusa, A Naval Story, 1837
The Life of A Sailor, 1837
Jack Adams, or The Mutiny of the Bounty, 1838 (Alternate title: Jack
Adams, The Mutineer)
The Spitfire, A Nautical Romance, 1840
Tom Bowling - A Tale of the Sea, 1841?
Chidsey, Donald B. 1902-
Captain Adam, 1953 (Aboard the schooner "Goodwill to Men" in the
Caribbean, fighting smugglers, coasters, pirates and men o' war in the
18th century.)
The Riddle of the Sands, 1903 (Pre WW I yachtsmen find German military
preparations. One of the Best. The classic adventure of cruising along
the sand banks of the North Sea. Compare to Maurice Griffith's non-
fiction books about the same areas. See also biography The Riddle of
Erskine Childers, by Andrew Boyle, 1977.)
Clagett, John
The Slot, 1958 (PT boats in the Solomon Islands during WW II.)
Torpedo Run on Iron Bottomed Bay, 1969 (A seventeen-year-old sailor tries
to prove the sincerity of a Japanese-American friend serving on his PT
boat in the Pacific during World War II.)
Typhoon 1944, 1970 (Japanese kamikazes and a typhoon test the courage of
the men aboard a United States Navy destroyer in World War II.)
Surprise Attack, 1968 (The surprise, tragedies, and triumph of the naval
battle of Leyte Gulf as experienced by five boys not long out of boot
camp. For young Readers)
The Hunt for Red October, 1984 (Nuclear submarine hunt.)
Red Storm Rising, 1986 (A non-nuclear WWIII, concentrating on the new
Battle of the Atlantic.)
Debt of Honour, 1994 (A US-Japan war, fought mostly at sea and in the
air.)
Cleary, Jon 1917- (Australian known for his adventure fiction and his Scobie
Malone detective series.)
The Long Pursuit, 1967 (Escape by sea from the Japanese at the beginning
of WW II.)
Mission of Gravity, 1954 (The planet Mesklin has a monstrous
gravitational field... up to 600 times that of earth... yet is
inhabited by insect-like creatures who ride the planet's oceans on
hinged rafts (hinged because they need to flow over the surface...
caught between two wave tops at that gravity would snap any craft in
half). An earth probe has gone missing and needs to be recovered. So a
bargain is struck with a Mesklinite merchant skipper who is ready to
collaborate in return for scientific knowledge. Sci-fi for sure, but
nautical too.)
Ships Company, 1952 (WW II troop transport in the Mediterranean.)
Collenette, Eric J.
Ninety Feet to the Sun, 1984 (In 1940 when the officers of the British
submarine "Scavenger" are killed in an attack off the Norwegian coast
it is the coxswain, Ben Grant, who has to assume command of the damaged
vessel and complete her vital mission.)
The Gemini Plot: a submarine novel of World War II, 1985 (Sequel to
Ninety Feet to the Sun.)
Atlantic Encounter: a novel of World War Two at sea, 1987
Secret of the Kara sea, 1987 (WW II. A Ben Grant adventure.)
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor 1772-1834
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798 (Poem.)
Collett, Bill
The Last Mutiny, The Further Adventures of Captain Bligh, 1995 (The year
is 1817, and Vice Admiral William Bligh is settled into a distinctly
unpeaceful retirement in rural Kent. Bligh has been dogged by mutinies
and accusations of tyranny. Even in retirement, there is no rest. Beset
by the dumb insolence of neighbors, the domestic mutinies of his
daughters, the folly of doctors, and the rebellion of his own failing
health, Bligh casts his mind back over his life, reliving Cook's last
voyage, the famous victories at Camperdown and Copenhagen, encounters
with the natives of Timor, his governorship of New South Wales, and the
mutiny of his friend Fletcher Christian. [description swiped from the
Norton Web site.])
America's Cup trilogy: (Set in the near future (up to 2010) and deal with
a Cup competition between the US, Estonia and Russia. In the 'sailing
thriller' genre.)
Death of an Angel, 1992
Conrad, Joseph (Josef Teodor Nalecz Korzeniowski) 1857-1924 (Polish seaman and
novelist, twenty years under sail and steam.)
Almayer's Folly, 1895
An Outcast of the Islands, 1896
+Nigger of the Narcissus, a Tale of the Forecastle, 1897 (Conrad's first
sea story; a sailing ship voyage from Bombay to London with a dying
black seaman aboard.)
The End of the Tether, 1898 (Upright 67 year old Captain Whalley
compromises with his own rectitude without understanding the evil
around him. As his coastal steamer sails through the Pacific his own
falsehoods and the ambitions and obsessions of his crew bring on
disaster.)
+The Heart of Darkness, 1899 (Marlow tells of his voyage in command of a
steamboat far up the Congo River to relieve the mad ivory trader Kurz.
Adapted to fit the Vietnam War and filmed by Francis. F. Coppola as
Apocalypse Now in 1979. "The Horror! The Horror!")
+Lord Jim, 1900
Typhoon, 1903 (The steamer Nan-Shan, with 200 Chinese coolies aboard,
encounters a terrible storm in the China Sea.)
Nostromo, a Tale of the Seaboard, 1904
Chance, 1913
| i don't know |
Which US soap opera, which started on radio and moved to tv in 1952, ran for 72 years before ending in 2009? | Soap Operas during the Golden Age of Radio | Old Time Radio
Soap Operas during the Golden Age of Radio
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By 1930 the Networks and the Advertisers recognized the great potential of the Daytime market. It was reasoned that Men would be away from home working, and Children either at school or playing. That left the Housewife, by herself a powerful market force.
WGN-AM, Chicago, is credited with the very first soap opera , Clara, Lu, and Em , premiering Jun 16, 1930.The act began as sorority sketch by three friends Louise Starkey (Clara), Isobel Carothers (Lu), and Helen King (Em),at Northwestern University; it was popular enough that friends suggested they take it to radio.The trio approached WGN and did the first shows without pay. Interest soon grew and Colgate-Palmolive soon took sponsorship. Originally broadcast in the evening, the show was moved to daytime on Feb 15, 1932.
Clara, Lu, and Em :
The Housewife was busy taking care of the home, and would have the radio on as company. Irna Phillips, an actress and staff writer for talk shows on WGN, Chicago, was given the assignment of creating a 15 minute daily show "about a family."The result was Painted Dreams, a story of Mother Moynihan and her unmarried daughter. Although originally unsponsored, Phillips would add an engagement and wedding to the plot in order to maximize product tie-ins.
Painted Dreams enjoyed a good deal of success, but Phillips couldn't talk WGN management into taking it national. While she was suing for the ownership of the show (CBS was eventually the rights to the program) she created Today's Children ( available in the Rare Soap Operas Collection ) for rival station WMAQ, which was an NBC affiliate. When Phillips' mother, the inspiration for the lead character, passed away, Irna insisted the show be discontinued. By now she was ready with Woman in White , the first daytime serial to be centered on a hospital (many have speculated about Irna Phillips' hypochondria in association with her fascination with hospitals.)
Defining the Soap Opera
Many critics begin by defining the soap opera by its sponsors. Indeed the target audience was the housewife, so marketing household and cleaning products towards her seems a natural fit. What is missing is the Operatic tradition within the name. Stories of wealth and glamour appealed to the housebound wife, and the use of serialization held the interest of the audience from day to day.
The term " Soap Opera " has never been value-neutral. Especially in North America, soap opera has always been considered a "women's genre," and therefore easily devalued. The genre almost always has a reputation of tawdriness, deserved or not, which gives the term soap opera sexist and classist baggage. The radio soap is the most easily parodied of broadcast genres . There is a popular stereo type of the working class housewife allowing the dishes to stack in the sink as the kids run amuck, all the while she is lost to the world through her addiction to her Soaps.
This reputation of tawdriness ignores the fact the Soap Opera serials use some of the most complex forms of narrative in mass media, and that enjoyment of Soap Operas require a high degree of knowledge and sophistication on the part of the audience. Soap Opera is a form of escapism, but the high degree of knowledge needed on the part of the audience means that it isn't easy escapism.
Seriality is one of the keys to defining a soap opera . Other dramas have continuing characters, but usually the adventure in a single episode or series of episodes will be self contained. On the soap opera the story continues from day to day, and as a particular story line, or story arc, is worked through, another (or multiple) story line is being developed. There will be several storylines in various stages of development at any one time in a soap opera .
The Hummert Radio Factory
Anne Hummert , along with her ad executive husband Frank, is credited with developing the formula of what would become the typical soap opera . Their first success, Just Plain Bill , is the story of a humble barber who marries well above his station.Many Hummert storylines would explore the gap between the wealthy and the aspiring middleclass, a notion that brought a good deal of comfort to their depression-era and WWII audiences. The Hummert's began Air Features Inc., which would become a kind of factory for radio drama, with the emphasis on the daytime serials. Other Hummert successes included Backstage Wife , and Ma Perkins , the story of a wise young matriarch who guides her family through troubled times.
Ma Perkins :
The go-ahead for Ma Perkins ' came when Proctor and Gamble's Oxydol account was moved to a new ad agency. Oxydol's previous vehicle, The Puddle Family, a serial domestic comedy, was dropped in favor of a 'serialized radio drama that would incorporate elements of the self-help genre. Ma Perkins , the story of a self-reliant widow whose family and friends were in constant need of her advice' went on the air over WLW, Cincinnati, during the summer of 1933. * Anxious to gauge the effectiveness of Ma Perkins as an advertising vehicle, in early 1934 P&G developed a "Mail-Hook" where listeners were offered a packet of flower seeds in exchange for ten cents and an Oxydol box top. More than a million seed requests were received.
The husband and wife team of Frank and Ann Hummert were in a unique position to capitalize on the growing popularity of day-time serials. Frank was inspired to develop a radio serial after following a serialized story in the Chicago Daily News. He hired the author of the print story to write The Stolen Husband, which aired locally in the Chicago market. The Stolen Husband appears to have been a closed narrative serial; that is the story line lead to a final single conclusion. Their next project, Betty and Bob , the story of a stenographer who marries the boss, was an open narrative with multiple story lines constantly in various stages of development. Betty and Bob first aired in Oct, 1932, and was sponsored by General Mills for 8 years before being syndicated until 1947.
Betty and Bob :
With his successful advertising background, Frank realized that success could be found by servicing multiple accounts rather than pouring all of one's energy into a single project. Ann Hummert maintained a rigourous production level, typing up to two million words a year and supervising a large staff of "Dialoguers" who would fill in the stories she developed. During the McCarthy Era , Air Features Inc. was notable in that they refused to fire blacklisted writers, if they were any good.
In the fall of 1933 another Hummert soap was released;
The Romance of Helen Trent . The show would run continuously on CBS radio until 1960, a total of 7,222 episodes. The story revolved around 35 year-old dress maker Helen, whom men found fascinating as she works her way up to becoming an important Hollywood costume designer. Through the entire series (and three different actresses) Helen remained 35 and single, although she continued to carry a torch for her long-running beau, Gil Whitney. "And now ... the real life drama of Helen Trent, who... fights back bravely... to prove what so many women long to prove... that romance, can begin at 35."
Romance of Helen Trent :
Irna Phillips and The Guiding Light
Irna Phillips developed many of the conventions of the soap opera that remain with the form today: she introduced the use of organ music to transition from one scene to the next, she developed the "cliff hanger" ending which would cause the audience to remain in suspense until the next broadcast, and she developed a deliberately slow pacing to her shows, so that busy housewives could continue their housework without having to pay close attention to the radio in order to not miss anything crucial. The Hummerts contributed many conventions as well, including amnesia, blackmail, exotic diseases, murder trials, and reappearing long lost loves.
The Guiding Light , created by Irna Phillips, had its first broadcast 5 days after FDR's second inaugural. When the show was finally cancelled in Sept, 2009, it was the longest running broadcast drama, having been 15 years on the radio, and 57 years on television. The original The Guiding Light was based on Phillips' lifetime experiences. At the age of 19, unmarried, she had given birth to a still-born child. She found spiritual comfort listening to the broadcast sermons of Preston Bradley, founder of the People's Church in Chicago. The Guiding Light centered on the Rev. John Ruthledge and the people of the fictional Chicago suburb of Five Points. The Guiding Light eferred to a lamp that Rev Ruthledge kept burning in his study as a signal to residents of the community that he was available to help with their problems. Rev. Ruthledge's optimism was held up against the cynicism of townsman Ellis Smith. The Reverend's daughter, Mary, carried on a secret love affair with her foster brother, Ned Holden. The couple would eventually find happiness and the blessing of the Reverend, but not until Ned's parents return, and mother Frances would shoot her husband Paul dead after learning that he had plans to extort Ned. Ned would later marry and divorce lounge singer Torchy Reynolds who would later become embroiled in a relationship with Ellis Smith. There would also be much new and controversial ground broken in the early days of the show; for example character Rose Kransky would have radio's first out-of-wedlock baby.
The Guiding Light :
Irna Phillips' last great radio soap would be The Brighter Day , which would later become the first network television soap with an overtly religious theme (most of the religious elements were dropped from The Guiding Light by the time the show transitioned to television.) The Brighter Day centered on Rev Richard Dennis and his family, Althea, Patsy, Babby and Grayling. The show ran on radio from 1948 through 1956. It survived the transition into television, but continually suffered from low ratings.
The Brighter Day :
The Day the Radio Soap Opera Died
The transition of the soap opera from a radio to a television form wasn't as direct as might be supposed.In a 1948 letter to Proctor and Gamble executive William Ramsey, soap opera pioneer Irna Phillips expressed both excitement of the advertising potential of the new medium, and doubts as to its appeal to home-makers. Phillips envisioned sponsors' products not only endorsed by her characters, but actually shown in use by them. However she feared that the housewife, who was able to enjoy radio drama without ignoring her household duties, would not have the same opportunity with the visual medium.
The networks and sponsors were also slow to begin risking capital on daytime programming as the age of Television dawned, concentrating at first on Prime-time programming. When the networks began to experiment with daytime programming, they at first concentrated on news and variety-talk shows. The first television Soap would be The First Hundred Years, premiering in Dec, 1950, produced and sponsored by Proctor and Gamble. It was considered a risk at the time; much of the success of radio soap opera as an advertising vehicle was the high profitability compared with production costs. A radio serial, exclusive of the actors and writers, only required a sound man, a musical staff (usually a single organ player), and one or two technical personnel. The visual medium of television required sets, make-up and costuming staff, and a great number of technicians to operate the television broadcasting apparatus. In addition greater rehearsal time was required- a radio cast didn't need to memorize their dialog,it would be read from a script and the pages casually dropped on the carpeted floor of the studio.Television actors in the pre-teleprompter days did not have this luxury.
Nonetheless, Television was a force that could not be ignored. During the 1959-60 season CBS dropped three of its ten remaining daytime radio serials. NBC dropped its one remaining Soap, and ABC had cancelled all if its radio soaps the previous year. Most of the big sponsors had shifted their attention to television, feeling it was a better investment, and left their radio time to be sold as 'spot' advertising, much of which went unsold. In addition, as the national radio networks began to fade, local programming flourished. Station managers saw greater profits in spinning records and selling local advertising than providing air time for serials that weren't listened to. Many soap operas were played for a while on both radio and television, but the small screen eventually won the day. Shows that made the transition to television included Young Doctor Malone , The Guiding Light , The Road of Life , and The Brighter Day .
by Jim Cox
On November 25, 1960, CBS cancelled Young Doctor Malone , Ma Perkins , The Second Mrs. Burton, and The Right to Happiness . Young Doctor Malone by now was a presence on NBC Television. Many of the conventions of the radio soap opera made the move to the small screen, including the unseen announcer at the beginning and end of the broadcast, organ music providing theme and to punctuate the most dramatic of moments in the plot, the Friday cliffhanger endings, and at first, the 15 minute episodes. The power of the daytime television market peaked in 1976, when Time magazine reported that daytime television was "TV's richest market." The magazine noted the loyalty of the fan base. At a time when many primetime dramas lost money, soaps earned profits many times their production costs.
Ratings fell dramatically from the 90s through the first decade of this century. When As the World Turns was cancelled in 2010 after a 54 year run, it was the last daytime serial to be associated with Proctor and Gamble, the sponsor that had given the soap opera its name so many years before.
| Guiding Light |
Which country hosted the second modern Olympic Games in 1900? | Long Runners - TV Tropes
Long Runners
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Truly Superman is too super to kill (but it took several decades to change his red underpants).note Chronologically from top left: George Reeves in The Adventures of Superman , Christopher Reeve in Superman , Brandon Routh in Superman Returns , Henry Cavill in Man of Steel .
Franchises which have somehow passed the test of time. There is a clue in here for what people want to watch and listen to. Some of these shows began with bad ratings or went through creative slumps , but got here thanks to Network to the Rescue (and avoiding being Screwed by the Network ). Some of these shows are even Older Than Television .
See also:
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At least 10 years
The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet (1952-66; notable as the longest-running American sitcom until being surpassed by The Simpsons )
Air Gear by Oh!Great ran for a full decade from 2002 to 2012 and ended with 357 chapters.
The Angry Video Game Nerd : began in 2004 and still ongoing with The Movie released in 2014.
The Apprentice : also began in 2004 and still ongoing, though Donald Trump has been fired for controversial comments on immigration.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force , which started in 2001 (2000 if you count the stealth airing of the first episode) and, after a few title changes, was cancelled in 2015.
The Atheist Experience (1997-present)
Bananas in Pyjamas — the "costumed" series debuted in 1991 and ended in 2002, but a an All-CGI Cartoon adaptation beginning in 2011 has made the show one of these.
Barney Bunch : Started off as a trolling group on Newgrounds in 2005. Moved to YouTube in 2006 and became the semi-affliliated "Speakonia Community". Despite numerous videos and accounts getting terminated, it's still going.
Baywatch (9/22/1989-5/14/2001; eleven seasons and 242 episodes)
Beachcombers (387 episodes from 1972-91; longest dramatic series in Canada)
Beat the Clock : Total of 18 years (1950-61, 1969-74, 1979-80, 2002-03).
Between the Lions (2000-10)
Big Brother : The show premiered in the Netherlands in 1999. While the original version has ended, several international versions continue to air and would belong here.
The BIONICLE toy-line released its first sets in the Summer of 2001 and its last sets in the winter of 2010, hitting the 10 year mark on the dot. And then coming back 2015, solidifying their stay.
Break the Bank (1945-57)
Brum (1991-2002, still in syndication in some territories)
The Carol Burnett Show (1967-78)
Cat and Girl , a web comic that has been running since 1999.
Catch Phrase , a British game show that lasted sixteen years. (Not to be confused with the much less successful American version upon which it was based.)
Cheers (11 years, immediately followed by spinoff Frasier which went another 11. As a result, Kelsey Grammer played Frasier Crane from 1984-2004.)
Chilly Willy (produced by Walter Lantz ) ran from 1953 to 1972. However, the studio only did an average of three cartoons per year with the character. As a result he only has 50 shorts despite being in production for 19 years.
Chi's Sweet Home (2004-2015)
Sanrio 's Cinnamoroll, who would later become a very popular character in Japan, has been winning the hearts of Sanrio fans since 2002. Which is surprising since Sanrio itself didn't expect a character to come this close to being popular along with My Melody and Hello Kitty .
Claymore (The manga ran from 2001 to 2014 and ended with 155 chapters and 5 extra chapters, it also produced a 26-episode anime in 2007)
Comedy Central Presents (1998-2011, 14 seasons, over 260 episodes; a show that has about 30 minutes of Stand-Up Comedy by a different comedian each episode)
Countdown (1974-87)
Dallas (1978-91)
Deadliest Catch - 10 seasons (2005-), plus a four-episode miniseries called America's Deadliest Season which served as a pilot in 2004. Still ongoing.
Definitely Not the Opera (CBC Radio variety show since 1994, named Brand X 1994-97; hosted by Sook-Yin Lee since 2002)
Definition . Lasted from 1974 to 1989, 15 years.
Degrassi (2001-15, over 200 episodes so far; the very first incarnation of it was actually in 1979 with Kids of Degrassi Street)
The Doctors (1963-82; 5280 episodes)
Dora the Explorer (2000-15)
Dragon Ball : The manga started in late 1984 and ended in 1995. Three anime series were broadcast between 1986 and 1997, the first two adapting the manga. Dragon Ball Kai , a re-edit of the second anime , was broadcast between 2009 to 2015. Spawned two movies ( Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods and Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection �F� ) that are considered canon. A fourth anime series, Dragon Ball Super , began airing in June 2015. There are also a number of TV specials and OVAs . Official Spin Offs like Jaco the Galactic Patrolman may also be included.
Dusty's Treehouse, a children's series in the same vein as Mister Rogers' Neighborhood starring future voice actor/director Stu Rosen and produced for Los Angeles CBS affiliate KNXT, ran in various forms from 1966-80. Syndicated re-runs aired on Nickelodeon from 1980-84.
The EarthSiege/ Starsiege / Tribes series (July 1994-)
Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy (1999-2009, Cartoon Network 's longest running series)
ER (15 years, 1994-2009)
Fifteen To One (British quiz show, 1988-2003)
Finkleman's 45s (CBC radio retro music show; October 5, 1985 - June 25, 2005)
Fist of the North Star (1983-1988, 245 chapters) and its prequel Fist of the Blue Sky (2001-2010, 260 chapters) lasted a combined total of 16 years as a manga. That's not counting the one-off 1996 novel Cursed City penned by writer Buronson and the 30th anniversary Last Piece one-shot published in 2013, not to mention the various spinoffs and parodies, as well as anime and video game adaptations that were published throughout the years, even when the manga was not in serialization anymore.
Firan MUX (circa 1997-)
Fred Penner's Place (CBC children's show, 1985-97)
Frasier ran for 11 seasons between September 16, 1993 and May 13, 2004 for a total of 264 episodes.
The French Chef, a PBS Cooking Show starring Julia Child, ran for 10 years from 1963 to 1973. It's still being rerun on cable.
The Frugal Gourmet, another PBS cooking show, aired from 1983 to 1997.
The Funday Pawpet Show (November 1999-; 600 episodes as of July 18, 2010)
Fullmetal Alchemist : Original manga began in 2001 and finished in 2010, has had two anime series (the first ran from 2003-2004, the second from 2009-2010), 5 OVA's, and 2 movies, one for each respective anime series (the first was released in 2005, the second in 2011).
Futari Ecchi (1997-) holds the record for the longest running manga with near explicit sex being showcased in every single chapter, in every volume. Something that sounds so bland and lewd has a reason for having more than 50 volumes published - the series is basically an insightful encyclopedia for sex in manga form, no gratuitous sex scenes for the sake of it, everything being shown relates to detailed research on the author's part, something beyond than Plot with Porn , an actual bona-fide sex-ed curriculum in manga format.
Futurama (March 28, 1999-August 10, 2003 [FOX episodes]/March 23, 2008-September 4, 2013 [Comedy Central episodes], 140 episodes and four made-for-DVD moviesnote Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder)
The Garfield Specials aired from 1982-1992.
Gintama (2004 to present) having 530 chapters on their long life to not to include 6 anime seasons and one Light Novel about a spin off of the main series.
Good Eats (debuted July 7, 1999; Food Network 's longest-running consecutive original program, with 14 seasons and 249 episodes). Ended in 2011.
El Goonish Shive (Started in January of 2002)
Habbo (A Social Network opened in 2000 at Finland, then gradually released internationally.)
Hana Yori Dango (the manga ran for 11 years, and dramas based on it are still in development)
Happy Tree Friends (Web Series running December 24, 1999-present)
Haruhi Suzumiya (series of light novels, 2003-present)
Hawaii Five-O (the original version lasted from 1968-1980)
Hannity and Colmes (12 and a half years, plus Hannity)
Hell's Kitchen (2005-present, 2004-present if UK version is counted)
Hi-5 (Started airing in January 1999 and also spawned a very successful American incarnation.)
History Detectives (PBS history show, 2003-12; a revamped version is scheduled for 2014.)
How It's Made (2001-present)
Hunter � Hunter - Published in March of 1998 and still ongoing, though definitely not continuously ; currently 33 volumes and over 350 chapters long. It's first anime adaption by Nippon Animation aired from late 1999 to early 2001, with a final OVA series continuing from 2003 to 2004. Its second anime adaption by Madhouse lasted from 2011 to 2014, ending accordingly due to reaching too close to the current point of the manga.
El Intermedio (2006-present), Spanish news satire.
InuYasha (although the anime got axed when it was going to overtake the manga , the manga itself ran from 1996-2008; the anime came back and finished the story in 2009-2010. That's 14 years if you count the anime as part of its run as well)
Iron Chef (started in 1993; between Iron Chef Japan and Iron Chef America, that's nearly (but not quite) two decades in one form or another.)
The Jeffersons (spinoff of All in the Family , lasted 11 seasons)
The Joker's Wild (originally ran from 1972-75 on CBS, followed by syndicated revivals from 1977-86 and 1990-91; total of 13 seasons)
Kabouter Plop (1997-present)
Kevin & Kell started in 1995, making it one of the oldest webcomics in existence.
Lassie (1954-73)
The Late Late Show (since 1995 on CBS; hosted by Tom Snyder {1995-99}, Craig Kilborn {1999-2005}, Craig Ferguson {2005-})
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999-; in 2015, it became the longest-running first-run drama series in primetime, carrying on the mantle of its parent series)
The Life of Nob T. Mouse began in December 1996 and is still going.
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (1984-95)
M*A*S*H (1972-83)
MA Dtv (1995-2009; is considered Saturday Night Live 's longest-running rival sketch show, and like SNL had its share of cast changes, writer changes, and executive producer changes)
Major (15 years; started in 1994 and reached over 700 chapters by the time it finished in 2010)
Married... with Children (1987-97; longest-running live-action sitcom on FOX)
Match Game (18 years—1962-69 on NBC, 1973-82 on CBS and syndication, 1983-84 as The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour, 1990-91 on ABC and 1998-99 in syndication)
Max and Ruby (2002-2013), the second animated series based on the works of Rosemary Wells . (The show got temporarily cancelled in 2007, but new episodes started getting made in 2009. The series than stopped making episodes for good in 2013)
MegaTokyo began in August of 2000.
Midsomer Murders , which has aired on ITV since 1997 and continued even after the main character left in 2011 (replaced by his cousin).
LEGO Mindstorms , began in 1998, still going today.
Monitor (NBC Radio weekend show ran just shy of 20 years, from June 1955 to January 1975)
The Montel Williams Show (1991-2008)
RiffTrax (2006-present)
Mythbusters (2003-2016; production wrapped up in November 2015 but the season is to air in 2016. And then they announced that the series is going to be rebooted instead...)
Naruto (first published in 1999 and aired in 2002. Now has 72 volumes, over 650 episodes, twelve OVAs, eleven movies, numerous games, twelve novels, two comedy spin-offs, and a miniseries. The manga officially ended on November 10, 2014, at 700 chapters, and the final movie (for now) was released on August 7, 2015. As of now, the anime is still ongoing, and there's also a sequel series. )
The Now Show (first broadcast in 1998 and still airing)
NYPD Blue started in 1993 and ended in 2005 (12 seasons).
Ohayo Kodomo Show (a Japanese children's variety show, 1965-1980)
One Piece (started publication in 1997. Over 800 manga chapters in 80+ volumes, more than 700 episodes, twelve movies, and counting.)
In 2010, the creator announced that the story had reached its halfway point; if this is true, then the series will run for a total of 26 years.
Incredibly ironic given that when Eiichiro Oda initially thought up the plot of the series, he planned to end it after 5 years.
Only Fools and Horses initially ran from 1981-1991 (10 years), and continued for another 7 years with annual Christmas specials.
The O'Reilly Factor (started in 1996, not going anywhere soon)
Parlamentet (aired on Swedish television from 1999-2011, though the possibility of further episodes has not been ruled out; by contrast, its parent programme, the BBC's If I Ruled The World , only aired for fourteen episodes in 1998-99)
Penny Arcade , since 1998.
Phenomena has lasted atleast 12 years and is still not finnished.
The first Pico flash, Pico's School, was made in 1999. Since then, Pico has been kept alive ( in a sense ) as Newgrounds ' Series Mascot by all sorts of Newgrounders to this day. And to think, Pico's School was inspired by Columbine .
Pinwheel (13 years, 1977-90. Was Nickelodeon 's biggest show at 260 episodes until You Can't Do That on Television dethroned it.)
Play For Today : Drama anthology series that ran from 1970 to 1984.
Pretty Cure (airing weekly since 2004)
The Pyramid Game Show series: 19 years (27 years worth of episodes due to the overlapping syndicated versions):
1973-74, CBS (The $10,000 Pyramid)
1974-80, ABC (The $10,000/$20,000 Pyramid)
1974-79, syndicated (The $25,000 Pyramid)
1981, syndicated (The $50,000 Pyramid)
1982-88, CBS (The $25,000 Pyramid; called The New $25,000 Pyramid from November 8, 1982 - January 28, 1985)
1985-88, syndicated (The $100,000 Pyramid)
1991, syndicated (The $100,000 Pyramid)
2002-04, syndicated (Pyramid)
2012, GSN (The Pyramid)
Questionable Content passed this mark on July 31, 2013.
Radio Dead Air, Nash Bozard's internet radio show, has been running weekly since July 2000. It makes his show the longest running entity connected with That Guy with the Glasses (even if the show was on for about 8 years before he even began making videos in 2009, let alone getting signed on to TGWTG in 2010.)
Red Dwarf (1988-1993; 1997-1999; 2009; 2012, ten seasons including the mini-series Back To Earth)
The Red Green Show (1990-2005, 300 episodes and a movie. Could go for almost thirty years if you count the length of time Steve Smith has been playing the Red Green character, having first done it on Smith and Smith in the late 1970s.)
Red vs. Blue started in 2003 and is ongoing.
Retro Game Master , known as Game Center CX in its native Japan. Has been running since 2003, with the 17th season celebrating the tenth anniversary.
Ryan's Hope (13 years, 1975-89)
Sally Jessy Raphael (ran from 1983-2002; canceled by distributor Studios USA due to the fading popularity of talk shows. And yet Jerry's been on for going on 18 years now...)
Says You! has been running since 1997.
Saber y Ganar, a Spanish daily quiz show, started on 17th February, 1997. Since October 2011, it runs all seven days a week. It has consistently been the most viewed show in its channel since 2004.
Schlock Mercenary (published daily since June 12, 2000...and not missing a single day)
Shortpacked! (2005-2015, starting and ending on January 17th)
Silent Witness (1996-, 13+ seasons, the oldest currently active crime show in the English language)
Sluggy Freelance has been daily since August 25, 1997.
Smallville , true to its long-running parent franchise, ran for ten seasons and a season 11 Comic-Book Adaptation . It's the current (2013) record holder for longest-running American sci-fi show.
South Park (1997-, 19 seasons, renewed through a 23rd)
Space Ghost Coast to Coast ran for three days short of ten years on [adult swim] alone, and then for 1 day short of two more years on Game Tap .
SpongeBob SquarePants (May 1, 1999-October 11, 2004/May 6th 2005-present) (Widely considered as the most popular cartoon of the decade and rightfully took its place as one of the most successful cartoons of all time. Despite this, it was cancelled in 2004, with the movie set to be the series finale. However, the movie did so well, beyond expectations, that Nickelodeon saw potential in the show, and quickly renewed it for a fourth season.)
Stargate SG-1 (10 years, longest continuously running sci-fi show on U.S. television after Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Also 5 years for its spinoff, Stargate Atlantis . Universe picking up immediately after Atlantis ended means that there was a current Stargate-verse 1997-2011.)
Supernatural (2005-)
Survivor has been on the air since 2000.
Tech Infantry , which started as a fan-made Tabletop RPG expansion pack in the mid-1990s, still has a couple of people writing short stories set in that universe today.
They Think It's All Over ran from 1995-2006 for 19 full series and two summer specials.
This American Life has aired nationally since 1996 (beginning locally one year earlier as Your Radio Playhouse), as well as a Showtime TV series from 2007-09.
Thuis (Belgian soap opera, since 1995)
Tic-Tac-Dough (originally ran from 1956-59 on NBC, then in syndication from 1978-86 and 1990-91; total of 12 seasons)
Tokyo Friend Park II (Japanese game show, aired nearly every week from April 1994 through March 2011, plus another year prior if you count the original Tokyo Friend Park which aired from October 1992 through September 1993)
Trinton Chronicles : (1999-2011 as a web original)
True Life : MTV documentary series, with topics like, "I Have Schizophrenia", "I'm a Staten Island Girl", "I Don't Like My Small Breasts", "I'm Embarrassed of My Mom", and "I'm Living With My Ex" (among others), running since 1998.
was created in 2004 and is possibly one of the longest-running forum role playing games in existence.note The fact that the setting's an entire planet with user-created lore probably helps.
Video And Arcade Top 10 (Canadian kids game show about video games that aired from 1991-2006, and one of the longest running English language Canadian game shows in history)
Wicked (2003-present)
Winx Club (2004-14. It was originally supposed to stop after three seasons and a movie. Then, it was scheduled to stop after a third movie, which is to be released during summer of 2014. Now, a seventh season has been announced.)
World War II Online , the massive multiplayer war simulator, went to paid subscription on June 6, 2001 and is still going strong.
WWE 's WWE SmackDown , has been airing regularly since April 29, 1999.
The X-Men Film Series (2000-present) is the longest-running superhero movie franchise. Hugh Jackman appears as Wolverine in 9 of the 10 entries,note in the exception, Deadpool , the title character still wears a Jackman mask making him the actor who has played the same superhero in the most movies.
X-Play (1998-2012, originally as GameSpot TV on ZDTV)
Yu-Gi-Oh! got its start as a manga by Kazuki Takahashi in 1996. In addition to the original manga, the franchise has developed into five other manga series, seven anime series, one 30-minute animated movie, and two full-length animated movies. (The Collectible Card Game that most of the franchise was based on didn't actually debut until 1999; the anime series that most fans are familiar with was sponsored by Konami, revolving around their version of the card game to ensure their domination of the card game license.)
Z Cars (1962-1978)
The following Cirque du Soleil troupes:
Alegr�a (1994-98 tent tour, 1999-2000 residency in Biloxi, MS, 2001-09 tent tour relaunch; 2009-13 arena tour)
Quidam (1996-2010 tents, 2010-16 arenas)
Dralion (1999-2010 tents; 2010-14 arenas)
Varekai (2002-13 tents, 2013- arenas)
Zumanity (2003-)
At least 20 years
Ah! My Goddess ; the manga ran from 1988 to 2014, and it's had several anime adaptations.
America's Funniest Home Videos (original pilot aired in November 1989, launched January 1990. From 1999-2000, it ran only as occasional specials, but the Tom Bergeron-hosted revamp returned it to series status)
America's Most Wanted (1987-1996, 1997-2012; longest-running show on FOX. It was actually canceled in Fall 1996 but fans, law enforcement, and the governments of 32 states rallied together to successfully persuade FOX to uncancel the show a month and a half later. Upon returning, it resumed its regular Saturday-night timeslot and paired with C.O.P.S. . This combination itself was a long runner as one of the longest unchanged primetime schedules in American television history lasting 15th years until it was sent to Lifetime in 2011. They would only air the program for a little under a year, ending in 2012.)
Arthur (1996-present), a cartoon based on the books by Marc Brown. It is the second longest-running animated series in America behind The Simpsons .
At the Movies ( Siskel & Ebert ): From 1986-99 with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, 1999-2000 with Ebert and guests, 2000-06 with Ebert and Richard Roeper, 2006-08 with Roeper and guests, 2008-09 with Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz, and 2009-10 with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips, for a total of 24 years. Revived on PBS in 2011 as Roger Ebert Presents "At the Movies".
If one counts their 1975-82 tenure on Opening Soon at a Theater Near You/Sneak Previews (which ran for another 14 years after they left for a total run of 21 years) and their 1982-86 stint on the original At the Movies, Siskel and Ebert were co-presenting film review programs for 24 years.
Australia's Funniest Home Videos (the Australian version of America's Funniest Home Videos ) has been running since 1990.
Barney & Friends : The first videos came out from 1987-1991. The show premiered in 1992. Although, new episodes haven't been produced since 2010, the show is not officially canceled, as a new season is set to premiere in 2017
.
Bastard : First volume published in 1988 (with a one-shot pilot in 1987 titled Wizard!!). It was serialized irregularly by Weekly Jump before switching to Ultra Jump in 2000 (with a seven-year hiatus between 2001 and 2008) and as a result, only a relatively small set of 26 volumes have been published.
Berserk : First volume published in 1990 (with a one-shot pilot in 1989), and has been serialized in Young Animal since 1992. However, it's only published bimonthly, so it only reached a comparatively-small 38 volumes in 2016. However, the 1997-98 anime was only 25 episodes and only lasted half a year; the fact that it went through 13 volumes of story in that time is telling as to why.
Best Motoring , from December 1987 to June 2011 (22 and a half years)
The Bill (pilot in 1983, full series in 1984, weekly since 1987. Ended in September 2010.)
The Bold and the Beautiful (1987-)
Brookside, (Channel 4 UK soap opera and one of the channel's first shows, 1982-2003)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer : The movie was admittedly a flop, but it premiered in 1992, the series ran from 1996-2003, and the comic books are still coming out with season 10 right now.
Captain Kangaroo (29 years, 1955-84) If you include the 1997 revival, this comes to 31 years.
The Carry On film franchise included at least one film a year every year from 1958-78 (followed by Carry On Columbus in 1992).
Casualty (20 years, first broadcast 1986)
Its spinoff Holby City has already had a 10+ year run in its own right (since 1999).
The Chibi Maruko-chan franshise has been running for almost 30 years, with the manga running for 23 years before ending and the second anime (over 900 episodes so far) running for almost 19.
Chuckle Vision aired from 1987 to 2009.
Cirque du Soleil troupes:
Saltimbanco opened in 1992, originally closed in February 1997, and was brought back in October 1998. As a tent-based tour it ran until 2006, and relaunched as an arena tour in 2007. In this form it ran until 2012.
Myst�re has been running nonstop in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1993.
Concentration (24 years on NBC and in syndication {1958-78, 1987-91}, minus a five-month hiatus in 1973)
C.O.P.S. (second longest-running show on Fox and the longest-running Reality Show , currently on Spike TV )
Crossroads , British soap opera (26 years, 1964-88 and 2001-03).
The Darkon Wargaming Club has been around since 1985.
Dateline (running continuously since 1992)
The David Susskind Show (1958-1986)
Den Ace (1989-present), a series of Tokusatsu shorts parodying Ultraman .
Detective Conan , also known as Case Closed in English, in publication since 1994 and on the air since 1996 with 700+ episodes, 18 movies, and 70+ volumes. It's still going in both anime and manga form.
Downtown no Gaki no Tsukai ya Arahende!!! (Japanese comedy/variety show, running since October 1989).
EastEnders (3,300+ episodes since 1985)
FC De Kampioenen (1990-2011) Belgian sitcom.
Fort Boyard (1990-) French summer TV game show.
The Friendly Giant (Canadian children's show, 1958-85)
FurryMUCK 1990-today. May be the oldest text-based virtual reality game still around.
Les Guignols de l'info (French satirical puppet show , 1988-)
Gunnm (the manga has been around since 1990)
Gunsmoke (September 10, 1955-March 31, 1975) Famously the longest running drama series in primetime television, a title it now officially shares with Law & Order.
Gute Zeiten Schlechte Zeiten ("Good Times, Bad Times", German soap with 4,000+ episodes, running since 1992; based on a Dutch soap called Goede Tijden, Slechte Tijden, which has run for 3,500 episodes since 1990)
Hajime no Ippo (manga serialization started in 1989, has since topped 1,000 chapters and going strong)
The Halloween series: The first film came out in 1978 and the last one was released in 2002. Not counting the Rob Zombie rem akes .
Have I Got News for You (British satirical panel show, started 1990 and still going despite several libel cases and not having a permanent presenter since sacking Angus Deayton in 2002)
The Hollywood Squares (1966-81, 1986-89, 1998-2004; total of 24 years, or 25 if you count The Match Game-Hollywood Squares Hour {1983-84})
In the Life (June 1992 - December 2012); the longest-running LGBT newsmagazine
Inside the Actors Studio (airing on Bravo since 1994)
Issues and Answers (1960-81) which, along with Meet the Press and Face the Nation, represented the height of Sunday-morning political television in the US.
The Jerry Springer Show (running in syndication since 1991, started as a public-affairs talk show based at WLWT in Cincinnati; its parent company syndicated it nationally as it slowly evolved into its current "freakshow" format. It switched distributors from Multimedia to Universal when Multimedia was bought out by a newspaper company in 1995, along with Sally Jessy Raphael's show)
Kalkofes Mattscheibe , one of Germany's most prominent and most merciless parody shows, was on radio from 1991-1998, and has been on TV since 1994 (with breaks and Channel Hops ). Oliver Kalkofe commented in 2014 that German TV had only become worse in the meantime.
Later... with Jools Holland (British variety show, 1992-)
Landline (Australian rural issues program, 1992-)
Late Show with David Letterman (1993-2015; adding the Late Night years at NBC, a 33-year run in late-night television)
Law & Order : September 13, 1990 - May 24, 2010. Fell just short of beating Gunsmoke's record, though at least they're now tied. Was the longest-running first-run drama series in primetime for all of The Noughties .
The Letter People : First broadcast in 1976, it ran clear into the 1990s.
The Littlest Pet Shop toy line has been in continuous production since 1992.
Love of Life (7,315 episodes from 1951-80)
Lux Radio Theatre , a weekly American radio series which adapted Hollywood films for radio broadcast, ran for 21 years, 1934-1955.
Maury (Maury Povich's talk show; started in 1991 and still going strong. Switched distributors from Paramount to Universal in 1998)
Media Watch (Australian media analysis program; first aired in May 1989, isn't going anywhere any time soon)
Mega Man : The first game was released to the NES in 1987. The series celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013.
Les Mis�rables has been running on the West End since 1985.
Morningside (CBC Radio morning show, 1976-97)
The Movie Show (running since 1986 in Australia; the original hosts switched networks in 2004 and now present At The Movies, which is the same show in all but name).
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom (1963-88 [original series], 2002-present [revival])
Neighbours (since 1985, with 5,000+ episodes)
Nick News with Linda Ellerbee (1992-2015)
The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986-2011)
The London production of The Phantom of the Opera has been running since 1986; the Broadway staging since 1988.
The Phil Donahue Show (1967-96 on national TV, 3 years on Dayton, Ohio local TV) The show that inspired most Talk Shows after it, including Oprah and Sally Jessy Raphael.
Play School (BBC children's show, 1964-88)
Poirot (first episode shown in 1989, an occasional break in the 1990s and 2000s and a final episode in 2013)
Pok�mon (since 1996, 22 games (many released in pairs or as Updated Rereleases ) for the main line of games alone, and 900+ episodes, and 17+ movies (one per year) for the anime since 1997).
The Polka Dot Door (Canadian children's show, 1971-93)
Power Rangers (began in 1993 with only a one-year hiatus, over 800 episodes so far)
Queen for a Day ( Game Show , 1945-64 and 1969-70; 20 years)
Rage (Music Video show, on Australian TV since 1987)
Rainbow (British children's series on Thames TV, 1972-92)
Reading Rainbow (16 seasons over 26 years, appears to have been Killed Off for Real in 2009, but was resurrected as an Internet Outreach project in the form of an iPad app in 2012, and 2015 saw a burst of new content. The third longest-running kids show on PBS behind Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and Sesame Street )
The Real World (1992-, over 400 episodes, one of the first successful Reality TV shows and MTV 's longest running show.)
The Red Skelton Show (1951-71)
Regional Contact (CTV Ottawa local newsmagazine, Sunday evenings since 1988)
Samson En Gert , has been running since 1990.
The Secret Storm (squeaks in at 20 years and 7 days, 1954-74)
Shadowrun (FASA's premier RPG survived the downfall of its parent company and just celebrated its 20th Anniversary)
Shima Shima Tora No Shimajiro has been on the air since 1993, and it's still going.
Shortland Street is Television New Zealand's longest-running soap opera, first aired on May 25, 1992 and still going strong.
The Simpsons started its 25th season in September 2013, and has been renewed for a 26th, so the show will run through at least 2015. While there are rumors that FOX will can the show after season 25 now that a new syndication deal has been made, making it possible for the show to air in reruns on cable TV and on streaming sites like Hulu and Netflix, Al Jean is planning to have the show complete 30 seasons, making the show end in 2019. Has been on the air as a series since December 17, 1989 note with the first episode being the Christmas special, "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire." The first regular episode is "Bart the Genius," though had it not been for the sloppy animation and behind-the-scenes issues Matt Groening was having with creating the show, "Some Enchanted Evening" — where Homer and Marge leave the kids with a female fugitive who poses as a babysitter — would have been the series premiere, though the title characters originated in animated shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show back in 1987.)
Slayers : Began in 1989 in a serialized magazine as a novel series; had an anime run (1995-97); had two OVAs and five movies (1995-2001); anime was Un-Cancelled in 2008 and released two more seasons. The bulk of the long run was through the novels, which kept running through the new millennium and are still being made.
Star Trek (22 years in all its TV incarnations, 1966-69; 1973-74; 1987-2005, plus 10+ on film, not counting the seven-year hiatus between Nemesis and Star Trek 2009 )
STOMP! starring the Yes/No group has been at the Orpheum Theater in New York City since the mid-90's - and it's still there.
Street Fighter : The first game debuted in 1987, the more popular sequel, Street Fighter II : The World Warrior, was released in arcades in 1991.
Sunday Night Baseball (on ESPN since 1990)
Sunday Night Football (on ESPN 1987-2005, NBC 2006-present. TNT split the coverage with ESPN from 1990-97.)
Taggart (20+ years, longest running cop show on UK TV at the moment)
Talk Soup ran from 1991-2002. Its successor, plainly titled The Soup , has been airing since 2004.
This Old House (PBS home improvement show, airing since 1980. Its spinoff program The New Yankee Workshop had a 20-year run in its own right, 1989-2009.)
Time Shock (Japanese quiz show, aired weekly 1969-1986, 1989-1990, and Time Shock 21 in 2000-2002, plus periodic specials 2002-present)
The original Tom and Jerry series ran from 1940-1967. If one counts the various spin-offs and movies that are still being produced to this day, then it's been going for more than 70 years.
To Tell the Truth (1956-68, 1969-78, 1980-81, 1990-91, 2000-01; total of 24 seasons)
Tournament of Kings, a Las Vegas dinner theater rival to the Medieval Times chain, opened with the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in 1990 as King Arthur's Tournament; it was retooled and renamed in 1998 and continues to run today.
Truth or Consequences (1950-51, 1954-75, 1977-78, 1987-88; total of 24 seasons, although it is best known for the 19 years {1956-75} hosted by Bob Barker)
Un, dos, tres , weekly Spanish game show that aired ten seasons intermittently between 1972 and 2004. Not counting skips between seasons, it stayed on air for about 20 years.
VeggieTales began in 1993 and is still going.
Waratte Iitomo !, a live-broadcast Japanese variety show, has been on the air since October, 1982. There has only been one host throughout its entire run, who holds a Guinness world record for longest continued hosting of a live television program.
Warhammer 40,000 , the first game Rogue Trader, was released in 1986.
Warhammer , the game of fantasy battles, actually appeared first, in 1983.
WCW Saturday Night managed 27 years, with a couple of name changes along the way.
Whose Line Is It Anyway? started out on BBC Radio 4 in 1988, then moved onto Channel 4 the same year, where it lasted for 10 seasons; the show moved to Hollywood in 1998, when it got picked up by ABC . The show was cancelled in 2003 � and by cancelled, we mean it stopped filming new episodes; new episodes continued to air on Freeform until November 2006. Several years later, the series was uncanceled and made a Channel Hop to The CW , where new episodes began airing in 2013. This makes for over 20 years' worth of Whose Line (and counting).
WWE RAW has been airing since 1993, has aired over 1000 episodes.
What's My Line? (24 years; 1950-67, then 1968-75)
Yamara from 1988 in Dragon Magazine to 2006 in webcomic form.
You've Been Framed, British home video series, first broadcast in 1989.
At least 30 years
20/20 (airing on ABC since 1978)
American Bandstand (30 years on ABC , five years locally in Philadelphia , one year in syndication, one year on USA Network ; 37 total)
Another World (35 years, 1964-99; 8,891 episodes)
Antiques Roadshow (started in 1977 and is still ongoing)
Arthur (although the cartoon has already been mentioned in the "At least 10 years" section, the books series ran for 34 years, 1976-2010)
BattleTech (since 1984, with several ownership changes. Spawned a long running video game series , and an expanded universe since 1986)
Guyver : The manga is still in production after starting in 1986, although it has considerably slowed since Yoshiki Takaya doesn't use assistants.
Care Bears : Since its launch in 1981, is over thirty years old if one doesn't count in the hiatuses the franchise took. Even if one did count in the hiatus, the one hiatus starting in 1993 through 2001 and another from 2008 through 2012 totaled 12 years, still leaving the franchise's "active" periods with a span of a little over 20 years.
Car Talk (began on WBUR Boston in 1977, and was picked up nationally by NPR in 1987. New episodes stopped being produced in 2012 and the older of the two brothers who co-hosted the show, Tom Magliozzi, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in 2014, but Tom and his brother Ray still had recorded enough material for them to continue broadcasting new shows of never-before-aired material for at least a few more years to come)
Countdown (Britain; the first programme on Channel 4, started in 1982, with 5,000+ episodes)
The first Dark Tower book was released in 1982. An Interquel taking place between books four and five was released in 2012.
Discworld ; first released in 1983, it went on to span 41 books before the author's death in 2015, as well as numerous short stories, reference books, stage shows, tv adaptations and various different types of games. Even after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Sir Terry Pratchett managed to release a new book almost every year.
Doctor Who ran from 1963 to 1989, and again from 2005 to present, for a total of 37 years. It is listed in Guinness World Records as both the longest-running, non-consecutive, science fiction television series (when awarded in 2006, the show had 43 years under its belt since the first episode/serial, and a total of 723 episodes), as well as the most successful science fiction series.
When it was put on hiatus in 1989, it was announced as a temporary measure. During the hiatus, the BBC produced a telemovie, novelizations of the old episodes, and books with new stories, so it was no big stretch that the BBC celebrated the franchise's 50th anniversary in 2013. Also a counter-example to the claim in the introduction that these shows avoided being Screwed by the Network as the hiatus was instigated by an executive who hated the show.
Don McNeill's Breakfast Club aired on NBC Blue (later ABC Radio) from 1933-68.
Doraemon started off as a manga that ran from 1969-1996. There's the first anime series that aired in 1973 then ended in the same year due to budget issue that eventually caused the animation studio to went bankrupt. There'a second and more popular anime series that lasted from 1979 to 2005. Just a month later, a third anime series started airing in 2005 with all the characters redesigned and all the voice actors were replaced.
Eat Bulaga, a Philippine noontime variety show running since 1979.
Entertainment Tonight started in 1981 and is still in production.
Evening at Pops (PBS Boston Pops concert program, aired 1970-2005)
Evil Dead started in 1981, and with the recent Evil Dead reboot movie, and the Ash vs. Evil Dead series, the franchise has lasted for over 30 years.
Family Feud (airing since 1976 on ABC {1976-85}, CBS {1988-94}, NBC {2008 specials}, and syndication {1977-85, 1988-95, 1999-})
Firing Line (public-affairs program, aired in syndication 1966-71 and then on PBS 1971-99; 1,504 episodes over 33 years)
Front Page Challenge (Canadian celebrity panel quiz show that ran from 1957-95)
Garfield (a newspaper comic strip, 1978-present)
Glass Mask (the manga has been running since 1976. Has had several anime adaptations, the oldest ran during 1984 and the newest in 2005. And we're not counting the dorama, the Noh play, etc.)
Good Morning America (ABC weekday morning show, airing since 1975)
Grange Hill (BBC children's drama, 1978-2008)
Gundam (16 TV and OAV series', 11+ movies, more manga and video games {separate and original stories, not just adaptations} than we dare to count, and good Lord, the model kits! If one were to watch every Gundam animated work continuously, not counting eating, sleeping, or bathroom breaks, the total runtime would last more than one week.)
Here's Humphrey (Australian children's show, 1966-2003, briefly revived in 2007)
The House (CBC Radio parliamentary affairs show, year-round since October 1977)
The Howard Stern Show (some incarnation of the show has existed since the late 1970s)
Inside The NFL (1977-2008 on HBO, Showtime 2008-)
The Jack Benny Program (33 years on radio and television, 1932-65)
Jackanory (1965-96, brief relaunch in 2007)
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (started on January 1st in 1987 on Weekly Jump; it switched to Ultra Jump (a monthly publication) in 2004, and has published over 100 volumes spanning eight major story arcs)
Jubilee! — The last traditional showgirl revue in Las Vegas to close ran from 1981 to 2016.
Last of the Summer Wine (British TV Sitcom , the world's longest-running): 31 series (1973, 1975-1977, 1979, 1982-1983, 1985, 1987-1993, 1995, 1997-2010) over 37 1/2 years.
Late Night with... (1982- on NBC; hosted by David Letterman {1982-93}, Conan O'Brien {1993-2009}, Jimmy Fallon {2009-2014}, and Seth Meyers {2014-})
The Lawrence Welk Show (Locally on KTLA in Los Angeles 1955-1971, then nationally on ABC 1955-1971 and in syndication 1971-1982; reruns still air on some PBS stations)
Legends in Concert, a celebrity impersonator revue, has been performing somewhere in Las Vegas, NV since 1983. Sister productions in Atlantic City, NJ, Branson, MO, and Myrtle Beach, SC have all had decade-plus runs; the latter two are still performing.
Live from Lincoln Center (PBS classical music program, airing since 1976)
The talk show now known as Live! with Kelly and Michael has a continuous history dating back to at least 1983:
The Morning Show (1983�1988), initially a local show on WABC-TV in New York City, hosted by Regis Philbin and Cyndy Garvey. That show is the successor to local talk shows in both New York and Los Angeles that date back to 1970 (in NYC) and 1971 (in L.A.), with the L.A. show hosted by Philbin and Garvey for several years. Garvey left in 1984, and after a year with Ann Abernathy in the co-host chair, Kathie Lee Gifford (then Johnson) debuted in 1985. The show went national in 1988 as...
Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee (1988�2000). After Gifford left in 2000, then there was...
Live! with Regis (2000�2001), when the producers tried out several prospective co-hosts. The hiring of Kelly Ripa brought us to...
Live! with Regis and Kelly (2001�2011). Philbin left in early 2011, leading to...
Live! with Kelly (2011�2012), with Ripa joined by a revolving cast of guest co-hosts. Eventually, producers settled on former NFL player Michael Strahan, creating...
Live! with Kelly and Michael (2012�present)
Look and Read (produced irregularly from 1967-2004)
The original theatrical Looney Tunes series ran from 1930-69. In that period of time, it went through various directors, animators, producers, and characters and that's not counting the various spinoffs, revivals, and movies.
Lou Dobbs Tonight, originally titled Moneyline (aired on CNN from 1980-2009, and on Fox Business Network since 2011)
Max and Ruby (Although the series is also mentioned in the "At least 10 years" section, Rosemary Wells has been making books starring "Max And Ruby" since 1979)
The McLaughlin Group (PBS current affairs debate program, airing since 1982)
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001, although reruns still air)
Morning Edition (airing on NPR since 1979)
Motor Week (airing on PBS since October 15, 1981 )
Mr. Squiggle (Australian children's show, 1959-95)
Sanrio 's My Melody debuted in 1975. She would become one of Sanrio's very beloved characters in the company.
Nature (PBS wildlife program, airing since 1982)
Newsnight (broadcast on the same channel since 1980 if you don't count its predecessor)
The News Quiz (satirical Panel Game running on BBC Radio Four since 1977)
Nightline (ABC prime time news program, airing since 1980)
Ouke no Monshou ( Shoujo manga by Chieko Hosokawa, has been running since 1976 just like Glass Mask . Had a short video drama as well.)
Parkinson (British chat show hosted by Michael Parkinson, aired on The BBC from 1971-82 and then again in 1987-88 and 1998-2004, then on ITV from 2004-07)
A Prairie Home Companion (radio variety show, running since 1974 with two very similar shows running during the breaks from 1987-89 and 1989-92. Garrison Keillor has been hosting this show, but not the very similar ones that ran during its breaks)
Question Time (British current affairs debate program, running since 1979)
Quirks and Quarks (general-interest science program on CBC Radio since 1975)
Quote Unquote, that innocuous literary quiz that appears at lunchtimes, has been on BBC Radio 4 with the same host (Nigel Rees) since 1976.
Royal Canadian Air Farce (since 1973 on radio, since 1993 on TV; ended with a New Year's Eve special on December 31, 2008)
Sabado Gigante
started in June 1962 (as Gran Show Dominical before moving from Sunday to Saturday in 1966), Channel Hopped from Chile's Canal 13 to Univision in 1986, and from there, ran all the way up until April 17, 2015. "Don Francisco" (Mario Kreutzberger) hosted the show for its entire run.
Ireland's The Late Late Show (since July 1962, has only had three regular presenters (Gay Byrne (1962-99), Pat Kenny (1999-2009), Ryan Tubridy (since 2009)). Not to be confused with the American The Late Late Show , which has "only" been running since 1995.)
The James Bond film series began with Dr. No in 1962; the twenty-third film, Skyfall , was released to mark the series' fiftieth anniversary in 2012.
German broadcaster ZDF 's flagship news programme heute began airing on the channel's launch date, 1 April 1963. It has occupied its current 19:00 timeslot since 1973.
General Hospital (over 10,000 episodes since April 1963)
Clifford the Big Red Dog (1963-present, a series of children's books, also had a brief run on TV during the early 2000s and a new movie is scheduled for 2016)
The BBC pop-science programme Horizon has been running since May 1964.
Match of the Day (UK football highlights and discussion show): started in August 1964, survived in various forms even during periods when highlights rights have gone to other channels, and now has a Spin-Off series (Match of the Day 2, on air since the 2004-05 season) and magazine.
Since 1965, Gamera has starred in 12 films with a new one currently in the works.
The Katzenjammer Kids
is a comic strip that debuted December 1897, and has been published ever since, with new strips
still appearing regularly today. This makes it most likely the longest-running piece of serial fiction in any medium or format.
B�cassine was in continuous publication from 1905-62. The character is still used in advertising.
Gasoline Alley debuted on November 25th, 1918. The original protagonist, Walt Wallet, is still alive, and is now 115 years old due to Frank King's insistence that the characters be allowed to age, even though his wife Phyllis died of old age in 2004 and his adopted son Skeezix now has ambiguous age, despite clearly being elderly. Walt is so old, in fact, that they had a story arc involving him being investigated for social security fraud, since the government just couldn't believe he could be that old.
Felix the Cat is the longest-lasting animated cartoon character in history, making his debut in 1919 (and if we count an even earlier prototype short, it may even be 1917) having appeared in over 150 theatrical cartoons, decades worth of comics, hundreds of TV cartoons, two movies, and the two TV revivals The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat and Baby Felix, and he is still appearing in merchandise to this day. And he even has a new cartoon series on the way for 2013. In fact, one of the very first TV broadcasts
featured Felix way back in 1928. Meow!
Popeye was first introduced in 1929, in the comic strip Thimble Theater, which was later renamed after him. Olive Oyl is older still; she appeared in the strip ten years earlier in 1919.
Lørdagsbarnetimen (The Saturday Children's Hour) was a weekly radio series produced by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) which aired every Saturday from December 1924 to September 2010 (apart from a forced hiatus during World War II ).
The Grand Ole Opry: Airing weekly on Nashville radio station WSM-AM since 1925, with an edited version of the program being carried on national radio and television outlets since the 1940s.
Radioavisen: Daily news broadcast on Danmarks Radio (DR) starting August 1, 1926. At first with two daily programs, gradually with more. Now there is a Radioavis every hour. Aired nationwide since 1927.
Danmarks Radio is also responsible for Julehilsen til Grønland (Christmas greetings to Greenland), first aired in 1932 as a means for people in Denmark to send greetings to friends and family in Greenland and vice versa.
Mickey Mouse is one of the world's most beloved cartoon characters. Making his debut in 1928, he has appeared in over 130 theatrical cartoons, 8 movies, hundreds of comics, 10 TV shows, and many video games.
The Daily Service is a 15-minute religious programme which has aired daily on BBC Radio since 1928, making it the longest-running daily radio broadcast in British history.
Hamburger Hafenkonzert (Hamburg harbor concert): Broadcast weekly on NDR in Germany since June 1929 � even through WWII.
Music and the Spoken Word: Weekly broadcast of music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (and a short sermon), which started in 1929.
Proto-Superhero The Shadow debuted in 1930 as a radio Horror Host for suspense stories, but quickly migrated to pulp novels and comic strips until 1949. Following two short-lived attempts at a Shadow television series in the '50s, the character was revived in print in 1963, and several new comic book tales were released in the decades to follow as '30s-retro miniseries, or as one-shot original accompaniments to collected reprints. Most recently, the character has appeared on film in the 1994 Alec Baldwin feature and from 2011-present in comic miniseries from Dynamite Entertainment.
Pause Signal Danmarks Radio (DR). This little tune first aired on August 28, 1931 and has since been used to fill up short spaces between programs. The tune is a melody from the 1300s, the oldest known Danish folk melody. Irregular scheduling, yet frequently heard for decades. Nowadays used as regular broadcast only on one channel (P5), the tune has become waiting music on DR's telephone system, and since early 2009 the signal that calls the audience to the second half of concerts in the broadcaster's new concert hall.
Hockey Night in Canada began airing on radio in November 1931 and moved to television in November 1952 (the first year of regular television broadcasts in Canada), and is the world's longest-running sports show.
The Metropolitan Opera airs a radio broadcast season each year. Although going since Christmas of 1931 (and broadcast in January 1910 over experimental radio broadcasts), unlike The Guiding Light it only airs episodes during a season and is not continuous.
The first "Lucha Libre" promotion in Mexico, EMLL, got started in 1933. While it later changed its name to CMLL , this was representative of its horizons expanding from "Mexico" to "Mundial", ownership and programming remained continuous and it is the longest continuously running pro wrestling promotion in history.
The Brazilian obligatory 7p.m. radio news show A Voz do Brazil has been running since 1935.
Mumfie the elephant , who made his debut in a children's novel in 1936, has spawned numerous books (including various reprints of the original Katherine Tozer stories), 2 TV series (soon to be three with the upcoming reboot of Magic Adventures of Mumfie, a radio play, a direct-to-video movie and numerous pieces of merchandise (most of them being stuffed animals of the main character).
Statler : It's impressive that this show lasted 50 years.
Waldorf: It's impressive this show lasted more than one!
Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!
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In Greek mythology, who was the father of Achilles? | Achilles - Ancient History - HISTORY.com
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Achilles: Early Life
Like most mythological heroes, Achilles had a complicated family tree. His father was Peleus, the mortal king of the Myrmidons–a people who, according to legend, were extraordinarily fearless and skilled soldiers. His mother was Thetis, a Nereid.
Did You Know?
Today, we use the phrase “Achilles heel” to describe a powerful person’s fatal weakness.
According to myths and stories composed long after the Iliad, Thetis was extraordinarily concerned about her baby son’s mortality. She did everything she could to make him immortal: She burned him over a fire every night, then dressed his wounds with ambrosial ointment; and she dunked him into the River Styx, whose waters were said to confer the invulnerability of the gods. However, she gripped him tightly by the foot as she dipped him into the river–so tightly that the water never touched his heel. As a result, Achilles was invulnerable everywhere but there.
When he was 9 years old, a seer predicted that Achilles would die heroically in battle against the Trojans. When she heard about this, Thetis disguised him as a girl and sent him to live on the Aegean island of Skyros. To be a great warrior was Achilles’ fate, however, and he soon left Skyros and joined the Greek army. In a last-ditch effort to save her son’s life, Thetis asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to make a sword and shield that would keep him safe. The armor that Hephaestus produced for Achilles did not make him immortal, but it was distinctive enough to be recognized by friend and foe alike.
When Homer wrote the Iliad in about 720 BCE, however, readers and listeners would not have known any of this. They only knew that Achilles was a great hero, that he had superhuman strength and courage and that he was supremely handsome. Homer painted a more nuanced picture: In addition to these qualities, his Achilles was vengeful and quick to anger and could be petulant when he did not get his way. He was also deeply loyal and would sacrifice anything for his friends and family.
Achilles: The Trojan War
According to legend, the Trojan War began when the god-king Zeus decided to reduce Earth’s mortal population by arranging a war between the Greeks (Homer calls them the Achaeans) and the Trojans. He did this by meddling in their political and emotional affairs. At Achilles’ parents’ wedding banquet, Zeus invited the prince of Troy, a young man named Paris, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Each of the goddesses offered Paris a bribe in exchange for his vote. Aphrodite’s was the most alluring: She promised to give the young prince the most beautiful wife in the world. Unfortunately, the wife in question–Helen, the daughter of Zeus–was already married to someone else: Menelaus, the king of Sparta . At Aphrodite’s urging, Paris went to Sparta, won Helen’s heart and took her (along with all of Menelaus’ money) back to Troy.
Menelaus vowed revenge. He assembled an army of Greece’s greatest warriors, including Achilles and his Myrmidons, and set off to conquer Troy and get his wife back. In Homer’s telling, this war lasted for 10 bloody years.
Achilles: The Illiad
When the Iliad begins, the Trojan War has been going on for nine years. Achilles, the poem’s protagonist, has led one battle after another. He has met with great success–in fact, he is undefeated in battle–but the war itself has reached a stalemate.
Homer’s story focuses on a different conflict, however: the internecine quarrel between his hero and Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean armies and Menelaus’ brother. In a battle that took place before the poem begins, Agamemnon had taken as a concubine a young Trojan woman named Chryseis. Chryseis’ father, a priest of the god Apollo, tried to buy his daughter’s freedom, but Agamemnon mocked his entreaties and refused to release the girl.
Enraged, Apollo punished the Greek armies by sending a plague to kill the soldiers one by one. As his ranks thinned, Agamemnon finally agreed to allow Chryseis to return to her father. However, he demanded a replacement concubine in exchange: Achilles’ wife, the Trojan princess Breseis.
Achilles did as his commander asked and relinquished his bride. Then, he announced that he would no longer fight on Agamemnon’s behalf. He gathered his belongings, including the armor Hephaestus had made, and refused to come out of his tent.
With the Greeks’ greatest warrior off the battlefield, the tide began to turn in favor of the Trojans. The Greeks lost one battle after another. Eventually, Achilles’ best friend, the soldier Patroclus, was able to wrangle a compromise: Achilles would not fight, but he would let Patroclus use his powerful armor as a disguise. That way, the Trojans would think that Achilles had returned to battle and would retreat in fear.
The plan was working until Apollo, still seething about Agamemnon’s treatment of Chryseis and her father, intervened on the Trojans’ behalf. He helped the Trojan prince Hector to find and kill Patroclus.
Furious, Achilles vowed to take revenge. He chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the way. When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him.
Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death. He dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot all the way back to the Achaean camp and tossed it on the garbage heap. However, in the poem’s last section Achilles finally relents: He returns Hector’s body to his father for a proper burial.
Achilles: The Fate of Achilles
In his Iliad, Homer does not explain what happened to Achilles. According to later legends (and bits and pieces of Homer’s own Odyssey), the warrior returned to Troy after Hector’s funeral to exact further revenge for Patroclus’ death. However, the still-vengeful Apollo told Hector’s brother Paris that Achilles was coming. Paris, who was not a brave warrior, ambushed Achilles as he entered Troy. He shot his unsuspecting enemy with an arrow, which Apollo guided to the one place he knew Achilles was vulnerable: his heel, where his mother’s hand had kept the waters of the Styx from touching his skin. Achilles died on the spot, still undefeated in battle.
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Sugar Loaf Mountain is in which country of the UK? | Tables Showing the Achilles Genealogy
The Family of Achilles from Peleus and Thetis to Chaos
Achilles is the son of the nymph Thetis and the mortal king Peleus .
Achilles' ancestors are confusing:
Part of this has to do with the fact that only one of his parents was a mortal. The immortals aren't many generations from the first generation ever in Greek genealogy. This makes Achilles' mother's side of the family tree lop-sided.
Another factor is the recurrence of the same mythological figure repeatedly in the family tree. Zeus is one such repeat performer. He gets connected biologically with many of the major heroes. It would be hard to figure out what the best specific blood relationship Zeus bears to our hero Achilles because he is related in too many different ways.
Tables 1 and 2 proceed in the normal way -- from ancestor to descendant, from Zeus etc. to Achilles on his father Peleus' side [Table 1], and from Chaos to Achilles' mother Thetis [Table 2].
The other tables (3-6) show the ancestry of other figures in Achilles' family tree, but in the reverse direction.
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Table 3 shows the ancestry of Grandma Chariclo (Achilles' father's mother) down to Oceanus et al.
Table 4 shows the ancestry of Grandpa Sciron (Achilles' father's father) down to Zeus et al.
Tables 5 (& 6) show the ancestry of Hippodamia (Achilles' great-great-grandmother) & Aegina down to Oceanus et al.
The final table shows the ancestry of Zeus. Some ancestors are not restricted to a single generation.
The 6 tables together cover just about everyone in the family from the beginning of the cosmos down to the time of Achilles.
TABLE 1
Nereus
THETIS - The Mother of Achilles
In the family tree of Achilles, Zeus comes up several times. One of the more famous mortal sons of Zeus was Tantalus -- the one who served up his own son Pelops at a feast for the gods. The goddess Demeter, who was mourning the loss of her daughter Persephone, was too distracted to notice the feast meal consisted of human flesh, so she ate the shoulder of Pelops before the gods could restore Pelops to life. After they did revivify Pelops, Demeter replaced the missing part with an ivory shoulder. For his crime, Tantalus was sentenced to eternal suffering in the Underworld.
In the family tree of Achilles, Pelops appears as the parent of a son named Sciron [see TABLE 4]. This would make Sciron a brother of Atreus (as in the cursed House of Atreus ) and Thyestes. The Athenian hero Theseus later killed Sciron.
TABLE 3
CHARICLO - Mother of Endeis (Mother of Peleus [Peleus is the father of Achilles])
Chariclo is a great-grandmother of Achilles. Aegina is the other great-grandmother of Achilles on his father's side.
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In which US city are the Academy Awards held? | History | Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
1985
1985
Gee Nicholl and Julian Blaustein met with the Academy’s then-Executive Director Jim Roberts and then-Executive Administrator Bruce Davis to discuss the development of a program that would aid new screenwriters. That program ultimately became the Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting.
1986
1986
The first Nicholl fellowships are awarded to Allison Anders, Dennis Clontz, and Jeff Eugenides at a reception held in the Academy’s Grand Lobby. In the initial year of competition, the 99 entrants were not required to submit screenplays; they could submit a screenplay, a teleplay, a TV series episode, fiction or a stageplay. The competition was limited to California college students.
1987
1987
The Academy Nicholl Fellowships expanded eligibility to include college students in nine states and to residents of Texas.
1989
1989
Eligibility was expanded again to include all United States residents who had not sold or optioned a screenplay or teleplay.
1990
1990
Rules for judging were modified to: EARLY ROUNDS – paid, professional readers narrow thousands of entries to the top five percent which are then passed onto the quarterfinal round. QUARTERFINAL ROUND – Academy members volunteer to select the semifinal scripts – less than half are passed to the next round. In 2002, as the number of entries continued to rise, paid, professional readers replaced Academy readers in the Quarterfinal round. Readers do not read the same scripts round to round. SEMIFINAL ROUND – Academy members volunteer their time to select the 10 finalist scripts, which are presented to the Nicholl Fellowship Committee. FINALISTS – In October, the Nicholl Fellowship Committee meets for a lengthy and spirited discussion to select up to five winning scripts. Often committee members champion their favorites and dismiss the scripts they did not appreciate. It’s quite common for one member’s frontrunner to leave another member cold.
1991
1991
At a meeting of the Nicholl Committee, former Academy president Robert Wise declared that “the best parties have chairs.” The committee and Gee Nicholl agreed and the ceremony became an awards dinner. The first Nicholl Dinner was held at Chasen’s restaurant in Beverly Hills. Eligibility was expanded to include international entrants writing in English who had not sold or optioned a screenplay or teleplay. Radha Bharadwaj, a 1989 fellow, becomes the first fellow to have her Nicholl entry script released as a feature film. “Closet Land” opened in March 1991.
1994
1994
Dennis Clontz received a Pulitzer prize for spot journalism as part of the Los Angeles Times team reporting on the Northridge earthquake.
1999
1999
At the encouragement of then-Nicholl Committee Chair Gale Anne Hurd, the Academy began inviting finalists as well as fellows to participate in Nicholl Awards week festivities.
2000
2000
Susannah Grant, a 1992 fellow, earned an Academy Award nomination for her original screenplay “Erin Brockovich.”
2001
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Which British model was named ‘The Face of ’66’ by the Daily Express newspaper? | CBS Schedules 2014, 2015 Grammy Awards | Hollywood Reporter
7:25am PT by THR staff
CBS Schedules 2014, 2015 Grammy Awards
Getty Images
Mumford & Sons at the 2013 Grammys
The 56th annual music awards will again be held at Staples Center in 2014.
CBS and the Recording Academy have scheduled the 2014 and 2015 Grammy Awards.
The 56th annual Grammys will again be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 26, starting at 8 p.m. EST on CBS, with the delayed West Coast broadcast set for 8 p.m. PST. Eligibility for the 2014 ceremony is Oct. 1, 2012-Sept. 30, 2013.
The 57th annual Grammys will be held Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015.
The 2013 Grammys attracted 28.3 million viewers, the second-largest Grammy audience since 1993.
THR staff
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Bobby Cox was manager of which US professional baseball team before his retirement in 2010? | Cox, Bobby | Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball Hall of Fame
Inducted to the Hall of Fame in: 2014
Primary team: Atlanta Braves
Primary position: Manager
Although Bobby Cox’s playing days were cut short by injuries, he set out on a trail that led him to a long and successful career as one of the game’s most highly regarded managers.
In an amazing run, Cox, the one-time infielder, would skipper big league teams for three decades, accumulating more than 2,500 victories by the time he retired after the 2010 season. But his greatest accomplishments came during his second stint with the Atlanta Braves, when he led the franchise to 14 straight division crowns and a World Series title.
Born May 21, 1941 in Tulsa, Okla., Cox graduated from Selma High School in California’s San Joaquin Valley before signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent in 1959. As a minor leaguer, splitting his time between second and third base, Cox spent five seasons in the Dodgers’ farm system before being selected by the Cubs in the November 1964 minor league draft. After being traded to the Braves in April 1966, Cox was acquired by the Yankees after the 1967 season, where he made his big league debut in 1968.
After two seasons as a big league third baseman with the Yankees, bad knees would eventually force Cox to retire as a player. But a career as a manager beckoned, and Cox progressed rapidly.
The 30-year-old Cox began his managerial career in the Yankees’ farm system with Fort Lauderdale of the Florida State League in 1971. After a season with West Haven in the Eastern League, he skippered Syracuse for four seasons, winning the International League’s Governor’s Cup in 1976 before serving as the Yankees’ first base coach in their championship season of 1977.
After 10 years with the Yankees as a player, a minor league manager and a big league coach, Cox became Atlanta’s eighth manager in 12 years in December 1977. Of the 36-year-old, who was two years younger than Braves pitcher Phil Niekro and became the youngest manager in the National League, Braves owner Ted Turner said Cox was picked “because we have a young team and wanted someone who was young and had his future ahead instead of behind him.”
Of his managing philosophy, Cox said, “I’m my own manager. I have no ‘book’ on the subject; I don’t pattern myself after anybody especially.
“I hope to work hard as I can and not put pressure on the players. I think I can handle ballplayers at the major league level just as I did in the minor leagues. There’s not that much difference. It’s still a young man’s game.”
Cox’s first stint managing the Braves would last from 1978 to 1981, resulting in a 266-323 record. When Turner was asked at a 1981 press conference who the likely next manager of the Braves would be, he replied, “It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn’t just fired him. We need someone like him around here.”
After four years managing the Toronto Blue Jays, which included leading the young franchise to 99 wins and to within one game of attaining a World Series berth in 1985, Cox returned to Atlanta as general manager in October 1985. After overseeing a farm system that would lay the foundation for future success, he also became Atlanta’s manager on June 22, 1990. Cox was able to devote all his time to managing when John Schuerholz was named GM of the Braves in October 1990.
Starting in 1991, the Braves began a remarkable string of 14 consecutive division crowns that led to five National League pennants (1991, 1992, 1995, 1996 and 1999) and in 1995 the first professional sports world championship for the city of Atlanta.
A hallmark of this era in Braves history was the starting pitching trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz. During Cox’s tenure as their manager, the Braves won six NL Cy Young awards – Maddux’s three, Glavine’s two, Smoltz’s one.
“(Cox) was the single greatest influence on me as a player, in terms of teaching the game, respecting the game, carrying yourself the right way on and off the field,” Glavine said. “All that stuff was important. He was very much like a fatherly figure in that regard.”
“A small part of Bobby Cox changes you as a baseball player,” Smoltz said. “Twenty years with the man changes your life.”
Known as a “players’” manager, Cox treated his players the way he’d want to be treated.
“I played for a lot of different managers and been around all through the leagues, and some I didn’t care to play for at all. I didn’t want to be one of those guys,” Cox said. “When you get the reputation as a players’ manager, players have got to put out. If I’m fair with them, they’ll give me everything they got.”
Cox retired from managing at the conclusion of the 2010 campaign, having spent 29 seasons as a big league skipper. His 2,504 wins rank fifth all-time and include a franchise-best 2,149 victories with the Braves.
“I’m proud that I played for one of the best managers a player could ever ask to play for,” said Braves pitcher Tim Hudson. “He’s a manager that feels like a teammate, a friend and a father figure. That’s not something many people can say they’ve done in their major league career. I think everybody in this clubhouse is really lucky to say that.”
Voted the Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America four times (1985 with Toronto and 1991, 2004 and 2005 with Atlanta), Cox was also honored by the Sporting News, in a poll of his peers, as the league's top skipper eight times.
“If I was a ballplayer,” said umpire Bob Davidson, who was responsible for six of Cox’s big league record 158 ejections, “I’d want to play for Bobby Cox.”
On June 8, 2009, Cox posted his 2,000th Braves victory, making him just the fourth skipper in big-league history to claim 2,000 wins with one team, joining Connie Mack (Athletics), John McGraw(Giants) and Walter Alston (Dodgers).
“He never played an inning for the Atlanta Braves,” said longtime Braves player Chipper Jones. “He never threw a pitch and he never got a hit. But he was responsible for 2,000-plus wins.”
| Atlanta Braves |
Ian Stewart was known as the sixth member of which British rock group? | Bobby Cox | MLB.com
LIMITED EDITION COMMEMORATIVE BOBBY COX PROGRAM
Bobby Cox retired following the 2010 baseball season. Get your piece of Braves history with a limited edition commemorative program to honor Bobby. This is a great keepsake for any Braves fan, and a great tribute to the skipper who has been such an integral part of the team for the last 24 years. Learn more »
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In the game of bridge, what is the term for bidding and winning a contract of thirteen tricks? | Basic Bridge Terms - Acol Bridge Club London
Basic Bridge Terms
Basic Bridge Terms
Auction: The part of the game where the partnerships bid to play in a contract. The dealer opens the auction.
Balanced hand: A hand which contains no voids, singletons and no more than one doubleton. Possible card distributions for a balanced hand are: 4-3-3-3 (the so-called"flat" hand), 4-4-3-2 and 5-3-3-2.
Bid: The nominating of a suit plus the number of tricks in excess of six that a player believes he and partner can make with the named suit as trumps. Thus a bid of 4 hearts means that the bidder expects to win 10 tricks with hearts as trumps. The bid may also be in no trumps.
Cash: To play a card that is currently the highest in the suit, thought certain to succeed, or to take all available winners in a suit one after the other.
Chicago: A variation of rubber bridge for four players where each session is just four deals. Chicago is reputed to have been devised by a group of commuters who played bridge on daily train journeys, where the time available for play was limited by the length of the trip.
Contract: The final bid of the auction. A bid becomes the contract when it is followed by three passes.
Convention: An artificial bid whose meaning is not necessarily related to the strength or denomination of the bid. The most well-known conventions are Stayman (used to find a major suit match after partner's opening bid of no trumps) and Blackwood (used, when investigating the possibility of a slam, to find out how many Aces partner possesses).
Cover: To play a card higher than the previous one.
Cross-ruff: A playing technique in trump contracts, where declarer makes tricks by ruffing in both hands alternately.
Cue-bid: an artificial, strength-showing bid of an opponent's suit (e.g. 1? by your left-hand-opponent, 2? by you). The term "cue-bid" is also used to describe a high-level bid that shows control in that suit.
Declarer: The player who is the first to bid the suit (or no trump) of the final contract.
Defender: The opponents of the declarer are called defenders and must try to stop the declarer from making the contract.
Discard: The play of a card (other than a trump) of a different suit from the one led.
Distribution: The way in which the 13 cards in a hand are divided among the four suits. Hands can be described as balanced or unbalanced according to the distribution.
Double: a special bid that can be made only over an opponent's bid that uses up no space in the auction. A double usually has one of two meanings, depending on the previous auction: [i] Penalty double - this type of double is made when you expect the opponents' contract to go down. [ii] Takeout double - this type of double shows strength and at least moderate length in all unbid suits. It asks partner to "take it out" of the auction by bidding his longest suit.
Doubleton: An original holding of two of a suit.
Duck: A card-playing technique in which a player does not immediately play a card that might take a trick, but plays a lower card instead.
Dummy: Declarer's partner. Dummy does not participate in the play. After the bidding is completed and the opening lead is made, dummy places his cards face-up on the table, sorted into suits, and they are played by declarer.
Duplicate bridge: A type of bridge tournament where the same cards are played at more than one table. Your scores are then compared with those of the other players playing in the same direction as you.
Entry: A winner in one of the partnership's hands that can be used to get the lead into that hand.
Finesse: A play that attempts to win a trick with a certain card, even though the opponents hold a higher card in the suit, by taking advantage of the position of the particular cards.
Forcing bid: A bid that obliges partner to ensure the forcing bidder will get another chance to bid. This means that after a forcing bid and a pass of the opponent, partner has to make a bid other than pass.
Game: A contract, bid and made, where the tricks are worth 100 points or more. The game contracts are 3NT (40 for the first trick + 30 each subsequent trick); 4? and 4? in the majors (4 tricks × 30 points per trick); 5? and 5? in the minors (5 tricks × 20 points per trick). The pair bidding and making the game is awarded a bonus of either 300 or 500 points, depending on the vulnerability.
Grand slam: A contract of seven, in a suit or no trump.
Hand: either [i] one of the players or [ii] the cards held by a player.
HCP: High Card Points. The most common hand evaluation system is one where an Ace is worth 4 points, a King 3, a Queen 2, and a Jack 1.
Honour: Ace, King, Queen or Jack (and sometimes ten).
Lead: The first card played in a trick, which dictates the suit that others must play if able to do so.
Major suit: Hearts and spades.
Minor suit: Clubs and diamonds.
No trump: the highest-ranking denomination in the bidding, in which the play proceeds with no trump suit.
Opener: The first person to make a bid (not a pass).
Overcall: A bid made after an opponent has opened the bidding.
Overruff: To ruff a trick with a higher trump than has already been played.
Part score: A contract, bid and made, where the tricks are worth less than 100 points, e.g. 1NT, 2?, 3?. A pair bidding and making a part-score contract is awarded a bonus of 50 points.
Rebid: Any subsequent bid made by a player who has already opened, responded or overcalled in an auction.
Responder: Opener's partner.
Revoke: To fail to follow suit when holding a card of the suit led.
Ruff: To play a trump onto a trick, usually in order to try to win the trick.
Singleton: An original holding of just one of a suit.
Slam: Six bids are small slams; seven bids are grand slams.
Trick: Four cards, one contributed by each player in turn (clockwise around the table). The highest card of the suit led (or the highest trump) wins the trick. The player who wins the trick chooses the card to lead to the next trick. There are 13 tricks in each deal.
Squeeze: a play that forces an opponent to part with a needed card.
Stopper: a protected honour in a suit. Examples are A, Kx, Qxx, Jxxx. The term refers to its ability to "stop" the opponents from running a suit (especially in a no trump contract).
Tenace: A broken sequence of (often) honour cards, such as ?AQ or ?KJ.
Trump: A card that belongs to the suit that has been chosen to have the highest value in a particular game; a trump can take any card of any other suit.
Void: Suit with no cards in it.
Vulnerability: A scoring condition assigned to each pair in advance of a deal where there is a bonus for making a game contract and an increased penalty for failing to do so.
| Grand Slam |
What colours are on the national flag of Belgium? | How to Play Contract Bridge
How To Play Contract Bridge
While relatively easy to learn the basic rules of contract bridge, it can take quite some time to master. Contract bridge is played with the standard 52 card deck, with the cards ranked in the following, descending order: A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2.
In contract bridge, the suits are also ranked for bidding purposes, with Spades (♠) the highest ranked, hearts (♥) next, followed by diamonds (♦) and then clubs (♣). Spades and hearts are called the major suits and diamonds and clubs are referred to as minor suits.
Standard contract bridge is always played by four players, with two of the players playing as partners playing against the other two who are also partners. Each player will remain partnered with the same player throughout the entirety of the game. For variations of Contract Bridge for differing numbers of players, see the Variations section below.
Oftentimes, in this game the partnerships may be pre-arranged, especially amongst regular players. Otherwise, to determine the partnerships and the first dealer, the fully shuffled deck should be fanned out in the center of the table, face down. Each player then draws one card from the deck, but not one of the last four cards at either end of the spread out deck. The two highest ranked cards (see above for ranking of specific cards and suits) play as partners against the two lowest. The player who draws the highest card becomes the dealer for the first hand of the game.
Each player sits at the table directly opposite their partner such that the play will alternate between each partner. In bridge the seats are indicated by the four compass directions, North, South, East and West. Thus, player "North" sits opposite his partner "South" and "East" sits across the table from "West" who plays as his partner. The first dealer generally sits in the North position.
North and South will thus play in partnership against the second partnership which consists of the players seated at positions East and West.
The pack is then shuffled by the player to dealers left and cut by the player to dealers right. The dealer then takes the deck and deals out one card at a time, face down to each player, starting with the player to his immediate left in a clockwise direction. He deals out the entire deck, with each player receiving thirteen cards. The right to deal each hand then passes clockwise around the table, with the next dealer being the player at the current dealers immediate left.
Bidding and the Auction
After each player examines his hand, the Auction begins. The auction begins with the dealer and continues clockwise around the table. On his turn at bidding, a player must make one of the following calls:
Pass: A player not wanting to bid, double or redouble, may call "Pass". If the first four calls in the hand are all "pass" the cards are gathered together and the deal passes to the next player with no play or scoring occurring for this deal.
Bid: The player, on his turn may make a bid representing a number of odd tricks. These odd tricks bid, are the number of tricks, over 6, that the bidder is contracting to win in the course of this hand. Along with his bid, he also names a specific suit to be the trump suit for the hand. Thus, a bid of three would indicate the player is declaring to win nine tricks in this hand (6 base tricks + bid of 3 = 9 total tricks). A bid can only be made if the bidder names a higher number of tricks than any previous bid or if he names an equal number of tricks to the previous highest bidder but calls a higher ranking suit (see suit ranking above) as the trump suit. A bid may also be made at "No Trump" which indicates the hand will be played with no trump suit at all. A "No Trump" bid outranks all other suited bids of the same number.
Double: A player, on his turn to bid, may call "Double" if the last highest bid was made by a member of the opposing partnership. If the original bid that the player called "Double" on becomes the winning bid, that previous bid still determines which player becomes the declarer, the number of odd tricks to be won and the trump suit for the hand, however, all scores and penalties for odd tricks, undertricks and overtricks (see scoring below) are doubled. A "Double" call can be over bid by any legal bid that is higher than the previous, high call (either through a higher number of tricks or a higher trump suit declaration). In this event the double call is canceled, unless the higher bid is also doubled.
Redouble: A "Redouble" can only be called if an opponent has called "double" on the current high bid. This current high bid must have been made by your partnership. A redouble again doubles the scoring and penalties for overtricks, undertricks and odd tricks. Similar to a call of "Double", a "Redouble" is overbid by any bid which would normally overcall the originally "Doubled" bid, which then cancels the "redouble" unless, through the bidding the new high bid again becomes redoubled.
The bidding continues clockwise around the table, player by player until three consecutive players call "pass". At this point, the player who made the highest bid is the winner of the bidding and his declaration becomes the contract for the hand for his partnership. The player from that partnership who first named the trump suit (or no trump) called in the winning bid is considered the "declarer" for the hand. Thus, the "winner" of the bidding may not necessarily be the member of the partnership who becomes this declarer. The declarer, who represents his partnership for the hand (see below), then attempts to win the indicated number of odd tricks declared in the winning contract. The suit named in the winning bid becomes the trump suit for the hand. Cards of this trump suit have additional precedence for winning tricks, as described later. If "no trump" was the suit called, then no trump suit is designated for this particular hand which indicates that none of the suits have any specific precedence for this particular round of plays.
Bidding Example
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In this example, the dealer, South declines to start the bidding, with a pass. West bids the minimum bid of one club. North passes and East follows with a bid of one diamond. South passes and West increases the bid to 2 with no trump suit. North responds with a call of Double (whereas West's bid would remain the highest bid, but certain scores for the hand would be doubled). East passes and South, the dealer bids 2 spades which also cancels North's Double (although any player could again double the current high bid). West overcalls this bid with 3 diamonds and North responds with a bid of 3 spades. East, South and West all pass, thus three spades becomes the winning bid with spades as trump. Since North was the first player of his partnership to declare spades in a bid, he becomes the declarer and plays the hand for his partnership attempting to win a total of 9 or more tricks.
As bidding is one of the most complex components of the game of Contract Bridge, there are a number of standard bidding methodologies commonly used. These methodologies are generally designed to not only convey some information about your hand (through the various bids) to your partner, but also to complete the bidding (if you are the contract winner) with a bid in suit and number that the partnership can use to win the hand. All bidding techniques to be used by a partnership must be explained and discussed with the opponents before the game, and direct communications about the contents of a players hand are never allowed.
In fact, the major goal in the earlier bids in the round are simply to advertise information about your own hand and request information, through these same bidding conventions, about your partners hand. Before beginning their bidding players will thus evaluate their hands through a number of means, with the Goren point count system being the most commonly used in most social games of bridge. The bidding example above is not intended to so much illustrate anything about the players hands but more to show how the general flow of bidding in contract bridge might proceed.
Gameplay
Once the "declarer" and trump suit (if any) are determined as per the auction (see above) the play of the hand begins. The declarer attempts to win at least as many odd tricks as their final bid while the opposing partnership attempts to win as many tricks as possible in an effort to prevent the declarer from fulfilling the contract.
The dummy hand should be laid out in an ordered fashion for ease of play by the bidder
The defender to the "declarers" immediate left starts by leading to the first trick. He places any card of his choice from his hand face up on the center of the table as the opening lead to the first trick. Immediately after this opening lead is played, the declarers partner must place his hand face up on the table in front of himself, arranged neatly. This hand is called the "dummy". This "dummy" hand is also played by the declarer who plays both his own hand and this face-up hand, in its proper turn. The partner who was the original owner of the "dummy" hand takes no further part in the play of any of the tricks in the hand. The opposing partnership, called the "defenders" play against the "declarer", each playing a card to the trick in their normal turn.
Scoring
A typical score sheet for Bridge has two scoring sections for each partnership, called "above the line" scores and "below the line" scores. Each scoring category, detailed below, is scored in one or the other locations.
Tricks bid and won:
If the declarer has won the requisite number of tricks (six plus the number of tricks they bid for the winning contract) they score dependant on number of tricks and trump suit (if any) for the hand, using the following table:
Suit
Odd tricks Bid and Won
This score is Doubled if the contract was "doubled" (see bidding section above).
If the contract was "redoubled", the score in the chart should be Quadrupled.
These trick scores are scored "below the line" for the declarers partnership.
Overtricks:
For every trick won beyond six plus their bid, the declarers partnership scores as follows (these extra tricks are called overtricks):
Suit
No Trump
30
If the contract was doubled each of these overtricks, regardless of the trump suit, is scored 100 points. If the partnership winning the deal is vulnerable (see below) they score 200 per overtrick instead.
For a redouble, these tricks are scored at 200 points when not vulnerable and 400 when vulnerable.
All overtrick scores are scored "above the line" for the partnership winning them.
Undertricks (Scored for Defenders):
If, however the defenders are able to prevent the declarer from winning six plus their bid in odd tricks, they are set and the defenders score as per the following tables for each trick short of their total bid plus six:
Partnership Not Vulnerable
600
Double/Redouble bonus:
If the declarer is able to fulfill a "doubled" or "redoubled" contract they score 50 points. This score is added in the "above the line" scoring section for the partnership.
Potential Honor cards if Spades were the trump suit for the hand
Honors:
If any player (including the dummy hand) holds any four of the following cards in the suit chosen as the trump suit for the hand (Ace, King, Queen, Jack, Ten), his partnership earns 100 points, above the line. These five trump cards are called the Honors. If any player holds all five of these honors, his partnership scores 150 points "above the line". If the hand is being played at No Trump, the four aces are considered the Honors and any player holding all four earns a 150 point bonus "above the line".
Little Slam:
If the declarer is playing a contract to win 6 odd tricks (12 total tricks) and he is able to fulfill the contract he has made a little slam and his partnership earns a bonus of 750 points if vulnerable and 500 if not vulnerable. This score is added in the "above the line" section of the scorecard.
Grand Slam:
If the declarer has bid for and wins 7 (every trick in the hand) they have completed a grand slam. A grand slam scores 1,500 for the partnership if they are vulnerable and 1,000 if not vulnerable. As in a little slam, this score is added "above the line".
Winning a "Game"
This sample Contract Bridge Score sheet shows the typical layout and locations for possible scoring areas during the game. The individual sections have been labeled to show where the different scores should be recorded. Notice the separate sections for Above the line, Individual game sections and the Final Score given at the bottom of the sheet.
When, at the end of any hand, a partnership has scored an accumulated 100 or more points in the "below the line" section of the scorecard, it is said to win a game. When this happens, the score keeper draws a new line beneath the tally for both sides, setting each partnerships "below the line" score back to zero and again beginning to accumulate the "below the line" scores beneath the new line. Scores in this "below the line" section are only possible from bidding and making contracts. A partnership can score the requisite 100 points for a "game" through one or more hands, depending on the number of odd tricks bid for and won and the suit (if any) selected as trump for the hand.
The first partnership to win two "games" in this manner wins a "rubber". The partnership winning the rubber earns a 500 point bonus above the line. If, however, the opposing partnership have not won any games during the rubber, the winning partnership score 700 points instead.
Once one partnership has won the two games, completing the rubber, both sides accumulate all of their scores, totalling all of their previous below the line and above the line scores. The partnership with the higher grand total is declared the winner of the rubber. A rubber is usually considered a "complete game" of Contract bridge, with one or more rubbers being played in a contract bridge session.
Being Vulnerable or Not
When a partnership wins it's first game of a rubber, they are considered to be "vulnerable". Before that time they are considered not vulnerable. Being vulnerable dramatically increases the scoring and possible penalties for a partnership (see scoring section above).
Contract Bridge Variations and Optional Rules
Some of the common variations of contract bridge that are often played are as follows:
Auction Bridge: This variation is identical to the standard game described above in all ways except for in its scoring.
When a declarer fulfills his contract, his partnership scores for every odd trick won in the hand, including any and all overtricks as follows (below the line):
Trump Suit
12
24
In addition, each overtrick scores 50 bonus points above the line if the contract has been doubled and 100 points if redoubled.
As in the standard Contract Bridge, the partnership fulfilling a doubled contract scores 50 points above the line and 100 for a redoubled contract.
If, instead, the defenders are able to prevent the declarer them from winning at least as many tricks as they bid (to "set" the declarer), they score 50 points for each undertrick the declarer is short his total tricks needed to fulfill the contract. If the bid has been doubled, it is 100 per undertrick and 200 if redoubled.
A partnership has won a "game" when they have accumulated 30 total points below the line.
In Auction Bridge a small slam is worth 50 points above the line and a grand slam is worth 100. If the declarer is contracted for a grand slam (6 odd tricks) and he only takes 5 odd tricks, his side still scores for the small slam (50 points). However, his partnership is still penalized as necessary for the one undertrick they were set.
If one player has 3 of the trump honors (The honors consist of: A, K, Q, J, 10, of trump) the partnership scores 30 points (above the line). A player holding four of the honors earns 80 points above the line for the partnership. If a player holds all five his partnership scores 100 points above the line. If a partnership has four honors in one hand and one in the other, they score 90 above the line. If a partnership, between them, have four of the honors, they score 40 points. If they have 3 combined, they score 30 and if they have all five combined, they score 50 (all above the line). For hands played at no trump the honors consist of the four aces. A player holding all four earns 100 points above the line for his partnership. If a partnership holds all four between them, their partnership scores 40 points, and three (combined by the partnership or held by one of the partners) score 30.
For winning two "games" of a rubber the partnership scores 250 above the line. At this point, the scores are totalled and whichever partnership has the higher score wins the rubber.
Within Auction Bridge there is no concept of vulnerable or not vulnerable so the given scoring above remains the same regardless of the number of "games" a partnership may have won.
Plafond: Plafond is a French variation of Auction Bridge which is sometimes also called Bridge-Plafond. This is one of the original predecessors of standard Contract Bridge.
In no-trump contracts, the four aces are the honors for the hand.
This game is played identically to Auction Bridge, described above with a few key differences which all pertain to the scoring.
In Plafond only odd tricks bid for and won are added to the below the line score.
Overtricks always score 50 points each.
Undertricks earn the opponents 50 points for the first trick the opponents miss their bid, 100 points for the second and 150 points for those beyond the second trick. These scoring values can be doubled and redoubled as appropriate.
A Grand slam earns a 200 point bonus and a small slam earns 100. The bidding partnership earns this bonus regardless of whether the slam was actually bid.
If one player holds all of the honors (a total of five) the bonus earned is 200. For one player holding four of the honors the bonus is 100. If the players partner holds the fifth honor the partnership earns 150. In a contract at no-trump, holding all four aces earns the partnership 200 points.
The bonus for making the contract is 50 points when not doubled, 100 when doubled and 200 when redoubled.
Although there is no concept of vulnerability in Plafond, a partnership still earns a bonus for winning games. A partnership winning it's first game of the rubber earns 100 points. Earning the rubber (second game) earns the partnership 400 additional points. If a game ends with a rubber incomplete, if one partnership has won one game and the other none in the rubber, the first partnership earns 150 points.
In all other aspects, Plafond is played the same as Auction Bridge.
Standard Bridge for 5 or more: If their are enough players to make even groups of four, then, of course, multiple games of bridge can be played. However, if there are an uneven number of players, the following rules can be adopted for cycling some of the players in and out of the play rotation:
When the cards are fanned out for determination of the dealer and partnership, all players draw one card. The players drawing the two highest cards become partners against the players drawing the third and fourth highest cards. The remainder of the players wait until the first complete match is completed. When the round is completed, the methods for determining which players rotate in and out are as follows:
If there is one extra player: The losing partnership draws random cards and the player who draws the lowest card will relinquish his place to the individual waiting.
For two extra players: The losing partnership will relinquish their positions to the two waiting players.
For three extra players: There is a draw of cards among the three players, and the two highest replace the losing partnership.
After the new group of players is determined for the next round, standard methods for determining the partnerships amongst these players and the dealer can be used. Subsequent rounds can use the same method to determine the rotation of players into and out of the games.
Contract Bridge for 3 Players: There are various methods of playing Contract Bridge for 3 players, with the most popular being the cutthroat method:
Each player draws one random, face down card from the deck. The player who draws the highest card becomes the first dealer. The player to dealers immediate left shuffles and player at dealers right cuts the deck. Four face down hands are dealt (just as in standard bridge) with the dummy hand being dealt immediately between the two opponents. Dealer starts the bidding and then continues in a clockwise rotation around the table for each active player. A player should bid based on the contents of his own hand, but taking into account what might be in the dummy hand if they become the declarer. The bidding will continue around the table until there are two passes by two consecutive players. As in standard bridge the highest bidder becomes the declarer. The remaining two players then become the defenders attempting to set the declarer.
The defender at the dealers left leads the first card to the first trick. Play proceeds clockwise around the table, player by player. After that first lead is played, the dummy hand is laid out, face up, directly between the two defenders. As in standard bridge, described above, the declarer plays a card from the dummy hand in it's turn, such that it will play between the play of the two defenders.
A separate score is kept for each individual player, and standard Bridge scoring is generally used, although sometimes Auction bridge (see Auction Bridge variation above) scoring is used instead. If the declarer is able to fulfill his contract the score for the contract is added to his individual score. If the contract is set by the defenders, each defender gets the full undertrick score added to their total. For honors, the declarer scores for them as normal, for the defenders, if their combined hands or either hand contain them, each defender will receive the appropriate honors score.
If standard Bridge scoring is used, 700 points is gained by the first player to win two games (as described for the standard game) if neither opponent has won a "game" and 500 if either or both have. However if Auction Bridge scoring is to be used, the player receives 250 points when winning a game.
Bridge for Two Players: This is a variation of Contract Bridge that is played by two players. To begin, each player draws one face down card from a shuffled deck. The player drawing the higher card becomes the first dealer. Two handed bridge uses the standard ranking of bridge for cards and suits, as described above. Dealer again shuffles the deck and deals 13 cards to each player, alternately, starting with his opponent. The remainder of the cards are placed in a stack, face down in the center of the table to form the stock pile. The first 13 tricks are played with no scoring value. These tricks are played at No Trump and the second player need not follow suit to that which is led for the trick. This phase of the hand is generally used by the players to build their hands for the actual scoring portion of the hand. The winner of each of trick, being the individual who plays the highest card of the suit led, draws the top card from the stock pile, and the other player takes the next card. These cards are drawn and added to the players hand without being exposed to the opponent.
When the last card of the stock pile has been drawn, the second phase of the hand begins. The dealer begins the bidding by either making a bid or pass. After this, the bidding proceeds identically to standard Contract Bridge (as above), including doubles and redoubles (which double and quadruple, respectively certain scoring values). The bidding continues until a valid bid, double or redouble is followed by a pass. If both players immediately pass at the start of the bidding, the cards are reshuffled and no score occurs on this hand. Once the contract is made, the player opposite that whom was the final bidder leading to the first trick. The standard rules for Contract Bridge are used for the play of the hand and the scoring of the hand. Thus, in this second phase of the game, a player must follow suit to that which is led if able. Just as in standard Bridge, one or more rubbers are usually played to complete a "session" of contract Bridge.
Mayonnaise: This version, often called Goulash or Hollandaise is not so much a variation of Bridge as a method to create some very interesting Bridge hands. Occasional hands can be played in this manner or an entire game of Contract bridge could be played as Mayonnaise. Groups sometimes will play the hand as Mayonnaise if a hand is passed by all four players with no bids. Once a contract bridge hand, which has already been dealt, but not played, is decided to be played as Mayonnaise the following rules are applied:
Each player arranges his hand with each suit grouped together. The dealer first places his arranged hand, face down in the center of the table. Then, the remaining players in a clockwise direction each lay their arranged hands face down on top of the dealers hand. At this point, the stack may be cut, but this step is optional. Then, the dealer deals this stack of cards in the normal dealing rotation around the table. However, on the first round of the deal, he gives 5 cards to each player. On the second round, he gives 5 more, and on the last round he gives three cards to complete the deal and deplete the remaining cards in the deck. After this, all of the Standard rules for Contract Bridge (as detailed above) are followed. Playing in this manner often results in some very unusual hands.
As a variation to this variation, several rounds of passing may occur amongst the players after the deal. If this is done, each player after first examining his cards, passes four cards, face down to the player to his left. After again examining their hands with the new cards received, each player then passes four more cards to the player to his left. On the next, and last round of passing, the player passes four cards, face down, across the table to their partner. After the passing, the bidding begins as in standard Contract Bridge.
Duplicate Bridge: In Bridge tournaments and parties, the form of Bridge most commonly played is Duplicate bridge. Duplicate Bridge is set up in such a way that the arrangement of the cards is predetermined for each specific table, with each table having its own such set and arrangement of cards. This helps ensure that when players are competing they are playing with the same hands, which allows skill to play a much larger part in determination of the winners. Generally, in Duplicate Bridge the same pair of players will remain the same partners throughout the tournament. However in some tournaments each player may play independently and keep his individual score independently, or in other tournaments, teams of four may compete as a unit (each partnership of this team playing at a different table with the same tray, one team playing as North - South the other as East - West).
When duplicate bridge is played a "Bridge Board" is used at each table. This bridge board is a tray that contains four pockets holding the four hands for North, South, East and West. The tray also contains an indicator on who the dealer is for the hand, and which sides, if any, are vulnerable. A similar set-up is found at one or more other tables, with different hands. When all the tables complete their hands, the trays are reset (individual cards for the hand placed back into their respective envelopes) and the tray is moved to another table. Thus, the table that receives this tray will be playing with the exact same hands. The original table will receive a tray with different hands (and other factors) from another such table.
A set of duplicate bridge boards usually comes in a set of 16 (or some larger multiple of 4). Each board would have a different combination of cards in each pocket.
The illustration to the right shows an example Duplicate bridge board with the grey pockets for each of the hands. Notice all necessary details for the hand are indicated, including the Dealer (west) and the vulnerable partnerships (both in this case).
Below illustrates the specific board layouts for a set of 16 such boards:
Board Number
West
East/West
For larger tournaments, with a larger number of players, this particular set of 16 board layouts (with differing card arrangements) would be repeated for each subsequent set of 16. For partial multiples of 16, the number of boards necessary would be used from this setup.
When a player plays a card from his hand, instead of playing the card to the center of the table, he should place it face up in front of him, such that it is easy to reconstitute the hands to their original arrangement in each pocket. When a trick is won, the cards should be turned face down still in front of the player who played the card. The card should be set lengthwise, pointing to the partnership who won the trick to indicate the winners of the trick and to help facilitate scoring at the end of the hand. When the hands at all tables have been completed, the trays are then reset to their original content and then moved to another table for another group of players who have not participated in playing a tray with that arrangement of cards. Each hand is scored independently, with no actual full games really being played. Points for that hand are kept as normal for Contract Bridge except for the following exceptions: For making a contract when your side is indicated by the board to be not vulnerable, the partnership scores 300. For making contract when the board indicates the partnership is vulnerable they score 500. For making a contract that does not meet the 100 points required for winning a "game" the partnership scores 50 points whether vulnerable or not. These scores for the individual partnerships for determining the winner of the tournament are generally obtained using one of two methods:
Matchpoint Scoring: For each bridge board that a partnership plays, they score two points for each other partnership, who playing that same board scored less then they did. For each partnership that scored the same number of points, the partnership scores one point. After a partnership has played each board, they gain the cumulative points scored from all these boards. With the partnership who obtains the highest number of total points being declared the winner.
International Match Points Scoring: In this scoring method, each individual board score is subtracted from a score generated by one of the following:
If there are exactly two of each specific board card combination, this score can be the score from the same players playing the identical cards at that same board.
The average difference between the same score at all the other hands played on this tray.
Once the point difference is determined, the International Match Points scored by the partnership are based on the following table:
Difference in Points
The partnership obtaining the highest number of these International Matchpoints is declared the winner.
There are various methods of rotating the boards around the tables, with the general concept being to have each partnership play each board one time. The most widely used methods are the Mitchell Movements and Howell Movements. The Mitchell movements are often used when there are 7 or more playing tables and the Howell movements are usually used with less than seven playing tables. These are designed to allow the movements of the boards and players in an orderly and regular manner.
The three most common types of competition formats in Duplicate Bridge are individual, partnership and team of four, each of which will be described here.
The most common competition format is individual players, usually consisting of a smaller and more casual Duplicate Bridge session, consisting of 8 or 12 players (two or three tables) each playing independently. In these cases, the players themselves would change seats or tables between rounds. The game is arranged in such a manner that each player would play as partner with every other player one time and as an opponent against each other player twice. At the start of such a game, each player would randomly draw or receive a card or slip of paper which would assign that participant his player number for the duration of the competition. The number drawn would then determine that players starting position, table and other pertinent information. Each table would play the exact same set of boards for the game, thus each table would essentially be playing identical hands of Bridge (albeit with a different set of players and different order of the hands). Between hands, the boards would be transferred between tables. After the initial game, the players would then move on a prearranged pattern to another seat or table. The boards played at the next table would be different than the previous set of boards played, but as before, all tables would play the exact same set of boards during the round. The following rules should be used to determine the movement of the players after each game. The player at the North position at table one would remain in the same position for the entire session, but all other players would move to another seat as appropriate. After each round, every other player except the one in the North position at table 1 would move to the seat previously occupied by the player in the next lower number than their own. The player assigned number 1, would move to the position of the player with the highest number. The standard starting seating arrangement for one of these two or three table Duplicate Bridge games is described in the following table and is illustrated in the diagram to the left:
Two Table Duplicate Bridge
5
North
Another common competition format used in Duplicate Bridge is partnership competition using the Mitchell system of player movement. The setup and player seat determination would be the same as the individual player format. However, once the partnerships are determined, these partnerships would remain the same for the entire session. After each round, the partnership in the North-South position would stay in their same seats, but the opposing partnership in the East-West position would move to the East-West positions at the table with the next highest number. The East-West partnership at the highest numbered table would instead move to table 1. The four boards to be played during the round would be moved to the next lower table (the boards at table 1 being moved to the highest numbered table). The session would be completed when each East-West partnership has played at each table one time. Using the Mitchell system of player movement there would actually be two winning teams. The highest scoring team in the North-South position and the highest scoring team in the East-West position are all considered the winners of the competition.
The last commonly used Duplicate Bridge competition format is Teams of four competition. In this format, players are first arranged into teams of four players. These teams are often preselected before the competition but may also be randomly arranged as per the method described for individual play. Two of the players from the team of four are sat in the North-South position of one table and the other two players of the team would be at the East-West position of a different table. Both these tables should play the exact same set of boards. At the end of a round, the sum total of both partnerships in the team of four are totalled to determine the team of fours total score for the round. In this competition format, the winning teams usually then to the next round until the game is down to just two teams, who then vie to be the top team of four.
Pivot Bridge: Another Bridge variant designed for tournaments and other situations where multiple tables of Bridge are to be played is Pivot Bridge. In Pivot Bridge multiple numbers of tables are set out for play and players do not progress or move from one table to another, staying at the same table for a full round. Players will not move positions during a round, but the players may move position at their respective table at completion of a round (see below). There are two standard methods of playing a full round:
Four Deal Method: In the Four Deal Method, exactly four deals are played. Scoring in this method is the same as Standard Contract Bridge with the following differences:
Every deal is considered to be separate and scored independently of any other deal. No trick scores are advanced from one deal to the next. To make Game, a side must score 100 trick points, and this must be done in just one deal. Making game in this one deal earns a game bonus of 300 points for the partnership if they are considered vulnerable during the deal and 500 if not. For contracts bid and made that are less than the full value of game, the partnership scores an additional 50 points. Bonus points made for Small and Grand slams may only be scored if bid for. A side may never score more than 1000 points during a single deal. If their score exceeds this, the score is capped at 1000 for the deal. The one exception to this rule is if a slam contract was bid and made which may bring the score over this limit.
Vulnerability for the hand is determined based on which deal of the round is being played. For the first deal of a round, neither side is vulnerable. For both the second and third rounds, the dealing side is considered vulnerable with the opponents not vulnerable. For the fourth and last deal, both partnerships are considered vulnerable.
Rubber Method: In the Rubber method the game is played similarly to the standard game, with as many deals played in the round as necessary to determine a winner for the round. Scoring and determination of vulnerability is exactly the same as in the standard game of Contract Bridge described above.
This game can be played by four or five players per table, with any number of individual tables. The objective is for, during a full session of Pivot Bridge each player will play as the partner and the opponent of each other player for one game. To accomplish this most of the players change position at the table after each round. The specific movement of the individual players after each round is shown in the diagram below:
Generally, Pivot Bridge is arranged with four or five players at each table. With five per table, a different player will sit out each round. Before starting play, each player should draw a card from a face-down shuffle deck. The player drawing the highest card becomes the first dealer for the round and his partner would be the player drawing the second highest card who would sit opposite the dealer. The players drawing the third and fourth highest cards would also sit opposite each other, becoming partners for the round. If five players are playing per table, the player drawing the lowest card would sit out the first round. During a round the deal rotates around the table from player to player clockwise around the table. At the end of three full rounds (with four players) or five rounds (with five players) the players would then again draw for first dealer and partners and start the table rotation over. At the end of the session, the player with the highest cumulative score over all the hands is declared the session winner.
Progressive Bridge: Progressive Bridge is another method of allowing a larger number of players to all participate in a session of Bridge and is sometimes used in small Bridge tournaments. Progressive Bridge is usually played using two or three individual tables (for 8 or 12 players), although sometimes four or more tables can be accommodated. After each complete round, the players would then move to another seat or table for the next complete round. Each round in Progressive Bridge consists of exactly four hands played by each table of four participants. Each player at the table deals one hand, starting with the player in the "South" position and continuing in a clockwise direction around the table. After the four deals have been finished at all tables, the players would then move to their next assigned table and seat for the next round.
Sample tally card which might be used in Progressive Bridge
The scoring for Progressive Bridge is the same as the Standard game of Contract Bridge with a few differences:
Every deal is considered a separate deal with no trick points being carried over from hand to hand.
In order to make game on a deal the bidders must bid and earn 100 trick points. If they are able to do so, the partnership earns a bonus of 500 points if considered not vulnerable and 500 points if the partnership is considered vulnerable.
If a contract is made and earned for less than 100 trick points, the side scores a bonus of 50 points.
All slams earn the appropriate bonus score only if actually bid for and made.
A partnership may not score more than 1000 points on a single deal, except for when a slam is bid and made on the deal.
The rules for vulnerability are the same as for Pivot Bridge and Chicago, as follows:
On the first deal, neither partnership is considered to be vulnerable.
On the Second and Third deal, the dealers partnership are considered to be vulnerable.
On the fourth and last deal of the round, both partnerships are considered vulnerable.
If a deal is passed out and that hand not played, the deal passes to the next player in turn and both partnerships score 0 for the passed out hand. After the set of four deals is completed for each round, the players would reset their score for the next round.
Tally Cards: Before the start of a session of Progressive Bridge each player is given a special tally card. This can be assigned by the game mediator or they can be randomly drawn by each player. This tally card serves several purposes. First, the players cumulative score is recorded on their individual tally card. In addition, the opponents score should also be recorded on the players card. The tally card also contains a number which indicates that players number. This number is used to indicate the players table and seat position for each round during the game session. The attempted goal in Progressive Bridge is for each player to play as partners with each other player for one complete game and twice against each other player as an opponent. To accomplish this goal, the player movements during the session are arranged in a specific manner. Any arrangement which allows this pattern may be used, but the following player movements (shown for sessions consisting of two and three tables) are common:
Two Table Arrangement
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Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa became President of which country in December 2006? | Profile: Felipe Calderón – President of Mexico
Profile: Felipe Calderón – President of Mexico
By H. Chris Lomas
Will his six-year term in office determine a new direction for Mexico?
Source: Geoff Caddick/AFP/Getty Images
In December 2006, Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa became Mexico’s 20th president since the constitution of 1917, and the 16th president of the National Action Party (PAN).Of the three major parties in Mexico, PAN is the most conservative.
Mr. Calderón inherited many challenges upon taking office, namely the nation’s growing influence of drug cartels.
Many saw his road to the presidency as filled with irregularities, accusing Mr. Calderón of vote-rigging because of software contracts he granted to Hildebrando, a company in which he was a minority shareholder. His brother-in-law also founded the company, which was responsible for writing the vote-counting software in the controversial election.
Political Background
Expand Image
Anti-narcotics patrol: Mexican Federal Police personnel patrol the streets of Ciudad Juarez. President Felipe Calderón has acknowledged the country’s drug war is bloodier and tougher than he thought when he first took office in 2006, but vowed to eradicate the “cancer” that is consuming Mexico. He deployed 5,000 military troops and 1,000 police to Mexico’s drug-ravaged northern border.
Source: Getty Images
The youngest of five brothers, Felipe Calderón grew up in Morelia, Michoacan, one of Mexico’s 31 states. He was a brilliant student, and, after school, he moved to Mexico City, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in law. Mr. Calderón later received a master’s degree in economics from the Instituto Technológico Autónomo de México. He also studied at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in Massachusetts, where he obtained a master’s degree in public administration.
After his studies, Mr. Calderón spent most of his life working and promoting PAN, which his father co-founded. After serving as national chairman from 1996 to 1999, Mr. Calderón was elected president of PAN in December 2005, and held several important positions. He was the director of the state-owned bank, Bonabros, as well as Secretary of Energy. In January 2006, he began campaigning to become president of Mexico.
Family Life
While working in the PAN, Mr. Calderón met his wife, Margarita Zavala, who served in the Congress as a federal deputy. The married couple had three children and lived in the southern suburbs of Mexico City before he became president of the country.
Coming from a strong Catholic background, President Calderón strongly opposes homosexual marriage, abortion and euthanasia. He is also against contraception education, as Catholic theology teaches it is intrinsically wrong to use contraception to prevent new human beings from coming into existence.
In his approach to the challenges facing him as president, Felipe Calderón declared that the way forward was not a matter of being left or right, but rather making the right choices between the past and the future. He said the past represents nationalization, in which industry and private businesses were state operated and controlled, while the future means privatizing state-owned businesses, providing greater political freedom (an emphasis on human rights and freedom of speech and religion).
His aim is to remove Mexico’s reputation as a gangster haven, and he has taken measures that reflect this during his tenure in office.
War Against Drug Cartels
On his first day as president, Felipe Calderón announced his government would cap salaries for high-ranking government officials and increase the salaries of federal and military police.
He then began to clampdown on the drug trade, systematically reducing the production of drugs on Mexican soil. This process made it increasingly difficult for drug runners who used Mexico as a transit zone for drugs coming from South America to be exported into the U.S. and Canada. His efforts dealt a substantial blow to the drug lords, with losses estimated in billions of dollars.
In merely four months, law enforcement authorities arrested more than 1,000 drug dealers and confiscated guns, planes and boats. The raids shut down tens of thousands of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and opium farms, and almost 1,000 drug production camps. The secretary of defense issued a report on the progress of the war on the drug trade, estimating that government efforts prevented more than a half a billion people from illegal drug use.
Defying the government, drug lords have stepped up violence throughout the country. During the first quarter of 2009, drug-related violence increased 41 percent above the same period last year.
World Acceptance
Together with China, India and Brazil, Mexico is rated as one of the largest emerging economies in the world.
Although Mr. Calderón received worldwide recognition for his war against Mexico’s drug cartels, his visit to Europe was met with opposition due to the human rights violations that occurred during the Oaxaca uprisings (an annual peaceful teachers’ strike that encountered excessive violence from government troops). There were also protests against the alleged irregularities surrounding his presidential election.
Mr. Calderón met with European leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, in a bid to attract investment to Mexico. Ms. Merkel said, “Germany is Mexico’s most important economic partner within the European Union” (El Universal).
President Calderón pledged his full support in ensuring that human rights were respected in his country. Mexico is to be “a state where all people can live in the knowledge that they are secure and where they can trust in the justice system” (The Herald, Mexico edition).
Due to the president’s aggressive approach to the drug industry and his efforts to crack down on cross-border drug activities, Felipe Calderón led Mexico to forge closer ties with the U.S. and Canada.
More on this Subject:
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One minute of longitude at the equator is equal to how many nautical miles? | Werner Kreis met Mr. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, President of Mexico - YouTube
Werner Kreis met Mr. Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa, President of Mexico
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Uploaded on Nov 24, 2010
Werner Kreis MICE-Contact.com "live from Morelia" Mexico.
Morelia is a city and municipality in the north central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital of the state. The main pre-Hispanic cultures here were the P'urhépecha and the Matlatzinca, but no major cities were founded in the valley during this time.
The Spanish took control of the area in the 1520s. The Spanish under Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza founded a settlement here in 1541 with the name of Valladolid, which became rival to the nearby city of Pátzcuaro for dominance in Michoacán. In 1580, this rivalry ended in Valladolid's favor and it became the capital of the colonial province. After the Mexican War of Independence, the city was renamed Morelia in honor of José María Morelos y Pavón, who is from here. In 1991, the city was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its well preserved colonial buildings and layout of the historic center.
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa (Spanish pronunciation: [feˈlipe kaldeˈɾon] ( listen); born August 18, 1962) is the current President of Mexico. He assumed office on December 1, 2006, and was elected for a single six-year term through 2012. He is a member of the Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), one of the three major Mexican political parties.
Prior to the presidency, Calderón received two masters degrees and went on to work within the PAN while it was still an important opposition party. Calderón served as National President of the party, Federal Deputy, and Secretary of Energy in Vicente Fox's cabinet. Source: Wikipedia
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Cuevo de las Manos (Cave of the Hands), famous for the paintings of hands made around 9,000 years ago, is in which Spanish-speaking country? | Cave of hands: Cueva de los Manos Patagonia
Michael Turtle | 25 Comments
Cueva de los Manos
“This is the bit where everyone likes to take photos,” my guide tells me as she points to the hands on the cave wall. “This is the most famous part.”
In some ways, it is an unnecessary comment. There is no doubt that this is going to be the highlight of my trip to the Cave of Hands in the middle of rural Patagonian Argentina. Along the stone wall of the cave are dozens of hand prints. Orange, yellow, red pigments sprayed onto the rock, while hands were placed on its cold hard surface, have left the impressions in negative of the fingers and palms.
I’m the only person here, aside from my guide, and silence fills the valley that stretches for kilometres in both directions. It hasn’t always been this lonely, though. Nine thousand years ago, a whole community of primitive hunters would pass through this valley and stay in the caves as they followed their prey across Patagonia. During these stops they would stand where I am now standing, place their palms on the rock, and leave a mark of their existence.
The hands of art
Seven thousand years before the first book was created, and four thousand years before the Egyptians started writing their hieroglyphs on the walls, the hunters of Patagonia were documenting their stories in the art of these caves of hands. Each print was a personal acknowledgement of their life, and each group of hands a demonstration of their community. Then, around these hands, they drew pictures of their daily activities that are a testament to their culture.
The main source of food was the guanaco, a llama-like animal in easy supply in this area. The drawings on the caves show the men hunting the creatures with primitive weapons but ingenious tactics. In one tableau, a crack in the rock is used to represent a ravine that the hunters chase the animals into, making them easier to catch.
There are lizards and spiders, pregnant animals, baby animals and even evil spirits in the drawings. The things that make their world what it is are all depicted on the rock.
“What are those dots painted onto the roof of the cave,” I ask the guide.
“They could be the stars in the sky,” she says, “or maybe the marks of a game where the children would throw painted balls into the air.” She chuckles. “We don’t really understand everything.”
The history of the Cave of Hands
There’s something nice about not knowing everything. The imagination is free to fill in the blanks. I can picture the tribe sitting here, hunched around a fire, eating their guanaco, turning its skin into clothes, and painting the stories of the day on the walls around them. I look at those pictures now and a scene comes to life, of men chasing the animals, shouting at each other to surround a herd, of proudly bringing their bounty back to their families.
Their stories haven’t been lost. Their lives haven’t been forgotten. Their paintings are more than just a diary for themselves because they have become a record of the time and a constant reminder of their existence. The ancient residents of the Cave of Hands have become what every artist, writer and even blogger dreams of being – narrators of history.
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What were the first names of writer C.S.Lewis? | Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas - UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas
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Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas
The Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas, contains an exceptional assemblage of cave art, executed between 13,000 and 9,500 years ago. It takes its name (Cave of the Hands) from the stencilled outlines of human hands in the cave, but there are also many depictions of animals, such as guanacos (Lama guanicoe ), still commonly found in the region, as well as hunting scenes. The people responsible for the paintings may have been the ancestors of the historic hunter-gatherer communities of Patagonia found by European settlers in the 19th century.
Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas
La Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas, renferme un ensemble exceptionnel d’art rupestre exécuté il y a de cela 13 000 à 9 500 ans. Elle doit son nom (grotte aux mains) aux impressions de mains – comme au pochoir – réalisées sur ses parois, mais comprend aussi de nombreuses représentations d’animaux, notamment de guanacos (Lama guanicœ ) qui sont toujours présents dans cette région, ainsi que des scènes de chasse. Les auteurs de ces peintures pourraient avoir été les ancêtres des communautés historiques de chasseurs-cueilleurs de Patagonie rencontrées par les colons européens au XIXe siècle.
كويفا دي لاس مانوس، ريو بينتوراس
تشتمل كويفا دي لاس مانوس في ريو بينتواس على مجموعة استثنائية من الفنون الصخرية التي يعود إنجازها إلى ما بين 13000و9500 سنة. ويعود اسمها (مغارة اليدين) إلى آثار اليدين – التي هي على غرار الرواسم- على جدرانها وهي تشتمل أيضاً على الكثير من الرسوم التمثيلية للحيوانات لا سيما حيوان الغواناكو (لاما غوانيكو) الموجود في المنطقة، بالإضافة إلى الرسوم التمثيليّة للصيد. وقد يكون واضعو هذه الرسوم قدامى الجماعات التاريخية من صيادين- قطّافين من باتاغونيا أجدادأولئك الذين التقى بهم المستوطنون الأوروبيون في القرن التاسع عشر.
source: UNESCO/ERI
洛斯马诺斯岩画所体现的卓越洞窟艺术可追溯到9 500至13 000年以前。“手洞”的名字取自洞窟中人手的雕画形象。此外还有很多当地常见动物的形象描绘，例如美洲驼，以及一些狩猎场景。创作这些岩画的人很可能是巴塔哥尼亚人(Patagonia)的祖先。19世纪，欧洲殖民者发现了这些以狩猎和采集为生的部落。
source: UNESCO/ERI
Пещера Куэва-де-лас-Манос (район Рио-Пинтурас, провинция Санта-Крус)
Пещера Куэва-де-лас-Манос содержит выдающееся собрание пещерных росписей, возраст которых составляет от 13 тыс. до 9,5 тыс. лет. Свое название, переводимое как «пещера рук», Куэва-де-лас-Манос получила по обнаруженным здесь раскрашенным отпечаткам человеческих ладоней. В пещере можно увидеть и изображения животных, таких как гуанако, которые до сих пор типичны для этого района, а также сцены охоты. Люди, которые создали эти росписи, вероятно, были предками охотников-собирателей Патагонии, обнаруженных европейскими поселенцами в ХIХ в.
source: UNESCO/ERI
Cueva de las Manos del Río Pinturas
La Cueva de las Manos del Río Pinturas alberga un conjunto excepcional de arte rupestre, ejecutado entre los años 13.000 y 9.500 a.C. La cueva debe su nombre a las huellas de manos estampadas en sus paredes con una técnica similar a la de impresión con plantilla. Además de estas figuras, la cueva posee numerosas representaciones de especies aún vivas de la fauna local, y más concretamente de guanacos (lama guanicoe). Los autores de las pinturas bien podrían haber sido los antepasados de las comunidades de cazadores-recolectores de Patagonia descubiertas por los colonizadores europeos en el siglo XIX.
source: UNESCO/ERI
リオ・ピントゥラスのクエバ・デ・ラス・マノス
アルゼンチン南部のサンタ・クルス州、パタゴニア地方。人口の最も希薄な寒冷・乾燥気候地帯。リオ・ピントゥラス峡谷の両岸にみられるクエバ・デ・ロス・マノス（「手の洞窟」の意）の壮麗な絵画群は、先史時代の岩絵の集成としては顕著な価値を有するものであり、南アメリカ最古の人類文化の証跡を示すものといえる。これらは古くは1万2000年前からの狩猟民族によって描かれ続けてきたものである。
Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas
Outstanding Universal Value
Brief synthesis
The Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas, contains an exceptional assemblage of cave art, with many painted rock shelters, including a cave, with magnificent pictographies surrounded by an outstanding landscape, with the river running through a deep canyon, which were executed between 9,300 and 1,300 years ago.
It takes its name (Cave of the Hands) from the stencilled outlines of human hands in the cave, but there are also many depictions of animals, such as guanacos (Lama guanicoe ), still commonly found in the region, as well as hunting scenes that depict animals and human figures interacting in a dynamic and naturalistic manner. The entrance to the Cueva is screened by a rock wall covered by many hand stencils. Within the rock shelter itself there are five concentrations of rock art, later figures and motifs often superimposed upon those from earlier periods. The paintings were executed with natural mineral pigments - iron oxides (red and purple), kaolin (white), and natrojarosite (yellow), manganese oxide (black) - ground and mixed with some form of binder.
The artistic sequence, which includes three main stylistic groups, began as early as the 10th millennium BP [Before Present]. The sequence is a long one: archaeological investigations have shown that the site was last inhabited around AD 700 by the possible ancestors of the first Tehuelche people of Patagonia. The Cueva is considered by the international scientific community to be one of the most important sites of the earliest hunter-gatherer groups in South America during Early Holocene that still maintains a good state of preservation and has a singular environment formation, unique at Santa Cruz province.
The rock art, its natural environment and the archaeological sites on this region are some of the very important reasons that made this area a focus for archaeological research for more than 25 years. They made an impact on the observer due not only the deep gorge walls surrounded by a privileged landscape, but also by the artistic compositions, variety of motifs and its polychromies. These scenes represent a unique evidence to know aboutthe first Patagonian hunters’ behaviour and their hunting techniques. Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas contains an exceptional assemblage of cave art, unique in the world, for its age and continuity throughout time, the beauty and the preservation conditions of the paintings, the magnificence of the collection of stencilled outlines of human hands and the hunting scenes, as well as the environment that surrounds the place of exciting beauty and for being part of the cultural value of the site itself.
Criterion (iii): The Cueva de las Manos contains an outstanding collection of prehistoric rock art which bears witness to the culture of the earliest human societies in South America.
Integrity
The inscribed property encompasses 600 ha with a buffer zone of 2,338 ha. The attributes of the property, represented by the archaeological site, the surrounding setting, and its artistic depictions, that convey the Outstanding Universal Value of the Cueva de las Manos, Río Pinturas, are fully present both in the nuclear and buffer zones and have not been altered and do not face any imminent threats due to development or negligence.
The habitat surrounding the archaeological site remains intact and has the same animal species depicted through cave art approximately 10,000 years ago. This also applies to plant species. As mentioned above, this is a particular, unique, and a typical setting, both at a provincial and regional level, with great value for the preservation of the Argentine natural systems. The favourable conditions (very low humidity, no water infiltration, stable rock strata) at the rock shelter have ensured that the state of conservation of all but the most exposed paintings is excellent. However, the increase of tourism to Patagonia in recent years has resulted in damage from human vandalism. These has included graffiti, removal of fragments of painted rock, touching of painted surfaces, accumulation of dust and refuse, etc. although measures undertaken have reduced impacts from these factors.
Authenticity
The authenticity of the rock art of the Cueva de los Manos is unquestionable. It has survived several millennia untouched and no restoration has been carried out since it became widely known to the scientific community in the second half of the 20th century. The archaeological excavations have been very restricted, so as to obtain the maximum cultural information for dating the art with the minimum disturbance to archaeological layers or to the appearance of the rock shelter.
Scientific excavations have made it possible to relate the cave depictions located in the site to the communities living in the region since the 10th millennium Before Present. The evidence of the excavations made in the cave area led to the establishment of context links between the cultural levels and paintings. The authenticity of the pictorial sequence was also verified by in-depth research. The art sequence of the Cueva de las Manos is based on a detailed study of overlapping, the different use of hues, its various states of conservation, and the location of the depictions along different defined sectors. Its relation to the various cultural levels of the site is supported by carbon dating and indicators showing a direct association with them, such as mineral pigments or remains of painted fragments that came off the wall and found in the excavations.
These elements, along with research evidence and interdisciplinary analyses, strongly support the authenticity of the Cueva de las Manos site as a unique example of one of the earliest hunter-gatherer communities living in the South American region in the Early Holocene.
Protection and management requirements
In 1975 the Province of Santa Cruz issued the law N° 1024 for the conservation of historic, archaeological and paleontological heritage. At the provincial level, the Government of the Province of Santa Cruz declared the City of Perito Moreno as the Archaeological Capital of Santa Cruz, because of the importance of the archaeological site of the Cueva de los Manos, by Decree No 133 of 13 May 1981. The National Congress of the Argentine Republic declared the Cueva de los Manos a Historic National Monument by Law No 24.225 of 20 July 1993. In 1997, the Government of the Province of Santa Cruz promulgated the law N°2472 for the protection of the provincial cultural heritage. In 2003 National Law N°25743 for protection of archaeological and paleontological heritage was promulgated.
In 1997 a management plan was presented for the global administration of the site. It proposed many specific actions that had been carried out along the last 10 years of management: local permanent custody, visitor management strategies and an interpretation centre at the reception area. Additionally, assessments of the state of conservation of the site and natural deterioration causes were implemented, along with geomorphologic and geotechnical studies of the area and rock art conservation surveys.
The Cuevas de las Manos Site Committee was formed in March of 2006. It requires strengthening for the implementation of its activities and to ensure its operation and continuity. It would be very important to have a permanent presence of the Committee at Perito Moreno, closest village. This would facilitate decision-making when it is needed to solve concrete problems.
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What was the name of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship, launched in 1858? | Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Great Eastern Steamship
Isambard Kingdom Brunel and
the Great Eastern Steamship
This is the story of the Great Eastern steamship, the largest steamship of its time. It is the story of the risks that are able to destroy even a good plan and project. It is also the story of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a talented engineer and the illustrious son of an illustrious father, Marc Isambard Brunel.
Since the Great Eastern steamship turned out to be an unsuccessful project it is important to note that the background of its proponent, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, gave every reason to expect it to be a success. First the story of the father, Marc Isambard Brunel.
Marc Isambard Brunel was born in Normandy, France in 1769. When he reached maturity he served in the French navy for six years. When this term of service was completed in 1792 he returned to France to find the French Revolution raging in full fury. Because of his royalist sympathies he decided to emigrate to the United States. He reached New York in 1793 and commenced a career in New York as an architect and civil engineer. He was successful as an architect, but his most outstanding accomplishment was the design of equipment for an arsenal and cannon factory. This project required his invention of new devices.
After six years in New York Marc Isambard Brunel decided to emigrate to England. He sailed in 1799 with plans for new equipment to manufacture the block and tackle equipment (multiple pulleys) used on ships to manipulate sails. It took until 1803 to get approval from the British government and begin construction at the Portsmouth dockyard.
Marc Isambard Brunel also invented new machines for the processes involved in the construction of ships and by 1812 he had been commissioned by the British government to build sawmills at Woolrich and Chatham. His mind was exceeding productive. During the period from 1812 he interested himself in a wide variety of endeavors. These included:
Steamships and their navigation on the Thames.
Machines used in textile manufacture such as stocking frames.
Devices for copying drawings.
Manufacture of nails.
Manufacture of tin foil.
Some of these pursuits resulted in patents. Yet despite his fertile intellect, or perhaps because of it, he found himself in such financial difficulties that in 1822 he was incarcerated for nonpayment of his debts. Actually his financial troubles stemmed from two major setbacks: 1. A fire which destroyed some of his facilities, 2. The government refusing to make payment for a consignment of military boots manufactured by a Brunel enterprise. A war Britain had been engaged in, ended sooner than people expected and the government knew it would not need the boots. Brunel's friends secured a government grant of five thousand pounds for Brunel to use to pay his debts and gain his freedom. Before he went to prison he started designing bridges and when he was released he gained the commission to construct some of those bridges. He conceived a plan to excavate a tunnel under the Thames and in 1824 a company was formed to carry out this project. It took until 1843 to complete that tunnel. Marc Isambard Brunel died in 1849.
His son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was born in 1806. His middle name Kingdom was his mother's maiden name. When he reached the age of 14 he was sent to France to study engineering. There probably were several factors behind the elder Brunel sending his son to France for his education. Probably foremost was that in the period before the Industrial Revolution France exceded England in science and engineering. Undoubtebly the French background of the Brunel family was another factor.
The son joined the father's engineering firm in 1823, about the time the Thames tunnel project was being prepared. The son, Isambard Kingdom, became the lead engineer for the project at the early age of 19. He continued as the Thames Tunnel engineer until 1828. The son then went on to design bridges.
In 1833 Isambard Kingdom Brunel at the relatively young age of 27 was appointed chief engineer for the Great Western Railway. A major part of his responsibility was the design and supervision of the construction of railway bridges. He achieved fame for his expertise in bridge design.
He could not limit his vision to railways. By 1835 he was conceiving of an extension of the Great Western Railway connecting with a steamship which would journey to New York. The ship was to be called The Great Western. His company accepted the project and Brunel designed and supervised the construction of The Great Western in 1838. It was the largest steamship of its time and the first to make regularly scheduled journeys across the Atlantic. The Great Western was a great success.
Brunel's next ship, The Great Britain was roughly twice the scale of The Great Western. Brunel intuitively understood the economy of scale in ships. If the scale of a ship is increased by a factor of two so it is twice as long, twice as wide and twice as deep then the volume increases by a factor of eight but the surface area increases only by a factor of four. The construction cost is closely linked to the surface area because it is the area that determines the amount of construction material for the hull. The The Great Western was constructed of wood but Brunel chose to use iron for the hull of The Great Britain. For a ship the size of The Great Britain it was not practical to use wood. If the same material is used for the double scale ship the cost per unit volume decreases by 50 percent. With Brunel using a more expensive material for the double scale ship the net result was that the cost per unit of volume decrease but not by as much as 50 percent.
The The Great Britain used a screw propellor for propulsion. It was the first ship to do so. The Great Britain was a great success.
It appeared that Brunel's ship based upon the same economy of scale principle would also be a great success. But there appeared to be something operating analogous to the Peter Principle ("People rise to the level of their incompetence.")
In the 1850's Isambard Kingdom Brunel was acknowledged to be Britain's greatest engineer. He had achieved fame and fortune in designing and supervising the construction of tunnel, bridges and other structures for railroads. When he had become tired of railroads and was seeking new engineering realms to conquer he designed shipping docks and piers. He then rose to the peak of naval engineering when designed the two largest ships of their time, The Great Western (1837) and The Great Britain (1843). These ships were powered by a combination steam and sail. The Great Western was constructed of wood and was of conventional design. For his second ship, The Great Britain, he went to iron for structure and a special design to take advantage of the greater strength of iron. The Great Britain was 322 feet long and 50 feet wide when conventional wooden ships were no more than 150 feet long. The Great Britain went into service for the run between Great Britain and Australia and was a great financial success.
Althought The Great Britain was considered to have been the largest ship built up to that time there were larger ships built in the Chinese Empire in the early 15th century. The treasure ships of Zheng He were 440 feet long and there were over three hundred of them. The fleet carried a crew of 37 thousand. China was close to five hundred years ahead of the West in the early 1400's. At about 500 BCE China was a millenium or two ahead of the West and the Middle East in technology. The Empire put scholar-bureaucrats in charge of the society and China stagnated.
Brunel decided to redouble the scale for his third ship. It was to be 692 feet long, 120 feet wide and 58 feet deep. It was to be constructed of steel and iron and steam powered but would have six masts for sails. Brunel wanted his ship to be powered by three sets of steam engines; one set for the screw propellor at the stern and two sets for side paddle wheels.
Brunel began the serious work for his Great Ship project in 1852. He chose the name Leviathan for the ship and it was christen so, but the public would not have it named anything except The Great Eastern. Brunel contacted John Scott Russell (of soliton fame) who was the leading naval architect of the time. The collaboration of Brunel and Russell was initially quite fruitful but later became troubled.
At Russell's suggestion the ship design was presented to the Great Eastern Steam Company. The company responded favorably to the proposal and this led to the formation of a company to undertake the building of the Great Ship. Soon the ship was known as The Great Eastern Directors for the company were found and shares of stock in the company were sold.
The company solicited bids for the construction of the ship. Brunel estimated that the cost would be in the neighborhood of £500,000. John Scott Russell's bid was the lowest. Russell proposed to build the ship for £377,000, of which £275,200 would be for the hull, £60,000 would be for the engine to drive the screw propellor and £42,000 would be for the boilers and engines for the two paddle wheels.
What the board of directors of the company did not realize when it accepted Russell's low bid was that Russell was unrealistically optimistic and that once it accepted his bid and committed itself it would not be able to enforce the contract with Russell to get the ship built at his low price.
Russell was not financially secure, particularly after a calamitous fire destroyed his ship yard. This meant that Russell needed prepayments to finance the ship's construction whereas the company was presuming that the payments would be made on the basis of work completed. The other factor that made the enforcement of the low bid cost impossible was that Brunel, as chief engineer of the project, insisted upon complete control of the project. This meant that elements of the construction process had to be Brunel's decision. This led Russell to argue that the provisions of the contract were being violated because of changes in the construction process.
One of the most important of these construction decisions was the matter of how the ship hull was to be launched. The Great Eastern was more than twice as long as the previously largest ship and more than four times as long as the typical ship of the time. No existing dry docks could accommodate her construction. Brunel chose to have the ship hull built parallel to the Thames River where it would be launched by sliding its 12,000 ton weight sideways 200 feet. Brunel insisted upon a controlled launch rather than a free launch in which the hull would slide under the effect of gravity. This would prove to be easier to plan than to execute.
Russell's impecuniousness and the company's unwillingness to accommodate his financial needs led him to pursue financial solutions that not only put him at financial risk but threaten not only his solvency but the completion of the ship. Russell mortgaged his shipyard to get funds to meet his operating costs, but this mortgage committed him to payments which if not met would lead to the confiscation of properties which were required to complete the hull of the ship.
John Scott Russell's forte was applied science rather than organizational and financial administration. For example, one of the issues was the inadequate safeguarding of supplies at his construction site. There was an enormous amount of iron unaccounted for and probably lost to pilfering. This loss increased Russell's costs substantially and contributed to his financial difficulties.
At one point Russell, in financial desperation, undertook the building of severl smaller ships for other clients. The construction of these ships precluded making progress on the construction of the great ship for Brunel.
At the point at which Brunel lost confidence in Russell only one fourth of the construction had been completed yet Russell had received more in payments than his contract called for the completion of the entire hull.
When Russell was on the verge of bankruptcy Brunel's company took possession of the shipyard and the hull on the basis of Russell having breached his contract. This was to prevent the mortgage company of Russell from executing such a takeover. In the negotiations between Brunel and the mortgage company Brunel committed the company to a September 1856 launch date for the hull. There were penalties for not executing the launching by the agreed upon date. It turned out that it was not possible to meet the September deadline. A launching in early November 1856 appeared to be feasible. The launching could only be achieved on the date of high tide for the month. Unfortunately the controlled launching turned out to be so difficult that the actual launch was achieved only on January 31, 1857. The launch had been attempted on November 3, 1856, attempted again on December 2 and again at the high tide of the New Year.
The difficulty with the launch was that tug boats in the Thames were pull by means of chains on the 12,000 ton hull while hydraulic rams pushed from the land side. The chains failed under the stress.
By the time of the launching of the hull the cost had reached £732,000. There was another important cost and that was the destruction of Brunel's health. Brunel was only in his early fifties but his health had deteriorated under the stress of 18 hour days to the point he could no long go on.
It was only the hull which was launched. The hull then had to be towed to another site where it was to be outfitted with equipment. After The Great Eastern was outfitted the maiden voyage was scheduled for September 7, 1858. Brunel was ready to join that maiden voyage when, September 5th, he suffered at severe stroke that incapicitated him. He died ten days later. He was only 53 years old.
Even Brunel's last days were marred by another disaster for The Great Eastern. On the return from her maiden voyage one of the steam jackets for a funnel exploded. The valves on water jackets of two funnels associated with the paddle wheel steam engines had been mistakenly closed. Fortunately the error was discovered and a second explosion avoided. Twelve crewmen were injured in the explosion, five of them fatally.
In January of 1860 the captain of the Great Eastern, a man who had been personally chosen by Brunel, was drowned along with three other crew members when the small boat they were riding in capsized in a storm while trying to reach the Great Eastern.
Whenever a tragedy occurred for The Great Eastern a story resurfaced that explained it as a resulted of the ship being haunted. The Great Eastern had two hulls separated by a distance of almost three feet. The riveters often worked in that space and the story went that a riveter and his boy helper had been accidently enclosed while working in that space and their ghosts were haunting the ship. In the nineteenth century tales of the natural were an important aspect of life. But so many unfortunate things happened to The Great Eastern that it was easy to believe that the ship was jinxed.
The Great Eastern had not made the journey to Australia which she was built for. Since the loss of the ship captain and financial difficulties made it unlikely that that journey would be undertaken in the near future the owners converted her to a luxury liner for trips across the Atlantic to New York. The first trip could hardly have been a profitable voyage since she carried only 38 passengers but a crew of 418. The Great Eastern was designed to carry 4000 passengers. This first passage was uneventful and she was celebrated when she arrived in New York.
In September the great ship was ready for another trans-Atlantic crossing and this time she carried 400 passengers. This time however the voyage was anything but uneventful. The ship ran into a hurricane. The large waves were causing the ship to lean and this submerged the paddle wheel on one side. That paddle wheel had to be shut down, but this deprived the ship of a major portion of her propulsion and hampered her maneuverability. The Great Eastern could not be turned into the wind and one paddle wheel was broken off of the ship by a great wave. Additionally the ship's rudder was damaged to the point of being useless for steering. Worse yet the rudder was being battered by the screw propellor and so the screw propellor had to be turned off. The great ship was helpless at sea in a hurricane.
After the crew managed at great personal risk to chain the rudder to immobilize it the screw propellor could again operate and propel the ship. The ship made it back to Britain, but the cost of repairing the damage was £60,000.
The repaired Great Eastern returned to trans-Atlantic passages. In August of 1862 she was carrying 1500 passengers when she again ran into a violent storm. Off Long Island the ship passed over a submerged rock that cut a gash in the bottom of the outer hull 85 feet long and 5 feet wide. The inner hull was not damaged but the repair of the bottom of such a large ship was no easy matter.
During a period in which the ship was being repaired the workmen heard what sounded like a knocking coming from inside the hull. The workmen thought it was the ghosts of the trapped riveters and refused to continue the repairs. An investigation found that the knocking was just the result of a loose chain. The repairs were finished in December of 1862, but at a cost of £70,000.
The Great Eastern made a few more trips across the Atlantic but lost £20,000. The sip owners reviewed the situation and decided to sell the Great Eastern at auction. The ship which had cost close to £1 million to build brought a price of only £25,000.
The new owners decided to convert the ship into an oceanic cable layer. They leased her to the Atlantic Telegraph Co. for £50,000 and in July of 1865 the Great Eastern, after refitting, began to lay cable from Ireland to Newfoundland.
After laying a thousand miles of cable, worth £700,000, the cable end was lost in about six thousand feet of water and could not be recovered. Despite this failure the cable company tried again in July of 1866 with stronger cable and this time they were successful. On top of this success the ship was taken back to where the first cable was lost and the old cable was retrieved.
For three years the Great Eastern successfully laid cable in various parts of the world's oceans. But newer ships specifically designed for laying cable were entering the field and the Great Eastern became obsolete as a cable layer. She could not go back to carrying cargo and passengers. The Suez Canal was completed by this time and the Great Eastern was too wide to use the Canal. The Great Eastern was stored for twelve years while the owners tried to find a new use for her. They gave up and in 1885 they auctioned her off once again. This time she brought £26,000 whose business was hauling coal. That buyer did not put her into service hauling coal, but instead leased her to someone who converted her into a place for manufacturers to exhibit their products. After that lease expired there was nothing to do but to auction her off for scrap.
She brought £16,000 in the auction. The Great Eastern of course contained far more than £16,000 worth of metal but it was so expensive to dismantle her that the buyers lost money even at a price of £16,000. It took 200 men working around the clock for two years to demolish her. Thus ended Isambard Kingdom Brunel's great ship.
(To be continued.)
| Great Eastern |
Which evergreen flowering climbing plant is said to be associated with Jesus Christ? | Engineering the World: Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Portsmouth Connection - Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Man and His Work
Engineering the World: Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Portsmouth Connection
Isambard Kingdom Brunel: The Man and His Work
Plaque commemorating Brunel’s
birthplace in Britain Street, Portsmouth.
Wonderstruck Learning
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a uniquely fascinating individual. Born in Portsmouth in 1806, the son of the French engineer, Marc Brunel, his first achievement of note was his contribution, at the age of just 19, to the planning of the Thames Tunnel between Rotherhithe and Wapping. From then on there was no stopping him and he went on to become the central figure in Victorian engineering and a true powerhouse of his age.
.Brunel is probably best remembered for his work on the Great Western Railway, constructing bridges, viaducts and tunnels across the whole of the West of England. But he didn’t stop there, and even without his work on the railways Brunel would still be remembered as a huge figure in the development of steam powered shipping.
The Great Western, launched in 1837 was the first steamship to run a transatlantic service. The Great Britain, launched in 1843, was the world’s first iron-hulled, propeller driven steam passenger liner. The Great Eastern, launched in 1859 was by far the biggest ship ever built up to that time.
Brunel was also responsible for redesigning and rebuilding many of Britain’s great docks. These included Bristol, Cardiff and Milford Haven.
Attempting to launch the SS Great
Eastern at the Isle of Dogs in 1858
Wikipedia The Great Western, launched in 1837 was the first steamship to run a transatlantic service. The Great Britain, launched in 1843, was the world’s first iron-hulled, propeller driven steam passenger liner. The Great Eastern, launched in 1859 was by far the biggest ship ever built up to that time.
Brunel was also responsible for redesigning and rebuilding many of Britain’s great docks. These included Bristol, Cardiff and Milford Haven.
Home
The Portsmouth Grammar School
The Life and Times of I.K. Brunel - A brief biography of the great man and instructions on how to carry out a research project on his life.
The Works of I.K. Brunel - Brunel worked on a monumental scale. Find out what’s left of his great works.
The Atmospheric Railway - A look at one of Brunel’s less successful, but possibly most fascinating projects and instructions showing you how to build a vacuum cannon.
The Legacy of I.K. Brunel - Brunel died over 150 years ago, find out about how his ideas still live on today. Also instructions on how to find examples of Brunel’s legacy..
Teachers’ Notes - Curriculum links and suggestions about how history, science and D&T teachers can use these resources in their lessons.
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On a standard violin, to which notes are the four strings normally tuned? | The Online Encyclopedia of Tunings / Violin family tunings
As used in most symphony orchestras:
Violin: g - d' - a' - e' '
Viola: c - g - d' - a'
Cello: C - G - d - a
Double bass: E' - A' - D - G
All also have notable scordatura tunings.
Fractional scale lengths
Fractional scale length instruments, sizes such as 3/4 or 1/2, are reduced- scale instruments. Fractional sizes of violin family instruments (except the viola) are used by younger students and have some other uses as well.
Some of the traditional names for these go back at least to Stradivarius, who may have invented some of them and at least standardised those he used (like many other things). The fractions used to identify them have no mathematical significance, apart from roughly indicating the order of the sizes, so for example a 3/4 scale violin is a lot bigger than three quarters of the size of a 4/4, and a 1/4 is significantly larger then half the size of a 4/4. And there is little standardisation between makers, except for those violin and cello sizes established by Stradivarius. See fractional scale length .
a - d' - a' - e' ' (Old-Timey D Tuning)
a - e' - a' - e' ' (Cross Tuning, A tuning, Open A, High Bass, High Counter or High Tenor, for Breaking Up Christmas, Cluck Old Hen, Hangman's Reel, Horse and Buggy, and Ways of the World)
a - e' - a' - c# ' ' (A tuning, Black Mountain, Rag Tuning, Calico Tuning, Open A Tuning, or Drunken Hiccups Tuning)
a - e' - a' - d' ' (for Old Sledge, Silver Lake)
d - d' - a' - d' ' ("Dee-Dad", Dead Man's Tuning, D Tuning or Open D Tuning, for Bonaparte's Retreat)
e - d' - a' - e' ' (for Glory in the Meeting House)
e - e' - a' - e' ' (for Get up in the Cool)
f ' - c' - g' - d' ' (Cajun Tuning)
g - d' - a' - d' ' {"Gee-Dad" or G Tuning)
g - d' - a' - e' ' (Italian tuning or That 'Ole Eye-talian tuning - the standard violin tuning!)
g - d' - g' - b' (Open G Tuning)
g - d' - g' - d' ' (Sawmill Tuning)
Fiddle tunings are often also known by their four note names, so the standard is known as GDAE tuning, and so on.
The five-string double bass has an extra treble or bass string.
E' - A' - D - G - B
Extended bass:
B' ' - E' - A' - D - G
The ability to play notes down to B' ' is increasingly expected of professional orchestral players. This can be accomplished by either a fifth bass string or by a fingerboard extension on the E string.
Extended-range four-string bass
An alternative to the fifth bass string is a fingerboard extension supporting extra bass notes on the E string, generally with mechanical means for producing the extra notes. This does not affect the string gauge or tension, see fingerboard extensions . This extension, as an alternative to a fifth bass string, is common in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. The fifth string tends to be favoured in continental Europe.
The extension is most commonly four semitones, meaning that the extended open string is tuned to C', while if stopped at the head nut it would still sound the normal open tuning of E'. This means that on those occasions when B' ' is required, the string must also be tuned down one semitone. But for the purposes of calculating string tension and figuring left-hand technique, the pitch must be measured at the normal head nut. Measured in this way this tuning is:
| g d e |
How many imperial gallons of oil are in a barrel? | Singing Woods Violin : New Violin Family Instruments
New Violin Family Instruments
Learn more about the benefits of commissioning a New Family instrument. If you are on a budget, Chinese-made octet violins, for which I am the sole US importer, might be a great alternative. Drop the tab on the instrument that interests you, and see what we have to offer. While we specialize in beautiful, hand-crafted imports, we are also able to build instruments to order for the advanced student and discerning professional player.
If you are looking for more information about the Violin Octet, the New Violin Family Orchestra, upcoming musical events, and video clips featuring New Family Instruments, visit the Octavivo web page.
Hand-Made
. . . Hand Made to Order . . .
I make all instruments of the New Violin Family (including basses) as well as conventional violins, violas, and cello (but not conventional contrabasses).
In the photo (right) is a tenor violin I made in 2007. It is on classical Cremonese proportions worked out for an intrument of this size. To the left of the instrument is my first tenor violin, and behind the tenors is a partially obscured baritone.
Please refer to the conventional violins page for ordering information related to commissioned instruments. Information on ordering New Family instruments is in the next column, right.
I'm very pleased to announce the arrival of low-cost Chinese-made soprano violins. The advent of these sopranos marks the first time that these instruments have been available anywhere for sale in quantity. As you will read in various other places on this site, the new family sopranos are remarkable instruments with many desirable characteristics.
The imported octet violins listed under the tabs on this page are made on my models and built to my specifications. The typical soprano receives anywhere from 5 to 10 hours of additional work. It is set up with a well-fitted and tonally adjusted soundpost and quality bridge. The fingerboard is dressed and receives a hand-rubbed oil finish. I pay particular attention to setup since this is of great importance to the player. The fingerboard edges will be beveled and the nut smoothed and rounded so there are no sharp edges. The instrument is fitted either with a good-quality wooden tailpiece or a lightweight metal Chinese model that is the correct size and has adjusters on all four strings.
The quality of wood in these sopranos has so far been quite nice, as you can see from the accompanying photos. The varnishing on the factory models is well done and presents an attractive appearance. Workmanship varies from piece to piece, but all in all it is very good. I put Supersensitive strings on most of the instruments, but you can swap in any string you like later. There will be new and greatly improved strings for the soprano coming from Supersensitive soon.
While the soprano violin is just slightly smaller than a 3/4 violin, it's not a child's violin. The pegbox, neck, string spacing at the nut and bridge are set up for adult hands. The soprano, which is tuned C-G-D-A (low to high) provides an amazing experience for violinists constrained to play the extremely high parts often called for in modern music. The latest version of the soprano sounds and plays like a big violin with the advantage of a very clear and extended range on the high A (880 Hz) string.
I'm very pleased to offer low-cost Chinese-made mezzo violins for sale. The workmanship and acoustical performance of the latest mezzos continues to improve, and we have managed to either hold our prices at their present levels or, in some cases, reduce them and pass the savings along to you. All the imported octet violins listed on this page are made on my models and built to my specification. They have a body length of 368 mm and a vibrating string length of 338 mm (a standard violin is 328).
The typical instrument receives anywhere from 5 to 10 hours worth of additional work. Our mezzos are set up with a well-fitted and tonally adjusted soundpost and either an Aubert a Mirecourt or Despiau bridge. The fingerboard is dressed and receives a hand-rubbed oil finish. I pay particular attention to setup since this is of great importance to the player. The fingerboard edges will be beveled and the nut smoothed and rounded so there are no sharp edges. The instrument is fitted either with a good-quality wooden tailpiece with a fine-tuner for the E or a lightweight Wittner model with adjusters on all four strings.
The quality of wood in these violins has so far been quite nice, and the varnishing is well done and presents an attractive appearance. Workmanship varies from piece to piece, but all in all it is very good and surprisngly consistent. I put Dominant strings with a Jargar A on most of the mezzos, but you can swap in any violin string you like later.
When the violin is ready for sale, it looks and sounds much beyond the usual factory instruments in this class. I believe that these mezzos represent an excellent value for the money.
Perhaps Your Next Violin Should Be A Mezzo?
Looking for a violin with a big, phat sound on the G and D strings? This is the instrument for you. For the section player in a large ensemble, the rich tone of a mezzo also enhances the normally bright sound of conventional violins in the highest positions as well as the lowest. The greater power of the mezzo is well-balanced and available throughout its range. If you are a chamber player on second violin, the tonal difference means that you will not have to work as hard to be heard. Since the mezzo tone sits distinctly between the violin and viola, definition in parts occurs naturally.
While mezzos have power on demand, they can easily be included in standard chamber ensembles because they can be played softly when needed. Their slightly longer string length takes very little getting used to. In fact, because the proportions are correct many players say they don't even notice unless someone points it out to them. Despite the mezzo body length of 368 mm (about 14 1/2 inches), standard chinrests, tailpieces, pegs, and strings will fit, so you don't have to deprive yourself of your favorite accessories. Although the mezzo won't fit into most standard violin cases, It will fit nicely into a case for a small viola, and there are many good models to chose from.
Customer Comments:
. . . I am happy with the mezzo (the first one that I have ever seen and touched). [It] is easier to play than my old violin, but as you stated in the material about the Chinese mezzos, one finds himself playing better on one of these instruments. I asked our best violinist/violist to play the mezzo when the church was empty. She commented on the evenness of sound over all strings. I am pleased with the full and room filling sound. Trade fiddles now sound thin and disappointing.
. . . A.B.L., Dike, Texas
. . . The vertical viola . . .
Here's a picture of a particularly nice back on one of our imported alto violins on the bench for setup. We are constantly impressed by the beautiful wood the Chinese have on their side of the Himalayas. These are hand-crafted instruments from start to finish, and the workmanship is generally good. The advent of these altos heralds a very large price drop from what was available before; in some cases they are as much as 70 percent lower in price. No more excuses for not buying that alto you've been wanting!
Bridges for the alto were designed geometrically on the Golden Section by Robert J. Spear and are hand-cut for each instrument from a blank of aged wood. The bridge in the photo was done for us by colleague Dylan Race. We will be offering acrylic templates of the alto bridge for use by luthiers in their own shops.
The imported octet violins listed on this page are made on my models and built to my specifications. The typical alto receives anywhere from 5 to 10 hours of additional work. It is set up with a well-fitted and tonally adjusted soundpost and a custom-designed and entirely hand-cut bridge. The fingerboard is dressed and receives a hand-rubbed oil finish. The fingerboard edges will be beveled and the nut smoothed and rounded so there are no sharp edges to damage the strings. At your option, the instrument will be fitted either with a good-quality wooden tailpiece with a single adjuster for the A-string or a lightweight metal Chinese model that has adjusters on all four strings.
I put Supersensitive Sensicore strings on most of the altos, but you can swap in any string you like later. When the alto is ready for sale, it looks and sounds much beyond the usual factory instruments in this class and represents an excellent value for the money.
Perhaps Your Next Viola Should Be an Alto?
There are many reasons to consider an alto violin. There has been much misunderstanding about the tone of the alto and rumors that it will sound out of place in a section of conventional violas. After real experience, though, I can state with confidence that this is not the case. The greater power of the alto comes in the range where it is most lacking in standard violas, which is on the C-string. If you are a chamber player in small groups of any size, you need worry no more about the alto voice getting covered, and since you will have less work to do pulling out a big tone, you can focus more on style and nuance in your playing. And, yes, it can be played softly, too.
Customer Comments:
I took the alto to our [cello choir] rehearsal yesterday and did demo[it] for the group. They all really like it. After hearing it, they are all convinced it will be a great addition to the [group] . . . It actually sounded quite good in the larger music room. The cello teacher with whom I've recently worked was playing the alto yesterday, and the tone was lovely.
J.G., San Diego, California
Pleased to report that the Alto has arrived safely, and even with the improvised bridge setup that the cello teacher did last night, sounds fantastic. I was amazed at the response and sheer volume from the instrument. Also very pleased with the case. Anyway, hard at work now to come up to standard to rejoin my adult learners string group, and bolster their viola section - the violas (all 2 of them) aren't going to know what hit them :>
A.S., Christchurch, New Zealand
I'm very pleased to announce the arrival and sale of low-cost Chinese-made tenor violins in addition to my own hand-made tenors. The advent of imported tenors marks the first time that these instruments have been available anywhere for sale in quantity. The new family tenors are remarkable instruments with many desirable characteristics.
The imported octet violins listed on this page are made on my models and built to my specifications. The typical tenor receives anywhere from 5 to 10 hours of additional work. It is set up with a well-fitted and tonally adjusted soundpost and quality bridge. The fingerboard is dressed and receives a hand-rubbed oil finish. The fingerboard edges will be beveled and the nut smoothed and rounded so there are no sharp edges. The instrument is fitted either with a good-quality wooden tailpiece or a lightweight metal Chinese model that is the correct size and has adjusters on all four strings.
The tenors on this page are shown as they look upon arrival here. They are in a tilted display holder so the scroll is farther away from the camera. Don't let the perspective fool you! For a 3/4 profile photo of a tenor, click on the "hand-made" tab, above. The quality of wood in these tenors has so far been quite nice, as you can see from the accompanying photos. The varnishing on the factory models is well done and presents an attractive appearance. Workmanship varies from piece to piece, but all in all it is very good. I put Supersensitive tenor strings on most of the instruments, but you can swap in any string you like later. There will be new and greatly improved strings for the tenor coming from Supersensitive soon.
What Can the Tenor Violin Do?
For the cellist, playing a tenor opens up many interesting opportunities. Certain pieces by Bach, for example, that are awkward to play on the cello lie easily on the tenor (6th cello suite and anything written originally for Gamba, for example). Because the tenor is an octave violin, it can be used for almost anything written for the violin while retaining all the playing techniques, such as thumb position, that are familiar to cellists. For players who enjoy the larger chamber groups, the tenor fits in easily and effectively. In pieces calling for two violas, the tenor adds a dimension of warmth and fullness when used to play the second viola part. In pieces where the composer has indicated two cellos, the tenor easily and naturally takes the higher cello part where it imparts a free and open-sounding quality that cannot be obtained by playing the cello in its extended range.
Are you playing in a string band or old-tyme fiddle group? The tenor will add a voice and a sound quality that cannot be duplicated by putting trick strings on a violin or using a pickup and running the output through a signal processor. If yours is an acoustic band, you'll find that the tenor has plenty of power and won't get buried in the mix.
Customer Comments:
I love playing this instrument!
M. S., Syracuse, NY
This is my instrument. It just fits me perfectly. I have a small hand, and I have to constantly stretch it whenever I play my cello. With the tenor, I can use my natural spacing. The notes fall right under my fingers.
L. K., Ithaca, NY
. . . The Baritone Refined . . .
Our newest baritone stems from the work originally done by Hutchins and Schelleng and incorporates the scientific findings and the many helpful comments of working musicians. The boominess on the low C string and the suppressed A string of the original models seemed like an acceptable trade-off for an instrument that could finally "talk back to a grand piano," yet players, especially soloists, yearned for more sparkle in the top string and a shorter string length for ease of playing.
Due to my association with the acousticians still working in the area of bowed string instruments and my extensive studies of musical instrument geometry, I have been able to address both problems in my latest baritone violins. They have been shortened to approximately 800 mm (31.5 inches) body length and the string length has been adjusted to under 700 mm (27.5 inches). The resulting instruments have a powerful C string, a rich, dark A string, and they are not fatiguing to play. The string proportion is altered to that of a violin, which brings the player's left hand to the body in a slightly different place, but most players adjust to this within minutes. These classically proportioned baritones blend in well with conventional chamber ensembles and orchestral cello sections.
The low rib heights common to many New Family instruments are found in the baritones, too, which gives some players a bit of difficulty because the front surfaces of the baritone are brought closer to the body than when playing a standard cello. This does not usually confer any long term problems, but rather some advantages. With the body of the instrument closer to the player's body, the player's left hand need not encounter the ribs at all in higher position, allowing for fast and fluid shifting between thumb position and lower positions. The resulting body posture is also more natural, which reduces the need to push the left elbow forward and upward when playing in thumb position.
Perhaps Your Next Cello Should Be A Baritone.
The baritone provides a clarity, focus, and reserve of power not found in conventional cellos, yet it fits with surprising ease into all chamber groups and larger ensembles. The cello-like string length allows the cellist to adapt to the new instrument in minutes, and permits the player the choice of all commercially available strings. The top string is not harsh or edgy, and the low string's clarity and punch helps give better definition to the cello line in large ensembles. Although the baritone in the New Family no longer serves as the bass, it provides a more substantial low end than a cello in ensembles in which it is the lowest instrument.
. . . Some Great Choices . . .
Bassetto (1/8 Chamber Bass)
With a body length of only 940 mm (37 inches) and a short-scale vibrating string length of just 812 mm (32 inches), this little bass harkens back to the German "half-basses" of the 19th century with the added benefits of modern acoustics and free-plate tuning. It is tuned in fifths (G-D-A-E two octaves below the violin and a fourth below the cello), and above first position the string length is that of a cello, allowing fast and flexible fingerings for the chamber musician or jazz player. The pizzicato is quick and punchy, and the bowed upper strings blend seamlessly with conventional cellos or New Family baritones. Designed to be played standing or on a stool, we're finding that most bassists prefer to play seated in a chair with the instrument held like a cello. The small size makes the bassetto easy to transport, and the low G string provides a surprisingly firm bass in ensembles in which it is the lowest instrument. While the bassetto is the same size as a 1/8 bass, it is not a child's instrument, and the neck width and string spacing are sized for the adult hand. It is also amazingly easy to play: it responds so quickly one player uses a viola bow! In the upper registers it plays as fast a cello but with a cleaner sound. If conventional fingering is preferred, a high fourths tuning (A-D-G-C) is a good alternative.
This bass is available on special order. Deposit required. Wait time estimated at six months. The photo is of a handmade prototype: the imported models will look similar.
The photos of the molds and templates below will give you an idea of the relative size of the basses to each other. Left, 940 Bassetto; center, 1130 standard 3/4 orchestral bass (Unger model); right, 1230 G sub-contra. Note the greatly rounded shoulders to facilitate playing of these violin-influenced basses.
5/8 Small Bass (not shown above)
This instrument is for those who want something slightly larger with more emphasis on the low end, or for those who prefer a bass on the length of the original Hutchins model (1040 mm). The string length is about 963 mm (38 inches) for a familiar feel. It is normally tuned in fourths (low A-D-G-C) a minor third below the cello, which proves to be a useful tuning. Some players consider it to be a 5/8-size bass and report that when strung in conventional bass tuning it has a surprisingly strong low E. It is also possible to tune this bass in fifths with G as the lowest note.
This bass is available on special order only.. Deposit required. Wait time estimated at one year.
3/4-Size Contrabass in 4 or 5-string models
Paul Unger, assistant principal bass of the Fort Worth Symphony, approached me with a request for an instrument that could be tuned in fifths, had a substantial low C for orchestral work, and could be fitted with an additional string tuned to high E for chamber playing. He wanted all this in one instrument! He asked for a string length no longer than 38 inches (965 mm) to ease fifths playing in lower position, which he thought would encourage others to use fifths tuning. In short, a paradigm shift-- the creation of a good, all-round standard bass with extended range for the 21st-century player.
The concept was so intriguing that I decided to offer the bass in Unger's five-string version and a four-string version for those who prefer a narrower neck. The body length is 1130 mm (44.5 inches), which is the same as a standard-size 3/4 orchestral contrabass. Like all the other basses on this page, it is a violin-shaped bass with the low rib heights typical of New Family instruments. The five-string model has slightly taller ribs to allow for a head block that can support the extra tension of the fifth string.
This bass is available on special order only. Deposit required. Wait time estimated at 14 months.
"Bob, I've had one of the best mornings of my life. I just spent the last hour SIGHT READING the first Bach Cello Suite! I've been waiting 25 years to be able to do that on the bass. What an amazing difference it makes to have a high "e" string that sounds GOOD and balanced with the rest of the bass. With this bass I could read the suite in the lower positions where it was meant to be played. I could also perform all of the chords and open strings that Bach intended - the bass was ringing all over the place!
My wife tells me this bass is the most powerful one I've ever practiced with in the house. She said there wasn't a spot she could go to get away from its sound. I can't wait to hear what it does in a concert hall." --Paul Unger
"Kicks butt!"
"Thirty-eight inch string length sure makes a lot of stuff easier."
"Unbelievable range, and incredibly easy to play."
"The violin-shaped shoulders do not get in the way. Getting over the bass is not a problem."
5/4 G Sub-Contrabass
This is the heavyweight of our bass line: a bass one not only hears with their ears, but feels in one's feet! At 1230 mm (48.5 inches) body length it possesses substantial radiating area and enormous power in the nether regions. Yet the string length is kept to a comfortable 1054 mm (41.5 inches) so that fifths tuning is possible and playing conventionally in fourths is no different than playing on a 3/4-size bass. For added flexibility, this bass can be tuned in a number of ways. In conventional fourths tuning, the low E speaks with unrivalled authority, yet it is not boomy. In low fourths tuning (low B-E-A-D), the lowest notes are substantial. A single bass in this tuning can support a string orchestra of 25 to 30 players.
However, this bass was designed to play even lower. It is tuned (low) A-D-G-C, an octave below the Hutchins small bass and our Bassetto in fourths tuning. The advantage of this arrangement is that the player can switch between the largest and smallest instrument without having to compensate for strings in different positions or having to transpose parts. Standard basses sound one octave lower than written; the sub-contra sounds two ocatves lower than written. With an optional one-note extension installed, or when fifths tuning is employed, the lowest note is G three octaves below the violin's low G. The sound must be heard to be appreciated. While not quite Vuillaume's Octobasse, it doesn't require two people to play it. The low G at approximately 24.5 Hz is off the piano keyboard and down as far as most people can hear. A truly visceral bass for folks who never heard a note they thought was too low!
This bass is available on special order only. Deposit required. Wait time estimated at 18 months.
| i don't know |
Rocinante is the name of which fictional character’s horse? | Rocinante | fictional character | Britannica.com
Rocinante
fictional character
THIS ARTICLE IS A STUB. You can learn more about this topic in the related articles below.
Similar Topics
Rocinante, fictional character, the spavined half-starved horse that Don Quixote designates his noble steed in the classic novel Don Quixote (1605, 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes .
Learn More in these related articles:
horse
a hoofed, herbivorous mammal of the family Equidae. It comprises a single species, Equus caballus, whose numerous varieties are called breeds. Before the advent of mechanized vehicles, the horse was widely used as a draft animal, and riding on horseback was one of the chief means of transportation....
Don Quixote (novel by Cervantes)
novel published in two parts (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most widely read classics of Western literature. Originally conceived as a comic satire against the chivalric romances then in literary vogue, it describes realistically what befalls an elderly knight who,...
Miguel de Cervantes
September 29?, 1547 Alcalá de Henares, Spain April 22, 1616 Madrid Spanish novelist, playwright, and poet, the creator of Don Quixote (1605, 1615) and the most important and celebrated figure in Spanish literature. His novel Don Quixote has been translated, in full or in part, into more than...
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Date Published: February 05, 2016
URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Rocinante
Access Date: December 28, 2016
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| Don Quixote |
In humans, enteritis is the inflammation of which part of the body? | Animal Legends
[zoom] | Additional images:
John Phillips, Milton’s nephew, produced this illustrated English edition of Don Quixote, with fourteen anonymous copper engravings plus a frontispiece image introducing the main protagonists to the reader.
[Cervantes]. Don Quichotte de la Manche, traduit de l’espagnol par Florian. Paris: Didot l’aîné, 1799.
This delicate vignette shows Don Quixote once again about to fall from his horse, a metaphor for his constant setbacks and brutal confrontations with reality.
[Cervantes]. Don Quijote de la Mancha, ilustrado por Salvador Dalí, Barcelona: Mateu, 1965.
[zoom] | Additional images:
Many illustrated editions of Don Quixote were produced in the 20th century. According to the curators of a 2005 exhibition at the George Peabody Library, “it was Salvador Dalí who represented a radical break with the past. His 1946 illustrations [for Random House in New York] portrayed both the conscious and unconscious worlds of Don Quixote: one world could not be separated from the other in Dali’s surrealistic vision.” Indeed, Dalí said he wanted to “systematize confusion thus help discredit completely the world of reality,” a goal that would have appealed to Don Quixote’s himself.
[Cervantes]. Don Quijote de la Mancha, with A Lectura del Quijote by Antonio Saura, Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores, 1987.
[zoom]
On loan, courtesy of Dr. María Antonia Garcés.
When he was very young, Spanish artist Antonio Saura (1930-1998) made a list of books he would like to illustrate (San Juan de la Cruz, Cervantes, Kafka, Orwell… ) He described the process of illustrating Don Quixote as grueling and exhausting, “a graphic sword fight.” His seventy-one minimalist drawings, with their strokes in black ink, are imbued with a subtle irony, and avoid the clichés of “folkloric Spain.”
[Cervantes]. L’Ingénieux hidalgo Don Quichotte de la Manche, illustré par Gérard Garouste.Paris: Diane de Selliers, 1998.
| i don't know |
Who became Archbishop of Canterbury in February 2003? | The 27th of February 2003 AD, Rowan Williams becomes 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
Rowan Williams becomes 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
Canterbury , Kent The 27th of February 2003 AD
Rowan Williams, previously Bishop of Monmouth and Archbishop of Wales, was announced as George Carey�s successor as Archbishop of Canterbury and thus spiritual head of the Church of England, on December 2 2002, and enthroned on February 27 2003. In so doing he became the 104th holder of that office, and the first Welshman (he was born in Swansea , his first language Welsh).
Although his appointment followed the usual arcane process of the established church Dr Williams had been a very strongly tipped candidate for the post, though as his background was primarily academic rather than pastoral it was not without criticism. And although an Anglo-Catholic Dr Williams had shown himself relatively liberal as regards the question of homosexuality and the church, though contrastingly of the pro-life tendency.
An undoubtedly highly intelligent man, speaking several languages, Rowan Williams has sometimes, however, shown himself less than adept as a communicator, the press at times finding his style hard to follow: he seemed genuinely surprised when outrage followed his suggestion that sharia law could in certain circumstances run in parallel with existing laws in this country, though what had seemingly been intended was only that it could be used in such matters as dispute resolution, as Jewish law already is in this country.
| Rowan Williams |
In the Bible, what was the name of Jacob’s only daughter? | BBC - Press Office - Enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury
FACTUAL & ARTS TV
The Enthronement of the Archbishop of Canterbury on BBC television, radio and online
The final stages of preparation are underway for the Enthronement of Dr. Rowan Williams, the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury, on Thursday 27 February 2003.
The service will be broadcast live on BBC TWO, BBC Radio 4 LW and throughout the world via the internet on BBCi.
Huw Edwards will be guiding viewers through proceedings on BBC TWO between 2.30 and 4.30pm.
On Radio 4 LW (2.15 to 4.45pm), BBC Correspondent Mike Wooldridge will report on events as they unfold while listeners also have another opportunity to hear Jeremy Vine discuss the future of the Church of England in Church Going at 2.20pm.
For the first time, the service is being streamed live on BBCi.
At the website - www.bbc.co.uk/canterbury - viewers will also have the opportunity to download the order of service and other news and background information, including a profile of the new Archbishop and his first speech after appointment.
Dr Williams assumed his office, upon confirmation of his election, at St Paul's Cathedral on 2 December 2002.
The Enthronement ceremony is his formal reception at Canterbury Cathedral, the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury since the year 597, and a celebration of the start of his new ministry.
Clergy from the Diocese and throughout the world will be joined at the service by representatives of other faiths, international ambassadors, leading politicians and senior members of the Royal Family.
Representatives of other Christian traditions present include the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster who will read a lesson and Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira and Great Britain who will lead some prayers.
The Service features traditional English Church music sung by the choir of Canterbury Cathedral but will also have a strong Celtic flavour with a new anthem commissioned from Scottish composer James Macmillan.
And there will be music from Africa, a Penillion (duet between a singer and harpist) and an anthem from Newport Cathedral Choir.
The Canterbury Gospels will be used during the service as the Archbishop takes an oath.
Traditionally this book is thought to have been given by Pope Gregory the Great to St Augustine for his mission to England at the end of the 6th century and is one of the oldest manuscripts in the UK.
The Archbishop will first be enthroned by the Archdeacon of Canterbury in the Diocesan throne in the Cathedral Quire - his seat as head of the Diocese.
He will then be enthroned by the Dean of Canterbury in St Augustine's Chair - his seat as Primate of All England and President of the Anglican Communion with its 70 million members across the globe.
www.bbc.co.uk/canterbury
Notes to Editors
On Sunday 2 March, Dr Williams will be celebrating two Eucharist Services at Canterbury Cathedral at 11.00am and 3.00pm.
Members of the public are welcome to attend and no tickets are required.
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Felsic, Mafic and Intermediate are all types of which natural substance? | felsic and mafic rocks | igneous rock | Britannica.com
Felsic and mafic rocks
Alternative Titles: acid rock, felsite, silicic rock
Related Topics
aplite
Felsic and mafic rocks, division of igneous rocks on the basis of their silica content. Chemical analyses of the most abundant components in rocks usually are presented as oxides of the elements; igneous rocks typically consist of approximately 12 major oxides totaling over 99 percent of the rock . Of the oxides, silica (SiO2) is usually the most abundant. Because of this abundance and because most igneous minerals are silicates, silica content was used as a basis of early classifications; it remains widely accepted today. Within this scheme, rocks are described as felsic, intermediate, mafic, and ultramafic (in order of decreasing silica content).
In a widely accepted silica-content classification scheme, rocks with more than 65 percent silica are called felsic; those with between 55 and 65 percent silica are intermediate ; those with between 45 and 55 percent silica are mafic; and those with less than 45 percent are ultramafic . Compilations of many rock analyses show that rhyolite and granite are felsic, with an average silica content of about 72 percent; syenite , diorite , and monzonite are intermediate, with an average silica content of 59 percent; gabbro and basalt are mafic, with an average silica content of 48 percent; and peridotite is an ultramafic rock, with an average of 41 percent silica. Although there are complete gradations between the averages, rocks tend to cluster about the averages. In general, the gradation from felsic to mafic corresponds to an increase in colour index (dark-mineral percentage).
The fine-grained or glassy nature of many volcanic rocks makes a chemical classification such as the felsic-mafic taxonomy very useful in distinguishing the different types. Silica content is especially useful because the density and refractive index of natural glasses have been correlated with silica percentage; this makes identification possible in the absence of chemical data. For similar determinations, glasses can also be prepared in the laboratory from crystalline rocks.
Similar Topics
| Lava |
What is the name of the scarlet and gold banner of St Denis, which was given to early French kings on setting out for war? | Igneous Rocks
Igneous Rocks
Background:
The term igneous comes from the Latin ignis, meaning "fire". Igneous is used to describe rocks that crystallize out of hot molten material in the Earth called magma. When magma pushes up through Earth's crust to the surface, it is called lava. Both magma and lava cool and harden to form igneous rocks.
Lava vs. Magma: Lava erupting from Kilauea in Hawaii (left);
Sketch of magma deep in the earth (right): USGS Images
Intrusive vs. Extrusive
Igneous rocks can be classified into two main categories: intrusive and extrusive. A trick to help kids remember intrusive and extrusive is to think of intrusive -- inside and extrusive -- exit.
Intrusive rocks come from magma. They cool slowly deep in Earth's crust. When magma cools underground, the crust acts like a blanket, insulating it, keeping it warm longer. Because the magma cools slowly, crystals of different minerals have time to grow. The molecules in the magma have time to arrange themselves into crystal formations before the magma hardens. Intrusive rocks have large crystals that can be seen with the naked eye. A common example of an intrusive igneous rock is granite.
Granite: USGS Image
Extrusive igneous rocks come from lava. Lava, at the surface, is exposed to air and water which causes the molten rock to cool rapidly. Solidifying rocks at the surface cool too quickly for large crystals to form. Molecules in the lava do not have time to arrange themselves to form large crystals. Extrusive rocks have crystals that are too small to see without magnification. A common example of an extrusive igneous rock is basalt. Some extrusive rocks, such as obsidian and pumice, cool so rapidly that they completely lack crystal structure and are considered a volcanic glass. Pumice is just like obsidian except it is tiny shards of glass.
Obsidian (note the lack of crystals- the white specks in the bottom specimens are air bubbles): USGS Image
Texture
Within the two main categories of intrusive and extrusive, rock can be classified even further using texture and chemical composition. The word "texture" has nothing to do with how the rock feels. Texture, in geology, is used to describe how the rock looks. The most noticeable textural feature of igneous rocks is grain size. Grain size refers to the size of the individual mineral crystals. As mentioned above, intrusive igneous rocks, such as granite have large, individual crystals visible to the naked eye. The textural term used to describe a rock with large crystals is coarse-grained. In contrast, fine-grained rocks, such as basalt, are igneous rocks that have crystals too fine to see with the naked eye. Under magnification they are still very small but easily identifiable with a few optic tests. Quickly-cooled lavas can contain trapped bubbles of gas, which are called vesicles. The resulting texture is described as vesicular.
Vesicular Basalt: USGS Image
Vesicular Basalt: USGS Image
Chemical Composition
Chemical composition of igneous rock can often be estimated just from looking at the rock. Geologists look at the proportions of light-colored and dark-colored minerals in an igneous rock to estimate the chemical makeup of rock. Light-colored or felsic, minerals have more silica in them. Silica is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and is the chief component of quartz. Felsic minerals are most often colorless, white, gray or pink but can be any number of colors. The dark, or mafic, minerals are richer in iron and magnesium. Mafic minerals are chiefly black, brown, dark gray and sometimes green.
The mineral proportions of the rock are what allows geologists to classify rocks chemically. Depending on the proportion of light minerals to dark minerals, igneous rocks can be broken into four main types: felsic, intermediate, mafic and ultramafic. The following list gives more information about igneous chemical categories. This information is provided for you, the teacher, to better understand igneous rocks.
Sialic rocks are high in silica (65% +). They are usually light-colored. Some examples are: Rhyolite (extrusive) and granite (intrusive).
Intermediate rocks have lower silica content (55-65%). They are darker than felsic rocks but lighter than mafic rocks. Some examples are: Andesite/dacite (extrusive) and diorite/granodiorite (intrusive).
Mafic rocks have low silica content (45-55%). They are usually dark-colored and contain iron and magnesium. Some examples are: Basalt (extrusive) and gabbro (intrusive). Basalt is the rock that is produced at spreading ridges and makes up the sea floor.
Ultramafic rocks have extremely low silica content (less than 45%) and contain large amounts of iron and magnesium. They are usually dark-colored, but high olivine content can lend green shades to the rock. Other rare colors can be found. An example of ultramafic rock is Peridotite (intrusive).
Sedimentary Rocks
Background:
Sedimentary rocks can be broken into two major classifications: clastic and chemical/biochemical. Clastic rocks are formed from solid particles of previous rocks in the form of clay, silt, sand, pebbles, or boulders. Some examples of clastic rocks are sandstone, shale, and siltstones. Chemical/Biochemical rocks are made of sediments that precipitated out of water either chemically or biochemically. Some examples of chemical/biochemical rocks are limestone, chert, and rock salt. These classifications can be simplified into clastic and chemical.
Sedimentary rocks are formed when the clastic or chemical particles stick together by means of a chemical cement or by particles sticking together on their own. Through various physical and chemical means, sediments are hardened and turned into sedimentary rocks, a process known as lithification.
Depositional Environments for Sedimentary Rocks
Sedimentary rocks can be read like a book. Each layer of sedimentary rock is like a chapter in the history of the earth. Remember that sedimentary rocks are always deposited from oldest to youngest, and unless some incredible earth movements (faults and folds) have deformed the sediments, the oldest layer is always going to be on the bottom and the youngest layer is always going to be on the top.
Depositional Environments of Sandstone
As mentioned in the original activity, sand that commonly forms sandstones is found in two very important places: beaches and deserts. So, when geologists see a sandstone, how do they tell whether it was deposited in a beach or desert environment? There are two ways: One way is to look at the layering in the rock to see whether it mimics the pattern of sand dunes alone (desert) or whether there are signs of water deposition, such as preserved ripple marks, flat layers representing the swash zone of a beach (the place where the waves come onto the beach and flatten the sand out) or evidence of waves from large storms moving the sand underwater. Another way to distinguish between desert and beach deposits is to look at the rock above and below the layer you are looking at.
Depositional Environments for Shale
Shale is a rock that comes from relatively deep, calm water. Because shale is made of very small particles (fine sediments), it must be deposited in water that is calm enough to no longer suspend such fine particles. Think of water that can deposit shale as water in a bathtub. When you're really dirty and you take a bath, you scrub all the dirt off and don't realize how dirty you were until after you get out. When you are in the tub, you create enough current in the water to suspend the dirt. Once you get out, however, the current in the water slows and eventually stops, allowing all of the dirt to settle down to the bottom. Shale forms in the same way. Any place the water is calm enough for fine sediments to settle out, you might find a shale.
Depositional Environments for Limestone
One place where limestone deposits are found is in very deep ocean water. Way out in the ocean, where the water is calm and deep, live multitudes of tiny marine animals. These animals use the calcium carbonate in sea water to make their shells. When these animals die, they fall to the sea floor. Over millions of years, the shells accumulate, and are eventually buried, cemented and turned into limestone. It is not common to find large fossils in deep-water limestone. Limestones can also form when the concentration of calcite increases to the point where the molecules start to fall out of the water. Think of chocolate milk. When you put too much chocolate into the milk some falls out. Limestones can also form in this way.
Another environment that creates carbonate deposits is a coral reef. Reefs are composed of almost 100% calcium carbonate. If you see a limestone with fossils that resemble corals or any other reef creature, you can imagine that the environment that deposited that limestone was probably associated with a reef. Reefs commonly reside in shallow marine water and are found only in tropical environments.
Generally, in a typical ocean environment, you'll find sand on and near the beach. Out into the water a ways you'll find mud that could someday become a shale. If you keep moving farther out to sea, you'll find the area where the carbonate marine animals live and die. The type of sedimentary rocks in an area can be used to determine the depth of the water at the time the sediments were deposited.
Depositional Environment for Conglomerate
The last deposit we will consider is conglomerate. Conglomerate rocks can sometimes have spaces between the rocks and other times be filled in with a matrix cement, like concrete. A common place to find conglomerate is near a river. Rivers, because they move at different velocities, are able to transport and deposit rocks of all different sizes. If the river flowed at a constant velocity it would have about the same sized rock throughout. In places along the river the where the rate of flow slows, there you will find rocks surrounded by a matrix mud. Often, when geologists come across a conglomerate, they can assume that there was once a river in that area.
How Do These Environments Fit Together?
In order to complete this activity, you'll need to think about depositional environments in the following manner: Say you come across a layer of conglomerate, and above that layer of conglomerate you find a sandstone, and above that sandstone you find a layer of shale. What would this tell you about past environments? Well, the conglomerate tells you that there was once a river in that place. The sandstone tells you that there was once a beach or a desert in that place. The shale tells you that there was once deep, calm water in that place. So, which scenario makes the most sense? A: First there were rivers, and then those rivers dried up. The climate change was so drastic that as soon as those rivers dried up, a huge desert covered the region. Then, a few million years later, there was suddenly really deep water to deposit the shale. Scenario B: First there were rivers in that place that emptied into a big lake or ocean. The level of the lake or ocean was rising, so eventually the place were the rivers were became a beach. As the level of the water continued to rise, the area was covered by deepening water and the shale was deposited. It seems as though scenario B makes the most sense.
Metamorphic Rocks
Background:
Metamorphic means 'changed'. When a rock has been affected by metamorphic processes it has changed from one kind of rock to another. Metamorphic rocks can begin as igneous, sedimentary or other metamorphic rocks. They form when any kind of rock is exposed to high heat and high pressure over a long period of time. Extreme conditions like these for long periods can develop deep within the crust or where tectonic plates collide.
All metamorphic rocks have one thing in common, time. The longer a rock is exposed to one or all of the metamorphic stresses the more metamorphosed it becomes.
The creation of metamorphic rocks never involves melting the original rock. If these stresses do melt the original rock, an igneous rock is created. Metamorphic rocks change in the solid state by replacement or rearrangement of molecules. These changes are brought about by squishing, folding, and heating without ever melting!
Classifying metamorphic rocks is sometimes more difficult than identifying igneous or sedimentary rocks because of the various results of the varying stresses that affect them. The important thing to remember is the different stresses that can affect any rock can turn it into a metamorphosed rock.
Two easy metamorphic classifications are: foliated and non-foliated. Foliation describes the texture (how the rock looks) of metamorphic rocks. It has to do with the way minerals are aligned in a rock. When rock is subject to extreme pressure grains will squish in the 'Y" plane of the pressure. Elongate or flat grains, such as mica, will align themselves parallel with each other in the 'Y" direction.
When minerals line up parallel to each other, the rock shows a tendency to split along a plane created by those parallel grains. This is called rock cleavage, or slaty cleavage, named for the fine-grained metamorphic rock slate which demonstrates this phenomenon. Sometimes minerals will not only align themselves in parallel directions, but will also segregate into bands of differing composition. This happens when rocks are subjected to the most intense heat and pressure they can stand without melting. A common example of the result of this phenomenon is gneiss. Slate, schist and gneiss are all foliated metamorphic rocks.
You are now going to make a metamorphic chocolate rock. You will place different stresses on chocolate pieces to form a metamorphic chocolate rock. The chocolate pieces represent grains in a rock or more easily visualized, individual grains like sandstone. As different stresses are placed on pieces students can witness or imagine how real rock reacts to the same stresses.
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In which year was the death penalty for treason formally abolished on the mainland UK? | Abolition of capital punishment in the UK
until the passing of the
Northern Ireland
(Emergency Powers) Act 1973. Nobody was executed there after 1961, however.
Capital punishment has now been totally abolished for all civil crimes, having remained on the statute book for high treason and piracy. (There had been no executions for either of these crimes since 1946, when two men were hanged for treason.)
In October 1998, the government introduced an amendment to the Human Rights Bill that abolished the death penalty as a possible punishment for military offences under the Armed Forces Acts. There were five military wartime capital offences: serious misconduct in action, communicating with the enemy, aiding the enemy or furnishing supplies, obstructing operations or giving false air signals, mutiny to incitement to mutiny or failure to suppress a mutiny. The last execution under military law was in 1942.
On the 10th of December 1999, International Human Rights Day, the government ratified Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights thus totally abolishing capital punishment in
Britain
.
Historical background.
Capital punishment had first been abolished in the 11th century by William the Conqueror but was reinstated by his son William Rufus. Efforts to have the death penalty abolished had been going on since the late 1700's. In 1770, Sir William Meredith suggested that Parliament consider "more proportionate punishments." His proposal was rejected but it opened up the debate. With over a thousand people a year being sentenced to death (although only a small proportion actually executed), it was clearly a debate that was needed. Sir Samuel Romilly, 1757-1818, attempted to get parliament to de-capitalise minor crimes. On
the 17th of January 1813
, he introduced a Bill in the House of Commons "to repeal so much of the Act of King William as punishes with death the offence of stealing privately in a shop, warehouse or stable, goods of the value of 5s" (25p). This is what we call shoplifting now. This Bill was thrown out by the House of Lords.
After Romilly's death in 1818, Sir James Mackintosh, who supported Romilly's proposals for reducing the severity of the criminal law, took up the abolitionist's cause. On
the 2nd of March 1819
, he carried a motion against the government for a committee to consider capital punishment, by a majority of 19. In 1820, he introduced 6 bills embodying the recommendations of the committee, only three of which became law. Lord Eldon - the Lord Chancellor secured an amendment to keep the death penalty for stealing to the value of more than �10. On
the 21st of May 1823
, Mackintosh put forward a further 9 proposals to parliament for abolishing the punishment of death for less serious offences. He wanted to make forgery a non capital crime but this was opposed by Sir Robert Peel. However, it was declassified as a capital crime in 1832. This was important because a conviction for forgery generally did result in the execution of the culprit.
Over the first 68 years of the 19th century, other individuals and pressure groups were to lend their voices to the argument in favour of abolition with some success. Several, including author Charles Dickens and the Quaker movement campaigned for ending of public executions, which occurred in 1868. The public enjoyed these far more than was thought good for them. The Establishment has never been happy about the ordinary people enjoying overtly morbid pastimes such as watching a criminal struggling on the end of a rope! There is no doubt that public did enjoy a "good hanging" - there was general disappointment expressed if the criminal died too quickly, as happened with the hanging of William Palmer outside Stafford prison in 1856. Charles Dickens, writing in the Times, attacked the behaviour of the crowds at the execution of Frederick and Maria Manning in 1849. Progressively attitudes to public hanging had changed between 1800 and 1868. At the beginning of the century, hangings were attended by all classes of society and were considered an excellent day out. The rich would pay handsomely to get a good view of the event. By the end of the period, it is claimed that it was mostly the lower classes who were attending them.
In 1810, there were no less than 222 individually defined capital crimes and this was steadily reduced between 1813 and 1861. By 1861, it was reduced to just four by the Criminal Law Consolidation Act of that year. In effect from here on there was really only one capital crime - murder - for which people would continue to be put to death in peacetime. In the period 1832-1834, Sir Robert Peel's government introduced various Bills to reduce the number of capital crimes. See Timeline of Capital punishment for dates and details of these reforms.
The Penal Servitude Act of 1853 introduced the modern concept of prison as a punishment in itself rather than merely as a place to hold people awaiting trial, execution or transportation. New prisons had been built all over the country to house people who would have previously been transported or hanged.
In 1908, the minimum age for execution was raised to 16 and to 18 in 1933. It should be noted that the last person under the age of 18 to be executed was 17 year old Charles Dobel who was executed at
Maidstone
along with 18 year old William Gower on
the 2nd of January 1889
, for the murder of B C Lawrence. All other under 18�s had been reprieved.
The Infanticide Act of 1922 made the killing of a baby by its mother no longer a capital crime. This was extended in 1938 to include the killing of a child of under one year. The Sentence of Death (Expectant Mothers) Act 1931 excepted pregnant women who were no longer to be hanged after giving birth. In reality, no woman had been hanged for the crime of killing her new born baby for since 1849. In 1925 The National Campaign for the Abolition of Capital Punishment formed and this continued to campaign for abolition up to the end. Several then well known Left wing politicians were members of this, including prime minister to be, Harold Wilson.�
It would be wrong to leave out mention of one of the most tireless campaigners against capital punishment in the period from 1935 to 1960.� This was Violet Van der Elst (1882-1966) who was also known as �Sweet Violet� and less flatteringly as �VD Elsie�.� Although she came from a humble background she became very wealthy and would arrive outside prisons on the eve of an execution in her Rolls Royce.� Here she would play hymns through loudspeakers and distribute leaflets to the crowd.� She was considered as an annoyance by the authorities and an object of amusement and derision by the public.� It was not at all unusual for her to be fined for causing an obstruction or for some other minor public order offence.� Her first major demonstration took place outside Wandsworth on
the 2nd of April 1935
at the hanging of Leonard Bristock.� As usual it was both a spectacular and futile gesture.� She got a hostile response from the crowd outside Strangeways just over a year later at the execution of Dr. Buck Ruxton.��� She wrote a book entitled �On the Gallows� in 1937 which was an apologia for some recently hanged criminals both in
Britain
and in the
USA
.� It is unclear whether her campaigning really had any effect.� The public could tell the difference between cases such as Buck Ruxton and Neville Heath compared to Charlotte Bryant, for instance and were much more sympathetic to the latter.
The final move towards abolition.
Attitudes in
Britain
had been changed by World War II, class barriers came down and people felt sickened by the holocaust of Nazi Germany. In 1948, the United Nations issued the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this and the original European Convention on Human Rights was adopted by
Britain
in 1950. In April 1948, the House of Commons voted in favour of a Bill introduced by Sidney Silverman to suspend the death penalty for five years. �The Labour Home Secretary, Lord James Chuter-Ede, announced that he would reprieve all murderers until the future of the Bill was resolved. This resulted in 26 reprieves and no executions between March and October 1948, giving a total for the year of just eight. The House of Lords rejected the Bill in late 1948, but it was decided to set up a Royal Commission under the chairmanship of Sir Ernest Gowers to examine all aspects of capital punishment. Their report was published in 1953 and led to some slight modifications to various aspects of the system. Some of these concerned improvements to the condemned cell and the prisoner�s regime in it. One major recommendation was the compulsory psychiatric examination and electro-encephalograph of the brain of all persons accused and convicted of murder. The Report also recommended improvements to the actual execution process. Prisoners were to be removed from the rope once certified dead and no longer left hanging for an hour. In November 1955, Sidney Silverman introduced the Death Penalty (Abolition) Bill to the House of Commons and it was passed by the House of Commons in February, 1956. Once again, the Home Secretary, now Major Gwilym Lloyd George (later Lord Tenby), took it upon himself to reprieve all those condemned. Forty nine people escaped the gallows and there were no executions between
the 10th of August 1955
and
the 23rd of July 1957
when John Vickers became the first person to hang under the provisions of the Homicide Act 1957. (See Reprieve for a detailed examination of this Act and its consequences.)
The Press stimulated public interest in murder trials and the eventual fate of those convicted and sentenced to death, who became far less de-humanised as a result. Virtually every word of the more interesting murder trials used to be reported in the popular press in the 1940�s and 50�s whereas now hardly any detail of most trials is actually reported. As the execution date drew near, there would be much speculation as to whether a particular prisoner would be reprieved or not and in many cases petitions for a reprieve were got up.
Compared to now, the post war years were a time of relatively little serious crime and yet a surprisingly large number of murderers were hanged in the first 10 years after the 2nd World War, 151, including five women. There were also three cases in particular that caused great public concern.
Timothy Evans was hanged on
the 9th March, 1950
for the murder of his daughter (he was also charged with murdering his wife but was not actually tried for it) in what seemed at the time like a simple case of domestic murder to which he had made an apparently voluntary confession.
Two years later the bodies of more women were discovered in the same house,
No.10 Rillington Place
. They had all been murdered by Evan's landlord, John Reginald Halliday Christie (who had given evidence against Evans at his trial). This case raised serious doubts as to whether an innocent man had been hanged.
In January 1953, 19 year old Derek Bentley ( Click here for details of his case ) went to the gallows in
London
's Wandsworth prison having been convicted of the murder of a policeman the previous year. The conviction may have been technically correct but it was seen as totally unjust by most people that a person should be hanged for a crime that even the police at the scene said he neither did nor could have committed as he was effectively under arrest at the time. The lad who fired the fatal shot, Christopher Craig, was under 18 at the time and therefore could not be hanged and actually served just 10 years in prison. This execution did more than any other to sway public opinion against capital punishment, one can only wonder what possessed the Home Secretary to take such a palpably stupid and unjust decision. One is left wondering if certain Home Office officials had a hidden agenda to end capital punishment and advised the Home Secretary to take this incredible decision knowing the likely outcome but also knowing that they would remain shielded from the consequences behind the Official Secrets Act.
The whole issue of capital punishment was raised again, two years later, when Ruth Ellis was sentenced to hang for murdering her boyfriend, David Blakely, in a fit of jealous rage when he would not see her.
As the law stood in 1955, she was quite correctly convicted of murder as her crime was decidedly pre-meditated, even if it was a "crime of passion." However, she was an attractive 28 year old, blonde mother of two, who through her demeanour in court and because of the violence she had suffered at the hands of Blakely attracted enormous public sympathy (even though she almost certainly did not want to be reprieved). Ruth Ellis had the glamour that sells newspapers and they had a field day with her case, making the Home Secretary (Gwilym Lloyd George) out to be an unfeeling monster and furthering the cause of abolition. She went to the gallows in Holloway prison on
July 13th 1955
, the last woman to be hanged in this country. ( See Ruth Ellis for a full description of this famous case).
Each of these cases was decided in secret by the Home Office without any apparent regard to prevailing public opinion and served only to raise the level of debate about the whole issue of capital punishment.
Did society have the right to take life at all?
Was it necessary with a relatively low murder rate to put people to death?
Were innocent people being hanged?
Was hanging really the deterrent it had always been made out to be?
Was hanging, carried out in complete secrecy, as humane as the Government would have had us believe?
Was the whole reprieve system just a lottery that was incapable of distinguishing between degrees of wickedness?
Why were so few people hanged and so many reprieved? Were those people who were hanged guilty of much worse crimes than those who were reprieved?
Was the Home Secretary the right person to hold the power of life or death over capital cases?
It was difficult to find many satisfactory answers to these questions at that time.
Taking on board a little of the public's concern the Government introduced the Homicide Act 1957 which tried to distinguish between different categories of murder.
This act limited the death penalty to five categories of murder, viz.
Murder committed in the course or furtherance of theft.
Murder by shooting or causing explosions.
Murder in the course of or for the purpose of resisting, avoiding or preventing lawful arrest or effecting or assisting an escape from lawful custody.
Murder of a police officer in the execution of his duty or of a person assisting him.
Murder by a prisoner of a prison officer in the execution of his duty or of a person assisting him.
Additionally, it allowed for the execution of a person who committed a second separate murder on a different occasion from the first.
Regrettably, the Act probably made matters worse. (This has been shown to be true in secret Government papers released in 1995. The then Prime Minister commented to the Home Secretary that the law was unworkable and would inevitably lead to abolition). For instance, if you killed someone by hitting them on the head with a rock, you could not be executed but if you shot them, you could be. It also invented the idea of diminished responsibility where if you had a good enough lawyer you could get off with murder and be found guilty of manslaughter instead.
Successive governments had made executions and the decisions leading to them matters of complete secrecy, thus totally excluding the public. This has the tendency to make people wonder what the authorities have to hide and allows the Press to print any sensational story, however inaccurate, about condemned prisoners and their execution. The government can't of course challenge any story without having to say what really happened. One wonders if the public would have been much less concerned if they had been told the truth instead of lurid imaginary details by the papers. It also has the effect of focusing attention on the criminal rather than the crime.
Inevitably, criminals have a "human face" that the Press exploited as they were excluded from all other aspects of the case. These human interest stories, equally inevitably, attracted public sympathy, especially where the prisoner was young or attractive or both. Interviews with prisoner's families, who often understandably maintained that their loved ones were innocent, made good press as most people like human interest stories and tend to believe what they read in the papers.
It was argued by opponents of capital punishment, that hanging, when carried out at the rate of 11 or so a year on average, over the first 65 years of the 20th century, served no useful purpose as a deterrent to the most serious crimes, but was rather simply an act of cruelty inflicted on a few people, often for no particularly obvious reason in the minds of the general public.
Prior to the assent of Queen
Victoria
to the throne in 1837, only the monarch had the power to decide whether a death sentence passed by their judges should be carried out, as all the people were, of course the subjects of the Monarch. Respective Kings and
Queens
were assisted in this decision process by the Privy Council and would grant reprieves where there were perceived to be mitigating circumstances, as recommended by the trial judge in his report.
Victoria
was just 19 when she became Queen and it was not considered "proper" for a teenage girl to have to make such decisions so the Home Office promptly appropriated the power and began to exercise the Royal prerogative of mercy on her behalf.
Under successive Home Secretaries, the system had become a seeming lottery where reprieves were granted for such reasons as the prisoner having only one leg or having earlier attempted suicide by cutting his throat, with the possibility of that wound might open up and cause an unpleasant mess, etc.
There seemed to be a general willingness on the part of the Home Office to reprieve murderers, who had been properly convicted and received the mandatory death sentence, on any possible grounds and only to allow the sentence to be carried out if absolutely no grounds for reprieve could be found. This led to about half of all death sentences being commuted to "life imprisonment" which usually meant a relatively short term in jail (10 to 12 years being normal). In this situation it is not difficult to understand why, in most cases, the relatives and friends of a condemned person campaigned so hard for a reprieve when they saw so many other people "getting away with murder." This also led to the perception of injustice by the public as it was impossible to tell why this person was reprieved and served a few years in prison whilst that person had to die, for an apparently similar crime.
Then there was the question of sanity. From 1843 the M'Naughten rules prohibited the execution of prisoners who were genuinely insane and did not understand the nature of their act or if they did, did not realise it was wrong. This sensible definition of insanity was progressively stretched by the courts and by the Home Office. From 1884 the Criminal Lunatics Act allowed for every condemned prisoner to be examined by prison psychiatrists where there were doubts as to their sanity. The psychiatrists reported secretly, to the Home Secretary and if the prisoner was found to be not wholly sane, they were normally reprieved irrespective of the nature of the crime or their sanity at the time of committing it! Bear in mind that all of those reprieved on this basis, and there were many, had either not pleaded insanity at their trial or else had not had their plea accepted by the court. One is left to draw one's own conclusions.
Executions had become decidedly unpopular with the Governors and staff of the prisons in which they took place. This is hardly surprising as they had become a very rare event in most prisons and tended to upset the normal running of the whole place. Many county prisons had less than 10 executions in 65 years. Only Pentonville and Wandsworth in
London
Durham
had relatively frequent hangings.
By the 1950's and early 60's, a new breed of prison governor had emerged. No longer the retired army officer who believed in harsh punishment and firm discipline but prison service professionals who believed in rehabilitation of offenders and found the supervising of condemned prisoners and their subsequent execution, a great strain and totally against their beliefs and training. It must have put great emotional stress on the officers who formed the death watch and had to stay with the prisoner for the whole of their 8 hour shift each day. No doubt they saw a completely different side of that person to the one portrayed in the press. And at the end could come the execution - how many of us would really like to stand in a small room just a few feet from a person we had spoken to every day for the last two or three months and watch them be hanged by the neck until dead?
The effects of abolition on the murder rate.
According to the Home Office Report (Murder 1957-1968) the murder rate in England and Wales steadily increased after the passing of the 1957 Act and further accelerated after suspension (effective abolition) of capital punishment in 1965. The graph below, produced from that report, shows the rates for murders that would have been classed as capital and non capital under the 1957 Act. It continued to increase and in the 21st century has reached over 900 a year by 2004.
Two cases in 1966 were to quickly re-ignite the debate over abolition and lead to a public demand for re-instatement.
On
the 27th of April 1966
, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady came to trial at Chester Assizes for the infamous "Moors murders." They escaped the death penalty as it had effectively been abolished just four weeks before their arrest. On
the 6th of May 1966
, they were both jailed for life, having been convicted of the murders of Lesley Ann Downey, aged 10, in 1964, and Edward Evans, aged 17, in 1965. Brady was also convicted of the murder of 12 year old John Kilbride. Hindley was found guilty of being an accessory to this. These murders were committed while capital punishment was still on the statute books. The second case, which shocked the nation, occurred on
Friday the 12th August 1966
when three career criminals, Harry Roberts, John Witney and John Duddy brutally murdered three police officers who were trying to question them at the roadside in
Braybrook Street
London
. They were all convicted and given life sentences.
In conclusion, it might be said that actual or perceived mal-administration of the reprieve system by the Home Office, a changing attitude in society and a concerted campaign by the media and liberal pressure groups were the principal reasons for the abolition of the death penalty in
Britain
. It is interesting to note that there was never a referendum held to give the public a democratic say on the matter!
| 1998 |
In 1776, the United States Declaration of Independence decreed that how many American colonies, which were at war with Britain, were no longer part of the British Empire? | treason | English Legal History
English Legal History
History of Capital Punishment
Hanging. The most popular method for the death penalty throughout English Legal History.
The legal history of capital punishment in the United Kingdom is an interesting one and ranges across many centuries from the extreme of having no crimes strictly punishable by death to a multitude and back to none. In early Norman times, the principles of the common law in relation to the punishment of crimes were very simple. If the crime was a misdemeanor (minor or petty offences) then the punishment was at the discretion of the justices of the court.
For felonies (serious offences) the criminal was put on the king’s mercy which usually involved the ordering of mutilation in the form of castration or blinding. This was seen as a mercy rather than imposing the ultimate punishment of death.
By the early 13th Century, a fixed penalty of death was imposed for almost all felonies. For treason, this was death by being hung, drawn and quartered and for other felonies, simply death by hanging. This fixed penalty was grossly inflexible and various methods were used to mitigate the sentence of death, until later reforms abolished it. These methods included Sanctuary (my post on which can be found here ), Benefit of Clergy, Pardons and Jury Mitigation. Later blog posts will deal with the latter three topics.
This state of affairs continued for some time. The expertise of the legal profession was directed towards thinking of incredible ways to avoid the death penalty, rather than reform it. Still by 1688 there were 50 offences within statute law that carried a death sentence, this rose to 220 by the the late 18th Century. These offences were wide-ranging and even included ‘being in the company of gypsies for one month’. It is a testament to the above mentioned methods of avoidance that, between 1770 and 1830, 35,000 death sentences were given but only 7,000 people were executed.
The legal reformer Sir Samuel Romilly KC, also responsible for calling for the abolition of slavery, succeeded in having the death penalty abolished from a mere two offences, namely pick-pocketing and stealing from bleaching grounds.
A year after Sir Romilly’s death in 1818, a Parliamentary select committee looking at the issue of the death penalty led to several statutes that slowly, and in a piecemeal fashion, abolished the death penalty from many offences.
By the 1860s, there were only several offences that still attracted the death penalty. These were murder, treason, piracy, and arson in naval dockyards. This remained the same until 1957 when difficult cases arose as regards capital punishment for murder. It led to the introduction of the Homicide Act 1957 which suspended the practice and the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965 which abolished it entirely. Death as a punishment for Arson in naval dockyards was repealed by the Criminal Damage Act 1971.
Although beheading was removed as a potential punishment for treason in 1973, hanging remained until 1998 when the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 abolished some of the last remnants of capital punishment in the UK, with the abolition of the punishment for treason and piracy.
The last remnant of the death penalty in the UK (the punishment existed within military jurisdiction during wartime) was abolished by the coming into force of the Human Rights Act 1998. Since 2004, the UK has been signed up to the 13th Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights which prohibits the death penalty in any circumstances. It would be impossible for the UK to bring in laws to reinstate the death penalty unless they were to formally withdraw from the Convention.
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Which nation’s football team won the FIFA World Cup in 2006? | FIFA.com - FIFA World Cup™
FIFA World Cup™
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FIFA World Cup™
© Foto-net
The FIFA World Cup™ is the biggest single-event sporting competition in the world and is contested by the senior men's national teams from the 208 Member Associations of FIFA.
The competition has been played every four years since the inaugural tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946 when it was not held because of the Second World War.
It fulfils FIFA’s objectives to touch the world, develop the game, and build a better future through a variety of ways.
Tournament format
The current format of the tournament involves 32 teams competing for the title at venues within the host nation(s) over a period of one month – this phase is often called the Final Competition. A qualification phase, the Preliminary Competition which currently takes place over the preceding three years, is used to determine which teams qualify for the tournament together with the host nation(s).
The preliminary competition for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ sees a total of 204 entries across six continents competing for 31 available spots. For the last FIFA World Cup, 200 teams played a total of 853 matches as 31 teams qualified for South Africa.
Both the preliminary and final competitions act as a massive promotion for the game of football and for the host nation(s) and are therefore wonderful opportunities to help promote values of respect, fair play and discipline to the watching world.
Understandably, the organisation of such an event is a huge task for FIFA and the Local Organising Committee and is therefore one of the main activities of FIFA over a four-year period.
Facts and figures
The 19 FIFA World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every tournament. The other winners are Italy, with four titles; Germany, with three wins; Argentina and inaugural winners Uruguay, with two; and England, France, and Spain, with one title each.
The FIFA World Cup is the world's most widely viewed sporting event; an estimated 715.1 million people watched the final match of the 2006 FIFA World Cup held in Germany and the 2010 event in South Africa was broadcast to 204 countries on 245 different channels. Inside the stadiums, a total of 3,170,856 spectators attended the 64 matches an average of 49,670 per match and the third highest aggregate attendance behind USA 1994 and Germany 2006.
There were also over six million people who attended public viewing events in 16 sites across the world: ten within South Africa and a further six across the globe in Rome, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. A total of 350,000 fans attended the International FIFA Fan Fest in Berlin for the semi-final match between Germany and Spain.
177,853 accreditations for the last FIFA World Cup were printed, while the hospitality programme attracted almost a quarter of a million guests. Over three quarters of a million litres of beer were sold in the stadiums and 390,600 hot dogs were sold in the public catering concessions; many to the half a million international visitors who descended on South Africa.
The FIFA World Cup brings in much needed resources from partners and the TV rights which allows FIFA to invest in social activities related to the tournament. For South Africa 2010, the 20 Centres for 2010 campaign was launched, aiming promote public health, education and football in disadvantaged communities across Africa. A FIFA World Cup also creates resources for many extra development programmes which proved to be beneficial for member associations of FIFA throughout the course of the four-year cycle.
The next three World Cups will be hosted by Brazil in 2014, Russia in 2018, and Qatar in 2022.
| Italy |
What is the flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant women which nourishes the foetus through the umbilical cord? | 2006 FIFA World Cup standings and results by group.
y - clinched advancement to second round
Schedule
Spain 4, Ukraine 0 (in Leipzig)
Tunisia 2, Saudi Arabia 2 (in Munich)
Monday, June 19
Ukraine 4. Saudi Arabia 0 (in Hamburg)
Spain 3, Tunisia 1 (in Stuttgart)
Friday, June 23
Spain 1, Saudi Arabia 0 (in Kaiserslautern)
Ukraine 1, Tunisia 0 (in Berlin)
Round of 16
1. Germany 2, Sweden 0 (in Munich)
2. Argentina 2, Mexico 1 - OT (in Leipzig)
Sunday, June 25
3. England 1, Ecuador 0 (in Stuttgart)
4. Portugal 1, Netherlands 0 (in Nuremberg)
Monday, June 26
5. Italy 1, Australia 0 (in Kaiserslautern)
6. Ukraine 0, Switzerland 0 -- Ukraine advances 3-0 in penalty kicks (in Cologne)
Tuesday, June 27
7. Brazil 3, Ghana 0 (in Dortmund)
8. France 3, Spain 1 (in Hannover)
Quarterfinals
9. Germany 1, Argentina 1 -- Germany advances 4-2 in penalty kicks (in Berlin)
10. Italy 3, Ukraine 0 (in Hamburg)
Saturday, July 1
11. England 0, Portugal 0 -- Portugal advances 3-1 in penalty kicks (in Gelsenkirchen)
12. France 1, Brazil 0 (in Frankfurt)
Semifinals
Italy 2, Germany 0 - OT (in Dortmund)
Wednesday, July 5
France 1, Portugal 0 (in Munich)
Third place
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What type of plant is an opuntia? | On-line Guide to the positive identification of Members of the Cactus Family
CactiGuide.com Custom Nomenclature - System Default About This | Login
Notes for the Genus:
Opuntia
Etymology -Beleived to refer to a Greek region - Locris Opuntia with the town of Opus in Greece where other spiny plants grew.
Opuntia is the most widespread of all genera in the cactus family. The genus occurs naturally throughout North and South America from as far north as Canada, through the Caribbean, and down into Argentina. With man's help, however, this species can now be found world-wide where it has escaped cultivation and become naturalized even to the point of being classified as a noxious weed.
Opuntia are easily recognized by their flat paddle-shaped stem segments called cladodes that grow one on top of the other. The edge and flat surfaces of these cladodes are covered with areoles that always have tiny, easily detached spines called glochids. Many Opuntia species have large, formidable spines in addition to the glochids, but some are armed only with masses of glochids. These have the appearance of being soft or fuzzy, but anyone who does touch them immediatly regrets doing so. The small size of the glochids does not cause much pain, but is rather highly irritating. As such, these have been collected for use in the making of itching powder.
Opuntia flowers are typically yellow, sometimes pink, and rarely white or anywhere inbetween these colors. Flowers are cup-shaped and do not have floral tubes, but instead the pericarples resemble round, extensions of the cladodes. It is impossible to determine if new growth is going to be a flower or a new cladode as they are identical when first appearing -often covered with cone-shaped deciduous leaves. If a rounded pericarpel, this later becomes the fruit and may turn a bright red color or stay green. Some Opuntias have very juicy, fleshy fruit called "tunas" that are harvested and turned into candies or jellies. Similarily, cladodes when still young and tender are harvested and eaten as a vegitable - particularly in Mexico under the name Nopales.
For ornamental purposes, Opuntias are rarely grown except as a novelty or even to create a barrier on property lines. Many people despise the Opuntia, even those who otherwise love growing cacti. In recent times, however, there seems to be a renewed interest in the genus - particularly the species native to the Southwest U.S. and it is gaining in popularity. However, species from central Mexico south are still very poorly known.
It also seems that many Opuntia species hybridize easily in the wild and one population tends to blend into another. This further confounds taxonomists and therefore this genus will long frustrate those trying to separate it into a tidy division of various species.
Click on one of the species below for more info.
| Cactus |
What was the final battle of the Napoleonic Wars? | Opuntia--growing pricky pear cactus insid
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By Jon VanZile
Opuntia is a large genus of cacti distributed throughout the Americas. The genus is best known for the prickly pears, though some naming controversy exists over whether or not chollas—a separate variety of barbed cacti —are considered Opuntia as well. Prickly pears are cacti known for their spines: many have large, rounded spines while others have tiny, hairlike barbs that detach upon contact from the plant. Prickly pears are prized for their edibility, as they grow cactus fruit commonly eaten in Mexico and the American Southwest—however, be sure that any cactus fruit has been carefully cleaned if you plan on eating it, as the tiny glochids on the fruit can lodge in skin and are very painful to remove. The distinctive red-purple juice of the cactus fruit can also be used in drinks, candy, and jellies. Prickly pears bloom in mid-summer and can be grown ornamentally; however, they really only can grow in desert climates. Lovers of cacti in a hot, dry area can consider growing plants of this genus.
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Growing Conditions
Light: As desert cacti, prickly pears require maximum sunlight to thrive and should be kept in direct sunlight whenever possible.
Water: Very little water is required. These drought-resistant plants grow best in hot, dry areas and excessive water could cause them to rot.
Temperature: Hot temperatures are best, but these cacti will tolerate a very wide range of temperatures.
Soil: The most important soil requirement for Opuntia is that it drains well. Other than that, a basic potting soil is fine – these cacti will grow in rock gardens, as well.
Propagation
Prickly pears can propagate either by cuttings or by seed . To propagate by cuttings, sever pads from a plant and let them dry so that the wounds heal. Then place the plants in a dry soil and refrain from watering them until they begin to grow to avoid rotting them. To propagate by seed, rinse away pulp from the seeds, make sure they’re thoroughly dry, and plant – ideally in the spring. Again, the crucial factor in keeping the seeds alive and growing is keeping their soil well-drained and dry.
Repotting
Though Opuntia will grow just fine in a garden, they can be grown in pots as well. To repot, ensure the soil is dry, then remove the pot and knock away the old soil. After treating any cuts with fungicide, place the prickly pear in a new pot and backfill it with potting soil. As with a new cutting, make sure not to water a newly repotting prickly pear for a brief period to avoid rotting its roots.
Varieties
There are over 200 species of prickly pears, many of which hybridize quite easily with each other. For instance, the Opuntia leucotricha, or arborescent prickly pear, is a large, tree-like variety that can grow up to sixteen feet tall in the Mexican desert! More commonly grown by gardeners is the Opuntia aciculate, an ornamental cactus known for its yellow and red spines.
Grower’s Tips
Though the large variety of species within the Opuntia genus means different types of prickly pears may need slightly different care, all are desert cacti that need lots of sun, lots of light, and very little water. If you live in a hot, arid area – particularly the American Southwest – these plants can generally be planted outside, left alone, and enjoyed.
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What is the rank of officer in the US Army above Colonel and below Major General? | Army Colonel - Military Ranks
Army Colonel
O-6 Colonel - Field Officer - U.S. Army Ranks
Army Colonel
Basic Pay
$6,267/mo
Colonel is the senior field-officer grade commissioned officer rank, directly above Lieutenant Colonel and below Brigadier General. Colonels typically command a brigade-sized unit consisting of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers, with the assistance of several junior commissioned officers and a Command Sergeant Major as a primary non-commissioned officer advisor. Colonels may also be responsible for leading division-level special agencies.
Almost all Army Colonels receive special training at the Army War College in Pennsylvania, which graduates over 200 Army officers a year. Colonel is the final "stepping stone" rank before the General Officer ranks, and Colonels showing exceptional skill and leadership are often promoted to Brigadier General.
Colonel is the 24th rank in the United States Army , ranking above Lieutenant Colonel and directly below Brigadier General . A colonel is a Field Officer at DoD paygrade O-6, with a starting monthly pay of $6,267.
What is the proper way to address a Colonel?
The correct way to address a Colonel named Mr. Williams is "Colonel Williams", or written as COL Williams. In formal situations, a Colonel should always be addressed by their full rank.
How much does a Colonel earn?
Basic pay for an entry-level Colonel with 2 or less years of experience is $6,267.00 per month.
A Colonel receives an automatic raise to their basic pay every one to two years. Basic pay is only a small percentage of a Colonel's final compensation package.
In addition to a monthly basic pay salary, a Army Colonel may be eligible for multiple types of allowances and bonus pay including personal money allowance, hazard pay, and more.
For full details on the Army's Colonel compensation and retirement plan, visit the 2017 Army Colonel Pay Chart . A full table of the Army's current paygrades are available at the Army Pay Chart .
Equivalent Ranks to the Army's O-6 Colonel
Air Force
| Brigadier general |
Which British singer had a lily named after her in 2010, which is officially registered as ‘Popstar’? | Major General | Military Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia
In the old Austro-Hungarian Army , the major general was called a Generalmajor . [2] Today's Austrian Federal Army still uses the same term.
Canada
See also: Canadian Forces ranks and insignia
In the Canadian Forces , the rank of Major-General (MGen) (Major-général or Mgén in French) is an Army or Air Force rank equal to a Rear-Admiral of the Navy . A Major-General is a General Officer , the equivalent of a Naval Flag Officer . A Major-General is senior to a Brigadier-General or Commodore , and junior to a Lieutenant-General or Vice-Admiral . Prior to 1968, the Air Force used the rank of Air Vice-Marshal instead.
The rank insignia for a Major-General is two gold maple leaves beneath crossed sword and baton, all surmounted by St. Edward's Crown. It is worn on the shoulder straps of the Service Dress tunic, and on slip-ons on other uniforms. The Service Dress tunic also features a wide strip of gold braid around the cuff. On the visor of the service cap are two rows of gold oak leaves.
Major-Generals are initially addressed as "General" and name, as are all general officers; thereafter by subordinates as "Sir" or "Ma'am" as applicable in English or "mon général" in French. Major-Generals are normally entitled to staff cars .
Estonia
In the Estonian military , the major general rank is called Kindralmajor.
Finland
The Finnish military equivalent is Kenraalimajuri, or Generalmajor in Swedish.
France
Edit
In the French military, Major général is not a rank but an appointment conferred on some generals, usually of Général de corps d'armée rank, acting as head of staff of a branch of service. This should not be confused with the chief of staff , who is usually a Général d'armée , and the true commander of each service. The position of major général can be considered the equivalent of a deputy chief of Staff. There are five Major Generals: the Major General of the Armies, head of the General Staff, the Major General of the Army , the Major General of the Navy , the Major General of the Gendarmerie and the Major General of the Air Force .
Historically, the French army had some sergent-majors généraux , also called sergents de bataille, whose task was to prepare the disposition of the army on the field before a battle. These sergents-majors généraux became a new rank, the maréchal de camp (not the same as a Field Marshal, in the French Army from antiquity called a Maréchal de France), which was the equivalent of the rank of major general. However the term of major général was not forgotten and used to describe the appointment of armies chiefs of staff. One well-known French Major général was Marshal Berthier , Major General of Napoléon 's Grande armée.
The French equivalent to the rank of Major General is Général de division.
Germany
Edit
The German Army and Luftwaffe refer to the rank as Generalmajor. Prior to 1955 the rank of Generalleutnant was used to define a division commander,whereas Genralmajor was a brigade commander. With the remilitarization of Germany in 1955 with West Germany's admission to NATO, Germany adopted the rank structure of the United States with the authority of the 3 lower ranks being moved up one level and the rank of Generalbrigade (Brigadier General) added below them. The rank of Generaloberst was no longer used. The change was likely made to avoid confusion over relative rank in NATO forces. The Nationale Volksarmee of East Germany continued the use Generalmajor (Brigadier General) as the lowest general officer rank until reunification.
Iran
In Imperial Iranian army and air force, the rankings of the above Colonel are respectively Sar-teep (Brigadier General), Sar-Lashgar (Major General), Sepah-Boad (Lieutenant General), and Artesh-Boad (General)
Ireland
In the Irish Defence Forces there are four Major Generals, each Commanding a Brigade. These are the 1st Southern Brigade, 2nd Eastern Brigade, the 4th Western Brigade and the Defence Forces Training Centre (DFTC)
India
Major General in the Indian Army is equivalent to Rear Admiral in the Indian Navy and Air Vice Marshal in the Indian Air Force and is the lowest of the general officer ranks, ranking between Brigadier and Lieutenant General .
Israel
In the Israel Defence Forces , a Major General is called an Aluf and is the second highest rank, only outranked by Rav Aluf ( Lieutenant General or General ), who is also the Chief of Staff.
Italy
Edit
In Italy exists the Army rank of Generale di Divisione. In the army the Generale di Divisione is the commander of a division or as other duties in the various national or international staff, in the Carabinieri or Guardia di Finanza . He/she is usually the commander of the units in a zone of the country.
Korea
Edit
In South Korea, the rank of Major General is known as Sojang (Hangul: 소장, Hanja: 少將).
The rank of Sojang is also used in North Korea, where it is the lowest general officer and flag officer rank, equivalent to a one star General and Admiral. The North Korean equivalent to a two star General is Jungjang, which roughly translates as Lieutenant General.
New Zealand
Edit
In the New Zealand Army , Major-General is the rank held by the Chief of Army (formerly the Chief of General Staff). The more senior rank of Lieutenant-General is reserved for when an Army officer holds the position of Chief of Defence Force, who commands all New Zealand's armed forces. This position is subject to rotation between the heads of the Air Force, Army, and Navy.
Pakistan
Edit
Major General in the Pakistan Army is equivalent to Rear Admiral in the Pakistan Navy and Air Vice Marshal in the Pakistan Air Force and is the lowest of the general officer ranks, ranking between Brigadier and Lieutenant General . The Pakistan Army has two female Major Generals. The longest server is Shahida Malik .
Portugal
Edit
The rank of Major-General was reintroduced in the Portuguese Army , Air Force and National Republican Guard in 1999 in place of the former rank of brigadier . It was previously used in the Army, from 1862 to 1864. It is equivalent to Contra-Almirante ( Rear-Admiral ) in the Portuguese Navy .
Sweden
Edit
In Sweden the rank of Generalmajor (Genmj) is used in the Army , the Amphibious Corps and the Air Force . It is the equivalent to Konteramiral ( Counter Admiral ) in the navy. It is typically held by the Inspector Generals of the three service branches and the head of the Swedish Military Intelligence and Security Service .
Turkey
Edit
The Turkish Army and Turkish Air Force refer to the rank as Tümgeneral. The Turkish Navy equivalent is Tümamiral. The name is derived from tümen, the Turkish word for a military division (tümen itself is an older Turkish word meaning "10,000"). Thus, linguistically, it is similar to the French equivalent for a Major General, Général de division.
United Kingdom
Main article: Major-General (United Kingdom)
In the British Army and Royal Marines , Major-General ranks below Lieutenant-General and above Brigadier , and is thus the lowest of the general officer ranks, although always considered equivalent to Major-General in other countries. Divisions are usually commanded by Major-Generals and they also hold a variety of staff positions. The professional head of the Royal Marines currently holds the rank of Major-General.
From 1 April 1918 to 31 July 1919, the Royal Air Force maintained the rank of Major-General. It was superseded by the rank of Air Vice-Marshal on the following day.
Major-General is equivalent to Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and Air Vice-Marshal in the Royal Air Force .
United States
In the United States Army , a major general commands a division of 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers and is capable of fully independent field operation.
Vietnam
Edit
In Vietnam, the rank of Major General is known as Thiếu tướng. It is used in the Army and the Air Force. It is the equivalent to Chuẩn Đô đốc ( Rear Admiral ) in the Navy.
The rank of Thiếu tướng is the lowest general officer and flag officer rank, equivalent to a one star General and Admiral. In the Vietnamese People's Army , a major general commands a corps of 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers and is capable of fully independent field operation.
Fictional references
Bartholomew Bandy , the air ace from Donald Jack 's Bandy Papers series, ends the First World War as a Major General at the age of only 26.
In the anime movie Robotech II: The Sentinels, the lead character, Rick Hunter, holds the rank of Major General.
Con artist Private Harry Frigg, played by Academy Award-winning actor Paul Newman , is promoted overnight to Major General in the 1968 war comedy, The Secret War of Harry Frigg .
The third Judge Advocate General of the show JAG (1995–2005) is a Major General: Major General Gordon "Biff" Cresswell, USMC, portrayed by David Andrews.
The U.S. Army forces sent to occupy Brooklyn, New York in The Siege are commanded by Major General William Deveraux, portrayed by Bruce Willis.
See also
Edit
↑ In countries that do not maintain the rank of Brigadier General , including much of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth, Major General is the lowest of the General Officer ranks. Note, however, if the rank of Brigadier is used, although Brigadiers are not classed as "Generals", they are of equal rank to Brigadier Generals, and are still considered to be a 1 star rank . If neither of the ranks of Brigadier or Brigadier General (or an equivalent rank) are used, the Major General is still considered a 2 star rank (independent of how many stars there actually are in the insignia), and that armed force simply has no 1 star rank.
↑ Bowden & Tarbox, p 24. The authors write that FML (Field-Marshal-Lieutenant) is the same as Lieutenant-General and General-Feldwachtmeister the same as Major-General. But they list no equivalent rank to Brigadier-General. Nevertheless, the page cited is an excellent source of Austro-Hungarian ranks.
References
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The Cuillin Hills are on which Scottish island? | Cuillin Hills | mountain range, Scotland, United Kingdom | Britannica.com
mountain range, Scotland, United Kingdom
Written By:
Alternative Titles: the Cuchullins, the Cuillins
Similar Topics
Alps
Cuillin Hills, also called the Cuillins or the Cuchullins, mountain range, south-central portion of the Atlantic coastal island of Skye , Inner Hebrides island group, Highland council area, Scotland . The Cuillin Hills are among the steepest mountains in the United Kingdom and include 15 peaks above 3,000 feet (900 metres). There are two main ridges—the magnificent Black Cuillins, some peaks of which remained unclimbed until the late 19th century, and the Red Cuillins, around Loch (lake) Coruisk to the south.
Cuillin Hills on the island of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland.
© Index Open
Skye
the largest and most northerly of the Inner Hebrides islands of Scotland. It is the nearest of these islands to the mainland, which lies only a few hundred yards away at Kyleakin, where the Skye Bridge provides access to the mainland by road. Administratively, it lies within the Highland council...
in Hebrides
The Hebrides are known for their unique natural features. The Cuillin Hills of Skye—reaching an elevation of 3,309 feet (1,009 metres)—are said to be the most spectacular massif in Britain. The small island of Rhum became a Nature Conservancy Research Centre in 1957, specializing in the study of the local geology, flora, and fauna. The wildlife of the Hebrides is particularly rich...
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Date Published: October 09, 2007
URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/Cuillin-Hills
Access Date: January 18, 2017
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| Skye |
What is the name of the soft fatty tissue in which blood cells are produced, found in the cavities of bones? | Cuillin Hills Hotel - Luxury 4 Star accommodation in Portree the Isle of Skye
Children
Failte
Stunning Location set within fifteen acres of mature private grounds with a fantastic view over Portree Bay towards the majestic Cuillin Mountain Range, Probably the best view you will get from any hotel in Scotland.
Skye's greatest asset is the natural beauty and unspoilt landscape. At the Cuillin Hill Hotel we think our views capture all off these qualities.
With plenty of free customer parking available.
Only a 10 minute walk from the Town Centre.
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In which English county is Dunster Castle? | English Castles - Dunster Castle
Castles of England - Dunster Castle
Location
near Dunster, Somerset, England
Description
Set on a wooded hilltop within the Exmoor National Park, Dunster Castle has sweeping views over the Bristol Channel and is situated on the outskirts of the town of Dunster
The castle is set in beautiful park and woodland surroundings on the side of a river.
The castle�s defensive walls were demolished long ago but visitors can see a medieval gatehouse, a ruined tower, an octagonal summerhouse at the highest point of the site and a Mediterranean garden terrace.
The main castellated building has both Jacobean and Victorian facades and is built over four floors of a light and red coloured stone. The interiors feature ornate plasterwork ceilings, fine furniture and paintings.
Facilities
The park and garden are open to the public every day throughout the year (except Christmas) and the castle everyday except Thursday between mid March and the end of October between 11am and 5pm.
The castle offers guided tours of the attic and basement areas which are not normally available for visitors for an extra charge and by reservation only; there is also a National Trust gift shop on site.
Throughout the year on Fridays and Saturdays couples whishing to tie the knot can do so at a Civil ceremony in either the Tenants Hall which is located in the upper storey of the gatehouse or between November and February in the Inner and Outer halls.
The Tenants Hall with its Tudor windows is an ideal summer wedding venue seating up to 60 guests with romantic lighting from its impressive chandeliers. The Inner and Outer Halls can seat up to 80 guests with the bride making a grand entrance down the 17th century staircase.
History
In 1066 William The Conqueror granted the castle; which was already built on the site, to William de Mohun. The family remained at the castle until it was sold to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell in 1376 whose descendents remained there until 1976.
The property was in a poor state of repair when it was inherited by Sir George Luttrell in 1571 as the family had not lived there for many years, so in 1617 employed architect William Arnold to build a new house in the lower ward of the castle.
During the civil war the castle was surrendered to the parliamentarian forces who subsequently demolished the defensive walls leaving just parts of two towers and the gatehouse. During the following centuries and in particular between 1862 and 1872 the castle was restored, remodeled and added too with a landscaped park, follies, terraced garden and the addition of a fine oak staircase and plasterwork ceilings.
In 1976 Sir Walter Luttrell gave the castle and much of its contents over to the National Trust.
Other Castles in the Area
| Somerset |
Which prime number is between 11 and 17? | Dunster Castle Hotel (Somerset) - UPDATED 2017 Reviews - TripAdvisor
Dunster Castle Hotel
5 High Street, Dunster, Exmoor National Park TA24 6SF, England
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Free Parking Mid-range Breakfast included Pets Allowed
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321 Reviews from our TripAdvisor Community
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“Highlight of our trip. Highly Recommend.”
Reviewed 2 days ago NEW
Everything about our stay was exceptional. The owners provided incredible service and were kind, conversational people. Breakfast was the most delicious meal I've ever had at a hotel and it was included in our booking. Along with beverages, choice of fruit, cereal, and fresh croissants, we had a choice of breakfast entrees that were indescribably tasty. The locals love this...
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Reviewed 1 week ago via mobile
There are lots of wonderful things about this hotel. The staff, the ambience and situated in the heart of one of the most picturesque and historical towns in Somerest.We holiday in this part of the country every August, however in a campervan and not in an hotel. We have visited the Dunster Castle Hotel for a drink on 1 occassion...
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1Thank Yvette M
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Lisa and I were filling up reading this! Thank you so much, both. It was a pleasure to host you, and a big responsibility to help guests enjoy this most special time of the year. We're starting to fine-tune things here, with regard to renovations, and can imagine that will be a work in progress forever. We're so fortunate to...
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“new years eve celebration”
Reviewed 1 week ago
It was my first new years eve away from London and the busy crowds and also the owners first new years hosting and it was a fun and enjoyable night, with very professional and welcoming staff. I would highly recommend this Hotel if anyone is looking to staying in the Minehead and surrounding area and also a nice place to...
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Thank Jamie R
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Thank you Jamie R, We're glad you came to Dunster from the big smoke, and particularly that you chose Dunster Castle Hotel for your New Years Celebration. It was fun for us as well and was a fitting finale for our seasonal celebrations. Thanks for the recommendation, and maybe see you again one day. All the best. John & Lisa
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“Great welcome for my US guests”
Reviewed 2 weeks ago
We turned up on Christmas eve without booking, it was 2pm with a large party of 11 and the staff were very welcoming, moving tables to accommodate us. Gave my brother and his family, over from the U.S.A, a taste of Somerset. Dunster is such a pretty village, they loved it. Food and mulled cider was great. Thanks for an...
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“Gem of Hotel in the heart of Dunster”
Reviewed 3 weeks ago
Just return from a lovely weekend away . This Hotel is a gem , lovely central position for to visit all the attractions in dunster i.e castle , yarn market etc. Our room was lovely and well designed . We had the best sleep on this lovely king size bed . We also eat at the hotel for dinner and...
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Thank iandebdavies
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Wow! Praise indeed. Things are really coming together now at Dunster Castle Hotel and we all feel very proud of the progress we have made. It's great you appreciate all of the effort at the restaurant and hotel, but we can't take credit for our great location. What a beautiful place for us to wake up to every morning. John...
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“Excellent Meal”
Reviewed 4 weeks ago
We went here for our work Christmas meal. Having previously been let down by another venue. The hotel is tastefully decorated and very comfortable. We had a delicious three course Christmas dinner which was beautifully cooked and presented. There were plenty of vegetables and the chocolate orange mousse was to die for, served with the best piece of shortbread I...
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Thank Chrissy045
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Thank you very much for your kind words Chrissy. We're really trying hard to ensure that all of our Christmas parties are fun & festive. The post meal disco seems to be going down well with all! We hope to see you all again and have a very merry Xmas and a happy new year. John and Lisa
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“Unexpectedly good lunch”
Reviewed November 16, 2016
We were taken to Dunster on a mystery trip, so had no chance to check out where would be good to eat. A local shp assistant said the people in the Castle Hotel were new but had a good reputation, so we tried it. The place was welcoming, with a good feel as we walked in. The menu was varied...
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Thank lesley w
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Thank you very much Lesley for your kind words. It's nice to hear that locals are recommending us. We're very close to finishing our refurbishments so good to hear the place has a nice feel. Maybe see you again one day.
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“3 day stay to explore the area”
Reviewed November 15, 2016
Friendly and hospitable hotel, room smart and comfortable, has car park, and both breakfast and dinner good. Great center for exploring Exmoor, and a very interesting village as well. Little lanes and alleys and scenic walks, as well as interesting local shops and the NT castle.
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1Thank Mike D
JohnBridgend, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Thank you very much, Mike. Comfort & convenience is the main thing that many of our guests seek from they're Exmoor break.
Paul B
“Comfortable two night stay”
Reviewed November 1, 2016
Just back from a 2 night stay at The Dunster Castle Hotel and it was a great stay. Lisa and John are really trying to get this hotel to a very good standard and from what we have seen, they are going in the right direction. It was nice to see that all the staff seemed to be working to...
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4Thank Paul B
Paval-Jay, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Hi Paul. Thank you so much for taking some time out to post your fantastic review. It's great to hear that you had a good time! We do hear a lot of good things about our beds, so they must be very comfortable! We're happy to read that our hard work hasn't gone unnoticed. It's been a busy few months...
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“10 out of 10 - Fantastic value”
Reviewed November 1, 2016
Where do I start? The staff at this fabulous hotel were so friendly and attentive, nothing was too much trouble. The room was again, perfect! and as for the food, well you really can't do any better, from breakfast to dinner the food was delicious; seriously it was so lovely we wish we had booked for longer. If you are...
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2Thank Rob E
Paval-Jay, Owner at Dunster Castle Hotel, responded to this review
Hello Rob. What a fantastic review. We're very happy to hear that you enjoyed your stay at our Hotel, and loved the food at our restaurant. Our staff will be delighted to hear your kind comments. We also love the hidden garden behind our garden walls, and also being so close to the Castle is fantastic. We look forward to...
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Amenities
Free High Speed Internet ( WiFi )
Restaurant
Pets Allowed ( Dog / Pet Friendly )
Things to do
Free High Speed Internet ( WiFi )
Public Wifi
Children Activities (Kid / Family Friendly)
Room Service
Business Center with Internet Access
Banquet Room
Breakfast Available
Official Description (provided by the hotel)
Dunster Castle Hotel is situated at the base of Dunster Castle itself and faces on to the cobbled medieval High Street. The recently refurbished hotel is under new ownership since June 2016 and has quickly established itself as a luxury boutique hotel and restaurant. All rooms are en-suite and vary from compact budget through to luxurious super-kingsize, and feature SMART TV's, free super-fast broadband, USB charging points, tea/coffee facilities with homemade biscuits, quality amenities, and complemented by stylish designer fabrics. Most, overlook the cobbled high street. The restaurant has the fastest growing reputation in the area for delivering exceptional food sourced from local ingredients complimented by exceptional service in exquisite surroundings. The hotel has the only private car park in Dunster and is free to guests. ... more less
Additional Information about Dunster Castle Hotel
Address: 5 High Street, Dunster, Exmoor National Park TA24 6SF, England
Location: United Kingdom > England > Exmoor National Park > Dunster
Price Range: $81 - $117 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
Hotel Class:4 star — Dunster Castle Hotel 4*
Number of rooms: 8
Reservation Options:
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Also Known As:
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Frederico Fellini was famous for his work in which of the arts? | Home :: Browse by subject :: Art ::
Chapter 1 - Fellini, Painting On Film
Chapter 2 - Giulietta degli spiriti: Symbolist virgins meet Decadent femmes-fatales in Art Nouveau interiors
Symbolist strands embedded in Giulietta's childhood scenes
Suzy's domain: Symbolist femmes fatales roaming art nouveau interiors
The Master's Bedroom and the Jungian Shadow
Chapter 3 - Toby Dammit: Rembrandt meets Velázquez on Screen
The hanging carcass - Rembrandt to Fellini via Soutine and Bacon
The bambina diavolo, or "Velázquez on film"
Fellini, Picasso, and Las Meninas after Velázquez
Severed head and white ball: Fellini's Jungian universe The severed head: Symbolist intertexts
Toby Dammit: the creative artist as mystical initiate
Chapter 4 - Fellini-Satyricon: Bruegel meets Klimt in the sewers of imperial Rome
Fellini's (re)presentation of Romanità
Fellini’s "Byzantium" Picasso’s Minotaur meets Encolpio in Fabrizio Clerici's labyrinths
Chapter 5 - Fellini’s Casanova: Casanova meets De Chirico on Böcklin's Isle of the Dead
Casanova, Fellini's version of the Golem
Through the half-drawn curtain: Casanova, De Chirico and The Enigma of the Oracle
The Isoletta di San Bartolo, or Isle of the Dead
A bridge over the Thames: Fellini's Casanova meets Whistler’s Nocturnes
Conclusion - "A new hypothesis of the truth": Painting as vehicle of the Real in Fellini's films, 1960s-70s
List of Illustrations
Bibliography
“Beautifully, elegantly, and clearly written, Hava Aldouby’s Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film is an outstanding and wonderfully original work. The range and depth of the artistic knowledge Fellini had and that Aldouby chronicles completely debunks the public image Fellini himself created—that of a simple artisan and storyteller lacking in any profound intellectual qualifications. Aldouby’s explications of the intricate connections between Fellini’s intentions, his sources, and his ultimate artistic creations will change forever the way we see this multifaceted cinematic genius.”
Peter Bondanella, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of French and Italian, Indiana University
“With Federico Fellini: Painting in Film, Painting on Film, Hava Aldouby has undertaken the daunting challenge of adding a new chapter to the voluminous scholarship on Fellini and succeeded admirably. Highly original, compelling, and important, it will make a striking contribution to Fellini studies and to the work on transmediality.”
Millicent Marcus, Department of Italian, Yale University
‘Aldouby’s work contributes to the revitalization of the classical field of inquiry about cinema and painting, addressing both scholars in the broad domain of visual studies and cinephiles looking for fresh gaze on Fellini’s oeuvre.’
Giacomo Tagliani, Annali d’Italianistica vol 32:2014
‘This book is by far the most serious and successful attempt to date to document and interpret pictorial intertexts in Fellini’s work.’
Albert Sbragia, Quaderni d’Italianistica vol 36:01:2015
‘With this superb book the author has offered us a paragon of inter-arts study one which provides not only a new understanding of Fellini’s creative process, but also furnishes a compelling approach to the work of other auteurs who may have devised their own unique forms of ‘painting on film’.’
Millicent Marcus, Journal of Italian Cinema & Media Studies vol 3:03:2015
‘This impressively researched book is a welcome and important contribution to film scholarship… Aldouby’s assiduous and intricate analysis of intertextual meanings in Fellini’s films enriches our sense of the film maker.’
Faye McIntyre, University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015
‘A compelling and original contribution to Fellini scholarship by demonstrating the director’s astonishingly sophisticated knowledge of art history, as well as masterful manipulation of the historical and cultural hyperlinks that these works invoke.’
M. Thomas Van Order, Modern Language Review vol 111:03:2016
‘This is a well-researched, fresh, and thought-provoking book that provides new perspectives on some of Fellini’s most fascinating movies.’
Christopher B. White, Italica vol 92:01:2015
| Filmmaking |
What name is given to atoms with the same atomic number but different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei? | Federico Fellini - Biography - IMDb
Federico Fellini
Biography
Showing all 66 items
Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (1) | Trade Mark (4) | Trivia (31) | Personal Quotes (25)
Overview (4)
5' 11¾" (1.82 m)
Mini Bio (1)
The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the devil herself said the priests who ran his school) - and the Gambettola farmhouse of his paternal grandmother would be remembered in several films. His traveling salesman father Urbano Fellini showed up in La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8½ (1963). His mother Ida Barbiani was from Rome and accompanied him there in 1939. He enrolled in the University of Rome. Intrigued by the image of reporters in American films, he tried out the real life role of journalist and caught the attention of several editors with his caricatures and cartoons and then started submitting articles. Several articles were recycled into a radio series about newlyweds "Cico and Pallina". Pallina was played by acting student Giulietta Masina , who became his real life wife from October 30, 1943, until his death half a century later. The young Fellini loved vaudeville and was befriended in 1940 by leading comedian Aldo Fabrizi . Roberto Rossellini wanted Fabrizi to play Don Pietro in Rome, Open City (1945) and made the contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisan (1946). On that film he wandered into the editing room, started observing how Italian films were made (a lot like the old silent films with an emphasis on visual effects, dialogue dubbed in later). Fellini in his mid-20s had found his life's work.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dale O'Connor
Spouse (1)
( 30 October 1943 - 31 October 1993) (his death) (1 child)
Trade Mark (4)
Includes dream like imagery and nostalgia
Trivia (31)
Inspired the word "Felliniesque"
One of his first writing jobs was the Italian language script for the Flash Gordon comic strip.
He was a big fan of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics (publishers of superhero comics like Spiderman and the Hulk).
In 1966 he abandoned his planned film project "The Journey of G. Mastorna". In 1990 the storyline for the film was later adapted into a graphic novel entitled "Trip to Tulum: From a Script for a Film Idea", illustrated by Milo Manara .
He was the inspiration and his voice was sampled for the album "Fellini Days" (released in 2001) by former Marillion singer Fish .
The term "paparazzi" comes from a character named Paparazzo in his film, La Dolce Vita (1960), who is a journalist photographing celebrities.
Died on the same day as actor River Phoenix .
He had a bombastic, short-tempered personality when shooting films, a personality he made no attempt to hide when cameras were on him.
Was voted the 10th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 330-341. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988.
His movies La Strada (1954), The Nights of Cabiria (1957), 8½ (1963) and Amarcord (1973) were Oscar-nominated for "Best Foreign Language Film". All 4 movies won.
The main character, Guido Contini, in the Maury Yeston musical "Nine" is inspired by Fellini.
Was an admirer of director Ken Russell 's work.
The Broadway musical "Sweet Charity" was inspired by Fellini's Oscar-winning film, The Nights of Cabiria (1957).
Is buried in the same bronze tomb as his wife Giulietta Masina and their son Pier Federico, located at the main entrance to the Cemetery of Rimini.
His hometown Rimini named the Federico Fellini International Airport in his honor.
Many of his movies such as 8½ (1963) or Fellini Satyricon (1969) are influenced by the work of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung and his ideas on the "anima" and the "animus", the role of archetypes and the collective unconscious.
His son Pier Federico was born on 22 March 1945, but died just one month later.
Born to Urbano Fellini (1894-1956), a salesman and wholesale vendor, and his wife Ida Barbiani (1896-1984), he had two younger siblings, Riccardo (1921-1991) and Maria Maddalena (1929-2002).
Died the day after his 50th wedding anniversary.
Dino De Laurentiis originally hoped that Fellini would direct Flash Gordon (1980).
A great admirer of Georges Simenon 's novels. They shared a letter friendship for many years.
Profiled in "Conversations with Directors: An Anthology of Interviews from Literature/Film Quarterly", E.M. Walker, D.T. Johnson, eds. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008.
In the 5th edition of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (edited by Steven Jay Schneider), 7 of Fellini's films are listed: La Strada (1954), The Nights of Cabiria (1957), La Dolce Vita (1960), 8½ (1963), Juliet of the Spirits (1965), Fellini Satyricon (1969) and Amarcord (1973).
Denied his film Amarcord (1973) is autobiographical, but agreed that there are similarities with his own childhood.
Like his fellow World Cinema masters, Ingmar Bergman (who started in live theater) and Akira Kurosawa (who started in the Japanese art world) he came to cinema via circumvention after working as a journalist.
He is mentioned in the song "Radio Blá" by Lobão . .
His ten favorite films are The Circus (1928), Any of Marx Brothers or Laurel and Hardy films, Stagecoach (1939), Rashômon (1950), Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Paisà (1946), The Birds (1963), Smultronstället (1957) and 8½ (1963).
Retrospective at the 7th New Horizons Film Festival (2007).
Born on the same day as actor DeForest Kelley.
Personal Quotes (25)
There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life.
My work is my only relationship to everything.
You exist only in what you do.
In the myth of the cinema, Oscar is the supreme prize.
In the mythology of the cinema, the Oscar is the supreme prize.
Our dreams are our real life. My fantasies and obsessions are not only my reality, but the stuff of which my films are made.
You have to live spherically--in many directions. To accept yourself for what you are without inhibitions, to be open.
Put yourself into life and never lose your openness, your childish enthusiasm throughout the journey that is life, and things will come your way.
It's easier to be faithful to a restaurant than it is to a woman.
All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography.
Cinema is an old whore, like circus and variety, who knows how to give many kinds of pleasure. Besides, you can't teach old fleas new dogs.
Censorship is advertising paid by the government.
It's absolutely impossible to improvise. Making a movie is a mathematical operation. It is like sending a missile to the moon. It isn't improvised. It is too defined to be called improvisational, too mechanical. Art is a scientific operation, so I can say that what we usually call improvisation is in my case just having an ear and eye for things that sometimes occur during the time we are making the picture.
I always direct the same film. I can't distinguish one from another.
Happiness is simply a temporary condition that proceeds unhappiness. Fortunately for us, it works the other way around as well. But it's all a part of the carnival, isn't it.
[on Akira Kurosawa ] I think he is the greatest example of all that an author of the cinema should be. I feel a fraternal affinity with his way of telling a story.
We don't really know who woman is. She remains in that precise place within man where darkness begins. Talking about women means talking about the darkest part of ourselves, the undeveloped part, the true mystery within. In the beginning, I believe man was complete and androgynous-both male and female, or neither, like angels. Then came the division, and Eve was taken from him. So the problem for man is to reunite himself with the other half of his being, to find the woman who is right for him-right be she is simply a projection, a mirror of himself. A man can't become whole or free until he has set woman free-his woman. It's his responsibility, not hers. He can't be complete, truly alive until he makes her his sexual companion, and not a slave of libidinous acts or a saint with a halo.
I'm just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it recreates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, it's far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. It's not just an art form; it's actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. It's my way of telling a story.
Anyone who lives, as I do, in a world of imagination must make an enormous and unnatural effect to be factual in the ordinary sense. I confess I would be a terrible witness in court because of this--and a terrible journalist. I feel compelled to a story the way I see it and this is seldom the way it happened, in all its documentary detail.
No doubt there's a connection between pathology and creation, we can't deny it. Yet I view with pleasure the work of film professionals I love, such as Bunuel, Kurosawa, Kubrick, Bergman.
With the death of Sergei Parajanov cinema lost one of its magicians. (July, 1990)
Talking about dreams is like talking about movies, since the cinema uses the language of dreams; years can pass in a second and you can hop from one place to another. It's a language made of image. And in the real cinema, every object and every light means something as in a dream.
The visionary is the only true realist.
Even if I set out to make a film about a fillet of sole, it would be about me.
Our duty as storytellers is to bring people to the station. There each person will choose his or her own train... But we must at least take them to the station... to a point of departure.
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Seppuku, part of the code of Samurai warriors, is better known by what name? | 1000+ images about Seppuku on Pinterest | Female names, 47 ronin and The wild
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Seppuku (or as it’s commonly known “harakiri”) is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. As part of the samurai bushido honor code, seppuku was used voluntarily by samurai to die with honor rather than fall into the hands of their enemies (and likely suffer torture), as a form of capital punishment for samurai who had committed serious offenses, or performed for other reasons that had brought shame to them.
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Henrietta Maria was the wife of which British monarch? | Top 10 Fascinating Samurai - Listverse
Top 10 Fascinating Samurai
Tanner Brooks
July 4, 2012
The samurai were the great warriors of Feudal Japan who were respected and feared for their gracefulness in peace and brutality in war. Dignified by the strict code of honor that bound them, the samurai were more than ready to give their own life than suffer a harsh existence of dishonor. In the few hundred years that they existed as Japan’s most dominating warriors, they filled the pages of history with their heroic tales, and for a select few who cast a shadow upon all of Japan, they generated a legend larger than any one man could ever hope to attain. People still marvel centuries after the height of their reign at the innovations in warfare and politics that were born from the minds and hearts of a class of warriors like none other.
10
Tomoe Gozen
As the only female on this list, Tomoe is one of the very few women who took the battlefield alongside her male counterparts though her exploits and history still are uncertain.
In The Tale of Heike, Tomoe is described as a woman of exquisite beauty with fair skin and long black hair and as an excellent archer and swords woman who was “ready to confront a demon or a god.”
Serving under Minamoto Yoshinaka, Tomoe was one of his finest soldiers, and her skills in battle dwarfed many of those held by even the strongest men in her unit. She is believed to have fought and survived through the Genpei War, the first major war between samurai clans and a place of origin for many popular attributes that would become associated with the samurai warrior over the years. It was here at the battle of Awazu where Tomoe even took the head of a rival samurai, an incredible honor for any samurai who defeated an opposing warrior in combat.
After the battle, Tomoe was said to have retired from being a warrior, instead taking up an occupation as a nun, though it is also said that she became the wife of a samurai named Wada Yoshimori who she supposedly pledged her devotion after being defeated by him in battle.
9
Minamoto Tametomo
Today, samurai are legendary for their exquisite swordsmanship that is synonymous with the iconic katana, and while they were indeed proficient in the art of sword-fighting, the samurai that we are familiar with today are descended from warriors who were skilled in their practice of mounted archery. That tradition never faded as the samurai grew, and for all the great swordsmen who garner mention throughout the history of the samurai, there are just as many archers whose skills were worth mentioning. One of such men was Minamoto Tametomo whose legend may very well precede the skills that forged it.
Tametomo is said to have had a left arm that was up to six inches longer than his right, which could generate far stronger shots due to the increased distance of which he could draw the bowstring. These powerful shots would have been essential for Tametomo during a conflict between the Minamoto clan and the Taira clan, where Tametomo is said to have sunk a full-sized Taira ship merely by firing a single arrow below the craft’s waterline.
Tametomo committed seppuku in 1170 as the Taira captured him and severed the tendons in his left arm, leaving him useless for battle. In the end, he decided to take his own life by way of seppuku, one of the first samurai on record to do so.
8
Kusunoki Masashige
Masashige began as a small time land owner who answered emperor Go-Daigo’s request for military assistance during the Nanbokucho Wars. Starting as a small-time leader with only five hundred men to his credit, Masashige rose through the ranks serving as a general loyal to the emperor Go-Daigo during the Nanbokucho Wars. Masashige is most famous for his undying devotion to his emperor that persisted even through the emperor’s exile and up until his death at the hands of fellow samurai, and traitor, Ashikaga Takauji. Leading up to the battle with Takauji, Kusunoki pleaded with his emperor to refrain from a direct battle with him, opting instead for the guerrilla-based tactics that had served them well to that point. Go-Daigo dismissed his Kusunoku’s concerns, and despite his knowledge that the emperor’s orders were basically a death sentence, Kusunoki marched onward to face Takauji where he suffered a massive defeat and was forced to commit seppuku.
Following his death, Masashige was seen as the forerunner for a samurai’s undying loyalty. Upon the removal of the Tokugawa shogunate during the Meiji Restoration in the mid-19th century Kusunoki Masashige become a national symbol of loyalty, and his image was again used in World War II in propaganda posters to keep soldiers loyal to the emperor.
7
Miyamoto Musashi
Some of the most interesting tales in the samurai’s decorated history involve the ronin, which translates roughly to “men of the waves” in English. The ronin were samurai who paid no allegiance to a master for one reason or another, and as such they found their work as mercenaries. Some worked for the benefit of the people as they were hired to protect small villages or for rich men who could do little to defend themselves. Others traveled to other countries or worked as pirates.
Incessant conflicts between warring clans brought samurai masters to an early grave, thus breeding thousands of ronin who wandered the countryside as independent warriors who were often seen as inferior by their fellow samurai. Of these many wandering swordsmen, none were more popular than Miyamoto Musashi.
Few samurai have been celebrated in modern culture more throughout the course of history than Musashi, who has seen countless works of film and literature devoted to his gaudy resume as a swordsman and duelist that has often been embellished to the point of absurdity, sometimes by Musashi himself. Still, for all of the uncertainties that remain about his legend, the fact that Musashi was a magnificent combatant still remains indisputable.
Born in 1584 to his father Munisai, also an accomplished martial artist and swordsman, Musashi was raised under his father’s tutelage until the age of seven when his uncle took him in. At thirteen, Musashi experienced his first duel against which he won with little difficulty. At age sixteen, Musashi took part in the war on the side of the Toyotomi clan against the Tokugawa clan, and following the Toyotomi clan’s defeat at the Battle of Sekigahara, where Musashi was rumored to have fought, he fell from the public eye until the age of twenty-one when he surfaced in Kyoto to challenge the renowned Yoshioka School of Swordsmanship, and following several successful duels against the heads of the Yoshioka school where he innovated the niten’ichi sword-fighting style which involved Musashi battling with his katana held in one hand and the shorter wakizashi held in the other, Musashi set out to travel all across Japan as a part of a developmental pilgrimage where he further improved his skills as a warrior.
In 1612, Musashi fought in his most famous duel against his most daunting opponent, master swordsman Sasaki Kojiro. Kojiro was exceptional in his precision and speed with the nodachi, a curved sword much like the katana but several feet longer. In an effort to unsettle his opponent, Musashi arrived over three hours late for the duel, and after heckling Kojiro and coaxing the first attack out of him, Musashi killed him almost effortlessly with a single blow from a wooden sword he had apparently crafted from one of his oars.
In Musashi’s later years, his life of battle and dueling slowed down greatly as one would expect from an aging man. Just before his death in 1630, Musashi authored the Go Rin No Sho or The Book of Five Rings, a book describing various techniques of the sword that is still widely studied by both martial artists and businessmen.
6
Honda Tadakatsu
As a samurai who was one of the generals belonging to the aptly titled Four Heavenly Kings of Tokugawa and one who has been blessed with the fortunate and equally grandiose moniker “The Warrior who surpassed Death,” Tadakatsu could easily be said to be a warrior without any match.
As a subordinate of Tokugawa, Tadakatsu was a veteran of over a hundred battles, and never once was he bested by an opposing general in combat. On top of that, Tadakatsu never suffered a significant wound in all of his years of service, hence his appropriating of the nickname above.
In combat, Tadakatsu was adept in the wielding of a long spear that was dubbed one of the “Three Great Spears of Japan,” and in 1584, with only a small army that was outnumbered greatly by an army headed by general Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he stood tall and challenged the opposing army to battle, an act that struck so deeply with Hideyoshi that he ordered the safety of Tadakatsu and all of the men accompanying him.
Tadakatsu served valiantly in the Battle of Sekigahara which ended the contentious Sengoku period and ushered in a new era of peace led by Tokugawa Ieyasu who would go on to construct Japan’s final shogunate not long after this victory.
5
Date Masamune
Ruthless was a term that was used to describe many samurai during the Sengoku period as it was a quality that was needed by any daimyo if they were to make a run at ruling Japan. Few samurai, however, fit the bill better than Date Masamune who struck fear into all of those who crossed his path due to his violent nature and reckless approach in times of war.
Masamune was born as the eldest son to the renowned Date clan who served honorably in the Genpei Wars. As such, it was expected that Masamune would succeed his father as the head of the clan, but after losing the sight in his right eye to a case of smallpox as a child, he was deemed unfit to take control of the clan by his mother.
After suffering several defeats as an inexperienced general early in his career, Masamune gained his footing as a leader and soon became one of the most feared men in all of Japan. As he branched out and began a campaign to conquer all of his clan’s neighboring provinces. The neighboring Hatakeyama family pleaded with Masamune’s father, Terumune, to reel in his son’s aggressive campaign. When his father said that there was nothing he could do to control his wild son, the Hatakeyama family kidnapped Terumune, and were subsequently trailed by an enraged army led by Masamune who was ordered by his father to wipe out all of his kidnappers, even if it meant killing him in the process. Masamune did as he was told, and Terumune, along with all of the other kidnappers were killed. Masamune’s brutal reputation would only grow from there as he proceeded to brutally torture and murder the families of all of his father’s kidnappers.
In 1590, with Masamune at the head of the Date clan and Japan under the rule of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Masamune outwardly refused Hideyoshi’s demands to report for battle. When Masamune finally confronted an enraged Hideyoshi, he did so fearlessly with the expectation that he would be executed on the spot for his defiance. Fortunately for Masamune, Hideyoshi decided to spare him.
Masamune, for all of his insolence toward Hideyoshi, did serve loyally in Hideyoshi’s ill-fated campaigns in Korea, and following Hideyoshi’s death, he became a loyal general under Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Despite the cloud of suspicion that always hung over the head of Masamune regarding his true intentions and the fear he invoked due to his seemingly heartless nature in times of war, Masamune held a successful reign over his territory under the supervision of shogun Tokugawa. Masamune was known for opening the doors to his province to foreigners and to Christian missionaries, and with an undying hunger for foreign technology, he initiated a voyage to Rome to begin relations with the Pope, and along the way his ship, the Date Maru, become a part of the first Japanese voyage to sail around the world.
4
Tokugawa Ieyasu
In Japan, there was a saying in regards to Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu: “Nobunaga pounds the national rice cake, Hideyoshi kneads it, and in the end Ieyasu sits down and eats it.”
Tokugawa Ieyasu stands tall as possibly the most famous samurai of all time and the only one of the three great unifiers of Japan, the others being Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to be crowned shogun. Tokugawa reveled in all of his successes despite the fact that he wasn’t the great tactician or leader that Nobunaga and Hideyoshi made themselves out to be. What Tokugawa was, however, was a pragmatic man who dealt only in common sense and took calculated risks to put himself in the best position to climb to the top of the pack. He played the field of feudal Japan like pieces on a board game, and when it came to capitalizing on the strengths and weaknesses of his contemporaries, there was no-one better at doing so than Ieyasu.
From Ieyasu’s birth in 1543, he was caught in between the perils of war as his own clan, the Matsudaira clan, was torn in its allegiance to the Imagawa clan and the Oda clan. At age six, Ieyasu nearly found himself to be a casualty of this conflict as he was kidnapped by the same Oda clan whom he would eventually ally himself with as an act of hostility toward his father and his allegiance to the Imagawa clan, however, a year later the young Ieyasu was rescued by the Imagawa clan and returned home.
Ieyasu fought his first battle for the Imagawa clan at age sixteen, and at twenty, following the appointing of the cunning Oda Nobunaga as the head of the Oda clan, Ieyasu showed flashes of his wisdom that would later become famous as he switched his allegiance over to the powerful Oda clan.
The next few years strengthened the core of his power by surrounding himself with strong generals and allies whom he rewarded with sections of the land they conquered together.
Following Oda Nobunaga’s death and later that of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s, Ieyasu stood ready to take control of Japan with the Toyotomi clan as one of the few obstacles remaining in his path, and upon gathering the help of the Toyotomi clan’s enemies, he engaged in a massive battle with the Toyotomi clan and its allies at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 which is seen as one of the most important battles in Japanese history as it ultimately allowed Ieyasu to stake his claim as shogun only a few years later.
Tokugawa’s overwhelming victory at Sekigahara ushered in a long-lasting peace for all of Japan, and in 1603, he was finally crowned shogun by emperor Go-Yozei. Already at the ripe old age of sixty, Tokugawa lasted as the shogun for only a handful of years, abdicating himself of his powers only three years after being crowned shogun.
As a retired shogun, Ieyasu still had one loose-end to tie up: that of Toyotomi Hideyori, the son of Hideyoshi who stood as the last beacon of rebellion against the Tokugawa shogunate. Living in Osaka Castle, Tokugawa stationed a siege of the area led by his son Hidetada, and after refusing an order to vacate in 1615, Ieyasu ordered an army of 155,000 troops to attack all of those in the castle, in an assault that killed Hideyori, his entire family, and all of his supporters. With Hideyori’s demise, the Toyotomi bloodline had been severed, leaving no further opposition against the Tokugawa shogunate.
Ironically, the Tokugawa shogunate that was born from the most violent period in Japanese history brought in a new age of peace that lasted for 250 years and effectively brought an end to the samurai who relied on the contentious times of war to stay relevant.
3
Takeda Shingen
During the Sengoku period in Feudal Japan, the countryside was rife with incessant fighting that characterized the most violent period during the era of the samurai. With the constant wars that crippled or completely destroyed entire clans who vied for power, the Takeda clan, led by Takeda Shingen, was one of the few constants that stood out on a landscape dominated by the likes of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
Takeda was a veteran of over forty campaigns, including the five battles of Kawanakajima, and during the fourth battle, one that is seen as the bloodiest that the samurai had ever seen, Takeda was met by his rival Uesugi Kenshin in a one-on-one battle where he fought off a mounted attack with little more than a lessen, or battle fan.
Of all of the clans in Japan, the Takeda clan could boast a military might that was by far the most powerful of all the clans, even more so than the Oda-Tokugawa alliance that rivaled it, and after a period of weakness following his war with Uesugi Kenshin, Shingen was able to restore the power of his army due in large part to the prowess of Shingen’s “Twenty-Four Generals” who often outweighed Shingen’s own skills on the battlefield. It is widely believed that with his superior military power, Shingen was the only daimyo who had a chance to stand up against the superpower Oda Nobunaga in his quest to take over Japan, however, he chose to focus his efforts on more local problems that pertained to the provinces under his control.
Shingen is also credited with being one of the first warlords to widely integrate firearms into his regimen of soldiers as he believed that these new marvels of war technology would eventually render bows and arrows obsolete. Coincidentally, it is speculated that Shingen himself was killed by a gunshot wound.
2
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Born as a peasant to a low-ranking foot soldier, Hideyoshi carried no samurai lineage, and since a samurai’s bloodline played such an integral role in any samurai’s standing amongst his peers, it should have been impossible for him to become the formidable general and innovative leader that he became.
Hideyoshi was awarded no luxuries that were given to noble families of samurai bloodline, and his dignified career began humbly as a sandal-bearer for Oda Nobunaga at the bottom of the Oda clan’s hierarchy, but as Nobunaga dominated the battlefield of Feudal Japan and set himself from the competition to become Japan’s fiercest warlord, Hideyoshi also separated himself from his peasant bloodline to become a magnificent general under Nobunaga.
Following Nobunaga’s assassination, Hideyoshi’s power within the Oda clan continued to grow until he assumed all control over the clan upon defeating the clan’s own preeminent general at the Battle of Shizugatake. Hideyoshi would only continue to prosper from here as he blossomed as an strong leader that built upon the resolute demeanor that Nobunaga had himself possessed.
Hideyoshi constructed the massive Osaka Castle, a structure that still stands today as one of Japan’s most recognizable landmarks. Ironically, Osaka Castle would be the site where his son Hideyori was killed by Tokugawa, effectively ending the line of Toyotomi.
Along with Osaka Castle, Hideyoshi also put into effect many groundbreaking laws that sought to end rebellion against his regime and bring an organization to Japan that the country had been lacking. In an effort to create a clearer social hierarchy, Hideyoshi banned peasants from taking arms in 1588 with the Separation Edict and confiscated what weapons they had in a massive “sword hunt.” The weapons he seized were promised to be melted down into a giant statue of Buddha, though he merely armed his troops with the weapons he stole. Both the Separation Edict and the sword hunt brought an end to rebellion under his leadership as the lowly peasants no longer had a means to arm themselves, and soon after that, he banned samurai from living with the common populace and from taking part in common occupations such as farming or trading to further bring a dividing line between the class of samurai and that of the peasants.
In Hideyoshi’s final years, he saw his legacy’s glory fade some with two very bold and ultimately unsuccessful invasions of Korea that left his regime weakened and conflicted. Only a year before his death, Hideyoshi made one of his final statements as a leader as he sought to suppress Christianity in Japan by ordering the execution of twenty-six Christians that he used to deter Japanese citizens who looked to convert to Christianity.
1
Oda Nobunaga
During the peak of the samurai’s presence in Japan, no samurai was stronger or more cunning that Oda Nobunaga. His name is one of the most recognizable in Japanese history, and it isn’t without reason.
Following a long and costly war that saw the preeminent daimyo in Japan – Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin – greatly weakened, many clans broke out in war with the hopes of filling the void of power left by them, though none of them held sufficient power to risk marching upon the capital to take the throne.
In 1560, when Yoshimoto Imagawa of the Suruga province finally attempted to take the capital of Kyoto, all that stood in his path was a simple conquering of the Owari province and the small time daimyo who ruled it, Oda Nobunaga.
Imagawa marched with an army of twenty-five thousand men that outnumbered the small forces of Nobunaga eight to one. During a thunderstorm that forced Imagawa’s troops to take shelter, Nobunaga set his troops into motion, waiting until just after the rains ceased to launch a swift attack that left Imagawa and his entire army stunned. Before he could even realize what was happening, Imagawa was killed, and Nobunaga had completed the unlikeliest victory in Japanese history.
From his success in his battle with Imagawa, Nobunaga’s stock only rose as he struck an alliance with Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu to begin the building of a foundation that would lead to the unity of Japan to centuries of peace under the Tokugawa shogunate.
Nobunaga’s rise from a lowly daimyo to an unstoppable general is due to the revolution he brought the battlefield that saw him bring to life a class system based on merit that saw warriors designated to specific roles based on ability and skill rather than heritage. Most importantly, though, was Nobunaga’s adoption of firearms and his ingenious creation of the rotating volley tactic that ensured his troops would unleash a never ending barrage of gunfire as one troop of gunmen always stood in reserve ready to attack and unleash hell when the first troop was forced to reload.
Apart from being a magnificent general, Nobunaga was a gracious leader who carried his intellect over to the field of business and politics. He reconstructed an economy based exclusively on agriculture to one that operated as a free market and focused more on the manufacturing of goods and services, and he expanded international trade during his reign to include countries in Southeast Asia as well as Europe. To streamline his growing economy, Nobunaga commissioned the construction of roads between towns under his control which incidentally helped not only with trading but also in transporting his massive armies across his land.
Despite all of Nobunaga’s achievements and his dominating presence on the field of battle, he was never able to achieve the position of shogun that so many believed him to be was destined for. In 1582, while lounging in a temple with only a small entourage acting as his guard, one of Nobunaga’s own generals, Akechi Mitsuhide, ordered his army to attack Nobunaga’s stronghold in an act of betrayal. With Nobunaga surrounded and trapped within his temple that had been set aflame, he retreated away from the fighting where his few troops were being slaughtered and committed seppuku.
Nobunaga’s death would not go without justice for long, however, for not more than two weeks after his death, Toyotomi Hideyashi intercepted Akechi Mitsuhide and enacted revenge for his master at the battle of Yamazaki, and along with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the two of them ensured that the progress made by Nobunaga wouldn’t die, as they would both use the framework of Nobunaga’s contributions to the country to create the foundation of what would be the final shogunate to rule over Japan.
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What is the name of Willy Loman’s son in the play ‘Death of a Salesman’ by Arthur Miller? | Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman
(Click the character infographic to download.)
You were probably aching throughout this play to shove a mirror in front of Willy Loman's face and make him take a good, honest look at himself. But even if you tried, it probably wouldn't have worked. He has a lot of potential, but he also has a whopping case of self-deception paired with misguided life goals. A salesman for all of his career, Willy thinks the goal of life is to be well-liked and gain material success.
So what happens when he doesn't reach these goals? Total disaster.
Willy is a rather insecure guy. He tries to make himself feel better by lying to himself and his family. In his world of delusion, Willy is a hugely successful salesman. He disguises his profound anxiety and self-doubt with extreme arrogance. Periodically unable to maintain this image of strength, Willy despairs and pleads with successful people around him for guidance and support. Despite his efforts, it becomes clear that Willy Loman is not popular, well-liked, or even good at his job. In fact, he never was. In all likelihood, he never will be. Now an older man, Willy can no longer drive competently, pay his bills, or sell anything.
Despite Willy's evident failure to meet his (poorly chosen) life goals, he clings to a fierce belief in the American Dream and the promise that anyone attractive and well-liked can make it big. He has deceived himself his entire life and tries to live vicariously through his unwilling son, Biff. But Biff uncovers Willy's lies when he finds out that Willy has been cheating on Linda. Choosing to alienate his son rather than face reality, and tormented by his failures, Willy spirals downward.
Willy's Desire to Escape
So let's talk about all these flashbacks. Part of this "downward spiral" we keep talking about has to do with Willy losing a grip on reality and on time. Because his life, by his standards, sucks, Willy escapes into the past and also conveniently gives us, the reader or audience, the background information we need. "Escape" becomes Willy's middle name—not unlike his own father, who abandoned him and his brother when they were young.
All this escape business brings us to Willy's mistress. "The woman" gives Willy everything he needs: an alternate world and an ego-boost. Miller makes sure we are able to understand these reasons for why Willy has the affair. If we, the reader/audience, hated Willy for being a cheating jerk, we wouldn't be so upset at his death. But we don't hate Willy. We don't even call him a cheater. Why? Because we understand the psychology behind his affair. He is simply trying to escape.
Willy's Death
Which brings us, right on schedule, to the end of the play. As we all know, Willy kills himself. But why? Well, he was clearly still harboring misguided hopes about success for Biff. It seems Willy would rather kill himself than accept the fact that really, honestly, all his son wants is some shirtless sweaty time in Midwestern haystacks.
The point is, Willy is still deluded when he kills himself. We all know the money isn't going to be used to start a business. What's sad is that Willy doesn't. That final delusion is almost worse than his death itself.
Speaking of this death, let's talk about the title of the play. Willy was always in pursuit of being the perfect salesman, and before he kills himself he expresses a wish to die "the death of a salesman." So here's the big money question: does he?
To answer that, we have to ask ourselves just what does it mean to be a salesman in this play? We know what it means in Willy's mind (if we say "well-liked" one more time…), but Charley brings up an interesting point at the funeral: part of being a salesman is having a dream. Part of being a salesman is about selling yourself. We'll let you take it from there.
Willy as Tragic Hero
Hamartia
If you saw Willy Loman sitting across from you on a bus, you probably wouldn't peg him for a hero. If you got to know him, it would probably seem even less likely. Still, Willy Loman is often thought of as a hero. Of course, he's a particular kind of hero: a tragic hero. The ancient Greeks were the first to write about these doomed souls. Sophocles' Oedipus is the most perfect example—at least according to Aristotle.
But how is slouchy old Willy Loman in any way similar to the heroes of Greek tragedy? Well, dear Shmoopsters, they share a little thing the Greeks liked to call hamartia. This word is often translated as "tragic flaw," but it's more accurately translated as "a missing of the mark" or a "mistake made in ignorance."
Just like Oedipus, Willy Loman goes through his life blindly, never realizing the full truth of himself. Willy refuses to admit that he's a failure. You could say that the idea of hamartia is seen in Willy through his delusional personality. Also, like Oedipus and almost all tragic heroes, Willy's hamartia causes his own downfall. In the end, Willy's delusions lead him to take his own life.
Anagnorisis
According to Aristotle, tragic heroes also have a moment of recognition, or anagnorisis. This is supposed to be a moment where the hero realizes the terrible mistake he's made and usually moans about it a lot. This happens to Oedipus when he realizes that he's inadvertently killed his father and slept with his mother. (Whoops!)
You could argue that Willy has a small realization near the end of the play. He never says it directly, but at some point—probably after Howard fires him—he must realize that he's just never going to succeed in business. If he didn't come to this realization, then he wouldn't decide to kill himself so Biff could use his life insurance money.
However, though Willy must make some small realization toward the end of the play, we hesitate to label it as full blown anagnorisis. Willy definitely goes to his death amid a cloud of delusion. Even after Biff totally lays it out for his dad that all he wants to do is be a cowboy or whatever, Willy refuses to understand.
The pitiful salesman kills himself, thinking that Biff will use the life insurance money to start a business. It becomes painfully obvious at the funeral that this is totally not going to happen, showing that Willy went to his death without coming to grips with reality. Yes, it seems that, unlike many classical Greek tragic heroes, Willy doesn't have a major anagnorisis.
The Common Man
Willy is also different from his tragic predecessors because he isn't royalty of any kind. Yep, Willy is just a salesman. He has no real power in the world, and not too many people really care when he dies. Unlike the legendary and powerful Oedipus, Willy is a nobody. But why would Arthur Miller try to write a tragedy about a total schmuck? Did he not read Aristotle's book or something? Hardly—we're guessing that Miller knew Aristotle's ideas better than we do. It turns out that the fact that Willy is an everyday guy is part of the whole point Miller is trying to make.
In Arthur Miller's famous essay, "Tragedy of the Common Man," he states, "I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were." Miller goes on to say that it's not the fact that past tragic heroes have been royal that makes them resonate with modern audiences. It's that fact that they share the same problems as we do today, the same flaws, fears, and hopes.
Some critics have said that true tragedy is impossible when your hero is a common man. They say that when an everyday guy goes down, not as many people suffer as they would if it were a king. OK, sure, but we have a question: is the size of a tragedy really limited to the world of the play? Can't we look into the life of a common man and recognize our own flaws? Can't we see those flaws in society around us? Why can't a common man's life have size and meaning?
Miller ends his essay by saying, "It is time, I think, that we who are without kings took up this bright thread of our history and followed it to the only place it can possibly lead in our time—the heart and spirit of the average man." Preach it, Arthur, preach it.
| Biff |
The radio adaptation of which H G Wells novel, narrated by Orson Welles caused panic in parts of the USA in October 1938? | Death of a Salesman Quotes and Analysis | GradeSaver
Death of a Salesman Quotes and Analysis
I'm the New England man. I'm vital in New England.
Willy Loman, Act I
Willy's self-definition is centered around his career. He isn't the man who does sales for New England - he's the New England man. He believes himself to be vital to the company, but in reality it's the company that's vital to him and his feelings of self worth. When he discovers that he isn't vital anywhere, his worldview crumbles.
He's liked, but not well-liked.
Biff, referring to Bernard. Act I
Willy's recipe for success is based entirely around a cult of personality. Most people are liked by their friends and acquaintances. But only great men, according to Willy, are truly well-liked - and that is what brings them success. In this quote, we see that Willy's belief in personal connections has been transferred to his sons as well, as they dismiss their friend Bernard for only garden-variety likability.
The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich!
Willy, regarding Ben. Act I
This is a principal refrain for Ben. Although Willy is the first one to use this line, Ben repeats it many times throughout the play, making it clear that Ben is only a figment of Willy's imagination. He does not speak normal words, but is the personification of a symbol - Willy has attached all his ideas of success and worth to the abstract concept of his brother Ben, whether Ben merited it or not.
I don't say he's a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.
Linda, regarding Willy. Act I
This is the play's direct cry to human dignity. The thesis of Linda's speech - and of Salesman as a whole - is that all men deserve respect and attention. No human being is disposable. No man should die without feeling he mattered.
You can't eat the orange and throw the peel away - a man is not a piece of fruit.
Willy, act II
This is Willy's articulation of Linda's "attention must be paid" speech. But Willy's appeal is not for some abstraction of attention or dignity. He is arguing directly to his employer that there must be responsibility taken for employees. Willy gave his youth to the company, and now the company must take care of him.
After all the highways, and the trains, and the appointments, and the years, you end up worth more dead than alive.
Willy, Act II
Willy is bemoaning the worthlessness of all his years of work. He never earned enough to save anything, and he didn't build, and he didn't grow, and now that his job is done he has nothing left. He was a subsistence worker. It is this realization - along with the realization that he has a life insurance policy with a large premium - that drives him to suicide.
I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.
Biff, act II
This is Biff coming to terms with the fact that his father's illusions of success for him were truly just illusions and nothing more. Biff has spent his life trying to live up to - or react against - an impossible falsehood and a vision of himself that never existed. Willy's illusions about success impacted every part of his sons' lives.
I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground.
Willy, act II
Willy realizes that his whole career has built up to nothing. He worked for 40 years and has nothing to show for it. This leads to his obsession with seeds late in the play - it is too late to grow anything for his sons, but at least he can plant some vegetables, something that will outlast him and provide some use.
I'm gonna show you and everybody else that Willy Loman did not die in vain. He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have - to come out number-one man. He fought it out here, and this is where I'm gonna win it for him.
Happy, Requiem
This shows that Happy has become the idealist, while Biff is leaving town to start over as a man who accepts his mediocrity. But now Happy has the urge to try, to become something. Perhaps he will succeed - but more likely, he too will fail. Willy did die in vain, and Happy cannot change that.
I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!
Willy, Act II
Biff has just cried that he is a dime a dozen, and so is his father. Willy refuses to believe this, cannot believe this. He and his sons must be special. The Lomans must stand out from the pack. All of Willy's feelings of self-worth and identity come from doing better than the next guy, and to realize that he is no different than anyone else would be to realize that his life was false.
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